tv CNN Newsroom Live CNN September 12, 2020 1:00am-2:01am PDT
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whole world just feels completely out of control. >> to learn more about danielle's organization and how you can grant a wish to a foster child in need, go to cnnheroes.com, right now. thanks for watching, everyone. our coverage continues. wildfires raging in the western u.s., taking more than two dozen lives and destroying an area the size of new jersey. >> this could be the greatest loss of human lives and property due to wildfire in our state's history. >> we'll have more about it this hour. also, dr. anthony fauci, rejecting trump's claim that the deadly pandemic is rounding the corner. as an influential model shows american s should prepare for what's been called a deadly
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december. and bahrain, normal lizing ties with israel. we'll go to israel for the latest on this development. we're live from cnn headquarters in atlanta. welcome to our viewers here in the united states and all around the world. i'm natalie allen. this is "cnn newsroom." thank you for joining us. our top story, this year's fire season in the western u.s. is already one of the worst ever recorded. more than 100 massive wildfires are now racing unchecked through one dozen states, pushed by hot winds across bone-dry landscapes. at least 26 people have been killed since the fires broke out in mid-august. and in an ominous sign, the
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death toll certainly will go much higher. oregon officials are preparing for fmass fatalities. the governor says dozens of people are currently unaccounted for. and she issued this dire warning. >> i can't say this enough. if you are notified by emergency officials to evacuate, please do so immediately. you may not get a second chance. >> california, where 19 people have died, is battling about two dozen major fires across the state. one san francisco bay area resident said the orange sky, ash and smoke, feels a little like doomsday. back to oregon. 500,000 people have been told to evacuate or ready to leave their
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homes in a moment's notice. lucy kafanov is there. >> reporter: an explosion of raging infernos. devastating and deadly. the flaming consuming over a million acres in arkansas. 15 killed in oregon, california and washington. among them, 13-year-old wyatt toft and his grandmother, peggy. the boy trying to escape the flames, was found in the car with the body of his dog in his lap. more than 500,000 residents have been ordered to evacuate, more than 10% of the state's population. highways are packed as the residents flee approaching flames. >> i managed to grab my family and my dog and some supplies. otherwise, it's awful. >> i just feel sorry for all of the people. hopefully they got all of their animals and stuff out.
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>> reporter: many coming back to find neighborhoods incinerated. >> this was my front room. there's my oven. >> reporter: in neighboring washington state, the fire claiming the life of this 1-year-old baby boy, badly burning his parents who are hospitalized in stable condition. an eerie glow across oregon and portland. the mayor declaring a state of emergency. the air quality here, now one of the worst of any major city on earth. the fires across the west, fueled by winds and dry conditions. climate scientists say hotter and drier temperatures are causing the fires to burn with new intensity. >> we're experiencing weather conditions like we've never experienced in our lifetime. we're experiencing what so many people predicted decades and decades ago. but all of that, now, is reality. it's observed.
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>> reporter: satellite images show smoke smath esmothering th west coast. a hundred major fires are burning 7,000 square miles, an area the size of new jersey. in california, five of the largest wildfires ever, burning this year. >> there's fire on all sides, all around us, all the roads. >> reporter: and with no end in sight, many are fearing a scene like this one. in phoenix, oregon, the before and after satellite images show the town obliterated. >> we didn't think it would get this devastated. it's awful. >> reporter: the biggest fires across the state are hovering near zero percent containment. weather conditions have been so bad, that firefighters are focused on saving lives and evacuations. that is expected to ranchange. officials are warning about a potential mass fatality incident.
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and recovery could take years. this is what climate change looks like. officials are bracing for this to be the new normal. >> if that is the new normal, you've got to feel for the people who live in these states. stephan myers is with oregon state fire information team. i spoke with him earlier about two major fires there that are threatening to merge. here's part of our conversation. >> this point, those two fires have not merged. we're really grateful that fire conditions were more favorable today and allowed us to get ahead and make some real great progress today. >> at first, people outside of portland, didn't want to evacuate. i know there might have been evacuations near salem, as well. for the most part, most people out of harm's way? >> yeah. at this time, there's people in level three evacuations and
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people that can't get back to their homes. due to fire conditions, we're hoping those may change in the near future. we're glad we're not dealing with as much evacuations and rescues as we were in the first critical days. >> unlike the california fires, we mentioned you're there in salem. the oregon fires have come very close to large cities. portland included. does that still call some danger or potentials for trouble within the cities? >> the reality here in oregon, we don't usually have fires that are touching up against our cities in this way. we're burning this side of the cascade mountain range. this is a really unique event. we're working with communities right now that have never expected this was going to be happening right in their back door. so, they've been great and cooperating with us. we're seeing lots of people working together. and we have fires all across our state. firefighters back home in my fire department have been
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fighting fire since monday night, on three-day shifts. the whole fire community is working really hard so that the communities will stay safe. >> let's bring in derek van dam. with all of the fires up and down the western united states, i don't know when we've seen anything to this magnitude. >> yeah. think how it's impacting people's lives, too. 10% of the population of oregon, either evacuated or under some sort of evacuation orders. there's over 100 large wildfires burning out of control. many of them concentrated across california, oregon, as well as washington. these 100 fires have burned 4 1/2 million acres. that is nearly the size of new jersey. just incredible amounts. it's often difficult to fathom, just the pure magnitude of the fires. let's bring it out to space to show you how expansive this area
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is. the at tsatellite imagery behin, this is a plume of smoke. that blankets the entire west coast. stretches from canada past mexico, past u.s. and mexico. and it stretches 200,000 miles off of the west coast, and it's getting circulated around an area of low pressure, across the pacific ocean. no wonder we have the world's worst quality of air, along many of the u.s. west coast cities, including sacramento, even points northward, toward seattle, as well. 28 large, active fires in california, as we speak. three of the five and five of the top ten, largest fires ever burned in california history, burn right now. i mean, we're eclipsing previous benchmark years. you can imagine what this is doing to the quality of the air. there's a bit of hope in sight. we are hoping for the plume of moisture to bring in cooler temperatures, cloud cover and rainfall for the firefighters. >> we're hold on to that hope, for certain. can't imagine the people that are hurting.
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they just lost everything. derek, thank you. we want to move to the opposite side of the country. another tropical weather system is threatening the u.s. and it's an extremely active atlantic hurricane season we're seeing. tropical depression 19 formed friday afternoon. the national hurricane center says its direction is not clear. but a tropical storm watch has been issued for southeastern florida. and 19 is expected to strengthen to a strong tropical storm by early next week and rake the gulf coast. we turn, now, to the latest on the coronavirus. the rate of new infections has decreased in the last month. but as the country approaches 200,000 deaths, an influential model predicts it could double by january. the doctor that runs that model
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says this year's holiday season will likely be grim. >> we look into the winter, with seasonality kicking in. you put all of those up together and it looks like we'll have a deadly december. >> this, as the nation's top infectious disease expert breaks with president trump. dr. anthony fauci says the u.s. is not rounding the corner. >> i'm sorry. i have to disagree with that. you look at the thing you just mentioned, the statistics, they are disturbing. we're plateauing at around 40,000 cases a day. and the deaths are around 1,000. >> in an earlier interview with cnn, dr. fauci said he was cautiously optimistic about a
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vaccine but it would still take time for life to return to normal. >> i think it's going to take several months before we get to the point where we can really feel something that approximates how it was normally before cov d covid- covid-19. and for that reason, i made the projection of getting back to the state of normality, well into 2021. and very unlikely before then. >> we've got to hang on for much longer time. coronavirus infections are increasing in the united kingdom. officials say the eye ruvirus reproduction number is above 1 for the first time since march. this involves statistics but it's not too difficult. the "r" number tells us how many secondary cases are caused by a single infected person. an "r" number of one, means each individual is infecting one
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other person. with the "r" number above one, it is an indication the virus is spreading. let's go to scott mcclain. he is standing by for us in london. good morning, scott. we know the r-number is watched closely. what do we know about the growing cases there? >> reporter: the r-number above one. an imperial college study out of london puts it at 1.7. every ten people infected with the virus, they are expected to pass it on to 17 other people. you can do the math and imagine how quickly the virus spreads. it means the number of cases is expected to double every seven of eight days. this is a trend of cases. the second wave of daily infections, as it eclipses the first wave. more testing has caught more
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cases. but the overall trend is pretty concerning. the u.k. is reporting 500 cases in a single day. they haven't seen numbers like that since may. perhaps france and spain are providing a glimpse into the future. some think that the u.k. is a couple of weeks behind them in terms of development of the virus. they have started to see hospitalizations and deaths really ramp up. something they haven't seen a lot of here in the u.k. deaths have been in the single digits over the last couple of days. that's because the virus is primarily being found in much younger people. that's obviously good news. but there is a trend, according to health experts here that it's starting to be more commonly found in older people, especially those 85-plus, which is the most vulnerable group. as a result, boris johnson has instituted new rules. beginning monday, the maximum number of people allowed at a social gathering will go from 30
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down to 6. the only exceptions are things for covid-secure weddings and funerals and work and school is exempt from that. the rule changes come after the police complained that the hodgepodge of rules that are in place right now are too complicated and too difficult to enforce. the prime minister is promising with the rules will come stricter enforcement, as well, natalie. >> and hope people will be able to follow along. thank you so much, scott. we appreciate you. if and when coronavirus vaccines become available, many people may not trust them enough to take them. that is what a study published thursday in the medical journal "the lancet" suggests. researchers surveyed 300,000 people between 2015 and 2019 and asked if they felt comfortable taking any vaccines. take a look at this map that shows where things stood in 2018.
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dark blue that you see, means most of the country felt that vaccines are safe. but deep orange indicates that fewer than one-third of the country's residents felt so. that was before the covid-19 set in. let's talk about where we are now. heidi larsen is the director of the vaccine confidence project and a professor of anthropology, risk and science. she is author of "stuck: how vaccine rumors start and won't go away." thanks for coming on. >> thanks. >> at a time when the world is racing towards the vaccine of covid, there are hesitancy hot spots that could undermine the efforts. where are the hot spots and what are the underlying causes? >> the hot spots are one of the
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things we found in the paper that we've been monitoring that has seen confidence continue to it's very up-and-down. it needs nurturing and attention. europe remains one of the more skeptical regions in the world. they had seen how low it was getting and what bad measles outbreaks are across the region in europe. there has been an effort made. it is coming up low. pockets in the u.s. we have a few countries in conflict with high security issues. one of the things we find is trust in the vaccine and trust in who is providing it. if a vaccine comes another
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political party, or a western government you don't trust, or your own government that you don't trust, those are some of the drivers that are at risk here. from the public perspective, the hype of a fast vaccine may be great for politicians and may feel good for some of the scientists in the race, as it were. but for the public, that's an uncomfortable concept they're getting quicker. maybe they are missing the safety regulations. that's the uptick of the 2009 h1n1 vaccine. >> without acceptance of the vaccine if one is approved, how hard will it be to end the pandemic, if some countries don't support it? doesn't the world need to come together on this? >> absolutely. the world needs to come together on it.
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and also, we can already see that people are wearing thin with a collaboration cooperation around masks and distancing. people are warned. you think they would want to leap into something like a vaccine that would, in a sense, liberate you from some of the other restrictions. but for some members of the public, even the vaccine is something imposed by government. we'll have some resistance there. but i do think we have a huge opportunity with -- when and hopefully if we get a covid vaccine. if we can make sure that it is -- we work with employers and schools and others, around this vaccine, well beyond health departments. this needs an all-of society approach to prepare for and encourage acceptance of a new
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vaccine, that we have one that is safe and effective. >> we talk about encouraging change. so many people are skeptical for a myriad of reasons, depending on the culture and the society. and the politics there. how do you go about combatting that and trying to alter that? >> it's tough for an immunization program because so many factors that influence confidence are outside of health departments. we need to start local. the more engagement can happen the more interactions are made. i don't think we can wait for the tops confident with the direction coming from central
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government. crucial, mayors, and other leaders. they've been one of the more cooperative, shutting down religious gatherings. vaccines is not something you can do online. we need to start public discussions and engagement on what advice they give. where would it be convenient for th them? we need to understand and make people feel they have been consulted in this process. >> good advice. hope it comes around at some point. professor heidi larsen in london. thank you so much. we appreciate your time and your expertise on this. >> thanks so much. next, bahrain normalizing
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for the second time in a month, an arab gulf nation has decided to normalize ties with israel. bahrain and israel are going to have full diplomatic relations. u.s. president trump helped broker to deal. and he is promising more to come. oren liebermann joins me on this story. did this come as a surprise? >> reporter: perhaps the biggest surprise is the order in which this happened. if you were to ask a couple of months which of the arab states is likely to normalize or closest to israel behind the scenes, bahrain would have been at the top of most lists. but that bahrain would act after saudi arabia decided to normalize relations with israel. right now, israel and saudi have no normalizizations. they are not waiting for the saudis and following in the footsteps of the united arab emirat emirates. at what was supposed to be a
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signing ceremony marking an agreement with uae and israel, bahrain will join, as well. the bahrainis struck out on their own. that means there was saudi consent for the bahrainians to move forward. israel will be connected to two business hubs in the gulf, in abdaa abu dhabi and bahrain. this is a major arrangement for benjamin netanyahu and for president trump, where trump is behind in the polls. where does this go from here? it will be interesting to see how this is taken on the ground. it's a sunni kingdom with close ties to saudi arabia, but is a shia majority population. they may view this unfavorably. we may see protests. how big and long will the protests go? for that, we have to wait and see. one more open question here, as we move a few days away from the white house ceremony. we know what the uae got from
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normalization. it halted the naturalization from the west bank. and they think it will be clearer to get f-35s from the u.s. what does bahrain get from the normalization, from israel or the united states, that's an interesting and unanswered questions at this point. >> netanyahu will be headed to washington to make this official. oren liebermann for us. coming up, people and politicians of all stripes set aside their differences as the united states remembers the september 11th terror attacks. also, 19 years after the u.s. went to war over those attacks, historic peace talks are under way between the taliban and the government. you're watching cnn newsroom. dr to rinse dry and shine your dishes. solve three problems at once with finish jet dry 3in1.
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welcome back to our viewers in the united states and all around the world. you're watching cnn newsroom. i'm natalie allen. new york city commemorated september 11th attacks on friday, with twin beams shining high into the night sky. stunning. look right there. that's from the site of the world trade center. the light symbolized the twin towers that once stood there. ceremonies to mark the anniversary were scaled back because of the covid pandemic. president trump and joe biden left the campaign trail to attend memorials. cnn's jeremy diamond has more about it. >> reporter: after a moment of silence on air force one, today,
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president trump commemorating the 19th anniversary of 9/11, in shanksville, pennsylvania. >> 19 years ago on this day, at this very hour, on this field, 0 brave men and women triumphed over terror and gave our lives in defense of our nation. 9/11, we'll never forget. >> reporter: as trump honored the here owes of flight 93, mike pence marked the world trade center memorial, along with joe biden, the democratic nominee. a brief reprieve, from trump's admission, to bob woodward, that he intentionally misled americans about the coronavirus. >> i wanted to always play it down. i don't want to create a panic. >> reporter: in his false defense. >> why did you lie to the american people and why did you say -- >> that's a terrible question. i didn't lie. what i said was we have to be
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calm. we can't be panicked. >> there was times i was out there telling the american public how difficult this is, how we're having a serious problem. you know, and the president was saying, it's something that's going to disappear, which obviously is not the case. when you downplay something, that is really a threat, that's not a good thing. >> reporter: trump, now comparing himself to former british prime minister winston churchill. >> when hitler was bombing london, churchill, a great leader, was often times go to a roof in london and speak. and he spoke with calmness. >> reporter: that's churchill did not sugarcoat the truth. >> many, many long months of struggle and suffering. >> reporter: trump is still spewing coronavirus misinformation. >> we're rounding the turn. you see what's happening. the numbers are plunging. >> reporter: dismissing the reality of 35,000 cases per day, over 800 daily deaths and warnings about a potentially
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deadly fall and winter, all while addressing a crowd of thousands that refuse to wear masks. >> i'm not afraid. the good lord takes care of me. if i die, i die. we have to get this country moving. are you going to wear masks and stay inside for another year? huh? where will that get us? >> reporter: and president trump on friday, announcing that the u.s. hassebroekered an agreement between israel and bahrain, to establish full diplomatic relations. bahrain is the fourth arab country to normalize with israel, after the u.s. brokered a similar agreement between the state of israel and the united arab emirates last month. the leaders from all three of those countries are expected to join president trump at the white house on tuesday, to sign that agreement, which they are calling the abraham accords.
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joining me now, is natasha lynn lindstaedt. you come to weave through the political process, the election process we're seeing. i want to talk about the 9/11 university. for it to be cordial and if biden and pence bumped into each other, it would be this 9/11 university. there was reminiscing about the national unity in the aftermath of 9/11. we're in the middle of a global crisis. do you think we can get back to that unity in the u.s., now that we're battling a common enemy at a time when we're so polarized? >> i don't know. i think we've been seeing decades that the american public has become polarized, and levels of trust are dwindling.
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they're just lower levels of tolerance of the other side. and we're also seeing that the views are becoming more extreme. they're very extreme in terms of how to tackle covid. you can see from the clip you showed, a trump supporter saying, mask doesn't work, staying home doesn't work. and you would have biden supporters that might feel the opposite, that we need to stay at home, social distance and wear masks. we have completely different approaches to how to tackle this problem. that makes it more difficult for us to come together. equally difficult, is that the president isn't really sending a message of unity. instead, he is trying to sew divisions. >> let's talk about the bombshell this week, involving the president. let's talk about how he's faring. is he weathering the storm when it was revealed he told bob woodward, he played down the pandemic, when he knew it was dangerous back in february.
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>> these tapes were astounding. i thought originally that trump didn't understand what was going on with the virus or was incapable of understanding or listening to advice. he came across lucid, that he knew what were the dangers. and i think he needs to understand, there's a difference between exercising calm and lying to the american public. and that's basically what he did again and again when he was telling americans that this is just like the flu. he needs to learn about leadership from the prime minister of new zealand, who was able to present a clear and coherent message about the dangers of covid, while emphasizing unity and that the country could come together on this. and the other thing that is implausible, is he wants to exercise calm when this presidency has been about fearmongering and sewing discord and chaos. none of this aligns well with
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anything that he has done in his presidency. we're going to see that i think it's only going to harden the views of those that are going to support for joe biden. and i think that you're going to see some of the people in the middle, really question whether or not this is the best person to lead when we have hundreds of thousands of people dying. >> right. at his rally, he indicated that the u.s. has turned the corner on covid. and we heard anthony fauci saying it is likely to get worse. and reminding him that 1,000 people a day are dying. do you expect the president to continue on his track to make positive remarks about the pandemic as he leads up to the election? >> yeah, i do, because he doesn't want the election to be about covid. he's trying to make the issue go away. and in terms of how this resonates with his base, this is working. they don't want to talk about covid, either.
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they are hoping it will magically go away. and what he's going to try to do is make the campaign more about the dangers of a biden presidency. the chaos of a biden presidency. the chaos on our streets, the protests that have become violent, the looting. he wants it all to be about law and order so he can distract the american public from the real crisis, which is that covid isn't going away anytime soon. and the country is just not in anywhere near able to control it. >> natasha lindstaedt, we appreciate your insights. thanks for coming on. >> thanks for having me. peace talks between the taliban and the afghan government are under way in doha, qatar, right now. mike pompeo is there to support the process. the united states is drawing
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down troops in afghanistan with the goal of being out of that country by next april. that will be quite a turn of events. cnn's sam kiley joins me now from abu dhabi to talk more about these negotiations and what hope that something con creed will come from them. hello, sam. >> what we have got going on here, is a historic moment, in 19 years and a day since the 9/11 attacks, perpetrated by al qaeda, operating out of taliban-controlled afghanistan. that precipitated the war in afghanistan that rumbles on today. this year has seen a lower number of civilian casualties that people involved in this diplomatic process are putting down to repeated cease-fires and an effort to de-escalate within
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the afghan communities, i.e. the government and the taliban. but the problem is for critics of what the trump administration are doing, is by announcing their plans to reduce troops from about 8,500 by the fall, the administration's term. you see a weakness, in the sense why would they make concessions or agree to the sorts of pressures they will come under from the afghan government, if they don't have to wait too long before the americans will unilaterally halve the number of troops they have there. and that has allies working alongside the united states. the counter to that, is that the taliban and the afghan government have moved a long way. i was talking to somebody in doha there part of the international delegation, saying it's a remarkable scene. you're seeing taliban officials, mullahs in the taliban, being interrogated, aggressively, by
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afghan female correspondents, as to what the future for women is in that country. and that, at least, is a sign for some hope. >> yes, it is. sam kiley for us, thank you so much. former police officers charged in the death of george floyd appeared in court thursday. the pretrial hearing was procedural. but it was the first time that all four men were in court together. more about that in a moment. want to brain better? unlike ordinary memory supplements... neuriva has clinically proven ingredients that fuel 5 indicators of brain performance. memory... focus... accuracy... learning and concentration. try it today with our money-back guarantee!
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george floyd's death during an encounter with police back in may ignited protests for racial justice around this country. on thursday, the four former officers charged in his death appeared in court together for the first time. our josh campbell was in the courtroom. >> reporter: we're here outside of the county justice center building in downtown minneapolis, where a hearing
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just concluded with four of the officers that are charged in the death of george floyd. this is the fist time we saw all four of those officers physically located with each other. i was in court. none of them seemed to acknowledge one another. they weren't talking to each other. it was strictly business inside the courtroom, with defense counsel and state attorneys going through a number of motions that had been presented. now, the key takeaway that we saw from that hearing was really an embarrassing moment for county prosecutors here. the judge in the case, with the county attorney and the staff removed from the case. the prosecutors met with a witness. the judge calling that inappropriate and sloppy. removing them from the case. there was several other motions that did not get addressed today in any type of conclusive way. for example, there's a motion under way for a change of venue, to move this trial out of the minneapolis area defense
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attorneyss arguing that the defendants cannot get a fair trial in the city. the judge wants to get more time and gather more information. another issue is whether these four officers will be tried together or separately. defense counsel asking for individual trials. the state saying they want them all tried together. the judge is not ruling on that motion yet, as well. you can see behind me, there's a crowd gathered that have been calling for racial justice and calling for justice in this case. we heard earlier from ben crump, an attorney for the family, who weighed in on what transpired today. >> we just sat through a very emotional hearing. people tried to kill george floyd a second time. they made all kind of foolish allegations.
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talking about, he died from a drug overdose. they're trying to claim the knee on his neck for 8 minutes and 46 seconds, had nothing to do with his death. they're trying to claim an asinine theory about an overdose. [ bleep ]. i want to be clear about this. the only overdose that killed george floyd was an overdose of excessive force and racism by the minnesota minneapolis police department. >> reporter: as far as what comes next, there's a lot of issues this court has to address. working with state prosecutors and defense counsel.
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the defense attorneys are waiting to receive the full body of evidence, from prosecutors. all of the documents and recordings they have. that is something they need to put on their defense. as that proceeds, the judge has set march 8th for the start of this trial. josh campbell, cnn, minneapolis. the george floyd story sent the campaign for black lives matter all across the country. it went all the way to the women's u.s. open tennis tournament. the championship is tomorrow. we'll talk about the players' statements about that next. when we started our business we were paying an arm and a leg for postage. i remember setting up shipstation. one or two clicks and everything was up and running. i was printing out labels and saving money.
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secret. we're hours away from the final in the u.s. women's championship. naomi osaka will go up against victoria azarenka, who defeated serena. social and political concerns are on the minds of both players. >> reporter: i'm in queens, new york, where the street behind me would normally be flooded with spectators, making their way through the gates for the final weekend of the u.s. open.
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coronavirus has left its mark, on the first major tennis tournament back since the pandemic began. offcourt news making headlines like it never has before. in the women's singles final, the meeting between thnaomi osa and victoria azarenka seemed like d like destiny. osaka made seven face masks. seven is the number of years it's taken victoria azarenka to get back to a grand slam final. she, too, has not been able to fully escape politics here in new york. normally a sports-crazed country, belarus is embroiled in protests, concerning the autocratic president, alexander luke shen c luke schrenko. azarenka's tone has been more
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subdued when referring to her country. >> what's happening in belarus is near to my heart. i feel that sports is a celebration in our country. people really love sport. >> reporter: the women will put off-court issues aside, when they battle on saturday. two years removed from her win here, osaka defeated jennifer brady in a hard-hitting battle that lasted three sets. azarenka took down serena williams, whose quest for a 24th grand slam title comes up short again. i spoke with one coach inside the bubble, that says this has all of the makings for an all-time great meeting between two champions. a big server and hitter in naomi osaka and one of the best returners of the game in victoria azarenka. and we know, both women feel like they can win. >> that wraps our first hour of
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♪ raging out of control. wildfires are burning up and down the u.s. west coast, as authorities in oregon warn of a mass fatality incident. an influential model of the united states says coronavirus deaths could double by january. we'll talk about that. and afghan leaders open historic talks with the taliban. u.s. secretary of state mike pompeo is there, too, urging all sides to seize the opportunity.
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