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Urgent Search for 1,300 Plus Missing After Deadly Nepal Floods; Hearing on Renewed Push to Add Trump Name to Kennedy Center; Officer Arrested After Tracking Ex-Girlfriend on Flock Camera System; Judge Won't Force ICE Agent's Extradition from Texas to Minnesota. Aired 8- 8:30a ET

Aired August 27, 2026 - 08:00   ET

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

[08:00:00]

BILL GATES, MICROSOFT CO-FOUNDER: It would be a serious review and a criteria under which a model had to meet things like being monitorable for creating bioterrorism tools. And so I still think it's within our grasp to shape this in a net positive way.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: Gates says AI models are simply getting more powerful at a faster rate than expected. He is warning world leaders to do something before it's too late.

A new hour of CNN NEWS CENTRAL starts right now.

Happening now as we speak, a desperate search for survivors of catastrophic flooding in Nepal. More than 1,300 people are missing. At least 270 people are dead with that number sure to ride the scope and scale of the damage so extreme that crews are struggling just to get to the hardest hit areas.

We are live there on the scene.

And emergency hearing today to stop another attempt to put President Trump's name on the front of the Kennedy Center building as the administration threatens to demolish the whole building if Trump's renovations are not allowed.

And armed with fire. New wild video of police taking on a suspect with a flamethrower.

Kate is out today. I'm Sara Sidner with John Berman. This is CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: All right, the breaking news this morning. The death toll is surging from the catastrophic flooding in Nepal and also Tibet. There is a search underway for the missing, including dozens of Americans.

The communications have been spotty at best, and we are getting new video in of this disaster. You can see people there rushing away from the water. There's also video from the border crossing, though the wall of water there that just swallowed buildings in a matter of seconds. At least 270 people have been killed, more than 1,300 missing, at least 700 foreigners, 65 Americans among those unaccounted for. Again, these numbers could certainly rise as we get a better sense of the situation on the ground.

Several feet of mud now blanketing all kinds of villages. Rescuers are trying to get there before rain starts falling. Now, the likely cause of this disaster was a huge chunk of glacier.

I'm just going to run up to the map here. I know I'm going to be out of the light. But a huge chunk of glacier fell off this mountain right here. You know, I'm talking several thousand feet long, this chunk of glacier was.

It fell many thousands of feet. It pulverized itself into water and rock, and then it just crashed down the river valley. Right there is that crossing point where you've seen the wall of water there smashing through all of the buildings.

CNN is one of the only international networks at the scene of the disaster. Hanako Montgomery is there.

HANAKO MONTGOMERY, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: We're just a couple hours northwest of the capital Kathmandu, and right now I am pretty high up. I'm in a safe location. But just below me is one of the rivers that saw some extreme flooding over 24 hours ago, the Trishuli River.

And I don't know if you can see, but just a little far in the distance, there is a suspension bridge that has been partially destroyed. Now, this suspension bridge helped villagers in this remote area go from one part of the country to the other side in this little isolated island area here. But again, because this suspension bridge has been partially damaged, no one's been able to go across and actually ascertain who here on the other side needs rescuing.

And this is just, I mean, example after example, just illustrating how bad the damage has been after this severe flooding. We know that more than 200 people were killed, hundreds more are missing. And right now rescuers are racing to find any survivors who might need any medical.

And just again, in the distance here, John, a little far from me here, but there is a house right on the riverbank. And I don't know if you can see, again, part of it flooded with mud. And something I also want to point out to you here is, if you can see this riverbank, it is pretty muddy, but this all used to be green agricultural rice fields.

But again, completely covered in mud, calcified and hardened mud after we saw the deluge of floodwater come racing down the Himalayan mountains. Now, John, we don't actually know the exact cause of this flooding yet, but we are hearing from scientists that they do believe part of a glacier broke off. And at the same time, a massive landslide also occurred.

[08:05:00]

And all that mixture of rock and also ice came crashing down the mountain and then caused some of the flooding that we've been seeing. And again, this has been extremely distressing for locals here who have to grapple with this reality, grapple with the fact that so many of their loved ones and their family members could potentially be dead.

But also, we do have to note that hundreds of foreigners, tourists who came to Nepal for some hiking trails, for some pilgrimages are also missing, including some Americans. So as you can imagine, John, this situation is extremely dire. And just before we started speaking, John, I do want to point out we went down this road trying to get to one of the worst affected areas, but we couldn't because there was just so much of the road blocked off with the mud.

We couldn't get past the mud, which just goes to show how awful the extent of damage is. And as you can imagine, when you get closer to the heart of this natural disaster, entire villages have been completely swept away. And again, people searching beneath the rubble for their loved ones now -- John.

BERMAN: All right, our Hanako Montgomery, who again, who is on the scene there moving closer as we speak to some of the sites hit the hardest. We are also getting word just in that there are survivors now being found. Communications have been very difficult, but there are pockets of people who are near or in the disaster zone who are now reporting back alive, which is stunning given just the level of destruction we're seeing from these images -- Sara.

SIDNER: All right. Thank you so much, John. It is really hard to watch.

All right, just a couple of months after a judge forced the Kennedy Center Board to remove President Trump's name from the front of the building, lawyers for the venue are returning to court today to fight to add his name again. This time, the board wants to add an inscription below the main sign, and they want it to say, "Restored and Renovated by President Donald J. Trump."

The board is for the first time threatening to demolish the Kennedy Center if the judge does not allow Trump's renovations, including adding his name to the building. CNN's Alayna Treene is at the White House.

Alayna, what can we expect from today's hearing there in federal court? And this is quite a thing that the board, mostly appointed by Trump, is now threatening.

ALAYNA TREENE, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: That's exactly right. There's been so many twists and turns to what this board, and as you mentioned, most of its members appointed directly by the president himself, have been trying to do when it comes to adding his name to the building, to the different renovations that they are demanding be made. I'm going to walk you through some of it. But this emergency hearing today is really focused on the board's efforts to try and rename his ad to the front of the complex. It's being brought forward -- this lawsuit -- by Congresswoman Joyce Beatty. She is a Democrat from Ohio.

She's also an ex-officio member of the board. And I just want to give you a sense of what the board's latest proposal is when it comes to the president's name. This was approved, I should note, on August 13th after their first efforts to rename the Kennedy Center to the Trump- Kennedy Center failed.

They want to put Trump's name on the entryway sign twice and again on a third location on the complex grounds. The proposed signage would read quote, The John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts, restored and renovated by President Donald J. Trump and Endowed by the Trump-Kennedy Center Fund." Additionally, the board is seeking to rename, Sara, the physical grounds of the arts center and naming it, quote, President Donald J. Trump Plaza.

Now, I want to remind you, back in May, as I mentioned, the judge in this case, Christopher Cooper, the same judge we're expecting to preside over the hearing today, he had ruled that the board's previous decision to try to put the president's name on the arts institution -- that was a decision they had made last year back in December -- was unlawful. And this is what he said.

He said, "The Kennedy Center's organic statue makes crystal clear that the center is to be named for President Kennedy, and it cannot bear any other formal name or public memorial based on the board's unilateral say-so. Congress gave the Kennedy Center its name, and only Congress can change it."

So we're going to have to see what the judge says today. But of course, I think there's going to be more we hear from this even beyond today, as the board continues to push for this.

And then the other thing, as you mentioned, Sara, is they're also separately arguing --and this is from the Kennedy Center lawyers and the board -- that if the proposed reservations by President Donald Trump are not put in place, perhaps the Kennedy Center would need to be demolished. They say there's a lot that needs to be done, and it needs extensive renovations for safety. But that's also being thrown into question.

So a lot to watch for later today.

SIDNER: Alayna Treene, thank you for your reporting there from the White House for us this morning. Appreciate it -- John.

BERMAN: A key Republican senator launches an investigation into Flock surveillance cameras.

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These are the AI-powered license plate readers, as a police officer is arrested for allegedly using the system to track his girlfriend more than 2,000 times.

The court hearing today for a controversial social media influencer is the Tate brothers, as they fight extradition to the United Kingdom, where they face nearly 60 sex-crime-related charges.

And actor Tim Curry, who played maybe one of the greatest roles of all time -- not this one -- in stage and screen, but the immortal Frank-N- Furter from the Rocky Horror Picture Show, he passes away at the age of 80.

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BERMAN: All right, new this morning, a police officer has been arrested after authorities say he tracked his ex-girlfriend more than 2,000 times using Flock cameras. These are the AI-powered license plate readers you may have heard about. Flock is facing growing scrutiny, but exactly what information they are able to gather about Americans.

[08:15:00]

Senator Josh Hawley is now launching a probe, demanding to know who has access to the personal data captured by the cameras. With us now, CNN senior national security analyst Juliette Kayyem, she authors the Early Warning Substack. So talk to me about what questions these cameras raise.

Why are they different than just normal CCTV?

JULIETTE KAYYEM, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: Because basically they're not aligned with any criminal investigation. So what's happened is you have this very powerful surveillance tool that in theory sounds good, right? You know, something bad happens, you want to find out who's in the car, what the license plate is.

Instead, what Flock does is it's an automated AI powered license plate reader system. So it's picking up all sorts of information unrelated to any crime. And then ideally how it was supposed to work is then if you're looking for a specific license plate related to a crime, you would make the match. Instead deployed to 7,000 police departments with no training, no guidance, no safety provisions that were that were automatic.

Flock is now facing congressional oversight, lots of jurisdictions prohibiting it, as well as unlawful vandalism against the cameras.

BERMAN: So what kind of laws or oversight here do you think would it take to get this in line?

KAYYEM: So look, Flock has at least announced for January 1st, that's still pretty far away, three important changes. And the most important, in my mind, is that odd behavior like the behavior that we saw that this guy got -- this police officer got arrested before. Some police officers looking way too many times at a certain license plate, that that will automatically trigger a review.

So there'll be an internal audit system that used to be voluntary. Now that's going to be mandatory. There's other safety provisions.

We'll see how they work. January 1st seems very far away. But I think what's important that Senator Hawley is doing is it's exposing a technology that has been dispersed throughout the United States without any conversation by these local jurisdictions, any training by police departments.

It has proliferated without the American public having any say. So I think that we're going to get to know more. There'll be more conditions placed on safety provisions, retention of data provisions, and making sure that what happens is that whatever license plate is viewed is tied to a criminal investigation.

This is part, as we're seeing, of a larger pushback against these technology companies, whether it's Meta, whether it's the data centers, that are simply just deploying without any sort of regulatory system behind it. So I think Flock is next.

BERMAN: Yes. It's sort of like, hey, what's going on here? This is congressional oversight, really in its purest form, saying you've been doing this without any regulations.

It's time to ask some serious questions. Julia Kayyem, great to see you. Thank you for explaining it so well.

A family in mourning demands answers after their college-age son was shot and killed by police after he showed up at the wrong house.

And the new developments out of Nepal, hundreds missing. There are some people being found alive that we're just getting word of.

This hour, we have a reporter on the scene. We're one of the only news organizations there. We're gathering all the information we can.

[08:20:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SIDNER: Developing this morning, a federal judge is refusing to force Texas to extradite a former ICE officer to Minnesota, clearing the way for his release as soon as today. Christian Castro is being detained in Texas. He is charged in Minnesota with assault and falsely reporting a crime after allegedly shooting a Venezuelan migrant during an immigration operation there in Minneapolis.

CNN's Ed Lavandera is following this story. What are you learning about this case and what is next?

ED LAVANDERA, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Sara. Well, this is turning into quite a political fight. Christian Castro, that ICE officer involved in that Minnesota shooting, facing those criminal charges in Minnesota.

He has been in Texas since that shooting. Officials say that he was ordered to come back to his home station where he was based out of in South Texas in the Brownsville-Cameron County area. And in late May, he was charged criminally by officials in the state of Minnesota.

All summer long, officials have been trying to get him extradited back to Minnesota to face those criminal charges. But the governor here in Texas is saying that it is not clear whether or not Castro is indeed a fugitive and would qualify for extradition. He has ordered state agencies to investigate whether or not he is indeed a fugitive.

Minnesota officials are saying that essentially Abbott is dragging his feet trying to play this out. And the attorney general in Minnesota put out a statement yesterday after this court's ruling in Texas saying that "Greg Abbott is turning Texas into a sanctuary state for violent criminals. But regardless of today's ruling, Christian Castro will not escape justice in Minnesota."

Governor Abbott's press secretary said that "The court was right to reject Governor Walz's absurd claim." And says that there might not be enough evidence to support the fact that Castro, the ICE officer, is a fugitive. So all of this very technical legal arguments playing out in court, but the bottom line is that Christian Castro is expected to be released from custody today. And one of the officials there in Minnesota is saying that they are urging the governor to sign those extradition papers so that he can be brought back to Minnesota.

SIDNER: There are a lot of details in this and a lot of people watching this case as well. Ed Lavandera, thank you so much for keeping an eye on it for us. Appreciate it.

[08:25:00]

All right, coming up, a look at how and why the catastrophe in Nepal happened on such an enormous scale. This morning, desperate measures being taken to try to rescue people, more than 1,300 people missing, hundreds now confirmed dead.

And new air traffic control audio that captures the moment a pilot radios in mid-flight that they're in trouble and need to land.

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BERMAN: All right, I want to give you a sense again of this disaster in Nepal and Tibet and how it happened. There was this glacier, this some thousand foot slab of ice that just snapped off a mountain. It fell here, pulverized itself into water.

Then all that water came crashing down along this valley bed. And I want to push in and give you a little more sense of what happened in these towns and villages. Tupche, Devighat, Ratomate, right?

So let's look at Tupche right here. And I want you to take a look again at these two areas right here. This is before the disaster struck.

You can see some structures there right along the riverbed up here as well. Then I want you to take a look at what happened after the water came in. OK?

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