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Tents Built for Processing Centers in El Paso; Biden Administration Approves Arms Sale; Mother Ensures Cancer Drugs Available to Kids; Worst Year for Stock Market. Aired 9:30-10a ET
Aired December 29, 2022 - 09:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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[09:33:49]
JESSICA DEAN, CNN ANCHOR: Right now a new tent facility has been built in El Paso, Texas, to help process the growing number of migrants at the border. A Border Patrol spokesperson says it will be able to hold roughly 1,000 migrants at a time.
CNN correspondent Rosa Flores is on the ground there in El Paso with more.
Rosa, can you walk us through how this is expected to ease the flow of migrants there?
ROSA FLORES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes. So, in essence, this is a processing facility. And, Jessica, we've seen this during prior surges where the federal government adds processing facilities so that they can increase the number of migrants that they can process. But as you know, a lot of the border officials all along the U.S./Mexico border have been very critical of the federal government in the sense that they say that this is more of a band-aid.
The county judge from Hidalgo (ph) County is probably one of the ones that put it best. He said, imagine that your house is flooding because there's a leak, and instead of calling the plumber, you call somebody to come mop your house. And then it keeps flooding. So the water is rising. So you just call in more people to help you mop your house instead of actually calling the plumber. That's what a lot of officials in the border communities say, that these are all band-aids.
[09:35:05]
Now, officials here in El Paso have also been very critical, say that this is an unprecedented surge and it needs a different type of solution.
Take a listen.
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CLAUDIA RODRIGUEZ, EL PASO CITY COUNCILMEMBER: We're a city of immigrants. What's going on right now is something completely different. It's something unprecedented. It's something that we have not seen before.
We're not used to people coming over the way they're coming over and running through our highways. We're not used to people sleeping on our streets. Right now the temporary shelters I suppose are a band-aid to what is to come, but long term we need to be better prepared. For now we have Title 42 staying in place. However, that's not the solution either.
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FLORES: And, Jessica, let me provide a little context because when she says that this is unprecedented, it really is. I've covered multiple surges over the years, and what's different is that this time a lot of the migrants that are arriving don't have money and don't have family, don't have sponsors in the United States. And so that's why they're stuck in communities like here in El Paso, the people that you see behind me. Normally, in the past, the migrant had a connection to somebody in the United States, so you'd call your aunt, you'd call your mom and they would pick you up and you would have a home, you would have a place to stay. That's the difference this time. A lot of these migrants, they just don't have connections with other people in the United States.
Jessica.
DEAN: Some really good context there.
Rosa Flores for us in El Paso, Texas. Thanks so much.
Overnight, the U.S. vowing more support for Taiwan amid continued threats from China. The Biden administration approving a potential $180 million arms sale that could include antitank systems.
CNN's Pentagon correspondent Oren Liebermann is joining us now with more.
Oren, can you break down how this is different from what the U.S. has pledged previously?
OREN LIEBERMANN, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Sure, Jessica. This is a capability we haven't seen over the course of the past year. But, broadly speaking, the intent here is the same.
So, first, the capability. This is a volcano system which is capable of dispersing antitank mines over a given area. Perhaps even antipersonnel mines, depending on how it's loaded. But even if this system isn't something we haven't seen the U.S. give Taiwan or the Taipei offices, its diplomatic office there over the course of the past year, the intent is very much the same. It is meant to show U.S. support for Taiwan and to show China the costs of a military incursion of Taiwan if that's a decision that China would make. U.S. security officials have warned that China is preparing for the possibility of a military takeover of the island.
And this is intended to make a more difficult proposition for China. It's just one in a series of steps, a series of packages we've seen the U.S. give Taiwan over the course of the past year. Others packages have include anti-ship missiles, other anti-tank missiles, as well a spare parts for aircraft and ships.
It also comes just days after President Joe Biden signed the National Defense Authorization Act. And that, in and of itself, had a number of steps for Taiwan, including a billion dollars of potential arms for Taiwan, as well as a stockpile of weapons there and a modernization of Taiwan's military.
Jessica.
DEAN: Oren Liebermann, at the Pentagon, thanks so much for that update.
Still ahead this morning, an incredible story of a determined mother who took matters into her own hands when she was told there was a shortage of the cancer drug her nine-year-old daughter needed.
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LAURA BRAY, FOUNDER, ANGELS FOR CHANGE: She knew she needed to take all of her medicine. Like, what happens now? Does this mean I die?
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DEAN: How she convinced a major company to help her and how she's now helping others. That's next.
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[09:43:00]
DEAN: Global supply chain issues are making it harder to get critical drugs to patients who need them.
CNN's Elizabeth Cohen met one mother who sprang into action after her daughter was diagnosed with leukemia. And she made it her mission to help get pediatric cancer drugs to children at hospitals facing a shortage.
Elizabeth, this is an incredible story that we also have on cnn.com. Walk us through what happened here.
ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Jessica, this is an incredible mom. Her name is Jessica Bray. She lives in Tampa, Florida. And she had trouble getting not one, not two, but three drugs when her daughter was diagnosed with leukemia.
So now she's working hard, not just to help her daughter, but to help other children with cancer.
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COHEN (voice over): Abby Bray was a healthy little girl in Tampa, Florida, when one month after her ninth birthday, troubling symptoms.
LAURA BRAY, FOUNDER, ANGELS FOR CHANGE: She said, it feels like there's knives in my bones.
COHEN: After her pediatrician ran some tests, a phone call to her parents, Laura and Mike.
BRAY: There's a bed waiting for her at St. Joe's Pediatric Oncology Unit. Pack a bag. Plan to stay. Get there immediately.
COHEN: Abby had acute lymphoblastic leukemia. To save her life, she would need a rigorous regimen of chemotherapy, including a drug called Erwinaze.
But then -
BRAY: A few months into treatment, we were told, OK, you have to go home, you can't get this medicine today, it's - it's a shortage.
COHEN: Abby wanted answers.
BRAY: She knew she needed to take all of her medicine. Like, what happens now? Does this mean I die?
COHEN: That's when Laura sprung into action, assembling a group of friends called Abby's Angles. She made a list of children's hospitals in the U.S., and everyone pitched in to make phone calls.
BRAY: Just a few hours later, we had gone through it and we - we found some medicines. One of my friends made the call.
[09:45:02]
COHEN: Over the next nine months, Laura needed to step in again to get two other drugs the hospital couldn't find because of shortages.
BRAY: Never once did I contemplate that I would also have to be navigating the largest global supply chain in the world in order to keep her alive.
COHEN: Laura is a business school professor, and so she had the skills to do that. But she knew other families weren't so fortunate.
BRAY: It really haunted me.
COHEN: A study last year showing that of 19 essential agents to treat cancer in children, 74 percent have experienced one or more shortages since 2016.
Pediatric Oncologist Dr. Yoram Unguru says there are several reasons for the shortages, including --
DR. YORAM UNGURU, HEMATOLOGIST/ONCOLOGIST, SAMUELSON CHILDREN'S HOSPITAL AT SINAI: When you look at the drugs overwhelmingly that are in short supply, they are not your blockbuster drugs. They are not the drugs that pharmaceutical companies generate huge profits from.
COHEN: So Laura took matters into her own hands, forming Angels for Change, raising about half a million dollars, she says, in less than three years, to pay a small drug manufacturer to make essential drugs and offer them up to any hospital that needs them.
BRAY: Since May they've been accessed more than half a million times for patients all over the U.S.
COHEN: Earning praise from experts.
UNGURU: You just look at what her organization has accomplished in the past few years, I think it speaks for itself. And there's something to say about that adage, hell hath no fury like an angry mama bear.
COHEN: This mama bear navigating the global supply chain for children all over the country with cancer.
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COHEN: Abby is now doing great. She's 13 years old. She's been cancer- free for nearly two years. And her mother says, look, we figured out this great approach to addressing these shortages. Now we just need the support, the money to scale it up.
Jessica.
DEAN: Yes, it's an incredible story.
Elizabeth Cohen, thanks so much.
Still ahead, 2022 was not a friend to Wall Street. Why markets suffered and which stocks fared better.
Stay with us.
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[09:51:07]
DEAN: New data this morning on the unemployment picture in the U.S. The weekly jobless claims that came in just before Christmas ticked up slightly compared to the week before. Initial claims jumped up to 225,000. That is right in line with what most economist forecasted. So far these numbers continue to hover at pre-pandemic levels just above what we saw back in 2019.
2022, though, a bleak year for Wall Street. The stock market was marred by recession fears, aggressive interest rate hikes and sky high inflation.
Let's bring in CNN's Matt Egan now.
And, Matt, overall walk us through just how bad this was for the stock market this year.
MATT EGAN, CNN REPORTER: Well, Jessica, there is no way to sugar coat this. It's been an awful year for the stock market. The S&P 500, right, the broadest measure of the U.S. stock market, it's lost more than a fifth of its value so far this year. The Nasdaq has lost more than a third. And even the Dow down 10 percent. U.S. markets are up this morning, but they're all still on track for easily their worst year since 2008.
Now, we should remind people that, of course, the stock market is not the economy. And as you just mentioned, we have had some good news on the economic front, especially the jobs market, which remains historically strong. But these losses on Wall Street, they're still painful to all of us because we have just lost some money in our 401(k) accounts, our college savings accounts. All of them have gotten smaller. You know, the market is in a weird place where both bad news and good news are being treated as bad news by investors, right. Bad news because it raises the risk of a recession but good news because it raises the risk that the Federal Reserve has to continue raising interest rates next year.
Jessica, thankfully this terrible year for the stock market is almost over and next week we start with a fresh slate.
DEAN: Right. Right. Get that clean slate.
What were some of the best and worst performing stocks this year?
EGAN: Well, Jessica, some stocks did to great this year. If you look at the five best stocks in the S&P 500, all of them were oil and gas companies, Occidental, HESS, Marathon, Exxon, all of them up big. That's because oil and gas companies have been minting money amid high energy prices.
On the other side, if you look at the worst stocks, we've seen sharp losses for the owner of Tinder and match.com, that's Match Group, Meta, which owns Facebook, PayPal, all of them down sharply.
And then there's Tesla. So, Tesla's lost more than 60 percent of its value this year on track for its worst year ever. This is because of concerns about demand for Tesla vehicles and concern about Elon Musk being distracted by his ownership of Twitter. And Elon, he addressed this issue in a memo to employees yesterday. This memo, obtained by CNBC and Reuters, a memo told employees, by the way, don't be bothered by stock market craziness. Long-term I believe very much that Tesla will be the most valuable company on earth. Another bold claim there from Elon.
Now, Elon's company, though, Tesla, it has lost almost $800 billion in market value so far this year. Just a staggering amount of money. And Tesla is not alone. More than $800 billion wiped out from Alphabet, which owns Google, and more than $900 billion for Amazon and for Apple, just enormous losses. Clearly, markets are pricing in a risk of a potential recession for next year. And again, they're worried about an aggressive Federal Reserve.
But, Jessica, if markets, if investors have been too pessimistic here, if the economy is able to avoid a recession, if the Fed can pause these rate hikes, then maybe markets could bounce back early next year.
DEAN: We will see what 2023 holds for us all.
Matt Egan, thanks so much. Still ahead this morning, CNN is live in Ukraine where Russia
unleashed one of its most intense missile attacks since the invasion began.
[09:55:03]
Stay with us.
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DEAN: Top of the hour here in Washington. Good morning, everyone. I'm Jessica Dean. Jim Sciutto is off today.
We're following several major story this morning.
Overnight, Ukraine rocked by an onslaught of Russian missiles.
[10:00:03]
Explosions rattling cities all across the country. Ukraine calling it one of the largest missile barrages since the war began.
