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CNN International: Biden Orders Flags Half-Staff After Texas Shooting; Arab League Restores Syria's Membership; Ukrainian Lawmakers Consider Ban on Foreign Surrogacy; U.S. Need Thousands of Air Traffic Controllers. Aired 4:30-5a ET
Aired May 08, 2023 - 04:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[04:30:00]
BIANCA NOBILO, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back to CNN NEWSROOM, I'm Bianca Nobilo.
MAX FOSTER, CNN ANCHOR: I'm Max Foster. If you're just joining, us let me bring up date on the top stories this hour.
At least eight people are dead after a car plowed into a migrant center in Brownsville, Texas. Officials have the driver in custody and are investigating whether the crash was intentional.
And in northern Texas, authorities are searching for the motive of the mass shooting that left eight people dead, seven others are injured in a shopping mall in Allen, Texas. Officials say the gunman was 33 years old. He was Mauricio Garcia, and he may have had links to right wing extremism.
NOBILO: U.S. President Joe Biden has ordered flags to be lowered to half staff through Thursday after the mass school shooting in Texas -- the mass shooting in Texas. He is now calling on U.S. lawmakers to take action on gun control. CNN's Jeremy Diamond has more from the White House.
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JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: The flag above the White House is once again flying at half staff as we watch this all too familiar ritual in the wake of yet another deadly mass shooting play out.
President Biden putting out a statement, offering his prayers to the victims and their families, and also thanking first responders for acting quickly and courageously. He says that the federal law enforcement officials are offering assistance to state and local authorities.
But what we are also hearing from President Biden is once again, a call to action. A call to enact the kind of common-sense gun reforms that President Biden believes are necessary. And he's also making clear who he believes is responsible for the inaction on those efforts in Washington. Saying in a statement, quote: Too many families have empty chairs at
their dinner tables. Republican members of Congress cannot continue to meet this epidemic with a shrug. Tweeted thoughts and prayers are not enough. Once again, I ask Congress to send me a bill banning assault weapons and high-capacity magazines, enacting universal background checks, requiring safe storage, ending immunity for gun manufacturers. I will sign it immediately. We need nothing less to keep our streets safe.
And President Biden in this statement, also says that he believes the country has made some progress in addressing the issue, pointing to his signing of that bipartisan Safer Communities Act that is meant to incentivize more red flag law in the country and mental health resources.
But he also makes clear that he believes that despite the nearly 2 dozen executive actions he has signed on this issue, he believes he's now reached the limit of his executive authorities. And he says that the burden now rests with Congress.
Jeremy Diamond, CNN, White House.
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FOSTER: In an extraordinary session, the Arab League has decided to readmit Syria 11 years after it was suspended. The move makes another milestone in Bashar al-Assad efforts to regain diplomatic recognition after serious brutal civil war. But the League secretary general is making clear this restored status doesn't mean the crisis in Syria is over. Nada joins us now to explain why they're allowed back in there.
NADA BASHIR, CNN REPORTER: According to the Arab League, this is going to be an effort by Syria's Arab neighbors is to improve, reestablish communication and those ties between the Syrian government and of course the Arab League. And of course, Syria's president Bashar al- Assad has essentially reestablished control and solidified his control over Syria's territories of more than a decade now of civil war.
But look, this has really drawn backlash from many Syrians. Of course, many other Arabs across the globe, they see this is a betrayal of the Syrian people. We're talking about an estimated 350,000 people who have been killed over the course of Syria's civil war of more than a decade now. Maybe 14 million people who have been displaced, according to U.N. figures. And you just think about these disturbing number of Syrian refugees who have lost their lives on the Mediterranean. Risking absolutely everything in search of safety, many of them still desperately afraid of what they could face if they are to return home to Syria.
Now of course, the Arab League has been clear, this is not a final step, this is only the beginning. They want Syria back in the League, in order to improve communication. But this has drawn criticism from other international partners, not least the United States.
We've heard from the State Department, saying they will not seek to normalize ties with Bashar al-Assad, nor will they support the normalization of those ties by other countries.
[04:35:00]
But look, this is happening in a climate where we are seeing Arab nations independently seeking to normalize those ties with the Syrian regime. And we're also seeing Iran, a key backer of Syria, now taking these huge leaps to normalize ties with Arab nations that is not long held rifts with, namely Saudi Arabia, that seven-year rift. So, this is a hugely significant development. But for many the question now is, how will Bashar al-Assad be held accountable? When and how exactly will we see that accountability?
NOBILO: It's interesting, because it's as though ever since Syria pledged aid and support in the aftermath of the Turkey earthquakes, there's been, like, these incremental steps as normalization, it seems. Which obviously have not been received well by many, as you point out. Thank you so much.
FOSTER: Russia's war in Ukraine could lead to changes in a long- standing Ukrainian industry, which is surrogate parenting. As the war erodes Ukraine's population. Lawmakers are considering banning foreigners from paying Ukrainian women to carry and deliver their babies.
NOBILO: But some women tell us that it's because of the war that they need to do this. CNN's Nic Robertson explains the controversy.
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NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR (voice-over): There is mom, she's doing fine. And there is baby, she's great too. But all is not well at this Ukrainian surrogacy clinic. The government might shut it and others like it, down.
ROBERTSON: We're going down to the vault where they keep all the embryos they've stored. All the embryos are inside these.
ROBERTSON (voice-over): Albert Tochilovsky lifts the lid.
ROBERTSON: That's cold. So, these would have to be destroyed, all of them, destroyed?
ROBERTSON (voice-over): Embryos, he says, used by clients and infertile Ukrainian women. It could collapse this multi-million-dollar business.
ALBERT TOCHILOVSKY, BIOTEXCOM OWNER (through translator): It will mean death to me. And end the possibility for European families to have babies here. And the chance for you come for Ukrainian women.
ROBERTSON (voice-over): Biotexcom helps childless couples all over the world. Ukraine surrogacy laws leave birth mothers few legal rights. Making women here, like Olesya, highly sought after and relatively well compensated, typically $20,000.
OLESYA HOLOVATSKYKH, SURROGATE (through translator): The financial situation in our family is bad. We've got big problems. So, I have to help my husband earning money.
ROBERTSON: The baby is due in two weeks' time, is that going to be difficult for you to let the baby go?
HOLOVATSKYKH (through translator): We've got used to her. We've been playing with her, talking to her, treating her as our own child. So, it's not like a purse, simply to make money. We feel for her as our own.
ROBERTSON (voice-over): Nataliya, a coal miner, is seven months pregnant with her second surrogate baby. They've come to Kyiv until the baby's handed off to its biological parents from Italy.
For the first surrogacy, for Chinese parents, we bought an apartment, she says. This time wasn't an easy decision, but we did it to provide a better life for our own children.
ROBERTSON: Before the war, Biotexcom averaged about 450 successful surrogate births a year. Last year that jumped to 600. Lawmakers and President Zelenskyy's party say that the war has so impacted the population here that no children should be allowed to leave the country. They declined our requests to explain their proposed law in more detail.
Olesya and her husband, Herrick, have two children already. And want the possibility of another surrogate and of helping put love into another couple's lives.
HOLOVATSKYKH (through translator): That happened as we'll arrive in another home. Someone else must feel joy, not only ourselves.
ROBERTSON (voice-over): The benefits of this surrogacy for them have already been life-changing, enough money to flee their dangerous frontline home.
HERRICK HOLOVATSKYKH, HUSBAND OF SURROGATE MOTHER (through translator): This surrogacy saved us, thanks to this we are sitting here in safety.
ROBERTSON (voice-over): Lives, many of them yet to be born, at stake on this pending government decision.
Nic Robertson, CNN, Kyiv, Ukraine.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
NOBILO: Ahead, just how hard is it to become an air traffic control? We'll find out when aviation correspondent Pete Muntean puts itself to the test. I think I can do that.
FOSTER: You want to be a pilot?
NOBILO: That story and many more still ahead.
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NOBILO: Lost luggage is not the only thing you'll have to worry about if you're flying in the U.S. this summer. Control towers at airports around the nation are facing staffing shortages. Right now, about one in five air traffic control positions is open. That comes to about 3,000 jobs.
FOSTER: There is no quick fix. The training alone can take years. CNN aviation correspondent Pete Muntean shows us what it takes to get a job in the tower.
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PETE MUNTEAN, CNN AVIATION CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Warnings of not enough workers for your next trip stretch from cockpits to control towers with the FAA's own air traffic controllers now in short supply.
The agency says nationwide, two in every 10 controller jobs are empty. The problem is so severe at a key facility in New York that the FAA is warning summer delays at the area's three main airports could rise by 45 percent.
PAUL RINALDI, FORMER PRESIDENT, NATIONAL AIR TRAFFIC CONTROLLERS' ASSOCIATION: It's a chilling message that we're not able to fly, you know, the routes at that level because we don't have enough aircraft controllers.
MUNTEAN (voice over): Now, the federal government is scrambling to play catch up, opening a rare hiring window Friday. Last year, it was flooded with 58,000 applications. That's 38 candidates for every one opening.
CAMERON SMITH, STUDENT, EMBRY-RIDDLE AERONAUTICAL UNIVERSITY: It's the backbone for aviation.
MUNTEAN (voice over): Cameron Smith is one of the air traffic control students here at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Florida hitting submit on his application.
FAA hiring slowed down during the pandemic. Professor and former FAA official, Michael McCormick says compounding the problem, the agency shuttered its training academy.
MICHAEL MCCORMICK, ASSISTANT PROFESSOR, EMBRY-RIDDLE AERONAUTICAL UNIVERSITY: Over time this builds and that's why we have such a gap now in the training of controllers and a need to hire so many more.
MUNTEAN (voice over): To see if I have what it takes, I stepped into this control tower simulator to give it a try.
MUNTEAN: 3, 4, 5, 5 Yankee cleared for departure one-six.
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MUNTEAN (voice over): Students practice lining up flights for takeoff and landing, issuing fast specific instructions with no margin for error.
MUNTEAN: There is so much to keep track of. This is a tough gig.
SMITH: That's probably every single time I ever hear someone say that's such a stressful job and I'm sitting here and I'm like, I can do it.
MUNTEAN (voice over): Clearly the students here are more accustomed to the intensity of this job than I am. It can take three years for the FAA to fully train recruits.
Acting Administrator Billy Nolen insists hiring is on schedule, but it might not be fast enough to keep flights on schedule this summer.
BILLY NOLEN, ACTING FAA ADMINISTRATOR: We're hiring over the next two years 3,300 additional controllers. That will give us a net plus up about 500 accounting for retirements and attrition.
MUNTEAN: Becoming an air traffic controller is ultra-competitive. Those who are selected by the FAA have to not only pass an aptitude test, but also medical and psychological exams.
Those who are not selected this year have an even better shot next year when the FAA plans to hire 1,800 new controllers.
Pete Muntean, CNN, Reagan National Airport.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
FOSTER: NASA has launched a pair of tiny storm tracking satellites into orbit as part of the new space stations improve hurricane forecasting.
NOBILO: The pair lifted off from New Zealand aboard a rocket on Sunday. Two more will launch in couple of weeks. They'll orbit close to the earth's surface observing tropical cyclones and are designed to make more frequent recordings than current weather monitoring satellites.
It's always been a head-scratcher for me that in this day and age, weather predictions are still lacking.
FOSTER: They were right about the rain on the coronation day. The celebration of King Charles III isn't over yet. Just ahead, a touching tribute from Prince William at Sunday's coronation concert.
NOBILO: Which you are at.
FOSTER: I was, literally.
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FOSTER: Much of the United Kingdom enjoying a day off, apart for us. And they've also been out of school today, it's a public holiday marking the coronation of King Charles III. At a concert at Windsor Castle on Sunday, Prince William paid tribute to his father and late grandmother, Queen Elizabeth II, take a look.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
WILLIAM, PRINCE OF WALES: As my grandmother said when she was crowned, coronations are a declaration of our hopes for the future. And I know she's up there, fondly keeping an eye on us, and she'd be a very proud mother.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
NOBILO: The concert included performances by Lionel Ritchie, Katy Perry, and others, and the celebrations continue in the hours ahead with what's being called "The Big Help Out," with members of the royal family joining volunteers at local charities.
FOSTER: We learned a lot about their lack of dancing skills.
NOBILO: Oh, my goodness, that was my favorite, and watching Rishi Sunak really get down and boogie as well. You were there. Were you dancing?
FOSTER: I danced a bit. This was actually, the highlight, the whale, this is a drone show. And that was really spectacular, that was all about nature, saying thing, we won't forget these people. The kids have a good time. Katy Perry was the big star performance. She was staying at a castle last night.
NOBILO: Was she really?
FOSTER: She talked about that.
NOBILO: All this inside scoop that you get from Max Foster. What was your biggest take-away for the weekend?
FOSTER: Well, we just had the viewing figures in the U.K. And they are down on Queen Elizabeth's funeral. It's all about, he has to retain is relevant. Since he's at the beginning of his reign, she was at the end of her reign. I don't know how much you can read into that. But there's so much history there. And ultimately, if you look at all the viral videos, there are moments, aren't they, that caught people. So, Prince Louis waving was a big moment, wasn't it? And Penny Mordaunt that you were talking about.
NOBILO: Yes, who -- who, as lord president of the Privy Council was holding the sword. There she is there in a custom outfit. But what's interesting too though is that at the coronation -- of the previous coronation, though, it seemed to be a lot more excitement in the public at large. But I think we need to be careful not to overstate some of the apathy or republican sentiments. Because when you look at history in this country, from William the Conqueror, to the civil war, to the abdication crisis, you often have a lot of resentment and dissent in opposition to the monarchy.
FOSTER: During the transition? NOBILO: Yes, absolutely, and periods of instability.
FOSTER: And she was young as well, wasn't she, I think that was a big difference, and the televising of it was completely new.
Meanwhile, in the NBA playoffs, a couple of semifinal series are all tied up after some thrilling games on Sunday. In the West, the Phoenix Suns got 36 points from both Kevin Durant and Kevin Booker, as they beat the Denver Nuggets 129 to 124, to even their series two games apiece. They now go back to Denver for game 5 on Tuesday.
And in, the East the Philadelphia 76ers even things up with the Boston Celtics with a 116 to 105 overtime victory. Philly star James Harden put on a show scoring 42 points, including a clutch 3 pointer with 19 seconds left. Game 5 is Tuesday in Boston.
The big performance wasn't Harden's only gift for one 76's fan. He invited John Hao, a Michigan State University student paralyzed in a mass shooting on campus in February, to Sunday's game.
Harden embraced Hao before the game, then met up with him afterwards and gave him a pair of game-worn shoe. Phillies win of course was the icing on the cake. Amazing.
Now, the Formula One Grand Prix in Miami, there was no stopping, Max Verstappen. The 2-time world champion roared from a weak starting position on Sunday to take the race away from the driver who led most of the way.
NOBILO: That driver was his Red Bull teammate, Sergio Perez, who finished 2nd. Verstappen has now won 3 of the first 5 races this season.
FOSTER: It's going well for him.
NOBILO: The writers' union strike in Hollywood has forced MTV to make some quick changes on Sunday. They had to pre-taped version this year's movie and TV awards, with "Screen Six" taking home best film. Best show went to HBO Max's "The Last of Us," with leading man Pedro Pascal also winning best hero.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Don't say another word.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I am sorry about your daughter, Joel. But I have lost people too.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You have no idea what loss is.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
NOBILO: Pascal and his costar Bella Ramsey also won the award for best hero. FOSTER: Other big winners of the night included Jenna Ortega, for best
performance in a hit show. She starred as the titular Wednesday Adam in the Netflix series that debuted last, year. And best performance in a movie went to Tom Cruise in his role in the box office smash hit "Top Gun: Maverick." The actor accepted his award in style like no one else could with the special video.
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TOM CRUISE, ACTOR: I love you. I love entertaining you. How much you enjoy it, how much you appreciate it. There's just no better feeling. And I hope you enjoy this year, "Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning Part One." Will be coming out in July -- it is wild ride. You have a wonderful summer. Thank you again for letting me entertain you, it's an absolute privilege. We will see you at the movies.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
FOSTER: I mean, really.
NOBILO: It puts my multitasking to shame.
FOSTER: I mean he is a superstar, isn't he? He also did a video, presumably from the same shoot for the king's coronation last night.
NOBILO: Did he really?
FOSTER: So, he knocked a few of them out.
NOBILO: What would be your party trick to do while simultaneously --
FOSTER: I'd be standing on one of the wings dancing. What would you do?
NOBILO: Crikey. Well, my party trick -- I can do spinning kicks in five- or six-inch heels.
FOSTER: OK.
NOBILO: So, I do that while accepting an award. That will be my -- and you'll be on the wing.
FOSTER: You've set yourself now for that award we're accepting.
NOBILO: Yes, Well you set yourself up to be on the wing of a fighter plane.
FOSTER: Thanks for joining us here on CNN NEWSROOM. On the ground, I'm Max Foster.
NOBILO: And I'm Bianca Nobilo. "EARLY START" with Christine Romans is up next on CNN. We'll see you soon.
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