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Half Of U.S. Tap Water Has Forever Chemicals; Meta Targets Twitter With Threads App; Private Sector Sees Big Job Spike. Aired 1:30-2p ET

Aired July 06, 2023 - 13:30   ET

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

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BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN ANCHOR: An alarming new study estimates nearly half the tap water in the United States is contaminated with forever chemicals. The U.S. Geological Survey conducted the most comprehensive research to date to find out just how widespread these chemicals are and scientists now believe they may be even more hazardous to our health than previously thought.

CNN's Jacqueline Howard joins us now. So Jacqueline, what exactly are these forever chemicals?

JACQUELINE HOWARD, CNN HEALTH REPORTER: Boris, the chemicals we're talking about here are PFAS chemicals. Those are polyfluoroalkyl and perfluoroalkyl substances and they're called forever chemicals because they take some time to be break down. They break down very slowly and PFAS chemicals can be found in everyday items like nonstick cooking pans or fast food containers.

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And what researchers did for this new survey, they looked at more than 700 sites, they got tap water samples from these sites across the United States. You see here private wells were some of the sources as well as public sources. And they found that in the tap water, at least 45 percent of samples contained PFAS chemicals.

And they noted that many of these samples came from large urban areas or big cities. We should have a map here of the hotspots where some of these samples were found. Now, this should not scare people, as you see here on the map, the hotspots where some of the samples were found, but Boris, as I was saying, this shouldn't really scare people.

And this is just to raise awareness about how prevalent that PFAS chemicals are and how widespread they are. And research is ongoing about the public health implications here. PFAS chemicals have been linked to certain cancers, thyroid disease. So this is ongoing research. And this new data really puts in perspective, just the prevalence, Boris.

SANCHEZ: So Jacqueline, what's being done now to address this and how can people protect themselves? HOWARD: Well, number one, we know the EPA is doing a lot of work in this area. Public utilities are doing work to remove PFAS chemicals, but these are forever chemicals. So it will take some time and it takes some resources but something we can all do individually. You can use a carbon filter on your tap water at home and make sure to change it regularly.

And there's also a test that you can purchase online or from certified labs to test your tap water. So those are just some things we can do individually on our own, Boris.

SANCHEZ: Jacqueline Howard, thank you so much for the reporting. Brianna.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN ANCHOR: Is Mark Zuckerberg trying to kill Twitter? Meta's new Threads app already has 30 million signups. Should Twitter be trembling? We will discuss that plus, the private sector saw a big hiring spike last month companies added nearly half a million jobs. What that says about the state of the economy, ahead.

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KEILAR: Facebook's parent company Meta officially launched a new social media platform that's being called a Twitter killer. It's called Threads. And it links to your Instagram account. Mark Zuckerberg says 30 million people signed up here in the first day. So let's talk about this. What this means? Is it going to live up to the hype with CNN Analyst and Senior Media Reporter at Axios, Sara Fischer. I think that's the question, is it going to live up to the hype?

Which brings me to my first question, is it going to scratch that Twitter itch? How is this kind of the same as Twitter? How is it different, Sara?

SARA FISCHER, CNN MEDIA ANALYST: Well, on the surface level, it looks and feels very similar, Brianna, to what Twitter is. You can post things, you can favorite things, you can like things. You have a follower list and a following list. So it's not that different. But I do think it poses a pretty serious threat to Twitter. And that's because the adoption, Brianna has just been absolutely explosive.

As somebody who covers media and technology, I have signed up for every Twitter alternative, whether it's been Parlor, or Truth, or Post Dot news, or Spill or Mastodon, I have never had my phone blow up the way it has in the past 24 hours with new following requests, with people liking my posts. There is definitely momentum behind this app.

And just to give you some context, that 30 million number that you referenced is extremely important. Yesterday, I posted a story in axios.com of all of the copycat features that Meta has introduced in the past few years. And all of those features that have been sunsetted, that have died, they were killed because they only had a few 100,000 followers. The fact that Threads has 30 million people signed up already, to me indicates that this is not an app that's going to get killed. It's not going to be short lived. This is going to be a product that Meta will likely invest in for the future for the long term.

KEILAR: Yes, listen, you can't slide into someone's DMs on this, right? But I guess you could do that on Instagram. There's that question of how can you look chronologically, maybe you can't at the Threads. I almost said tweets. But it does seem that when you go on this and I'm on it, @Brianna Keilar now.

People are just very happy to have somewhere else to be and people who have been having those Twitter conversations are now having those Thread conversations, how vulnerable is Twitter?

FISCHER: They're pretty vulnerable. And I think you hit on something very critical. Mark Zuckerberg said yesterday in a Thread, that he wants it to be a friendly place a place for kind of conversations. And you and I both know, anytime you get into a text based public square like app, it's going to be hard to retain that level of happiness, you're ultimately going to get into things like political speech, where it gets more antagonistic.

But for now, I do think that users are looking for a place, a reprieve if you will, from some of the nastiness on Twitter that has come out since Elon Musk took over and pulled back some of those content rules. Now Brianna, you had mentioned a few features that don't exist yet on Threads.

Things like direct messaging, or chronological feed. One of the other things to note though, is that there are things that come with Threads that don't happen on Twitter. For example, there's a ton of content moderation policies.

KEILAR: That's right, yes.

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FISCHER: Everything currently that exists for safety, content moderation on Instagram gets imported into Threads. That's something that I think users are actually craving right now on Twitter that they're not getting.

KEILAR: I noticed that is too so I noticed that as well that if you, for instance, click to follow someone who has been posting out conspiracy theories, that it's going to alert you that this is someone who traffics in disinformation. And on Elon Musk's Twitter, that seems like maybe it's something people don't want, or certainly he doesn't want but it seems like that is a selling point for Threads, right?

FISCHER: I think so. And also, by the way, on the other end, it's a selling point for Twitter, if you're not somebody who wants to engage in sort of thoughtful, you know, moderated conversation. But you know, the big thing that I think that Threads has going for it, Brianna, is it's launching at a really important time. You know, Twitter's lost about 60 percent of its value. Advertising is down for the month of April 59 percent. The company is struggling to roll out new products in a way that is thoughtful and isn't disruptive to the user experience. Mark Zuckerberg is coming in when Twitter is down. And that's different.

In the past when he is introduced new features like stories which he took from Snapchat, it was when those apps were on the rise. This is different because it's when the app is on the fall. And so I think that Twitter is going to have a real run for its money because of Threads.

KEILAR: Yes, it'll be interesting to see how Twitter maybe moderates its behavior and its product in relationship to this. Sara, thank you so much. This could be a time of change when it comes to social media. Jim?

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN ANCHOR: So Brianna, what do you think? Stweet instead of tweet? Does that work?

KEILAR: We're going to keep working on it.

SCIUTTO: We'll work on it. I'm giving it a try too. Now to some other headlines we are watching this hour. Jobs, jobs, jobs. The private sector witnessed a big hiring spike last month. Payroll Processor, ADP says companies added nearly half a million jobs in June. That is double what economists had predicted, a big jump as well from May.

Consumer facing service industries and leisure and hospitality drove those gains, annual pay increases however were slightly down. Tomorrow's June jobs report also expected to defy expectations, economy's still strong.

Yesterday's average global temperature tied with Tuesday's as the planets hottest day ever, at nearly 63 degrees Fahrenheit. Keep in mind that's average across the globe, including at the poles. Experts believe these are the warmest temperatures in at least 100,000 years. You heard that right. And warn the record could be broken again and again.

That's bad news for a warming planet. And if you're Honda driver, do listen up. The company just recalled 1000s of models because of a brake issue. Not what you want to hear The recall affects certain Civic, Ridgeline, Passport, Pilot and Acura MDX models made since 2020.

Honda says a loose fastener could make the brakes malfunction. Drivers can have their cars inspected and repaired at Honda dealerships, of course free of charge for us. Boris?

SANCHEZ: Still to come. A former CIA director says it is time to crank up the pressure on Moscow as military and economic failures confront Vladimir Putin. We're going to find out what that pressure could look like when we come back.

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SANCHEZ: A former head of the CIA says that conditions are ripe for the United States to quote tighten the screws on Russia's economy. David Petraeus cites Vladimir Putin's mounting problems from the ongoing war in Ukraine to Wagner's challenge to his authority to ongoing domestic budget troubles.

CNNs Matt Egan joins us now live and Matt, there are already enormous sanctions put on the west -- on Russia, what is Petraeus suggesting we do?

MATT EGAN, CNN REPORTER: Well Boris, Petraeus is saying now is exactly the time to turn up the heat even more on Moscow. He says that Putin is facing a quote very, very difficult situation. And the U.S. should impose even tougher sanctions on Russia, even tougher export controls. Now this war in Ukraine has been dragging on for almost a year and a half at this point, killing untold numbers of innocent people in both countries, causing millions of Ukrainians to become refugees and of course, casting a shadow over the world economy.

So I asked Petraeus flat out when will this war end? And he said, quote, it ends when Putin realizes that this is not sustainable, not just because of the losses on the battlefield, but because of the damage it is doing in the Russian economy. And so yes, Petraeus is calling for Washington to quote, tighten the screws.

He wants Washington to target the supply chains that power Russia's economy and its war machine. He wants to make it even harder for other countries to trade with Russia. And he says the U.S. needs to do a better job of quickly responding to Ukraine's request for military hardware.

Now, I do want to take a step back and address this question of how much damage has sanctions done to the Russian economy because there is a debate there. And there is a bit of an open question because how can we possibly trust the official economic numbers coming out of Moscow.

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I do think it's fair to say that the sanctions haven't been the death blow that Petraeus and others were hoping for. But there has been real damage done. I mean, we know that countless Western brands have left Russia, everyone from American Airlines and Delta to Starbucks and Uber. And that has caused enormous damage.

And at the same time, the latest numbers out of Moscow even show that their budget deficit is soaring. Oil and gas revenue was down by almost 50 percent year over year. That is, in large part because of these Western sanctions. And so Boris, if Petraeus gets his way, and there's even more sanctions, the pressure on Putin and Russia is even going to go higher.

SANCHEZ: An interesting perspective. Matt Egan, thanks so much. Jim? SCIUTTO: Coming up, where is Wagner boss, Yevgeny Prigozhin? The Belarusian President Aleksandr Lukashenko says the leader of the weekend mutiny against Putin is not in Belarus. Where does he say he is? Do we believe him? We're going to talk about it. Coming up on CNN News Central.

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