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"Watergate, Blueprint for a Scandal" Premiers Sunday, 9:00 PM ET; Rising Sea Levels Eroding Land, Devouring Homes on Coast; Officials: Hundreds Shelter Under Factory Amid Russian Attacks; Queen Elizabeth Marks 70 Years on British Throne. Aired 1:30-2p ET
Aired June 02, 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]
JOHN DEAN, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: So it's very authoritative, and --
ANA CABRERA, CNN HOST: And you say Watergate really wasn't about the break in or necessarily the coverup. It was something more.
DEAN: And that's one of the messages that, really, I hope this series does deliver. This it is so much more than a bungled break-in. It's an atmosphere. It's a mode of operandi at the Nixon White House.
People understand that when they see how it all fits together. This brings the pieces together. And couldn't be more timely with the hearings starting for the January 6th insurrection. So much more serious.
CABRERA: Well, thank you, John Dean, for sharing with us and being part of our show today. And we look forward to watching the series and learning more from you and the others in the series.
Don't miss it. It's an all-new CNN original, "WATERGATE, BLUEPRINT FOR A SCANDAL." It premieres at 9:00 p.m. Eastern and Pacific, only on CNN.
On the U.S. coastline, homeowners don't just worry about climate change. They are already living with it. But how much longer their homes remain standing would depend on one thing, their wallets.
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[13:36:05]
CABRERA: Brace yourself. The 2022 hurricane season could be a wild ride. Government forecasters are expecting an above average number of storms this year. We're talking powerful winds, heavy rain, storm surge.
Even without a hurricane, rising sea levels are taking a toll on North Carolina's Outer Banks. Scenes like this will continue as our climate crisis gets worse.
CNN's chief climate correspondent, Bill Weir, reports.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This home, we have been notified by the Dare County building inspector, is in the state of potential imminent collapse.
BILL WEIR, CNN CHIEF CLIMATE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): When these houses were built in the '80s, this beach ran hundreds of feet towards the horizon.
(on camera): I don't believe it's even high tide yet.
(voice-over): Now, the water is at the doorstep in this part of North Carolina's Outer Banks, and the beach is eroding by a dozen feet a year.
(on camera): You expect next year, it's going to 12 to 15 feet back?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Twelve to 15 back. And then the next year and the next year and the next year.
WEIR: I see.
(voice-over): And while most locals understand that barrier islands move over time, few imagined this --
(CRASHING)
WEIR: -- would happen this fast.
Especially the new owner of this $275,000-getaway who never got a chance to sleep here before a mediocre storm took it away.
Or the half-million-dollar place that collapsed a few days earlier and spread nail-field debris along 15 miles of public beaches.
At least nine more houses on this stretch are condemned. And the sea is taking more than just houses.
DAWN TAYLOR, OUTER BANKS RESIDENT: This is our heritage --
WEIR (on camera): Look at that!
TAYLOR: -- that we want to save.
WEIR: Wow! Oh, my goodness, it is right there on the edge!
(voice-over): As a proud daughter of the Outer Banks, Dawn Taylor spends her days trying to save the graves.
TAYLOR: We are missing the remains of our loved ones due to the tide. Up and down the coast, we have multiple cemeteries here that have met their demise due to the rising sea level.
WEIR (on camera): And so, when you think about the lives, the history, the families that we are talking about, you put in those terms, the fundamental question of the age of sea level rise is, what is worth saving and who can afford to save it? BERNARD MANNHEIM, CHARLESTON, SC, RESIDENT: We watch the water bubble up through those vents --
WEIR: Is that right?
MANNHEIM: -- into the house.
WEIR (voice-over): Down the Carolina coast in Charleston, the Mannheims decided to raise their 450-ton mansion with a system of hydraulic jacks.
(on camera): Can I asked what something like this cost?
MANNHEIM: My answer is many hundreds of thousands of dollars.
WEIR: Right.
MANNHEIM: It's something, hopefully, that will last another hundred years.
WEIR (voice-over): Whether it does may depend on whether Charleston can afford plans for a billion-dollar sea wall, which would only protect the most valuable 20% of the city.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This house was actually moved to this -- this is a new location.
WEIR: Back in the Outer Banks, some are moving their houses as far as they can afford.
(CROSSTALK)
(on camera): They moved it from right there to right there.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think that was as far as they could go.
WEIR (voice-over): Meanwhile, NOAA projects at least a foot of sea level rise here mid-century with 10 times as many flooding events like this one, which fill driveways with five feet of sand.
READE CORBETT, DIRECTOR, COASTAL STUDIES INSTITUTE: This isn't just happening on the Outer Banks. It is happening around the world.
WEIR: This is a story that is about anybody who lives anywhere near the ocean from Southern Maine to Padre Island, right?
CORBETT: Right. These processes are happening everywhere.
WEIR: Yes.
(voice-over): But it is not as evident on the mainland because states, counties, and towns dredge, pump, and truck millions of dollars-worth of sand so tourists and real estate buyers will keep coming.
CORBETT: If you start a nourishment program, when is the next nourishment? Five years, seven years down the road? When you get to that point and you have to think about the economics, it is $25 million, $30 million.
[13:40:01]
WEIR (on camera): So, if you play that out, it really comes down to have or have not communities fortifying themselves, right?
CORBETT: It is challenging when it comes down to the tax base. It is not that we can't work with the environment, we can't work with the change, we can. And we have for years.
WEIR: You just can't do it the way you used to do it.
CORBETT: We got to do it differently.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WEIR: One thing that needs to be changed, for example, is a lot of homeowners are learning insurance companies won't help them move the house or moving. They say, call us when it falls into the ocean. And the debris field, that's not sustainable.
You know, Ana, I think it was the most famous carpenter of all-time who said in the book of Matthew that the wise man builds husband house on the rock, the foolish man on the sand.
But on days like this, you cannot blame people for settling on this gorgeous island of sand. They've gotten away with it for a very long time.
But now, like it or not, they're sort of a test case in how rising sea levels and more flooding effects communities not just physically but emotionally and financially.
CABRERA: Yes. That dream and their reality currently could literally be wiped out.
Thank you, Bill, for that eye-opening report. We appreciate it.
Let's head overseas. A key city in eastern Ukraine is on the verge of falling under Russian control. As we're learning hundreds of civilians are taking shelter from attacks under a factory.
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[13:46:14]
CABRERA: To Ukraine. We're learning nearly 800 people are hiding in shelters under a chemical factory in the eastern city of Severodonetsk. It's one of the last major cities in that region under Ukrainian control in that region and is under constant Russian bombardment.
Also today, President Zelenskyy is accusing the Kremlin of taking more than 200,000 Ukrainian children and relocating them to remote parts of Russia.
CNN's Melissa Bell joins us in the southern city of Odessa on the Black Sea.
Melissa, let's start with the factory. What more are you learning about that situation?
MELISSA BELL, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: A pretty horrific picture. Some 800 civilians gathered under those Soviet-era bomb shelters underneath that factory.
There are reportedly, say, Ukrainian forces, plumes of smoke coming out of it. But they say the civilians for the time being are safe.
You can only imagine what they're living through. Remember, this is a city, Ana, that's been under heavy bombardment, heavy shelling for several days. It's been the subject of heavy fighting for a couple of weeks. There had been some 15,000 civilians inside it.
Now, what Ukrainian forces say is that they continue to hold some of the western parts of that city, but essentially, it has now fallen to Russian forces.
And that is also the picture to the west of that. We're hearing about Russian advances toward Sloviansk. That city also coming in for heavy bombardment.
Also, that's one of the important supply routes for Ukrainian forces in that eastern-most point that they still hold toward the Donbass.
So that really paints the picture of what we've been seeing for ourselves from the ground in southeast Ukraine.
Yesterday, we were hearing about troop movements, Russian troop movements and equipment movements, specifically up from the Crimea.
Really confirming Russian forces appear to be focusing on that part of the Donbass as they try and push their advantage northwest along the line they've been fighting so hard for.
But, Ana, it is when you look to the south of that line that now divides the parts of Ukraine held by Russian forces tonight, and those that are not. President Zelenskyy says it's about 1,000 kilometers worth of line.
It is down in Kherson that the Ukrainian armed forces are concentrating their counteroffensive. And what we understand is they have managed to retake some settlements on the eastern bank of the Dnipro River.
That is important. Because Kherson is the only major city that they hold on the west bank of the river. If Ukrainian forces can cut off Russian forces there, they will have made significant gains.
Really trying to make the most of the fact that Russia is concentrating on that front to open up their own front down in the south -- Ana?
CABRERA: President Zelenskyy saying 20 percent of Ukraine is now under Russian control.
Thank you very much for your update, Melissa Bell.
[13:49:58]
Switching gears here, but the queen really knows how to party. Today kicks off four straight days of celebrating 70 years on the throne.
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[13:53:35]
CABRERA: An unprecedented once-in-a-lifetime historical event is now underway in Britain, Queen Elizabeth's Platinum Jubilee, marking her 70 years on the throne.
Thousands of people lined the streets in London to celebrate today. The military marched on the grounds and put on a spectacular show in the sky. Look at that flyover.
Stay there for just a moment. Let's get to Max Foster now at Buckingham Palace.
Max, this is the beginning of four days of parties, parades, pageantry. Tells us all about the festivities.
MAX FOSTER, CNN ROYAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, at the moment, this P.R. event couldn't have gone better. Great weather. Everyone was out in force, a huge amount of energy.
The queen came out, the children were well behaved. Everything looks absolutely fabulous. All of the pomp and pageantry that you'd expect from the British military went very smoothly.
A few significant moments I'll point out to you. Prince Charles stepping in for queen at the parade ground. That's never been done before.
All part of the slow transition to the next monarchy, the queen's role as monarch, very much to support Prince Charles coming through. Prince William very much alongside him.
But when you look at the balcony moment, that was significant as well. In the past, it has been much smaller. We've seen a bigger group this year.
[13:55:00]
And it's only working royals. So the Sussexes weren't there. Prince Andrew wasn't there. But we did see the Sussexes arriving at the parade grounds but playing it very low key, trying not to steal any thunder from the queen on this very special moment.
Very interesting, I have to say, Ana, to see the Sussexes back in the royal fold. I think we'll see more of them over the coming days. But this is all about positivity, healing some wounds potentially. And it couldn't have gone better for the queen. She had a big smile on her face during that incredible fly past. It's 70 planes representing each of her years in service.
CABRERA: It sure was good seeing the queen looking so lively. She looks great, 96 years old.
Max Foster, thank you for your reporting.
That does it for us today. Thanks so much for joining us. We'll see you tomorrow, same time, same place. Until then, join me on Twitter, @AnaCabrera.
The news continues after a quick break.
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