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New Information on Azerbaijan Airlines Plane Crash; Bird Flu Kills Big Cats at Sanctuary; Dawn Porter is Interviewed about "Luther: Never too Much"; Mega Millions Jackpot at $1.15 Billion. Aired 9:30- 10a ET

Aired December 27, 2024 - 09:30   ET

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

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[09:30:35]

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: Breaking this morning, Azerbaijan state media now reporting a preliminary investigation has found that the plane that crashed on Christmas Day experienced, quote, "physical and technical external interference" before that fiery crash. Thirty-eight people were killed. Overnight we also learned a second black box has been recovered from the crash site. And 12 of the 29 people who miraculously survived - look at this video - have now arrived back in Azerbaijan. Five of them in what - in, quote, "serious but stable condition."

CNN's Nada Bashir has been following all of the developments here.

And, Nada, what else are you learning about the crash and the investigation now?

NADA BASHIR, CNN REPORTER: Well, we've been getting updates from authorities on the ground. The latest update from Azerbaijan Airlines is that the plane faced external physical and technical interference. Now, that will be a key focus for investigators as they continue to examine the evidence as to what may have led to this fatal crash.

We know, of course, that investigators have been now able to recover both black boxes. That will be crucial in trying to piece together this puzzle, obtaining flight data and potentially recordings from within the cockpit. But authorities say this could take around two weeks for a full assessment to be complete.

And there has been a lot of questions, a lot of speculation as to the potential cause behind this fatal crash. Earlier yesterday we had heard from Russian aviation authorities, or rather on Wednesday, suggesting that this may have been caused by the plane colliding with a flock of birds. But then, of course, we have also heard some suggestions of questions around nearby drone activity. The crash occurred shortly after a drone strike hit southern Russia. And there has been concern around drone activity in this particular region, particularly when it comes to commercial airliners such as this Azerbaijan Airlines flight.

Of course, we did hear yesterday from one U.S. official telling CNN that the flight may have been downed by Russian anti-aircraft systems. That this may have been a case of mistaken identity. Perhaps Russian units mistakenly firing towards - or perhaps assessing this to be drone activity, as opposed to a commercial airliner.

And this really echoes reporting that we'd heard earlier in the day yesterday from "Reuters," which was citing unnamed sources familiar with those ongoing investigations, which essentially suggested that this, again, may well have been caused by Russian air defense systems.

Now, the Kazakh government has established and set up a commission charged with investigating this crash. We've had no firm conclusions from that investigation just yet. We know that additional personnel and experts have arrived in Kazakhstan today to support in that investigation. But again, there are still many questions up in the air, and we will be waiting to hear more details from the authorities. But as you mentioned, Kate, truly remarkable that some 29 people were able to survive that crash. But a moment of tragedy, of course, in mourning for those that were not surviving this crash.

BOLDUAN: Nada, thank you very much for that.

Coming up for us, there are now new concerns about bird flu today after an animal sanctuary is devastated by an outbreak. More than half of the big cats there, dead in just a matter of weeks.

And thousands of Amazon employees are headed back to work after going on strike for five days ahead of Christmas. Why the union says this is not over.

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[09:38:09]

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: Researchers are trying to pinpoint the origin of a bird flu outbreak that has ravaged a Washington state animal sanctuary. The virus has killed 20 big cats, which is more than half of the ones that call the sanctuary home, in just a matter of weeks. What's going on there?

CNN's Randi Kaye has more on this story.

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RANDI KAYE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): That's Thumper, a ten year old Eurasian lynx who used to love to play and scratch the decks high above the foliage. The video from August was taken at the Wild Felid Advocacy Center of Washington, a big cat sanctuary where Thumper lived. Thumper is one of 20 cats from the sanctuary who died in recent weeks from bird flu.

MARK MATHEWS, DIRECTOR, WILD FELID ADVOCACY CENTER: We thought we were doing everything we could to avoid anything like this from happening. The cats are pretty well split up into 30 by 40-foot habitats.

KAYE (voice over): The sanctuary's director and co-founder, Mark Mathews, says the cats' enclosures are spread out among five acres. He told me their first cat got sick on November 22nd. The 17-year-old cougar named Hanna Wyoming stopped eating and died the next day. A day later, this African caracal named Crackle also got sick and died. Others they lost included this cougar named Holly and Tabby, a Bengal tiger.

MATHEWS: Tabby the tiger was a very fun-loving tiger. She had a super personality. Every time I came up, she'd come running - running to meet me.

KAYE (voice over): This Bengal cat, Pebbles, also succumbed to bird flu, as well as Mouse, a Jeffrey cat. Only 17 of the 37 cats once housed here are left. Nico, an African serval, is still in critical condition, fighting to regain the use of his back legs.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Feeling devastated. Kind of in shock. And just taking really good care of those ones who are recovering.

[09:40:03]

KAYE (voice over): The disease spread rapidly, and they still don't know how exactly the bird flu entered their facility.

MATHEWS: Initially, we thought it was bird droppings from waterfowl. We are in a flight pattern for migratory birds, so I don't know if that's part of the equation or not. So, we really don't know at this time if it was food related or not.

DR. DEAN BLUMBERG, INFECTIOUS DISEASE EXPERT, UC DAVIS CHILDREN'S HOSPITAL: Although we don't know exactly how it got there, it does make sense that it's likely due to migratory birds because we know bird flu is transmitted through the migratory bird population.

KAYE (voice over): Dr. Dean Blumberg is an infectious disease expert at UC Davis.

BLUMBERG: It's spread through the bird's saliva, the feces, the urine. And so you really can't protect against that in the natural environment.

KAYE (voice over): The staff at the sanctuary are working tirelessly to disinfect the habitats while also protecting themselves from getting sick. They're wearing PPE, including N-95 masks and doing foot baths when they enter and leave.

BLUMBERG: The virus may mutate and become more easily transmitted person to person. So, the more this virus circulates, and specifically co-circulates with human strains, that's going to increase the odds of the virus evolving to more human to human transmission. And that - that, of course, could - could signal another pandemic.

KAYE (voice over): Randi Kaye, CNN, West Palm Beach, Florida.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SIDNER: So terrible to see that. This, though, should help you out a bit. His gorgeous, velvety voice has been the soundtrack to countless romances and walks down the aisle. Luther Vandross was one of the most influential artists of all time. And in a new CNN film, we hear him and some of the people that were the closest to him tell the story of his iconic career.

And $1.5 billion up for grabs tonight in the Mega Millions drawing. A huge jackpot. But your chances of winning, let's just - let's not get into that. Let's not get into that. Hope.

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[09:46:34]

SIDNER: A new CNN film examines the dazzling story of one of the greatest singers of all time, Luther Vandross. From his formative years in Harlem, appearing in the Apollo Theater house band and the first episodes of "Sesame Street." Of course, we all know him as the king of love songs.

Here's a look.

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MUSICIANS (singing): That's the time, I feel like making dreams come true. Oh, baby.

LUTHER VANDROSS, MUSICIAN: I used to sing background vocals for Roberta Flack on the road. And Roberta sometimes would have interviews, and sometimes she'd be unable to show up at soundchecks. So, I would sing her songs for her in soundchecks to test her microphone.

MUSICIANS (singing): Making love to you. Making love to you. That's the time.

VANDROSS: What happened is that one day she had come back to the theater, and I was singing. And she came over to me and she said, you know, you're getting a little too comfortable sitting on the stool in the background singing oohs and ahs. I really want you to make your own statement and make your own record, you know? And she, in effect, fired me.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SIDNER: Wow. That is an incredible way to start.

Joining us now is the film's director, Dawn Porter.

Thank you for this. This - it filled a lot of our hearts. But for a lot of people, it made you cry like crazy.

I do want to talk about the theme of love. We are in the season. And for many of us his work was the theme song to our love lives, weddings, dates, right? When you just want to chill and jam out. But he himself, in a terrible twist of irony, never found romantic

love for himself. You touched on this theme. Why was it so important to make this one of the pillars of the story?

DAWN PORTER, DIRECTOR, "LUTHER: NEVER TOO MUCH": You know, it is such an irony, right, so such a sadness to the Luther story, which is otherwise quite joyous.

SIDNER: Yes.

PORTER: That the person who is the soundtrack, the love soundtrack. Valerie Simpson, we interviewed Val, and she said, you know, Luther was doctor love. And Astrid Simpson (ph) used to have a radio show in New York City, and they would have Luther come on and all their friends come on, and they would talk about how he was the love doctor. He really wanted to be known for his singing, but it is the ultimate irony that he never found that one special person.

SIDNER: Just listening to the music. I could sit here and sing it all day, but you all don't want to hear me.

I do want to ask you about some of the - you know, there were some hard themes to, but he also talked about - you know, he was asked, hey, were you poor as a child? And he was like, I don't know. We had enough food to eat. We had, you know, we had enough. We had toys at Christmas. Like, you'd have to ask my mom. I had a happy childhood, even though they didn't have a lot.

But then when it came to his career, as it started out, there was colorism and weight. And believe me, like I've dealt with one of those, right, where the way he looked hindered him. Tell me about that sort of journey, getting to that part of his story.

PORTER: You know, what I think is very well known about Luther is, of course, his talent. It's not as well known how ubiquitous his music was. He was singing jingles.

[09:50:02]

He was a backup singer to so many people, Bowie, Aretha Franklin, like, arranging, producing.

But as much as his talent stood out, he had a hard time kind of being that leading man. The radio stations, the record companies didn't quite know what to do with this very dark skinned, overweight, you know, man. And he struggled with his weight in public.

You know, he was on the Oprah show 14 times. And that was something that they shared. And I think they really bonded over that. So, we have a lot of footage from that show that her show graciously allowed to use - allowed us to use.

SIDNER: You just talked about some of the people that he worked with. Was there anything to you surprising as you delved into his life? Because there's a lot of things that are known about him, but you have some things in there, I was like, oh, no way. PORTER: You know, the first half hour of this movie is - it's so much

fun to watch with people. I hope people enjoy it with their friends and family. Because you say, I didn't know that. I didn't know that.

SIDNER: No.

PORTER: And so then by the time you get to the things that are familiar, you know, it's such - it's such a joy to explore. So, he was on "Sesame Street." The first episodes of "Sesame Street."

SIDNER: See, I didn't know that. I think it's wonderful.

PORTER: Let it be Lowenbrau. That's Luther singing those jingles. Discovered by David Bowie. Back up to Bette Midler. Working with Diana Ross, with Aretha Franklin, with Dionne Warwick, with all of these real greats.

But the greatest thing, the greatest discovery for us was how admired he was by so many of his contemporaries, including Mariah Carey, who's in the film.

SIDNER: Dawn Porter, it - this is a masterpiece. It's wonderful. And you can just sit back, relax and just let it all come in and sing the songs, which I like to do with these kinds of documentaries.

PORTER: We'll be waiting for you, Sara.

SIDNER: Thank you so much for this. This was important.

PORTER: Thanks so much for having me.

SIDNER: And you can watch it too. "Luther: Never Too Much" premieres New Year's Day, 8:00 p.m. Eastern and Pacific.

BOLDUAN: In Colorado, a man and woman have now been under arrest, put under arrest and are facing charges of felony child abuse after a shocking discovery Christmas morning. A one-month-old baby was found in the median of a busy road and also tested positive for having cocaine in its system. Emergency responders were called to the scene in a busy Denver intersection and found that baby strapped into a car seat, wearing only a diaper. A good Samaritan alerted authorities after witnessing a man dropping off the car seat in the median while - and arguing with a woman. You can see pictures here. The car seat is a display version that was not meant to be sold.

The man and woman were seen arguing. They turned out to be the baby's parents. That baby is now recovering in state custody.

Also, a disturbing story out of Florida after a woman allegedly stabbed a mother 14 times in front of her five year old daughter. Police say the incident started over an argument about a tip on a pizza delivery. Twenty-two-year-old Brianna Alvelo delivered the pizza to a motel, then left, and then allegedly came back later, breaking into the victim's motel room and stabbing her repeatedly, all over her body, in front of that poor woman's child. The woman was taken to hospital, is recovering and said to be in stable condition. Alvelo, though, is now facing a whole bunch of charges, including for home invasion with a firearm, attempted murder, kidnaping and aggravated assault.

Now, thousands of Amazon delivery drivers have ended their strike and are headed back to work. The teamsters union led protests outside at least 200 facilities nationwide, but workers only went on strike at a handful of locations. The workers are calling for higher wages and better working conditions, citing record profits earned by Amazon. Amazon has insisted, though, none of its operations or deliveries were affected by the stoppage, and has also pushed back against the teamsters, saying that the teamsters don't represent any Amazon employees. Still, union leaders say the strike was a success in raising public awareness for its members.

Sara.

SIDNER: OK, Kate, stick around. I think we need to do this as a pool. But we're just hours away from a lottery drawing that could make you or maybe me, or maybe some of our crew guys here, I don't know, sweet Lou, he looks like he could use $1 billion. The Mega Millions jackpot soared to more than a billion after no one ended up picking the winning number on Christmas Eve.

CNN correspondent Lucy Kafanov joining us now from Chicago from a store there.

OK, first of all, are you into this? Have you picked a ticket? Do you do like your own numbers or do you - oh - oh, you're ready?

LUCY KAFANOV, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, I'm not ready. It's not filled out yet, Sara, but I have it in my hand. It's, you know, for those who haven't maybe gotten that perfect belated christmas gift for friends or are just looking to get lucky on their own, it's another chance to put your chance in for more than $1 billion this holiday season.

[09:55:07]

Again, after nobody managed to win all six - get all six numbers correct on Christmas Eve.

And this is one of the gas stations where folks have been coming in this morning for their chances taking home tonight $1.15 billion jackpot. It is the fifth largest prize in the game's history.

And the stakes are very, very high. If somebody wins and they take the cash option, that means they can walk away with more than $516 million before taxes. Obviously, a life changing amount.

As for your chances of actually winning, they're not that great. It's one in 302 million, which means you have a better chance of getting bitten by a shark or struck by lightning. But that has not stopped people from dreaming big about what they do with their winnings.

Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm going to take care of my daughters, my grandchildren, and that's it. Family is everything, especially now with Christmas.

KAFANOV: It would be an amazing belated Christmas present.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Awesome. And like I said, me and my wife would go to the Keys, and everybody else, c'est la vie.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KAFANOV: The winning number will be picked tonight at 11:00 p.m. So, you still have time to get your tickets.

SIDNER: Everyone else, c'est la vie. Also -

BOLDUAN: I was going to say, that's the perfect way of -

SIDNER: C'est la vie.

BOLDUAN: The perfect way of wrapping it, c'est la vie to this week.

Thank you all so much for joining us. This is CNN NEWS CENTRAL. "CNN NEWSROOM" up next.

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