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Military Base Renamed to Honor Lindsey Graham; Tragic Boating Accident in New York Harbor; Iran Making New Demands; Massive Earthquake Hits Colombia. Aired 1-1:30p ET

Aired August 10, 2026 - 13:00   ET

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

[13:00:02]

DANA BASH, CNN HOST: Here they are right before Thanksgiving back in 2023. Beth was bagging everything in sight.

But before the dust could settle on this loss, a successor emerged. A man in Sioux City offered Senator Grassley his used Hoover. The senator accepted, posting: "Beth is back, but newer model."As for the original Beth, rest in peace, you dirt-devouring dynamo.

Thank you for joining INSIDE POLITICS today.

"CNN NEWS CENTRAL" starts right now.

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: Breaking news out of South America: a powerful 7.4-magnitude earthquake rocking Colombia, buildings collapsing, as people try to flee, many of them trapped inside. We're following the latest there.

And a shift in tactics from the White House, the president signaling he's trading military strikes for an economic fight with Iran, but will this low-key strategy pay off?

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: And 30 years after Tupac Shakur was gunned down in Las Vegas, a murder trial is finally kicking off.

We're following these major developing stories and many more all coming in right here to CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

SANCHEZ: We start this afternoon with breaking news out of Colombia, a major 7.4-magnitude earthquake has hit the western part of that country. Watch this footage.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

(SHOUTING)

(SCREAMING)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANCHEZ: Shocking scenes there as people run for cover. We have learned that at least 29 have been confirmed dead. That number has been steadily rising since the hours have passed. The U.S. Geological Survey is warning of significant casualties

because of the powerful shaking and all those collapses. Studying video captured inside an airport also shows the quake rumbling for nearly a full minute as folks scramble for safety, those scenes coming from Pereira.

The epicenter of the earthquake was located some 170 miles west of Colombia's capital city of Bogota. It was felt far and wide. People several cities away reported feeling the tremors.

Let's go to CNN meteorologist Derek Van Dam, who's covering this story for us.

So, Derek, walk us through what we know about this powerful earthquake.

DEREK VAN DAM, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Well, the video that you're showing out of the airport there near the epicenter, that is just one of six airports that have sustained damage from this magnitude-7.4 earthquake.

And we will take you to this kind of an elevated look from Cali, Colombia, and you can see the plumes of smoke and dust as the earthquake shakes the ground. These are likely buildings that are suffering damage or completely collapsing on themselves. This is why we're so concerned, obviously, about the death toll as it's likely to continue to rise.

I mean, look at the damage from the ground in this same location. This is in Cali, Colombia as well, buildings completely flattened. This has just been readjusted by the USGS, so the depth of the earthquake slightly deeper than what was originally reported, again, the epicenter just west of Bogota.

But this is really important too, because the reason why we felt the shaking in Bogota and other locations far away from the epicenter is because this was a moderately to deep earthquake, the epicenter, and that allows for seismic waves to spread out very far distances, versus, if it was a shallow earthquake, we'd have sustained more significant damage than what we're already seeing near the surface.

This from the USGS is a really compelling map. We have an orange flag associated with this earthquake, and what this means is, it compares previous earthquakes to similar events to this one, and considering the infrastructure here, it is likely that there will be at least a one in third chance -- one in three chance of over 1,000 fatalities because of the infrastructure in place and the shaking that took place.

There was nearly two million people, or just over 1.5 million people, that experienced very strong shaking. We have already had 5.0- magnitude aftershocks. This is, again, after the main quake. This is all part of the Ring of Fire, right? We talk about this so often.

[13:05:14] But this is where about 90 percent of the world's earthquakes actually occur. And that is, of course, on the edge of these major tectonic plates coming together -- Boris.

SANCHEZ: And, Derek, as you were speaking, we got an update on the death toll. It now continues to rise, nearly tripling now, at least 74 confirmed killed in Colombia. Hopefully, those estimates you just gave us turn out to be wrong, but it does appear to be a desperate situation right now.

Thank you so much for that, Derek -- Brianna.

KEILAR: President Trump says the U.S. and Iran are semi-negotiating. Iran says no talks are happening at all, and now oil prices are climbing.

Today, the markets are responding to Tehran tightening its grip on the Strait of Hormuz. Iran is demanding the U.S. pay for war damages, withdraw all American troops, and release billions of dollars in frozen assets if it wants the strait reopened. And President Trump just made his own demand.

CNN's Alayna Treene live for us at the White House with more.

Alayna, tell us about it.

ALAYNA TREENE, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, look, the president came out just moments ago, Brianna, saying that they see these fresh demands from Tehran over the weekend, as you mentioned, one of the key ones being a number of different payments and compensation for what they argue was the U.S. military's damage militarily to the country and some of the deaths that they have seen.

Well, the president now saying he wants compensation from Iran to the United States as well. I'm going to read you a little bit of what he posted. It was a pretty lengthy TRUTH Social post.

He wrote: "I see that representatives of the Islamic Republic of Iran are asking for compensation for the damage done to them during the last five-month military conflict," he went on to say, "even though it was never mentioned in any of our negotiations or meetings."

I'm going to pause there, because that's not quite true. Getting unfrozen funds was always going to be part of these talks, but I will continue.

He went on to say: "It is an interesting idea because now I am likewise demanding compensation from Iran." He outlays a number of past misdeeds from Tehran, and then he says: "I instructed my representatives to put this firmly into any and all future negotiations. Thank you for attention to this matter."

Look, this is interesting, I think, obviously, because having Iran compensate the U.S. has been -- has not been part of any of these conversations, as Trump was leveling that Iran was not bringing any of these up. But it's interesting as well because it comes just a day after the

president laid out his thinking on this entire war and the negotiations here. He had said that he wants to low-key it, essentially saying that he wants to continue to see how things go, particularly with the U.S. naval blockade on Iran, to essentially try and inflict as much economic pain on Iran for the time being to ultimately force them to the table.

But, obviously, with this most recent post from the president, it suggests that they are just very far away from any sort of agreement here, one to open the strait, but then of course, also the bigger part of all of this is the nuclear negotiations.

I will say Iran laid out a series of other demands in addition to compensation. They said that the U.S. needed to end threats and insults against the country, that the president needs to lift the U.S. blockade, naval blockade, of Iranian ports. They said that the U.S. needs to lift sanctions and unfreeze Iranian assets, a lot of things that are going to be nonstarters here for the Trump administration.

But, of course, the most pressing thing is this more hopefully near- term agreement to reopen the strait. But we will see, because all of this really getting in the way of any sort of agreement, it seems -- Brianna.

KEILAR: That is.

Alayna Treene, thank you for that report from the White House.

Still to come: There's a lot more on the unfolding disaster in Colombia after a 7.4-magnitude earthquake struck the country just a few hours ago. We're going to speak with someone who is there on the ground.

Plus, a New York City boat captain is arrested after a mother and her 5-month-old daughter are killed when their charter capsized near the Statue of Liberty. Why federal prosecutors are taking over the case.

And then, later: why a defiant Republican congressman is staying in the race despite accusations of abuse and calls from within his own party to drop out.

We'll have that and much more coming up on CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

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[13:13:56]

SANCHEZ: We're learning new details today after an incident in New York Harbor on Saturday night. A young mom and her 5-month-old daughter were killed in a tragic boating accident.

And federal prosecutors are now taking over the case against the captain of that vessel; 46-year-old Manuel Hernandez was arrested early Sunday, charged with 13 counts of reckless endangerment, just hours after the boat capsized near the Statue of Liberty. Let's go to CNN's Mark Morales now, who has more from New York.

So, Mark, help us understand why federal prosecutors are getting involved in this.

MARK MORALES, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT REPORTER: Well, this makes a lot of sense, Boris, specifically because the U.S. Coast Guard patrols the waterway right around where the Statue of Liberty is. It's their jurisdiction.

And since they're a federal law enforcement agency, that gives them the ability to investigate this. The other thing to note is that the U.S. Coast Guard is very interested in making sure that all the boats that come through there are safe.

And part of that is when you have big commercial liners or you have any other commercial vehicle, they have to meet a certain safety standard. And that's the real key here, is that anybody that doesn't meet that standard is considered an illegal vehicle.

[13:15:03]

For this vehicle here, this vessel, anything above six people on board has to meet credentials, safety equipment, inspection certificates. It's unclear if this vessel that was involved in this incident on Saturday met any of those qualifications. But that's what investigators are doing now.

They're digging in deep, they're talking to everybody, they're going through everything to determine just where this vessel and where this company and where this operator were. And when you think back to that scene, it was a very chaotic scene when you had all these passengers that were on this boat and all of a sudden they're out. They're now in the water.

And, thankfully, for some of them, that good samaritan boat that was coming through was able to rescue a good number of those passengers. But as we have said here before, for one mother and for their infant child, they were a little too late.

Now, when we talk about the boat operator, as you said, they are expected to be in federal court at some point today. They are in federal custody right now. They have not yet been charged, but those could come as early as today -- Boris.

SANCHEZ: Mark Morales, thank you so much for the update. We will continue to watch that case pending developments.

So, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is speaking in South Carolina right now, as we learn a top general is looking for an off-ramp from the Iran war.

Plus: His death forever changed hip-hop, and now, 30 years later, the man accused of murdering Tupac is on trial. Everything we know about the case next.

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[13:21:08]

SANCHEZ: Happening now, a major military honor for the late Senator Lindsey Graham.

Joint Base Charleston is being renamed Joint Base Lindsey Graham. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is in Charleston, South Carolina, for the ceremony.

KEILAR: The Pentagon is honoring Graham's more than 30 years of service in the Air Force, Air Force Reserve, and Air National Guard.

CNN senior national security reporter Haley Britzky is with us now on this story.

All right, Haley, tell us about this.

HALEY BRITZKY, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY REPORTER: Yes, so as you just said, I mean, they were down in South Carolina today, Secretary Pete Hegseth, as well as Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, and announcing that they are renaming Joint Base Charleston in honor of Senator Lindsey Graham.

And so we heard some remarks about obviously his service in the Air Force, why they were taking this step, what this would mean for the airmen, the soldiers, Marines, and sailors who are stationed there. But Secretary Hegseth also took the time to really drill down on one of his main issues right now, which is the budget, the $1.5 trillion budget that we know the Pentagon has been pushing really aggressively for, trying to stir up more Republican support for that budget.

And he said that, in one of his most recent meetings with Senator Graham before he passed last month, Secretary Hegseth said that Graham told him -- quote -- "This is the best military budget I have seen since I have been in Congress" -- end quote. Secretary Hegseth said that they're paying tribute to him, but there could be no greater tribute than to invest that $1.5 trillion.

That's obviously been tough for Republicans to voice support for, as we're talking about the ongoing war with Iran. Republicans have said they're not getting enough information from the Pentagon about the war and what that money would be used for, why they need it so quickly, so, certainly Secretary Hegseth taking the opportunity here to make the appeal to other Republicans that Senator Graham was already on the side of passing that budget.

KEILAR: Yes, so many Republicans made it clear they want answers to their questions, as they have in the hearings that Hegseth has been sitting for. Haley, thank you so much for that. Appreciate it.

So we're getting some new images out of Colombia after this 7.4- magnitude earthquake that rocked the region. The USGS is estimating significant casualties, and we have been seeing that number ticking up by the hour here. We're going to talk to someone who is on the ground there right after this.

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[13:27:45]

KEILAR: Back to our breaking news on that powerful earthquake in Colombia. The confirmed death toll has just jumped to at least 74 here in the past few minutes.

This was a 7.4-magnitude earthquake that struck Western Colombia this morning. And authorities say it is the strongest quake to hit the country in the last decade. This is video of the moment that the quake hit.

All right, let's talk about this with Richard Emblin. He is director and founding editor of "The City Paper Bogota."

Sir, thank you so much for being with us.

Just tell us a little bit about what has been happening there. You're obviously in Bogota. The epicenter was in San Jose del Palmar, which is about 170 miles west of you, but obviously this was felt in Bogota and was obviously affecting populations and other places. These are just terrifying pictures. What can you tell us?

RICHARD EMBLIN, DIRECTOR AND FOUNDING PAPER, "THE CITY PAPER BOGOTA": Hello, Brianna.

Yes, it was really a tough wakeup call this morning for Colombians. Fortunately, the earthquake, in a way, struck in the early hours of the business day, just three days after Abelardo de la Espriella took his investiture.

So he immediately has started his emergency response. But we were in Bogota -- well, we are, 2,860 meters above sea level. So, the high altitude Andean plateau on the eastern ridge does act as a little bit of a buffer.

But office workers were immediately evacuated, or mainly just didn't go into the building at that time of the morning, and large crowds were gathering on the major hubs and major avenues, afraid of going into the buildings. Bogota activated its emergency response system immediately with sirens. And ambulances started just bolting down the streets.

Now, we are seeing a death toll climb very quickly now. The hardest- hit areas will be the coffee zones, the four major departments of that region in Central Colombia, Armenia, one of the big kind of coffee- growing capitals of Colombia, Pereira. Manizales, which is -- with its beautiful, graceful church, has all the spires -- well one of the spires has collapsed.