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Early Start with Rahel Solomon

Remembering the Four People Killed in Monday's Attack in New York City; Tsunami Waves Hit U.S. Shores After Major Pacific Quake; Trump: Epstein Poached Young Female Employees from Resort; UK to Recognize Palestinian State if Israel Fails to Act. Aired 4:30-5a ET

Aired July 30, 2025 - 04:30   ET

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

[04:30:00]

ERIC ADAMS, (D) NEW YORK CITY MAYOR: The motive appeared to be connected to the shooter's belief that he was suffering from CTE and he was an ex-NFL player. Those items just don't pan out. He never played for the NFL and so we're still unraveling this terrible shooting that took place in the city.

JASON CARROLL, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Jason Carroll, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MJ LEE, CNN ANCHOR: Learning more about the four people that were killed on Monday. Julia Hyman worked for the Park Avenue Building's real estate firm and had a passion for the real estate business. One of our former professors at Cornell University says her journey was, quote, marked by determination, warmth and a strong commitment to learning.

Wesley LePatner was an executive at Blackstone, which is headquartered in the building. She was a Yale graduate, a trustee of the Metropolitan Museum of Art and known for her compassion and mentorship. She leaves behind a husband and two children.

Aland Etienne was a building security guard. The New York Times says he was a father of two. His brother told the Times he was a light in their lives. His sister says she could not stop thinking about her big brother's warm, inviting smile.

And finally, NYPD officer Didarul Islam, who came to the city from Bangladesh, his father's only son. Officer Islam's body was taken from the medical examiner's officer by police escort on Tuesday. He served in the Bronx but was working as off-duty security in midtown Manhattan to support his wife, two young children and a third child on the way.

Hawaii is experiencing several large tsunami waves after a massive earthquake in Russia's Far East. What the governor is saying about this situation, that's next.

[04:35:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) LEE: More on our top story this hour. Northern California is seeing its first tsunami waves with elevated water levels near the Oregon border after a massive 8.8 magnitude earthquake struck off Russia's east coast.

Evacuations have been well underway in places like Hawaii, which earlier reported a tsunami wave over five feet on the north central shore of Maui Island in Hawaii. The evacuation orders left some tourists scrambling for refuge.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JEFFREY BOOKER, TOURIST: We were up visiting Volcano National Park and saw the tsunami warning go off on our phones. And then one of the tour operators from our cruise ship, the Pride of America, said, everyone back to the ship as fast as you can. Ship's leaving at 3:30.

And -- but we knew at that point we weren't going to make it. So it's pulling away now.

We heard the ship had to be out of port by four and there was just no way to make it. So we'd like to keep the rental car. We're going to talk to him about that. Might do it anyway. And then find some place to stay. The ship was headed next to Kona. It's possible to drive there, but I don't know if they'll actually do that now. So no idea. We're in uncharted territory.

And it didn't immediately dawn on us that that was going to affect the ship. I should have, should have, you know. Next time I get a tsunami warning, I'm going straight to the ship. Might might make it on time.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEE: Hawaii's governor says despite several large waves, the state is OK so far but urged residents to remain off the roads.

Joining me now on the phone from Los Angeles is CNN security correspondent Josh Campbell. So, Josh, what have California emergency management teams been preparing for?

JOSH CAMPBELL, CNN SECURITY CORRESPONDENT (via phone): Hey, my friend. Well, I mean, just hearing that gentleman speak just now, I mean, you can understand this is not something that people here are typically used to, you know, spanning Hawaii all the way here to the west coast of the United States. But we know that California emergency management officials from north to south, so all the way up from the Oregon border, you think of the long coastline of California all the way down to San Diego, have been preparing them and sending out alerts.

They've been essentially mirroring what the National Weather Service has been issuing. A lot of the various advisories, the different alerts that have been sent out just to make sure that people are actually prepared for what is about to happen. And that's happening at multiple levels.

It's the state level. We've heard from the California governor, you know, ensuring that people are aware down to the municipal level here where I am in Los Angeles. Mayor Karen Bass here has been sending out various advisories just to ensure that it's basically saturating the public here with communication, advising people to be aware of what's about to come.

It hasn't been alarmist. I mean, people here in California, government officials haven't been, you know, essentially trying to scare anyone, but just letting them know this unusual activity that we are not used to is heading this way. We know based on that advisory from the National Weather Service.

And where I am here right now in Los Angeles, I'm actually at the marina near the Los Angeles International Airport. All is quiet. I'm looking at dozens and dozens of boats that are docked here.

[04:40:00]

The only aberration so far has been there's a colony of sea lions that went out to sea. I don't know if, you know, usually in different incidents, the animals are smarter than the humans. I don't know if that has any impact. But we're essentially waiting to see what is about to happen here.

But people are ready. And we know that local government officials have been trying to get that message out that, you know, this may not be a major disaster, but it's something people should be prepared for. And we've seen, you know, government officials, law enforcement, multiple agencies trying to get that word out.

LEE: You have to report back to us on the sea lions. Have you seen any law enforcement in the air warning coastal residents?

CAMPBELL: We have, you know, and that's something that I have never seen here, where we've actually seen the Los Angeles Sheriff's Department helicopters flying around the coastal area using sirens on these helicopters, using their loudspeakers, essentially letting everyone around these coastal areas know that a National Weather Service tsunami advisory is in effect. And in fact, I've heard them, you know, they've been actually spanning this whole area circling around the coast.

So I've heard this message multiple times right now, repeating the same message, saying, look, a tsunami advisory is in effect for this area. They advise people to seek higher ground before 1 a.m. local time out of an abundance of caution. This is not a mandatory evacuation. This is something that emergency management officials are doing to advise people who, you know, may not be aware of what is happening.

But it has been, you know, something, again, that I've never seen where you've actually seen those announcements coming from a helicopter hovering above the coastline just to ensure that people are aware of what is happening.

One thing else, MJ, that I've noticed is that, you know, everyone here is either glued to their phone or I'm actually looking into some of the cabins of some of the boats that are docked here again along the coastal area. TVs are on.

People are tuned to CNN and looking at the news and, you know, other networks and local news just to make sure that they know what is about to happen.

Again, this is something that is so unusual here. So people, you know, they're trying to get the word out, people talking to their neighbors.

I've been walking around some of the peers here, everyone ensuring that everyone else knows what's about to happen. But we're just kind of waiting to see what will actually happen. And we'll actually find that out, obviously, within the next hour.

LEE: OK, CNN's Josh Campbell. Thanks for calling in overnight from Los Angeles.

CAMPBELL: Yes, of course.

LEE: And let's get more now from Yong Wei. He is a senior research scientist for the University of Washington's Tsunami Group, and he's with us live from Seattle. Really good to have you this morning.

What is your modeling showing you right now and what are the areas of most concern from your vantage point?

YONG WEI, SENIOR RESEARCH SCIENTIST, UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON: Yes, the models right now are showing, you know, on the West Coast, the waves start to show like about a half meter. But model also indicate that some later waves might be bigger than the first couple of waves. So stay tuned and keep alert. And along the West Coast, you might see slightly larger waves.

Right now, the most impact, devastating impact is probably for Hawaii, because you see you have seen that up to five feet wave. And I have not heard any news about any flooding yet.

But I would expect some some areas, some coastal areas in the Hawaii, in the North Shore of Hawaii will be flooded.

LEE: And yes, when we're talking about a tsunami, you know, we're actually talking about waves, plural. It's not just one wave. Talk to us a little bit more about that.

You know, after the first wave, basically, people shouldn't assume that they're not going to be more waves coming, right?

WEI: Yes, the tsunami is usually a train of waves. So, you know, those waves can last for hours, even a couple of days. So people should not go back to beach right away after you see the first couple of waves.

You should stay and then stay away from the beach and then wait for, you know, the emergency management to let you know that everything will be OK. Then you can go go back to the beach. But still keep alert.

LEE: Yes, yes. I was going to say, you know, where a tsunami can hit and when can actually be timed out. We were just hearing about that from our meteorologist, Allison Chinchar.

Are there things that could actually end up disrupting those kinds of projections?

WEI: And I think, you know, in terms of the tsunami, once you know, you can -- you can -- you can -- you know the location of the earthquake and the magnitude of the quake, you can pretty much predict when tsunami will arrive at a specific coastline. So that is pretty much controlled by the ocean, but that's pretty accurate.

LEE: OK, that's really interesting.

[04:45:00]

And we were also learning that the shallower the earthquake, the bigger the tsunami can be. Can you explain that correlation for our viewers?

WEI: Yes, it's just like when the earthquake ruptured, they ruptured to the surface, right? So if it's the earthquake in the shallow area, they can push much more water to the surface. That's how the tsunami was generated.

If the earthquake's in deep part, then these -- the energy transfer to the surface from the deep part will be much less. So that's why the shallow earthquake can generate much bigger tsunami.

LEE: And we've already seen some aftershocks. For how long after the first quake, especially for such a huge earthquake like this one, this was an 8.8 magnitude earthquake. Might we see aftershocks and are they likely to prompt additional tsunamis as well?

WEI: Yes, certainly, you know, those aftershocks will not be like 8.8, but you can expect magnitude seven or six and they can still generate tsunamis affecting the local area. So those aftershocks will probably last for, you know, several days.

LEE: Yong Wei in Seattle, thank you so much for your time.

WEI: Thank you.

LEE: A U.N.-backed group is warning the worst case scenario of famine is unfolding right now in Gaza. What the British prime minister says he will do if Israel doesn't end the appalling situation.

[04:50:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEE: U.S. President Donald Trump is sharing more about the end of his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein. He says they had a falling out in the early 2000s before Epstein was arrested on child sex abuse charges and later convicted.

But the president says things went downhill when he discovered Epstein hired away employees from Mar-a-Lago. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I have a great spa, one of the best spas in the world at Mar-a-Lago, and people were taken out of the spa, hired by him. In other words, gone. When I heard about it, I told him, I said, listen, we don't want you taking our people, whether it was spa or not spa. I don't want you taking people.

And he was fine. And then not too long after that, he did it again. And I said, out of here.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Did one of those stolen, you know, persons, that include Virginia Giuffre?

TRUMP: I don't know. I think she worked at the spa. I think so. I think that was one of the people, yes, he stole her.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEE: The president is speaking about prominent Epstein accuser Virginia Giuffre. She died by suicide earlier this year. She was just a teenager when she was recruited by Epstein and later accused him of trafficking her and forcing her to have sex with his friends.

The U.S. president is also doubling down on his deadline for Vladimir Putin on Tuesday. President Trump said his Russian counterpart must agree to a ceasefire in Ukraine 10 days from today. That leaves Moscow with less than two weeks to strike a peace deal for a war that's now in its third year.

Trump conceded he didn't know if the economic punishment he's threatened would affect Russia, saying Putin, quote, obviously probably wants to keep the war going.

And now to an ominous alert from a U.N.-backed food security initiative that the worst case scenario of famine is currently unfolding in Gaza. The group says access to food and other essentials has plummeted to unprecedented levels and mounting evidence shows widespread starvation, malnutrition and disease are driving a rise in hunger related deaths.

A separate statement from U.N. experts accuses Israel of using thirst as a weapon to kill Palestinians. It says Israel is deliberately withholding access to safe drinking water. The crisis has prompted British Prime Minister Keir Starmer to announce that he will recognize a Palestinian state if Israel does not act.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KEIR STARMER, BRITISH PRIME MINISTER: The U.K. will recognize the state of Palestine by the United Nations General Assembly in September unless the Israeli government takes substantive steps to end the appalling situation in Gaza, agree to a ceasefire and commit to a long term sustainable peace, reviving the prospect of a two state solution. And this includes allowing the U.N. to restart the supply of aid and making clear that there will be no annexations in the West Bank. (END VIDEO CLIP)

LEE: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu blasted the decision, saying on social media it rewards Hamas's monstrous terrorism.

The Trump administration is planning to burn nearly $10 million worth of contraceptives paid for by taxpayers rather than delivering them to women and countries that once received assistance from the U.S. Agency for International Development or USAID, which Trump has dismantled.

A U.S. congressional aide told CNN the contraceptives are mostly long lasting types such as IUDs and birth control injections.

[04:55:00]

A State Department spokesperson who confirmed the preliminary decision to destroy the birth control says it would cost $167,000 to incinerate the contraceptives.

And in a few hours, family, friends and dedicated fans will say goodbye to legendary heavy metal rocker Ozzy Osbourne.

The Black Sabbath frontman's funeral processions will pass through his hometown of Birmingham, England this afternoon. The hearse carrying Osbourne will pause at the Black Sabbath bench and bridge. Fans can watch the procession through an ongoing live stream of the Sabbath bench. Ozzy Osbourne died last week at the age of 76.

And thank you so much for joining us here on EARLY START. I'm MJ Lee in Washington, D.C. I'll be back after a quick break with the latest tsunami news for the coastal California.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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