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CNN Headlines: Five Dead, Five Injured After Amazon Cargo Plane Overruns Runway In Miami; Armed Man Arrested After Lunging At Ohio Democratic Gubernatorial Nominee; "Substantive" Talks Held In Kyiv As U.S. Pushes for Trilateral Talks With Russia. Aired 5:30-6a ET

Aired September 07, 2026 - 05:30   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL)

[05:30:40]

BRAD SMITH, CNN ANCHOR: It is half past the hour. Let's hit the refresh button on our top stories.

With less than 60 days to go until midterms the Trump administration has filed a new emergency appeal with the Supreme Court to speed up approval of a controversial mail-in ballot rule. The rule was temporarily blocked by a federal judge last week, but the administration argues that the changes are needed to guarantee a safe and secure election.

An Illinois mom is accused of strangling her 2-year-old son. Court documents show that Corie Walsh followed the Lindsay Clancy murder trial and called her son the devil and the antichrist. Her attorney says that she was in a mental health crisis.

And investigators are looking into a dramatic and deadly cargo plane crash in Miami on Sunday. At least five people were killed, and multiple others were injured when the Amazon-branded aircraft ran off the runway and crashed onto a busy road outside the airport.

CNN's Reed Benyon has more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Guys, the plane's on fire, the plane's on fire. Put your game faces on.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Heavy fire load on the right side.

REED BENYON, CNN REPORTER (voiceover): Emergency crews racing to the scene after officials say an Amazon cargo plane overran the runway during a landing at Miami International Airport on Sunday.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It crossed 67th Avenue. We do have a patient on the ground. We're looking at surveying the area for more patients.

BENYON (voiceover): The aircraft hitting multiple vehicles and sending a thick black plume of smoke into the air as it burst into flames. CHIEF RAY JADALLAH, MIAMI-DADE FIRE & RESCUE: The airplane did strike a couple of vehicles that required a couple of victims that were actually trapped in the vehicles.

BENYON (voiceover): The Miami-Dade fire chief said those victims had to be extricated. According to officials, the pilots were also trapped.

JADALLAH: We had a very complex fire engine -- compartments that were on fire, including a search and rescue of the pilot and copilot.

BENYON (voiceover): The pilots were removed from the plane and treated. In addition to the fatalities, there were multiple injuries.

JADALLAH: Three that are in critical condition that were transported to the trauma center and another two that were transported to a local hospital.

BENYON (voiceover): It's not clear why the plane was unable to stop.

MARY SCHIAVO, CNN TRANSPORTATION ANALYST: There's some indication that there was a 26 knot either crosswind or tailwind that certainly could have pushed this plane further down the runway.

BENYON (voiceover): A ground stop for inbound planes was lifted, but the FAA says flights headed to the airport are expected to be delayed into Monday due to the disabled aircraft on the runway.

I'm Reed Benyon reporting.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SMITH: Thank you, Reid.

Let's zoom in on the weather aspect of the investigation as well. And for more on that, CNN spoke to an aviation safety expert, David Soucie. He's a former FAA safety inspector. And here is some of that conversation.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DAVID SOUCIE, AVIATION SAFETY EXPERT, FORMER FAA INSPECTOR: Just moments before this flight landed, the wind changed significantly. Thirty minutes before, the weather -- the weather reports had shown only three knots of wind, which is pretty negligible. But right before this aircraft landed, it was showing a change in the direction of the wind at 190 degrees. Up to 26 knots of wind gusts at that point, which would put a tailwind element into the airplane.

For non-pilots, what that's saying is suddenly the airplane, rather than flying into the wind, which is characteristic of landing the airplane, now you have a tailwind which actually pushes the aircraft forward, so you're picking up speed instead of bleeding speed off at that point. So now you're faced with this decision. Do you try to plant the airplane down on the ground or do you continue and put the throttles forward and make a go around? (END VIDEO CLIP)

SMITH: Amazon said that the plane was operated by 21 Air and that it will cooperate fully with any investigation.

Responders said that the pilots had been removed from the plane and were being treated. Their conditions are unknown.

Now to a disturbing incident during a campaign event in Ohio. An armed man is in custody after allegedly lunging at Democratic gubernatorial nominee Amy Acton. This happened at a county fair in Canfield on Sunday. Acton was visiting the Democratic Party's tent when the incident occurred. Two people were knocked to the ground.

[05:35:00]

And Corey McCrae from CNN affiliate WFMJ has more on this for us this morning.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

COREY MCCRAE, ANCHOR, WFMJ (voiceover): With less than 60 days to go before the midterm elections, gubernatorial candidates Vivek Ramaswamy and Amy Acton --

VIVEK RAMASWAMY, (R) OHIO GUBERNATORIAL CANDIDATE: And I am here to ask you for your commitment.

MCCRAE (voiceover): -- stopped by the Canfield Fair Sunday afternoon. Acton was speaking at the Mahoning County Democratic Party tent around 2:30 when witnesses say the unthinkable happened.

JOHN BOCCIERE, (D) FORMER CONGRESSMAN: All of a sudden, some very frightening incident happened. An armed individual came barreling through the crowd, pushing people out of the way and actually knocked down a couple of senior citizens and elderly people in the crowd right in front of Dr. Acton.

MCCRAE (voiceover): John Bocciere, who was running for Ohio's 58th district, says he was standing right next to Acton when it happened, telling me the two spoke afterwards and that she is OK.

That individual has been identified as 38-year-old Patrick Havas. The Mahoning County Sheriff's Office says the suspect had two weapons on him and a pair of brass knuckles. None of those weapons were brandished or removed from their holsters. Havis faces two counts of assault and a disorderly conduct charge.

Leaders across the Buckeye State addressing the incident. Governor Mike DeWine saying, "We are grateful for the quick work of the Ohio State Highway Patrol and other law enforcement on the scene at the Canfield Fair," adding that "Violence or the threat of violence at political or public events is always unacceptable."

Attorney General Andy Wilson echoed those remarks, saying, "The attempted violence directed at Dr. Acton is unacceptable. Political violence of any kind has no place in Ohio or our nation. I am thankful she was unharmed and my prayers are with those who were injured."

Meanwhile, Bocciere calling on Acton's opponent to step up.

BOCCIERE: I condemn this type of political violence, and I want him to condemn these actions as well.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SMITH: All right. Our thanks to WFMJ's Corey McCrae for that report.

Overnight, Republican gubernatorial candidate Vivek Ramaswamy's campaign denounced what happened, and a spokesperson says candidates should be able to meet with voters without having to worry about threats or violence. The campaign called Sunday's incident unacceptable.

Heading overseas, a renewed push for a U.S.-brokered peace deal to end Russia's war on Ukraine once and for all. An American delegation held separate talks with the leaders of both nations over the weekend with hopes of a trilateral meeting perhaps coming soon.

CNN's Julia Benbrook has more of the details for us.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JULIA BENBROOK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: A weekend of diplomacy for special envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner focused on bringing the war in Ukraine to an end.

STEVE WITKOFF, U.S. SPECIAL ENVOY: We came here and I think we really feel good about what has happened in the conversations in Moscow and now the conversations here.

BENBROOK: But whether they made any meaningful progress remains to be seen. Three hours of talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow --

VLADIMIR PUTIN, RUSSIAN PRESIDENT: (Speaking foreign language).

TEXT: I would like to ask you to convey my best wishes, and a word of gratitude, to the President of the United States, Mr. Trump.

BENBROOK: -- followed by a high-stakes trip to Kyiv to meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY, UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT: (Speaking foreign language).

TEXT: Today, you worked even better than the Patriot systems for our citizens here in the capital. Thank you. Please come visit more often.

BENBROOK: The White House did say these talks were substantive and that next steps were discussed and would be revealed in coming weeks.

Prior to this trip, President Donald Trump did say that he was sending over "great negotiators." At the same time, though, he acknowledged the complicated nature of this push for peace. That's significant because he repeatedly said that this would be an easy conflict to resolve after he started his second term and that it would happen quickly.

Now, previous attempts to come to a lasting agreement to end Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine stalled last winter.

DONALD TRUMP, (R) PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: It's a personality problem in Russia-Ukraine. You have President Zelenskyy and President Putin, and they truly hate each other. You know what hate is? They have serious hate.

BENBROOK: Those previous talks failed to reach a breakthrough over issues like territory and security guarantees. On this trip, the envoys expressed hope that trilateral talks could take place again soon.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SMITH: Well, Labor Day is shaping up to be brutally hot across the South, with more than 45 million people under heat advisories. Showers and thunderstorms could bring some relief there and across the Midwest.

Meanwhile, in the Pacific, Hurricane Lowell has parts of Hawaii bracing for heavy rains and tropical storm force winds. A state of emergency is in effect as the storm takes aim at the state's western islands. Lowell is expected to make its closest approach to the islands as a cat two late today or early tomorrow but won't make landfall.

[05:40:00]

All right, it's time for Buzz Express, the stories that have everyone talking.

First up, Ciara and Russell Wilson are expecting. They made the announcement on Ciara's Instagram with a carousel of pictures and videos showing off her baby bump. This will be the couple's fifth child.

And Sabrina Carpenter is now an Emmy winner thanks to The Muppet Show. She won as an executive producer and performer from the Disney+ special about the show's 50th anniversary. This was part of the first round of Emmys given out over the weekend.

Bad Bunny also snagged his first Emmy for the Super Bowl halftime show. It won seven trophies. The also now canceled "LATE SHOW WITH STEPHEN COLBERT" won outstanding writing for a variety series, beating John Oliver's show for the first time in 10 years. And Jimmy Kimmel won for outstanding game show host for "WHO WANTS TO BE A MILLIONAIRE?"

Plus, We gotta talk about "LAW & ORDER: SVU" star Mariska Hargitay. She won for her documentary, "MY MOM JANE." It's about the late actress, Jayne Mansfield. Hargitay will be hosting when the rest of the Primetime Emmys are presented next Sunday. By the way, HBO Films is behind her documentary, which shares a parent's company with CNN.

All right, next on CNN HEADLINE EXPRESS, what was supposed to be a celebratory festival takes a deadly turn after a fireworks explosion. Details for you straight ahead.

Plus, we have the latest on the ongoing search for survivors after those devastating floods in Nepal. Stay with us.

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[05:46:10]

SMITH: It's been almost two weeks since catastrophic floods devastated the Nepali-Chinese border. More than 1,000 people are dead. Thousands more are still missing.

CNN has now reached a scene of total devastation on the Chinese side of the border. An enormous wall of water swept away this once bustling border crossing.

CNN's Simone McCarthy is on a rare trip organized by the government and accompanied by Chinese officials, but CNN maintains full editorial control of its coverage.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SIMONE MCCARTHY, CNN SENIOR CHINA REPORTER: So we're walking into the main hard-hit port area. Now, I mean, even just some of the ground here is incredibly unstable. It's like -- it feels like it's almost hollow underneath. You can see there's quite large rocks here.

There's also excavation going on behind us. A number of workers are actively in the midst of some of the response and repairs here. We've been told as well as we were walking over that there are the risk of loose rocks.

I'm standing in the location that was once a five-story border checkpoint. This used to be a bustling hub of transit between Nepal and China with travelers, travel agents, and people involved in trade coming over that border, moving through what was once a huge building here. This is the spot where a huge wall of water washed over a five story building in video that was captured on surveillance footage on August 26 when devastating floods and landslide hit the China-Nepal border. I'm standing now in the area where that building was.

This is Gyirong Port in Tibet, where CNN is part of a small group of foreign reporters who've been given access to this site -- the first time that foreign media have been allowed entry. And now to see what the impact of that was here, where there's just -- I mean, you would -- you would never know that there had been anything here at all. There's actually a sign which is indicating that this was a foundation. You can still see some rebar, but that's really the only thing that remains.

There have been no survivors found in this location. And right now the rescue teams are just contending with this heavy, heavy mud. The road that we took to get in here was actually layered in some places with five feet of mud. It took the better part of a week for emergency workers to be able to enter via road.

One of the other things that we can notice is that the floodwaters actually reached so high up onto the mountain. You can see some of the greenery has actually been scraped away there as a result of just how high those floodwaters came as they barreled through this area. We asked one of the responders how long he thought the operations would continue and he wasn't able to give an answer.

They've put up a Chinese flag to memorialize what was here, but there's just absolutely nothing left.

This area has also been a focal point for families who are desperate for information about what happened to loved ones that they believe were at this border crossing at the time when that landslide and flooding hit this area. They're still waiting for answers. The government has yet to publish publicly a list of who was at the border crossing at the time. Families are really desperate for more information about what happened here. And looking around, it's -- you can see that there's no answers immediately visible.

Simone McCarthy, CNN, Gyirong Port.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SMITH: Thank you, Simone, for continuing to bring us the recovery efforts there.

[05:50:00]

Let's go around the globe.

Several people are dead after a five-story building collapsed in New Delhi. Nearly a dozen people have been rescued from the rubble so far and crews are continuing to search. Police say the 40- to 50-year-old building was being used as student housing. It was undergoing repairs to the basement at the time of the collapse and Delhi's chief minister said an investigation is underway and that those responsible will be held accountable.

In Mexico, at least 10 people are dead after fireworks exploded at a church. Hundreds of people gathered to watch a fireworks display as part of a religious festival, and that is when pyrotechnic material exploded, causing a wall to collapse. Authorities are still investigating what triggered the blast.

A volcanic eruption in Indonesia sending a massive plume of ash into the sky, reaching as high as 50,000 feet in some parts. No evacuation orders have been put in place yet, but officials are urging people to keep their distance. Indonesia's transport minister says that the eruption also caused eight airports in the region to suspend flight operations, impacting 170,000 travelers.

And in Bolivia, cars were banned for 10 hours on Sunday to celebrate Pedestrian Day. It's one of the country's most popular traditions, and the event turns roads into open spaces so people can freely enjoy being in the streets. Oh, yeah, that's a good race right there.

And from no cars to no drivers, fully autonomous cars competed in a racing league completely powered by AI.

CNN's Ivana Scatola was in Italy to watch the action.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

IVANA SCATOLA, CNN PRODUCER (voiceover): It's like Formula One but without human drivers. Instead, the cars are entirely driven by AI.

SCATOLA: I'm in Imola, Italy to watch the A2RL, a motorsport competition where fully autonomous cars go head-to-head.

SCATOLA (voiceover): The cars have no cockpits or steering wheels, just supercomputers, GPS, radar and optical cameras.

MATTEO, ENGINEER, UNIMORE RACING: The actual weight, it's a fun fact, is quite similar to a human driver. So yeah, the weight of the car is quite similar to a real one. There's no driver, there's no seat, there's no steering wheel, but we control it as a human would do.

SCATOLA (voiceover): Engineering teams say they've spent months writing custom codes for the cars and on race day, they press go and hope for the best.

SCATOLA: Each team races identical super formula cars. The only thing that sets them apart is the coding.

SCATOLA (voiceover): This is the third year of the competition, but the first time that the race has been held abroad outside of Abu Dhabi. The Imola circuit famous with Formula one fans is known to be a challenging one.

MARKO BERTOGNA, TEAM PRINCIPAL, UNIMORE RACING: Imola is a non- forgiving track. Let's say you achieve very, very high speed and there are very, very little room for errors. So any time you take a wrong turn, your risk really of crashing completely your car.

SCATOLA (voiceover): While the autonomous taxis that are common in American cities prioritize safety and predictability, these autonomous race cars are at the opposite end, optimized for speed and split- second maneuvers.

SCATOLA: The cars are programmed not to collide into each other, but the technology isn't perfect yet. The winning team this year was Kinetiz, which started out as a rookie team and now has come first.

CHEE KIONG ONG, DEPUTY TEAM PRINCIPAL, KINETIZ: It's overwhelming. It's -- I am still processing all the emotions. This morning, like before the restart, I was telling myself, it's not how you start, but it's how you finish.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SMITH: Well, straight ahead on CNN HEADLINE EXPRESS, nearly 70 people arrested and about 200 cars impounded after a street takeover in L.A. More on the chaotic event that police say drew more than 700 people.

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[05:58:10]

SMITH: Today is Labor Day and a whole lot of stores will be open with their Labor Day sales, but many places will be closed.

Maribel Aber joins us now with more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MARIBEL ABER, CNN CORRESPONDENT, MONEY MATTERS: The stock market is closed in observance of Labor Day. The holiday honors the contributions of American workers and the labor movement. It became federal law in 1894 and is celebrated on the first Monday of September.

Most banks and government offices are closed. That includes post offices and mail delivery. Shippers like UPS and FedEx are also on pause for most routes, but some Amazon packages may still move today. Retailers, grocery stores and restaurants are generally open, but it's always a good idea to call ahead.

And starting tomorrow there are several big economic reports on the calendar. Consumer credit debt figures for July are due Tuesday afternoon and August wholesale prices drop Thursday. The week's main event is Friday's consumer price index, a key inflation gauge for the Fed, which meets later this month.

I'm Maribel Aber at the Nasdaq MarketSite in New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SMITH: Let's take a look at some of the other stories making headlines across the country.

We start in California. That is where authorities arrested nearly 70 people and impounded 200 cars. It all took place after a massive illegal street takeover. Police say more than 700 people gathered this weekend for the event. Five hundred seventy citations were issued, including one for an 11-year-old. They also found seven firearms.

Crews near Atlanta have been battling a fire at a pallet manufacturing facility where the smoke plume was visible in areas near the airport. A smoke advisory was issued, but fire officials say that the plume is not toxic. No one was inside the building, and the cause is under investigation.

A puppy that an Ohio State trooper found at a rest stop now has a new home. Here's that body cam video of when the trooper found Miles.

[06:00:00]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOHN KRONANDER, OHIO STATE TROOPER: How long have you been here? Are you pawing me? Oh, oh my gosh. Are you pawing me?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SMITH: When he found Miles, he didn't have food or water. But now the pup has a safe home with a friend of the trooper.

Well, that does it for CNN HEADLINE EXPRESS. I'm Brad Smith. "CNN THIS MORNING WITH AUDIE CORNISH" starts right now.