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Battle For Lysychansk Intensifies In Eastern Ukraine; U.S. Investigates Death Of Journalist Shireen Abu Akleh; Search Resumes For Crew From Sunken Ship; Extreme Weather Complicates Travel July 4 Weekend; Migrants In Americas Face World's Deadliest Land Route; Jayland Walker Death; U.S. Abortion Ruling Leaves Embryos In Limbo; Ukrainian Borscht Gets U.N. Protection. Aired 3-4a ET
Aired July 03, 2022 - 03:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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KIM BRUNHUBER, CNN ANCHOR AND CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Live from CNN World Headquarters in Atlanta, welcome to all of you watching us here in the United States, Canada and around the world. I'm Kim Brunhuber.
Ahead on CNN NEWSROOM, Russian-backed separatists say they control a key city in Eastern Ukraine but Ukraine says otherwise. We're live in Kyiv with the details.
Search and rescue teams race to save crew members of a vessel caught in a typhoon.
And it's a travel nightmare on both sides of the Atlantic. Labor issues and bad weather are leading to hundreds of flight cancelations.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice-over): Live from CNN Center, this is CNN NEWSROOM with Kim Brunhuber.
BRUNHUBER: Ukraine's president will be appealing for more international aid this week when the Ukraine recovery conference gets underway in Lugano, Switzerland. On Saturday he urged his fellow Ukrainians to stay optimistic. Here he is.
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VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY, UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT (through translator): No matter how difficult it is for us today, we must remember that there will be tomorrow. And tomorrow should bring maximum benefit to Ukraine. Everyone should do absolutely everything possible for this.
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BRUNHUBER: The relentless rampage in Ukraine is now most heavily focused on the key city of Lysychansk, one of the few places still under Ukrainian control in the Donbas. Ukraine denies claims by pro- Russian separatists that the city is surrounded.
Meanwhile, days after Russian forces abandoned Snake Island in the Black Sea, Ukraine's military is claiming it destroyed some of the equipment the Russians left behind, the commander saying, "Russian spirit does not stink there anymore."
CNN's Scott McLean joins us live from the Ukrainian capital.
Let's start with the latest from Lysychansk.
SCOTT MCLEAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, it's one of the cities in the eastern part of the country that has really faced some of the fiercest fighting, some of the most intense shelling along the front lines in recent weeks.
Right now, we understand there are some 15,000 people who are still there, not because they couldn't have evacuated but because they chose not to. Now it's far too late for that.
For the last few days, local officials have said that people are largely confined to their basements, sheltering because of the intense shelling.
Now the Luhansk, the militia of the Luhansk People's Republic, one of the breakaway regions of Eastern Ukraine, they claim that they have managed to completely surround the city and are in control and are simply working to get rid of the last remnants of Ukrainian nationalists or Ukrainian soldiers who might be left behind.
The Ukrainians, though, deny that. They say they are not in control and they have not managed to completely surround the city, though they also acknowledge that fighting there is very intense at this moment.
This comes just as the Belarusian president, Alexander Lukashenko, claims that missiles were fired in its direction from Ukraine. He didn't present any evidence but he says that the Belarusian forces managed to shoot down those missiles and so there was no damage, presumably.
Belarus obviously does not have troops involved in this war but it has played a pretty big role in allowing the Russians to use its land to attack Kyiv in the early days of war. And it's also been allowing it to launch missile strikes on Ukraine as well, as recently as last week.
Interestingly enough, also just this morning, the Russians in the Belgorod region just across the border in the east say that there have been a series of explosions just this morning on a residential neighborhood, flattening some houses, damaging apartment buildings, killing three people, injuring four, including one child.
Now the Ukrainians, well, they've been accused of launching missile strikes in Russia's direction before but they've never officially claimed responsibility, though at least on one occasion they've heavily hinted that they were behind the attacks. In this case, though, no word from the Ukrainians, Kim. BRUNHUBER: All right. So Scott, turning now to reconstruction and the
Lugano conference. They're billing this as sort of a path to a Marshall Plan for Ukraine.
What is President Zelenskyy realistically hoping to get from this?
MCLEAN: A lot of help. And he needs it.
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MCLEAN: This conference is typically an annual conference that's held to talk about Ukrainian development and political reform, to try to bring Ukraine in line with the standards of the rest of Europe.
Of course, Ukraine has long been plagued by corruption that many say has really held the country back from further economic development. Obviously, in light of the Russian invasion, though, this year's conference is a lot different.
It's focused on the reconstruction of the country. And they have a long way to go. The president says this simply cannot happen without huge help from the international community, listen.
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VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY, UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT (through translator): This is the largest economic project of our time in Europe. And there will be extraordinary opportunities for every state, for every company that we invite to work in Ukraine, to prove themselves.
We have already begun to restore normal life in liberated communities and territories on our own. But implementing such a large-scale project across the country, providing new safety standards and new quality of life, is only possible by attracting international capabilities.
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MCLEAN: Kim, yesterday we were -- the other day, we were in Hostomel, one of the Kyiv suburbs that took some of the most intense fighting, shelling, in the early days of war.
Even today, months since the Russians have left, you would be hard pressed to find any buildings that are unscarred, even still, by war. People have come back, there's plenty of signs of life, people are rebuilding. But there are challenges, obviously.
Building materials are tough to come by. Home insurance is not a typical Ukrainian thing that a lot of people have as well. So it is difficult to see how Ukraine can get back on its feet without a lot of help from the international community.
BRUNHUBER: Yes, exactly right. Scott McLean in Kyiv, thanks so much.
To Washington now, where people are still reeling from this week's blockbuster hearing before the January 6th committee. Former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson revealing some of Donald
Trump's actions in the lead-up to and during the attack on the Capitol. New information appears to corroborate some of her other stunning testimony. CNN's Katelyn Polantz has more.
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KATELYN POLANTZ, CNN SENIOR CRIME AND JUSTICE REPORTER: We are almost a week out from this bombshell testimony that Cassidy Hutchinson delivered on Capitol Hill about Donald Trump on January 6 and the bottom line here is that testimony is holding up.
So I want to walk through how this played out over the past week. So Hutchinson testified in one of the instances that she spoke about that a White House deputy chief of staff named Tony Ornato told her that, on January 6, Donald Trump was so irate about not being able to go to Capitol Hill with his supporters, whom he knew could be violent, were armed, that he grabbed at the steering wheel inside the presidential SUV and lunged at a Secret Service agent there.
So that is what Hutchinson says she was told. She said this under oath. And when she was testifying this past week, she also said that she learned this story in front of the agent who was lunged at and that he didn't correct it. He even was a little bit discombobulated at the time because of this episode with Trump.
After her testimony, there was a bit of this that was disputed, not the part about Donald Trump wanting to go to Capitol Hill and being angry that he couldn't but there was a Secret Service official, who denied that Trump had lunged in the SUV and that Tony Ornato had told Cassidy Hutchinson this story.
And there has been an effort to discredit her, including by Donald Trump himself, following her testimony.
But now, we have two Secret Service sources telling my colleague, Noah Gray, that this story that Cassidy Hutchinson recounted, it indeed was a story circulating among the Secret Service after January 6, that Trump was so angry about not being able to go to the Capitol that he was parading the Secret Service agents protecting him. And he did lunge over the seat.
So here we have this corroboration that this story was out there. And Cassidy Hutchinson is going on Capitol Hill, explaining that under oath to the House Select Committee -- Katelyn Polantz, CNN, Washington.
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BRUNHUBER: Hezbollah claims responsibility for launching three unarmed drones toward a part of the Mediterranean at the center of a dispute between Lebanon and Israel.
The Israeli Defense Forces intercepted and shot down the drones near the Karish oil field, standing between the disputed maritime border lines dividing the south of Lebanon and north of Israel. Both countries are in the middle of indirect negotiations about that
area. In recent, days Hezbollah warned could attack an Israeli ship nearby. An IDF spokesman says it appears the drone did not pose an imminent threat.
Israel's defense minister blaming Hezbollah for what he calls preventing Lebanon from reaching an agreement on those contested maritime borders.
Elsewhere in the region, the Palestinian Authority will allow the U.S. to examine the bullet which killed a Palestinian American journalist in May.
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BRUNHUBER: Shireen Abu Akleh was reporting on an Israeli military raid in the occupied West Bank when she was killed by gunfire.
Palestinian officials say they cannot trust Israel to conduct an impartial investigation, as they believe Israeli forces are responsible for her death. Israel's claims it's not clear who fired the fatal shot.
The bullet will be examined at the U.S. embassy in Jerusalem on the condition that the U.S. not hand it over to Israel.
Be sure to watch next hour, Hadas Gold will be live from Jerusalem with the latest reporting on this story.
One tropical system in the Carolinas, as a tropical storm gains strength in the eastern Pacific. We'll get the latest from the CNN Weather Center ahead.
And weather delays, staffing shortages and the sheer number of passengers causing havoc with travel plans this weekend. We'll bring you the travel mess all over the world just ahead, stay with us.
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BRUNHUBER: The search is underway for more than 2 dozen crew members after their ship broke in half and sank in the South China Sea on Saturday. CNN's Selena Wang has more on this developing story.
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SELINA WANG, CNN CORRESPONDENT: A search is underway for more than 2 dozen crew members after their ship broke in half and sank in the South China Sea on Saturday.
Authorities say the ship sank around 185 miles southwest of Hong Kong after being caught near the center of typhoon Chaba on Saturday. Multiple helicopters were deployed to the scene.
And this dramatic footage shows the rescue operation from Hong Kong. It shows a crew member being pulled up on a rope into a helicopter from the sinking ship. Three crew members were rescued. But the fate of the remaining 27 people on board remains unclear.
We've learned from authorities that there were three casualties from the shipwreck, three men aged 32 to 47 were receiving treatment at the North Landau Hospital and are in stable condition. Typhoon Chaba had made landfall about 3:00 pm time Saturday.
The Guangdong Maritime Search and Rescue Center said it had coordinated seven rescue vessels as part of the operations as well as salvage, merchant and Coast Guard ships.
The rescue center described the ship as a floating crane vessel that was being used to help construct an offshore wind farm off the coast before the typhoon hit.
The storm has caused major disruptions across the region, with flights canceled and some businesses closed because of strong winds and heavy downpours.
Hong Kong authorities had also issued a warning over the typhoon on Thursday. That was during the highly anticipated visit of Chinese leader Xi Jinping. This was his first trip out of the mainland since the pandemic started.
And the grand opening of the new Hong Kong palace and museum was postponed because of the storm. That opening of the museum was supposed to coincide with Xi Jinping's visit and the 25th anniversary of the city's handover from British to Chinese rule -- Selina Wang, CNN, Beijing.
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BRUNHUBER: A severe drought is forcing some city leaders across the U.S. Southwest to make tough decisions about traditional 4th of July fireworks shows. Some cities have decided to cancel their pyrotechnic displays this year.
The lack of rainfall has led to a mega drought for over 75 percent of the West, making the environment very susceptible to wildfires.
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BRUNHUBER: A busy travel holiday is turning into a nightmare across the U.S. as thousands of flights have been delayed or canceled since Friday. Weather, staffing shortages, inflation and the 4th of July are all playing a role. CNN's Camila Bernal is in Los Angeles.
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CAMILA BERNAL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Things are relatively calm here at LAX. But at times, lines have been very long.
If you take a look behind me, you see part of the reason why a lot of these passengers are being told to get to the airport a little bit earlier, to expect extra wait times when it comes to checking in and going through security.
And part of the reason is because more people and a lot of people are traveling on this holiday weekend.
In fact, TSA saying they screened more than 2.49 million passengers on Friday. They say that's the highest number they've seen since February of 2020.
The TSA spokesperson saying that we are back to prepandemic checkpoint volume. The problem is that a lot of these airlines just cannot handle the influx of passengers. They are facing staffing shortages and say they cannot hire the people they need.
So that leads to cancelations and delays. The Delta pilot union actually saying the pilots share the frustration of the passengers as they see these flights delayed and canceled and, in fact, they're currently protesting contract negotiations.
They say this process is going slow and they are demanding better pay, retirement and job benefits. They say they are tired and they are frustrated. But the airlines saying it's not just the pilots; they say there's also a shortage in air traffic controllers.
So all of this added together just goes to show that, over the entire summer, passengers are going to have problems. It's not just this weekend but really over the next couple of months -- Camila Bernal, CNN, Los Angeles.
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BRUNHUBER: Overseas it isn't much better. The same problems are creating travel issues worldwide. Anna Stewart explains.
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ANNA STEWART, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Pilots on strike, airline staff protesting and walking off the job. Long queues of passengers trying to make their flights, some camping out in terminals, as delays and cancellations pile on.
At several airports across Europe and the U.S., staff shortages, fuel prices and weather are causing chaos on one of the year's busiest travel weekends.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They canceled my flight as I'm boarding the plane. And now I'm still trying to find a way to get home right now. And I cannot even get home. I've been here since yesterday, since 3:05.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I had a flight issue. And now I'm trying to re- book but the price is ridiculously super high. STEWART (voice-over): In the U.S., travel ahead of the July 4th
holiday has rebounded to pre-pandemic levels. But air transportation is still struggling to keep up. On Friday, more than 500 flights were canceled and more than 7,800 delayed across the country, according to flight tracking site FlightAware.
Thousand more were delayed or canceled Saturday and it follows a trend of travel woes this year. So far in 2022, most major U.S. airlines have canceled far more flights compared to averages in the same period between 2017 and 2019.
Airlines straining to meet surging post-pandemic demand, with resources and staff stretched thin. On Thursday, Delta pilots picketed at major hubs over schedules and pay.
While the protests weren't expected to affect operations, discontent among airline staff was felt across continents.
Demonstrations by airport personnel at France's Charles de Gaulle International Airport in Paris disrupted travel this weekend.
FABRICE CRIQUET, SECRETARY, FOURCE OUVRIERE LABOUR UNION (through translator): They slashed thousands of jobs at Paris airports in the pandemic. But air traffic is coming back now.
We are stretched so thin.
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CRIQUET (through translator): and, on top of, that they refused to increase salaries or they're giving us ridiculous pay increases, compared to the wages they cut during the pandemic.
STEWART (voice-over): Amid peak travel season in Europe, crews of major airliners easyJet and Ryanair are also staging strikes this weekend after cabin crew unions in Belgium, Spain, Portugal, France and Italy led walkouts last weekend.
In both the U.S. and Europe, air transport workers are demanding better working conditions and higher wages as soaring inflation causes steep prices in the cost of living. For travelers, that inflation is also driving up the cost of flights. Fares for some routes this weekend have more than tripled, compared to the same weekend last year.
Across the U.S. and Europe, the rising prices, combined with personnel shortages and staff discontent, are creating a weekend of travel mayhem as the air industry stumbles to keep up in a post pandemic world -- Anna Stewart, CNN.
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BRUNHUBER: An investigation is underway after one person was killed during an accident at an air show in Michigan. Have a look here.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) BRUNHUBER (voice-over): This video was shot by a man attending the event. It appears to show a truck racing to planes before it lost control, killing the driver. The man who shot the video says the flames and smoke were part of the show.
The truck had three jet engines and could reach speeds of over 350 miles per hour, according to the company's website.
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BRUNHUBER: I'm Kim Brunhuber. Our international viewers will see "INSIDE AFRICA" next. If you're from here in the United States or Canada, I'll be back with more news after a quick break.
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BRUNHUBER: Welcome back to all of you watching us here in the United States and Canada. I'm Kim Brunhuber. This is CNN NEWSROOM.
In Texas, embattled Uvalde schools police chief Pete Arredondo has resigned from his city council post. He's faced intense public scrutiny and criticism over the delayed police response to the school shooting in May that left 19 children and two teachers dead.
Arredondo had been elected to the city council just weeks before the massacre.
Arredondo wrote this in his resignation letter, quote, "It is in the best interest of the community to step down as a member of the city council, to minimize further distractions."
Just last week Arredondo was placed on leave from that job but he does still officially hold the position. CNN has reached out to Arredondo's attorney for comment.
U.S. authorities have arrested and charged four people in connection with the deaths of 53 migrants smuggled in a sweltering tractor- trailer. The driver is among those charged. Authorities say they found him in Texas, hiding in the brush near the scene, after trying to flee.
One Homeland Security official described the tragedy as the deadliest human smuggling incident in U.S. history. In recent years the U.S. has seen a growing number of border crossings amid mass migration in the Western Hemisphere. Those making the perilous journey say the risks far outweigh the dangers they're fleeing in their home countries.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): We have already crossed six countries. We have suffered. We have suffered because we've had moments when we were ready to throw in the towel. We couldn't endure. I've had surgery on one leg. I have no knee in my left leg. And yet I'm going forward.
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BRUNHUBER: I want to turn to Dulce Garcia, executive director of Border Angels, a nonprofit, focused on advocacy for issues related to the U.S.-Mexico border, from San Diego, California.
Thanks so much for being here with us. So according to U.N. figures, 650 people died crossing the border last year, the highest number since they started tracking those statistics in 2014. I think this year so far, that number is almost 300, I think.
Why are the numbers becoming so staggeringly high?
DULCE GARCIA, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, BORDER ANGELS: Yes, over the last 27 years we've had over 11,000 deaths. To put it into context for 2021, 650 people is more than twice the amount we saw the year before.
So you're right, more people are dying. Every single day, one to two people. That's because of our immigration policies. It's directly tied to the border closing with inhumane policies like Title 42, remain in Mexico, the lack of comprehensive immigration reform.
Our system is made so that people like me that have been in this country for over 35 years, I'm an immigration attorney, I pay so many taxes and so there's no path to citizenship for me. There's no form, no line, nothing I can do to become a lawful permanent resident. That system is what's causing so much harm.
BRUNHUBER: Yes, and there seem to be more and more migrants now on the move, especially over the last two years. Just as one example from Texas, the border town of Eagle Pass. They were reporting a huge increase at a refugee center there. Have a listen here.
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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): In Eagle Pass, the center is receiving up to 600 people per day, as opposed to 20 people per week in the beginning.
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BRUNHUBER: Just one little example there. According to some people I spoke with, migrants are taking more risks to cross the border. They're taking more distant, more dangerous routes.
Your organization literally tries to help save migrants and prevent deaths, so you're well aware of all of those risks that they're taking.
Why do they seem to be sort of taking more risks to cross now? GARCIA: Yes, we've spoken to people in the shelters in Tijuana. Border Angels supports 17 shelters, all of them housing asylum seekers from various countries.
They all tell us they're willing to risk their lives because there's no other hope. They are also facing danger in Tijuana, considered one of the most dangerous cities in the world. If you're Haitian, if you're non-Spanish speaking, if you're a woman with children, that place is not safe for you.
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GARCIA: So let's keep in mind that these migrants are already fleeing from something horrible. They left their country to look for safety. And instead of being welcomed in the U.S., they're being told that they have to wait in the Mexican side of the border because of policies like remain in Mexico and Title 42.
So that is causing an accumulation of migrants in the Mexican side of the border. So these numbers that we see, the data that we see, of people crossing through the desert and, more recently, maritime attempts have also increased.
We don't have data how many people have perished as they've attempted to cross through the ocean because Border Patrol doesn't keep data for that. But we do know that more and more people are dying. We don't have the exact figures.
When somebody goes missing in the desert, oftentimes it doesn't go reported. So these figures could be a lot higher in reality.
BRUNHUBER: Yes, I've been to some of those shelters in Tijuana and seen some of the conditions there. They can be really appalling and dangerous, as you say. You mentioned the remain in Mexico policy. The Supreme Court struck it down.
So what effect do you think that will have?
GARCIA: Yes, that's a big victory. And so far, the asylum seekers in the shelters have relief right now, a feeling of hope. They're hoping that Title 42 also ends so that finally we get to see an end of these horrible policies that have caused so much harm.
Again, let's keep in mind that, during the remain in Mexico program, asylum seekers had been waiting on the Mexican side of the border as their cases are heard in immigration hearings in the U.S.
But they are exposed to harm. A lot of people have been killed, raped, kidnapped. So many, so many people have reported horrible things that have happened to them as they've been waiting for their immigration hearings.
So finally, now that we have this hope that remain in Mexico is going to end soon, hopefully the Biden administration moves as quick as possible to make it happen, there's going to be hope. We hope the asylum system is restored completely so that everyone has
an access to the immigration hearings in the U.S. and are processed into the United States.
BRUNHUBER: All right. Well, thank you so much for your perspectives on this, Dulce Garcia, really appreciate it.
GARCIA: Thank you so much for this opportunity.
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BRUNHUBER: Authorities in Akron, Ohio, are bracing for more protests over the police killing of a Black motorist; 25-year-old Jayland Walker was gunned down as he fled a traffic stop last Monday.
In the coming hours, Akron city officials will release body camera footage in connection with the shooting. As CNN's Polo Sandoval reports, details of the case that have been made public so far raise more questions than answers.
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POLO SANDOVAL, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: One of the key questions being asked in Akron is, what were Jayland Walker's alleged actions that provoked a hail of gunfire from police officers?
I had opportunity to speak to an attorney representing the Walker family. He told me he has had a chance to actually review some of the police body camera video that is expected to be released on Sunday.
And he told me that what he saw was, quote, "indescribable" and also an unspeakable event.
Akron police saying this started shortly after midnight Monday, when police officers tried to carry out a traffic stop.
They say the driver of a vehicle then fled and, at one point, police officers say they reported firearms, at least one firearm being discharged from inside this vehicle, before the occupant then essentially fled on foot, starting a foot chase.
At that point is when investigators say there were actions by the suspect involved that caused officers to perceive that he posed a threat. And that's when several of these officers opened fire.
The family's attorney telling me that they understand that there were multiple, dozens and dozens of shots that were fired by police officers. A preliminary autopsy that they say they've been able to see shows as many as 60 wounds on Walker's body.
However, they also made clear that it will be up to the coroner's office to find out whether or not those are bullet entry or exit wounds or a combination of both.
Meanwhile, this community is coping with what happened on Monday, with demonstrators peacefully taking to the street, asking for -- demanding justice and action. Over the weekend, I had an opportunity to speak to Bobby DiCello, one of the attorneys representing the Walker family.
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BOBBY DICELLO, WALKER FAMILY ATTORNEY: The use of guns or the presence of guns does not give to an officer to carte blanche, to just shoot until the guy stops moving or shoot until he runs -- while he's running away. That is not how it works. You can't drop him and seize his body with bullets.
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SANDOVAL: Ahead of Sunday's release of that police body camera video, we know city officials have taken actions to guarantee the safety of many downtown. They've even staged equipment throughout the city to potentially close off some vehicle traffic here.
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SANDOVAL: As for 4th of July festivities, one festival in particular, it's actually been canceled by city officials. Akron's mayor saying it is not the right time to have a city-led celebration. I heard over the weekend from many people taking to the streets, who would certainly agree -- Polo Sandoval, CNN, Akron, Ohio.
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BRUNHUBER: The overturning of Roe v. Wade is creating yet another problem. Just ahead, the legal issues that concern both doctors and patients over unused IVF embryos.
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BRUNHUBER: The Biden administration has come out swinging over the Supreme Court's overturning of abortion rights. Vice President Kamala Harris addressed the constitutional impact during an appearance at the Essence Festival in New Orleans on Saturday. Here she is.
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KAMALA HARRIS (D), VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The Supreme Court, with the Dobbs decision, for the first time in the history of our nation, took a constitutional right that had been recognized and took it from the women of America, took a constitutional right.
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BRUNHUBER: And some states haven't wasted any time in moving forward on anti-abortion laws.
The Texas Supreme Court cleared the way for a nearly 100-year-old abortion ban to take effect. The Friday ruling reversed a lower court order that had temporarily blocked the law. Another troublesome issue after the Supreme Court ruling is what to do
with unused embryos created from IVF. The procedure has fulfilled the dreams of a family for many couples. But the status of their unused embryos presents tricky legal questions for U.S. courts. CNN's Amara Walker takes a look.
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KARLEE GILBERT, IN VITRO FERTILIZATION PATIENT: She's always awake, always wanted to see what's going on.
AMARA WALKER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): For Karlee Gilbert her twins are a gift from God and science.
WALKER: You wanted a family?
How badly did you want it?
GILBERT: So bad, so bad.
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WALKER (voice-over): A nearly four year long struggle with infertility led this hospice nurse to in vitro fertilization, a medical treatment where eggs and sperm are joined in a laboratory dish. The embryo was then implanted into a woman's uterus.
GILBERT: I saw just how hard it is for families to be started. I don't take my girls for granted whatsoever.
WALKER (voice-over): She says it was a dark and lonely journey. After three failed embryo transfers, she began to lose hope.
GILBERT: Got on medication because I did feel just so depressed that I couldn't have what other people were getting.
WALKER (voice-over): But this past March, 30-year-old Gilbert got what she wanted from her fourth embryo transfer two healthy babies, Adeline and Ashby.
Even with their dreams realized, Gilbert has a new worry now that Roe v. Wade has been overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court, triggering abortion bans or restrictions in multiple states, including Mississippi, Gilbert's home state, which is moving to ban abortions in nearly all cases.
She wonders what all this means for her frozen embryos in storage in Texas, when its new law stating life begins at fertilization takes effect.
GILBERT: I mean, where else can we transfer?
Is that going to affect that?
WALKER (voice-over): Dr. Preston Parry is Gilbert's reproductive endocrinologist. He has fertility practices in Mississippi and Louisiana. He says his patients are petrified.
DR. PRESTON PARRY, REPRODUCTIVE ENDOCRINOLOGIST: Whether they can do IVF, whether someone will regulate whether they can get their embryos, how they will be able to choose the embryos for transfer.
WALKER (voice-over): Dr. Parry also worries about the potential impact on his career.
PARRY: That basically doctors could be charged with murder if an embryo fails to develop.
WALKER: They're valid concerns, says Seema Mohapatra, a law professor and bioethics expert at Southern Methodist University. Mohapatra expects some states to pass fetal personhood laws, giving legal rights of people to an embryo. In the wake of the Supreme Court ruling, destroying an embryo, she warns, could be considered homicide.
SEEMA MOHAPATRA, SOUTHERN METHODIST UNIVERSITY: If we end up in a place where there are states that define an embryo as potential life, then and there's restrictions on discarding them, then you would have to actually implant them in order to not, you know, quote, "kill" them.
WALKER: One round of IVF could result in multiple embryos, which can be frozen. Some embryos that are not viable or are genetically abnormal or discarded to increase the chances of a successful pregnancy. Mohapatra says fetal personhood laws will potentially determine how embryos are used.
MOHAPATRA: So we're going to see this kind of fertility tourist, where we are going to see that people are going that have stored embryos are going to try to move the embryos, because of this uncertainty and fear that they wouldn't have control of what to do with their embryos, that they would have to implant them or that they couldn't discard them.
WALKER (voice-over): For Dr. Parry, meeting his patients' babies, like Gilbert's twins, for the first time is the best part of his job. He and Gilbert hope that the scientific process of building families will not be sacrificed as the abortion battle rages on.
PARRY: My sole job is bringing kids into this world. That's the most pro-life type of setting that you can imagine. It is really scary to see how far this pendulum may swing. We don't know when it will stop.
GILBERT: I just felt like everybody should have the opportunity to be able to start their families and live the dream that we all dream.
WALKER (voice-over): Amara Walker, CNN, Mississippi.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BRUNHUBER: The U.S. Supreme Court's ruling has sparked outrage around the world.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) BRUNHUBER (voice-over): This was the scene in Paris on Saturday. Hundreds of abortion rights supporters marched toward the Eiffel Tower. One group carrying a banner that reads, "Abortion is a fundamental right."
There is a similar scene in Melbourne, Australia. Like the U.S., Australia's abortion laws are decided by states. While the procedure is legal across the country, some states have only decriminalized abortions in the past few years.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BRUNHUBER: And hundreds of people took to the streets of central London to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the U.K.'s first pride parade. It was the first pride march since the COVID pandemic began two years ago. People expressed solidarity with the local LGBTQ community as well as their counterparts in Ukraine.
Still to come, the U.N. steps into a culinary dispute between Russia and Ukraine over this soup. We'll have the details ahead.
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BRUNHUBER: There's another conflict, less serious, between Russia and Ukraine, a culture war over soup. Borscht is common in both countries and they each claim their own is the most authentic. Now the U.N. has officially weighed in. Michael Holmes has the story.
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HOLMES (voice-over): A soup made of beets, potatoes and vegetables, borscht is served on dinner tables throughout Eastern Europe and Russia. But where it originated has been a bone of contention between Ukraine and Russia, long before this war between the two countries ever began.
On Friday, that debate got even more heated when UNESCO, the United Nations cultural agency, added the cooking of Ukrainian borscht to the list of intangible cultural heritage in urgent need of safeguarding.
The U.N. says Ukraine asked for the consideration to be fast-tracked because of Russia's invasion of the country. The agency explaining that, in many parts of Ukraine, the traditional meal is unable to be prepared or shared like it used to be, because there are few safe places for families to gather for a meal.
And some ingredients may be hard to find. Officials in Kyiv, where it is considered a national dish, relish the move. Ukraine's minister of culture and information exclaiming, "Victory in the war for borscht is ours." Though the U.N.'s move doesn't imply ownership of the dish, the
announcement hit a sour note in Russia, which also has traditional ties to the soup.
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HOLMES (voice-over): One Russian official ridiculed the U.N. for singling out one nationality's version of the soup.
MARIA ZAKHAROVA, RUSSIAN FOREIGN MINISTRY (through translator): That borscht can be common -- each city, each region, each housewife prepares it in her own way. Well, it's not. They don't want compromise and that is xenophobia, Nazism, extremism in all of its forms.
HOLMES (voice-over): Some cooks in both countries say it's a dish they will continue to make.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): Borscht has no nationality, just like bread, potatoes, cabbage.
Are they national?
What nationality can it have?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): Of course, borscht is Ukrainian heritage. To prepare tasty borscht, the main thing one needs is a real Ukrainian to prepare it.
HOLMES (voice-over): A simmering feud involving national pride and identity that runs much deeper than a bowl of soup -- Michael Holmes, CNN.
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BRUNHUBER: A dangerous health scare for Blink-182 drummer Travis Barker. According to a post on his Instagram account, he's been hospitalized after experiencing severe life-threatening pancreatitis stemming from a routine endoscopy earlier in the week.
According to Barker, he had a small polyp removed from a very sensitive area, which damaged a critical pancreatic drainage tube. This comes just weeks after his marriage to reality star Kourtney Kardashian. Barker said, after intensive treatment, he was much better.
That wraps this hour of CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Kim Brunhuber. I'll be back in just a moment with more news. Please do stay with us.
