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Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin

New Earthquake Strikes Nepal; Tom Brady Suspended 4 Games Over Deflategate; Kerry in Russia to Meet with Putin. Aired 4:30-5a ET

Aired May 12, 2015 - 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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[04:30:55] ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning. Welcome to EARLY START. I'm Christine Romans, along with John Berman.

We have breaking news this morning: a powerful magnitude 7.3 earthquake has hit Nepal, another earthquake. That is a 7.3 magnitude revised down slightly from an initial 7.4 by the U.S. Geological Survey, still a very significant tremor. These tremors felt as far away as New Delhi. The USGS the epicenter is near the Nepalese city of Namche. That's close to the border with China.

This follows that huge 7.8 quake on April 25th. That quake killed more than 8,000 people and has left the country simply devastated.

I want to bring in CNN's Sumnima Udas live in New Delhi.

What's the latest for us?

SUMNIMA UDAS, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Christine, the government's still trying to get a sense of the impact of this and the scale of this earthquake. But we know in Kathmandu, a lot of chaos on the streets, a lot of people outside, a lot of people crying. That's what people on the ground are telling us. Outside of Kathmandu, that's seen quite a few homes already cracked. They have now fallen.

This was the fear of Nepalese had while we were there two and a half weeks ago. People said another earthquake will strike again. A lot of the homes that had massive cracks will fall.

So, a lot of people were camping out outside. This is -- we are talking two and a half weeks since the previous earthquake. And even my family, for instance, they're still living outside in a tent because of that fear, Christine.

ROMANS: Unbelievable.

All right. Thank you for that, Sumnima Udas. And again, felt all the way to New Delhi, and this right on the heels, John, of another big, big quake just a couple of weeks ago. BERMAN: And again, so close to that area of the town of Namche where the trekkers do to reach the Himalayans. There are still so many out there. No word yet of any possible avalanches or snow damage. We know that happened last time. More than 8,000 killed from the first earthquake that April 25th. That was, magnitude, what, 7.8?

ROMANS: Yes.

BERMAN: This one is 7.3. Very, very strong. We are going to stay on this all morning and bring you the latest information.

In the meantime, on a very different front, the NFL brought down the hammer on New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady suspending him for four games over deflategate. The Patriots, the team was fined $1 million. They will have to forfeit two draft picks, including their 2016 first round pick.

Tom Brady's agent calls the discipline ridiculous. Don Yee says there was no fairness in the investigation and Tom Brady is going to appeal. Team owner Robert Kraft is blasting the league. He says that Brady has the team's unwavering support.

Joined by my friend, Andy Scholes.

Andy, this is without precedent. If you read the NFL rules, perhaps without basis, but we'll that aside for the moment.

ANDY SCHOLES, CNN SPORTS CORRESPONDENT: Yes, John. You know, the NFL hitting Brady and the Patriots hard with punishment because they must protect the integrity of the game.

In a letter to Brady, NFL executive vice president of football operations, Troy Vincent, said by not cooperating with the investigation, Brady's actions were conduct detrimental to the league.

Now, Brady's agent, Don Yee, as you said, John, they said they plan to appeal the suspension. He said in a statement, "The discipline is ridiculous and has no legitimate bases. It lacks standards or protocols with respect to its handling footballs prior to the games. This is not the fault of Tom or the Patriots. We will appeal."

Vincent's letter to the Patriots mentioned the team's prior record including the spygate scandal in 2007 as a factor in assessing the discipline. Here's a comparison. The Patriots, now, they're the only franchise since 1980 to be stripped of a first-round draft pick and it happened to them twice. And this time around, the NFL doubling the fine to the Patriots. They will be fined $1 million for deflategate. They were fined $500,000 in 2007 for spygate.

Now, Patriots owner Robert Kraft released a statement last night in regards to his team's latest punishment, saying, however, exceeded any reasonable expectation.

[04:35:06] It was based completely on circumstantial rather than hard or conclusive evidence. Tom Brady has our unconditional support. Our belief in him has not wavered." Now, reaction to Brady's suspension was mixed on social media. Patriots running back Blunt obviously had his quarterback's back. He tweeted, "This is absolutely ridiculous. Shaking my head. #patsnation stand up."

Meanwhile, Cardinals defender Patrick Peterson, he tweeted, "Well done, NFL. #deflategate."

Steve Weatherford, the Giants punter, he tweeted, "Tom Brady suspended four games? That's just ridiculous. They're comparing it to steroid use. Preposterous. What are your thoughts?"

Now, guys, Brady is going to miss four games to start the season. If the suspension holds up, it'd be against Pittsburgh, Buffalo, Jacksonville and Dallas. The fifth game on the schedule would be at Indianapolis on Sunday night football. What a coincidence.

BERMAN: Yes. You know, if you are looking for a consistent threat for the punishments issued by NFL over the years, it's hard to find one because there isn't one. But, again, you know --

SCHOLES: Yes, a big jump from $25,000, which was it should be for deflating footballs to what the Patriots got. But as I said, John, the cover up sometimes worse than the actual crime.

BERMAN: No doubt about that.

Andy Scholes, great to have you with us. Thanks so much.

ROMANS: Developing this morning: police in Lake Mary, Florida, are expected to release a report detailing the Monday shooting that injured George Zimmerman. He's the man acquitted of murder in the 2013 death of Trayvon Martin. He says someone he had been in an ongoing dispute with pulled up alongside him in traffic and took a shot. The bullet missed Zimmerman, but he was hit in a face by flying glass.

The attorney for the shooter Matthew Apperson tells a different story, saying his client shot at Zimmerman because Zimmerman brandished a gun at him.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARK NEJAME, MATT APPERSON'S LAWYER: Now, this is good old fashioned self defense. If, in fact, one is in reasonable fear of his life or imminent bodily harm, they have a right, as every state in the country allows, to protect themselves if, in fact, they are threatened.

DON WEST, GEORGE ZIMMERMAN'S LAWYER: This fellow was taunting and yelling at him, calling him names. You're going to shoot me now kind of thing, and I don't know where that came from.

But in any event, when George recognized him and realized who he was and what he was saying, he rolled his window up and decided to get away. Not to provoke it whatsoever. The fellow followed him around the U-turn and then pulled up next to him and shot him. It could have killed him easily, could have killed him.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: Zimmerman's lawyer denies his client waved a gun. So far, no arrests or charges in this case.

BERMAN: The head of the National Security Agency says that ISIS efforts to use the Internet as a weapon against the West instead of just recruiting and spreading ideology, that is a great concern for the NSA. Admiral Mike Rogers says the agency is also increasingly worried about ISIS using the web to recruit and encourage lone wolf attackers in the U.S.

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ADM. MIKE ROGERS, DIRECTOR, NATIONAL SECURITY AGENCY: This concern about individuals within the United States increasingly resonated, if you will, with the ideology of ISIL and acting violently, indiscriminately is clearly of great concern. It's something that definitely concerns us. It's a trend that things would suggest is increasing, not decreasing.

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BERMAN: Rogers told a cyber security forum on Monday that another challenging for the NSA is balancing Americans' need for security with respect for the privacy. That is the trick there.

ROMANS: U.S. officials are knocking down recent reports that a leader of ISIS is seriously injured and out of commission. For weeks, media reports have claimed that Abu Bakr al Baghdadi had been hit by a U.S. air strike, suffering spinal damage that left him incapacitated. Now, two U.S. officials tell CNN there is, quote, "no reason to believe that those reports are true."

Following the story for us, senior international correspondent Frederik Pleitgen live in London.

You know, Fred, some of these media reports had him surrounded by a group of Iraqi doctors, surrounded by minions who are making sure that his orders were being carried out on the battlefield. But that they were looking for potentially a new heir apparent, or someone to be sort of the chief operation officer of ISIS.

What do we know about the truths to those reports?

FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: You're absolutely right, Christine. And the most recent reports come from "The Daily Beast" and they say that all of this comes from ISIS defectors who spoke to Syrian oppositions in Turkey, giving them these evidence apparently that these people were able to produce ISIS IDs that show that they were coming directly from the group. It's very difficult to corroborate all of this.

One of the things, Christine, we have to keep in mind is that Abu Bakr al Baghdadi is someone who is not only very secretive in public, but he's also very secretive inside the ISIS organization itself.

[04:40:00] In fact, by some accounts, he is known as the invisible sheik there. It's not even clear what he's doing inside the organization. And really, the only public footage that we have of Baghdadi is the one that we're seeing right now, when he gave a speech -- a sermon out of mosque in Mosul in July of 2014, shortly after ISIS overran that place. Otherwise, he hasn't really been seen in public.

So, it would be very difficult even for people within ISIS to really corroborate whether or not he'd actually been hit in an air strike, how bad his injuries were. There were some people who came out with some very specific information, which again is very difficult to substantiate, saying all this happened on March 18th. It is interesting to see that the U.S. is coming out to say they don't have evidence he was hit in an air strike and also, they don't have any evidence that would suggest that he is not running the day-to-day operations of ISIS anymore.

Certainly, that seems to indicate they really are wary of the information that is coming out. But as you said, information that has been coming out again and again and again. It has been several months since all of this was first reported. March 18th is quite a while ago. And there has been information coming out an again.

The other thing to keep in mind in all this, Christine, is that there have been ISIS leaders in the past who have made it seem as though they were injured or killed on the battlefield to take them out of the line of fire. That is something we have to keep in mind as well, that could be a smokescreen by ISIS out there. It's certainly very, very difficult to substantiate.

ROMANS: There are rumors and there's information. And sometimes, when you are covering ISIS, it's hard to differentiate between the two.

Fred Pleitgen, thanks for that, Fred.

Forty-one minutes past the hour. Time for an early start on your money this morning.

European stocks much lower right now. Bond yields around the world are rising folks, and that could be bad news for stocks, bond yields rising. U.S. stock futures are down, too.

I want to tell you about that Picasso painting. Remember that Picasso painting that was on auction yesterday. Yes, it just became the most expensive art ever sold at auction. The price tag on this piece, $179 million. A little homage to honor Matisse from Pablo Picasso, $179 million.

BERMAN: What does it do? Does it have like a flat screen TV on it also?

ROMANS: It does not, you can't put beers in it.

BERMAN: You just look at it? ROMANS: You just look at it. In fact, you can barely look at it. I bet you have special lighting and everything to look at it. The painting was last sold for $32 million in 1997.

You know, thanks to a blooming stock market. A recovery that favors the super wealthy, the art market has been on fire. Until yesterday, the most expensive work of art ever auction was this triptych Francis Bacon three studies of Lucian Freud. I guess it's not technically a triptych, because that would be all in -- anyway, $142 million, that one went for in 2013.

BERMAN: At least there are three of them there. At least you get a good value, right?

ROMANS: At least you get three. But those big trophy pieces, John, I mean, it just shows you how the super -- how much money is out there. You look at properties in London and New York and other parts of the world and trophy art like that. I mean, wow.

BERMAN: I joke, but I happen to find both of those works, the Picasso and the Bacon, stunning.

ROMANS: Yes.

BERMAN: All right. Forty-two minutes after the hour right now. We do have breaking news out of Nepal. A new earthquake, a major quake, 7.3 magnitude, hitting that country where 8,000 people were killed in a quake just a few weeks ago. We'll get you the latest information from there.

Plus, dramatic new testimony in the Boston marathon bombing sentencing trial. Did Dzhokhar Tsarnaev apologize for his crimes? We will tell you what he told a nun, just right after the break.

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[04:46:59] ROMANS: We are covering breaking news this morning, getting our first reports of death caused by a new magnitude 7.3 earthquake in Nepal. An international agency says there were four deaths in the town of Chautara. The epicenter reported to be near the Nepalese of Namche, close to the border with China.

How deep? About 11 miles deep, that's relatively challenge. That means the damage can be more devastating. There are already reports of collapsing buildings. There are reports of buildings already damaged by that April 25th earthquakes. Those buildings now falling down, tremors felt as far away as New Delhi.

BERMAN: And one thing to look for there, you saw on that map, Namche is sort of the gateway to the Himalayas. A lot of trekkers go through there. Look, we don't know if there are landslides yet. We saw them back on April 25th and that first quake, and it's something definitely to be concerned about right now, as we learned more about this.

ROMANS: Yes, and I'm just checking the wires here, our internal wires. And we are getting reports of some landslides in a few towns. We will closely watch where that is and how that will complicate the rescue efforts from an earthquake just a few weeks ago.

BERMAN: All right. Stay with us on that, 8,000 dead from the first quake.

Both sides at this point preparing to deliver closing arguments in the penalty in the Boston marathon bombing trial. Those closing arguments happen Wednesday. Meanwhile, the defense ended two weeks of testimony, putting a famous anti-death penalty activist on the stand.

Sister Helen Prejean, she says she has several jail house meetings with Dzhokhar Tsarnaev. And she believes he is genuinely remorseful. That's what she believes. Tsarnaev was convicted on all 30 counts. Jurors will decide if he is sentenced to death or life in prison without parole for the marathon bombing.

ROMANS: She said it was the way he looks down or the look on his face. He did not say I am genuinely remorseful.

BERMAN: No, not to her and not to anyone else at this point, which is of note I think.

ROMANS: Our Deborah Feyerick has been following this coverage. She had a special report of the murder in Boston. She says she covered all of the terrorists, 9/11, and the underwear bomber, it goes on and on. She says he completely appears to be checked out. He appears to be completely disinterested in whether he gets the death penalty or life in prison. It appears that he just doesn't care. Interesting.

BERMAN: Interesting. I wonder if the jurors make that same conclusion.

ROMANS: Yes, I wonder.

BERMAN: Forty-nine minutes after the hour.

The TSA is compromising passenger safety by mismanaging maintenance reports on its airport screening. I don't think the TSA thinks that. That investigation by Homeland Security inspector general finds TSA workers do not know which equipment works and what equipment needs repairs. This includes major pieces of machinery used to screen travelers for guns, bombs and other weapons. Because of mismanagement, the report concludes passengers have been vulnerable to terrorist attacks for nearly a decade.

ROMANS: All right. Happening now: Secretary of State John Kerry in high stakes meetings with Russia's president, sensitive topics on the table. We are live in Moscow right after the break.

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BERMAN: U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Leader Vladimir Putin are set to meet face-to-face in Sochi, in Russia. This is the first visit to Russia by a top U.S. official since the crisis in Ukraine erupted. It's been a long time.

There is a lot on the agenda, including the upheaval in Yemen and Syrian, the nuclear talks with Iran, not the mention the tumultuous relationship between the U.S. and Russia to begin with.

Our senior international correspondent Matthew Chance joins us live from Moscow this morning. Good morning, Matthew.

MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, John.

That's right. You know, terribly turbulent relationship between Moscow and Washington over the course of the past 12 months or so over the Ukraine crisis, over the sanctions the U.S. has imposed against Russia, and over NATO expansion as well, which, of course, Russia is extremely angry about. It sort of plunged relations between these two countries post-Cold War lows, and threatens other areas where they cooperate. They have cooperated and still over the course over Iran and its controversial nuclear question, over Syria as well in trying to find a resolution to the conflict. They want to cooperate over Yemen as well.

So, they have to start this process of rebuilding that relationship so they can continue to work in the international arena and diplomacy.

So, that's why John Kerry, U.S. secretary of state, coming to Russia today. He will lay a wreath at the war memorial in Sochi.

[04:55:00] After that, meeting the foreign minister Sergei Lavrov and then Vladimir Putin, the Russian president as well.

BERMAN: Yes, big day, but it won't be easy to mend this relationship.

Matthew Chance, thanks so much.

ROMANS: All right. Big news for you, Mr. Gen-Xer, because millennials have taken over the work force.

BERMAN: What?

ROMANS: They have taken over the workforce. And what's more important than a paycheck? I'll tell you what that is, next.

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ROMANS: I'm Christine Romans. Let's get an early start on your money this morning.

Millennials are taking over the workplace. There are now 53.5 million millennials working. That's more than one in three workers right now working as a millennial this year. Those adult age, 18-34, millennials passed Gen X to become the largest share of the American workforce.

These numbers will keep growing as more millennials graduate and start working. So, where do millennials want to work? According to a new survey, forget corporate America. Most 2015 college graduates would prefer to work at midsized companies, 60 percent want a company with a good social atmosphere, even if it pays lower. They want to have fun. Of course, that could change with mom and dad

are picking up the tab. More than 70 percent say a majority of parents are picking up their rents and living expenses. You know, they don't want -- millennials look at us, Gen X, baby boomers, are like, what, this is what we get? We got to some climb a ladder and wait for -- it is a very different mindset.

BERMAN: Mom, dad, where's the check? Where's the rent check?

ROMANS: Where is my imported beer?

BERMAN: I'm not bitter at all.

I know where I can learn more about millennials. You can look at Christine Romans' book. "Smart is the New Rich." This is a money guide for millennials and you know what? It's a terrific book. Please pick one up now.

ROMANS: For those parents who are paying for their kids' tuition.

BERMAN: Exactly.

EARLY START continues right now.