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Israeli Police: Tel Aviv Car-Ramming Attack Leaves 8 People Injured; 120 People Detained in Military Operation by Israeli Forces; Israelis Forces Raid in West Bank Targeting Palestinian Militants; Domestic Violence Victims Fear Gun Ruling; Harvard Being Sued Regarding Legacy Admissions and Donor Preferences; Guns in America; Key Gun Rights Case to be Decided by Supreme Court; Supreme Court to Rule On Removing Firearms From Domestic Violence Suspects; Wimbledon Honors Tennis Legend Roger Federer. Aired 10:30-11a ET
Aired July 04, 2023 - 10:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: At least eight people are recovering after a car ramming attack in Tel Aviv. Police say, after the suspect hit passengers with his car, the driver got out and tried to stab civilians before being killed by an armed elderly civilian. Now, we've just gotten some CCTV video of the moment. I'm going to have you take a look at that, and a warning, it could have disturbing images.
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SIDNER: All right. You saw there in your -- in the left corner of your screen, the car hitting someone and coming to a full stop. I am not seeing the driver get out yet, but police say -- yes, there is the driver getting out of the car now through the window and running. Police say he was then trying to stab people afterwards. Hamas has claimed responsibility for the attack. Saying it was in response to Israel's massive military operation that is still ongoing in the West Bank. The Palestinian authority says the operation in Jenin has killed 10 people and injured about 100. Israel claims the mission is necessary to, what it calls, dismantle terrorist infrastructure in the area.
Joining us now is CNN Global Affairs Analyst Kim Dozier. She is the senior managing editor for the "Military Times". Thank you so much for joining us today. Can we start with just unusual it is for us for these airstrikes to happen in the West Bank, in particular in Jenin. We see these rockets coming over from Gaza and Israel responding with airstrikes, but you rarely see this happen in the West Bank.
KIM DOZIER, CNN GLOBAL AFFAIRS ANALYST AND SENIOR MANAGING EDITOR, THE MILITARY TIMES: Right. While we've seen this happen with Gaza, we haven't seen it happen in the West Bank in about 20 years since the last Palestinian uprising. And usually, the way the Israelis plan these attacks is they map out terrorist networks, criminal networks. They have almost perfect penetration of Israeli -- of Palestinian telecommunications. So, they map the nodes, and then they design operations where they'll encircle a town, and they have a checklist, they go through it, and they will hit block after block until they find the people from the list.
20 years ago, when I was on the ground during the incursions in Jenin, Ramallah, et cetera, during that uprising, you could see that the special operations teams were taking as much care as they could. But one of the ways they traverse around the town to get specific targets is they'll blast their way into one end of the building and then blast the walls all the way along to get to a specific person.
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You can't know who is on the other side of those walls. But the IDF, the Israeli Defense Forces, consider that a legitimate risk because they've lost more than two dozen people in the past several months through Palestinian attacks.
SIDNER: Back then was the Second Intifada. And I want to ask you, Israel says, this is the biggest military operation in the West Bank, in Jenin, you know, since 2002. Do you think that looking at this retaliatory action by -- claimed by Hamas, do you think that this could turn into a Third Intifada?
DOZIER: Well, what's happening with the Palestinian people, especially those on the West Bank is they haven't seen an election for a Palestinian president since 2005. They see reports of corruption in their own government, they see reports of corruption on the Israeli side. They can see the U.S. and the International Community not making any attempt from their perspective to bring about new peace talks to give them their own state. And the frustration then grows and grows and grows. And people take acts of desperation. They consider things like back in the Second Intifada, there were more than a hundred suicide bombings against Israeli targets, restaurants, buses, cafes.
Now, Israel created a wall and has locked down the Palestinian territory in such a way that it would be much harder to do something like, then you see, alternative acts of desperation like the horrific car ramming that happened today. Claimed by Hamas, which is one of the two parties that Israel would have to talk to, to create an independent Palestinian state. So, you can see, that's part of the reason talks would likely go nowhere.
SIDNER: Kim Dozier, thank you so much for the in-depth analysis on what is happening now in Jenin.
We are also hearing that, John, that Israel is going to end this military action in Jenin in the next day or so.
JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: We'll watch that very closely.
In the meantime, guns and domestic violence. Abused victims worry that a law headed for the U.S. Supreme Court could put them in danger.
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BERMAN: Three minority advocacy groups are responding to the Supreme Court's ruling on Affirmative Action with their own lawsuit against Harvard for legacy admissions. The groups accuse Harvard of discrimination by giving preferential treatment to children of wealthy donors and alumni. They cite the language from justices saying admission should not benefit one race over another. We spoke last hour to one of the lawyers involved in the case.
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MICHAEL A. KIPPLINS, CHALLENGING HARVARD'S LEGACY ADMISSIONS: It's an unjust and unearned benefit. And these applicants are receiving the benefit based on work or money donated by other people. It is not an individual merit situation. It is not something where they're being considered on equal playing field with their colleagues, with their fellow applicants. And it's a practice that needs to be eliminated as it violates the federal law.
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BERMAN: A Harvard spokesperson said the school will not comment on the lawsuit.
A shark attack in New York. Yesterday afternoon, a 15-year-old boy was bitten on his toes and left heel by a shark as he was surfing off the coast of Fire Island. He was able to swim to the shore for help, rushed to the hospital. We are told that his heel and toes were still intact. According to Suffolk County Police, this marks the first shark attack in the area this summer.
Officials in Texas have release police dashcam video of a chaotic chase between a big rig and a state trooper. The truck driver reached speeds of 85 miles per hour and even drove on the wrong side of the highway before going off onto a dirt road. When the truck finally did stop, police say numerous people jumped out. Troopers arrested the driver and apprehended a dozen undocumented immigrants.
Sara.
SIDNER: After a blockbuster term and landmark rulings, the Supreme Court is already looking ahead to its next term, and another divisive issue, gun rights. The high court will take up a federal law that bars an individual subject to domestic violence restraining orders from owning a gun. An Appeals Court ruled that that law is unconstitutional. Some survivors of domestic abuse fear for their safety if the law is upheld.
CNN's Security Correspondent Josh Campbell has one survivor's very emotional story.
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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: His anger was not controllable.
JOSH CAMPBELL, CNN SECURITY CORRESPONDENT (voiceover): For many victims of domestic violence, every day of life is hell on Earth.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It can be as something as simple as me putting doing my makeup. It would be a breakdown and the fights will start.
CAMPBELL (voiceover): We spoke with a young mother who doesn't want to be identified because she is now in hiding after fleeing years of abuse that took a potentially deadly turn.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He started intimidating me with his guns, and I fled. That was the breaking point.
CAMPBELL: The guns?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The guns, yes.
CAMPBELL (voiceover): She sought a restraining order, but proving her case was tough. A judge initially refused to grant one and denied her immediate sole custody of her child.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I know I'm no good dead, so I had to leave her.
CAMPBELL: It's OK.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I had to leave her. I had to leave her. I had to allow her to go back there.
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CAMPBELL (voiceover): After repeated attempts, she got custody and a restraining order. Forcing the man, she accused of abuse, to relinquish his guns.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The hope is them removing their guns or have them turn in their guns, you know, will keep you safe.
CAMPBELL (voiceover): That sense of safety was shattered, she says, after a new controversial federal court ruling that let certain people accused of domestic violence keep their guns.
JENNIFER MASCIA, CNN GUNS IN AMERICA CONTRIBUTOR: The 5th Circuit Court of Appeals in Texas looked at the case of a man who was challenging the federal law that bans guns for people who are subject to restraining orders.
CAMPBELL (voiceover): The court covering Texas, Louisiana, and Mississippi ruled that law was unconstitutional. Calling it an outlier that our ancestors would never have accepted. Language that the Supreme Court also used in a New York ruling last summer.
MASCIA: This is strictly because domestic violence was not considered a crime by the founders. Was it a law back then? Does it have roots in our American history and tradition? If it wasn't, then it doesn't have to stand.
CARMEN MCDONALD, LOS ANGELES CENTER FOR LAW AND JUSTICE: It's devastating.
CAMPBELL (voiceover): The ruling has stunned domestic violence victim advocates like Carmen McDonald with the Los Angeles Center for Law and Justice.
MCDONALD: It's not even logical. 230 years ago, women didn't have the right to vote. Slavery was legal. Domestic violence laws weren't even on the book. Marital rape was legal.
CAMPBELL (voiceover): U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland blasted the circuit court ruling, petitioning the Supreme Court to decide on the case. DOJ telling the high court, more than a million acts of domestic violence occur in the United States every year, and the presence of a firearm increases the chance that violence will escalate to homicide. On Friday, the Supreme Court announced they will review the controversial case next term. Some gun safety experts say, the danger pose by abusers with guns could split the court's solid conservative majority.
MASCIA: The Supreme Court, at some point, may draw a line. They have indicated some of the conservative justices that they are willing to do that.
CAMPBELL (voiceover): As the nation waits to see what the justices will do, the abuse victim we met has a grim prediction that the court allows abusers to keep their guns.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: There's a lot of blood that's going to be on their hands by doing that. A lot of blood.
CAMPBELL: On the judges?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes, a lot of blood that's going to be on their hands. A lot of women that's going to be trapped to stay in a situation like that. And it's not just going to affect them, it's going to affect the kids adds well.
CAMPBELL (voiceover): Josh Campbell, CNN, Los Angeles.
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SIDNER: Thank you to our Josh Campbell. What a striking story.
John.
BERMAN: All right. Investigators searching for the motives behind two deadly shootings. One in Texas, another in Pennsylvania that left at least eight people dead.
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BERMAN: Tennis legend Roger Federer is being honored at Wimbledon this week as the tournament gets underway. He is a legend for a reason. He racked up 20 Grand Slam titles, including eight at Wimbledon alone. He retired from professional tennis last year, but he has kept busy working with his foundation and raising a family.
CNN's Christina Macfarlane spoke with Federer, and she joins us now. I'm sure he doesn't particularly love watching, perhaps, he'd rather be playing.
CHRISTINA MACFARLANE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's a very astute observation and quite right, John. You know, he appeared on center court at Wimbledon just a couple of hours ago, it was his first return since retiring. And he had a standing ovation from the crowd there for about three hours. And now wonder why, you know, because, you know, wherever you sit on the GOAT debates, I think for tennis fans, Roger Federer will always be number one. Not just for the way he plays the game with flare, with style, but for the emotion that he brings to the game as well.
We all remember those scenes at the Laver Cup nine months ago when he retired, when he was in floods of tears alongside his rival Raf Nadal. But since then, John, we haven't really heard that much from the man himself. And for about half an hour, I had the chance to talk to him about everything, really. And he told me that, you know, he wasn't really missing tennis because he knew that his body couldn't cope with the rigors of tennis life any more.
And the thing that he was enjoying the most was actually having the time to plan special moments with his friends and family, especially with his children. He took a trip to Lesotho last month to look at the charitable work for his Roger Federer Foundation celebrating 20 years this year Southern Africa.
But you know, away from the family, John, we all know that Roger Federer has been having a lot of fun. You just got to look at his Instagram account for that. He has been at sporting events, he's hosted the Met Gala, and on Sunday he was up on stage actually performing alongside Coldplay in Zurich. But one of the funniest moments on the interview was when he told me that, you know, he might be adjusting to life after tennis, but a lot of tennis fans are having a hard time trying to place him off the tennis court. Have a listen to this.
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ROGER FEDERER, EIGHT-TIME WIMBLEDON CHAMPION: I think because I show up in completely different random places nowadays, you know, that some people are really surprised and very happy, and to all of a sudden see me. I mean, I've had a moment when I did the Orient Express when I was in Venice and a guy chased me down and he was like, can I please take a picture? I'm like, yes. Are you who you think you are? I'm like, no, I don't know who you think I am. He was like, you're Nadal. I'm like, I'm so sorry, I'm not. You know, so I kept on walking and the guy looked and he goes, such a pity he's not Nadal. But he kept on looking back, and I thought he was going to maybe figure it out, but he didn't, you know. So, that was quite a --
MACFARLANE: He missed his moment.
[10:55:00] FEDERER: He missed his moment. But he clearly didn't want a picture with me. He wanted a picture with Rafa. But anyway, so I have, obviously, moments like these.
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MACFARLANE: You know, these two are great friends, John, Rafa and Roger. And I know Rafa Nadal will have -- had a huge kick out of that story.
BERMAN: That's a hilarious story. I love that. All right. Christine, great interview. Thanks so much for that. Appreciate it.
Sara.
SIDNER: This morning, Russia is accusing Ukraine of a terrorist attack, claiming they shot five droves out of the sky near Russia. This is as Russia continues its bloodletting in Ukraine. The response from Ukraine coming up.
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