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CNN International: 1,000 Plus Dead, 4,400 Plus Missing in Catastrophic Flooding Aftermath; Families Search for Loved Ones Missing in Nepal; Hiker Describes Terrifying Moments Water Flooded Grand Canyon; U.S. Invites Russia, but Denies Access for Some Journalists; Jets Make Dramatically Low Stadium Flyover in South Africa. Aired 4:30-5a ET

Aired September 01, 2026 - 04:30   ET

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

[04:30:00]

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POLO SANDOVAL, CNN HOST, CNN NEWSROOM: And welcome back. I'm Polo Sandoval. The death toll in Nepal and China has risen to more than 1000 after flood waters devastated the Himalayan region just last week. Authorities also estimating now that more than 4400 people are still missing across both countries.

And as search efforts expand, police announced that 24 bodies were recovered from a house in one of Nepal's hardest hit regions. According to local officials, morgues and hospitals are now running out of space to store the dead, and that's forcing some areas to begin digging mass graves to bury the unclaimed victims.

Over the weekend, the U.S. State Department said that at least 90 of those unaccounted for are American citizens. CNN's Anderson Cooper spoke to a U.S. doctor who is currently searching for her missing parents.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): Last Wednesday morning, Ramesh Sharma and his wife Nilam, New Yorkers were getting ready to cross into Tibet on a Hindu pilgrimage with five other Americans, including Amida Amin and Tajal Patel. Their guide Abhishek Singh called his wife in Kathmandu, saying they were about to go through immigration.

A little more than 30 minutes later, this happened. The border crossing was obliterated. I spoke with the Sharma's daughter, Radhika, a doctor, and her brother Akash in North Carolina. She was already planning to come to Kathmandu.

DR. RADHIKA SHARMA, PARENTS MISSING IN NEPAL: My plan is to first go to the embassies, talk to them, and then from there maybe go to the different hospitals.

[04:35:00] COOPER (voice-over): She arrived Sunday with her husband Poojan. A family friend brought them to the small upstairs office of Trekking Planner, the tour company that organized her parents' visit.

COOPER: How are you holding up?

DR. RADHIKA: I've had ups and downs. Kind of just fluctuates honestly. It is nice to be here with people who are like also directly affected by this.

COOPER (voice-over): Dikshya Lamichhane runs the company.

DIKSHYA LAMICHHANE, HUSBAND MISSING IN NEOPAL: He is my husband.

COOPER (voice-over): Her husband Abhishek was Radhika's parents' guide. He and two other guides are also missing.

LAMICHHANE: He got a tattoo.

COOPER: Wow, it's amazing tattoo.

LAMICHHANE: His whole back, one leg. He's a Chelsea fan. I have given all the information about him because he got a lot of tattoos, so it will be very easy to identify him. We have been to everywhere to check the bodies.

COOPER: You've been to the hospital in the morning.

LAMICHHANE: Yeah.

COOPER: You're hopeful, but you also.

LAMICHHANE: Yes, still checking every place.

DR. SHARMA: Of course, our hope is that if they heard the alarms and the warnings, they either drove or they ran, and we're still waiting for that answer.

COOPER (voice-over): On the street outside, a Hindu procession passes by Radhika and Poojan will head to the embassy, and then hospitals and the morgue.

COOPER: You're saying that inside that part of being here, it helps because there's others who are in the same situation.

DR. SHARMA: Yeah, because then I know I'm not going through this by myself. There are other people who are affected, and we will all get through it together.

COOPER (voice-over): Anderson Cooper, CNN, Kathmandu.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SANDOVAL: Two people are dead, and at least one person still unaccounted for after this flash flooding ripped through Grand Canyon National Park in Arizona on Saturday. The National Park Service says that search and rescue efforts are still underway, with one person missing based on park permit records.

And one of those killed has been identified by his family as this man, 53-year-old John Giusti. The Texas Chiropractor was camping and fishing in the canyon with two friends before the flooding. And nearly all foot bridges and many trails in the affected area were destroyed by the flooding and debris flow, that significantly limiting access for emergency responders.

Heavy rain and the threat of even more flash flooding complicated search efforts on Monday, but conditions are expected to improve overnight. And earlier, CNN's Phil Mattingly spoke to Gabe Bergemann, who was visiting Phantom Ranch with his family when the waters started rising. They were among some 60 people racing to escape the flood waters before they had to be evacuated by helicopter.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN CHIEF U.S. DOMESTIC CORRESPONDENT: Can you tell us what happened when you first realized something was wrong here?

GABRIEL BERGEMANN, EVACUATED DURING GRAND CANYON FLOODING: Yeah, so we were just sitting in our cabin, you know, at Phantom Ranch at the bottom of the canyon when the park ranger came into our cabin and told us that we had to evacuate immediately.

There was a threat of a flash flood, a flash flood warning. And so, we gathered all our stuff super quickly, and we just -- we got out of our cabin and made our way to the evacuation area.

MATTINGLY: Now, the foot bridge you used, as I understand it, was destroyed by floods about 10 minutes after you crossed it. Have you thought about what would have happened had the park ranger not gotten everybody to evacuate when he did?

BERGEMANN: Yeah, I mean that's the scary part, you know, because it was just the timing was so that it was just such a -- it could have gone either way, you know, and we just got lucky that we were alerted to the floods when we did. Because if we were on that bridge when the water came through, I'm sure there would have been like plenty like a lot of people would not have made it out of there.

MATTINGLY: Even after you cross that foot bridge, got to higher ground, it still took a while for the helicopter to get your group out of the canyon. At what point did you kind of exhale and think like, OK, we're safe here?

BERGEMANN: Yeah. So, once we got to the other side of the Colorado River, crossing the big bridge. Once we got there, I knew I was pretty much safe. The water wasn't going to rise that much from the Colorado River. And I mean, by then you could just see all the debris that had the devastation that had taken effect on the camp and all the things that had floated into the river.

MATTINGLY: Is there a moment where, like this, all I imagine was happening so fast that it's tough to kind of get your head around it in the moment? When was the moment where you were kind of like, oh wow, this could have gone bad, and it has gone bad for others?

BERGEMENN: I would say, I mean, when I crossed the foot bridge over the creek, and I was able to see what the water looked like for the first time really, that's when I realized the danger that of the situation.

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And how I needed to -- how seriously this could have gone. And from that point on, I was super serious. I was with my family, so we just made sure to get to the safety area as quickly as possible. And then hearing about you know the people that are still missing, you know it's just I'm just super grateful to have been alerted when I did and been able to get to the safe area in a quick manner.

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SANDOVAL: And there's still much more ahead here on "CNN Newsroom", including a surprise guest that left many European Leaders outraged at this week's G20 finance meeting that was hosted by the U.S. That story just ahead.

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SANDOVAL: European officials are pushing back against the Trump Administration's surprise move to invite Russia's Finance Minister to this week's G20 meeting. It marked Moscow's first appearance at the gathering since Putin's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

And there are many European Leaders who said that the move is troubling after they've spent years trying to isolate Russia. Here's one of them.

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LARS KLINGBELL, GERMAN VICE CHANCELLOR AND FINANCE MINISTER: However, the mere fact that the Russian Finance Minister is back after, I believe, four G20 meetings without Russian participation indicates an attempt at normalization, and that makes it all the more important for us to push back.

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SANDOVAL: And European officials also refused to take a group picture with the Russian Minister, and while Moscow's representative was allowed in. Several U.S. journalists were shut out. The U.S. Treasury denied credentials for certain reporters from news outlets, including "The New York Times" and "The Wall Street Journal".

Discussions will continue through Tuesday. And in the coming hours, U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright expected to visit Venezuela. And this comes just days after the U.S. signed a massive deal to control some 65 billion barrels of the country's oil reserves.

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CNN's Mary Triny is in Caracas with more.

MARY TRINY MENA, CNN JOURNALIST: I'm here in Caracas, we've been talking to people to really know what they feel about this oil agreement between Washington and Caracas. And for the majority of people, it was a surprise. They were in awe when they heard about the words of President Donald Trump first of all.

And then the local authorities that confirmed this agreement, oil agreement, with the oil research of Venezuela about 22 percent of the entire oil reserve of the country. We need to remember that Venezuela has the largest proven oil reserve in the world.

According to Delcy Rodriguez this is a unique agreement that will bring prosperity to the country, and also that it's not quite important to have those reserves underground if they are not serving the country. So, she says Venezuela will provide the workers the fields.

Some of them are agreeing; they need investment and technology. And the U.S. will bring that to Venezuela. She was pleased. She thanked President Donald Trump. But there are three main focus is here, according to experts.

First, the legal standpoint, and that is why many experts are highlighting that Delcy Rodriguez has not the ability to sign these long-term commitments on behalf of Venezuela. Considering she is an interim-president, she was first appointed by Maduro. She was not elected by votes.

Unlike the U.S. that the vice president is elected by votes. She was appointed by Maduro. Then, back in January, when Maduro was taken into custody, she was back for the U.S. to hold the Presidency of Venezuela. And she's been doing that since January this year.

So, signing these long-term agreements for about 25 years it could pose a risk, especially if they are not consulted by all the institutions. Also, the technical standpoint, and that is the condition of the Venezuela's oil industry that is in bad shape, considering years of mismanagement and corruption this is according to experts.

But of course, the government of Delcy Rodriguez blames the sanctions on the shape, the current shape of the Venezuela's oil industry. She says it is expected to rise the production of the country. Venezuela used to produce $3 billion, 2 million barrels per day, and now is producing a little over than 1 million per day.

So right now, the concerns are those, and of course the transition, the political side of this agreement that could delay an eventual presidential election for the country. These are the main concerns here in Caracas. For CNN, Mary Tryni Mena.

SANDOVAL: And the Federal Trade Commission now suing Amazon. It accuses a retail giant of deceiving businesses into overpaying for advertising. The FTC is claiming that Amazon raised the minimum price to place ads without advertisers knowing. In a statement to CNN, Amazon said that it strongly disagrees with the

misguided lawsuit, what it called a misguided lawsuit. And this is the third major lawsuit that the federal agency has filed against Amazon. And there is still a lot more ahead in what's left of this hour of "CNN Newsroom", including some wild video of an extremely low flyover. Just look at this, two jets clear a packed stadium by less than 50 feet. Was this an unnecessary danger?

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[04:50:00]

SANDOVAL: The legendary Lionel Messi, often considered the goats of world football, is retiring from Argentina's national team, meaning that this World Cup was his last. And there probably won't be many opportunities to see him in action. You see, the decision follows back-to-back heart breaks for the soccer superstar.

There was the recent death of his father and Argentina's loss to Spain in the World Cup final. But all the trophies that he's won over decades have given him almost this godlike status among Argentina fans.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Messi was for me the greatest as a player and as a person. And his retirement makes me sad. But on the other hand, it doesn't displease me because you have to retire at the top as others did.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANDOVAL: In a statement, Messi thanked Argentine fans for their love that they've shown and said that he'll miss hearing them cheer from the pitch. Keep in mind, 39-year-old Messi will be playing for the defending MLS Champions, the Inter Miami.

And two planes flew just above a stadium full of rugby fans ahead of a match in South Africa. Look at this viral moment that has left some praising it as a brilliant publicity move, but others have raised some questions about it, as CNN's Pete Muntean reports.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They're so low. Whoa. Whoa. Whoa.

PETE MUNTEAN, CNN AVIATION CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It was a stunning stadium flyby over 56,000 people. Two jets from South African regional airline Airlink, only feet from the top of Cape Town's DHL Stadium. One of the empty 98-seat passenger planes, low enough to fly through smoke from fireworks launched from the roof.

Data from Flight Radar 24 shows the lead jet's lowest altitude, reported at roughly 210 feet. The stadium is about 164 feet high, putting the jet maybe only 46 feet above it. Peter Goelz is the Former Managing Director of the National Transportation Safety Board. PETER GOELZ, FORMER NTSB MANAGING DIRECTOR: It is an unnecessary

danger, in part because it leaves no margin for error. You got to fly it right. You can't have any mistakes.

MUNTEAN (voice-over): The airline celebrated the flyover in a post online, calling it spectacular. Airlink insists the flyby was carefully planned, rehearsed, and approved by South Africa's Civil Aviation Authority.

[04:55:00]

GOELZ: This looks like a stunt planned by the PR department and signed off of inappropriately by the Civil Aviation Authority. It looks like the PR people ruled the day, and that's not the way aviation safety ought to be run.

MUNTEAN (voice-over): And this wasn't a one-off. Airlink staged a similar formation flyby over Johannesburg's Ellis Park one week earlier using the same specially painted jets. Low-flying airliners are part of South African rugby history.

In 1995, a South African Airways 747 famously flew over the Rugby World Cup final, a flyover featured in the film Invictus. And in 2024, an Emirates A380 flew over the same stadium, though a few 100 feet higher.

Saturday's flyover in Cape Town punctuates a summer of low flyovers. In July, a pilot from the U.S. Navy's Blue Angels flew low over the crowd during the Pensacola Beach Air Show, sending tents flying and military leaders scrambling to defend the maneuver. A month before, a Boeing 777 on a test flight passed as low as 25 feet over a runway at Horseshoe Bay, Texas, triggering a federal investigation.

GOELZ: A flyby at 1000 feet is already impressive, and people enjoy it. And there's no reason to lower it other than unnecessary risk taking.

MUNTEAN (voice-over): Pete Muntean, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SANDOVAL: And thank you so much for watching. I'm Polo Sandoval in New York. Our live coverage continues with "CNN Headline Express" in a moment.

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