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The Situation Room

More than 1,000 Killed in Sudan Landslide; 1,400 Plus People Killed in Afghanistan Earthquake; Putin and Kim Jong Un in Beijing; Justice Amy Coney Barrett Defends Abortion Vote. Aired 10:30-11a ET

Aired September 02, 2025 - 10:30   ET

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

[10:30:00]

PAMELA BROWN, CNN ANCHOR: Happening now, look at these images of a landslide that has destroyed an entire village in Western Sudan. Over a thousand people were killed in one of the deadliest natural disasters in Africa's recent history. According to the Sudan Liberation Movement Army, only one person survived. The group says the village was completely level to the ground, and the group is also asking the United Nations and international aid agencies to help recover remains.

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Also happening right now, a second massive 5.5 magnitude earthquake has caused additional damage in Afghanistan, and this comes as the death toll from Afghanistan's previous earthquake has topped 1,400 people, according to the Taliban. More than 3,000 people are reportedly injured. For more, here's CNN International Diplomatic Editor Nic Robertson on the ongoing efforts to deliver aid.

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NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: The international call out for aid is being heeded by a number of different countries. The Emirates of Center, a Rescue and Recovery Mission -- the UAE Center Rescue and Recovery Mission to Afghanistan, they're following up with aid, tents, food supplies, humanitarian medical supplies. The European Union is committing just over a million dollars as well. They're sending planes with shelters and water purification equipment. Those planes should arrive in the next couple of days. The U.K.'s committed about $1.3 million also to support humanitarian needs. The Indian government to send thousand tents, 15 tons of immediate food aid. So, the Taliban shout out for support is being answered. Unfortunately, the planet, if you will, has answered back in its own way with another quake.

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BLITZER: And thanks to Nic Robertson for that reporting. And for more information about how you, our viewers, can help Afghanistan, earthquake victims, go to cnn.com/impact or text QUAKE to 707070.

BROWN: Very sad. Well, new this morning, Russian leader Vladimir Putin is in Beijing for a four-day visit with China's Xi Jinping. The men called each other friends in the latest public display of their growing alliance. Putin will attend tomorrow's massive military parade with more than two dozen foreign heads of state. And North Korea's Kim Jong Un has arrived in Beijing aboard the armored train that has carried generations of North Korean leaders.

CNN's Mike Valerio is in Seoul, South Korea with a closer look.

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MIKE VALERIO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It's essentially a fortress on a track in a town. North Korean leader, Kim Jong Un is headed to his historic meeting in Beijing, the first time that he'll be on the same stage with the leaders of Russia and China. So, these green armored cars are essentially the state train of North Korea. Think Air Force One, but on rails.

Kim's train has a secure command center, bedrooms, reportedly lavish dining options, and this same style of train has carried Kim, his father and grandfather, outside the country for decades. Analysts say compared to North Korea's aging fleet of planes, this armored train can give Kim Jong Un a wider more comfortable space for his entourage, and of course, his security guards. He also here has a bigger space to discuss agendas ahead of meetings.

Now, according to a South Korean news report, the train is so heavily armored that it only travels at an average speed of just 37 miles an hour or 60 kilometers an hour. Kim rode the train to Beijing in 2018, marking his first foreign trip since assuming power. He also took the train to Vietnam in 2019 to meet U.S. President Donald Trump for their nuclear summit in Hanoi.

Now, the train is back in the public eye, an enduring symbol of North Korea's secrecy and the steps it'll take to protect its leader.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: All right. Mike Valerio, thank you so much. Wolf.

BLITZER: And joining us now, CNN Political and National Security Correspondent David Sanger. He's also a CNN Political and National Security Analyst, and author of "New Cold Wars: China's Rise, Russia's Invasion, and America's Struggle to Defend the West." David, thanks very much for joining us.

As you know, the leaders of North Korea, Russia, and Iran are all in Beijing for tomorrow's military parade. These are the adversaries of the U.S. What is Xi Jinping trying to accomplish and does this feel like a new Cold War about to take shape?

DAVID SANGER, CNN POLITICAL AND NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST AND AUTHOR, "NEW COLD WARS": Well, I think, Wolf, as the title of the book suggests we've been in this sort of new form of Cold War for some time. But I think what's really fascinating about this grouping is, first of all, they're all the supporters of Russia's position in the war in Ukraine, right? Iran has been supplying drones and other equipment. North Korea troops and missiles. The Chinese, some technology, although they've been somewhat careful. [10:35:00]

The second thing is, I think you have seen President Xi use this, as President Putin has, to try to sell their narrative of World War II, which was basically that China and Russia took on and defeated Japan. That's what the celebration supposed to be about there. They're missing one member of the grouping out here, the United States.

And then I think the third message is just how much closer these two leaders, Xi Jinping and Putin, have grown. They've met 60 or 70 times. This visit by Putin is four days. When we were in Anchorage a few weeks ago, he met President Trump for three hours and they both left somewhat unsatisfied and angry.

BLITZER: India's Prime Minister Modi also attended this summit, David, and was photographed, smiling and laughing besides Xi Jinping and Putin. The U.S. has long viewed India as an important counterweight to China in Asia. But last month, President Trump slapped India with, what, 50 percent tariffs on its exports to the United States. Is President Trump and his policies playing a role in some of these new alliances?

SANGER: Absolutely. I mean, I think you can fairly say that President Trump was important in pressuring say NATO members to spend more on their defenses, which Democrats and Republicans have been urging for some time. I think he's also somewhat responsible for the images that you're seeing here.

India has been the country that the U.S. has courted as -- to its camp to watch Prime Minister Modi in the midst of this was to be reminded that he has a choice. Why did he and President Trump split? Well, it looks like the major issue was that Modi would not go along with President Trump's accounting of how the Pakistan-India conflict a few months ago ended. The president said he ended it, which Modi disputes. And Modi did not join Pakistan in nominating him for a Nobel Peace Prize. And the next thing you know, they got the 50 percent tariffs. Pakistan got 19 percent.

BLITZER: 50 percent tariff because India buys a lot of Russian oil, and that was the excuse that Trump gave for that. After President Trump's Alaska summit with Putin, you said President Trump has formed an incoherent and muddle strategy to diplomacy. Do you still believe that has created an opportunity for China to step into more of a leadership position?

SANGER: Well, certainly the incoherence of that strategy is that the president has threatened many times sanctions on Russia if it continued to support the war. They left Anchorage with no ceasefire. The president said. We're going to go for a peace agreement instead. The president said there would be meetings between President Zelenskyy of Ukraine and President Putin, that hasn't happened. That there would be a three-way meeting with President Trump, t might still happen, but not scheduled. And so -- and there have been no sanctions. And here we are more than two weeks after the Anchorage meeting.

So, right now, if you're Putin, you've probably figured that you've got a pretty good deal. He's stepped up his attacks on Ukraine and paid no price. And by the way, you mentioned the penalties, Wolf, on India for buying Russian oil. China's an even bigger purchaser of it, but so far, it has not been sanctioned the way India was.

BLITZER: David Sanger reporting for us. David, thank you very, very much. Pamela.

BROWN: All right. Wolf, just ahead, a CNN exclusive defending her decision. Justice Amy Coney Barrett details the process she went through that led to the overturning of Roe v. Wade and the dynamics of the court behind the scenes.

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[10:40:00]

BLITZER: Now, to A CNN exclusive. The U.S. Supreme Court justice, Amy Coney Barrett, is defending her vote to overturn the landmark Roe v. Wade abortion ruling. In a new memoir just out, CNN has obtained exclusive access, at least so far, to this memoir. Justice Barrett writes this, the court's role is to respect the choices that the people have agreed upon, not to tell them what they should agree to. In the book, Barrett also talks about religious bias and how she makes her decisions.

BROWN: With us here is CNN's Chief Supreme Court Analyst Joan Biskupic. Joan, Amy Coney Barrett is arguably the most important justice on the bench. Tell us about her book and specifically the Dobbs decision.

JOAN BISKUPIC, CNN CHIEF SUPREME COURT ANALYST: Sure. You're right, she's arguably the most important justice on a court at such a crucial time in America. Testing how much it will check President Trump's effort to really remake the country.

Roe v Wade, you know, insured a national right to abortion, and it was in place for nearly 50 years. When the justices rolled it back in 2022, Justice Amy Coney Barrett signed on to Sam Alito's opinion, but did not write anything separately. So, this is the first time that she's actually saying why she did that.

[10:45:00]

And what she talks about is why the court was permitted, in this case, to turn its back on precedent. You know, that one of the foundational principles of the Supreme Court is loyalty to precedent, and this was a 1973 ruling that they were tossing out. And she said, that decision should not even have existed in the first place because it did not rise to the level of a true Constitutional right. She said that constitutional rights should be implicit, Constitutional rights should be embedded in American history.

And here's what she said, the evidence does not show that the American people have traditionally considered the right to obtain an abortion so fundamental to liberty that it goes without saying in the Constitution. In fact, the evidence cuts in the opposite direction. Abortion not only lacked longstanding protection in American law, it had long been forbidden.

In fact, what she was saying is it sort of flouted the democratic process. But as you know, the Constitution is there to be interpreted to protect minority rights, not to necessarily adhere to the will of the American majority.

BLITZER: What else did she -- does she reveal in this new book about her decision-making process?

BISKUPIC: Right. And, Wolf, that's crucial for a lot of people. I'm sure a lot of lawyers and others will be reading it just for that because, as Pamela said, she is this swing vote justice. And she acknowledged that when she was on the outside of the court looking in, she thought that many of the rulings were cryptic, that people didn't understand what they were saying. But she writes in her book that she understands now why they did that, because so many times they have to gloss over some issues to get a majority.

And then, she gave one interesting anecdote about, you know, just how she writes her opinions, the drafting process that she goes through, the kinds of ways that she works with her clerks. And then, once she essentially launches a draft opinion out to the other justices and sees it circulate, she says they watch carefully to see who's going to sign on and who's not going to sign on. And she related this one anecdote of sending out a particularly difficult opinion and her clerks watching anxiously to see what happens.

And once they immediately got the -- enough votes for the five justice majority, they uncorked an impromptu bottle of champagne, which sounds frankly not like Amy Coney Barrett, who's very controlled and disciplined, but it shows the stakes of some of these cases and how important it was that she got a majority in that moment.

BROWN: Yes, that says a lot.

BISKUPIC: But she did not say which case that was.

BROWN: Oh, OK. All right.

BLITZER: And, Joan, thank you very, very much.

BROWN: Thank you so much, Joan. Coming up, well, Bill Belichick fumbles his debut in my alma mater in Chapel Hill. CNN Sports Anchor Coy Wire is here.

COY WIRE, CNN SPORTS ANCHOR: Pamela, I have a tissue for you and a lot more for Tar Heels fans everywhere. Things were going really well for the Tar Heels until they weren't. How TCU spoiled Coach Belichick's debut at UNC and a colossal clash at the U.S. Open. That and more coming up.

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[10:50:00]

BROWN: Well, you know, freshman year isn't always easy, right? New dorm, being away from home, and for UNC's Bill Belichick, his freshman year got off to a rocky start. There he is after his Tar Heels got schooled in a blowout loss to TCU. If a picture is worth a thousand words, is the coach worth $50 million?

BLITZER: $50 million. Let's go live right now to CNN's Coy Wire for the highlight from last night's game. Coy, I watched the whole game, from beginning to end in Chapel Hill. I thought that home field advantage for North Carolina would really help. It clearly didn't.

WIRE: It was looking good at first, right? Good to see you, Wolf and Pamela. And I think that picture of Coach Belichick, he may even been smiling there. We don't know with him. He's so stoic, right. But listen, with six Super Bowl titles to his name with the Patriots, Tar Heel fans like Pamela had high hopes for 73-year-old Coach Bill Belichick there.

And things did start off really well, from pros to student athletes, coach led his team to face TCU 34 years to the day since he debuted as an NFL head coach. 70 new players on his roster. Chapel Bill was rocking. His Tar Heel stomping 83 yards and seven plays for a touchdown on the very first drive. UNC's legend Jordan, Coach Williams, Lawrence Taylor, Mia Hamm in attendance, one problem, there was no Tom Brady type in sight.

Tar Heels quarterback Geo Lopez staring down his target. Easy pick for TCU's Bud Clark. He took the interception for a defensive touchdown. With the start of the second half, maybe things would turn around. They did not. TCU running back, Kevorian Barnes, going 75 yards to the house. TCU went on to score 41 unanswered points, dominating Belichick's Tar Heels 48-14. With all the hype, TCU's coach, Sonny Dykes felt that his team was overlooked and they did not seem to like that.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SONNY DYKES, TCU HEAD COACH: We all felt a little disrespected maybe coming in by -- there was a lot of conversation and none of it was about us. And so, you know, I think we all were highly motivated. Our players were certainly excited to play.

BILL BELICHICK, UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA HEAD COACH: We're better than what we were tonight. So -- but we have to go out there and show that and prove it. So, nobody's going to do it for us. We'll have to do it ourselves, and that's what we're going to do.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WIRE: All right. Let's go to Flushing Meadows for a colossal fourth round clash at the U.S. Open yesterday. Four-time Grand Slam Champ Naomi Osaka and World number three Coco Gauff. Osaka says Gauff's like her younger sister. They met this time with their games headed in different directions. Gauff has been struggling with our serve recently. Osaka making a comeback from four years in the wilderness. Osaka was dominant, thrashing Gauff in straight set, 6-3, 6-2 in just 62 minutes. She returns to the quarterfinals for the first time since 2021, facing Karolina Muchova next with a spot in the semifinals on the line.

[10:55:00]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NAOMI OSAKA, CHASING THIRD U.S. OPEN TITLE (2018, 2020): She's one of the best players in the world. And for me, honestly, I have the most fun when I play against the best players. I love when, you know, they hit amazing shots or they hit aces because, you know, that's how they won the tournaments that they won. So, I always see it as a challenge. And yes, I like challenges.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WIRE: It was one of those tough matches where one of them we're going to have to lose. Incredible fight. Out of both of them. Listen to this, Osaka, the last four previous times that she's made it to the quarterfinals, she's won the tournament. So, a fifth major, a third U.S. Open title could very well be just around the corner.

BROWN: Yes, we're rooting for her. All right. Coy, thanks so much.

WIRE: You got it.

BLITZER: How's your tennis?

BROWN: It's decent.

BLITZER: Decent.

BROWN: Decent.

BLITZER: Decent is good.

BROWN: What about you?

BLITZER: Not so decent.

BROWN: How about golf, Wolf?

BLITZER: Just learning golf.

BROWN: OK.

BLITZER: All right. Coming up after the break, a Situation Room Special Report. How a father's search for an answer to a math question turned into a chatbot spiral.

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