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Air Force: Russian Jets Harassed U.S. Drones In Syria; Armed Man In Obama Neighborhood To Face Felony Charges; Today: FDA Weighs Full Approval Of Alzheimer's Drug; Dow Tumbles On Red-Hot U.S. Jobs Market. Aired 2:30-3p ET

Aired July 06, 2023 - 14:30   ET

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

[14:30:00]

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: This is the Russian jet, just a closer --

JAMES "SPIDER" MARKS, CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Yes.

KEILAR: -- look at it if we can. And we may recall as well back in April, this also over Syria, which prompted a bit of a U.S. response. You can see this Russian jet engaging with U.S. fighter jet.

MARKS: Right. This is incredibly as they've said, the kind word is this is unprofessional. It's unprofessional. It's incredibly dangerous. It is amazingly provocative. And this is when accidents occur. If you're looking for the spark that ignites this greater conflagration that's going to occur, these are the things that happen. This will turn into an accident, this will cause some young pilot who is protecting his or her space, and then they're going to engage, they understand the rules of engagement. They understand what the do's and the don'ts are, but you end up with mistake when you have this type of proximity.

KEILAR: You're really challenging restraint. And then we saw a few weeks ago, the U.S. actually sent an F-22 Raptors to the region because of this unprofessionalism as you saw it. And I wonder what you think about sort of the build up that we're seeing in the region when it comes to these capabilities, and whether this is even working as a deterrence?

MARKS: Well, I think it clearly works as a deterrence when the United States shows up with an F-22. Raptor. I mean, this is as good as it gets. The Russians understand that. This hasn't necessarily been there before, that we're aware of.

So, is it an escalation? Yes. And I said, I think it sends a very powerful message. This is not what you guys want to do. And this is not the aircraft you want to mess with. Don't be provocative with the F-22.

KEILAR: Don't be provocative. All right, let's see if the message is received.

General Marks, great to have you on this.

MARKS: Thank you.

KEILAR: Boris?

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: Still much more to come on "CNN News Central." We're following a deadly fire on board a cargo ship at a port in New Jersey. The details on that and much more in just moments.

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[14:36:30]

SANCHEZ: We have an update now on a story we first brought you last week. The arrest of a heavily armed man in former President Barack Obama's neighborhood in Washington D.C. Federal prosecutors now say they plan to file felony charges against Taylor Taranto.

CNN senior justice correspondent Evan Perez is here with more. So, Evan, what are you learning about this case?

EVAN PEREZ, CNN SENIOR JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: While the federal prosecutors are saying now that they're planning to file felony charges against Taylor Taranto. At this point, right now he's only being held on outstanding warrant related to his presence to January 6th. So, you'll see the picture that we've been showing there where he was at the Capitol, you see him walking around with a cane and is accused of being part of a group that was attacking police officers there. And that was what he was wanted for.

He shows up here in Washington D.C. in the last few weeks, according to prosecutors, and he was live streaming. And the way he ends up at the neighborhood where Barack Obama, former president lives is the former President Donald Trump reposted a -- what was purported to be the address of President Obama and Taranto reposts that on his Telegram account, and then says something to the effect of, "We got these losers surrounded." He's also according to the investigators making threats against Kevin McCarthy, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Republican, and Democratic Representative Jamie Raskin.

So, all of this draws a picture of someone who's perhaps a lot disturbed, and so prosecutors want him detained. The judge is wrestling with whether to send him back to be supervised somewhere in Washington State, which is where he is from, where he -- where he was supposed to be living, or whether he should just remain in detention here in Washington, D.C. We'll see what the judge in the end decides. But for now, he remains behind bars. And prosecutors say they're going to file additional charges felony charges related to these latest, this latest incident.

SANCHEZ: There were some details in his story that were kind of alarming that he --

PEREZ: Right.

SANCHEZ: -- showed in a middle school and he was showing people video from January 6th. What was that about? PEREZ: Well, yes, he shows up. First of all, he he's got an arsenal in his --

SANCHEZ: Right.

PEREZ: -- in his van where apparently, he's been living. One of the things that he does is he's been live streaming during the whole time that he's been in this area. And one of the things he did was to show up at a school and it appears, investigators believe, again, part of the picture of a person who's not altogether there was showing these videos of January 6th, again, showing somebody that conspiracies that he believes were behind that incident.

SANCHEZ: Really disturbing behavior. Evan Perez, thanks so much for the update.

Jim?

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN HOST: Still to come. The FDA is expected to decide today whether to give grant full approval for the first drug to slow the progression of Alzheimer's disease. We're going to have more on that including crucially, who could qualify to take that drug.

Just ahead.

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[14:43:56]

KEILAR: Now to some of the other headlines that we were watching this hour. The state of New Jersey is mourning to Newark firefighters who lost their lives battling a blaze on this cargo ship that you see here. The vessel from Italy was carrying thousands of vehicles when several of them caught fire last night. The flames extended up multiple floors on the ship, and they were still -- well the ship was still smoldering this morning.

Also, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen is now in Beijing for a series of high stakes meetings with senior Chinese officials. Her visit is aimed at cooling the tensions between the United States and China after Secretary of State Blinken visited the country last month for the same reason. The administration though isn't saying or is saying that they don't anticipate specific policy breakthroughs.

And some new research finds that Texas' strict abortion ban led to 10,000 additional births last year. This law went into effect halfway through the year about shortly after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. It essentially bans abortion after a fetal heartbeat is detected. Using data from prior years researchers from Johns Hopkins predicted how the state's birth trends might have looked without the law. They estimate 9,800 births would not have happened without the ban.

[14:45:15]

Boris? SANCHEZ: Today a potential major step for millions of Americans with Alzheimer's. The FDA today is set to decide whether to fully approve the first drug to show it could slow the progression of the disease in certain patients. But the decision could have other implications including who could get access.

CNN medical correspondent Meg Tirrell, explains.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MEG TIRRELL, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Six years ago, Joe Montmliny saw neurologists for what he thought were a few minor problems with his memory.

JOE MONTMLINY, DIAGNOSED WITH ALZHEIMER'S: There she came back and said, you know what, Joe, I -- you actually have younger Alzheimer's disease, you're likely going to start to experience declines in the next five years. And you may not recognize your family in five to seven years.

TIRRELL (voice-over): Now 59, Montmliny is one of millions of Americans living with Alzheimer's disease. But this year, new hope emerged. A drug aiming to slow down the disease's progression got accelerated FDA approval in January, based on the fact that it clears amyloid plaque buildups in the brain associated with Alzheimer's.

But Medicare declined to cover it until the FDA granted a fuller traditional approval based on a bigger clinical trial proving the drug has benefits for thinking clearly and being able to function in daily life. Without insurance, the medicine called Lecanemab and sold under the brand name Leqembi cost $26,500 a year.

MONTMLINY: You had this treatment at your fingertips. And suddenly you had Medicare saying yes, but you can't quite get access to that at this point in time.

TIRRELL (voice-over): A larger trial funded by the drugs makers Eisai and Biogen did find that Leqembi can slow the progression of Alzheimer's disease by about 27%. It's the first time a drug has proven to alter the disease's course.

LAWRENCE HONIG, COLUMBIA IRVING MED. CENTER, NEUROLOGY PROF.: It was a very dismaying experience getting a diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease and to be told that we don't have anything that will slow down or stop the disease in its tracks.

TIRRELL (voice-over): Columbia University's Dr. Lawrence Honig says this is the beginning of a new treatment era. But he warns that Leqembi is not a cure, and not everyone will be eligible for the drug.

(on-camera): How difficult do you anticipate the conversations being with people who are more advanced and maybe are too advanced to benefit from the drug?

HONIG: We're already having these kind of conversations that sometimes aren't so easy. Is it's not that we know it's not good for people with moderate or severe disease? It's just that we don't know.

TIRRELL (voice-over): Side effects could be worse for people with more advanced disease as well, he says. Already there's something to be aware of. About 13% of patients receiving the drug in its trial had brain swelling, 17% had brain bleeding compared with 9% in the placebo group.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: There we go. You did it.

TIRRELL (voice-over): Leqembi is administered through IV infusion once every two weeks. Infusion centers like Vivo Infusion are gearing up for an expected surge in new patients.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And certain areas I anticipate we will receive probably at least 15 to 20% more patient referrals off for this drug.

TIRRELL (voice-over): Joe Montmliny is hoping he'll be able to get it for a chance for more time with his wife and two grown sons.

MONTMLINY: Like any parent out, we'll have to see them actually get married and have a family. I just want to experience many of the activities that most people take for granted.

TIRRELL (voice-over): Meg Tirrell, CNN, reporting.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SCIUTTO: Thanks to Meg for that story.

Well, how's the economy doing? Apparently pretty good. There was a huge jump in hiring among private businesses last month. We're going to tell you what this could mean not just for the economy, but the Fed chairs planned pause on interest rates.

That's next.

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[14:53:25]

SCIUTTO: We are watching Wall Street closely and stocks falling today as they often do on good economic news after new data reveals the U.S. labor market remains real hot, of course good for the economy, but it is raising fears that Federal Reserve will hike interest rates again, when they next meet. Not so good.

CNN's Vanessa Yurkevich is here to break down those numbers for us. And man, I mean, these figures based on private payrolls really more than double expectations.

VANESSA YURKEVICH, CNN BUSINESS & POLITICS CORRESPONDENT: Yes, pick your word, wow, surprising, unexpected. ADP saying that the private sector really strong and hiring about half a million jobs added in June. That is about double what the expectation was. And that is fueled by consumer facing industries and small businesses in particular, really picking up hiring in June. But this sent markets into a little bit of a rattle. We saw at one point, the Dow dropping more than 400 points on this news. And that's because investors are afraid that the Federal Reserve is going to have to raise interest rates a lot longer than expected.

And Jim we also got the Fed minutes. This is sort of a look at what happened inside the Feds last meeting in June. And it reveals that there was an intense debate about whether or not the Fed should actually raise rates last month. We know that they kept them flat. They did not raise rates at all after 10 straight rate hikes. It also revealed that they do plan on raising rates in the future just maybe at a slower pace.

[14:55:01]

But Jim everyone's attention now is going to be turning to tomorrow's jobs report, that's the government jobs report. This is what the Federal Reserve likes to look at. This is what the President likes to look at. If today's, today's ADP report is any indication, it could be quite robust. We know the Federal Reserve has a couple of weeks before its next meeting on July 26th. They're going to be looking at this jobs report. They're going to be looking at other key economic indicators like CPI.

We don't know how much they're going to raise rates. However, we do know that the Fed does not like where inflation is right now, Jim, it's about 4%. The Fed likes to see it at 2%. So clearly, some more work to be done here, Jim.

SCIUTTO: Yes, I mean, there's debate about that right, too, because he have this odd math, you know, to outsiders where you got to trade jobs in effect for lower interest rates.

YURKEVICH: Yes.

SCIUTTO: We'll continue to watch. Vanessa Yurkevich in New York. Thanks so much.

Brianna?

KEILAR: Still to come, Russian strikes hitting several 100 miles from the front right now. Relatively safe normally Ukrainian city. Officials calling it the most devastating attack on civilians there since the war began. We'll have a live report from Ukraine ahead on "CNN News Central."

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