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New York City's Times Square Now a Gun-Free Zone as State Law Takes Effect; U.K. Inflation Hits 40-Year High, Goldman Warns It Could Worsen in 2023; Airlines Tweak Plans to Offer Meals, Hotels for Flight Disruptions. Aired 10:30-11a ET

Aired September 01, 2022 - 10:30   ET

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

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[10:30:00]

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN ANCHOR: Effective today, the city of New York has created gun-free zones. Those areas include schools, restaurants, the subway and one of the most iconic tourist spots, Times Square.

POPPY HARLOW, CNN ANCHOR: That's right. These new regulations are a direct response to the U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Bruin that knocked down a rural New York state law about carrying a concealed weapon.

Our Polo Sandoval joins us now from Times Square. So, a two-fold question here. I mean, how do officials plan to enforce this? At the same time, I would likely expect to see challenges in the court given the Supreme Court decision.

POLO SANDOVAL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Absolutely, Poppy and Jim. That's because this crossroads of the world very quickly became the center of the debate about how New York State and city officials would counter the ruling that we saw come down from the Supreme Court earlier this summer.

And this is the rollout. You touched on a few of them. You have also stricter background checks, for example, shortening the amount of time that's required before the permits have to be renewed. And then the one that is perhaps most talked about, the establishment of those sensitive zones here, the sensitive locations, and Times Square is certainly one of the one that is highly discussed here.

The way they are going to begin to enforce that is at least starting by posting signs in the roads and the streets, leading into and out of Times Square here, establishing that people are entering a gun-free zone. And violating could potentially lead to felony charges.

But in terms of the enforcement of this, I want you to hear directly from New York City's top cop about that.

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COMMISSIONER KEECHANT SEWELL, NYPD: The NYPD and obviously our partners, as well, have some of the best detectors of firearms there are, and we're going to continue those efforts. [10:35:05]

If we see a need for further checks, obviously, we can explore that as an option. But as it stands now, we have the signage that will be put in place and we'll have officers that will be posting in these areas as well.

REPORTER: Is there a physical search that anybody will be doing or checkpoints at some of these intersections or corners, anything like that?

SEWELL: If there's reasonable suspicion to believe that someone is carrying a firearm, our officers will take action.

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SANDOVAL: Yes. Checkpoints certainly not something that you can expect right now, but also not being ruled out.

There are some exceptions, real quick, Poppy and Jim. If you live, if you work, if you transit through Times Square, then there're exceptions for that. Back to you.

HARLOW: Polo, thank you for the reporting. We'll see pretty quickly how this all plays out.

Also, it is something that many people would not expect to see, let alone on a military academy campus. Take a look. This is what those visiting the science building at West Point are greeted with.

SCIUTTO: The Congressional Naming Commission found the plaque with Ku Klux Klan written out and a hooded figure, as you can see there.

CNN's Barbara Starr joins us now. So tell us, Barbara, why is the commission, which, by the way, was formed to look at renaming confederate markers at U.S. military installations, why is it letting this one stay whereas it's renamed, for instance, a whole host of bases?

BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Well, as you say, the commission was actually formed to look at renaming military bases, installations, facilities, before the name of the confederacy, technically. That is not this case. But, nonetheless, they are strongly recommending some kind of look at this.

This is a piece of artwork that has been p at the academy for close to half a century. The Klan marker is just a very small part of a larger three-panel piece of artwork. And the academy issued a statement yesterday after this, saying in part, that West Point does not accept, condone or promote racism, sexism or any other biases. We are reviewing the recommendations and will collaborate with the Department of Army to implement changes once approved and the statement goes on.

What it doesn't address, of course, is this has been up since the 1960s. Why in all these years did nobody think that it might not be a good idea to have it there? Of course, the Ku Klux Klan rated as a classified as a hate group for many years by the Southern Poverty Law Center. This is one of the premier educational institutions of the country. The Secretary of Defense, the first African-American secretary of defense, himself a graduate of the academy. Jim, Poppy?

HARLOW: Barbara Starr, thank you very much for bringing that to everyone's attention.

Right now, taking a look at the markets here in the U.S., the Dow is lower by about 174 points. This is four-straight days of declines. European markets also taking a hit as the world is trying to figure out where we're going with inflations, spike in energy crisis, the ongoing war on Ukraine. Next, we'll be joined by the U.K.'s chief finance minister to talk about what they can do.

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[10:40:00]

HARLOW: Wall Street bracing for another rocky trading session today after four-straight days of declines, inflation fears, speculation about what the Fed will do next on interest rates really weighing on the markets.

With me now, Nadhim Zahawi, the chancellor of the exchequer of the United Kingdom. Welcome, sir, to the program.

NADHIM ZAHAWI, BRITISH CHANCELLOR OF THE EXCHEQUER: Thank you very much, Poppy, great to be with you.

HARLOW: So, all of the viewers know this inflation problem in the United States all too well, right? They're all feeling it. What many are not as familiar with is how much this is happening around the world. U.K. inflation jumped more than 10 percent in July, hitting a new 40-year high, and Goldman Sachs, I'm sure you just saw their report, that the U.K. could see 22 percent inflation next year if energy prices continue to go up. You've called this a cost of living crisis.

The reality is, in the U.S., there is very little that can be done. It's sort of all on the Fed now. And the question is, at what cost, right, do hiking interest rates drive us into a deep recession? What about in the U.K.? What tools do you think you have at this point to deal with this crisis?

ZAHAWI: You're absolutely right, Poppy. So, what is happening in the U.K. is that Putin has been using energy as a weapon to get back at us for the help we've put into Ukraine. And that is reflected in very high energy cost, of course, both oil and more importantly gas.

And the U.K.'s gas price is linked to the European gas prices, which is why we've seen what we have in the U.K., which is our energy price cap rising by 80 percent for households. We are putting about 37 billion pounds to help households. And we are midway through delivering that help, including 400 pounds for every household to reduce energy bills. But we know we need to do more as we get into winter, to December, in January and, of course, next year. So, I have been working on the options to put to the incoming prime minister next week as to what more is needed to make sure that households and businesses -- I worry about the scarring effect in the longer term if perfectly viability businesses would go under because of high energy costs in Europe.

[10:45:11]

We're also working in lockstep with the United States. So, with my opposite number, Secretary Yellen and I have been working. And we have a meeting tomorrow at G7 finance ministers, where I hope we will be able to announce the oil price cap so that Putin doesn't profiteer from the very high oil price. And, hopefully, it will also mean that we won't have an oil price shock next year. It's a very important moment for both of countries and, of course, for the G7, and other countries that we think we can bring into the oil price cap.

HARLOW: Yes. So, Chancellor, let me ask about that, because I noticed in her remarks after meeting with you, Secretary Yellen went exactly to that, went to this hope that she has that the countries will come together. As I understand it, there's a critical meeting on this between western finance ministers tomorrow on putting a price cap on Russian oil.

I understand the desire to do that and the goal here, which is to reduce Russian revenue from oil well, also continuing to have it flow to the markets. You don't have a complete energy crisis. However, there are a number of skeptics not only who point to the fact that, look, Russian officials have hinted they would outright then refuse to sell oil at that price. And you've also got critics, including the head of these markets at Citigroup, who say, essentially, if you do that, the risk of doing that is that they find other ways to sell, they get around the caps, that avoids the U.S.-led sanctions effort and creates broader market issues. Aren't those concerns about the strategy?

ZAHAWI: So, the Russians, they were already having to discount heavily on their oil. I think what this will do is it will mean the market can function more efficiently. Why do I say that? Because as I'm sure you can understand, whoever is buying Russian oil has to transport it. And some of these big oil tankers, these Suezmaxes, require insurance, for example. And if the insurance industry feels that they may be coming up against sanctions, they will be less willing to insure, much more reluctant to ensure.

So, I think, actually, what we're working on is a really practical way of making sure the oil, as you quite rightly pointed out, will continue to flow but that Putin doesn't make extraordinary profits on high oil prices and, therefore, protect all of our economies from oil shocks for next year.

It's a really important moment. We've been doing a lot of work on this. We are in lockstep with the United States on this. And I'm sure we will have a positive meeting tomorrow. And I hope we can bring other countries onboard as well. HARLOW: That's the big question, right, how much cooperation will you get because a lot is needed to make this truly effective?

I apologize, we're out of time. Please come back, Chancellor, and thank you.

ZAHAWI: Thank you, Poppy, great to speak to you.

HARLOW: You as well. Jim?

SCIUTTO: Well, after all of the chaos at airports this summer, perhaps you've experienced it, airlines are making changes to help, they say, frustrated passengers. What you should look out for, that's coming up.

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HARLOW: So, big airlines stepping up, laying out how they are and will accommodate travelers whose trips, many of our trips had been canceled or delayed. It's getting a little better.

SCIUTTO: I want to see what this is all about. The pilots across the country at the same time are protesting for a labor contract, that, I imagine, is a problem, because there's a shortage of pilots.

CNN's Pete Muntean joins us now from one of those demonstrations at Reagan National, just outside of Washington.

All right, so the pilot frustrations and passenger frustrations are related. How and what are folks doing about it?

PETE MUNTEAN, CNN AVIATION CORRESPONDENT: You put it so perfectly, Jim. Pilots say they are overworked, really pushed to the limits of fatigue, and that airlines are to blame for all of that. And that's what's causing these delays and cancelations to go up and up.

This has been the summer of travel struggles, 45,000 cancelations in total in the U.S., according to FlightAware, since the beginning of June. The Airline Pilots Association says this is sort of intertwined, that these pilots are simply just being pushed to the limits of what the airline can handle. There's no slack in the system.

So, the Airline Pilots Association is picketing at airports across the country right now, Reagan National Airport, at JFK, at Chicago, O'Hare, at LAX. They represent pilot groups from places like Delta and United and at Spirit.

They say pilots are caught in the middle here.

[10:55:00]

It's just one new layer of pressure now that the federal government is saying airlines need to step up their game, and pilots say they are caught in the middle along with passengers. I want you to listen now. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

WESLEY REED, EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT, AIRLINE PILOTS ASSOCIATION: It's really been frustrating for us as pilots with all of the flight schedule changes and cancelations and with passengers too. Here we show our solidarity with them and understanding that we're with them on this, that we need our managements to fix the issues that are affecting the industry, fix training, fix schedule and to make sure that when you come to the airport, you can count on getting where you're trying to get to.

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MUNTEAN: Fittingly, this is happening on Labor Day. Picketing like this is a protected labor action, has no impact on flights over this weekend. We're expecting about 12 million people to fly for the long Labor Day holiday.

SCIUTTO: Let's hope they're on time. Pete Muntean, thanks very much.

HARLOW: And thanks to all of you for joining us today. I'm Poppy Harlow.

SCIUTTO: And I'm Jim Sciutto.

Erica Hill starts right after a quick break.

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