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US-Canada Trade War; Hurricane Lowell; Russia's War On Ukraine; German state Elections. Aired 4-4:30a ET

Aired September 08, 2026 - 04:00   ET

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

[04:00:31]

POLO SANDOVAL, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome to our viewers in the United States and all around the world. I'm Polo Sandoval live in New York. And ahead here on CNN NEWSROOM.

Fighting tariffs with tariffs, Canada imposes hefty duties on a swath of American goods as the US-Canada trade war deepens. As Hurricane Lowell is slamming down on Hawaii's western islands at this hour, bringing heavy rains and dangerous winds to the state. We're tracking the storm live.

And later, a promising career opportunity in engineering turned into forced factory labor for a group of Mexican migrants. Now they're getting a big payout.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Live from New York, this is CNN NEWSROOM with Polo Sandoval.

SANDOVAL: We do want to begin with the latest escalation in the trade war between the United States and one of its closest allies. Canada's new counter tariffs on many American products are now in effect with duties of 15, 25 and 50 percent on more than 700 American goods. Canada is now doubling its tariffs on US steel and aluminum to 50 percent. Home appliances, paper goods, agricultural products, including natural honey and dairy farm also expected to be hit.

Canadian officials say that they are matching the Trump administration's recent tariffs dollar for dollar after trade talks broke down just last month. And Canada is the second largest export market for American goods, and these new tariffs could make it harder for US Companies to sell there. And with neither side showing any willingness to back down, the tariffs will also mean more uncertainty for businesses and workers in both countries.

Richard Ozero is the owner of Good Morning Honey. He joins us now from Parkland County in Alberta, Canada. Richard, it's so great to see you. Thank you for taking the time.

RICHARD OZERO, OWNER, GOOD MORNING HONEY: Of course, anytime.

SANDOVAL: So, Richard, your business is in Alberta, which is where much of Canada's honey originates. Tell us how Canada's honey industry has been impacted by this escalating trade war.

OZERO: A lot of us were caught by surprise leading up to the deadline of the tariffs being implemented. I didn't think it was going to happen. And now we're facing the loss of our biggest export partner that we've spent generations building that trust, that integrity, that reliability. And now we're at the time where we're going to market the honey that we've been trying so hard to produce all summer long. And now we have a big roadblock put up in front of us.

SANDOVAL: President Trump has imposed that 50 percent tariffs on honey as well as other Canadian products. Just curious, if you could just give us a sense of how much Canadian honey is imported to the United States and why the industry thinks that President Trump set his sights on your industry.

OZERO: Why is the big question because it doesn't -- the math doesn't add up. So to Canadians, the American market is a major export destination. We export 50 to 70 percent of our honey that we do export ends up in the United States. So that is the major partner that we have.

But on the flip side, in the United States, we're only 2 percent of what the Americans are importing. So there's this huge trade imbalance, so it doesn't really makes sense. We're not flooding the market with Canadian honey. We're not putting American beekeepers out of business. So how we ended up in the middle of this whole mess has left a lot of people scratching their heads.

SANDOVAL: And, you know, a lot of people may not know that the industry in Canada was struggling or at least having a difficult time even before the launch of this trade war, Richard. So just give us a sense of what other challenges you have seen leading up to this sort of back and forth between both countries.

OZERO: Sure. There's the short term challenges from this year, the ongoing challenges. One of them has been the weather. This year it's been cold and wet. Here in Alberta we've had the rainiest summer season that we've ever experienced. In July we had -- it's just -- the weather has been absolute opposite of what you need for beekeeping.

You need the hot and the dry conditions to get that honey into the barrels. But instead, we were facing these false starts all spring. And so there's a short crop happening in Canada, and there's also a short crop happening in the United States from what I'm understanding. And one of the other problems that we have is, you're looking at the long term pressures on the beekeeping industry both here in Canada and in the United States is adulterated honey, because honey is one of the most fraudulent foods in the world.

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A lot of countries will produce a fake honey and then market it as the real thing. And the -- all the great beekeepers in the United States and Canada who are go through all this hard work and cost of making authentic, high quality honey are left having to compete with a fake product. And so that's one of my fears, is that, if the packers in the United States aren't taking Canadian honey, they're going to need to fill the jars.

Are they going to be looking for some honey that's coming in from adulterate? They're not looking for the adulterated honey, but are they going to be sort of impacted and have this adulterated honey trying to make its way into the market and fill this void, and make the problem actually worse for both sides of the border.

SANDOVAL: Right. And both countries had been working together to try to keep that from happening.

OZERO: Right.

SANDOVAL: I wonder if we can close with your thoughts on Canada's retaliatory tariffs that were expected to kick in. Is there a sense among many Canadians that is perhaps something that the prime minister could use to apply some pressure on the White House to resolve this?

OZERO: Well, retaliatory tariffs are, you know, it's not something I'm going to be celebrating as a, you know, I don't want to see American beekeepers hurt. I don't want to see any other farmers hurt. We're in a trade war that determines which farmer gets hurt. That's all we want is a functioning market back.

Canadians are pretty united against wanting to stand up for our country, but all we want is fair market access. We're not looking for tit-for-tats. We would just like to see the, you know, we spent all these generations creating this important safe food system across North America. And it took so long to build that.

We don't want to see that get lost. We need to keep that integrity of that food system intact.

SANDOVAL: It's an important point to end on. Richard Ozero, thank you so much. Our best to you and the many --

OZERO: Thank you.

SANDOVAL: -- beekeepers north of the border who are really just trying to stay afloat amid all of this uncertainty. Thank you.

OZERO: Thank you.

SANDOVAL: Well, it's just after 10:00 at night across Hawaii's western islands where conditions are continuing to deteriorate as powerful Hurricane Lowell is inching closer to the state. The storm's outer bands have lashed the islands with heavy rain, gusty winds and some dangerous surf conditions. And residents are being urged to stay home.

The storm remains a category 2 hurricane with winds of up to 110 miles per hour. You see what they are churning in the Pacific. A hurricane warning is in effect for the islands of Kauai and Niihau, while a tropical storm warning is in effect for O'ahu. And the storm's projected path shifts it closer to Hawaii.

Lowell's center is forecast to make its closest pass to the west of Kauai as a category 2 hurricane in just a matter of hours. And already we have seen some roads flooded after some heavy rain was reported there in O'ahu on Sunday. Here's some video of that.

More rain is falling now with the heaviest expected in Kauai and Niihau where as much as 10 inches is likely to fall. And also the mayor of Kauai County spoke with CNN a short time ago and he said this.

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DEREK KAWAKAMI, KAUAI COUNTY MAYOR: We're telling everybody to please stay off the roads. Right now the wind is continuing to just blow really hard. It's been raining all day, so all of the soil and the trees are saturated, the rivers are swollen. And when you have high wind and trees that have just been doused with rain, and you have winds coming in different directions, those trees tend to fall, break.

They could provide a lot of hazardous conditions. So for the most part, a lot of people have really listened to our advice and for that I'm very thankful.

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SANDOVAL: The five people killed in the Amazon cargo plane crash at Miami's airport were inside vehicles that were hit by the aircraft. That's according to new information from the chair of the National Transportation Safety Board. The Boeing 767 ran off the end of the runway on Sunday before eventually coming to this fiery halt.

In addition to the fatalities, five other people were injured and dozens of investigators are examining the wreckage. The NTSB chair says that a 32 person team will be at the scene of the crash for at least. CNN's Pete Muntean in Miami reporting.

PETE MUNTEAN, CNN AVIATION CORRESPONDENT: The National Transportation Safety Board just wrapped up its first briefing here at Miami International Airport. NTSB Chair Jennifer Homendy along with a team of about 30 other investigators surveyed the scene here and described it as utter devastation.

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That Boeing 767 from Amazon Prime Air went off the end of Runway 30 here at about 130 miles per hour, according to the publicly available data, went into a white Ford Econoline van with seven people on board. It was being used by an aircraft cleaning crew on the perimeter road inside the airport fence. She says that van was practically destroyed.

Then the airplane, the NTSB said, continued through the airport fence across four lanes of road, hit a Toyota Corolla crossover and then ultimately came to rest in an airport parking lot. NTSB Chair Jennifer Homendy said this is still a recovery operation and crews are trying to take fuel off of the plane, as she says, there is fuel everywhere.

This Boeing 767 had left San Juan, Puerto Rico on Sunday morning and was attempting to make a landing here at Miami International Airport, but clearly went horribly wrong. The video shows the airplane still airborne at about the halfway point of the runway, typically a spot where the airplane would be decelerating and nearly taxiing off the runway.

The data from flight Red Air 24 shows this airplane also making a steeper than normal approach. Investigators thankfully have recovered the cockpit voice recorder and the flight data recorder. Those will be analyzed at the NTSB's lab in Washington, DC. The NTSB says it will deliver another update on Tuesday.

Pete Muntean, CNN, Miami International Airport.

SANDOVAL: Aviation experts say that Miami International Airport lacks a key safety feature that may have prevented that plane from veering off the runway. Arrestor beds are a series of concrete pads that are placed at the end of a runway that's supposed to stop an aircraft. CNN transportation analyst Mary Sciavo explaining.

MARY SCHIAVO, CNN TRANSPORTATION ANALYST: When I was inspector general, JFK airport got the first arrestor beds. And since that date, I guess it was in 1996 when they were officially operational, they have saved 22 overruns and 432 souls from these literally boxes of cement at the end of the runway. So life saving.

And around the country there are 122 runways with this on at 70 airports. And Florida has some too. Florida has, I think they have six airports with about, oh, maybe 12 or more of these. And Florida has had saves too with these arrestor beds.

But the loophole is the FAA says if you have about 1,000ft off the end of the runway before you come into contact with, you know, obstructions then you don't need them. So by regulation, they weren't required.

SANDOVAL: Saudi Arabia's military says that at least 73 civilians were wounded in a wave of attacks from Yemen's Iran-backed Houthi rebels. Saudi led coalition forces say that the attacks targeted several civilian and economic sites in several cities within the kingdom on Tuesday morning. Women and children are among the wounded. We understand the Saudi-led group vowing that it will be taking all necessary measures to neutralize the threat posed by the rebel group.

Let's bring in Paula Hancock live in Abu Dhabi. Paula, what's the latest there?

PAULA HANCOCK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Polo, what we've seen from the Houthi rebels Tuesday is something that has been condemned by Saudi Arabia, by Saudi Arabia's regional allies as well. The fact that it was targeting civilian and economic areas, the fact that there were dozens of people that were injured does signal an escalation in the fight that we have seen in Yemen over recent months.

The four-year tenuous ceasefire between Saudi Arabia and the government, internationally-backed government, and the Houthi rebels broke down back in July. There was a ceasefire that was going for some four years. So what we've seen is that economic civilian areas have been targeted in western Saudi Arabia by these, the Houthis.

We also understand from the Saudi energy minister that there have been some energy infrastructure in the south of the country that has also been targeted, saying at one point there had to be a temporary halt in production. Some firefighters were injured as they tried to bring that blaze under control.

We have a statement as well from the Saudi Foreign Ministry. I'll read part of it to you saying, "The Kingdom affirms its legitimate right to take all necessary measures to defend itself sovereignty, safeguard its national resources and protect the security and safety of its citizens and residents." It stresses that it will not tolerate any attack targeting its territory or national assets in accordance with the rules of international law.

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Now, the spokesperson of the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen has called these attacks dangerous and senseless, saying that they will have a resolute response. Now we've also had a statement from the Houthis and they have said that this was actually in retaliation for what they call Saudi aggression.

We have been seeing a counteroffensive by Saudi-led forces against the Houthi rebels over recent months. But this does raise concerns that there could be an increase in activity in this area. The Houthis, of course, backed by Iran, one of their proxies. And this is really a conflict in a civil war that has been rumbling for some years.

We heard back in July when the ceasefire, temporary ceasefire collapsed. The Houthis has said that they were going to target Saudi shipping in the Red Sea. They said that they would be targeting different areas, oil refineries, government forces in Yemen as well. So the concern now is that if the Houthis were willing to carry out this kind of attack against at Saudi towns and cities, of course the worry is that this could escalate further and the Houthis want this to escalate further. Polo?

SANDOVAL: Yes, Paula. More indication that this conflict continues to expand. Paula Hancock's live from Abu Dhabi, thank you so much for your reporting.

And there is so much more to get to here on CNN newsroom, including -- I'll be joined by an emergency doctor to discuss the ongoing humanitarian crisis in Gaza. Plus, after a weekend of US efforts to revive peace talks, Russia already back to resuming its deadly attacks on Kyiv. I'll bring you the latest in a moment.

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SANDOVAL: Ukrainian officials say that at least two people have been killed and 10 others wounded in a Russian missile and drone attack in the capital city of Kyiv. And this comes after a 72-hour truce expired and just a day after U.S envoys visited the region hoping to revive peace talks. The temporary truce had protected only Kyiv and Moscow, while Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner visited both capital cities over the weekend. Both men appeared optimistic about a resolution after extensive meetings with Presidents Putin and Zelenskyy. Here's CNN's Clare Sebastian with an update.

CLARE SEBASTIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, look, this weekend of diplomacy came amidst a cycle of escalating violence. We've seen over the last week-and-a-half or so pretty much nonstop Russian attacks on Kyiv. And look, this was a really big moment for Ukraine, but barely had the dust settled when we saw this cycle of violence restart again.

The air raid alert back on in Kyiv Monday afternoon for the first time since the early hours of Sunday morning. On Monday, we saw both sides exchanging long range strikes. There was a British American tobacco facility that was struck by a Russian drone in the Chernihiv region to the northeast of Kyiv.

One person reportedly injured there, according to local authorities. And on the other side, Ukraine continuing to fire drones at Russia. Video emerged from the central perm region in Russia of a Ukrainian drone purportedly hitting a residential building. Video that CNN has verified of that one person killed according to the governor of that region in Russia.

So look, all of that I think clearly underscoring the challenges ahead as the US seems committed to reinvigorating, to restarting this diplomatic process. The US envoy is pushing now for a restart of trilateral meetings involving Ukraine, Russia and the United States. The Kremlin on Monday saying that it wouldn't rule that out, but perhaps slowballing, saying that it's not ready to talk about location or time.

And meanwhile, Ukraine really wants to seize on the momentum here. It had talks in Kyiv about a winter package of aid involving help for its energy facilities and in terms of air defense as well. That was very positive. There was talk of security guarantees.

They want to seize on that momentum. They want talks to continue to involve the Europeans as they did on Sunday. But look, Russia is really offering no opening here. We heard after talks in Moscow on Saturday, Russia revert again to talking about resolving the root causes of this conflict. That is shorthand for its maximalist goals in this war, including things like Ukraine withdrawing from the Donbas and promising not to join NATO.

So look, at this point, clearly it looks like we'll see more US-led diplomacy ahead, but it isn't clear how they're going to break this cycle of violence.

SANDOVAL: Clare Sebastian, thank you. Now to some new video that's into CNN that shows an avalanche in Russia that killed at least 11 people. And that's according to local emergency services. It happened on Monday at one of the highest peaks in Russia's Caucasus region.

More than 30 climbers were hit by the avalanche. There were dozens of emergency workers that were involved in search and rescue operations. But the risk of further danger is currently hampering their efforts. Some incredible video there.

And there's much more to come here on CNN NEWSROOM including the shock in Germany. We talked about it yesterday after a far right party won in state elections. We'll bring you more on the success of alternative for Germany. That party ahead.

Plus, it's less than two months until the US Midterm elections. We'll be breaking down what's at stake for the major parties with a limited time to hit the campaign trail.

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SANDOVAL: Welcome back. I'm Polo Sandoval live in New York.

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz says that he was deeply shocked by election results from the eastern state of Saxony-Anhalt where the Alternative for Germany party secured a 39 of 83 seats in parliament. While that's short of a majority, the victory is the closest a far right party has come to holding power in a German state since World War II.

CNN's Fred Pleitgen has more on why the election results were such a shock to Germany's mainstream political parties.

FRED PLEITGEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, first of all, they stand for being anti the political establishment here in Germany. One of the things that Friedrich Metz said is that the election results in Saxony-Anhalt, which is actually a very small state, nevertheless, of course, the world was watching this election, that he was surprised at how bad the election results were for his governing party for the Christian Democratic Union.

And that clearly meant that there were many people in Germany and in the states specifically who felt that they were being left behind by those reforms and who felt that they weren't being heard. Now, if we look at the AfD and some of its program, some of it is actually highly controversial among many people here in Germany.

First and foremost, the terminology that went around one of these policies, which is called remigration, which essentially means the mass deportation which the AfD wants of undocumented immigrants and of immigrants who had been accused of crimes. And the chairwoman for the AfD, Alice Weidel, she told me right after the election results came in that remigration is very much part of their policy and that she was in favor of mass deportations as fast as possible.

On the other hand also, the AfD also very much for improving relations with Russia, aside from some MAGA figures, also some senior Russian figures who congratulated the alternative for Germany as well, and they do believe that they have a mandate to govern. The main candidate of the AfD, Ulrich Siegmund, he said exactly that earlier today. Here's what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) ULRICH SIEGMUND, AFD LEADING CANDIDATE (through translation): This is the best result any party has achieved in Saxony-Anhalt since 1990. You really have to stop and appreciate that fact. So this result is of course a mandate to govern. But and we emphasize this yesterday too, only on the condition that we remain true to ourselves, that we don't compromise our principles and that we don't become like those who were heavily punished by the voters in Saxony-Anhalt yesterday.

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