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Russia Ends Grain Deal, Wheat Prices Increased; This Year Could See the Approval of Second Alzheimer's Medication; Pennsylvania Flash Floods Leave 5 Dead, 2 Children Missing; 80M People in 12 States Subject to Severe Heat Advisories; Photographer Taken in Mexico Back in California. Aired 10:30-11a ET

Aired July 17, 2023 - 10:30   ET

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

[10:30:00]

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN NEWS CENTRAL CO-ANCHOR: Wheat prices are on the rise this morning after Russia announced its grain deal with Ukraine has been terminated. That deal which was reached last year after long negotiations through the U.N. and Turkey, it allowed Ukraine to export grain through the Black Sea, which is key access point. And now, that is in huge -- a huge question, and the world's grain supply is in question as well.

CNN's Clare Sebastian is following this for us. She's joining us now. What are -- what's the impact on pricing so far, Clare, that you're seeing?

CLARE SEBASTIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: So, far, Kate, we're looking at wheat futures, they were up some three percent this morning. Corn, which by the way, is the biggest export under the Black Sea grain initiative was up a little over one percent as well. Those futures prices is really important because this isn't just about supply, the Black Sea grain initiative having exported already some 33 million metric tons of Ukrainian agricultural food stuff has actually brought down global prices.

I want to show you some of those figures. The U.N. tracks these key commodities there, overall food price index down in the 12 months to June. Some 21 percent, if you strip out cereals, that's 24 percent drop. And vegetable oils, by the way, Ukrainian the biggest global exporter of sunflower oil down 45 percent. So, that has impacted all food consumers. Everyone grappling with inflation around the world. And prices coming up this morning is a concerning reversal of that trend, although they're still well off their highs.

The other concern is supply. Ukraine accounts for about 10 percent of the global wheat market. 15 percent of corn, as I said the biggest exporter of sunflower oil.

[10:35:00]

So, this is a concern given that some African developing countries had relied on Ukraine for almost all of their imports. Before this, the World Food Programme relies on Ukraine for about half of its supplies that it takes in terms of aid to developing countries. So, this is a key concern. And the reason why we're monitoring whether or not Russia may be willing to reverse this decision.

BOLDUAN: Yes, absolutely. It's good to see you, Clare. Thanks for that update.

John.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN NEWS CENTRAL CO-ANCHOR: Major development in the treatment of Alzheimer's disease in the United States. In the next few months, the FDA could approve a second drug to slow the progression of the disease. The pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly says it has completed submission to the FDA and expects action by the end of the year. As everyone knows, Alzheimer's erodes memory and thinking and eventually leaves a person unable to perform basic taxes. It affects an estimated 6.7 million Americans over the age of 75.

CNN's Meg Tirrell joins us now. So, this would be the second drug to hit the market, Meg. Talk to us about it.

MEG TIRRELL, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, John. There's a major Alzheimer's conference going on right now, and that's why we're seeing this new data on this drug. And we remember the first drug called Leqembi just got approved at the beginning of this month, full approval from the FDA. So, really, we're starting to see this momentum build. This would be the first drugs and -- the first one is the first drug to actually slow the course of Alzheimer's disease.

And we're seeing that the second medicine, which is called donanemab, it does not have yet a brand name, it's made by Eli Lilly, it also slows the course of the disease. In the trial, it slowed the progression, you know, loss of memory, the ability to think clearly slowed and do daily tasks, it slowed that down by 35 percent. And if you put that a different way, it was really gaining, you know, four to seven months over a placebo across an 18-month trial.

Now, this does not stop the disease. It does not reverse the losses in memory but at least is slows it down, and that is a start. It does come with some risks though. The main things that doctors look out for are things like brain bleeds and brain swelling. They did see that in a percentage of the patients in the trial. And most concerningly, they did see three deaths in the trial among patients on the medicine. And so, this is something that patients will have to weigh with their doctors the risks here, but this is showing some progress finally in this disease, John.

BERMAN: And, Meg, there's also some news out today about geography in Alzheimer's. What's coming out here?

TIRRELL: Yes, the first time we're seeing actually county level looks at the prevalence of Alzheimer's in the United States. And what this study show is that it's most prevalent in the east and southeast parts of the country. The counties that are most affected are Miami-Dade, Baltimore, and the Bronx. And researchers say this is really important information to have, both for planning and, sort of, allocation of resources. They say the reasons those counties maybe hit harder than others is a higher percentage of older people living there, and also black and Hispanic folks living those counties where we do see a higher prevalence of Alzheimer's, John.

BERMAN: All right. Meg Tirrell, thank you so much. A lot of new information there. Appreciate it.

Sara.

SARA SIDNER, CNN NEWS CENTRAL CO-ANCHOR: Deadly flooding in Pennsylvania, the worst flooding in more than a decade in Vermont. 17 days at or above 110 degrees in Phoenix, Arizona. These extremes are becoming the new norm. Our Bill Weir is here with a look with what this means for all of us.

Also, held captive in Mexico for almost a year, a woman is now back with her family in California. What investigators are now saying about what she lived through. That's ahead.

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[10:40:00]

SIDNER: It's been another deadly weekend of extreme weather in the United States. Right now, a massive search still underway in Southeast Pennsylvania for a nine-month-old baby and his two-year-old sister after torrential rains triggered flash flooding in Bucks County and took over their car. Police say, the kids, their mother, and grandmother were all swept away as raging floodwaters began to take over that car there. The grandmother, however, survived. The mother, sadly, did not.

In the south, intense life-threatening heat is lingering. Right now, 80 million people across 12 states are on alert for dangerous heat. From Florida to Texas to Mercury could climb to 115 degrees. And these extremes are happening globally as well.

CNN's Bill Weir joining me now. You have warned us about this for years. Climate scientists have warned us about this for years. But it's happening, and we're seeing it. Is it the new normal, really?

BILL WEIR, CNN CHIEF CLIMATE CORRESPONDENT: It absolutely is, and sadly we're just warming up, no pun intended, it's only July, and we're seeing these record-shattering heat waves all over the planet. In Europe, Southern Europe, they're 115 degrees. In China, John Kerry, the climate envoy, touches down in Beijing on a day when it hit 126 degrees in Beijing. There's only been 11 days, like, over 110 in Beijing over the past since the '50s and half of those were in the last couple of weeks.

So, this is happening everywhere. And the reason we haven't noticed it as, sort of, starkly as now is thanks to the oceans. The oceans have been covering up as it would absorb 90 percent of manmade climate change heat. Every second of every day, the oceans absorb the equivalent of 10 Hiroshima sized atomic bombs.

SIDNER: Whoa.

WEIR: And then there was La Nina, which is sort of the natural air conditioning system in the oceans, that shut off. The minute we shut that off and turn on the El Nino heat pumps, it really is driving these record numbers now. And so, governments around the world are coming to grips to not only do we have to worry about the source of this, which is the more fossil fuels that are burned, the higher it's going to get.

[10:45:00]

But bracing for the new normal that's already here, whether it's on the coast in the heartlands, whether it's the smoke, in the air from those hundreds of Canadian wildfires. A hotter planet means too much water in wet spots, and not enough in the dry spots, only at the extremes.

SIDNER: It's really terrifying when you think what could happen with all of this. We've just talked about two children that were swept away. And these flash floods keep happening over and over and over again. We ain't done yet.

WEIR: No, not -- unfortunately. And it becomes a new, sort of, education for all of us. How to live in this new world that was accidentally created for all of us here. How to brace for sudden buckets of rain that can just come out of nowhere, and sweep children away as we saw there as well. We've seen, sort of, an effort in Europe to equate heat the way we think about hurricanes and naming them.

SIDNER: Wow.

WEIR: The storm last week, they've gone with the mythology. Last week it was Cerberus, named after the three-headed dog from Dante's Inferno. This week now, they're looking at 115-degree temperatures in a dozen cities across Southern Europe and Italy, they're going to name this one Charon, after the ferryman who takes people across the river Styx in the land of the dead there.

And just to remind people that like a hurricane, a category four or five, you sit up, you take notice, you realize this is going to cost peoples' lives. We need to check on the most vulnerable. And there's a debate on whether to do that here in the United States. Start naming these heat waves so at least we can have some distinction of how bad it's going to get week by week.

SIDNER: It shows you there is a change. And in Europe, a lot of people don't realize in places like Italy, they don't have air conditioning usually.

WEIR: Exactly.

SIDNER: It's not normal for housing there, so it's really dangerous.

WEIR: But -- especially in northern and in the U.K.

SIDNER: Yes, same

WEIR: You know, where we saw this crazy heat waves, and that's just -- more to come, unfortunately. SIDNER: Bill Weir, thank you so much.

WEIR: Thanks, Sara.

SIDNER: Appreciate it.

WEIR: You bet.

SIDNER: John.

WEIR: All right. A woman is now back home with her family after being kidnapped and held for eight months. What the FBI is now saying.

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[10:50:00]

BOLDUAN: An American is kidnapped in Mexico and held for eight months. This morning though, she is back with her family on U.S. soil. According to the FBI, she was released by her captors Friday night, adding that the investigation is far from over now.

CNN's Mike Valerio joins us now with much more on this. Mike, first of all, how is she doing, and what are you hearing about this investigation?

MIKE VALERIO, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Kate, I think that right now at this hour, she is just simply soaking up the unbridled sense of joy of being back here in California where she belongs, and that joy being exuded by not only her own family members, but of course, agents in the FBI who have been working on this case for 227 days, Kate, that's how long she was held captive for.

So, you know, when we bring you up to speed, we have to talk about the face behind these FBI missing flyers, really, the human dimension here. We're talking about Monica De Leon Barba. She is a profoundly talented photographer from the San Francisco Bay area. She's born in Jalisco, the state in Mexico but she is an American citizen. And she goes to the idyllic beautiful small City of Tepatitlan last summer. Filled with gothic neoclassical cathedrals to share her photographic talent, to take on a summer job, take on some new projects.

But we fast forward to Thanksgiving of last year, a couple of days after Thanksgiving, security footage shows her walking her dog in the middle of the street. And then eventually, what you'll see in one of the corners of the security camera image, she's walking her dog and she's abducted by not one, three cars. No fewer than five people. You see, those are some of the last frames of her seen before her abduction. And she isn't seen for close to eight months.

What adds in element of apprehension and, sort of, certainly a more unsettling and sinister characteristic to this case is that her captors reached out to her family, tried to negotiate a ransom, and the FBI says, this is not random, this was targeted and intentional. Monica was the target here. Then we move to this weekend, Kate, the FBI comes out with a statement, saying that she has been released. The leader of the FBI in San Francisco writing in part, "Our relief and joy at the safe return of Monica is profound. The FBI investigation is far from over, but we can now work this case knowing that an innocent victim is returned, reunited with her family."

So, that statement leads to a couple of things. First of all, there have been no arrests yet, as you mentioned at the top. The FBI, as we speak, is now working on trying to identify just who abducted her and why. That still is unclear at the moment. But I think, the most important thread line of this case here wrapping up is that she's been reunited with her family in the peninsula area of the San Francisco Bay this weekend. And reunited with her beautiful husky, the same dog she was walking when she was abducted in November.

For all of us dog lovers there, that, you know, sense of palpable joy certainly felt across California and across the country. For all of us who are wondering where she was, what happened to her, the best possible outcome reporting here from California this morning, Kate.

BOLDUAN: Yes, and still questions of what happened to her and why --

VALERIO: Right.

BOLDUAN: -- now need to be answered. Thank you so much, Mike.

VALERIO: Pleasure.

BOLDUAN: Sara?

SIDNER: All right. Strikes hit a crucial bridge connecting Russia to the Crimean Peninsula. But will it crush Russia's ability to easily move supplies for its war in Ukraine. That's ahead.

[10:55:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BOLDUAN: Ukrainian forces attack a critical bridge in Crimea. Now, Russia says, a key grain deal has been terminated. What these new moves mean now to the war in Ukraine.

BERMAN: A dangerous heat dome is choking parts of the United States. Is there any end in sight?

SIDNER: Flirting with a third-party candidacy in the 2024 presidential race.

[11:00:00]