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Trump Says U.S. is Low-Keying Negotiations With Iran; Federal Prosecutors Take Over Case Against Captain in Deadly Capsizing; Deadly Wildfires Rage Pacific Northwest and Canada. Aired 7-7:30a ET

Aired August 10, 2026 - 07:00   ET

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

[07:00:00]

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Breaking overnight, the president says the U.S. is low-keying negotiations with Iran, so low-key that apparently Tehran says there are no talks, period, releasing new demands to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, spiking oil prices as you were sleeping.

A captain now faces charges after a boat capsized near the Statue of Liberty, killing a woman and her baby.

And a very angry, angry hippo, we flipped these pictures, unfortunately. A hippo charges at a boat full of tourists. The frightening chase caught on camera.

I'm John Berman reading lines that are supposed to be Sara Sidner's. I heard the footsteps. I think she's here shortly. Kate is out today. This is CNN News Central.

All right, new signs this morning that the U.S. might be losing control of both friend and foe in the Middle East. President Trump tells Axios, quote, we are low-keying it with Tehran, adding, quote, we are only semi-negotiating with them.

This is yet a new shift in tone after the president indicated last week that the U.S. and Iran were close again, he said at the time, to a deal, but now Iran has toughened its demands for opening the Strait of Hormuz. A deal does not seem at hand. And oil prices, they jumped overnight, reflecting concerns on what might happen next. That's on the foe side.

As for friends, U.S. ally Israel has rejected the president's peace plan for Gaza, demanding Hamas fully disarm before any Israeli forces withdraw.

Let's start, though, with these new low-key negotiations. CNN's Kevin Liptak is at the White House this morning. How low-key are we talking? Like no key or low key?

KEVIN LIPTAK, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: I think low-key, and the president seems to be describing this waited out approach, saying that he's essentially content to allow the economic damage to pile up on Iran, and believing that that will force them to eventually cave to his demands when it comes to the Strait of Hormuz, when it comes to the nuclear program.

Now, when he says that we are only, quote, semi-negotiating with them, that is very different from what we heard from the president, other administration officials last week, who kept saying that we were only a day or two away from this deal to reopen the Strait of Hormuz. Now, the president's saying that Iran is in very bad shape economically, and that eventually those financial pressures will cause the regime to cave.

But we saw over the weekend almost the exact opposite, the Iranian regime actually hardening its demands to reopen the strait, issuing this new set of fresh requirements, including that the U.S. end threats or insults against Iran, that the U.S. lift the naval blockade of Iranian ports and remove its military assets in the region, that it pay a compensation to Iran for damage over the course of this war, and that the U.S. lift all sanctions on Iran and unfreeze all of its assets.

Now, that last point in particular I think will be a non-starter for President Trump, who has repeatedly insisted that financial relief will only come once Iran abandons its nuclear program. And, of course, the pressures on President Trump are also piling up, economic pressure, political pressure, military pressure as well, the price of Brent crude now hovering back around $80 a gallon.

We've also seen this debate inside the administration over those dwindling munitions stockpiles. We just learned over the weekend that the Pentagon had sent a memo to defense contractors urging them to ramp up production.

And, of course, we have the president's own advisers. We're learning that many of them, including the Joint Chiefs chairman, General Dan Caine, has begun talking privately among other officials about trying to find an off-ramp in this conflict.

At the same time, what you've seen in the region over the weekend is potential expansion and escalation, the Houthi rebels in Yemen targeting a refinery in Saudi Arabia, just underscoring that even though the president may be low-keying it, in his words, events and actors in the region may have very different ideas of how this will go.

BERMAN: Yes, it's an interesting shift in tone, maybe indicating the president will stop claiming a deal is at hand, trying to put this on the back burner, maybe diminish its importance as we head into the midterms this November.

[07:05:08]

Kevin Liptek at the White House, thank you very much. Sara?

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: All right, thank you, John.

Federal prosecutors are taking over the case against the captain whose boat capsized near the Statue of Liberty, killing a young mother and her five-month-old baby. The capsizing sparked a huge emergency response on Saturday night. Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Report of New York Harbor near the Statue of Liberty, reporting people in the water Box 842. New York Harbor near the Statue of Liberty for people in the water.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SIDNER: Jeez. Video shot yesterday shows authorities recovering that boat. You see it there capsized. It's still overturned there and underwater. This morning, officials are looking into whether the boat was operating illegally.

Joining me now, CNN's Mark Morales who, you know, heard this call go out. Give us some sense of what authorities are looking at, what they think happened here, and this idea that perhaps this boat may not have been, you know, operating legally.

MARK MORALES, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT REPORTER: Well, federal charges here makes a lot of sense. Firstly, because that water, that's their jurisdiction. U.S. Coast Guard patrols that water. They have the rights and regulations for that specific area.

The other key part to know about here is safety. The U.S. Coast Guard is very, very interested in making sure that those waterways are safe. And not just the waterways, but that the people that are on those waterways are actually safe. Their regulations say that there's any boat, any sort of commuter boat that has more than six passengers on it, these are -- like these are charter boats, anything with more than six passengers has to meet their regulations. And that's what could -- that's the key here, because that could make this illegal if they didn't meet those regulations.

And when you think about that evening, you can imagine how chaotic that scene was with these passengers in the water flagging down a Good Samaritan boat before the actual NYPD, FDNY, U.S. Coast Guard boats all descended upon there. Because those guys all know they have minutes to get the people out of that water.

And when we think back to the boat operator, he was charged by the NYPD. The feds are taking this case. He could be charged as early as today.

SIDNER: It is really disturbing just who ends up. Can you give us some sense of the victims in this?

MORALES: Well, we know that a mother and a child were lost in this whole incident. They're trying to go through right now and figure out what exactly they were doing there, why they were all on this boat, and exactly what happened, because, as you've alluded to, there's ramifications here. There's a mother and child that are ripped away from their families right now.

SIDNER: Yes, it's really disturbing this, this five-month-old baby and her mom gone, and so many other people terrified after this. The case goes forward. I know you'll be following all this.

Thank you so much, Mark Morales, great reporting from you.

All right, ahead, a new warning from health officials if you're headed to the beach, where cases of a deadly flesh-eating bacteria are on the rise in at least two states.

Plus, a surprising announcement from Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio- Cortez, why she is going public about freezing her eggs.

And one of the most terrifying moments she has ever experienced, that's how one woman on board this boat described this chase. Look what's chasing them.

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[07:10:00]

BERMAN: This morning, crews across the Pacific Northwest and western Canada are battling out of control wildfires that have claimed at least four lives. That's just so far. In British Columbia, more than 20,000 people have been forced to evacuate. A top official described it like a bomb going off. And in Washington State, they're dealing with new outbreaks and the worst fire season in more than 30 years.

Let's get right to CNN's Derek Van Dam tracking all of this. What are you seeing this morning, Derek?

DEREK VAN DAM, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Yes, John. Here's some of the images from this weekend in the Okanagan Lake region. This is in British Columbia, Summerland, the Peachland area. I've got friends here. I visit this area frequently. It is a beautiful part of the world. But it has been just zapped of moisture. We have a drought that's ongoing, high temperatures.

At this time of the year, wildfires are often prevalent, and it caught these people off guard. 20,000 people evacuated at a moment's notice because of the flames ripping down the mountainsides there.

Let's try and put this all into perspective. We know this has been the summer of smoke version 2.0 because last summer was another smoky summer. Now, this really just shows you North America since the middle of July, how the smoke has evolved and impacted millions upon millions, from the Great Lakes to the East Coast, now to the Pacific Northwest with our new fires into Washington as well as into British Columbia and portions of Oregon.

So, stepping back even further, where are we in terms of year-to-date and comparing that to average? I'll give you a hint. We are way above average where we should be this time of year. Normally, the ten-year average, about 4 million acres burned so far, we've topped that 6.3 million acres. Several large active wildfires burning out of control, really concentrated across the Pacific Northwest and into Southern British Columbia, obviously fueled by the hot temperatures, but of course, the wind, a big story, helping fuel the flames. Now, here's a look at the fire weather threat today. It is elevated across Wyoming, Idaho, into Northern Nevada, and portions of Central California. These are the areas we're watching for this afternoon. But we know we still have the ongoing fires smoldering across east of the Cascades.

[07:15:04]

That's what's degrading the quality of the air. We have air quality alerts for millions of Americans and millions of of Canadians right now as these wildfires continue to kind of just billow out the smoke. But that's getting pushed around by very slow-moving upper level winds, kind of locking it in place and making it very unhealthy to spend any reasonable amount of time outdoors.

So, will we get rain to help with the wildfires? The answer is very little in the future. We want more of this. We need more of this desperately, and the temperatures here not showing much sign of relief either. John?

BERMAN: All right, and they need that relief soon. Derek Van Dam, thank you so much for that update.

So, will there finally be an answer as to who killed Tupac Shakur? A trial 30 years in the making begins today.

And bull on the lam, and not just that. Local law enforcement says he resisted arrest.

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[07:20:00]

SIDNER: Nearly 30 years after one of hip hop's most influential artists was killed, the long-awaited trial for the murder of Tupac Shakur is finally getting underway with jury selection beginning today. Shakur was killed in a drive-by shooting in Las Vegas in 1996 at the height of his career. Duane Keefe D Davis is the only person ever charged in connection with his death. He was pleaded not guilty to one count of murder with the use of a deadly weapon.

Davis is not accused, though, of pulling the trigger. Rather, prosecutors say he helped orchestrate the shooting. Tupac Shakur was riding in a BMW with Death Row Records co-founder Suge Knight when a white Cadillac pulled up alongside them and opened fire. Knight is on the prosecution's witness list and could be called to testify. Davis was arrested in 2023.

Joining me now, CNN Legal Analyst and Criminal Defense Attorney Joey Jackson. There's a lot going on with this case because Duane Keefe D, that was his nickname, Davis, has said during police interviews and in a 2019 memoir that he was in the car during this time and admitted that he helped plan this thing. So, he's pleaded not guilty, saying, no, what I said then is not what I said now. But the police also got statements from him, and they gave him immunity saying, all right, we won't prosecute you, but you got to tell us what's going on. So, give us some sense of how all this might be used in the case.

JOEY JACKSON, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Yes. Sara, good morning to you, and that's going to be compelling. How many times have we had discussions about defendants and whether they'll testify? He's going to testify. What I mean by that is he won't testify as a criminal defendant, but you're going to hear chapter and verse from him how. It goes to what you were asking.

Number one, you're going to hear this 2008 statement that he made to police. Now, this was what's called a proffer session. What does that mean? It means you're given immunity, and police say, hey, come in, man, and you'll talk to us, and nothing you say will ever be used against you. At the time, he was facing a federal drug charge that could've been put him in jail for life.

So, he told everything with respect to what he knew. He talked about his nephew. He talked about, apparently, the fight that his nephew had with Tupac earlier at the hotel. He talked about the whole drive up and how he was in the front seat as a passenger, and his nephew was in the back seat. He handed him the gun. After he procured the gun, his nephew pulled the trigger. He told them everything.

Now, that wasn't supposed to go anywhere with regard to being used against him later on. How does it come in, Sara? It comes in because he has been out there after that 2008 interview talking about it, right? He's been -- certainly there were podcasts about it. He's been talking to the media about it. Yes. He wrote a book about it. So, the judge said, hey, defense, you want this out? I'm letting it in. Your client effectively waived that.

Now, that's not the end of the story though, because the defense is going to argue, that's puffery. He was built into this 2008 story. There was rumor out there about the fact that he was talking. He figured he'd get notoriety. He'd sell some books on it. This is not what he really did. It was bravado. It's complete fabrication. And that's what the defense will say in order to make that statement not as apparent and lively and credible to the jury, because if they believe it, he may have some problems.

SIDNER: I'm going to have you put on your sort of '90s hat, '90s kid hat as well as your attorney hat. Give us some sense of the significance of this case, because for 30 years, people have been talking about this case, the rumors surrounding this case. This was part of the East Coast-West Coast feud. And this sort of culminated in the death of Tupac Shakur, who was at the time the most famous rapper perhaps in the country or the world. And to this day, there are still bad feelings and rumors about exactly who was involved in all this.

JACKSON: Yes, there's no question about it. And, you know, to think about the fact that 30 years later, here we are, and just blocks away from where he was murdered, this trial is taking place. And so, yes, I think that there's going to be, you know, the questioning of the jury with respect to what they know about the '90s, how they felt about Tupac, right, whether they have any biases associated with that, because it's been a long time coming. And so the fact is that when you get a rapper of this notoriety at the time who's gone, could there be people who just want accountability? All that will be vetted through the jury. However, when you look and examine it, right, we go back to the fact that you have this statement, do we finally get justice for Tupac, the defense is going to argue, where's your murder weapon? Where's the Cadillac I was in, right?

[07:25:01]

They're going to make arguments as to, where are the other witnesses? Where's your DNA evidence? Where are your forensics?

And so it's going to be a true battle between the two. And I think the way you get to a right place is by vetting the jury to ask them questions about the '90s, to ask them questions about their feelings, to ask them about their biases, so when you impanel a jury of 12 and multiple alternates, you can get people who can assess the case based upon the facts and nothing but the facts so help you, raise your right hand.

SIDNER: That's right. We will wait and see, but this is going to be widely watched because there are still films being made about what happened in 1996 to Tupac Shakur and who was really behind it. We may never know, but this might tell us some details.

Thank you so much, Joey Jackson. It's good to see you.

JACKSON: Thank you, Sara.

SIDNER: Still ahead, the White House is defending Trump's economy, but new numbers show Republicans are losing their edge with voters as cost of living worries increases.

And start your engines. We'll tell you about this nine-hour, yes, those are lawnmowers.

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