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2 Children Killed, 17 Other People Injured In Attack; New CDC Director Ousted, Other Key Officials Resign; Denmark Summons U.S. Envoy Over Report On Covert "Influence Operations" In Greenland. Aired 5:30-6a ET
Aired August 28, 2025 - 05:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[05:30:00]
AUDIE CORNISH, CNN ANCHOR: Here's how one father described the panic of trying to find his children when he arrived at the school.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ANDERS HOLINE, FATHER OF TWO STUDENTS: And I ran in as the police were there -- getting there kind of alongside them. It was just chaos. Um, and just started helping kids out, you know. I saw a lot of injured kids. Um, it was tough -- it was. And I just, you know, selfishly was just like where are my girls. Um, where is June and Olive? That's all I could think about.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CORNISH: CNN's Brian Todd has more details on the investigation into the shooter.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Officials in Minneapolis have identified the shooter as Robin Westman, 23 years old.
The FBI is calling this an act of domestic terrorism and a hate crime targeting Catholics. But Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O'Hara says investigators there with the police department, at least, have not established enough of a motive yet to investigate it as a hate crime. O'Hara says that Westman has no prior criminal history.
The shooter was armed with a rifle, a shotgun, and a pistol, which Chief O'Hara said were purchased recently and were purchased legally.
According to a yearbook photo obtained by CNN, Westman graduated from Annunciation Catholic's grade school in 2017. And according to social media posts, Westman's mother previously worked at Annunciation from 2016 to 2021.
Police are also investigating online videos apparently posted by the shooter which described an obsession with school shootings. Videos show a rambling written statement with guns painted with slurs, with mass killers' names, including some infamous school shooters' names, and with political messages on them.
In the videos with -- titled with Westman's full name, the person recording pages through a written notebook. The notebook describes feelings of self-hatred and wishes to die. The words "I'm so sorry" are written in large letters on one page of the notebook.
The shooter identified as a female, according to officials, and changed their name legally from Robert to Robin in 2020.
Brian Todd, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CORNISH: As law enforcement digs into the shooter's personal history the mayor of Minneapolis tells CNN he wants to keep the spotlight on the grieving families rather than the person who opened fire.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MAYOR JACOB FREY, MINNEAPOLIS: This is an unspeakable tragedy, but how many times have you heard politicians say that exact phrase before. And yet, these school and church shootings happen again and again.
I've heard a ton of rumors, as I'm sure you've heard. I've heard tidbits about what's in this manifesto. Um, I don't know a whole lot more yet.
But truthfully it doesn't matter when there are kids that are dead. That's what matters. What matters is wrapping our arms around these families. What matters is making sure that as a Minneapolis family and as an American family we're doing everything possible to hold these families close because they are going through the very worst moments that they will ever experience in their entire lives right now.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CORNISH: And a stunning shakeup at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Wednesday as the director, Dr. Susan Monarez was removed from the position that she's held for less than a month. Shortly after she left, three other top CDC officials resigned.
The White House says Monarez was not aligned with President Trump's agenda, and she was terminated because she refused to resign. But her attorneys dispute the White House's version of what happened. According to people familiar with the situation, Monarez's ouster follows clashes with Health Sec. Robert F. Kennedy and his team over vaccine policies.
Donald Trump says he wants to send National Guard troops into Chicago as part of what he calls a crackdown on crime. The city's mayor and the governor of Illinois are pushing back hard. But what do the people who live in the city think about having troops on their street?
CNN's Omar Jimenez spoke to people in some of the neighborhoods most affected by crime.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CEDRIC HAWKINS, ANTI-GUN VIOLENCE MEDIATOR, CHICAGO CRED: I lost nine family members to gun violence. Only one of my family members made it to be in his 40s.
OMAR JIMENEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voiceover): Cedric Hawkins is now 44. He works with the anti-gun violence group Chicago CRED trying to make peace before things turn violent -- sometimes between gangs.
HAWKINS: Just trying to be able to obtain a non-aggression agreement. That don't mean that I don't still feel like that you deserve to die. That just means that right now we have a respect level, and the respect is I don't like you, you don't like me. I ain't going to come in your hood, you don't come in my hood.
JIMENEZ: And that is good enough.
HAWKINS: And that's good enough.
JIMENEZ (voiceover): And in his Southside Chicago neighborhood he takes pride in even that compromise because it means results.
[05:35:00]
HAWKINS: Last year we had four individuals murdered in the Pullman area at this time.
JIMENEZ: Yeah.
HAWKINS: This year, 2025, we haven't had one individual murdered this year.
JIMENEZ: President Trump has threatened to want to send in the National Guard. Do you feel like even just like the presence of military here would --
HAWKINS: The presence of military --
JIMENEZ: Yeah.
HAWKINS: -- will put our communities in a situation where they feel like they are incarcerated.
JIMENEZ: It might throw off the playbook that it sounds like --
HAWKIN: Is working.
JIMENEZ: -- is working.
JIMENEZ (voiceover): Citywide, murders are down over 30 percent compared to last year, and shootings are down almost 40 percent, which is on pace to be below pre-pandemic levels of violence. But that's still over 250 lives lost.
ROCHELLE SYKES, OFFICE MANAGER, MT. PILGRIM BAPTIST CHURCH: My grandkids can't stay outside. They can't sit in the living room or at the kitchen table because a bullet may come through.
JIMENEZ (voiceover): Rochelle Sykes has lived in West Garfield Park all her life. Her neighborhood has changed.
JIMENEZ: President Trump has talked about sending in the National Guard to help with this situation.
SYKES: We personally -- that's not the solution.
JIMENEZ: So even you -- you live in what is known to be the most violent neighborhood in the city in terms of shooting rates.
SYKES: Um-hum.
JIMENEZ: You don't believe the National Guard should be here.
SYKES: No. We don't need a Band-Aid to cover up the problem. What we need is a solution. No offense to the president but we actually need someone that's in this community. You need to go and talk to the children in the schools and ask them the question: What would make you feel safe?
JIMENEZ (voiceover): It's that question of safety city leaders are still trying to figure out.
LARRY SNELLING, SUPERINTENDENT, CHICAGO POLICE DEPARTMENT: We've created task force around robberies when we saw a spike in those -- smash-and-grabs, burglaries, shootings, homicides, obviously. Boot on the ground intel.
JIMENEZ: So it doesn't sound like it's one thing in particular.
SNELLING: Look, policing is so nuanced and so is crime, but we also have to face the reality. If we brought our homicide rate down to one homicide, we can celebrate that -- and that's great. That would be absolutely great, except for the one family who lost a loved one.
JIMENEZ: Where did it hit you?
KING: In my arm and my legs.
JIMENEZ (voiceover): King, as he's known, was shot while living in Atlanta and moved to Chicago for a fresh start.
KING, VICTIM OF GUN VIOLENCE: People be asking, like, why come from Atlanta to Chicago? Like, it's a war zone and stuff. But I don't look at it as no war zone, you know. From what I see it's a lot of -- it's a lot of built up hurt, man. I see a lot of great things from Chicago other than violence. They be putting to give up on Chicago.
JIMENEZ (voiceover): For Ced --
HAWKINS: This is a calling for me.
JIMENEZ (voiceover): -- the fate of his city, he says, won't come from boots on the ground but ears to the ground. HAWKINS: I would never say that it's not beneficial for the government to send resources and help. I beg President Trump to send the right resources. But as far as sending a National Guard, I believe that it will put us in a situation where the whole city of Chicago will be right back where we started.
JIMENEZ: And he thinks it could even set the city back decades.
But there are still a lot of ifs here. If the National Guard is actually deployed, what will the nature of that deployment actually look like? Will they be in some of the neighborhoods that we visited in this story here on the south and west sides of the city that have historically struggled with violence?
And if it does happen, what will Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker do about it? He has already come out and criticized the possibility of that happening, saying that he expects to be ready legally on that front.
But even though we heard from the folks here who said they did not want the Guard to be here, one person who spoke to my colleague Whitney Wild did say they were supportive of the National Guard coming here simply because they believe criminal behavior is just too normalized here, even as we've seen decreases in violent crime as compared to last year.
Omar Jimenez, CNN, Chicago.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CORNISH: Denmark has summoned the U.S. envoy to explain some of the country's activities in Greenland. What they're accusing several Americans of doing. We'll have that ahead.
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[05:43:45]
CORNISH: U.S. President Donald Trump has repeatedly said he wants to annex Greenland for security reasons. Now the Danish Foreign Ministry is summoning the U.S. envoy to Denmark after the country's public broadcaster reported on an alleged American influence operation in the country.
CNN's Max Foster has more.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MAX FOSTER, CNN ANCHOR AND CORRESPONDENT (voiceover): The icy beauty of Greenland once again the center of a political storm. Denmark has summoned America's top diplomat in Copenhagen after a report from Denmark's public broadcaster found that figures tied to U.S. President Donald Trump were involved in covert influence operations there. The Danish Foreign Minister calling in the U.S. envoy to demand answers, which comes months after Trump openly told Greenlanders the U.S. would welcome them into America. DONALD TRUMP, (R) PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We strongly support
your right to determine your own future, and if you choose, we welcome you into the United States of America. We need Greenland for national security and even international security.
FOSTER (voiceover): That drew a rare rebuke.
[05:45:00]
LARS LOKKE RASMUSSEN, MINISTER OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS, DENMARK: So I took the opportunity to very strongly object to claims and presidential statements of a vision of acquire Greenland. It amounts to a situation where it's -- what I only can describe it as an attack on Danish serenity of the kingdom of Denmark.
FOSTER (voiceover): Foreign Minister Lars Rasmussen making clear back then that Denmark sees U.S. pressure over Greenland as unacceptable.
Greenland is a self-governing territory under Danish sovereignty. It's strategically vital, sitting between North America and Europe.
Danish broadcaster DR reported at least three Americans linked to Trump worked to sway opinion there, attempting to weaken ties between Greenland's capital Nuuk and Copenhagen.
The spotlight on Greenland has only intensified this year. Vice President J.D. Vance traveled there in March criticizing Denmark's record on the island's security, whilst in January Donald Trump Jr. made a brief stop in Nuuk though without meeting local officials.
Amid rising concern over outside influence earlier this year, Greenland's new government banned all foreign and all anonymous political funding -- a move aimed at safeguarding its fragile democracy. With tensions over sovereignty flaring once again, Copenhagen is making clear Greenland may be remote, but the stakes are global.
Max Foster, CNN.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CORNISH: AI-generated footage from the Japanese government shows Mount Fuji unleashing chaos. When we come back, a terrifying look at what could happen if the volcano erupts.
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[05:51:13]
CORNISH: Much of the U.S. will soon be getting a preview of the upcoming change of seasons, but will unusually cool temperatures mean it's going to be a cold winter? Forecasters say probably not as La Nina's weather system looks likely to hit the country in the next couple of months.
CNN's Allison Chinchar has more. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ALLISON CHINCHAR, AMS METEOROLOGIST: As we head into the weekend, cooler than normal temperatures is really going to be the focus for much of the eastern half of the country. But the real question is, is this going to be a hint at what we can expect going into fall, or perhaps even the winter?
Well, the Climate Prediction Center recently just issued us under a La Nina watch, meaning conditions are favorable for development of La Nina coming up here in about the next six months.
Now typically in a traditional La Nina winter, these are the kinds of conditions that you can expect. And that includes much warmer and drier conditions across the southern tier of the U.S. and slightly cooler and wetter conditions, especially across the Pacific Northwest.
So what does that mean in reality? Well, the overall forecast when we look ahead to what winter is expected to be like in some cases looks very similar, especially across the southern tier where above average temperatures are expected pretty much from coast to coast. And then off into the Pacific Northwest those below average temperatures are also in the forecast.
Another concern is going to be the drier conditions because again, most of the southern tier is looking at below average precipitation. The concern here will be what impact this has on a lot of the fires, especially in the southwestern portion of the U.S.
In terms of above average, the only spots we're looking at above average precipitation could be perhaps right around areas of the Ohio River Valley, as well as portions of the Intermountain West, specifically up around Montana and Wyoming.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CORNISH: And a new report is raising the alarm about the possible link between climate change and wildfires. The World Weather Attribution analyzed wildfires in Turkey, Cypress, and Greece. The study says wildfires have killed at least 20 people and resulted in the evacuation of more than 80,000 as of August. And weather conditions driven by climate change made the fires 22 percent more intense and 10 times more likely. The report projects more extreme, concurrent fire weather if there is further global warming.
And Japan's Mount Fuji could erupt in the future, and the government is urging residents who live nearby to prepare now. Officials released a new AI-generated video showing the spread of volcanic ash, highlighting the impact an eruption could have.
CNN's Hanako Montgomery has more.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
HANAKO MONTGOMERY, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Watch what would happen to Tokyo if Mount Fuji erupted. This AI video made by the Tokyo government shows just how quickly disaster could hit.
Mount Fuji is one of Japan's most iconic landmarks that beckons millions of tourists annually, but people forget it's also an active volcano just 60 miles southwest of Tokyo. If it erupted, the government predicts volcanic ash could reach Tokyo in just one to two hours. That ash could irritate your eyes and throat and shut down public transport, cutting off access to food and emergency supplies.
The last time Mount Fuji erupted was in 1707 and it spewed ash for about two weeks. Researchers believe the damage triggered a famine that lasted over a decade.
Japan is located on the most geologically active part of the planet, the Ring of Fire, and is home to more than 110 active volcanoes. It's frequently hit by earthquakes, tsunamis, and typhoons.
The video calls on people to stay vigilant and be prepared 24/7, stressing that here it's not if a disaster strikes, it's when.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
[05:55:00]
CORNISH: And South Korea will no longer allow cellphones in classrooms starting next March. The nation passed a bill Wednesday to ban the use of mobile phones and other digital devices in classrooms nationwide.
Ninety-nine percent of South Koreans are online, and 98 percent own a smartphone. That's according to a Pew Research Center study.
Last year the country's Education Ministry found about 37 percent of middle and high school students say social media affects their daily lives, and 22 percent feel anxious without access to social media.
Visitors to China's giant panda breeding base are getting a cuddly dose of cuteness. The first newborn cubs of the year are making their public debut. Dozens of baby pandas have been born at the center in Chengdu since it started its breeding program in 2023. These cubs don't have names yet.
Baby pandas drink their mother's milk or a special formula for about the first six months of their lives before gradually adding bamboo to their diet. Scientists estimate pandas in the wild live about 15 to 20 years, and about 10 years longer under human care.
Thanks so much for joining us here on EARLY START. I'm Audie Cornish in Washington, D.C. Stick around because "CNN THIS MORNING" starts right after the break.
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