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CNN International: Asia Students Welcome Supreme Court Ruling; California Banned Race in Admissions in 1996; Trump Campaign Official Shown Classified Material; Parkland School Resource Officer Acquitted in Mass Shooting; U.N. Condemns Quran Burning in Stockholm; Israel's Netanyahu Drops Part of Judicial Overhaul. Aired 4:30-5a ET
Aired June 30, 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]
MAX FOSTER, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back to CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Max Foster. If you're just joining us, let me bring you up to date with our top stories this hour.
Millions of Americans are starting the July -- the 4th of July holiday weekend under heat alerts. A heat wave in the South is peaking on Friday with temperatures near 100 degrees Fahrenheit or 38 degrees Celsius.
In parts of California and Nevada temperatures could soar up 110 degrees Fahrenheit, 43 degrees Celsius.
Plus, the U.S. Supreme Court is wrapping up its term with rulings expected on a number of highly contentious issues. Those include a prominent LBGTQ case in Colorado. And President Biden's ambitious student loan forgiveness program.
Now a year after overturning Roe versus Wade, they conservative majority of the U.S. Supreme Court has delivered another stunning reversal to decades of legal precedent. This time soundly rejecting the policy including race in college applications.
Thursday's 6-3 decision had been widely expected, but the fallout would be significant. It means most colleges and universities can no longer consider a students race in its acceptance criteria. Data show that admission drops off sharply for Black and Latino students in places where affirmative action have already been banned. The court decision carve out notable exceptions for U.S. military academies, saying race can still be a factor when considering freshman candidates.
Now many Asian students supports Thursday's ruling, they claim that affirmative action has been a major obstacle to attending Ivy League universities. CNN's Kyung Lah is in Los Angeles and has our report.
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KYUNG LAH, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Harvard, Yale, Columbia. Wesley Zhou shows us the rejection letters that ended his Ivy League dream.
WESLEY ZHOU, UCLA JUNIOR: I'm a straight A student, you know, 4.0 GPA, 4.68 weighted GPA.
LAH: Did you get into any Ivy League schools?
ZHOU: Did not. I did not.
LAH (voice-over): That was Zhou when we met him two years ago. This is where we find him today, soon to be a junior at UCLA.
ZHOU: I think eliminating race in consideration would definitely be a lot fairer.
LAH: And help you?
ZHOU: And probably, yes, in some sense, would help me.
LAH (voice-over): Zhou says he was accepted to every University of California school in the state that banned affirmative action in 1996. What's happened here in California could signal the future for U.S. colleges without affirmative action. UCLA Professor Eddie Cole says the impact was immediate.
EDDIE COLE, UCLA ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR, HIGHER EDUCATION & HISTORY: As soon as that went into effect, you saw at places like Berkeley and UCLA, the Black student enrollment among incoming freshmen dropped dramatically.
LAH (voice-over): By more than half at those schools across the UC system, Black and Latino enrollment fell sharply the next year without affirmative action. But in the decades to follow, the UC system still took a progressive approach to improve those numbers to mid-90s levels. Though Black student enrollment still lags at UC Berkeley and UCLA only recently returned to mid-90s levels.
COLE: So if this decision is made in 1996, and we fast forward to 2023, nearly three decades later to say the numbers have finally improved, with the exception of Berkeley, imagine what it's going to look like on a national level. You've got to think about the legacy and impact across racial groups. And why there are disparities decade after decade, despite so many policies.
NIA MCCLINTON, UCLA GRADUATE: I could very easily walk into a classroom and feel like I'm someone who doesn't belong here when that's not the truth, right?
LAH (voice-over): Nia McClinton graduated from UCLA two years ago and now works in Black Student Outreach. Without such outreach and funding, McClinton sees this.
LAH: Do you feel like a lot of doors were closed for Black students in this country?
MCCLINTON: I'm worried that they will. So it's important to reach out and say like, this is something that is attainable for you. LAH (voice-over): Wesley Zhou will soon be applying for medical school. He still believes affirmative action doesn't help him but does see the impact beyond his own academic life.
ZHOU: I will say this right, affirmative action does harm Asian Americans, but without it, it'll harm all of the minorities in the United States. So that's where I stand right now.
LAH: After three decades without affirmative action, the University of California system still believes that affirmative action is the way to go. The UC system filed an amicus brief with the Supreme Court. The justices though deciding that the rest of the country should follow California on this issue.
Kyung Lah, CNN, Los Angeles.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
FOSTER: Former Donald Trump campaign official is cooperating with special counsel prosecutors in the ongoing criminal probe relates efforts to overturn the 2020 election. That's according to two sources familiar with the matter. Meanwhile, we are learning the former president showed classified material to a current senior campaign official during a meeting at his New Jersey golf club. CNN's Paula Reid has that.
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PAULA REID, CNN SR. LEGAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: One of the most surprising revelations in the Trump indictment was an allegation that the former president had showed a classified map to a representative from his political action committee.
[04:35:02]
A surprising, not only because it's suggesting that he showed classified material to someone who did not have a clearance, but there was also a suggestion that someone in his inner circle may have shared this information with investigators.
Now a source tells CNN that that representative is Suzy Wiles. Now she's one of his closest advisors. She's effectively running his third campaign for the White House.
Now she was interviewed multiple times by special counsel investigators. She was asked if she was ever shown this map or any other documents related to General Mark Milley and it's unclear what she told investigators. Now we are told that the Trump camp was, quote, blindsided by this news. And as of right now there is no plan for Wiles to step back from her role at the campaign.
This is not the only news on the special counsel front. CNN has also learned that the grand jury down in Florida investigating the possible mishandling of classified documents is still active. They are still inquiring after witnesses and investigating. It's not unheard of for a grand jury to continue its work after charges have been filed. And we know from our reporting that there are some loose ends here in this investigation. For example, gaps in the security footage that was given to investigators. Also, questions about exactly how documents were stored at the former president's Bedminster Golf Club. At this point it's unclear if the grand jury will bring additional charges or a superseding indictment against those already charged.
Paula Reid, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
FOSTER: The rapper, Travis Scott, will not face criminal charges over the crowd crash that killed ten people, including a nine-year-old, and injured husbands at his 2021 AstroWorld Music Festival. The district attorney in Houston Texas announced Thursday, a grand jury also decided not to indict others connected to the festival. The grand jury found that no crime occurred, and that no single individual was currently responsible. The decision has no impact on the many civil lawsuits pending against Scott and the organizers. An attorney for the rapper says it's a huge weight that's been lifted.
A jury has acquitted of former law enforcement officer of any wrongdoing in the worst high school mass shootings in recent history. Former school resource officer, Scot Peterson wept as the judge read the verdict. He was found not guilty of felony and neglect negligence and other charges arising out of the massacre in Parkland, Florida four years ago. CNN's Carlos Suarez has more.
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CARLOS SUAREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The jury came back with a not guilty verdict on all of the charges, Scot Peterson cried as the verdict was read in court. And the families of some of the victims watched in disbelief. Some of them shaking their head, no. It's a scene that we saw during the sentencing trial for the shooter, when the jury in that case, sentenced the shooter to life in prison, instead of the death penalty.
Peterson was charged with 11 counts, including seven counts of felony child neglect, and three of misdemeanor culpable negligence for his alleged inaction to stop the shooter in Parkland, Florida in 2018. The defense argued that Peterson didn't go into the building where the shooting happened, because he did not know exactly where the gunfire was coming from and where the shooting was. Peterson took cover for more than 45 minutes outside of the building before the shooter was arrested. On the child neglect charges, the state had to prove that Peterson was a caregiver. A designation not typically given to law enforcement. Here now is Peterson, after the verdict, and the father of Joaquin Oliver, one of the 14 students killed.
SCOT PETERSON, FORMER PARKLAND SCHOOL RESOURCE OFFICER: Don't anybody ever forget, this was a massacre on February 14th. The only person to blame was that monster. There wasn't any law enforcement, nobody in that scene, from BSO, Coral Springs, everybody did the best they could. MANUEL OLIVER, FATHER OF PARKLAND SHOOTING VICTIM JOAQUIN OLIVER: We were there too late. I'm sick of listening to that. Who was working on the moments before what happened? Who allowed that killer to get into the school? Was that not your responsibility also?
SUAREZ: Peterson was found not guilty of lying to investigators about the number of gunshots he heard when he arrived at the scene, and whether he saw people running from the building where the shooting took place.
Carlos Suarez, CNN, Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
FOSTER: We'll be right back.
[04:40:00]
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
FOSTER: Welcome back. Take a look at these pictures from Mecca, Saudi Arabia. An estimated 1.8 million Muslims, from 150 countries taking part in the Hajj. The journey to Islam's holiest sites, is one of the five pillars of the faith, with able-bodied Muslims required to perform the ritual at least once in their lifetimes.
But for many, this year's Hajj is being overshadowed with anger. That rage follows the burning of a Quran, during a demonstration in Stockholm. The United Nations has joined Malaysia and other Muslim nations to strongly condemned the incident. Swedish authorities criticize the act, but called it protected free speech.
More protests against Sweden are expected to be coming hours in Iraq. On Thursdays, demonstrators breach the grounds of Stockholm's embassy in Baghdad to protest what they call hate speech. Some remove national emblems from the building. CNN's Jomana cut that ship has more.
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JOMANA KARADSHEH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Scores of protesters poured into the Swedish embassy compound in Baghdad on Thursday to protest Swedish authorities allowing a man to burn Islam's holy book outside a mosque in Stockholm on Wednesday. The first day of one of the holiest days in the Islamic calendar, the first day of Eid al-Adha.
It was a brief protest. For the most part, it appeared non-violent, but they did scale the walls of the compound. The Swedish foreign ministry telling CNN that their staff are safe. The protest came after the powerful influential Shia cleric Muqtada al-Sadr called on his supporters, and this is a man who can mobilize the masses, to head to the Swedish embassy.
He also called on the Iraqi government to expel the Swedish ambassador. He also called on the government to revoke the Iraqi citizenship of the man who set the holy book ablaze. He is an Iraqi refugee, as we have reported, with anti-Islam views. This incident appears to be over right now, but there are calls for a larger protest in Baghdad and elsewhere in Iraq on Friday.
[04:45:00]
It's a traditional day of protests in the Arab and Muslim world, and there could potentially be protests as well in other countries. There is just so much anger and outrage across the Arab and Muslim world.
Governments are not only condemning what they view is this offensive and sacrilegious act, but they're angry with Sweden. Furious for Sweden allowing this to happen once again. Jordan and the UAE have summoned the Swedish ambassadors in their countries. Morocco has recalled its ambassador to Sweden.
Swedish officials have always said that they don't agree and condone these acts, but they say that this is Sweden. This is freedom of speech and it is protected by the constitution and it is central to Swedish democracy. But Muslims around the world are saying for them, this is not freedom of speech, this is hate speech and Islamophobia.
Jomana Karadsheh, CNN, London.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
FOSTER: The U.S. special envoy on Iran has been placed on unpaid leave while his security clearance is under review. Rob Malley is currently being investigated for his handling of classified material. Sources say his security clearance was suspended earlier this year, but he remained on the job. The special envoy had played a key role in U.S. efforts to revive the Iran nuclear deal. Malley says he expects inquiries to be resolved favorably and soon.
Taiwan is thanking the U.S. after the Biden administration approved a $440 million potential arms deal to the island. The White House informed Congress on Thursday. The package includes ammunition and equipment for armored vehicles. Last Friday Taipei said it detected five Chinese warships and 24 Chinese warplanes around the island. Just moments ago, China said it firmly opposes the arms sale. Saying the U.S. should cease selling weapons to Taiwan, creating tensions and undermining peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says he's getting rid of the controversial part of his plan to revamp the country's court system. CNN's Jerusalem correspondent Hadas Gold has the latest.
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HADAS GOLD, CNN JERUSALEM CORRESPONDENT: After months of massive protests in the streets, international pressure and pressure from some of his own ministers, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, walking away from one of the more controversial aspects of his massive judicial overhaul plan.
Now this specific aspect of the judicial overhaul would have allowed a simple majority in the Israeli parliament, the Knesset, to overturn Supreme Court decisions. But now in an interview with "The Wall Street Journal," Benjamin Netanyahu is saying that completely off the table.
Now, Benjamin Netanyahu had actually indicated that back in April in an interview with CNN that he was going to be walking away from the simple override part of the judicial overhaul plan. But there was the question about whether his coalition would try to push through the possibility that there would be an override clause that with a supermajority of members of parliament. But now, Benjamin Netanyahu telling "The Wall Street Journal" that is off the table. Take a listen.
BENJAMIN NETANYAHU, ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER: I already changed a few things right after the original proposal was put forward. I said that the idea of an override clause where the parliament, the Knesset, can override the decisions of the Supreme Court with a simple majority, I said, I threw that out.
GOLD: But that certainly doesn't mean that the rest of the judicial overhaul is dead. There are still other aspects, especially how judges are selected. But Benjamin Netanyahu confirmed in that same interview will still be pushing forward. However, they did say that things like the judicial selection committee will not be ultimately the same plan that was initially introduced by his own justice minister months ago.
But that also doesn't mean that the protesters are backing off either. Because there are still elements of this judicial reform that are still going to be pushed through and brought forward to votes in the coming days and weeks. And in fact, protesters still plan to go out on the streets on their Saturday night for their regular weekly protests that are often concentrated in Tel Aviv. But also on Monday, they say they plan to shut down Israel's Ben Gurion Airport, the main airport out of Tel Aviv. They say, as a part of their massive protest because that is the day, they believe parts of the solicitation we brought forward for a vote.
Hadas Gold, CNN, Jerusalem.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
FOSTER: Still ahead, the former world number one player says she's returning to tennis three years after retiring from the sport. Why she got compelled to pick up her racket once again?
[04:50:00]
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FOSTER: The former tennis champion is returning to the sport after three years away. Caroline Wozniacki says she plans to play in the U.S. Open in New York in August. The former world number one retired in 2020 after a 15-year career and winning 30 singles titles. The 32- year-old Danish star says she wants to show her children that you can pursue your dreams no matter what your age or role. As she says, she's hitting the ball better than ever and can't wait to get back out there.
Kansas City Chiefs are the reigning champions of American football, and now on the golf course. Quarterback, Patrick Mahomes, and tightened, Travis Kelce, are the winners of the match, a charity event which raises money for the No Kid Hungry Campaign. The Chiefs players from the best of NBA superstars, Steph Curry and Klay Thompson of the Golden State Warriors. Curry also came up short in 2020 when he played with Peyton Manning. But for Mahomes, the wind was redemption for his loss last summer.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
PATRICK MAHOMES, KANSAS CITY CHIEFS QUARTERBACK: I was proud of this guy, man, he played his tail off today. We had a lot of fun. We were a team. I think it's how we won it. We traded off shots. And the Chiefs maybe ruled, keep this thing rolling.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Super Bowl champs, match champs, we're going to get another Super Bowl after this. Keep it going?
TRAVIS KELCE, KANSAS CITY CHIEFS TIGHT END: I wouldn't mind coming back here in February and defend the title baby. But we've got a lot of way until then. And you know what, right now we're just -- we're fired up and ready to gear up for the season as well, man.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
FOSTER: Now the story is in the spotlight this hour. The price of a popular hot sauce is going to the roof because of supply problems. A bottle of sriracha is selling for $70 on eBay and a two pack is up to $124 on Amazon. Normally a bottle cost around five bucks.
[04:55:00]
The manufacturer of the spicy sauce blames a three-year-long shortages of chili peppers. Not clear when the supply will get back to normal.
A McDonald's birthday celebration of the cartoon character, "Grimace" is going viral. But not in the way the fast-food giant expected.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Since he was born, Grimace has always had a birthday.
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FOSTER: McDonald's has a new, limited edition "Grimace" shake, a purple fruit flavored beverage that has gone viral on TikTok. Users are posting videos of drinking the shake, and then appearing to convulse, spell the drink and die. The implication is that "Grimace" killed them. When McDonald's was asked for a comment, they referred to tweet from "Grimace," saying, me pretending I don't see the Grimace shake trend.
This could be the smallest purse you ever seen. A microscopic 3D knock off of the Louis Vuitton tote. An art collector called Mischief says it's narrow enough to pass through the eye of a needle. The bags sold at auction on Wednesday for more than $63,000. This is the company's latest satirical take on art, fashion, and capitalism.
Finally, scientists are scratching their heads after seeing this image, captured by one of NASA's Mars rovers. It's an ancient rock which moves more like a perfectly shaped donut. The perseverance rover is too far away to explore it. So scientists aren't sure how it ended up looking the way it does. One hypothesis is that it could be a meteorite that broke up landing on the Red Planet. Another is that it's a sandstone shaped by ancient rivers and weather. We just don't really know.
Thanks for joining us here on CNN NEWSROOM, I'm Max Foster. "EARLY START" with Christine Romans is next.
