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Biden in Israel: "We Will Not Allow Iran to Acquire a Nuclear Weapon"; Biden Stops Short of Saying He'll Raise Khashoggi Murder in Saudi Arabia; Russian Character Witness Testifies on Brittney Griner's Behalf; Social Security Recipients Could See 10.5 Percent Jump in Checks Next Year. Aired 1:30-2p ET

Aired July 14, 2022 - 13:30   ET

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

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[13:33:10]

ANA CABRERA, CNN HOST: To Israel and President Biden high-stakes trip to the Middle East. Today, a warning for Iran.

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JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We will not -- let me say it again -- we will not allow Iran to acquire a nuclear weapon.

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CABRERA: The president added U.S. will use military force against Iran, quote, "as a last resort."

While it is hardening the language, the U.S. and Israel are not completely on the same page. The Israeli prime minister still wants President Biden to do more.

CNN White House correspondent, Jeremy Diamond, is traveling with the present.

Jeremy, the threat of a nuclear Iran looms large for the strip.

JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: It certainly does. It's part of what is driving this reapproach between Israel and so many of these Arab countries in the region, in fact, the Iranian threat.

President Biden making very clear today there's a nuclear deal on the table for Iran, should they want to take it. But also saying he is not going to wait forever for Iran to respond.

And making clear that, at the end of the day, he will never accept a nuclear-armed Iran. In that since, the U.S. and Israel are on the same page. But they are not on the same page as it relates to the approach.

But that's because, we heard President Biden today, even as he was issuing that warning, defending the diplomacy that his administration has been engaged in for months now, making very clear that he wants a diplomatic solution here.

The Israeli prime minister standing next to President Biden making very clear, saying, "Mr. President, words will not be enough. Diplomacy will not be enough."

Urging President Biden to adopt a much more muscular approach with a concrete threat of military action.

CABRERA: Tomorrow, the president heads to Saudi Arabia. With the murder of Jamal Khashoggi still on the minds of many, how is that going to factor into President Biden's meeting with the crown prince?

[13:35:02]

DIAMOND: Well, listen, it's the driving factor behind why this meeting that President Biden is going to be having with the king and the crown prince of Saudi Arabia is so controversial.

President Biden today was asked whether or not he will raise the murder of that journalist with the Saudi crown prince. Here is his answer.

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BIDEN: My views on Khashoggi have been made absolutely positively clear. And I have never been quiet about talking about human rights. The question that I'm -- the reason I'm going to Saudi Arabia is much broader. It is to promote U.S. interests.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DIAMOND: The president was asking a follow-up question whether or not he would raise the murder of the journalist, Jamal Khashoggi, with the Saudi crown prince.

He dodged the question, saying he would raise human rights, stopping short of committing to raising that journalist's murder with the Saudi crown prince.

And the CIA, we should remind you all, found him responsible for orchestrating that murder -- Ana?

CABRERA: Jeremy Diamond, thank you for sharing that reporting.

WNBA star, Brittney Griner, back in a courtroom outside of Moscow. Today, a character witness, a Russian, testified in her defense.

Just last week, Griner pleaded guilty to drug charges. Today's court appearance began the sentencing phase. Her attorneys hope the testimony today will soften her prison sentence.

CNN national security correspondent, Kylie Atwood, is following this at the State Department.

Kylie, what more can you tell us?

KYLIE ATWOOD, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Griner's team today brought forth character witnesses, folks who are Russian.

We should remind viewers that Brittney Griner was in Russia because she was playing on a Russian basketball team. They brought forth people who have met her in that sense.

The captain of the team she was playing on talked to reporters after this hearing today and called her a great teammate, saying that they miss her, they miss her energy very much.

Also, the director of the club, the basketball club Brittney Griner was playing on, gave testimony as part of this hearing today.

According to Brittney Griner's lawyer, there were cameras in this hearing today.

But according to her lawyer, he was able to describe, in the courtroom today, a positive description of Brittney Griner during his speech.

Noting, "Her outstanding abilities as a player and personal contribution to strengthening the team sport -- the team spirit, which allowed the team to achieve the highest results in Russian basketball premier league and in international competitions for many years."

We are expecting another hearing tomorrow as part of this ongoing trial. We still do not have a sentence for these drug charges against Brittney Griner -- Ana?

CABRERA: The charges do carry a potential 10-year sentence in Russia. Again, hoping some of these moves reduce the chance of her getting that maximum.

Thank you, Kylie Atwood, for your following this story.

And we know, back at home, inflation is the big story. It is surging right now. We have some big news for tens of millions of Americans who are retired, a boost to your benefits could be on the way.

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[13:43:03]

CABRERA: As the cost of living keeps rising, we have major news for millions of retired Americans. A boost in Social Security benefits could be coming.

CNN business correspondent, Rahel Solomon, joins us now.

For seniors who are struggling, Rahel, this sounds like some relief. Fill us in.

RAHEL SOLOMON, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Hopefully, it will be. If you're on a fixed income, you are perhaps feeling inflation a lot more than most of us. So hopefully, this provides a glimmer of hope.

So the latest cost-of-living adjustment has the Social Security benefit going up by about $175 per month or about 10.5 percent higher. This number could actually go a little higher or a little bit lower,

depending on what happens on the inflation front the next few months. This number will be finalized in October.

So the average person could see a bit more or a bit less. But we know that the cost-of-living adjustment last year was a little bit less than 6 percent. And as we talk about a lot, inflation has outpaced that.

So hopefully, this provides a bit more relief than the adjustment last year.

CABRERA: And some cushion in addition.

You and I discussed the new inflation report yesterday, a new 40-year high. And today, another sign about prices rising?

SOLOMON: Yes. One of these days I'm going to come baring good news. Unfortunately, it is not today.

This is the June PPI report, producer price index. You can think about it as a factory level inflation. Inflation that business owners and companies are experiencing.

That came in higher than expected, 11.3 percent year-over-year, 1.1 percent over the last month. This on the heels of yesterday's report, CPI report.

The reason this is very important -- is doesn't tend to get a lot of attention -- but the reason why it is these days is, because what we see in this number, we tend to see trickle-down to consumer prices in the CPI report a few months down the road.

And Moody's actually crunched the numbers. Because we talk a lot in percentages. But Moody's actually crunched the numbers.

[13:44:59]

What does this mean for the average family? Almost $500 more for the same basket of items then a year ago. So this is a real pain out there.

And when you look at where we are seeing it, because 919.1 percent was a top number, the top number. But when you head to the grocery store, when you're trying to make a sandwich for lunch, take for example, the cost of lunchmeat, 18 percent higher. Lettuce more than 11 percent higher.

God forbid, you try to get a soda. That's more than 18 percent higher. So that is certainly where you are feeling it at the grocery store.

But not just there, of course. Are broad-based, for electricity, shelter, by the way has a lot of economists concerned about dire consequences in terms of affordability in this country.

That is something folks have been sounding the alarm about for quite some time. Household cleaning supplies is broad-based and a problem.

The Fed knows it. It has yet to really tackle it, as we have seen in yesterday's report.

CABRERA: OK. We will leave it there for today. Don't blame the messenger. We will keep tracking. But eventually, this news will turn around and you will bringing good news, hopefully, on all of this soon.

All right, it is begin called air-mageddon. A major airline is slamming one of the world's busiest airports for its handling of the summer travel surge.

Plus, ready for launch. NASA and SpaceX teaming up for a new investigation at the International Space Station. But this mission isn't about what is happening in space. It's studying what's happening on earth.

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[13:50:57]

CABRERA: The struggle to handle summer travel is real. Now, one of the world's busiest airports is telling airlines to cut flights and stop selling tickets until mid-September. Well, cue the backlash.

CNN's Anna Stewart is in London.

Anna, at least one major airline is saying, I don't think so.

ANNA STEWART, CNN REPORTER: Yes, what we're looking at here is a whole lot of finger pointing.

So earlier this week, Heathrow said, "Yes, we are buckling under the pressure due to staff shortages. Frankly, it's what all major airlines are facing around the world.

But they told airlines they would need to cut their capacity. So, for departing passengers, cutting them by around 4,000 a day.

Now, they said they had no choice. But airlines seem to think differently, particularly, Emirates, one airline that honestly the most stinging rebuke I have seen from a corporation in terms of a statement in a very, very long time.

They said, Heathrow Airport were incompetent. They said they were being cavalier with passengers and their airline customers.

And had this to say. "London Heathrow chose not to act, not to plan, not to invest. Now faced with an 'air-mageddon' situation due to their incompetent and nonaction. They are pushing the entire burden of costs and scramble to sort the mess to airlines and travelers."

You know what? They are not going to cut back their flights to Heathrow already. Many airlines have made a very good point, they already have cut a lot of flights in recent weeks for this summer. But the thing is, what does this really mean for travelers, people

like me who want to get away for the summer? It's not good.

Because whether or not Heathrow Airport enforces capacity cuts, whether or not airlines do it themselves, the ultimate end result is that this airport is overburdened, and a lot of those flights are not going to be taking off -- Ana?

CABRERA: All right, thank you so much, Anna Stewart.

If the weather holds, a long-awaited NASA mission with SpaceX will finally get off the ground hours from now. The private space company's Falcon 9 Rocket is scheduled to lift off from the Kennedy Space Center at 8:44 Eastern tonight.

And it is carrying a special payload of new scientific equipment that could bring a deeper understanding of climate change here on earth.

Joining us now is CNN aerospace analyst, Miles O'Brien.

Miles, it's always nice to see you.

Tell us about this mission and what scientists hope to learn.

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN AEROSPACE ANALYST: Well, Ana, this is the EMIT mission, and it is a spectroscopy device, imaging spectroscopy, which is a complicated way of saying, basically, a camera that detects light signatures.

This device, on board the Dragon, will get bolted onto the outside of the International Space Station. And that spectrograph or the spectrometer, I should say, will be looking at the arid portions of the planet to try to identify exactly what is in the dust that is kicked up by places like the Sahara.

The type of minerals that are in that dust is crucial, because it impacts climate so much. And if it's a dark piece of dust, it absorbs heat, makes the planet warmer. But if it's lighter colored, it actually reflects heat.

So we don't know, at the bottom of the ledger, what the dust does to climate and how it affects the climate model. So this is a key piece of understanding a key piece of data as scientists try to figure out what is happening with the climate crisis.

CABRERA: Why the need to do this research from space? What can't be learned here on earth?

O'BRIEN: Well, it's -- there aren't many weather stations in the Sahara. And so it is an easy way to take a look at that dust in places where we just don't have any sensors, any devices, any instruments to give us any indication.

It goes from the Sahara across the Atlantic. And if you remember, a couple of years ago, there was a dust storm that we all kind of experienced with some very interesting sunsets in North America. But there's no instrumentation along the way for us to really

understand what's in it. And so space is the perfect place to do this.

[13:55:00]

You know, there are three dozen NASA satellite, and others from the Europeans, looking back at our planet. So really, when you think about going to space to explore planets, the number-one planet we explore is our favorite planet, earth.

CABRERA: And we only have about 30 seconds or so but it's interesting to think we're leaving earth to help fix problems we have on this planet. And there's a sense of urgency as we are seeing the climate crisis worsen really by the day.

Do you expect we'll see more of this?

O'BRIEN: Absolutely. This is -- this should be the priority for NASA and other space agencies, frankly. This is so much more important, frankly, than going to another planet. We need to fix planet A, ours.

CABRERA: Miles O'Brien, thank you so much. It's been enlightening to learn what's happening up there in space that can impact us all. I appreciate it.

That does it for us today. Thank you all for joining us. We'll see you back here tomorrow, Friday, same time, same place. As always, you can join me on Twitter as well, @AnaCabrera.

The news continues with Victor and Alisyn right after this.

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