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High Temperatures Spark Wildfires in the U.S.; Biden Expected to Announce Plans to Tackle Climate Change; Democrats Furious with Manchin After He Torpedoes Agenda; Netflix Loses 970,000 Subscribers but Stock Rebounds; U.S. Warns Russia Planning New Annexation Attempt in Ukraine; New AFT Chief Sworn in as U.S. Struggles with Gun Violence. Aired 4:30-5a ET

Aired July 20, 2022 - 04:30   ET

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

[04:30:00]

CHRISTINA MACFARLANE, CNN ANCHOR: Meteorologist Pedram Javaheri is joining me from CNN Weather Center. And Pedram, these wild fires are a real concern. How widespread are they at the moment?

PEDRAM JAVAHERI CNN METEOROLOGIST: You know, across the Western United States, big time fire concerns still in place here. You take a look at this about three-fourths of the western United States dealing with drought conditions at this hour where over 30 percent of this drought is classified extreme or worse. And we know the moisture has been present in recent days across the Southwest, but the conditions, of course, have been so dry for so long here that the active coverage of fires are some 85 large active fires are taking shape across the Western half of the United States, notice it spans parts of at least 13 states.

And when you kind of take a look at the numbers, this amount of land that has been consumed from these 85 large fires, it's pretty staggering. Over 3 million acres of land have already been consumed. Keep in mind the year to date average, the ten year average for fires for the first say seven months of the year are about 2.2 million acres of land being consumed. These 85 large fires alone at this hour have consumed over 3 million, 2.2 million is what is average for the entire first half of the year. Over 3 is what has occurred.

And again, it's not just isolated to just the Western United States. Work your way towards Alaska where 58 large active fires currently having consumed over 2.5 million acres of land. And this sort of a coverage continues at the same time as we have excessive heat of course around a large area of the United States.

Temperatures as warm as 110 degrees across portions of the Southwest, as warm as 115 degrees what it feels like around parts of Texas. And this sort of trend is what you expect of course a couple times a year, but we've had multiple bouts of excess and summer is only about 30 days old at this point. And it really expands over a wide reaching area. And Christina, these numbers, you look at the numbers, they're impressive by themselves, but the afternoon temperature is one thing and then you factor in the heat index in Memphis for example, it'll feel close to 113 degrees while in the shade it's at 98 degrees without the humidity. So again, shows you how humid the atmosphere is across the region, how impressive these conditions will be over the next several days -- Christina.

MACFARLANE: Yes, that humidity, that wind also making things so much worse. Pedram, thank you very much.

All right, pressure is building on U.S. President Biden to announce some kind of action on climate change. The White House says he will likely announce new measures during a speech in Massachusetts today. This after a key Senator from his own party torpedoed Biden's efforts in Congress. And chief Congressional correspondent Manu Raju reports Democrats are furious with Joe Manchin.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SEN. JOE MANCHIN (D-WV): Let me make it let me be very clear on ...

MANU RAJU, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Progressives in Congress are fed up with Senator Joe Manchin.

REP. MONDAIRE JONES (D-NY): It's hard to think of someone who has been more effective at undermining a president of his own party than Senator Manchin.

SEN. MARTIN HEINRICH (D-NM): It's not fair to have to string people along for a year and not come to a conclusion. It's not an appropriate way to negotiate.

SEN MAZIE HIRONO (D-HI): The 50/50 Senate sucks. So that's it.

RAJU (voice-over): Biden initially wanted a $3.5 trillion bill to expand the social safety net.

JOE BIDEN (D) PRESIDENT OF UNITED STATES: The agenda that's in these bills is what 81 million Americans voted for.

RAJU (voice-over): For months, Manchin and the president negotiated with Manchin even secretly proposing to Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, he would only agree to a bill about half its size.

After the White House came down to $1.75 trillion, Manchin derailed the effort by saying he was filled with budget gimmicks.

MANCHIN: This is a no on this legislation.

RAJU (voice-over): But Schumer has been quietly in talks with Manchin on a scale back plan and after believing they were close to a $350 billion climate and energy deal, along with tax hikes to pay for it, Manchin indicated he favored a narrower bill focused on prescription drug prices and health care subsidies.

RAJU: How do you respond to the criticism from your colleagues that you strung them along for an entire year and at the end of the day, you pulled the plug?

MANCHIN: I never strung anybody along. I was the first one to raise the alarm on inflation. I'm worried about the person that can't feed their family. So, I'm sorry if they don't care about that, I do.

RAJU (voice-over): Manchin who lives on a 65-foot boat while in D.C. has been criticized for his ties to the energy industry as he has benefited from nearly a million dollars in campaign donations from the oil and gas industry over the past five years. He has financial holdings between 1 million and $5 million in a coal business he found it. But he says that has nothing to deal with his positions.

RAJU: They say it's your personal ties to the -- the coal industry or financial ties.

MANCHIN: You know what, everyone has a job, everyone has made a living or tried to make a living provide for their family, if they want to criticize that and looking for some reason, the bottom line is inflation.

RAJU (voice-over): The reality, Manchin is a rare Democrat from a state that Donald Trump carried by nearly 40 points, with Manchin only winning reelection in 2018 by just three.

[04:35:00]

The former West Virginia University football player and ex-governor, Manchin won his first race in 2010 after vowing to literally shoot down his party's climate change bill.

MANCHIN: I'll take dead aim at the cap and trade bill, cause it's bad for West Virginia.

RAJU (voice-over): Moderate say he's reining in the party's extremes and credit him for helping broker in infrastructure package and the gun violence bill that Biden signed into law.

RAJU: Are you happy with the position he's taking on these issues?

REP. HENRY CUELLAR (D-TX): I'm happy that he moderates many times.

REP. TIM RYAN (D-OH): He's with us 70, 75, 80% of the time. Nobody agrees with everybody 100% of the time.

RAJU (voice-over): And as he along with Senator Kyrsten Sinema have refused to change filibuster rules, he has become a GOP darling.

RAJU: Will you support him if he ran for reelection in 2024?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Absolutely.

RAJU: How helpful has he been to Republicans in the 50/50 Senate?

SEN. BILL CASSIDY (R-LA): I think he's been helpful to the country.

RAJU (voice-over): Some say he should just change parties.

RAJU: You keep hearing Republicans saying he should just join our conference. What do you think about?

MANCHIN: We'll see later.

RAJU: Now there's still a question about exactly what Joe Manchin will ultimately agree on, but he has indicated that he will indeed support that narrower focus on prescription drug prices, letting Medicare negotiate the price of prescription drugs, as well as extending health care subsidy for two years. So, there is some optimism from Democrats that they can get that across the finish line. But of course, that ultimately is up to Joe Manchin about whether he will get behind that plan and whether they can keep all 50 Democrats together and get this out of the Senate in the coming days.

Manu Raju, CNN, Capitol Hill.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MACFARLANE: And Wall Street rebounded in a big way on Tuesday with investors cheering strong earnings reports from Netflix and others. And betting that may be just may be the markets have found their bottom. Dow jumped over 750 points and the Nasdaq was up over 3 percent. And right now, at least, it looks like that rally could continue early in today's trading.

Well, a judge is fast tracking the Twitter lawsuit against Elon Musk. The social media giant in the billionaire will square off at a trial in October Over Musk backing out of buying Twitter.

Meantime Netflix has announced a second quarter loss of nearly a million subscribers but investors are cheering. CNN's Alexandra Field has more on the Twitter case in a minute, but first to Brian Stelter with the latest on Netflix.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BRIAN STELTER, CNN CHIEF MEDIA CORRESPONDENT: Yes, hey there, Netflix lost 970,000 subscribers in the second quarter of 2022 but that's heralded as good news for the beleaguered streaming giant. That's because Netflix has predicted that it would lose about 2 million subscribers in the second quarter. It lost only about half as many so that is being cheered as good news. Some investors are buying up the stock in afterhours trading as a result of this earnings report.

And all eyes in the media have been on Netflix's earnings because as goes Netflix, often goes the streaming sector as a whole. Other companies like Disney will be reporting earnings in the days and weeks to come. And there's a lot of focus right now among investors on the performance of these streaming platforms and on the future of streaming video.

We know Netflix is taking some steps to diversify to try to bring in subscribers in different ways. For example, it talked on Tuesday about experiments around password sharing, trying to crack down on password sharing in some countries in order to entice more households to pay for the service.

The company is also working on an ad supported version of Netflix that would cost less. Trying to gain more subscribers that way. The company says that in the third quarter of the year, it expects to gain about 1 million subscribers, that's not as many as some Wall Street analysts had been hoping. But it does seem still to be somewhat good news for the company following a dramatic correction in the stock price earlier this year.

Netflix of course the giant in the streaming business turning out so many shows, so many movies and that's going to continue although the company is looking to cut costs in some ways. Most of the declines of subscribers are coming from the United States, from Canada, from parts of Europe. The company continues to grow quickly in Asia. It is a global platform and wants to continue to grow that way. It's interesting to see how the company is trying to evolve in a much more competitive streaming environment. Back to you.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ALEXANDRA FIELD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Round one in the court battle between Twitter and Elon Musk goes to the social media giant with a judge in Delaware agreeing to a motion filed by the company to expedite a trial, is now scheduled to last five days in October. During that trial, it will be decided whether or not the court will compel Musk to fork over $44 billion in a deal to take over Twitter or if he'll have to pay a $1 billion breakup fee.

[04:40:00]

Twitter's attorneys arguing that the richest man on the planet now has a case of buyer's remorse and that he decided to back out of the deal after Twitter's stock prices tumbled as part of the market's downturn. Musk has said that he is pulling the plug on the deal because of a lack of information shared by Twitter concerning the number of fake accounts and bots on the platform. His attorneys argue that the trial shouldn't start before 2023 in order to give them more time to investigate those accounts.

Twitter says that SEC filings show the estimated number of fake users to be about 5 percent, but they also say that this isn't relevant to the case. That the issue of bots and fake accounts were never part of the agreement reached with Musk back in April. They say any delay in resolving the case will only create further uncertainty for shareholders and they say that that can cause irreparable harm for the company.

In New York, Alexandra Field, CNN.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MACFARLANE: Well, Amazon is suing the administrators of more than 10,000 Facebook groups accused of putting fake reviews for products on Amazon's marketplace in about half a dozen countries. Admins allegedly recruited people to write the misleading reviews in exchange for cash or free items. Amazon said Facebook's parent company Meta has removed more than 5,000 fake reviews -- groups from its platform since 2020. It's all smiles and handshakes for the leaders of Russia and Turkey

following their meeting in Iran. Crucially there may have been progress in a deal to allow Ukrainian grain exports currently under a Russian naval blockade. Those details and more when we return.

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[04:45:00]

MACFARLANE: A new warning from the U.S. about Russia's intentions in Ukraine. On Tuesday the White House said Russia will likely attempt to further annex parts of Ukraine repeating the playbook it used in Crimea in 2014.

Meanwhile Ukrainian shelling has reportedly caused major damage to a critical bridge in the Russian occupied Kherson region. Russian state media reports Ukraine used long range rockets provided by the West to target the Antonovskiy bridge for a second day in a row. According to the British Defense Ministry, the bridge is one of just two crossing points over the Dnieper River making it a critical supply route for Russian forces.

The impact of Russia's war is leading to hunger and starvation across the globe as many countries depend on Ukrainian grain. Russian President Vladimir Putin could help end the crisis today by ending its war, but instead he is in talks with Turkey as Ankara looks to play mediator.

With both presidents in Iran on Tuesday, Mr. Putin thanked Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan for his efforts to negotiate between Russia and Ukraine. This as Kyiv accuses Moscow of blocking the shipment of more than 20 million tons of grain. Leaders of Russia, Turkey and Iran are also touting their cooperation particularly on security matters following the summit. And Iran's oil ministry has announced a deal with Russian gas giant Gazprom for a $40 billion investment. For more, I'm joined in studio here with CNN's Clare Sebastian. And Clare, first, to those U.S. intelligence reports over possible annexation, what intelligence, what evidence are they referring to here?

CLARE SEBASTIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: This comes from John Kirby who is the spokesperson for the National Security Council at the White House. He says that they have intelligence -- which has been recently sort of downgraded so they were able to declassify it -- that shows that Russia is planning various aspects of what he calls and annexation playbook. So, things like sham referenda, installing illegitimate proxy officials, establishing the rule of law, forcing people to apply for Russian passports, things like that.

Now it's not implausible. Because we've seen evidence that they've already start doing this. If you look at the Kherson region, which is occupied by Russia and has been since the early part of the war. The officials there said at the end of June they were planning to hold a referendum on joining Russia. They've already -- according to some reports -- started planning or even started already issuing Russian passports, trying to adopt the ruble. In other cities we've seen pro- Russian mayors installed, like in Mariupol in the south.

So, this annexation playbook looks like it's already underway. And in terms of the referendum, we couldn't know when -- the U.S. intelligence doesn't know when. They say that it's not only Donetsk and Luhansk, but Russian is potentially targeting, but also with Kherson is the Zaporizhzhia regions as well that they will look to annex.

MACFARLANE: And they were threatening stronger retaliation, of course, if this does happen it's a violation of the U.N. charter. And to that controversial three-way summit that was happening -- or is happening in Iran right now, there were hopes that it would lead to some movement of Ukrainian grain which is still stuck obviously in the Black Sea. What do we know about what came out of those talks?

SEBASTIAN: So, it's a bit scant on details. President Putin thanked President Erdogan for his involvement as a mediator. He said not all issues have been resolved but there is some sort of movement in the right direction. But I mean, there are still big hurdles. He then went on to say that Russia is willing to open up the exports of grain if it's packaged up with the lifting of restrictions on Russian exports of grain. Now, there are no sanctions on Russian exports. There are no sanctions that cover that but they have had trouble exporting because of sanctions on banks and sort of people's worries about future sanctions. So, it looks like Russia wants to get something out of any potential deal. We may see another meeting this week it looks likely that they are moving toward some kind of deal on a sort of safe maritime corridor. But as it stands, there are clearly big hurdles that remain.

MACFARLANE: Yes, there is a timing involved in this because that grain is due to expire, isn't it, in the Black Sea. Clare, thank you for the update.

All right, still ahead, a search for justice following the botched police response to the deadly school shooting in Uvalde, Texas. Details are coming on that after the break.

[04:50:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MACFARLANE: Welcome back. We have more fallout from that tragic shooting at the Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas. You'll recall officers arrived on the scene within minutes but waited more than an hour to confront the gunman. Now sources tell CNN that the school district police chief could lose his job over his role in chaotic response. Shimon Prokupecz has the latest.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SHIMON PROKUPECZ, CNN CRIME AND JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: The Uvalde School Board is moving towards terminating the chief Peter Arredondo. This of course all coming on the heels of that contentious board meeting. Parents demanding that he be fired. What we're told is that in the next couple of days, there will be a process, there is a process under way and perhaps by Saturday there will be a school board meeting and that is where ultimately the decision will be made. He could resign before then, that is something certainly that could happen. So, in the next few days here, we will certainly see some of this develop and perhaps as early as Saturday, he will be terminated. Back to you.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MACFARLANE: Now for the first time in seven years, the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Firearms and Explosives has a permanent director Steve Dettelbach who was confirmed by the Senate and was ceremonially sworn in on Tuesday. He acknowledged he has a lot on his plate as mass shootings rise across the U.S. and he vowed to meet the challenges head-on.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

STEVE DETTELBACH, DIRECTOR, U.S. BUREAU OF ALCOHOL, TOBACCO, FIREARMS AND EXPLOSIVES: Rising crime, rising firearm violence, rising mass shooting incidents, it's going to take all of us in this nation, in law enforcement working together to address those threats.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MACFARLANE: Well mass shootings have been on the rise in the U.S. since 2018. You can see here the numbers are staggering. The Gun Violence Archive as well as CNN define mass shooting as incidents in which four or more people are shot excluding the shooter. The group reported 336 mass shootings in 2018 are compared to nearly 700 last year.

[04:55:00]

And this year nearly halfway through and already the U.S. has seen more mass shootings than in all of 2018.

Now figure skating fans worldwide are bidding farewell to one of sport's most accomplished stars. Yuzuru Hanyu of Japan says he's retiring from competition. The 27-year-old known as the "Ice Prince" has been plagued by ankle injuries. But he says he is not giving up on his quest to perform the exclusive quadruple axle. In his legendary career Hanyu won back to back Olympic gold medals. His first in 2014 made him the first Asian male ever to win figure skating gold. And he's also two time world champion and winner of the Grand Prix finals. Four of them in fact.

Chicago has been chosen to host NASCAR's first ever cup series street circuit race set for July next year. This simulation video shows what the course could look like over two miles or 3.5 kilometers long with 12 turns taking drivers past some of the city's historic landmarks. The event will coincide with NASCAR's 75th anniversary celebration.

And if you are feeling lucky this week, you could try playing the lottery. The mega million jackpot in the U.S. is now at $630 million. There was no jackpot winner Tuesday night, although four people drew the first five numbers winning $1 million each. The next draw will be on Friday. Good luck to you.

That does it for CNN NEWSROOM. I'll be back at the same time tomorrow. Times Christina McFarlane in London. "EARLY START" with Kristin Fisher is coming your way next.

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