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McDonald's to Leave Russia After More Than 30 Years; U.S. Gas Prices Hit New Record High; Passenger Who Landed Plane Speaks About Harrowing Experience; Authorities Identify Suspect in Shooting at California Church; Amber Heard Returns to Witness Stand in Depp Defamation Trial. Aired 1:30-2p ET

Aired May 16, 2022 - 13:30   ET

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

[13:30:00]

RAHEL SOLOMON, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: To your point, yes, it was a major announcement today, but not so much stunning.

I got off the phone with an analyst who covers the company closely who said the reason we're not seeing a ton of stock movement today in McDonald's is because they signaled as of March that this was likely coming.

But nonetheless, it's a major announcement because those 850 stores stretch across 11 time zones. It impacts 62,000 employees.

And not only is McDonald's saying it's exiting the country but it's also saying in a statement today that it intends to initiate the process of de-arching the restaurants, which entails no longer using the McDonald's name, logo, branding and menu.

Not only is McDonald's leaving Russia, but it's also taking the golden arches with them.

Now Peter Saleh, an analyst from BTIG, who I just talked to, said, look, Ukraine and Russia account for about 9 percent of total revenue. They're strong performing stores and have strong profits.

But it was also expensive to maintain these stores and sort of keep the team in place while the war in Ukraine carries on.

So as we heard from the CEO today, not only did the humanitarian crisis in Ukraine indicate that Russia no longer shares its values but it also didn't make good business sense.

ERICA HILL, CNN HOST: We know they say they're trying to do their best for the employees. We'll see what happens with that.

Rahel, appreciate it. Nice to have you here. And welcome to the CNN family.

SOLOMON: Thank you.

HILL: First chance I've had to say that.

SOLOMON: Thank you.

HILL: Just ahead, the passenger who nailed that miracle landing -- Look at that. Every time I see it, I'm blown away by it. That passenger talking about the moments on board as he took over the controls.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DARREN HARRISON, LANDED PLANE DESPITE NO FLYING EXPERIENCE: All I say when I came to the front was water out the right window, and I knew it was coming quick.

SAVANNAH GUTHRIE, CBS CO-HOST, "THE TODAY SHOW": The plane is in a nosedive essentially?

HARRISON: Correct. Yes. And at that point, I knew if I didn't react, that we would die.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HILL: Imagine that moment.

Meantime, also a programming note for you. It is election night in America with primary races in five states. Which candidates will come out an top?

Be sure to join Erin Burnett, Jake Tapper and Anderson Cooper as those results come in. Our special live coverage starts tomorrow at 7:00 p.m. Eastern.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:36:40]

HILL: As gas prices continue to climb, the possibility of $5.00 a gallon across the country looks increasingly likely. Right now, the national average for regular unleaded is $4.48 a gallon.

CNN's correspondent, Pete Muntean, is in Alexandria, Virginia.

Pete, what are prices like there?

PETE MUNTEAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Erica, you know it's bad when $4.35 a gallon is the cheapest gas you can find here in Alexandria, Virginia.

Just look at how fast these prices are going up. The national average of a gallon of regular spiked 15 cents in the last week, according to AAA, up 40 cents in the last month.

But think about where we were a year ago when the national average for a gallon of regular was $3.04 a gallon. Hard to think about when you see the expensive prices of today.

What is so interesting is GasBuddy says, as prices were going up, demand for gas went up as well, by about 3 percent last week. Now analysts are saying that, as demand is going up, and suppliers are

having trouble recouping their supply and production from the depths of the pandemic, prices will go up as well.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TOM KLOZA, GLOBAL HEAD OF ENERGY ANALYST FOR OIL PRICE INFORMATION SERVICE (OPS): But I think July and August is anybody's guess. And there's no relief in the price for diesel, which is going to be something that infiltrates every nook and cranny of the economy.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MUNTEAN: The average price for a gallon of diesel is now $5.57 nationwide. That's putting a huge strain on the trucking industry and will cause more products to get more expensive.

Back to Gasoline, there's only three states where the statewide average for a gallon of regular is below $4.00 a gallon, Georgia, Kansas and Oklahoma.

And when those states switch over to $4.00 a gallon gas, every state in the country will have gas $4.00 or $5.00 a gallon on average. The last time we saw this was back in 2008 -- Erica?

HILL: Pete Muntean with the latest for us. Pete, thank you.

"I knew it was a life-or-death situation." Some of the words we're hearing for the first time as we hear from the passenger with zero flying experience who made this landing with the help of an air traffic controller who, thankfully, was also a flight instructor.

During an interview on "The Today Show," Darren Harrison described what happened after the pilot in that plane became incapacitated and he took over the plane's controls.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HARRISON: All I saw when I came up to the front was water out the right window, and I knew it was coming quick.

I kind of -- I put my arm over to where my elbow was sitting and grabbed the controls of the airplane and slowly started to pull back on the stick and turn.

GUTHRIE: How did you know how to do that?

HARRISON: Just common sense, I guess, being on airplanes. Because I knew if I went up and yanked, that the airplane would stall. And I also knew, at the rate we were going, we were probably going way too fast, and it would rip the wings off the airplane.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HILL: Wow. Harrison also provided an update on the pilot. Initially, the pilot wasn't expected to live. Now Harrison says the pilot is expected to be released from the hospital today.

[13:39:43]

Heros overtake a shooter at a California church. We'll tell you how they took down the suspect. The very latest on this other deadly shooting.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HILL: Authorities have now identified the suspect in a deadly shooting at a California church. At least one person was killed, five wounded when a gunman opened fire during a lunch reception at the Geneva Presbyterian Church yesterday.

CNN national correspondent, Camila Bernal, joining us live from outside the church.

Camila, I know we've learned more about the identity of the suspect authorities have in custody. What more do we know about the person?

[13:45:06]

CAMILA BERNAL, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Erica. Yes, even though authorities released his identity, I am choosing not to name him, especially since we don't have the names of the victims -- the ones who should be honored and remembered today.

But in terms of the investigation, it is really important to point out that authorities say the gunman was not from this area. They say he's a 68-year-old Asian man who came from Las Vegas.

He is currently now in jail. He is facing one felony count of murder and five felony counts of attempted murder. His next court appearance is tomorrow. And we know that he is being held on a $1 million bail.

The one thing we do not know is motive. Everybody wants to know why, but authorities have not given us insight into why this man did this.

We are expecting a press conference at noon local time. So we're hoping to get more answers on all of this -- Erica?

HILL: As we wait for the answers, there are some remarkable details about what this group of folks, who assembled for the luncheon, as I understand it, it was to honor a pastor there, how were they able to detain and disarm this suspect.

Walk us through what happened there. Authorities are calling this exceptional heroism.

BERNAL: Look, these were extremely brave churchgoers. They were able to act quickly, to think on their feet, to get creative.

Because according to the sheriff's department, they got an extension for it, and that's what they used to hogtie the suspect, an extension cord. They were able to prevent even more bloodshed. And so they are being called heroes today. We do not know if some of the victims were involved in this whole

situation where they tied up the suspect. And we are, of course, waiting to hear from authorities on all of this.

But we do know that these were all adults. We know that a lot of the members of the congregation, it's a Taiwanese congregation. They're elderly, and yet, they decided to act.

So it is an incredible story here, because they prevented something that could have been a lot worse.

We do not know the conditions of the victims at the moment. But again, we are waiting for that. Hopefully, we'll know at noon local time -- Erica?

HILL: Camila Bernal with the latest for us. Camila, we appreciate it. Thank you.

Stay with us. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:52:42]

HILL: Actress Amber Heard is back on the witness stand today in the defamation case brought by her ex-husband, Johnny Depp. Depp accuses Heard of defaming him in a 2018 "Washington Post" op-ed.

She described herself in that op-ed as a public figure representing domestic abuse but does not mentioned Depp by name.

In testimony today, Heard gave more details of Depp's alleged abuse.

CNN correspondent, Jean Casarez, has been following the trial and joins us now with the latest.

So what are we hearing today, Jean?

JEAN CASAREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: This is the continuation of her direct testimony. And today, it is all about physical violence. I mean, she is alleging horrible, terrible violence at the hands of Johnny Depp.

Now, the timeline, I think, that is very important in today's testimony starts with May 20th of 2016. Depp's mother dies.

On the 21st, he wants to come over to the apartment. They're really sort of separated at that point. She says that he said, I need my wife right now. He alleges he went there to go get a divorce.

But, anyway, she testified that once he got there, it became a horrible situation, terrible arguing, and it escalated toward violence.

Take a listen to her testimony.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

AMBER HEARD, EX-WIFE OF JOHNNY DEPP: He pulls his arm back with the phone and throws it at my face, hit me right in my -- it felt like my eye.

I put my head in my hands, immediately start crying. I said, you hit me with a phone, Johnny, you hit me.

And I'm sitting on the couch. I didn't even have time to react, you know. I didn't have time to put my hands up. I was still sitting cross-legged.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CASAREZ: This is a defamation case. So the most important thing of all is for the jury to believe her testimony, that she is telling the truth.

Now, the jury saw pictures, photos that she said that her best friend took before, during and after this happened. The police were called by someone on that day.

The jury is not going to see time codes on those pictures, though, to see exactly when they were taken.

And, remember, Depp's side had testimony from the building superintendent that, days after this argument, that there was surveillance video of she and her sister. Her sister appeared to be hitting her in her face. They would be laughing.

[13:55:07]

And it was days after that, that she went to get the TRO in Los Angeles at the courthouse against Johnny Depp.

HILL: Jean Casarez, appreciate it. Thank you. I know you'll continue to follow it for us.

Thanks to all of you for joining us this hour. Ana is back with you tomorrow.

Victor and Alisyn pick it up after this short break. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)