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Biden Vows Climate Action Despite Opposition; Videos of Chinese COVID Workers in Heat Wave Go Viral; Unarmed Teen Paralyzed After Being Shot by Chicago Police; Ukrainian First Lady Makes a Plea to U.S. Congress; Greenland Ice Melting Rapidly Due to High Temperatures. Aired 4:30-5a ET

Aired July 21, 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]

MJ LEE, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Record-breaking temperatures, and he even said that supply chain issues are being exacerbated by extreme weather.

Now he also alluded to this climate bill that is now basically stalled on Capitol Hill after Senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia said that he had concerns about what that might do to inflation that is already so high. Here's what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Still discussions going on about whether or not there will be some action on my climate plan. And that's -- I'm told that's in play. And we'll see. We'll see what happens.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEE: Now the White House is talking about taking a number of executive actions including in two areas, one is increasing funding for communities that are suffering from extreme heat, and the second is investing more in wind energy.

This is a part of the reason why we saw the president visit Massachusetts. Where he was speaking was a former coal plant that is being transformed into a wind energy farm. Now, one thing that we didn't hear from the president in his remarks is declaring a national emergency on climate. That is something that the White House has said is potentially on the table but not the announcement that he is going to make this week. He also told reporters that he has not personally spoken with Senator Manchin.

MJ Lee, CNN, the White House.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CHRISTINA MACFARLANE, CNN ANCHOR: Well, dramatic viral video out of China showing COVID testers getting physically sick, some even fainting from possible heat stroke. They've had to work long hours outdoors in those heavy protective suits amid the country's recent heatwave.

CNN's Selina Wang joining me from Beijing with more. And Selina, China getting hit on two fronts here, the heat and the surge in COVID cases right now. And as we just saw, potentially very dangerous for those health workers.

SELINA WANG, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Exactly, Christina. Unlike other parts of the world, this heatwave is hitting a population in China that is still reeling from these harsh COVID-19 lockdowns. China is right now dealing with another surge in COVID cases because of the highly contagious Omicron subvariants and that is now putting at least 30 Chinese cities in full or partial lockdown.

This brutal heatwave, it's not only making it all the more suffocating for the people who are trapped and sealed in their homes, but also more dangerous for these frontline COVID health care workers.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

WANG (voice-over): Scorching temperatures sweep over China, turning mass COVID testing into a dangerous task. State media shows COVID workers collapsing on the job due to what the videos say are heat stroke. In eastern China, a COVID worker vomits on the ground as colleagues rush to tear off her hazmat suit. Unable to stand, she is carried away.

It's a scene playing out across China. Fainting, falling, crumpling on the ground, lying motionless, struggling to breathe. The COVID workers' long hours in the suffocating heat made worse by their head- to-toe full body protective gear.

That is not water according to state media. It's sweat gushing out of this worker's hazmat suit. The sweat pools inside the protective gear lining the inside of their rubber gloves. The surging temperatures coinciding with surging COVID cases.

(On-camera): Cities across China including here in Beijing require a recent COVID test in order to enter any public area. That means everyone, young, old and sick all have to wait in long lines like these in the brutal heat.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's really hot. It's frustrating, and, you know, exhausting and you feel like -- a lot of times you feel anxious because you have things to do.

WANG (voice-over): To survive COVID workers are getting creative, hugging giant blocks of ice, placing them on their backs, laps and feet. Colleagues rub ice on each other and tape ice cold water bottles to themselves. Some authorities have now said COVID workers can wear PPE that does not cover their entire bodies.

Dozens of cities have been experiencing record high temperatures. Last week, more than 80 cities issued red alert with some locking temperatures of more than 110 degrees Fahrenheit. In central China, a museum closed after the roof melted. In Nanjing, the city opened underground air raid shelters for people to escape the heat. Meanwhile, crops are withering and dying under the high temperatures. The soil parched and cracked.

The damage to China's crop production threatens to push up inflation, putting more pressure on an economy already devastated by the pandemic. But in Zero COVID China, even health care workers hospitalized from heat exhaustion get a positive spin from authorities. This propaganda video shows government officials visiting COVID workers in the intensive care unit.

[04:35:02]

While showing the motionless patients in bed, the video rallies people to work together for victory against COVID.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WANG: And Christina, temperatures are now starting to ease up in parts of China, but officials say the worst could still be to come with more extreme weather expected in the coming months. And also this heatwave in China follows brutal flooding in recent months that have displaced millions of people in China. The government now is saying climate change is a top priority with these recent unrelenting torrent of weather-related emergencies really being a wake-up call to Beijing. But the question now, is it all too late -- Christina.

MACFARLANE: Yes, it's a good question. And I really feel for those COVID workers in that intense heat.

Selina Wang, thank you very much there from Beijing.

A tech rally helped the U.S. markets rebound Wednesday after a choppy day of trade and the Dow picked up 48 points and the Nasdaq gained more than 1.5 percent. Streaming services soared with Netflix shares jumping 5 percent. Disney and Paramount also up.

And let's take a look at the futures. All of which as you can see are in the red right now.

U.S. gas prices keep inching lower, much to the relief of Americans fed up with inflation. The new national average is $4.44 a gallon. That's down more than 50 cents from a month ago but still well over a dollar higher than at this time last year.

OK, coming up on CNN NEWSROOM, a 13-year-old in Chicago may never walk again after being shot by police. But officers say they were justified. CNN has exclusive look at the bodycam footage.

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MACFARLANE: Hello, welcome back. CNN has exclusively obtained body camera footage showing a Chicago police officer shooting an unarmed black 13-year-old.

[04:40:04]

Attorneys for the teen say he had his hands up and was turning around to surrender after being pursued when an officer shot him. Now he's paralyzed.

Here's CNN's Omar Jimenez but a warning, some of this content report is very graphic.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

OMAR JIMENEZ, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): They were the final moments of a foot chase. Body camera videos obtained exclusive by CNN show how it ended with a Chicago police officer shooting an unarmed 13-year-old who was running from a stolen vehicle and who lawyers and some witnesses say had his hands up.

The 13-year-old's attorneys say the teen was trying to surrender. The officer's attorney says in a split second decision he thought the teen's cellphone was a gun.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Jesus (EXPLETIVE DELETED) Christ, dude.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You all right?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (EXPLETIVE DELETED). Damn it.

JIMENEZ: That was the reaction of the officer next to the shooting officer after shots were fired.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Was anyone hit? He's hit? Get me an ambulance.

JIMENEZ: Shortly after, two offices grabbed the 13-year-old, who had just been shot, by his sweat shirt and legs and carried him away from the gas pump where he was laying.

ANDREW M. STROTH, CIVIL RIGHTS ATTORNEY, ACTION INJURY LAW FIRM: They drag him with no regard for this young man. Pull him like a rag doll away from the pump to another area after he had already sustained a major injury to his back.

STEVEN HART, PARTNER, HART MCLAUGHLIN AND ELDRIDGE: They're supposed to value sanctity of human life. There was no value here.

SUPT. DAVID BROWN, CHICAGO POLICE DEPARTMENT: The officers believe they likely struck those gas pumps.

JIMENEZ: Chicago police later said they were concerned a gas tank might have been hit by gunfire and could explode.

The shooting officer Noah Ball didn't have his body camera activated until roughly 40 seconds after the shooting, as he asks another officer if his is on.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Is your camera on?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.

JIMENEZ: Ball's camera being off was inadvertent, his attorney told CNN, but inexcusable, the teen's attorney says.

HART: The suggestion that hey, maybe this was just a temporary absentmindedness because he was involved in a pursuit, they know that they're supposed to engage their cameras and it's up to do it.

JIMENEZ: The 13-year-old was a passenger in a suspected stolen car. When officers tried to stop it, police say he jumped out and started running. Then right as he turns and appears to raise his hands, he is shot at least once. Leaving him now paralyzed from the waist down his attorneys say.

(On-camera): And for you all at least it's clear that his hands are up.

STROTH: His hands are up. There was no justification for the officer to shoot.

JIMENEZ: And he was unarmed.

STROTH: And clearly unarmed.

JIMENEZ (voice-over): And at least some bystanders on the scene appear to agree.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He had his (EXPLETIVE DELETED) hands up.

JIMENEZ: One witness who didn't want to be identified said --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: His hands was up. And I seen the cop run up to that boy and just start shooting.

JIMENEZ: But the attorney for the shooting officer is looking less at where the hands where and more what he says his client thought was in them. Attorney Timothy Grace wrote to CNN in part, "Officer Ball reasonably believed the object being pointed at him was a firearm. It ended up being a cellphone. But Officer Ball had to make a split second decision as he had no cover and no concealment. He discharged his service weapon to stop the threat."

The teen's attorneys argue he was trying to surrender and that the pursuit shouldn't have happened in the first place.

STROTH: There's been no charges against him. He was in a stolen vehicle and ran away. He ran away. And does that warrant being shot in the back and paralyzed from the waist down?

HART: If all you need is to have someone flee from the police to justify a shooting, we got real problems in this city and in this country.

JIMENEZ (on-camera): Now The teen's attorneys dispute there was ever anything in his hands and argue there's is no definitive video to prove it. Separately the family of the 13-year-old has now filed a federal lawsuit against the Chicago Police Department in part to account for the life of their teen that has now been changed forever because of his injuries. The Chicago Police Department couldn't comment on this particular

shooting because what happened is still under investigation by the Civilian Office of Police Accountability. But they did confirm this officer was stripped of his police powers two days after the shooting pending the outcome of that investigation.

Omar Jimenez, CNN, Chicago.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MACFARLANE: Now Ukrainian First Lady Olena Zelenska addressed the U.S. Congress on Wednesday. As images of Ukrainians impacted by the war were shown behind her, she pleaded with lawmakers to help Ukrainians defend themselves with more weapons. She said the country especially needs especially air defense systems to protect against Russian missiles. Take a listen.

[04:45:05]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

OLENA ZELENSKA, UKRAINIAN FIRST LADY: And I appeal to all of you on behalf of those who were killed, on behalf of those people who lost their arms and legs, on behalf of those who are still alive and well and those who wait for their families to come back from the front. I'm asking for something now I would never want to ask. I am asking for weapons.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MACFARLANE: Well, the Kremlin now confirms what U.S. officials have been saying for a while that Russia's goals in Ukraine extend far beyond the Donbas. On Wednesday the Russian foreign minister used the deployment of U.S. long range rocket systems to justify Moscow's desire to push farther west into Ukraine. He said it's to prevent those long range weapons from threatening Russia, but U.S. officials say Moscow has always had desires on capturing as much of Ukraine as possible.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOHN KIRBY, NSC COORDINATOR FOR STRATEGIC COMMUNICATIONS: They do in fact have larger broader territorial objectives in mind inside Ukraine. And what we said yesterday we'll say again today, we're not going to tolerate that and neither will the international community.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MACFARLANE: Ukraine's military says those rocket systems are already making a difference on the battlefield despite round-the-clock Russian bombardment in Donetsk. Ukraine says Russian forces have not been able to advance. On Wednesday the U.S. military announced it would soon send four more of the weapons to Ukraine bringing the total to 12.

CNN's Nic Robertson joins us live from Kyiv in Ukraine. And Nic, this was an emotional appeal by the Ukrainian first lady for

weapons, specifically for air defense systems and those long range missiles we've just been talking about. Why are those missiles so important and what effect do they have on the battlefield?

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: The Ukrainians say they're having a big effect right now and I think the fact that we're hearing from the Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu saying that Russian forces should prioritize the targeting of these HIMARS systems, the fact that Sergey Lavrov, Russia's foreign minister, is saying essentially because of these systems we're going to fight harder and push deeper, although I think part of that is also signaling to the United States and the U.K. who will be supplying more of these weapons that they shouldn't supply the even longer range versions of them, which in turn indicates the pressure that Russia feels that it's now getting on its military advances or attempts to advance because of these weapon systems.

The Ukrainians are using them against ammunition stores. So it depletes Russia's ability to fight effectively at the frontline or as effectively, although Ukrainian officials say look, Russia does have a lot of weapons still at the front lines so it doesn't take away the threat completely, but it makes it harder for Russia to advance. They are also using these systems to attack strategic bridges that will cut Russia off from areas that it wants free and easy access into and out of. Again, that will over time help Ukrainians.

But the frontline here is hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of kilometers long and much of it is active much of the time. And the additional four systems coming from the United States will bring the total number to 12. And while they are mobile, that really doesn't cover the frontline in its entirety at any stretch of the imagination. And I think this is why we heard from Ukraine's first lady yesterday speaking to Congress, this very emotional appeal. She said she wouldn't want to appeal for weapons, but as she explains it here, you know, people in this country have the same right of people around the rest of the world to wake up feeling safe. This is how she explained that.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ZELENSKA (through translator): I'm asking for weapons that would not be used to wage a war on somebody else's land but to protect one's home and the right to wake up alive in that home. I'm asking for air defense systems in order for rockets not to kill children in their strollers.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROBERTSON: It is an emotional appeal because it is emotionally and heartfelt here. But I think we're going to hear a continuing resounding call from Ukrainian officials, these weapons systems are working, they are holding Russia back. But of course Ukraine's real aim here is to push Russia back. That's going to take more of the HIMARS and those air defense systems.

MACFARLANE: All right. Nic Robertson, there in Kyiv, thanks for breaking it down for us, Nic.

OK, the unprecedented heatwave gripping Europe is hitting Greenland as well. Coming up, scientists around the world alarmed by the unusually high amount of melting ice.

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[04:53:35]

MACFARLANE: Unusually warm weather in northern Greenland has triggered rapid melting and scientists on the island's ice sheet are alarmed.

CNN's Rene Marsh reports.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RENE MARSH, CNN CORRESPONDENT (through translation): Off the coast of Northwest Greenland, the water is perfectly still, but puddling on icebergs indicate a transformation is underway.

That's the sound of rapid melting, triggered by a few days of unusually warm temperatures. During CNN's first three days in northern Greenland, the temperature topped out nearly 10 degrees higher than normal.

(On-camera): It's days like today warm enough to wear short sleeves, near 60 degrees in Greenland. It's a high melt day when it's this unusually warm and it's also deeply concerning for scientists.

KUTALMIS SAYLAM, RESEARCH SCIENTIST, UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS-AUSTIN: It definitely worries me. We are at 67 latitude here on top of the world in North Pole. And we could just, yesterday especially, not today, but yesterday we could wander around in our T-shirts. That was not really expected.

ASLAK GRINSTED, CLIMATE SCIENTIST: It's basically at the melting point today. As you can see now we can make snowballs.

MARSH (voice-over): At a research site in northeast Greenland, near- melt conditions at an elevation of nearly 9,000 feet made what's usually a frozen landing strip inoperable.

GRINSTED: They have a problem when it's this soft as the surface is now.

MARSH: Climate scientist Aslak Grinsted tweeting, "Mini heatwave. Negative 1.6 degrees Celsius in the middle of the Greenland ice sheet. Our planned planes are postponed because our skiway is not that good when it is this warm."

[04:55:12]

Unable to fly out, the scientist pass the time playing volleyball in shorts atop the ice sheet.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes. MARSH: Pre-global warming, Grinsted says, temperatures near 32 degrees

Fahrenheit at this altitude were unheard of. The National Snow and Ice Data Center tells CNN from July 15th through 17th alone, a melt surge in northern Greenland caused ice sheet runoff of about six billion tons of water per day. That's about the volume of 2.4 million Olympic sized pools. But another way, enough water to flood the entire state of West Virginia with one foot of water in three days.

SAYLAM: The amount of melt from the iceberg was, to us, was very surprising because it was very warm day. You could even hear the iceberg just melting in front of our eyes.

MARSH: Research scientists tell CNN this extent of melt in North Greenland this past week is quite unusual and will contribute to global sea level rise, which impacts coastal communities half a world away.

Rene Marsh, CNN, Pituffik, Greenland.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MACFARLANE: Florida has seen a slew of marine animal rescues this week. This 200 pound giant sea turtle was found disorientated on someone's beach front patio. Fortunately the rescue team was able to carry the turtle and released it back into the water.

Meanwhile, in Key West, baby turtles wandered into restaurants after they'd hatched. But somehow they were able to get back to the ocean as well. And rescuers had to help this baby dolphin which had gotten stuck in a crab trap under a pier be freed and once freed the baby was struggling to swim. Some marine experts were caring for it at a rehabilitation center.

OK, a quick update on our breaking news out of Italy. President Sergio Mattarella has accepted the resignation of Prime Minister Mario Draghi. That's according to Italy's presidential palace. The statement says the government will stay on in a caretaker role. Mr. Draghi made the move just a day after winning a confidence vote in the Senate but three key parties in his coalition boycotted the vote.

OK. Thanks for joining me. I'm Christina MacFarlane. Stay with us, "EARLY START" with Kristin Fisher is next.

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