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Fears Intensify Over Safety Near Ukraine Nuclear Plant; Pentagon Announces New $775M Military Aid Package For Ukraine; Floods, Droughts And Wildfires Hit Europe Earlier Than Usual; Heavy Rain, Flash Flooding Threatens 10M People Across Southwest; Biden Administration Steps Up Response To Monkeypox Spread; Severe Bus Driver Shortage Hits Schools Nationwide; Injured Little Leaguer Honored. Aired 11a-12p ET
Aired August 20, 2022 - 11:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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[11:00:42]
FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, everyone. Thank you so much for joining me this Saturday. I'm Fredricka Whitfield.
We begin in Ukraine and a standoff at Europe's largest nuclear plant. Sources now saying Russia has agreed to let international nuclear inspectors into the Zaporizhzhia plant that they have been occupying for months.
New video shows Russian military trucks inside the facility amid ongoing fighting outside. A senior U.S. Defense official calling Russia's actions the height of irresponsibility.
As CNN first reported, new satellite images contradict Russian claims that Ukraine has been systematically shelling the area around the plant. Both sides are accusing each other of endangering the facility.
CNN's Sam Kiley is in Zaporizhzhia. So Sam, where do things stand right there?
SAM KILEY, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, they stand at a very, very dangerous moment. That is something that the international community, the Russians and Ukrainians are agreeing on. They're obviously disagreeing about who to blame for this with demands coming from the Ukrainians and the international community to demilitarize Europe's biggest nuclear power station that has when its full capacity six reactors functioning. At the moment it's got less than that and there is no question either that the Russians are using it as a fire base to attack civilian and possibly other targets in government held territory on the other side of Dnipro. And that is exactly what we found when we visited a village in that location.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KILEY: -- destroyed by a missile but here the lucky escape of a young couple is overshadowed by a potential catastrophe. The first Russian rocket hit the local soccer pitch and sent them scrambling into their basement safe from the second.
"After what happened, we jump at every sound," Andriy (ph) says. The Ukrainian authorities say that both rockets were fired by Russian troops from the grounds of a nuclear power station captured in March.
The international consternation over the future of the Enerhodar nuclear power station is very obvious when you stand here and you can see the six reactors of the biggest nuclear power station in the whole of Europe. The United Nations, the international community are all reacting in horror at the mere thought that this could be at center of fighting.
Ukraine blames Russia for using the nuclear plant as a fire base and insists that it's not able to shoot back for risk of blowing up the nuclear facility.
"The Russian occupiers shoot all the time to provoke the armed forces of Ukraine and to spread panic among the people. We understand that the power plant may explode because of their actions. I just don't understand. Maybe they just don't get it," he told us.
The Unites States, the United Nations and Ukraine have all called for Russia to leave the nuclear plant and for it to be demilitarized. These demands are growing in volume as the bombardment of Ukrainian towns allegedly from around the six nuclear reactors has intensified.
Andriy Tuz worked at the plant until he escaped the Russians but then he was recaptured he says and tortured before being released. Now, he's in hiding in western Europe and he says the possibility of a disaster is very high.
I would say 70 to 90 percent if we're talking about the most optimistic scenario. I'm very worried about it. And civilians in the Russian occupied town next to the plant have been stuck in traffic jams trying to flee a potential nuclear escalation. Ukraine's claims that it hasn't shelled in the nuclear site can't be verified but there is no doubt that Russia used it as a safe location to attack Ukraine from.
Ukrainians have been conducting nuclear disaster drills in cities nearby and both sides have said that some kind of incident is imminent and could cause massive radio active contamination or a meltdown, a cataclysm that could be felt far beyond Ukraine, even in nearby Russia.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
[11:04:58]
KILEY: The problem -- excuse me -- Fredricka is that we have now been speaking to some people who've escaped or been allowed to leave Enerhodar, which is the town around which the nuclear power station is located and they're saying that in their view, and we've got no independent verification of this except for those very important satellite images that they are reinforcing this idea that it is the Russians who are firing on or near the town on to locations there with short range lighter weapons, possibly mortars as part of an ongoing false flag operation.
That's something that the Ukrainians have claimed and the Russians have heartily denied. But frequently, we're hearing this from people who have escaped. And on top of that, the Ukrainians are saying that the Russians have plans to switch the electricity produced in this power station from going into the Ukrainian network into a network controlled by the Russians and their occupied territories.
And there were warnings that if that is attempted, it could have a catastrophic technical influence on the power station itself.
WHITFIELD: All right. Sam Kiley in Zaporizhzhia, be safe. Thanks so much.
So as concerns grow over the fighting at the plant, the Pentagon says it is committing another $775 million in military aid to Ukraine.
CNN's Oren Liebermann explains the U.S. has already supplied billions in help and it is having an impact on the battlefield.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
OREN LIEBERMANN, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: This is the 19th drawdown of equipment from U.S. Inventory to send into Ukraine and it now means that since the beginning of the Biden administration, the U.S. has committed to sending in more than $10 billion of security assistance to Ukraine. That's with this latest $775 million package.
Now, some of what we're seeing here, we have seen in the past. More ammunition for the HIMARS system, that High Mobility Artillery Rocket System, a GPS-guided sort of medium range rocket system that has allowed Ukraine to hit Russian logistics posts, command and control, as well as ammunition depots.
A senior Defense official here in talking to reporters earlier on Friday said the Ukrainians have used it very effectively to be able to disrupt the Russian offensive. They don't have all that much ammunition. It's certainly not limitless but the ammunition the U.S. has provided, Ukraine has used incredibly well and that's why it's important, the Pentagon says, to keep providing this as this continues.
In terms of what else is going in, 105 millimeter Howitzers and then for new equipment, the U.S. us sending in a new type of antitank weapon as well as the Javelins that were used so effectively at the beginning of this conflict. Humvees are going in, communication equipment, night vision goggles, reconnaissance drones and then a new capability the U.S. is sending here, mine clearing equipment and that's important. a senior defense official told reporters on Friday because Russia has heavily mined southern and eastern Ukraine.
Ukraine will need this equipment to clear that area if they're looking to carry out any of their own operations or simply to continue life in these areas without the risk of mines.
Oren Liebermann, CNN -- in the Pentagon. (END VIDEOTAPE)
WHITFIELD: Oren Liebermann, thank you so much.
All right. Cedric Leighton is with us now. He is a CNN military analyst, and a retired U.S. Air Force Colonel. Colonel, good to see you.
So let's get back to that military aid or get to the military aid in a moment but first, I want to ask you about the crisis at the nuclear plant. In your view, what do you think Russia is up to in its psychological warfare here?
COL. CEDRIC LEIGHTON, CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Well Fred, it's good to be with you again.
I think the Russians are using the nuclear power plant as really a staging area for a lot of what they want to do. This is right on the front lines as Sam Kiley mentioned in his reporting.
So on one side of the river you've got the plant, and on the other side you've got the Ukrainian forces. Russians have occupied this plant for, you know, quite sometime since the fourth of March and they now see it as a place where they can do several things.
One of them is to stage attacks from it and they are pretty convinced that the Ukrainians won't fire back at them. And when they do that, you know, when they use this facility as a staging area, that gives them a certain degree of immunity, if you will, from Ukrainian attacks.
The other thing that they're trying to do is leverage the psychological impact of a possible nuclear accident and that, of course, has a lot of people worried especially in a place like Ukraine which experienced the Chernobyl disaster firsthand in 1986 and of course, the world looks at that as well as we look at Fukushima and they see two disasters, different causes but anything like that that happens at the Enerhodar or Zaporizhzhia plant would be very bad for the people in the area and potentially for a larger area of central Europe.
[11:09:48]
WHITFIELD: And ultimately, if any of those things were to happen, then do you see that Putin would try to leverage it and place blame on Ukraine as having been the cause of any kind of leak or damage to this plant?
LEIGHTON: Absolutely. Because Fred, what Putin is doing here is he's actually using this as a place where he can do those so-called false flag operations. And by that what is meant is that they will do something, make it look as if the Ukrainians are doing it. And in essence, blame the Ukrainians for something that they themselves, the Russians themselves, have done and that's the biggest danger here.
I think, you know, for the most part, we're on to them but it's still a very big danger and attribution is of course, one of the key things in this war that becomes a very hard thing to do sometimes.
WHITFIELD: And then additionally now, it appears Vladimir Putin, you know, has agreed to let a mission from the atomic energy watchdog into the plant. What do you think is behind that decision?
LEIGHTON: So in some ways, it gives Putin legitimacy to continue what he's doing right now. In essence, he can bring the IAEA people from the energy watchdog -- atomic energy watchdog into the plant and say everything is fine here and they may even make a show of how everything is operating.
And that, you know, is something that will give Putin a potential propaganda victory. But, you know, the people from the IAEA are pretty smart so they will probably see through anything that they're doing and they'll try to protect the facility as much as they can.
WHITFIELD: Ok. Now, back to that U.S.-backed arsenal. The Pentagon says it's sending an additional $775 million in arsenal aid to Ukraine including anti tank equipment and perhaps, more importantly, mine clearing equipment. How much of an impact do you believe it can potentially make?
LEIGHTON: Oh, that can be pretty huge, actually. You know, for the one thing, you know, you've got these High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems that we're seeing here. This is in addition to the similar systems that have already been provided.
This will give Ukraine a greater precision strike capability and it will also allow them to target things at a much greater range. There are several other things that are in development right now, both in Germany and in the Unites States that could potentially be used to increase the range of the Ukrainian artillery forces.
That will put a larger proportion of the Russian forces at risk and it could make it easier for the Ukrainians to mount a counter offensive.
Then you mentioned the mine clearing equipment. That could potentially be a game changer for the civilians there, very important and very necessary.
WHITFIELD: All right. We'll leave it there for now. Thanks so much Colonel Cedric Leighton, always a pleasure seeing you. Thanks for being with us today.
LEIGHTON: Thank you Fred. It's always good to see you.
WHITFIELD: Thanks.
LEIGHTON: You bet.
WHITFIELD: All right. Still ahead, nearly 10 million people across the southwest are under threats of flash flooding today as we're watching a potential tropical cyclone on the cusp of strengthening into a named storm. The latest forecast next.
Plus, a new strategy hoping to get ahead of the monkeypox outbreak. Health officials will be administering the vaccine at Pride events this weekend. Details about the administration's pilot program straight ahead.
[11:13:18]
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WHITFIELD: All right. Welcome back.
The U.S. isn't the only place experiencing extreme weather. Regions all over the world are suffering nearly everything from torrential downpours and severe storms to droughts and raging wildfires hitting Europe earlier than usual.
CNN's Melissa Bell has the latest on the wild and dangerous weather worldwide.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MELISSA BELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: As though Venice needed more water, crowds sheltering from the storm that swooped across Europe this week. Violent winds spread havoc across beaches in (INAUDIBLE) and Tuscany with two killed by falling trees on Thursday.
In Corsica, at least five people were killed as hail, heavy rain and winds bashed the island at 140 miles per hour uprooting trees and cars. On the French mainland, too, standing up to the elements has been proven a losing battle.
Elsewhere in Europe, the rain cannot come soon enough after weeks of drought and extreme heat. Germany's main shipment artery at a standstill. Low water levels along the Rhine exposing hundred (ph) stones that record ancient and more recent droughts.
100-degree heat fueling wildfires in Sicily. And in eastern Spain military units putting down fires reignited after a brief but all too short rainfall.
In north Africa too, at least 37 people have died in forest fires that have destroyed more than 2.5 thousand hectares of land.
Such weather pattern although extreme are not unheard of in Europe. It's more that they're typical of late autumn rather than a summer.
Here in Paris, the parched leaves are already partly on the ground. A dire warning that the worst drought on record could yet cause France lost produce and soaring food prices come September.
Farmers rushed to save crops in mainland China, too after the worst heat wave in 60 years. Temperatures soaring along the Yangtze River basin for weeks.
CHEN XIAOHUA, FARMER; All scorched. You see, they certainly cannot grow. The high temperatures slowly roasting sweet potato leaves to death. BELL: But sudden downpours of rain in Northwest China on Wednesday
didn't help. Flooding and mudslides killed 17 people, according to China state forecaster. Dozens are still missing.
[11:19:58]
BELL: And the difficult weather patterns haven't been limited to the northern hemisphere this week. In New Zealand, hundreds of homes evacuated over fears of land slides. Nelson Tasman Region declaring a state of emergency after four days of torrential rain.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE) just caught us. It was a massive, landslide happening. So we check outside and then we saw the deaths (ph) threat to our property.
BELL: In South America, too the grass lands on a raging fire along the Parana River delta in central Argentina. Lives lost, livelihoods destroyed and more damage on the horizon after a week of extreme weather across the planet.
Melissa Bell, CNN.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WHITFIELD: All right. And now state side the National Hurricane Center has issued a tropical storm warning for parts of south Texas and Mexico's eastern coast as a potential tropical cyclone approaches.
Plus, nearly 10 million people across the southwest are under flood watches as prolific rainfall and wide spread flash flooding is expected. Extremes on all end.
Meteorologist Allison Chinchar is following all of this from the CNN Weather Center. So Allison, you've got your hands full.
ALLISON CHINCHAR, CNN METEOROLOGIST: We do, yes. And Texas has not one but two different systems that are going to bring the potential for flooding over the next several days. One of those is this -- potential tropical cyclone force, sustained winds right now about 35 miles per hour.
It may not have enough time to strengthen into a tropical storm within the next 24 hours which is exactly when we anticipate this storm to cross back over land. If it can, it will become tropical storm Danielle.
The question is does this assembly (ph) have enough time. Now if it does make landfall, it would likely be right along that Texas, Mexico border. But I cannot emphasize enough. Regardless of whether this gets a name or not, it is still planning to bring a tremendous amount of moisture to the eastern half of the state of Texas as well as portions of Louisiana, Arkansas, Mississippi. That's the first system.
Now, we're talking about a secondary system that's going to bring rain to those same areas. For today, that system is focused over Arizona and portions of New Mexico which is where we have the highest threat for flash flooding in the short term.
But notice today that's where the bulk of the rain is but then by Sunday and especially into Monday, all of that rain really begins to spread over the Texas and Oklahoma panhandle and eventually sliding into the southeast.
In all, over the next several days, wide spread locations of three to five inches of rain but where you really see this orange and red color here, it's not out of the question to get six, seven, even eight inches of rain over the next several days because of the two systems combined.
Now, on one hand, Fred, this is good news. People need the rain especially across drought-stricken Texas. The problem is you don't want eight or ten inches of rain in just two days. It's too much and then it ends up resulting in some pretty severe flash flooding.
WHITFIELD: All right. Allison Chinchar, thanks so much.
All right. That extreme weather Allison is talking about forcing a search and rescue mission at Zion National Park in Utah today. Park officials say a flash flood swept several hikers off their feet yesterday and one person remains missing. Rangers found one injured visitor who has been treated at a local hospital. The hiker's condition is not known at this time. Parts of the park will remain closed while officials continue their search.
All right. Coming up, the White House on the defense over its response to monkeypox. Has it done enough?
[11:23:38]
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WHITFIELD: All right. Some encouraging news this week in the fight against monkeypox. The Biden administration speeding up vaccination efforts with 1.8 million additional doses and launching a program to make vaccines available at events attracting LGBTQ communities.
The move comes amid on going criticism of the White House's attempt to get the outbreak under control. The White House, though, pushing back on that criticism saying the administration shifted vaccine strategy as officials learned more about the virus' spread.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DR. DEMETRE DASKALAKIS, DEPUTY COORDINATOR, WH MONKEYPOX RESPONSE TEAM: Having been in the response since before the first case here in the Unites States, I can say that it was really approached with great urgency. And this outbreak as I said is really unprecedented and has really characterized by a lot of pivots.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WHITFIELD: CNN's Jacqueline Howard has more on the new White House plan. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JACQUELINE HOWARD, CNN HEALTH REPORTER: This weekend appears to be the start of the Biden administration's new monkeypox response strategy and that includes ramping up vaccinations. So some states are already participating in these efforts and North Carolina a pilot program from the White House and CDC is underway to distribute monkeypox vaccines at Charlotte Pride events this weekend. And this comes at a time when the Unites States is home to about a third of the world's monkeypox cases.
Let's take a look at the numbers. So there are more than 14,000 cases in the U.S. and more than 40,000 in the world.
When you think about it, the U.S. makes up 4 percent of the world's population but based on these numbers, about 35 percent of the world's monkeypox cases. And the hope among health officials is for the new U.S. response strategy to get the virus under control.
Back to you.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
[11:29:57]
WHITFIELD: All right. Jacqueline Howard, thank you so much.
All right. Joining me right now, Dr. Anand Swaminathan. He's an emergency medicine physician. Doctor, so good to see you.
So the White House is ramping up its response to this outbreak but I want to play something Dr. Anthony Fauci said just yesterday.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST: Was it a mistake not to roll put these initiatives before Pride Month events, for example?
DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, WHITE HOUSE CHIEF MEDICAL ADVISER: Well, Wolf, obviously, you can go back and say it should have been done earlier.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WHITFIELD: So where do you think the focus ought to be right now?
DR. ANAND SWAMINATHAN, EMERGENCY MEDICINE PHYSICIAN: I think that shifting the focus towards those events is really important but again I agree that it should have come much earlier and what it shows us is in spite of the fact that we've been dealing with a pandemic for two years, our public health system is not well put together to respond to these infectious disease outbreaks.
And Fred, even the words public health system in the U.S. is a bit of a misnomer because we don't have a national public health system. And these two epidemics that have broken out really reveal the weaknesses of not having an organized, well-put together national public health system.
I think it's going to take some real introspection for us to look at that weakness and say how do we really address it? It's with funding. It's with proper staffing to create a department that really brings together all of the public health initiatives that we need under one umbrella that is for the entire nation.
Without that, we can't have the organized response that we need when these things come up. We keep talking about these being once in a lifetime things, unprecedented outbreaks. That's what public health is designed to do. It's designed to predict when those things are going to happen and what we need to actually do to fight it but we can't do it with the disjointed way that we have things together.
WHITFIELD: That's going to take some time then.
(CROSSTALK)
DR. SWAMINATHAN: Absolutely it's going to take time. It's going to take money. It's going to take a real commitment to say that the public's health is more important than everything else and we really have to rally behind that.
WHITFIELD: So do you feel like there was a collective realization that speaks to what you're saying during or immediately, you know, we're still in the pandemic so, you know, while we have been in the pandemic and there hasn't been enough time to put something together and then now we have monkeypox?
DR. SWAMINATHAN: I think that we realize this during the pandemic and perhaps because we didn't have a good system because we were in emergency mode, we didn't focus our efforts here. I don't think we have rallied behind that call, that need nearly as much as we should have.
There doesn't seem to be really an initiative or enough of an initiative within our government to really put the funding towards it and we see it again with the fact that Congress is not voting to provide funding for vaccinations and tests come the fall.
They're going to put that on to insurance companies and we know that there are millions, tens of millions of Americans who don't even have insurance, which means they're not going to have access to those vaccines and the tests that they need.
WHITFIELD: So then back to the issue of monkeypox and vaccine availability. I mean the FDA issued a new protocol to use one-fifth of the dose of this vaccine hoping to maximize supply but then the manufacturer is pushing back on that unsure that this low dose will have the kind of desired effect. So where do you stand on this.
DR. SWAMINATHAN: I don't think we know, Fred. And that's the honest truth is we don't know if that's going to provide as much protection against this because there are a number of factors involved in getting monkeypox including the amount of inoculation and the surface that that inoculation occurs through and it's possible that the reduced dose of vaccine won't provide as much protection against those transmissions that we hope it to and then you're kind of left with well, I'm partially vaccinated, what do I do? Do I go back and get a full vaccine when that becomes available? And we don't know what to do with it.
And again, it is ok that we don't know the answers but we need to be working towards getting those answers.
WHITFIELD: Yes, but it's confusing because why would anybody advocate for that if the manufacturer itself is questioning whether it would be effective if you were to kind of dilute --
DR. SWAMINATHAN: Absolutely.
WHITFIELD: -- or you know, reduce the dosage.
So back to COVID, you know, and this ongoing pandemic. You know, a lot of people are still wondering about this fall and a new version of yet another booster. What should people be hoping for or anticipating?
DR. SWAMINATHAN: I think it's important for us to really understand where we are when we look towards the fall and winter and where things are going.
We have really reduced the public health protections over the last couple of months and as a result of that, we're seeing a stark rise in cases. It almost seems that people are saying that we're saying we're done with COVID but the numbers show that COVID is clearly not done with us.
[11:34:54]
DR. SWAMINATHAN: We've got about 100,000 new cases per day, 40,000 hospitalizations which is four times the level we saw in April, 500 deaths per day and that's a plateau Fred, that we're at.
And now we're talking about new boosters and things like that which are important but what is probably more important is again to boost overall vaccination rates and just to boost the regular booster rates that is really lagging across the country and all of that is heading into a fall with again a reduction in public health protections.
The newest CDC guidelines sort of say that if you have COVID, you're five days out and you're improving, you can return to your regular stuff. You can break that isolation even if you have a positive test, which is really problematic because we know if you have a positive test, you're going to be transmitting that virus --
WHITFIELD: You're going to spread it.
DR. SWAMINATHAN: -- absolutely. And now we're talking about schools starting, Fred, where 20, 25 kids are going to be crammed into classrooms and schools that haven't really been able to upgrade their ventilation and filtration systems.
We're going to see spikes in cases amongst kids, among staff, among teachers and I think we're at a real risk of having school closures come winter and going back to virtual learning.
WHITFIELD: Oh my God.
DR. SWAMINATHAN: Fred, what we really have to embrace as a population is the fact that the biggest threat to our kids' education are not the public health precautions that are there to protect us from the disease but the biggest threat is really COVID itself and our inability to embrace those mitigation measures that we know work.
WHITFIELD: Add the impatience level, right, because a lot of people simply lost their patience with the pandemic.
All right. Dr. Anand Swaminathan, good to see you. Thank you so much.
DR. SWAMINATHAN: Thank you.
WHITFIELD: All right. Still to come, help wanted. School districts across the country forced to get creative as they face a major school bus driver shortage. How they're making up for the thousands of unfilled jobs.
[11:36:44]
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WHITFIELD: All right. Summer is winding down and that means millions of kids are heading back to school. But as students return to the classroom, many schools are still scrambling to fill teacher positions.
In Richmond, Virginia one district is now offering signing bonuses as large as $10,000 for new hires.
And if a nationwide teacher shortage wasn't enough, well, many districts now say that they are facing a shortage of school bus drivers.
CNN's Nadia Romero is at a school transportation center near Atlanta.
So Nadia, the school year has already started there in Fulton County but then some kids are having a hard time getting to school?
NADIA ROMERO, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, absolutely Fred. We're here at a bus depot for Fulton County School District in Metro Atlanta. And you can see. I mean there are plenty of buses behind me but just not enough bus drivers.
They're short about 200 and that makes up about a quarter of the full staffing if they had the right number. So they're definitely short.
Right now there are two recruiting events happening on the north side of the county and on the south side just to attract more drivers. And this isn't just an issue here in the Atlanta area but you can see it all across the country.
Let's take a look at the numbers for nationwide school bus shortage for those drivers. In Tempe, Arizona they're telling parents that you can expect a 15 to 20-minute delay and that's a domino effect, right for parents trying to get to work on time, for teachers trying to get that jam-packed information into each classroom and you have kids walking in 20 minutes late.
If you look at Connecticut schools, they're short about a thousand bus drivers. And in Anchorage school district in Alaska, they can only pick up about a third of their students at a time. So they're rotating the school buses amongst their student population meaning that parent just have to figure it out.
And we're seeing the same thing in Iowa. And at a small area just outside of the capitol of Des Moines, one of the Bus Charlies there just cancelled one of their routs saying that they can't afford to have enough drivers, the gas prices and because of low ridership.
But I want you to hear from one parent who depended on that bus route to take her two kids where they needed to be. Take a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ANDREA MILLER, IOWA PARENT: Both my husband and I work and we're unable to, you know, stop our day at 11:00 to get him where he needs to go.
The Charlie has taken him for the last -- both my sons for the last couple of years so we just planned and unfortunately assumed it would be there for us and it's not now.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMERO: Yes, so it's a big hurdle of challenges for parents to try to overcome. And the St. Louis school district, they're short drivers as well having to cancel about 35 routes. So their giving $75 gas cards and metro passes to parents and students who are affected. The superintendent there of those schools says that he expects all of this to be fixed in the next two weeks.
But Fred, all across the country if you want to be a school bus driver, this is the best time to do it. You're going to get paid over minimum wage. They're offering paid training. A lot of other perks because they've got to get kids where they need to go, Fred.
WHITFIELD: Oh, my goodness, what a bumpy start to the new school year.
All right. Nadia Romero, thank you so much.
So delayed buses, that's not the only headache that's facing parents in this back to school season. The National Retail Federation says families with students in K through 12 can expect to spend an average of $864 on school supplies this year. That is $168 more than in 2019.
CNN's Karin Caifa has more on how inflation is hitting the classrooms.
KARIN CAIFA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Volunteers for the non-profit Northern Virginia Family Service packing up hundreds of backpacks for a new school year as inflation takes a toll on family budgets.
SARAH CROSLEY, NORTHERN VIRGINIA FAMILY SERVICE: You have food that costs more and gas prices that are on the rise and you still have to pay rent and perhaps purchase medications so on and so forth.
[11:44:49]
CAIFA: According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the price of apparel is up 5.1 percent over the last 12 months. Education books and supplies up 3.1 percent. Stationery up 11 percent like notebooks and paper.
Still, after two school years interrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic, one expert says most parents and caregivers are willing to spend.
KATHERINE CULEN, NATIONAL RETAIL FEDERATION: Consumers really view this season as an essential category regardless of what is going on with the economy.
CAIFA: The National Retail Federation said more than a third of consumers surveyed for its annual back to school report were willing to cut other spending to cover the cost of items for the school year. Shoppers have tried to ease costs NRF says by starting earlier to spread spending out and avoid any supply shortages.
Inside this high school gymnasium in Prince George's County, Maryland, the school district is preparing more than 10,000 backpacks to give away at drive-up events.
BARBARA HOLD STREETER, PRINCE GEORGE'S COUNTY PUBLIC SCHOOLS PARTNERSHIP: You need crayons, you need pencils, you need ink pens, you need paper. ?That's what we've been able to do with our partnership.
CAIFA: For families with more than one student, small price increases can make a big difference in the cost of getting everyone ready. But so can drives like these with organizations willing to help.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WHITFIELD: Karin Caifa -- thank you so much.
All right. Coming up, nothing short of a miracle. Injured little leaguer Easton Oliverson out of bed and walking with help just days after fracturing his skull in a fall. We'll show you how his teammates honored Easton in yesterday's game.
[11:46:20]
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WHITFIELD: Welcome back. Anti Semitic incidents are on the rise across America and it's all being documented on social media. In a new special report, "RISING HATE, ANTI-SEMITISM IN AMERICA" CNN anchor and chief political correspondent Dana Bash shows us how the Internet is becoming a driving force behind these acts of hate. DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Fredricka, anti-Semitism
is on the rise due in large part to hate spreading on social media and online platforms. For my special, "RISING HATE, ANTI-SEMITISM IN AMERICA" I spoke with experts who detailed just how rapidly this hate is spreading and how disturbing the content can become.
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BASH: A recent study showed there was anti-Semitism on every social platform.
OREN SEGAL, ANTI DEFAMATION LEAGUE'S CENTER ON EXTREMISM: Part of what they're trying to do to attract people to their hate is to use almost stylistic type of imagery and memes. And so here, hey, look, everybody, it's the midnight Jew crew making hate crimes great again. Basically blaming Jews for falsely creating anti-Semitic incidents to get sympathies, essentially.
BASH: A new tactic, live streaming confrontation, like here when a white supremacist goes after a Jewish man.
SEGAL: Many of these viewers are engaging in real time.
BASH: Watch the Jew squirm.
SEGAL: Watch the Jew squirm.
BASH: F the Jews.
SEGAL: Exactly. They are actually in many cases telling the folks on the ground what they should do. And if you notice, there's a donate button. So the more he say curses out a bystander, the more money will be given.
This is again why it's so concerning is that we've seen people live stream their actual attacks, their shootings, because they also anticipate that people will watch them. Go on the extremist journey with them.
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BASH: You just heard that expert detail how gruesome anti-Semitism can look online. But one of the other things we discussed was how COVID exacerbated all of this. Not only were people stuck at home spending more time online but some of the age-old conspiracies about Jews causing disease or trying to make money, in this case off vaccines, which obviously is completely false, they were resurfacing in the time of the coronavirus.
And some people were so frustrated, they were sad, they were confused, they were looking for a scapegoat and latched onto these anti-Semitic tropes that we have seen for the past two, three, 4,000 years.
So in addition to social media, we explored how the pandemic really contributed to the recent spike in anti-Semitism, Fredricka.
WHITFIELD: All right. Dana Bash, thanks so much.
And don't forget, you can join Dana Bash as she goes inside the fight against the world's oldest prejudice. The new "CNN SPECIAL REPORT: RISING HATE: ANTI-SEMITISM IN AMERICA" begins tomorrow at 9:00 p.m.
We'll be right back.
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WHITFIELD: All right. Less than one week after a near tragic accident at the Little League Baseball World Series in Williamsport, Pennsylvania, 12-year-old Easton "Tank" Oliverson is on his way to recovery now out of the ICU. He's also getting words of encouragement from some of his Big League heroes, including members of the Tampa Bay Rays.
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KEVIN CASH, MANAGER, TAMPA BAY RAYS: We've been keeping up with your progress and just want to let you know that you have fans that you've never met in Florida who are really rooting for you.
Tank, we are sending positive thoughts and well wishes to you and the Snow Canyon Little League. Good luck in your Little League World Series game. Let's do this for Tank.
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WHITFIELD: I love that his nickname is Tank. And there was a touching tribute as his team was taking to the field in their first game of the tournament. Here's CNN's Coy Wire.
COY WIRE, CNN SPORTS CORRESPONDENT: Fred, doctors have upgraded Easton now to fair condition. It's nothing short of a miracle when you consider it was just Monday morning that he fell out of his bunk bed at the Little League World Series, hit his head needing an emergency surgery which saved his life.
The most encouraging sign yet, this Instagram post showing Easton standing up and walking. His nickname is Tank. And as Tank took those monumental steps at the hospital Friday, his Snow Canyon team stepped onto the field for the first time. Teammates writing his name on their cleats, putting his glove and hat in the outfield before the game making sure he knew they're thinking of him.
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WIRE: And how about the opponents from Tennessee wearing Utah hats to show support. And a special moment came mid-game.
