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Powerful 7.7 Magnitude Earthquake Hits off Coast of Indonesia; No Safe Route on Either Side of Arabian Peninsula Partly Because of Houthis; Iran's End Game after More than Five Months of War; Israel's Defense Minister Wants to Extend Role of Israel Police in Occupied West Bank amid Settler Standoff; Extreme Heat in Europe Causing Drought, Wildfires. Aired 4-4:30a ET

Aired August 15, 2026 - 04:00   ET

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

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SALMA ABDELAZIZ, CNN ANCHOR AND CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Hello and a very warm welcome to our viewers joining us in the United States and all around the world. I'm Salma Abdelaziz in London. Let's go straight to the headlines.

Cameras capturing the moment a major earthquake rattled Indonesia, collapsing buildings, leaving at least 14 people dead.

And Donald Trump claiming he's going to declare the Strait of Hormuz a U.S. territory. How Tehran is responding.

And several European countries are fighting intense battles with wildfires, as record breaking heat fuels those flames.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice-over): Live from London, this is CNN NEWSROOM with Salma Abdelaziz.

ABDELAZIZ: This hour, we're following the developing details coming out of Indonesia, where a powerful earthquake struck very early on Saturday. Disaster officials there and our own sources on the ground say at least 14 people have lost their lives. We're still waiting for word on injuries and the missing.

The 7.7 magnitude quake hit near the island of Flores, which is home to about 2 million people. Authorities lifted a tsunami warning issued just after the quake. I want to go live now to our Gage Goulding. He is in Hong Kong following this story for us.

So Gage, this earthquake hit about 6 am local time. So it's been about half a day.

What are you learning now about its impact and, most importantly, of course, the victims?

GAGE GOULDING, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, you raise a really good point there. This hit around 6 am. And for most people, they're in bed still or they're inside, maybe getting ready for the day.

So a lot of folks here are inside the buildings, is what I'm getting at. And what we know so far, 74 buildings across the region have been destroyed. That's according to the government agency there; 54 heavily damaged. And the number of dead is 14. And it's a number that we've seen fluctuate in the overnight hours.

In addition to that, 13 more are injured. And we've seen reports that there are even more that are trapped under the rubble and search and rescue crews trying to get to them. And you can see the video just of the gravity of the shaking there.

There was video of tourists that were perched up in a rock on Komodo National Park on another nearby island there, where you could actually see -- yes, here it is; the ground, as you'll see in this video, is shaking. You see them kind of swaying back and forth a little bit.

Just, I mean, these folks here are tourists that got up to a higher ground because of the unknown of a tsunami. And there was a concern of a tsunami. There was a tsunami warning there in Indonesia.

Other nearby countries did not issue one, water only rising about a meter, a little over three feet in the area. That's according to reports on the ground. But your question was, is, you know, the people there.

This is very much -- so not an urban, sprawling area. According to the USGS, there was only around a half a million people that would have been in the zone for very strong to severe shaking.

Compare that to the earthquake in Colombia, that was around 6 million people. However, though, this quake was much stronger, which could result in much more damage.

So these are coastal communities, village communities, in a very mountainous region. So there's a couple of elements that these first responders, the search and rescue crews, are going to work against. And that includes landslides.

As our team on the ground has seen numerous landslides and just getting to these remote neighborhoods has been a task within itself, even before the search and rescue efforts start. It is a long process ahead. There's a 48-hour window. It's called the golden window.

And that's what search and rescue crews are working for, because, after the 48 hours, the chance of survival, unfortunately, decreases, Salma.

ABDELAZIZ: CNN's Gage Goulding, I know you'll be following that 48 hour window as those rescue operations to those remote areas, as you describe them, are ongoing. Thank you so much for those updates.

Iran says it's yet to decide whether it's going to resume those negotiations with the U.S. The country's foreign minister says the two sides are communicating through mediators but that doesn't actually constitute real talks. The statement came as marine traffic in the Strait of Hormuz remains largely stalled.

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And an international maritime group says neither side of the Arabian Peninsula is safe for shipping anymore, partly because of Houthi threats.

Meanwhile, U.S. president Donald Trump is dropping a bombshell about his plans for the strait. He says he's going to declare it a U.S. territory but he didn't actually say how he could make that happen. Larry Madowo is keeping an eye on all of those developments for us. He joins us now live from Nairobi.

Good morning, Larry. I mean, yet another bombastic statement from president Trump uttered in the last few hours, I'll be declaring the Strait of Hormuz a territory of the United States.

What does that even mean?

And how can it impact the stalled talks?

LARRY MADOWO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It's not clear, Salma. President Trump has previously said he would rename it the strait of America and that didn't pan out. So this appears to be another thing that he's workshopping.

It was at a campaign rally. So that context is also important. And if he were to actually declare this a U.S. territory, that would mean deploying troops to basically make sure that it remains in U.S. hands.

That's thousands, probably hundreds of thousands of troops indefinitely. But this is what president Trump said, before we go into further what this means.

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DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT, UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: Pretty soon, I'll be declaring the Hormuz Strait a territory of The United States. Essentially, that's what it is. We have the blockade. No ships get through unless we want them to.

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MADOWO: You can see the applause lines there from the crowd. They loved it. And he was performing for that audience.

The Iranian deputy foreign minister responded that the strait cannot be seized with a tweet, an aircraft carrier, an executive order or a campaign speech. The foreign minister, the deputy foreign minister of Iran, adding that Iran neither fears threats nor is intimidated by displays of force. And that is the statement here from Iran.

They have not even decided if they will be going back to resuming talks with the United States about ending the war. The foreign minister separately said that the mediators, Qatar and Pakistan, have exchanged messages. But there is no firm commitment on whether they will resume talks to ending this war with the United States.

So it's essentially stuck in limbo. And president Trump earlier said this week that the U.S. was low-keying these talks and that seems to be a stalemate at this point. This is six months into the war. And president Trump said this would be a quick war; in a few weeks it will be over.

Six months and there seems to be no clear way out of it while, at the same time, any ships navigating through the Persian Gulf are facing attacks from Houthi rebels and from violence in the Strait of Hormuz.

On Friday, another bulk carrier was hit by an unknown projectile, according to the U.K. maritime organization. And the crew are known to be safe. There's no damage assessment at this time.

But the traffic in the Strait of Hormuz has dropped to a fraction of the pre-war levels and that is obviously affecting oil prices, affecting international trade. That's something that president Trump obviously wants to avoid, Salma.

ABDELAZIZ: Very worrying, of course, to hear of yet another attack on the Strait of Hormuz on a ship. Thank you so much, Larry Madowo, for bringing us those updates.

I want to get some more analysis now from Oxford, England, where we have Maryam Alemzadeh. She is associate professor in history and politics of Iran at the Oxford School of Global and Area Studies.

Thank you so much for being with us this morning. I want to start by getting a sense of what victory looks like for Iran now in this conflict, because there's this growing sense that winning simply means not losing.

It means the Islamic Republic absorbing that pressure and denying president Trump the very quick and cheap victory that he wants.

Do you think that's how the IRGC sees this war, essentially as a war of attrition?

MARYAM ALEMZADEH, ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR IN HISTORY AND POLITICS OF IRAN, OXFORD SCHOOL OF GLOBAL AND AREA STUDIES: Good morning and thank you for having me.

I believe Iran's measures of success have also changed, along with America's. Yes, at the beginning, just holding on to power and not collapsing and not letting the country fragment counted as a victory.

Today as, like the IRGC top commander, General Naqdi, was saying in a rare English language interview, it has changed. I think it will need -- it will mean less U.S. presence in the Persian Gulf area and in the neighboring countries, just a constant, basically, threat for the U.S. bases but not necessarily in the form of a war of attrition.

No, I don't think so. I think it's the IRGC is pushing for a deal at the end of this.

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They know that it's not going to happen overnight and they know they have the upper hand in negotiations at the moment. They will -- protracted negotiations far enough to get the best deal out of this. I don't think they will want to be fighting for the next decade, next few decades.

ABDELAZIZ: So you're saying they do want a deal out of this?

How long are they willing to wait for that deal?

And give me a sense of what that deal looks like in Iran's best case scenario?

ALEMZADEH: I can't tell you how long they are willing to wait. I think it's a unfolding day-to-day scenario that they are dealing with.

The deal would include some measures of control over Israel's activities in Lebanon and in Palestine. it will include some measures, ideally -- I'm not saying it will happen -- about like the occurrence in Yemen and, in general, like the rest of the conflicts in the Middle East.

But I think, more importantly, it will mean a very good guarantee that the sanctions will be practically removed. That's not an easy feat. Sanctions are very, very difficult to undo once they are introduced.

And, like the release of Iranian assets, that will be a top priority as well because the country's economy needs saving. It's a ticking bomb, basically, for the leadership.

ABDELAZIZ: So sanctions relief is key. Control over Israel's activities in Lebanon and other parts of the Middle East is key. But right now, like right now, Washington is looking for an off-ramp. Tehran less so because of these demands.

How does the IRGC approach those negotiations differently?

And I want to ask you also specifically about this idea that Tehran is willing to drag this out through the midterms in hopes that -- would that weaken president Trump's negotiating position in their mind or simply embarrass him?

How do you see that playing out?

ALEMZADEH: Yes, I think the dragging along of the current situation, in which Iran appears to have the upper hand, will definitely benefit Iran and the IRGC. It benefits their picture.

Like every day that goes by, with them staying in power and, at least appearing to impose the terms of negotiation is, of course, a win for them. Dragging it to the midterms, yes. That's a possibility. I don't see how it will affect the long term negotiation power.

Would they want to just like hurt Trump for the sake of having hurt him? Maybe. I don't see that as a strategic turning point, the midterm elections, for basically the terms that Iran will be able to achieve in negotiations, I think Iran, at the same time, is preparing to drag it in the longer term.

The recent changes in top command indicate that they signal a few different things. On the one hand, they signal a unified and continued command at the top by like appointing well-known figures. They have tried to signal that.

At the other hand, on the other hand, it means securitizing the domestic sphere. So they will want to deal in the long run, as I mentioned. But they know it's because they know it's not happening soon. They have to intimidate the unhappy public and repress the occasional dissent. as they've brutally done before.

So the new commander of the IRGC and the new commander of the Basij, I think, indicate a securitization of the domestic part. Most interestingly to me is perhaps this change in top command would mean not just signaling but actually moving toward a more consolidated top command.

That is not the IRGC style. We've heard a lot about how decentralized they operate and that was actually the key to success in the or not collapsing in the initial phase of this war. So it would be very interesting to see if they're actually changing, like organizational command strategy.

ABDELAZIZ: Very interesting as well for you, Maryam, to bring up those changes at the top. Those new leadership and new faces that we're seeing, the hardening of a position and the potential of a switch-up in strategy as Iran works toward its end game in this conflict.

Thank you so much for that analysis.

President Trump is dismissing concerns about conditions on the U.S.S. Abraham Lincoln, which is deployed near Iran.

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The vessel has been in action for more than 250 days now and there are reports of poor living conditions and worsening mental health among its crew. Mr. Trump says he is not concerned about those reports.

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QUESTION: Family members of U.S. service members are concerned about the conditions on for the U.S.S. Lincoln --

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT, UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: Well, no. That ship is moving. No. They're not. That ship is moving right now or very shortly and it's being replaced with another very similar ship.

QUESTION: Has the deployment gone on too long?

Are you working --

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TRUMP: No. No. No. Not nearly long enough. Thank you, everybody.

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ABDELAZIZ: Israel's defense minister says the Israeli police, not the army, should be responsible for law enforcement in parts of the occupied West Bank.

The proposed move would be a step toward what some see as Israel's creeping annexation of that territory. And it comes as Israeli settlers press a days-long standoff at several Palestinian homes.

We have this report from Jeremy Diamond.

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JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN JERUSALEM CORRESPONDENT: Yes, we've stayed in touch with the families inside those three homes that have been besieged by Israeli settlers for the last six days now. And I can tell you that these Israeli settlers are continuing to be in the area around those homes.

Today, once again, they tried several times to erect and actually did erect that tent in front of those homes, including one that is owned by an American citizen. The Israeli military quickly came around and dismantled the tent once again and told the settlers to leave the area.

But this has become a game of cat and mouse, effectively, between these Israeli settlers and the Israeli military in this area. And the real question is what happens once the Israeli soldiers, the additional reinforcements that have been deployed to this area, leave?

Because as of now, we have no expectation that a large group of Israeli soldiers are going to remain in Qusra beyond this weekend. And the question becomes what happens when these settlers, who have shown no intention of slowing down so far, when they continue to come back to the area.

And so, the issue really does not seem resolved, despite the Israeli Prime Minister's office suggesting yesterday that it has been.

In addition to that, we have these statements by the Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz saying that he has told the Israeli military to prepare to hand over control of these types of law enforcement issues over Israelis to the Israel police.

The Israeli defense minister's statement critically did not distinguish between areas under Israeli and Palestinian control, which more broadly could raise concerns about an effort to try and extend Israeli civilian law across the West Bank, which would effectively be a move toward annexation. But the reality here is that no one in Israel really expects these statements by the Israeli defense minister to become a reality. But what it does reflect is the notion that he is trying to, you know, put aside the Israeli military's role in this situation.

He said today the army's role is to combat Palestinian terrorism and not to chase hilltop youth, a term that is used for these violent settlers who've been carrying out these actions in Qusra.

And effectively what it means is that he wants the Israeli military, which is responsible for carrying out for enforcing the law in these areas and then it would hand over these settlers if they detained them to the Israeli police, he is basically sending a message that he doesn't believe it's their responsibility.

But currently it is the Israeli military's responsibility. And what we've seen so far in Qusra and in other areas of the West Bank is that the Israeli military has failed to carry out that responsibility and it is leading, it seems, to the continuation and the escalation of this phenomenon of settler violence in the West Bank.

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ABDELAZIZ: The extreme heat and fires in Europe show no signs of easing. Just ahead, we're going to go live to Rome for an update on the devastating damage faced by so much of the continent.

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ABDELAZIZ: Wildfires in Europe have forced Spanish emergency crews to remove relics from a historic monastery. The remains of the first three kings of Aragon were moved from the San Juan de la Pena monastery in northeastern Spain. Firefighters have been working tirelessly to save that monastery.

The good news, as of Friday morning, it remains untouched by the flames. Many other parts of Europe were not so fortunate. The record high temperatures and ongoing extreme drought are feeding wildfires across much of the continent. CNN's Stefano Pozzebon joins us now live from Rome, where he's been covering these fires.

You know, Stefano, last night my phone just started blaring, beeping with this emergency alert that was sent to millions of people across England, warning about the wildfires. This is becoming the defining feature of the summer for Europe.

Can you tell me what struggles right now firefighters are facing and where the real flashpoints are across the continent?

STEFANO POZZEBON, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Well, Salma, it's really hard to talk about flashpoints because, frankly, the -- it seems like the whole of Europe is burning right now.

If you just look at the number of people that have been evacuated in response to these raging wildfires, we're talking about 500 in France, over 1,000 in Croatia, 8,800 across Germany and at least 300 people in Greece. So you can see that these wildfires are spreading all across the continent.

And just like you mentioned, with that alert that the British forest service sent out yesterday evening, well, the U.K. is not spared. The British prime minister saying, for example, that Britain is a tinderbox right now because of five successive heat waves hitting the country.

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And Britain has already recorded a higher number of wildfires this year compared to the whole of last year. More than 1,017 wildfires hitting England and Wales at least.

So the first thing that stands out is that many countries are dealing with this issue and with this crisis at the same time.

The second one, like I was saying, is the fact that regions that are definitely not prepared to dealing with wildfires are being hit. One of them is Britain. The other one is Brittany, on the south of the Channel in northwestern France.

That is also a region associated normally with bad weather, an intense downpour of rain. And instead, they're also dealing with catastrophic wildfires in that region alone. I think that right now all across the U.K. more than 27 million people are dealing with water restrictions.

I'm not sure if you are but 27 million people across the U.K. are dealing. When we're talking about drought in Britain, which is the country perhaps most associated with rain and bad weather, well, you can understand how this is a catastrophic issue.

That, by the way, is impacting not only the, you know, the people that have been evacuated or the forests that are raging and smoldering.

But, for example, in the Danube River in Hungary, they're now building an extensive dam to prevent water to go to down, to down and to keep cooling water up for nuclear power stations nearby. So clearly an issue all around 360 degrees. Salma.

ABDELAZIZ: Stefano Pozzebon with those updates for us, thank you so much.

And thank you so much for watching us. I'm Salma Abdelaziz. "CNN CREATORS" is next. And I'm going to be back with more news at the top of the hour.