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AZ Limits Construction As Groundwater Vanishes; Rainy Forecast Promises Relief In Canada; New Video Shows Moment Of Iowa Building Collapse; Drug Cuts Some Risk Of Breast Cancer Recurrence & Study Suggests Simple Cervical Cancer Surgeries; European Space Agency Livestreams From Mars. Aired 2:30-3p ET
Aired June 02, 2023 - 14:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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[14:30:13]
BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: Got some news just into CNN. Multiple people have been rescued after a building under construction collapsed in New Haven, Connecticut.
This was the scene there just moments ago. High-angle rescue operations are currently underway. Officials say seven people are injured, two of them critically.
Authorities say that while the workers were pouring concrete, a portion of the second floor collapsed onto the first floor and into the basement.
We just heard from the fire chief there. Listen to this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOHN ALSTON, CHIEF, NEW HAVEN, CT, FIRE DEPARTMENT: All united responded immediately, within minutes, and found several persons in varying degrees of injury, from broken bones to three that were partially buried under the rubble.
What was occurring at the time was a concrete and cement pour. And what happens is you have workers up there that are spreading it as it's being applied to that level.
It appears from their statements that it because to pool in a certain area faster than they could and it caused it to cave. All the workers were in that area. Some walked away.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SANCHEZ: We're going to continue to monitor this story and bring you the very latest.
Jim?
JIM SCIUTTO, CNN HOST: Well, the fastest-growing metro area in the country is now being reined in because of a critical shortage of water. Arizona officials say they will no longer grant construction permits for new developments within the Phoenix area.
Phoenix has been booming and groundwater there is rapidly vanishing after years of overuse as well as drought, driven by climate change. The new restrictions are driven by a new state law designed to ensure an adequate water supply for the next century.
CNN's Stephanie Elam joins us now.
Stephanie, this is a big deal. We've heard for some time about the water shortage there but to stop all new construction. I wonder how folks and Phoenix businesses, residents, et cetera, are receiving this.
STEPHANIE ELAM, CNN CORRESPONDENT: No doubt about it, Jim. It's a big of a playing card for much of the southwest as we deal with this human-induced climate change that we are living in.
I know for much of the time that I've talked to you over the last few months, I was showing you the amounts of snow in the Sierra Nevada mountains in California.
But guess what? A lot of the water that Arizona uses, California, too, comes from the Colorado River. And they just negotiated a new deal to cut back on how much water they're going to be using.
That's surface water, right? But you're looking at the groundwater, and that is what they are specifically targeting in the Phoenix metro area because of the fact there's just not enough groundwater.
In fact, they say that 4 percent of groundwater demand will not be able to be met over the next 100 years. That's why they're making this decision.
In fact, take a listen to Arizona Governor Katie Hobbs on this issue.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GOV. KATIE HOBBS (D-AZ): That's why, as required by law, we will pause approvals of new assured water supply determinations that rely on pumping groundwater, ensuring that we don't add to any future deficit.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ELAM: You heard the governor talking about an assured water supply. That's important, too, for the developments that have already gotten approval. They can still continue.
But any new developer that wants to come along and say they want to build a new housing development, they're going to have to find that assured water supply that is not a local groundwater supply in order to make sure that there will be water for these residents 100 years from now.
Obviously, the implications are huge but when you are growing in the desert, where there isn't enough water and in parts of the state where they can just use as much groundwater as they want, they have to start making decisions.
And it seems that Arizona is making this case, as we know that we'll see drier and drier years ahead according to scientists -- Jim?
SCIUTTO: Right. Looking far into the future is something, well, you don't always do.
Stephanie Elam, covering the story in L.A., thanks so much.
Boris?
SANCHEZ: There is new hope today that a rain forecast is going to help slow a major wildfire in Nova Scotia, the largest that Canadian province has ever recorded.
The smoke and haze causing quality -- air quality alerts across the northeastern United States.
CNN's Chad Myers joins us now.
So, Chad, is this rain going to bring some relief?
CHAD MYERS, AMS CERTIFIED METEOROLOGIST: Absolutely, 100 percent. Three to four inches over the entire area. That is enough to really stop this, stop the smoke that's in the northeast, stop the hazardous air that's in the northeast.
And stop the fires for the people of Novia Scotia. This is a big front that's going to come down and it's going to stall and the low pressure will run up that front and push all of this smoke -- hard to see right now -- but push all of that smoke completely away.
[14:35:55]
Here's the rain forecast for the next couple of days. And look at the low. It just stops. Couldn't stop in a better place. This moisture flow right into Halifax, all the way down to Novia Scotia. And all of Atlantic Canada will see some significantly cooler weather.
Look at what happens to Boston with this. From 83 today to 54. I mean, that is colder air coming in. That's the rainfall coming in.
And this is the precipitation expected from the computer models. Everywhere you see orange focused up there, that's four inches of rain or more. And that is a blessing.
SANCHEZ: Some welcome rainfall there.
Chad, what about this new storm that we're seeing not far from Florida, in the Caribbean. First day of hurricane season.
MYERS: And we finally have our first named storm. This happened at 2:00. So 35 minutes ago, hurricane hunters were in there and they found enough wind to give it a name, Tropical Storm Arlene. Now this -- I know it looks like it's going to go to Florida but it's
going the other way. It's going all the way down into Cuba. So this won't be any kind of a deal here across North America.
But there will be some heavy rainfall. It's tropical rain anyway because it's really tropical season.
Something else I'm watching today, too, is the flood watches here in Florida.
But the tornado potential out here in the Midwest. The first tornado watch of the day has already been issued. And there was just a tornado warning for Hobbs, New Mexico.
And I think this will be a very active busy severe weather day in the plains -- Boris?
SANCHEZ: No shortage of weather to keep an eye on.
Chad Myers, thank you so much for the update.
MYERS: Yes.
SANCHEZ: Jim?
SCIUTTO: Coming up, promising results from a new breast cancer drug study. We'll have the details just ahead.
And Yellowstone trying to keep animals in the park safe from humans. We'll tell you what visitors are being asked to do to protect them.
This is CNN NEWS CENTRAL.
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[14:41:11]
SANCHEZ: CNN has obtained new surveillance video that captured the moment that Iowa apartment building began to collapse. We should note, three people are still missing. According to the mayor there, repair work had begun on the building just days before it partially came down.
The city also released photos showing what appears to be a void, you can see it here, forming between the facade and an interior wall.
CNN's Adrienne Broaddus has the new video.
Adrienne, walk us through what we see in the footage.
ADRIENNE BROADDUS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: OK, I'll do that for you, Boris. But first I want our viewers to know this video was obtained from the roof of a nearby building. The owner of this surveillance camera shared this video with us.
It shows what happens in the nine minutes or so leading up to this partial collapse. The video does cut off somewhat abruptly when the building starts to collapse. The owner of the video tells us that's because the power was knocked out when all of this happened.
If you look at the video, you will notice there are five support braces leaning up against the building. The one closer to the camera, from your vantage point, probably at the bottom of your screen there, gradually bends, leading up to the collapse.
We're not saying that's what caused the collapse, but over the course of these nine minutes, you can see it gradually bending.
Now, two minutes before the collapse, a large chunk of bricks starts falling. You can see this on the video. And that's underneath what appears to be a second-floor window.
A lower portion of the wall also crumbles. And soon after, you see the collapse. That support brace that was closest to the camera, right before the initial collapse, it starts bending at a much faster rate.
As we've been telling you, three people who lived at this building are still missing. Crews are continuing their search. They have used canines, as well as infrared cameras, as well as what they call forensic drones.
Members of the search-and-rescue team went back inside the building to see if they were able to find signs of human survivors. They were able to rescue some pets.
And right now, the next phase, according to the fire chief, will be recovery -- Boris?
SANCHEZ: Adrienne Broaddus, with an update on the situation in Davenport, Iowa. Thanks so much.
Jim?
SCIUTTO: A fascinating video there.
Now to a few other headlines we are watching this hour.
A gruesome discovery in Mexico. Police found 45 bags filled with body parts in a ravine near Guadalajara.
The authorities say the human remains have characteristics matching seven missing call center workers who disappeared two weeks ago in western Mexico. Forensic experts are now working to determine the exact number of victims, and also their identities.
We are following a developing story out of India. Two passenger trains and a goods train collided in the eastern part of the country. Officials do not yet know the death toll here.
They say 50, perhaps 50 people are dead. They call it a violent train accident. Rescuers are now on the scene, including more than 50 ambulances. Finally, Yellowstone National Park is asking visitors to drive
carefully and follow safety regulations after several reports of wild animals being killed by cars and endangers in other ways by visitors.
Just weeks ago, a newborn bison had to be euthanized after a tourist pulled the struggling calf from a river up onto a roadway. You see the picture there. The man pleaded guilty to illegally touching that wild animal.
Boris?
SANCHEZ: Here's some new developments to bring you in the fight against cancer. Two new studies out of a major cancer research conference suggest there are better ways to treat breast and cervical cancers.
[14:45:08]
CNN medical correspondent, Meg Tirrell, has been tracking these details.
Meg, let's start with the breast cancer study. These are some very promising results.
MEG TIRRELL, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Boris, they really are. These were the most common form of breast cancer, which is known an HR-positive HER2-negative breast cancer in the early stages of the disease.
What they looked at is that they could prevent the cancer from recurring after patients have received initial treatment.
They found that when they added this drug, known as Kisqali, to the existing treatment, typically hormone therapy, reduced the risk of the cancer recurrence by 25 percent.
If you look at the data another way, when they went out to three years, the survival rate without the disease progressing was 90 percent with the drug compared to 87 percent without it.
And when you think about the thousands of patients with breast cancer in the U.S., that is really quite significant.
The catch here, Boris, might be the price of this drug. Novartis, the maker of it, says it can cost $6,000 to $15,000 a month per patient before insurance. So this can really start to add up in terms of costs.
SANCHEZ: And, Meg, on the study regarding cervical cancer, it's revealing that it should be treated with a less invasive kind of surgery?
TIRRELL: This is something that doctors are excited about and the field has been moving toward.
Cervical cancer right now is traditionally treated in these stages with radical hysterectomy. A study found at this conference that a simple hysterectomy, which is a less radical procedure, as you can tell from the name, had similar outcomes. So this could dramatically improve quality of life.
Also, we're showing you some statics, 600,000 cases of cervical cancer every year, 350,000 deaths. The majority of those are in developing countries.
So doctors say this less invasive procedure could perhaps make it more accessible where it's really needed.
SANCHEZ: Promising research on both fronts.
Meg Terrill, thank you so much for that.
Jim?
SCIUTTO: All right, one of my favorite topics, space. And Mars like you've never seen it before. We earthlings are getting the chance to see our red neighbor nearly in real time. We'll have much more on these historic images, next.
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[14:51:41]
SCIUTTO: Astrophysicists say we're getting a lot closer to putting a person on Mars. Today, millions of YouTube viewers got a live visit to the red planet.
The European Space Agency streamed the very first live images from its Mars Express orbiter.
CNN's Tom Foreman watched the entire hour.
Tom, I am so excited about this stuff. What did you see? How good is this stuff from here?
TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Today, in terms of images, not that great.
(LAUGHTER)
FOREMAN: Basically, what they have in the orbiter, the Mars Express orbiter, which has been up there for 20 years, they wanted to do this to celebrate 20 years, so they sent back live pictures, live.
Each one of these were single photographs that were taken.
SCIUTTO: Right.
FOREMAN: It took 16, 17 minutes for it to cover the 187 million miles from Mars to get back here.
So have we seen anything like this before? Yes, we have seen things like this before. But we haven't seen them this close to live. And it really is a testament to you know, the vehicle they did this with, the Mars Express orbiter up there, there was a lander they kind of failed on them.
Up there 20 years gathering information. Look at this thing. It's a huge satellite, a couple of solar arrays. It's been flying around. It's helped to experiment - look at things through the European Space Agency about ice on Mars, water on Mars. All of it spanning --
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SCIUTTO: That's important, right? Because when you talk about ice, not just because it's cold, there's ice there. Because when we talk about sending people there, we can't bring all of our own water, right?
So are they learning from this -- this --
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SCIUTTO: -- observation stuff --
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FOREMAN: You combine all of this with all of the images, and the geology and the studying we have done at the actual surface of Mars, since, you know decades back, we're getting closer to understanding what it would really be like if -- simple things, like a high, hot day, about 70 degrees.
SCIUTTO: Right.
FOREMAN: A cold day is about minus 225 degrees.
SCIUTTO: That range is always -- at some point, it's earth comparable, but at other points, it's another planet.
FOREMAN: Yes. But if we want to get people to land on Mars -- and I think we do, as a world, we want to be able to do this -- they'll have to fly for about nine months. And at the end of that time, we want to know what they're sitting down on and what they're going to find when they're up there.
SCIUTTO: Yes.
FOREMAN: So, all of this, even when it seems incremental like this, it's moving us that direction.
SCIUTTO: So you have NASA with a plan to go to Mars. You have Elon Musk with a plan to go to Mars. Realistically, if you had to guess, how many years before we put a -
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SCIUTTO: -- on Mars?
FOREMAN: Until we actually go to Mars? I don't know because I don't know enough about what China will do.
(CROSSTALK)
FOREMAN: -- what China would do. And for years, I thought that China, even though they're behind some other space programs now, they are moving forward by leaps and bounds.
So the actual timetable, I don't know. Space remains difficult.
SCIUTTO: Yes. Space is hard.
FOREMAN: That's why they call it "rocket science." And we don't know.
SCIUTTO: My son asked me the other day, would it happen during his lifetime.
FOREMAN: I think it will happen.
SCIUTTO: I said, during his. And I hope during my time.
(CROSSTALK)
SCIUTTO: Yes. Let's hope. Because I want to see that.
Tom Foreman, thank you so much.
Boris?
[14:54:49]
SANCHEZ: Sources tell CNN that attorneys for Donald Trump turned over material in mid-March after getting a subpoena for a classified document he described on tape. But they couldn't find that sensitive document itself. Ahead, CNN's new exclusive reporting.
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SCIUTTO: A new CNN exclusive. Former President Trump subpoenaed for records after he was caught on tape discussing how he held onto a classified document.
But CNN has learned his attorneys have not been able to find that key document. Critical details in the case prosecutors could be building against the Republican frontrunner.
[14:59:57]
SANCHEZ: Plus, a surge that, so far, hasn't happened. A very different story at the border than just weeks ago before Title 42 lifted. The number of migrant crossings is plummeting.
We're following these stories and many more coming into CNN NEWS CENTRAL.
