Return to Transcripts main page

CNN News Central

Defense Secretary Confirms U.S. Paused Shipment of Bombs to Israel; Cyberattack Disrupts Operation at Major U.S. Health Care Network; House GOP Holds Hearing on Antisemitism in K-12 Schools; Diabetes Drugs May Be Causing Unexpected Pregnancies. Aired 3:30-4p ET

Aired May 08, 2024 - 15:30   ET

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

[15:30:00]

LT. GEN. MARK HERTLING (RET.), CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Some of the Hamas terrorists that are in our Eastern Rafah.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: Yes, so many families of those hostages waiting for some good news. It's been so long for them. You know, Israel has said from the beginning here, General, that their goal is to eradicate Hamas, that Israel cannot be safe without eradicating Hamas.

When you look at how the war has gone at this point in time, how has Israel done on its objectives so far?

HERTLING: Well, you know, we've said from the very beginning, Brianna, that you can't eradicate an ideology, which is Hamas. But certainly Israel has done a great deal in terms of killing or capturing literally hundreds and perhaps even thousands. I don't know the count of Hamas terrorists.

So from the standpoint of attempting to eradicate the organization inside of Gaza, I would give them probably very good marks. Unfortunately, they've done it in an area that's very difficult to operate in, as you just said a minute ago, with so many civilians and so much infrastructure. But of course, that's Hamas's strategy, to wrap themselves in the Palestinian civilians in the area, cause damage to them, continue to embarrass the Israeli Defense Forces and the state of Israel, and also to keep the war going as long as they can.

Time is on Hamas's side because the world is generating a lot of distaste for this operation, rightfully so, because of the way Israel has conducted it. So these are the strategies of a terrorist organization, and it's been extremely complicated and complex for the Israeli government and especially the IDF to continue this fight.

KEILAR: General Hertling, it is great to have your insight here. Thank you so much for being with us.

HERTLING: Thanks, Brianna.

KEILAR: And we'll be right back in just a moment.

[15:35:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

JESSICA DEAN, CNN HOST: We have breaking news. A cyberattack has disrupted clinical operations at major health care nonprofit Ascension, a company spokesperson telling CNN has taken steps to minimize any impact to patient care.

KEILAR: We have CNN's Sean Lingus, who broke this story. He's with us now. Tell us what you're hearing from Ascension on this.

SEAN LYNGAAS, CNN CYBERSECURITY REPORTER: Brianna, this just happened today where they detected some suspicious activity on their network and they took the initiative to try to shut things down, isolate it. Pretty standard procedure when you have something like this that could be a ransomware attack.

We don't know if it is, but it kind of has the hallmarks of a ransomware attack where you need to isolate things and say, OK, don't connect to our systems anymore until we can get this under control. It's very much a fluid situation. This is a huge health care network.

They run about 140 hospitals in the U.S. and 40 senior living facilities. So it's a very big network and they're trying to minimize the effect that it's having on patient care. But they've already said that it is having some sort of effect and they're trying to keep that under control.

DEAN: And Sean, this is coming on the heels of the cyber attack on United Health Care. As we would imagine, these companies have these huge amounts of medical and financial information about all of us. How concerning is that?

LYNGAAS: It is concerning. I mean, as you mentioned, the recent health care -- the attack on United Health was really big. I mean, that affected pharmacies across the country. People couldn't get their insurance to fill prescriptions. It angered people on Capitol Hill.

There was a lot of outrage over that one and over the lack of basic cybersecurity measures that a major multibillion dollar health company would, you know, you would assume they would have.

So this is a lot of scrutiny right now on these health companies and whether they're doing enough to protect our data.

DEAN: All right. Well, it's very interesting, but also concerning for a lot of people out there. Sean Lyngaas, thanks so much.

School leaders from across the country getting grilled on Capitol Hill today as lawmakers pushed them to do more about anti-Semitism.

[15:40:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KEILAR: As protests have mushroomed on college campuses across the country, lawmakers on Capitol Hill are turning their focus now to elementary and high schools. A House subcommittee today questioned leaders of K through 12 schools in New York, California and Maryland about allegations of anti-Semitism in their districts.

DEAN: Now, this comes a day after the Education Department said it's investigating allegations of discrimination against Jewish students in Berkeley, California. CNN's Matt Egan is following the story for us. Matt, what were some of the takeaways from today's hearing?

MATT EGAN, CNN REPORTER: Well, Jessica, Brianna, this was the first hearing focused on K to 12 schools and alleged incidents of anti- Semitism there. Now, the school leaders today, they tried to really stress that they take this issue very, very seriously and that they are disciplining students and faculty when they're found to have done something wrong.

Now, one of the main points here is that they're trying to say that these incidents are not as widespread as some of the Republican lawmakers have made them out to be.

Now, for instance, in Berkeley, the California district that you just mentioned, where the Education Department is investigating discrimination against Jewish students, the superintendent of Berkeley tried to say that, yes, students and faculty have made mistakes at times. But she said that anti-Semitism is, quote, not pervasive in that district.

Now, David Banks, the chancellor of New York City Public Schools, he was asked about an issue that hit very close to home. He was asked about a situation last fall where a pro-Israel teacher had to hide reportedly from protesting students for hours. Now, this took place at a Queens high school where Banks actually attended school. And Banks described this as a complete act of anti-Semitism.

He said it will not stand on his watch. But listen to some of the questions he got around punishment for the principal.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

[15:45:02]

REP. BRANDON WILLIAMS (R-NY): Is the former principal at Hillcrest still drawing a salary from New York City Public Schools today?

DAVID BANKS, CHANCELLOR, NEW YORK CITY PUBLIC SCHOOLS: Yes, he is. WILLIAMS: I'm sorry. Can you say that again?

BANKS: I said, yes, he is.

WILLIAMS: You are still you are still paying --

BANKS: He is no longer the former of the school.

WILLIAMS: How, how can Jewish students feel safe at New York City Public Schools when you can't even manage to terminate the principal of open season on Jews high school or even endorse suspension of student harassments? How can Jewish students go to school knowing that he is still on your payroll, your payroll, sir?

(END VIDEOTAPE)

EGAN: Now, Banks stressed that while this principal is still on the New York City payroll, he has been removed from the principal of this high school. And Banks also made sort of a broader point here. He said that for too many Americans, hearings like this just kind of feel like gotcha moments.

And he urged Congress to really come together and try to come up with actual solutions rather than just focus on gotcha moments -- Jessica and Brianna.

DEAN: All right, Matt Egan with that reporting for us. Thanks so much.

Let's turn now to some other headlines we're watching this hour.

The collapsed cryptocurrency currency exchange, FTX, as almost all of its customers will get their money back. It is extremely rare for that to happen to a company in bankruptcy.

FTX says it's been able to recover assets worth roughly $15 billion and will use them to pay stakeholders back. In March, former FTX CEO Sam Bankman Fried with sentence to 25 years in prison on fraud and conspiracy charges.

KEILAR: And NASA's Boeing Starliner will take off next week for the International Space Station. Two astronauts were already strapped into the capsule. They were ready to go on Monday when a valve started buzzing. And that launch was scrubbed at the last minute for safety. NASA says the valve is being replaced and it will announce a new launch time soon.

And speaking of flying high, WNBA Commissioner Kathy Engelbert says the league will start flying its athletes on private planes instead of flying commercial, as they do now during their regular season.

For years, players have complained of safety concerns and security issues at airports. Engelbert told a group of sports editors the league is committing 50 million dollars over the next two seasons. They're going to start flying the women on chartered planes as soon as they can get them scheduled.

There are new questions about whether popular diabetes drugs could affect fertility, potentially leading to some surprise pregnancies. We'll have that next.

[15:50:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

DEAN: As millions of people take new weight loss drugs, some are reporting an unexpected side effect, better fertility.

KEILAR: Wow. So more women are reporting unexpected pregnancies while they are taking medications like Ozempic and Mounjaro. We have CNN medical correspondent Meg Tirrell here to explain.

All right, Meg, people are getting more than they bargained for with this Ozempic baby boom.

MEG TIRRELL, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, we are hearing a lot of anecdotal reports of women having unexpected pregnancies while taking drugs like Ozempic. And, you know, doctors and researchers say this isn't necessarily incredibly surprising because weight loss can be associated with infertility improvement in folks who may have irregular cycles, for example. Due to a syndrome like PCOS, polycystic ovary syndrome or other reasons for having an abnormal menstrual cycle. So losing five to 10 percent of your body weight or even more, which we've seen with these medicines, can help with infertility.

Another thing to be aware of with these medicines is that Tirzepatide based drugs, those are Zepbound and Mounjaro, actually have a warning in their prescribing information that they may make birth control pills less effective. And that's probably because these drugs work by in part by slowing down digestion of food. And that can affect the absorption of medicines taken by mouth.

Guys, we did talk with one young mom. She'd been trying for two years to get pregnant. She went on Mounjaro for weight loss. She lost about 40 pounds over five months. That's Katara Bentley you see there. She got unexpectedly pregnant while taking Mounjaro. And she was delighted. But she was also a little nervous about the effects that the drug could have on her baby, guys.

DEAN: Oh, what a sweet baby.

KEILAR: Definitely, I mean, tell us about -- that's the concern, right? As you're taking a drug and you think, I'm sure they're not planning on getting pregnant. So then they're worried, is this drug going to negatively affect the pregnancy?

TIRRELL: Exactly. And unfortunately, these medicines have not been studied in clinical trials in people who are pregnant or planning to become pregnant. And so scientists and doctors are relying on sort of real world evidence.

And there are few studies available so far in what's happened in humans who have been taking these drugs during pregnancy. We are getting more data from registries, essentially from accidents when people are unexpectedly becoming pregnant. So far, the human data have not turned up any major causes for alarm.

There are some causes for alarm in the animal data, though. So the recommendation is stop these drugs two months before trying to conceive or immediately if you do become pregnant. Happy to say, though, that baby Ivy is doing very well.

DEAN: So sweet. All right, Meg Terrell. Thanks so much.

And we'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) DEAN: Well, by now, you've no doubt heard about this spring cicada double brood with billions of the insects expected to emerge across the southeast and the Midwest.

KEILAR: Yes, it's a simple concept, really. They crawl out of the ground, they molt, and then they just fly around wreaking havoc. But one group apparently thought a reenactment would be helpful.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The cicadas are hiding right just below the soil surface and emerge when the temperatures are right. It's roughly around.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DEAN: Wait, stop.

KEILAR: Yes, that's pretty much how it happens.

DEAN: These are employees of a forest preserve in Illinois. They put out the video and you can see they also climbed some trees. It's pretty. It's amazing.

KEILAR: They make sounds. They're really loud like that.

DEAN: Well, I know you're a big fan and I think we have some video.

KEILAR: Oh, my God.

DEAN: Showing just how big a fan you are.

KEILAR: This will never unhappen to me.

DEAN: I mean, you didn't do that.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: Actually, I'm less scared of this. OK.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, the crunch.

KEILAR: You hear that crunch? Do I have a wing hanging out of my mouth?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR (on camera): Yes, I did. I did have a wing -- I did have a wing hanging out of my mouth.

[16:00:00]

It tastes -- why would you do that?

I don't know. It was sort of like a dare. I wasn't sleeping much. I had bad judgment. Anyways, the point is, it kind of tastes like soft shell crab because

they are related to shrimp.

DEAN: Whatever you need to tell yourself to swallow.

KEILAR: I really wish I just dissociated while trying to eat that.

DEAN: I told you. Yes. Oh, man.

"THE LEAD" with Jake Tapper starts right now. Have a great day. Buzz, buzz.

KEILAR: Buzz, buzz.

DEAN: Crunch, crunch.