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Canada's $20 Billion Worth of Retaliatory Tariffs on U.S. Goods Now in Effect; Thieves Steal Four Paintings from French Museum in Frantic Heist; All Five People Killed in Cargo Plane Crash were in Cars on the Ground. Aired 10-10:30a ET

Aired September 08, 2026 - 10:00   ET

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

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PAMELA BROWN, CNN ANCHOR: Happening now, breaking news, a plea for help, a Florida family's plane vanishing over the Bahamas.

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SILVI LARRIEU, FAMILY MISSING NEAR BAHAMAS: We're asking for everyone out there to please help, whether it's by plane, by boat, any signs that you've noticed to help us find them and bring them back alive.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN: The urgent search 15 miles off the nearest coast, and the question, did thunderstorms play a role?

Trade war escalation. Canada's new retaliatory tariffs now taking effect. What could cost you more, and will President Trump strike back?

Also, a stunning art heist. Four famous paintings taken from a French museum. The one thing that might help investigators find the thieves.

Plus, Ground Zero air. New questions this morning about what people were breathing in the days after 9/11. New York City's mayor revealing new findings.

And inside the storm high above Hawaii, we're with hurricane hunters. The storm striking the islands this morning.

Plus, Long Beach blasted. Hurricane Marie slamming the California coast, huge waves crashing against the seawall.

Welcome to our viewers in the United States and around the world. I'm Pamela Brown. Wolf is off today, and you're in The Situation Room.

Happening now, Canada's sweeping retaliatory tariffs on U.S. goods are in effect this morning. The country has doubled its taxes on American aluminum and steel to 50 percent, matching the rate the U.S. charges on metals from Canada. Other products facing higher taxes include paper products, construction materials, and home appliances. The new tariffs cover roughly $20 billion in goods. President Trump is escalating his threat to hit back, threatening to ban the sale of Canadian jets in the States unless they're built in the United States.

CNN White House Correspondent Alayna Treene is on the North Lawn for us, and CNN Senior Reporter Matt Egan is standing by.

Alayna, first to you. The president is threatening to ban these Canadian-made jets. What more is he saying? How big of a deal is this?

ALAYNA TREENE, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: It's a very big deal, and it's just the latest escalation, as you mentioned, Pamela, in what is growing to really become this trade war between the United States and Canada, one of the United States' closest allies and top trading partners.

And this is all kind of a reaction to what we saw take place last month when talks between the U.S. and Canada really broke down. There were negotiations trying to avoid any type of new tariffs to ensure the strengthening of trade and the relationship between the U.S. and its northern neighbor. But those fell apart, and ever since then the president has continued to use very aggressive language, aggressive threats against Canada. And, of course, we did see them implement their own 50 percent of tariffs on $20 billion of Canadian goods.

I do want to walk through though some of the things we've seen the president react with. One, we saw him rename Lake Ontario to Lake America. I should note, of course, Canada doesn't have to recognize that. But in the U.S., he says it is Lake America now, not Lake Ontario. He's also threatened to double auto tariffs to 50 percent starting on January 1st.

And now, as you mentioned, he's now threatening to ban Canada's top aircraft companies, one of them, I should say. I want you to listen, though, to a lot of what we've heard the president argue in recent weeks as this trade feud has really escalated further.

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DONALD TRUMP, U.S. PRESIDENT: Canada has taken advantage of us. They have ripped us off for years, and now we're turning the tables, very, very easily turning the tables.

We're going to be changing the name of Lake Ontario, effective immediately, to Lake America.

They don't pay for anything, and they want to be treated like a state, but they're not a state. But they want to be treated like they're a state, and so we just can't do that anymore.

Canada gets a lot of freebies from us, by the way. They should be grateful also, but they're not. I watched your prime minister yesterday. He wasn't so grateful. But they should be grateful to us. Canada lives because of the United States. Remember that, Mark, the next time you make your statements.

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TREENE: Now, Pamela, what you heard there in those different comments that the president has made against Canada is exactly how I'm told he views this behind closed doors. He believes that Canada is ripping the U.S. off, that despite them being one of the U.S.'s closest allies, he feels like the U.S. is getting taken advantage of.

[10:05:00]

Of course, Carney hitting back and arguing that that's just not the case and that this isn't serious.

And you kind of saw the president really further embody that in a further post yesterday saying that they need to stop, Canada needs to stop treating the U.S. like a piggy bank.

All to say, unclear where the way out is here, because when I talk to administration officials, they say no talks are ongoing with Canada, negotiations to find an off-ramp to this escalating trade war. So, we'll have to see whether or not these retaliatory tariffs put Trump on edge further.

BROWN: All right. So, let's talk a little bit more about these tariffs and what they mean for Americans. Matt, you have $20 billion worth of retaliatory tariffs on American goods. They've gone into effect this morning. How is this going to impact Americans?

MATT EGAN, CNN SENIOR REPORTER: Well, Pamela, Canada is firing back in this trade war. And the risk for Americans is that workers, they could just get caught in the middle, right? If these retaliatory tariffs from Canada, if they hurt American businesses that normally sell to customers north of the border, those companies, they could be forced to cut back worker hours or even lay off some of their employees.

Now, as you mentioned, this is a tariff of 15 to 50 percent on American goods, and this is impacting about $20 billion of goods that Canada imports from the United States. Now, $20 billion, that is a large number, but remember, this is a massive trading relationship. So, this only represents less than 10 percent of what Canada buys each year from the United States. Still, though, that leaves Ottawa room to ramp this up further if they want to.

Now, what is being targeted here? Well, these retaliatory tariffs, they're impacting a range of U.S. industries, everything from steel and aluminum to dairy, agricultural equipment, electronics, paper, appliances as well. And Canadian officials, they have said that they calibrated these retaliatory tariffs to, quote, put political pressure on the Trump administration. It is not lost on Canada that the midterm elections here in the U.S., they loom.

Now, it's absolutely true the United States economy is much, much bigger than Canada's. However, Canada does have some leverage here, because Canada is the number one foreign buyer in a number of U.S. states, and that includes some politically sensitive states in the upcoming midterms, such as Maine and Michigan. And so, again, the risk is that if Canada's demand goes down, then some of these companies, they could be forced to lay off workers.

So, look, bottom line here, Pamela, this trade war, it continues to heat up, and the longer it lasts, the greater the risk that it does real damage to consumers and to the economy. Back to you.

BROWN: All right. Matt Egan, Alayna Treene, thank you both so much.

And breaking news, a frantic art heist in France this morning as thieves made off with four paintings from the Renoir Museum, but dropped two as they fled. The mayor says the two bandits were well- equipped and well-prepared for the theft, using an electric saw to cut through the frames.

Let's go live now to CNN Senior International Correspondent Melissa Bell in Paris with more details. What's going on with all these art heists, Melissa?

MELISSA BELL, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: It is pretty, pretty tough year here in France for its museums, Pamela. It was just before 6:00 A.M. This is a museum not very far from Nice in the south of France that houses 12 of Auguste Renoir's paintings, that impressionist painter.

Now, what we understand happened just before 6:00 AM, these thieves managed to cut through the fence of the garden, went through the garden, made their way into the museum, used an electrical saw to cut through the fixtures that were holding the paintings to the wall, securing them to the wall, made off with these four paintings, dropping two as they fled.

What authorities say is that the sound of the alarms had them flee very quickly, and in their panic, in their haste, they dropped two of these paintings. Still, there are this afternoon two Renoir paintings still at large, and the thieves have yet to be caught.

We heard a little while ago from the town's mayor. Here's what he had to say.

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MAYOR BRAYN MASSON, CAGNES-SUR-MER, FRANCE: They were equipped with, if I may say so, an electric knife or a metal saw, whatever you want to call it. They cut through the bolts holding the frames of Renoir's paintings in place. The arrival of the municipal police, along with the sirens from the museum and the police, caused the burglars to rush off.

They stole only four of the 12 works in the Renoir Museum. They fled by running through the gardens and, it seems, dropped two works along the way.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BELL: Now local authorities are now calling, Pamela, for Paris to step up its security or the money that it provides rather for security at French museums. And that comes just a month after we had this report from Europol pointing out that these heists are getting not just more frequent, but more violent with criminal activity -- criminal gangs targeting museums recruiting people to carry out these specific acts on social media, and that security needs to be stepped up to protect them.

[10:10:11]

It's been less than a year after all that the Louvre heist saw those more than $80 million worth of jewels stolen, none of which, by the way, have yet to be recovered. Pamela?

BROWN: All right. Melissa Bell, thank you so much.

Still ahead here in the Situation Room, desperate search, a family pleading for help after losing contact with four relatives while they were flying from the Bahamas to Miami.

And up next, the latest on the investigation into the deadly Amazon cargo plane crash. Our Pete Muntean is live from right outside Miami International Airport. Pete?

PETE MUNTEAN, CNN AVIATION CORRESPONDENT: This investigation is just beginning, Pamela, but even at this early stage, investigators are mentioning a type of technology that could have prevented this very type of crash. Why it was not in place here in Miami, next.

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BROWN: Breaking news, a desperate search is underway for an American family after their small plane vanished near The Bahamas yesterday. 80-year-old Mario Lamar's niece tells us that he has 40 years of flying experience, and was piloting the two-engine aircraft with his wife and two grandchildren on board when air traffic controllers lost contact. And now she is pleading for help in finding her loved ones.

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LARRIEU: On the flight this morning was my uncle, Mario Lamar, his wife, Lily Lamar, and two of his grandchildren, Christian Sosa and Sophie Sosa. We're asking for everyone out there to please help, whether it's by plane, by boat, any signs that you've noticed, to help us find them and bring them back alive.

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BROWN: Authorities were alerted to the missing plane when police received a report that an aircraft may have gone down right near Andros Island. And you can see right here, Lamar's plane circling off the coast before completely dropping off of flight radar.

While there were heavy thunderstorms in the area when the plane disappeared, officials haven't confirmed that weather was a factor. The U.S. Coast Guard has deployed a surveillance plane to scour the waters for the aircraft, and they're assisting Bahamian authorities in finding this family.

Happening now, investigators say all five people who died when an Amazon cargo plane skidded off the runway in Miami were in vehicles on the ground, including an aircraft cleaning crew driving in a van. We're also seeing new video that shows one of the plane's crew members, you see it right here, escaping just moments after the crash.

CNN's Pete Muntean asked the NTSB chair to describe the scene on the ground.

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JENNIFER HOMENDY, NTSB CHAIR: I would describe it in word, one word of devastating, utter devastation. I mean, you can see on the paved surface tire marks that continues through the grass. There's debris everywhere.

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BROWN: All right. Let's go live now to CNN Aviation Correspondent Pete Muntean right outside Miami International Airport. What more are you learning about this investigation, Pete?

MUNTEAN: Well, we'll hear more from police, Miami-Dade Police, at the top of the hour. They'll provide an update on the latest here, likely to find out more about the victims. We'll also hear this afternoon once more from the National Transportation Safety Board after they gave us the initial broad strokes of what they have found after about 30 investigators toured the crash site yesterday.

Today, we will likely get bullet points from the cockpit voice recorder and the flight data recorder. Those were both recovered here at the scene and taken to the NTSB's recorders lab in Washington, D.C., on a 7:22 P.M. flight last night.

We are also hearing from investigators about a type of technology that could have potentially prevented this crash, designed to prevent these types of crashes known as runway excursions. And I got a closer look at that system with the Federal Aviation Administration earlier this year, and I want you to look at that story now.

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MUNTEAN (voice over): From Virginia --

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We just had an alert three on the airfield, aircraft accident.

MUNTEAN: -- to California --

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We literally like -- and so we were all like, whoa.

MUNTEAN: -- an airport safety system is saving lives, called Engineered Materials Arresting System. EMAS is a bed of lightweight crushable cement placed at the end of runways to stop an airplane that's about to careen off the end.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I like to think of it, it's like a runaway truck stop, but for airplanes.

MUNTEAN: Here at its facility in New Jersey, the Federal Aviation Administration has been testing EMAS, which in the last year has stopped a record four planes from running into highways, hills, even homes.

This material is soft enough that a heavy airplane will sink into it, but dense enough that a person can stand on it. I can even jump on it, and that's key in an emergency.

The system is installed at 70 airports across the country, including Roanoke, Virginia, where last September, husband and wife Steve Harrison and Deborah Tater's United Express flight skidded off the end of the runway.

The National Transportation Safety Board said the plane's approach was too high, and the first officer twice told the captain to abort the landing.

STEVE HARRISON, PASSENGER: And I thought, you know, this better stop pretty soon. And then I remembered seeing that device at the end of the runway and thinking like, that's supposed to stop airplanes, and that's when we hit it.

MUNTEAN: The couple says the plane would've tumbled down an embankment were it not for EMAS.

DEBORAH TATER, PASSENGER: There were probably other things that should've happened differently before we got to that point. All we know is that that was the last point.

HARRISON: And that's what saved us.

MUNTEAN: For Tater, the incident carried a poignant reminder.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Good evening. There was an air disaster today in Boston.

MUNTEAN: As a teen, a friend was killed when the flight she was on crashed into a sea wall at Boston's Logan International Airport.

The airport is installing more EMAS pads to prevent planes from skidding into Boston Harbor. The more than $100 million project could delay flights for two and a half months. Worth it, says Tater and Harrison, whose first grandson was born only weeks after their crash.

TATER: We would not have seen him born. There's a very good chance that we would not have survived.

(END VIDEOTAPE) MUNTEAN (on camera): One of the main reasons EMAS is not installed here at Miami International Airport is that this airport has what's called a runway safety area, meaning a clearing of about 1,000 feet beyond the runway conceivably for an airplane to stop in the event of an overrun like this one.

In this case, not enough. It was about 1,300 feet between the end of the runway and the perimeter road. The plane hit that van inside the perimeter road, went through a fence, and over four lanes of Northwest 67th Avenue here before stopping in a parking lot.

One issue that airports has, it just really comes down to dollars and cents. It's expensive to put in place EMAS, and many airports are considering replacing their old EMAS installations, some of which are 20 or 30 years old. It's a tough proposition when there are lives on the line, and NTSB Chair Jennifer Homendy says it's long been a recommendation of the NTSB for more airports to install these EMAS systems, and that they have investigated about 3,000 so-called runway excursions since 2008. She says one of those crashes is too many.

BROWN: Yes, absolutely. All right, Pete Muntean, thanks so much.

And, actually, coming up in our next hour, we'll be joined by the NTSB chairwoman, Jennifer Homendy.

Coming up, massive waves slam the California coast, the water completely engulfing homes and forcing dozens to evacuate. We are tracking what's behind the waves up next.

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BROWN: Happening now, nearly two dozen homes in Southern California are under evacuation orders after massive waves from Hurricane Marie damaged a sea wall in Long Beach. City officials say the powerful surge of water may have cracked the foundation of some houses right there on the boardwalk area.

So, let's go live now to our Derek Van Dam at the Weather Center. Is the danger over, Derek?

DEREK VAN DAM, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Well, it's hard to believe that the danger has actually been posed by a, the remnants of a hurricane several hundred miles offshore, well away from Southern California, but still sending swells that are creating these large waves that are breaking along the shoreline, sometimes as high as eight feet tall, of course, bringing water inundation to some of these buildings, but also some of the localized structure that has been compromised because it's impacting the sea walls there.

So, check this out. This is the dual hurricanes we have across the Pacific. We've got Lowell that was impacting Hawaii early this morning. This is the remnants of Marie. This is the storm that's provided the swells that have propagated into Southern California. In fact, they have been noted all the way across the coastal areas of California as far north as the central parts of the state.

Right now, there are coastal flood alerts as well as high surf advisories in place for this area. So, I want to stress a few important things here. Not only will the rip currents be a significant factor here, but we could get some of these rogue waves that come in up and over the coastal sea walls here that can actually destroy buildings take out infrastructure.

They come without a moment's notice. A lot of times they'll be that rogue wave associated with a larger swell that's built up across the ocean, again, thanks to the remnants of a departing hurricane. And, yes, that can cause significant problems if you're a beachgoer or if you live or reside along the beach.

The other situation here that we're monitoring from the remnants of Marie are an influx of very humid environment across Southern California. We're not really used to that in this part of the country, with temperatures skyrocketing into the 90s and lower 100s with a high humidity value. If you don't have ways to cool yourself down, it is going to feel downright oppressive the next few days across Southern and Central California, even into portions of Arizona, where Phoenix to Los Angeles have heat alerts in place.

It's not just the southwestern U.S., it's the central parts of the country as well, where our heat wave conditions continue blazing hot. Look at Dallas, 102. Yes, that's well above average for this time of year.

BROWN: Yes, it is. Derek Van Dam, thank you so much.

Happening now, President Trump is hosting first responders at a Tunnel to Towers event on The Ellipse. The president is expected to speak at any moment, and we'll bring that to you live.

Plus, New York City is now admitting that officials knew that the air quality around Ground Zero was unsafe. We are live with more on Mayor Mamdani's announcement and the tens of thousands of records being released.

And a close call caught on camera in Mexico, how a tragedy was avoided thanks to a quick-thinking supermarket worker.

We'll be right back.

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