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U.S. Coast Guard Concludes Search And Rescue Response Of Titan Sub Disaster; Inside The Chaotic 36 Hours Of Russia's Uprising; Dangerous Heat Wave Continues To Affect Across U.S.; Kremlin Says Deal Reached To End Wagner Insurrection; Cleanup Begins At Montana Train Derailment Site; Final Supreme Court Decisions Expected This Week. Aired 4-5p ET

Aired June 25, 2023 - 16:00   ET

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

[16:00:00]

GLORIA PAZMINO, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: What if anything else has been found of the Titan. As we know, it was on that expedition and there was a catastrophic implosion, all the five members of that expedition were killed. And in the last several days we have been trying to learn more about what happened and how it happened. That's what authorities have been doing. We've learned some new critical information throughout today that the mission to try and find more pieces of the submersible is still ongoing.

In fact, as we speak, there's a remote operating vehicle that is 400 miles out at sea searching the bottom of the ocean floor, the Odysseus 6K. Now the Odysseus has gone to the bottom of the ocean a total of four times. And there's several pieces that have been recovered since it began its mission, including the nose of the vessel, the front and the back of the pressurized hull, and two other debris fields.

We also learned today, Fred, that the company that's been operating the Odysseus was using its heavy lifting capabilities. That gives us a bit of a clue about what they might have possibly found during these search operations, that they might have been lifting debris from out of the bottom of the ocean floor. And that is what we are hoping that the U.S. Coast Guard can provide more details on today.

Why is that so important? Well, authorities have said that they need to gather as much evidence, as much materials as possible in order to understand what happened here and to make sure that nothing like this ever happens again. So hopefully we'll get more details from the Coast Guard soon -- Fred.

FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: All right. Gloria Pazmino, thank you so much. And of course when that press conference gets under way, we'll be monitoring or we'll take it.

All right, now to Russia where right now there is an uneasy calm on the streets after an extraordinary 36 hours that saw an armed insurrection led by the head of the mercenary group Wagner, Yevgeny Prigozhin, is the leader of that group. And barriers have been put up in the area around Red Square in Moscow, though there have been no crowds to speak of thus far. Prigozhin's whereabouts remained unknown after the Kremlin said a deal

was struck to end the march on Moscow. Under the agreement Prigozhin will be allowed to go to nearby Belarus and have all criminal charges in Russia against him dropped.

Before the deal, Wagner's group had come within 125 miles of Moscow in this insurrection. And it was the most serious challenge to Russian President Vladimir Putin's rule since he came to power 23 years ago.

Wagner's soldiers were actually cheered by supporters as they prepared to leave one of the Russian military cities.

All right, to Boston now where that U.S. Coast Guard press conference is under way on the ongoing investigation involving the submersible Titan.

REAR ADM. JOHN MAUGER, FIRST COAST GUARD DISTRICT COMMANDER: The purpose of today's press conference is to bring closure to the search and rescue phase of the response and to inform the public of the Coast Guard's next steps. But first and foremost, I want to again express my deepest sympathies to the families.

On Saturday I had the opportunity to travel to St. John's to speak with family members directly. For those that I did not have the opportunity to meet with, I extend my deepest condolences on behalf of the United States Coast Guard and the members of the Unified Command.

As I have continued to stress throughout, this case has been extremely complex, involving a coordinated international, inter-agency and private sector response in an unforgiving and difficult-to-access region of the ocean. In total, the Unified Command directed 11 surface assets, five subsurface assets, four air assets, and completed 39 search and rescue sorties totaling almost 13,000 square miles.

And while the outcome was not what any of us had hoped for, I am very proud of the team of responders who put forth their best effort to locate the submersible. While in Canada, I met with and personally thanked members of the Canadian Coast Guard and the Canadian Armed Forces who demonstrated the utmost professionalism and expertise throughout the response.

[16:05:08]

I extended my gratitude to all the professional responders who worked diligently to evaluate all leads, mobilize resources, and maintained hope. Their devotion to duty in the face of many complex challenges ensured that we remained always ready to conduct search and rescue operations if needed.

The discovery of the Titan submersible wreckage marked the conclusion of the search and rescue aspect of this incident. The Coast Guard has officially convened a marine board of investigation into the loss of the submersible and the five people on board. That investigation will be led by chief investigator Captain Jason Newbauer. So at this time I will turn over the mic to him. Captain Newbauer. CAPT. JASON NEUBAUER, CHIEF INVESTIGATOR, U.S. COAST GUARD: Thank you,

Admiral Mauger. Good afternoon. Before I discuss the Coast Guard's investigation, I want to express my deepest condolences to the loved ones of the five individuals who perished in this tragic incident. My team and myself have been investigating this since we heard the initial reports of the lost communications and my entire team wanted to express their condolences also.

As a senior investigator, I have witnessed the personal impact associated with these types of events. And my primary goal is to prevent a similar occurrence by making the necessary recommendations to enhance the safety of the maritime domain worldwide. Upon receiving notification that the submersible Titan had suffered a catastrophic failure with the loss of the five lives on board, the Coast Guard declared a major marine casualty and convened a marine board of investigation commonly referred to as an MBI on June 23rd.

I am serving as the chair for that investigation. An MBI is the highest level of investigation the Coast Guard conducts. It enables the U.S. to fully leverage investigative resources Coast Guard-wide and capitalize on an extensive network of cooperative relationships with international maritime administrations and organizations.

The MBI is currently in its initial evidence collection phase, including debris salvage operations at the incident site and evidence collection in coordination with the Canadian authorities in the port of St. John's Newfoundland. After the on-scene evidence collection efforts conclude, the MBI will typically hold a formal hearing to gather additional witness testimony and evidence in a setting that is available to the public.

During the course of the MBI, the board will first and primarily work to determine the cause of this marine casualty and the five associated deaths. The MBI, however, is also responsible for accountability aspects of the incident. And it can make recommendations to the proper authorities to pursue civil or criminal sanctions as necessary. However, any subsequent enforcement activities would be pursued under a separate investigation.

The MBI is also working in close coordination with other national, domestic and international investigative authorities including the United States National Transportation Safety Board, Canadian Transportation Safety Board, French Marine Casualties Investigation Board, and the United Kingdom Marine Accident Investigation Branch. Upon completion of this investigation, the MBI will issue a report to the commandant of the Coast Guard, Admiral Linda Fagan, with the evidence collected, the facts established, its conclusions and recommendations.

The final report will also be shared with the domestic and international maritime authorities I mentioned and the International Maritime Organization, the IMO, to help improve the safety framework for submersible operations worldwide.

I will now take any questions. Thank you. UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Can you walk us through a little bit about the

evidence gathering right now? Have you already begun collecting? How does that happen, remote (INAUDIBLE) or?

NEUBAUER: The MBI leverages Coast Guard resources nationwide and also our international partners to collectively -- collect evidence and right now we do have ongoing operations. I mentioned two areas, the on-site of the accident wreckage site, we have an ongoing salvage operation, and we are also currently conducting interviews in the Port of St. John's.

[16:10:08]

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Are you actually collecting items from the sea floor?

NEUBAUER: I just -- at this time that is the priority of the investigation is to recover items from the sea floor.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: And how did you (INAUDIBLE), like polygraph the site? How do you get a sense of (INAUDIBLE)?

NEUBAUER: So we have already mapped the accident site and the field and so the other factors would be part of the investigation. I don't want to get too deep into the details at this time, sir.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: What other organizations beyond the Coast Guard (INAUDIBLE)?

NEUBAUER: Yes, sir. I listed, you know, several international maritime authorities in my opening statement including the Canada Transportation Safety Board, the United Kingdom's Marine Accident Investigation Branch. It's really parties under international protocols. If they have a substantial interest in the investigation, they can request to be part of the Coast Guard's marine board and we've accepted that often citizenship of the fatalities on board would automatically make that international country or maritime organization a party to our -- substantially interested stake and a party.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Let's take another question.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Sir, do you have the capability to recover these five bodies? And if so, have you communicated that with family members?

NEUBAUER: I'm not communicating with family members and I'm not getting into details of the recovery operations. But we are taking all precautions on site if we are to encounter any human remains.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: How long (INAUDIBLE)?

MAUGER: So as a matter of U.S. law and Coast Guard policy, the Coast Guard doesn't charge for search and rescue, nor do we associate a cost with human life. We always answer the call. And so the ocean remains a non-forgiving environment and every weekend there are risks that are taken as people go to the water with inadequate safety gear, with inadequate training or boating while intoxicated. But we still answer the call.

We conduct disciplined operations with warranted risk to put our resources and our lives at risk to save others. That's who we are.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: (INAUDIBLE).

WHITFIELD: All right, you're watching the U.S. Coast Guard press conference out of Boston. In St. John's Newfoundland is Gloria Pazmino. And we are hearing them underscore that they have launched now the highest level of investigation that that body is able to do in cooperation with other marine -- maritime entities representing Canada, France and the U.K.

PAZMINO: That's right, Fred. And, you know, it was interesting to listen to the officials talk about the fact that this is now an international event and that whatever comes out of the investigation is going to have repercussions in terms of international law and how these agencies operate because the primary goal here is not just to understand what happened but to make sure that it doesn't happen again.

And there's been so much that we have been covering about the questions regarding the company that was operating this vessel, and whether or not it was done safely, whether protocols were taken into account. And it sounds like they are going to be looking into that as well. So far they have covered 13,000 square miles in the search for more debris of this vessel. And they underscored that this is not the outcome anyone had hoped for.

In fact one of the officials was asked about the potential of the recovering any human remains. And while he said that he didn't want to get into it, he did say that in their search operation they are taking precaution in the -- with the possibility that they might be able to find something. It is unclear to us whether that will happen. So far what we've heard from the experts and everyone that is familiar with this kind of deep-sea diving has suggested that that will be really difficult.

Now, they are also going to work to determine the cause of the casualties. We know so far that the U.S. Coast Guard has said that this was a catastrophic implosion, but it looks like they are looking to answer these very specific questions about how this happened and how to make sure it doesn't happen again.

[16:15:10]

And international maritime operations, they want to make sure this is safer as we've seen. There's a whole community of deep-sea exploring that embarks on these kinds of expeditions that have done this before but now all these agencies that have oversight over international waters and safety and how this is done, it looks like they want to make sure they get to a place where they can do that.

One thing we did not hear so far yet, Fred, is whether or not more specifics about whether or not they have recovered more debris. That is I would say the outstanding question here in trying to determine whether or not they've been able to recover more pieces as part of that investigation. And as you heard it there, they are continuing to conduct interviews with the families and the crew members right here in the Port of St. John's where we are standing, the place where the Polar Prince arrived yesterday carrying that crew and family members. That will also be a critical part of the investigation -- Fred.

WHITFIELD: Yes. And this international collaboration is also -- helps underscore, you know, the variation of citizenry that is representative of the five people who died on board this submersible Titan.

All right, Gloria Pazmino, thank you so much. Appreciate that from St. John's Newfoundland.

All right, coming up, still a lot of uncertainty surrounding the mercenary Wagner Group insurrection in Russia. Prigozhin has not confirmed that he has accepted the deal from the Kremlin and his whereabouts still unclear. What it all means for President Putin's future, straight ahead.

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[16:20:55]

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back. I'm Wolf Blitzer in London where we're reporting on the latest developments out of Russia. Right now there's an uneasy calm on the streets after a truly extraordinary 36 hours that saw an armed insurrection led by the head of the mercenary Wagner Group, we're talking about Yevgeny Prigozhin.

Let's go straight to CNN's senior international correspondent Sam Kiley.

Sam, what's the latest out of Russia today?

SAM KILEY, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, it's been an extraordinary 48 hours, hasn't it, Wolf, with this latest development that Yevgeny Prigozhin in a statement to CNN or rather his people, his communications department, telling CNN that he will be making a statement once he gets into a position of being able to communicate properly.

He has since disappeared effectively as a part of the deal negotiated by Lukashenko, the leader of Belarus, who are Russia's neighbor, normally a figure seen as very much a kind of junior partner to the Kremlin, to Vladimir Putin, but in this instance seems to have intervened in a remarkably rapid way to do a deal or broker a deal that would allow the leader of the mercenaries to move to Belorussia whilst his men can be spared any kind of prosecution.

Now bear in mind, the early stages of this rebellion, Vladimir Putin said that these -- all of these men and indeed his former chef, the leader of Wagner, were guilty of treason and would be -- face the full force of the law. Clearly that has now been dialed back as the Wagner Group was prepared, in their words, at any rate to turn their convoy around some 125 miles, 200 kilometers short of the Russian capital Moscow.

But what we don't know now is what the longer term implications for the Putin regime are or indeed for the ongoing conflict in Ukraine because this clearly suits the Ukrainians very nicely -- Wolf.

BLITZER: Certainly does. Sam Kiley with an update for us. Thank you.

We're also learning right now much more about how President Biden is trying to manage this moment and what U.S. intelligence officials knew leading up to this weekend's crisis.

I want to bring in our White House correspondent Arlette Saenz and our senior national security correspondent Alex Marquardt.

Arlette, first of all to you, what can you tell us about the conversation, the call between President Biden and Ukraine's President Zelenskyy?

ARLETTE SAENZ, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Wolf, President Biden spoke with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy today from Camp David. The White House saying that the two men discussed not only the United States' ongoing support for Ukraine but also recent events in Russia. As Sam outlined there, one of the key questions is how this mercenary rebellion in Russia will ultimately impact the war in Ukraine.

Now this call between Biden and Zelenskyy follows the call Biden had yesterday with top allies, including the leaders of France, Germany and the United Kingdom. And they also talked about Ukraine as well as those developments in Russia. And sources have said that one of the main takeaways from that call was really trying to emphasize from President Biden to those leaders the need to simply remain quiet and allow for the situation in Russia to play out.

Officials have been concerned. They don't want to show any indication of showing support for either side in this matter. And so that is part of those very quiet strategy that we've seen from the White House. We have yet to hear directly from President Biden regarding this matter. He is returning to the White House a bit later this evening, but we did start to hear the first response from the administration earlier today when Secretary of State Antony Blinken said that this rebellion was extraordinary and it has shown that there are some cracks in Vladimir Putin's hold on power in Russia.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANTONY BLINKEN, SECRETARY OF STATE: This is just an added chapter to a very, very bad book that Putin has written for Russia. But what's so striking about it is it's internal.

[16:25:01]

The fact that you have from within someone directly questioning Putin's authority, directly questioning the premises that -- upon which he launched this aggression against Ukraine, that in and of itself is something very powerful. It adds cracks. Where those go, when they get there, too soon to say, but it clearly raises new questions that Putin has to deal with.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SAENZ: So Blinken there stressing how evolving this situation is and saying that they're still trying to determine the broader impact of it when it comes to Russia and that war in Ukraine.

BLITZER: Let me go to Alex right now.

Alex, I know you're working your sources at the U.S. intelligence community. They were watching Prigozhin pretty closely over these past many days, right?

ALEX MARQUARDT, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Yes. They certainly have been.

Wolf, I should just note that we're also just getting word that the Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin has spoken with his Ukrainian counterpart today so it does appear that top American officials are reaching out to their Ukrainian counterparts after this extraordinary mutiny, insurrection, by Yevgeny Prigozhin.

But you're absolutely right, Wolf, the intelligence community, national security officials here in Washington have been watching him closely for quite some time as his anger appears to have grown towards Moscow. Now remember that Prigozhin has been in charge of these Wagner forces who were the primary fighters in and around the fight for Bakhmut which has been one of the central fights in Ukraine over the past few months.

And we've seen this anger growing from Prigozhin accusing top military officials in Moscow of not giving him enough support, not giving him enough weapons, not getting him what he needs, literally screaming in videos at the Defense Minister Shoigu, at the head of the Russian military, Valery Gerasimo.

And so that appears now to have reached a crescendo, Wolf. And I'm told that intelligence officials saw the planning for what turned out to be this march towards Moscow carried out by Prigozhin, which ended very suddenly yesterday. They saw these Wagner forces who had retreated from Bakhmut start to gather, start to move, gather equipment and weapons, and make this move towards Rostov in southern Russia, which they eventually took over.

So it did appear that this march would be imminent to the point, Wolf, where intelligence officials I'm told briefed top members of Congress, the leaders both Republicans and Democrats in the House and the Senate, as well as the top leaders of both parties in the Intelligence Committees to let them know that something like this would be coming.

The surprise, Wolf, I'm told, was when it actually was carried out and how little resistance there was. There was no resistance from the Russian military, from the Russian security forces, from the border guard. They met zero confrontation along that road to Moscow. So I'm told there had been a U.S. assessment that a lot more violence, a lot more bloodshed was expected, and that never came -- Wolf. BLITZER: Alex Marquardt and Arlette Saenz, guys, thank you very, very

much.

Let's get some analysis right now from retired U.S. Army Brigadier General Mark Kimmitt. He's the former assistance secretary of state for political military affairs during the George W. Bush administration.

General, thanks for joining us. President Zelenskyy says he and President Biden discussed the hostilities in Russia and Putin's war on Ukraine. How do the U.S. and the Western allies help Ukraine capitalize right now on this Russian instability?

BRIG. GEN. MARK KIMMITT (RET), U.S. ARMY: Well, I think 24 hours ago there was an opportunity to capitalize on this when you had the instability, when you had the uncertainty about the military chain of command. That would have been a good opportunity to attack. On the other hand, I think we can all recognize right now, as you said, that there are fissures in Putin's grip on power. He will be trying to do whatever he can to close those fissures.

And I think that if Zelenskyy and his people push too hard right now, out of a show of strength, Putin may overreact. So I would suspect that the advice of Zelenskyy was let's just hold off for right now, let's not provoke him, let's wait until this settled down, and let's get back to the counteroffensive as we had planned.

BLITZER: As you know, General, just yesterday Putin was vowing punishment, severe punishment for anyone involved in this rebellion. He called it treason. Are we supposed to believe he'll let Prigozhin off, simply let him go to Belarus and not be punished?

KIMMITT: Well, Prigozhin crossed the Rubicon as Ceasar did 2,000 years ago. There's no doubt that Prigozhin in my mind will end up the same way Ceasar did. It could very well be that Prigozhin is able to operate from Belarus if he is playing happy with Putin, operating in Africa, operating in Syria, continuing operations inside of Ukraine, but there will be a price to pay by Yevgeny Prigozhin.

[16:30:02]

BLITZER: Do you think this crisis is over?

KIMMITT: I really don't. I think that it was good for Putin that none of his ministers, none of his close advisers, none of his military forces went over to Prigozhin side. And that's probably what led to Prigozhin, recognizing that it's attempted coup had failed.

But I suspect there's going to be a bit of paranoia inside the Kremlin right now. There's going to be searched for collaborators. But as regards the war in Ukraine, I think the Southern Command will get back to business will prepare for the defense, will continue to defense and the crisis may be in the Kremlin, but I don't think we'll see it in Ukraine.

BLITZER: General Mark Kimmitt, thank you very much as usual. We're following also more news here in the United States, millions facing potentially life threatening heat right now. We'll have the forecast that's coming up next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[16:35:25]

WHITFIELD: More than 50 million people under a threat of extreme heat in an area stretching from Arizona to Mississippi and the Texas Power Authority says a grid weather watch starts today and runs through Friday. Here is CNN meteorologist Allison Chinchar.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ALLISON CHINCHAR, CNN METEOROLOGIST (on camera): Roughly a dozen states are already under either heat advisories or excessive heat warnings. And in some instances, these are likely going to last for several days. That's because for some of these areas, they don't even peak temperature rise until Tuesday or even Wednesday of the upcoming week.

Take for example Houston going from 101 for the high on Monday up to 103. By Wednesday, Dallas going from 102 on Monday to 107 by the time we get to the middle portion of the upcoming week. And for many of these areas, even though they peak, they really don't drop back down by the end of the week.

Take Austin for example. The average high this time of year is 94. We are going to spend every single one of the next seven days with those high temperatures getting into the triple digits. And we're looking at over 35 cities breaking record temperatures at some point this week between Monday and Friday. Some of those communities possibly even having two or three days in a row of record breaking temperatures.

It's also not just the temperature we're concerned about. But also when you factor in that humidity you get what we call the feels like temperature. And in some of these areas, you're talking extremely high numbers. Corpus Christi getting that feels like temperature all the way up to 110 on Tuesday. Dallas looking at a feels like temperature Tuesday of up to 114 degrees.

Really the only areas that are likely not going to see much of this heat, especially in the eastern half of the country is one of the places like the Midwest, the Northeast in the mid-Atlantic. And the reason for that is you have a lot of the showers and thunderstorms that will be moving into the area because of it also the potential for some severe storms, especially for cities like New York, Washington DC stretching down through Atlanta, the main threats there will be damaging winds and the potential for some large hail as well.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: Allison Chinchar, thank you so much. All right, coming up inside the 36 hour insurrection in Russia, how it all unfolded and the impact it might have on Putin told on power, next.

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[16:41:43]

WHITFIELD: All right, one day after the Wagner chief called off a short lived insurrection against Russia. The whereabouts of Yevgeny Prigozhin are unknown. The agreement struck allows the mercenary head to be exiled to nearby Belarus, and have all criminal charges at Russia against him dropped that according to the Kremlin.

With me now to talk more about the unfolding crisis in Russia is Angela Stent. She is the Director of the Center for Eurasian, Russian and East European Studies at Georgetown University. And she's also a Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution and the author of the book "Putin's World: Russia Against the West and with the Rest." Good to see you a professor.

So, what impact in your view has this short lived rebellion had on Putin's rule and his future in Russia? Or perhaps did it reveal to the world his weaknesses in his regime?

ANGELA STENT, CENTER FOR EURASIAN, RUSSIAN AND EAST EUROPEAN STUDIES, GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY: Well, it's raised more questions I think that we can answer. And I think this is maybe just act one of something that we will see unfolding over the next few months. He certainly looks weaker there. Even though Prigozhin stood down in the end, and apparently accepted the deal.

The fact that this happened, the fact that his troops could get within 200 kilometers of Moscow and opposed essentially, and that people welcome them and they occupied the town of Rostov, which is near the Ukrainian border, just shows -- raises, you know, severe questions really about how firm Putin's grip on power is, and read the performance of the Russian army itself.

WHITFIELD: And you mentioned, while this may be act one still mysterious, what could be act two or three what's to follow, but right now there is silence and absence from the public view Putin or Prigozhin. So what do you believe that means?

STENT: Yes, I mean, there's radio silence. So I have no idea what the Prigozhin really is in Belarus. I mean, the cryptic message that his organization put out was that he would communicate with people when he had better cell phone service. So that raises a lot of questions.

But we also haven't seen Putin. Putin didn't denounce the deal yesterday. His press spokesman did and none of his colleagues, not one single one of them has come out and expressed public support for him, not the Prime Minister. Not any of the people even in his inner circle. It's just complete silent, just speculation. So there must be a lot going on inside the Kremlin that we don't know about.

WHITFIELD: Did this kind of arrangement surprise you? I mean, we know that, you know, Lukashenko and Putin, you know, have a great relationship, but this arrangement as an escape hatch, you know, for Prigozhin. How did that strike you? STENT: Well, first of all, it was surprising to see Lukashenko was the man who allegedly initiated the discussions and was negotiating all day with Prigozhin, because the view one has opinions and he's very much subordinate to Putin, but maybe it suited Putin to have him play that role.

And then, you know, Belarus is a close ally, or the closest ally really one of the few of Russia.

[16:45:00]

And so to send Prigozhin there, that in some ways might make sense to sort of rein him in but again, let's see whether he's really there.

WHITFIELD: All right, Professor Angela Stent, great to see you. Thanks so much. All right coming up. Three major cases are pending in the U.S. Supreme Court we'll discuss the impact that they could have on the presidential campaign season.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: New today, the Port of Miami is back open after a deadly boat collision. The U.S. Coast Guard says a 30-foot boat hit a ferry near Miami earlier this morning. The captain of that boat died, another person on board was injured.

[16:50:04]

The boat sank forcing the Coast Guard to close the port during the cleanup efforts. Three crew members on the ferry boat were not hurt. The sunken boat has been recovered and removed from the North Channel of the port.

All right, cleanup has also begun at the site of a train derailment in Montana that caused a bridge across the Yellowstone River to collapse and sent multiple train cars into the water below. The cars were leaking petroleum products after they derailed.

The train company Montana Rail Link says it is closely working with local and federal partners to clear the site. The company says damaged rail cars were carrying molten sulfur, asphalt and sodium hydrogen sulfate. But the sulfate did not land into the river.

Officials have asked residents to conserve water and to stay away from the site. The cause of the derailment has not been determined.

And this week is the final stretch of the U.S. Supreme Court's term and there are still major decisions yet to be released. Among the 10 cases that are left rulings on student loans, affirmative action, LGBTQ plus rights, some of the disturbs biggest and most polarizing issues.

I want to bring in Ron Brownstein for more perspective on this. He is a CNN political analyst and senior editor with the Atlantic. All right, Ron, so which of these outstanding Supreme Court decisions do you think will be the most consequential on the 2024 campaign trail? RON BROWNSTEIN, CNN POLITICLA ANALYST: Well, I don't think any of them Fred are going to have the sustained impact in the electoral campaign kind of arena as obviously the Dobbs decision which is still reverberating through American politics.

But I do think you're going to see the Biden -- the six Republican appointed justices likely ruling in a way that the Biden administration and other Democrats are going to criticize on largely or completely ending the use of affirmative action in higher education on privileging claims of religious freedom to gain exemption from equal treatment laws for LGBTQ individuals, and potentially also ending Biden's student loan forgiveness program.

You know, what these rulings, I think above all are going to demonstrate is that if we think in the broadest sense of the competition between the Republican and Democratic coalition's to really decide the direction of the country. He's very antithetical coalitions at this point.

The Supreme Court majority is now, I believe, the biggest asset, the most powerful weapon on the board for the Republican coalition. And we're going to see that again, in all likelihood this week.

WHITFIELD: Which of these cases do you believe really will pique the interest of voters because, you know, all of these are polarizing issues, but similar to how you talked about, you know, the Dobbs decision made an impact on the midterms. Is it your feeling that there will be one particular issue that might be more influential over the others?

BROWNSTEIN: Well, I think it's probably going to be the student loan decision, if you're thinking about the electoral impact, because that affects many, many people. And really does kind of underscore the Republican opposition to what Biden has done at a time when the growing share of the electorate that is composed of millennials, and Gen Z is probably the, you know, the biggest change that we're going to see from '20 to '24, is the Gen Z share of likely voters is probably going to rise by about five points, maybe as much as 8 million people and the Supreme Court will be ending, in all likelihood.

The debt relief that Biden has engineered for younger, you know, younger Americans may be the most consequential though is this decision in all likelihood, virtually or completely ending the use of affirmative action in higher education. Affirmative action has always been a very controversial tool, but they are choosing to end this and all likelihood precisely at the moment when kids of color have become a majority of the nation's high school graduates for the first time.

And the implications of this decision is that even as the overall youth population becomes kaleidoscopically more diverse opportunity at the most elite and selective institutions that really provide the pipeline for the public and private sector leadership of the country will continue to remain disproportionately white.

And I think that is a formula for growing social tension in the years ahead. One of many, I think, on which this Court majority is setting itself against the interests and values and views of these rising more diverse generations.

WHITFIELD: Ron Brownstein, thanks so much.

BROWNSTEIN: Thanks for having me.

WHITFIELD: All right, last month a first of its kind reunion taking place on Miami Beach, top 10 CNN Heroes from 2021 and 2022 who came together to receive the nonprofit training that is part of the Heroes Award and hosted by the Elevate Prize Foundation but they also took out time to serve.

[16:55:10]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: For reintroducing native plants back into this ecosystem as a way to combat a lot of the invasive species that have come in.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: My day to day is working marine mammals and rehabilitating. So it's important to do this type of work.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Also important is the nonprofit training that helps their organizations grow stronger, and their missions go even further.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We've learned about social media, financial planning, nonprofit management, it's all been extremely helpful.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Having the opportunity to learn how to do more so that we can grow what we're doing, we can expand and we can serve more people. It's just an opportunity that I'm so grateful for.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: And to see more, go to CNNheroes.com right now. Thank you so much for joining me today. I'm Fredericka Whitfield alongside my colleague Wolf Blitzer in London. CNN Newsroom continues with Jim Acosta right after this.

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