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Weather Woes Put U.S. Travel To The Test; Web Designer Can Deny Services To Gay Couples; Funeral For Boy Killed By French Officer; Russians Say Ukrainian Bridgehead Eliminated; Biden Unveils Plan B For Student Loan Debt Forgiveness; Excessive Heat Is Hard On Your Health. Aired 5-6a ET
Aired July 01, 2023 - 05:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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KIM BRUNHUBER, CNN ANCHOR AND CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Hello and welcome to all of you watching us here in the United States, Canada and all around the world. I'm Kim Brunhuber.
Ahead on CNN NEWSROOM, million of Americans taking to the skies and roads this holiday weekend. This as the temperatures can top 100 degrees. We will have a look at what cities are experiencing delays and scorching heat. Plus:
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JOE BIDEN (D), PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I did not give any false hope. The question was whether or not I would do even more than was requested.
BRUNHUBER (voice-over): The economic impact of the Supreme Court ruling on student loan forgiveness as tens of millions of Americans struggle with debt, feeling the pinch.
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BRUNHUBER (voice-over): And another night of unrest across France as we are hours away from the funeral of the teenager who was shot by police. We will take you live to Paris with the latest.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice-over): Live from CNN Center, this is CNN NEWSROOM with Kim Brunhuber.
BRUNHUBER: We begin this hour with 66 million people in the U.S. starting their holiday weekend under heat alerts. That is one in five people living in this country. Temperatures in Texas are very slowly beginning to improve. But there are still large areas of excessive heat warnings and heat.
Across the Lower Mississippi River Valley, temperatures will be a few degrees lower for some on Saturday and again on Sunday. In the West the heat is just beginning. Places like Phoenix and Las Vegas will soar over 110 degrees Fahrenheit this weekend.
It comes as millions of Americans will be traveling. AAA predicts over 50 million people will hit the roads, millions more will be taking to the skies and, for many, the skies will not be friendly.
On Friday, more than 8,000 flights were delayed and there were over 500 cancellations, according to FlightAware. There have already been more than 400 delays today and almost 100 cancellations.
One person who did not have to worry about his flight being canceled was Scott Kirby, the CEO of United Airlines. He is now apologizing for taking a private jet from New Jersey to Denver on Wednesday, the same day United canceled 751 flights across the country. Here is CNN's Pete Muntean.
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PETE MUNTEAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): From Chicago to California, July 4th travelers remain undaunted after thousands of trips melted down this week. United Airlines canceled the most flights of any carrier, accounting for 40 percent of all cancellations.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It was a bit ridiculous and I'm hoping that my bag is here.
MUNTEAN (voice-over): United says it is grateful for its customers who endured a lot of disruptions. Many became separated from their checked bags. United now acknowledges its operational issues after CEO Scott Kirby put the blame on FAA air traffic controller shortages in New York.
United workers, who were stranded with passengers across the country, are pushing back.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It is ridiculous to say that this is only the FAA.
MUNTEAN (voice-over): The good news, says Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, is that cancellations are down compared to last year.
PETE BUTTIGIEG, U.S. SECRETARY OF TRANSPORTATION: There need be more resources for air traffic control but it's important for airlines to create enough cushion in resilience in the system.
MUNTEAN (voice-over): Despite delays, Friday stands to set a new post pandemic record for air travel. The Transportation Security Administration says it will screen 2.82 million passengers nationwide, rivaling an all-time record set in 2019.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's going to be big this year. MUNTEAN (voice-over): Though the majority of travel this holiday will be by car, AAA says that, in total, 50 million people will travel 50 miles or more, the highest in 18 years. A gallon of gas costs an average of $1.30 less than a year ago, the second biggest one year drop in more than three decades.
One silver lining on the roads, after struggles in the skies.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Be prepared, expect delays, expect cancellations.
MUNTEAN: The numbers are already huge. At the world's busiest airport in Atlanta, TSA screened a whopping 31,000 people in just five hours on Friday morning. But the rush is far from over.
The TSA says that when it is all done, it will screen a total of 17.7 million people at airport checkpoints across the country. That includes next week, when everybody begins coming home; the next big test for airlines -- Pete Muntean, CNN, Reagan National Airport.
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BRUNHUBER: The July 4th celebrations may be less enjoyable than usual this year. Many parts of the U.S. are facing an extreme and unpleasant mix of weather.
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BRUNHUBER: Coming up later this hour, we'll speak with an emergency medicine physician about how extreme heat impacts our health and what we need to do to stay safe during hot summer days.
This past week has seen several hugely consequential rulings from the U.S. Supreme Court. The conservative majority on the court is again prevailing on some of the country's most divisive issues.
In the ruling Friday, they sided with a Colorado woman who did not want to make wedding websites for gay couples because of her Christian beliefs.
The majority also blocked President Biden's plan to forgive billions in student debt, saying only Congress had that authority.
The day before, those same justices voted to kill affirmative action in college applications. The longtime practice to aid minority students had been upheld by the court for decades until the bombshell decision ended it.
President Biden lashed out after the ruling on student debt, saying the justices misread the Constitution. In the wake of that decision, he was asked if he had offered false hope on debt relief.
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BIDEN: I didn't give any false hope. The question was whether or not I would do even more than was requested. What I did I thought was appropriate and was able to be done and would get done. I didn't give borrowers false hope. But the Republicans snatched away the hope that they were given. And it's real, real hope.
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BRUNHUBER: We have more on these momentous court rulings from CNN's Jessica Schneider in Washington.
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JESSICA SCHNEIDER, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The Supreme Court ending the term with a dramatic finish and showing just how ideologically divided the justices are.
First, all six conservative justices ruling in favor of a Christian web designer from Colorado who refused to create wedding websites for same-sex couples citing religious grounds. She objected to a Colorado law that prohibits discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation, saying it violated her free speech rights.
Justice Neil Gorsuch agreed, writing for the majority, the First Amendment envisions the United States as a rich and complex place where all persons are free to think and speak as they wish, not as the government demands. Colorado cannot deny that promise.
LORIE SMITH, WEB DESIGNER: Art is my passion.
SCHNEIDER: Lorie Smith who runs 303 Creative lost in lower courts but prevail before a Supreme Court that has repeatedly ruled in favor of religious groups in recent years.
SMITH: I want to design in a way that's consistent with my faith but Colorado is censoring and compelling my speech and forcing me to create custom artwork, custom expression that goes against the core of who I am and what I believe.
SCHNEIDER: But Justice Sonia Sotomayor warning this decision could also lead to other kinds of discrimination. Today the court for the first time in its history grants a constitutional right for members to serve a protected class. A website designer could equally refuse to create a wedding website for an interracial couple, for example.
While a majority disputed that notion, Colorado's attorney general warned --
PHIL WEISER (D-CO), STATE ATTORNEY GENERAL: This case will have the impact to cause considerable mischief --
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WEISER: -- undermining the principle that, once you open up the doors to the public as a business, you have to serve all commerce.
SCHNEIDER: The Supreme Court also handing a stinging defeat to the Biden administration's student loan forgiveness plan. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: President Biden, please keep your promise.
SCHNEIDER: In another 6-3 decision, the conservative justices rejecting a program that President Biden made in 2022.
BIDEN: I made a commitment that would provide student debt relief and I'm honoring that commitment today.
SCHNEIDER (voice-over): It was aimed at delivering up to $20,000 in debt cancellation to millions of borrowers. Chief Justice John Roberts, writing for the conservative majority, that Biden's administration read a federal law too broadly when trying to enact the program.
"The economic and political significance of the secretary's action is staggering by any measure," he wrote, adding, "The $430 billion price tag was just too big to justify action from the Secretary of Education instead of Congress.
"The question here is not whether something should be done but who has the authority to do it."
The liberal dissenters claim a majority was making a political decision, with Justice Elena Kagan writing, "The result here is that the court substitutes itself for Congress and the executive branch in making national policy about student loan forgiveness."
SCHNEIDER: The court's decision means student debt will not be canceled for the 40 million-plus borrowers who might have been banking on it. And they will need to start repaying their loans beginning October 1st. That is when the pause that was in effect for COVID, that is when it ends -- Jessica Schneider, CNN, Washington.
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BRUNHUBER: In France, nearly 1,000 people have been detained after a fourth night of protests sparked by the fatal police shooting of a 17 year old boy.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (Speaking French).
BRUNHUBER (voice-over): You can hear loud bangs echoing through the streets of Lyon as people demonstrated, despite a ban on large gatherings. France's interior ministry says three officers were injured by gunshots in the suburb of the city.
You can see there, some protesters vented their frustration by throwing fireworks at police. Others set objects on fire, French officials are condemning the unrest, saying it will not bring justice to the slain teenager.
Nahel, a boy of North African descent, was fatally shot during a traffic stop this week. His funeral is expected to take place in the day ahead. (END VIDEO CLIP)
BRUNHUBER: Let's get more from Nic Robertson in Paris.
Nic, another night of unrest. Take us through what happened.
NIC ROBERTSON, CNN SENIOR DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: Yes, 994 people arrested; more than the previous night but there were more police out. There were 45,000 police; 40,000 the previous night. They had stronger, better armored vehicles at their disposal.
Also there was a ban nationwide on large gatherings. Buses and trams across the country were taken off the street at 9 pm last night. So all of that done to try to mitigate against this ongoing violence.
And the violence actually down in relative terms; about 2,500 -- 2560, to be precise, fires started. That was less than the previous night; 1,350 vehicles set on fire, significantly less than the previous night.
Fewer government buildings attacked, fewer police stations attacked, fewer police officers injured. It paints a picture that, perhaps, the violence is ending or the security services are just better prepared.
But significantly, in Paris, which was the epicenter over the past few days of the violence, it was not as violent in Paris. There were certainly incidents; a lot of shops have been shuttered in some parts of the city.
But it was in Lyon, where you heard those gunshots. And in Marseille in the south, some of the more extreme level of violence. So it is not clear if the government's message is working to stop the violence, that there is no excuse for it, now no justification for it.
Or if it is a case of people just deciding not to go out and try to tempt the policeman, because there was more of them.
BRUNHUBER: Nic, that was the latest on last, night and today the funeral for the teen who was slain.
What are we expecting?
ROBERTSON: Yes, his body is at a funeral home in Nanterre, where we are now. The family want people to be peaceful, pay respects. They are not inviting journalists to cover the funeral; they're asking specifically for journalists to stay away.
In the troubles over the past few nights, journalists have often been the targets for some of the angry mobs.
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ROBERTSON: So his body will be there this morning for people to come and pay their respects. They will go to a mosque in the center of Nanterre and then he will be taken back to the cemetery for burial early afternoon. The streets that we have been driving around are quite quiet. We are
not seeing a lot of people out on the streets at this time, either around the mosque or around the funeral home. So at the moment the situation is very calm. And that is something that the family wants to see maintained today, for dignity and for respect.
BRUNHUBER: That may still happen but we can also probably expect more protests to happen in the future. I'm wondering about President Macron's response.
Has there been talk in imposing perhaps a state of emergency?
ROBERTSON: The government talked about that interestingly, the president's office spoke about that yesterday. And they pointed out historic reference, 2005, the last time there was huge violence like this. There was nine days of violence until the government declared a state of emergency.
The government says it is trying to take an escalated response, rather than jumping into a state of emergency; putting in other measures, putting more police out, giving them more armored vehicles to use. They are taking the buses and trams off the street.
The government is saying it is too soon to go to a state of emergency. We do not need that right.
Now we don't want to escalate the situation. We want to take smaller steps and hope that the violence subsides and people listen to the government message, which is quite simply you are destroying buses, trains, banks, government buildings that are used by you, the people.
That is something that we have heard on the street by people, who have told us, look, you cannot just blame the protesters. The government has issues here with the way that people here are being potentially racially profiled, the way they are being treated.
That is a concern. But they also say that it does not help us to have our buses burned, because we use them. So that message has some traction. The protesters also told parents to keep their kids, young children off the streets.
It is the parents' responsibility to keep the kids at home. But I think that level of anger and passion, that has been expressed on the streets, I'm not sure the president's words are going to ameliorate that, certainly not in the short term.
But the government will look at the statistics for last night and be hoping that that is the beginning of a downward trend.
BRUNHUBER: All right, we appreciate the reporting, Nic Robertson in Paris. Thank you so much.
Ukrainian intelligence claims that Wagner leader Yevgeny Prigozhin has a target on his back. Still ahead, allegations of a Russian plot to take his life on the heels of his short-lived mutiny.
Plus, CNN goes to a front line hospital near Bakhmut and sees the struggle to save the lives of wounded Ukrainian soldiers.
And a new government report details key failures in the U.S. military exit from Afghanistan. What it says about the chaotic end to America's longest war. Stay with us.
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BRUNHUBER: "The Washington Post" says Ukraine spelled out its timeline for winning the war to CIA director William Burns. According to the paper, Ukraine officials told burns that their country plans to retake Russian occupied territory and start cease-fire talks with Moscow by the end of the year.
A U.S. official says that burns went to Ukraine recently. Meanwhile, a media conglomerate associated with mercenary Russian leader Yevgeny Prigozhin folded on Friday. The announcement came after Russian state regulators restricted access to news sites owned by the Patriot Media Group.
That is happening after Ukraine's military intelligence claimed the Wagner leader is a marked man. The intelligence agency's chief said that Russia wants him gone and an order has already been given to assassinate him.
For more, Clare Sebastian Joins us from London.
Clare, let's start with Prigozhin. No surprise that his life may be in danger.
What's the latest on that reported plot to kill him and do we know any more about the his status and whereabouts?
CLARE SEBASTIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: We do not know any more about this alleged plot. It only comes from the head of Ukrainian military intelligence, in an interview. He said that he does not know if Russia will be successful in this. He does not necessarily think it would be fast.
But he said there is an order given to the effect, the Russian state security services, to assassinate Prigozhin. The facts around Prigozhin is that he has not been seen video showed him leaving the Rostov region last weekend after that rebellion.
The president of Belarus says that he is there in Belarus but we have yet to see evidence of that. We know Putin has made no secret of the fact that he may not be out of the woods legally, despite the charges against Wagner over the mutiny having been dropped.
He hinted at a potential future investigation into the financial dealings of Prigozhin's company. We know that Russia has a track record of extrajudicial killings of opponents to the Kremlin, people much less disruptive, frankly, than Prigozhin himself.
But we have no evidence as such that this plot to assassinate him by the FSB actually exists. The head of military intelligence did say that he does not expect Wagner to reconstitute as some kind of fighting force in Ukraine, which is, of course, good news for that country.
BRUNHUBER: And then Clare, Ukraine and the U.S. both managing expectations around the counteroffensive.
What is the latest there?
SEBASTIAN: So this is a very difficult, ongoing fight in multiple areas, Kim. We know there was a setback that Ukraine, apparently, suffered this morning, coming only from the Russian side.
The Russians' head of the Kherson region saying that the Ukrainian bridgehead on the eastern bank of the Dnipro River, which is up by the Antonivskyi Bridge, you can see it there in that region, just northeast of Kherson city, that they eliminated that bridgehead.
A small number of Ukrainian troops have crossed over into Russian held territory. We have not yet heard that from the Ukrainian side but analysts suggest they are trying to hold Russian forces in that region to prevent more going to Zaporizhzhya, where, of course --
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SEBASTIAN: -- we are seeing the biggest concentration of fighting so far in this counteroffensive. The Russian attempt -- the Ukrainian attempt, rather, to cut that land bridge that Russia has between the Donbas region and Russian territory to Crimea.
All of this is sort of fits in the picture that we got from the U.S. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, Mark Milley. Take a listen to his assessment of the counteroffensive.
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GEN. MARK MILLEY, CHAIRMAN, U.S. JOINT CHIEFS: It is going slower than people had predicted. But it does not surprise me at all. I had said that this offensive, which is going, by the way, it is advancing steadily. It is going to be very difficult. It is going to be very long and it is going to be very, very bloody.
And nobody should have any illusions about any of that.
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SEBASTIAN: Not particularly helpful to Ukraine's efforts in the east and south as they are now having to beef up their northern defenses, (INAUDIBLE) saying they are doing that because an uptick in shelling.
(INAUDIBLE) military has told people to evacuate their homes in the northeastern Sumy region, near the border with Russia, because of the uptick in shelling there, Kim. BRUNHUBER: Thank you so much for the update, Clare Sebastian in London.
As we mentioned, Russian troops have reportedly been put on the defensive around Bakhmut. Ukraine says it has been slowly gaining ground north and south of the city. But as Ben Wedeman reports, advances are taking a toll on Ukrainian soldiers. We want to warn you that some scenes in his report are disturbing.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (Speaking foreign language).
BEN WEDEMAN, CNN SR. INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The doctors and nurses here have done this time and time again, treating the wounded fresh from the front, assuring the soldiers that, despite the pain, they will be all right.
Near the battles around Bakhmut, this field hospital, known as a stabilization point, is where the wounded are being hastily bandaged up by combat medics, get their first proper treatment by a full medical team.
These soldiers were advancing on Bakhmut when they came under intense Russian artillery fire.
WEDEMAN: This stabilization point has, so far on this day, received more than 50 troops from the front, suffering from shrapnel, from artillery and concussions.
WEDEMAN (voice-over): Ukrainian military doesn't issue data on casualties. A recent poll conducted here found that almost 80 percent of Ukrainians have close relatives or friends who were injured or killed as a result of the full scale Russian invasion.
Andriy (ph), a vascular surgeon, is surprised that there aren't even more wounded.
"Even during this counteroffensive," he says, "we have lower casualties than we expected."
Once the wounds have been cleaned and bandages applied, the soldiers will be moved to better equipped hospitals elsewhere.
Valentyna (ph) was studying biotechnology in Kyiv when the war began on the 24th of February last year.
"By February 26th, I started working as a nurse," she said, "and then worked in evacuations, clinics and now at this stabilization point."
Edouard (ph) is still in shock. But his injury is not serious.
"I'm OK," he says, "but it burns a lot. I think it was a piece of shrapnel. Something flew by me like this. I got lucky. It went right past me."
Not everyone here feels that lucky -- Ben Wedeman, CNN, outside Bakhmut.
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BRUNHUBER: First the U.S. Supreme Court struck down affirmative action on college campuses. Now this conservative majority has blocked the president's plan to forgive student loans. We'll have those details when we come back.
And Brazil's Jair Bolsonaro lost the last election by a razor thin margin and he's going to have to wait quite a while to try to retake the presidency. They are barring him from running for office. That is next, please stay with us.
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BRUNHUBER: Welcome back to all of you watching us here in United States, Canada and all around the world, I am Kim Brunhuber. This is CNN NEWSROOM.
I want to get back to one of our top stories this hour, two highly controversial Supreme Court rulings on Friday, the final day of the court's term. The 6-3 majority ruled a website designer in Colorado could legally deny her services to same-sex couples because of her Christian beliefs.
It's widely seen as a major setback for gay and minority rights. Also by a 6-3 vote, President Biden's ambitious plan to wipe out hundreds of billions in student loan debt was struck down as unconstitutional.
The ruling on student debt was a sharp blow to millions of Americans who had been counting on it. CNN's Brian Todd has more on the expected fallout.
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BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Cody Hounanian runs a crisis center helping people with student loan debt. He himself has about $30,000 in outstanding debt from his student loan. His reaction to the Supreme Court's ruling blocking the Biden administration's student loan forgiveness plan.
CODY HOUNANIAN, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, STUDENT DEBT CRISIS CENTER: I'm absolutely devastated the way that many others, millions of people across the country are.
TODD (voice-over): There are nearly 44 million student loan borrowers in the U.S. who, according to Wells Fargo, will soon have to start making payments averaging $210 to $314 a month. Under President Biden's plan, millions of eligible borrowers of federal loans could have gotten up to $20,000 of their debt wiped out. But the president's plan never actually went into effect. It was caught up in the courts. Now that it won't go into effect, borrowers will be affected by another separate plan that had been in effect but which is now ending.
That's the pause in required student loan repayments that had been in effect since March of 2020 to help people financially strapped by the COVID pandemic.
CATHERINE RAMPELL, CNN ECONOMICS AND POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: There are a lot of people who would have had to start repaying their student debt no matter what.
Now on top of that, you have people who thought that their balances had been completely wiped out and they'd never have to pay another interest payment again. Well actually maybe be surprised to find that this fall they too owe payments.
TODD (voice-over): For federal loan borrowers who had those payments paused during the pandemic. They'll be due again starting in October. Today, President Biden, in the wake of the Supreme Court ruling, announced steps he'll take to try to bring relief to borrowers.
JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: To compromise, waive or release loans under certain circumstances. We're creating a temporary 12 month what we're calling on ramp repayment program.
And now so that is same as a student loan pause. If you miss payments, this on ramp will temporarily remove the threat of default or having your credit harm.
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TODD (voice-over): But CNN analyst Catherine Rampell says borrowers should not expect those ideas to be a great plan B.
RAMPELL: If those were on a strong legal foundation, I think he probably would have done them already.
TODD (voice-over): Analysts say the economy could well take a hit now that millions of people will have to start paying down their student loans again. It'll mean less spending on cars, vacations, appliances. And for many, the burdens on their longer term plans could return.
MICHELLE SINGLETARY, "THE WASHINGTON POST": When you have student loan debt that you can't cover, it often results in people delaying getting married, delaying having children, delaying buying a home, delaying being able to save for retirement.
TODD: The advice of financial analysts have now for student loan borrowers, save your money, contact your loan servicer to figure out the easiest way to start your payments again.
And see if you've qualify for other programs that can help lessen that debt, like the Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program for people like teachers, police officers and social workers. Also check out income driven repayment plans -- Brian Todd, CNN, Washington.
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BRUNHUBER: Now to a damning report on the chaotic end to America's longest war. The U.S. State Department's review of the pullout from Afghanistan says that key shortcomings contributed to the swift Taliban takeover and frenzied evacuation scenes. CNN's Kylie Atwood reports.
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KYLIE ATWOOD, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: The report paints a flawed picture of both the Biden administration and the Trump administration's ability to prepare for the withdrawal from Afghanistan.
Saying that, in both administrations, there was insufficient senior level consideration of worst-case scenarios and how quickly those might follow and also gets into specifics around processes that were not effectively put in place to deal with the withdrawal as it was actually unfolding.
For example, saying that the non-combatant evacuation operation, which the Department of Defense stood up, did not have a lead at the State Department to coordinate with them.
There was not a single person on the seventh floor here at the State Department, which is where the secretary of state sits, coordinating on this crisis scenario.
It also paints a picture of the challenges that this presented for the Afghans on the ground, because there were not decisions made in advance about where those Afghans, that the U.S. was going to help evacuate from the country, were actually going to go.
Now this is a long anticipated report. The U.S. withdrew from Afghanistan almost two years ago; the report was done more than a year ago. There was a classified version that they shared with Congress a few months ago.
But just now we have received this unclassified version and there are some criticisms, some questions about the administration trying to bury this story, which is a dark mark on their foreign policy record.
A senior State Department official would not discuss questions related to the process of when this was released -- Kylie Atwood, CNN, the State Department.
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BRUNHUBER: Former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro will have to abandon any plans he may have had for a 2026 electoral comeback. The country's highest electoral court has banned him from running for political office for the next eight years.
Five out of seven judges found Bolsonaro guilty of abusing his power and misusing public media during last year's election campaign. The case stemmed from a meeting Bolsonaro had with foreign ambassadors last July, where he was accused of spreading false information about Brazil's electoral system.
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JAIR BOLSONARO, FORMER BRAZILIAN PRESIDENT (through translator): I am not guilty, I did not commit any crime in meeting with ambassadors. Now they accuse me and want to strip me of my political rights on an accusation of abuse of political power. People can get to understand (ph).
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BRUNHUBER: As the temperatures soar this summer, what you need to do to avoid heat related health issues. We will have details coming up after the break, please stay with us.
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BRUNHUBER: It's the start of a holiday weekend here in the U.S. and it is going to be a scorcher; 66 million Americans are under heat alerts. Temperatures in the South are starting to cool ever so slightly. But you may not notice.
And things are just starting to heat up out West with temperatures expected to top 110 degrees in places like Phoenix and Las Vegas. The mayor of San Antonio is worried about how bad things might get as the mercury rises.
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MAYOR RON NIRENBERG, SAN ANTONIO: It is a pretty brutal heat wave that we are going through and it has not let up for the last couple of weeks. It is gone into danger territory. So we have launched our Beat the Heat campaign to make sure that people know the resources that are available if they need to get into a cool place.
Libraries and community centers, senior centers are all open and encouraging folks to be advised about of the signs of heat related illness. But this is a very dangerous sort of heat wave and with the humidity mixed in, there is really not even any relief in the evening period as well.
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BRUNHUBER: Joining me now is Dr. Owais Durrani, an emergency medicine physician. Thank you so much for being here with us. And we should say that you
are in Houston, Texas, which has been wracked with all of this heat.
What have you been seeing in your ERs over this heat wave?
DR. OWAIS DURRANI, EMERGENCY MEDICINE PHYSICIAN: Absolutely, it feels like it is the hottest summer of my life. I just worked a shift in the ER and we were just saying that we have been treating so many for dehydration illnesses over the last few weeks than any other summer, just from personal experience.
We are seeing everything from lots of kids playing out in the sun to having sunburns and that is on the more minor end of things, to having even younger folks in the 25 to 30 age range that may be working outside or playing outside. They get dehydrated and light headed. They need IV fluids and whatnot.
Then most of the folks that we have been admitting is you get mild dehydration and that can turn into severe dehydration, heat stroke, that kind of spectrum. Those tend to be folks that are elderly, folks that have a lot of comorbid conditions.
And what happens is that when you get dehydrated to a certain point, organs start to shut down. That includes the kidneys, you get muscle breakdown and you can potentially get delirious and confused. So those are the folks that we are admitting to the hospitals and seeing lots of that in Houston.
BRUNHUBER: Unfortunately, there has been at least 13 deaths as well due to the heat. Part of the problem is, the heat during the day, it can go as high as 115 degrees or something like that. But also night temperatures can be as high as 80 degrees or 28 Celsius.
So what impact does that have on the body's ability to recover?
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DURRANI: Absolutely. You know, as much as we think that we drink enough water to make up for the water losses we have throughout the day, it's hard for a human to keep up with that, especially if you are outside or homeless or you may not have air conditioning.
And when you have comorbid conditions on top of that, like heart failure, COPD, coronary artery disease, diabetes, your threshold to get sicker is much lower. And so what happens is that you do not get the chance to recover through intake of fluid at night. It is still hot.
Unfortunately, there's a huge homeless population in Houston that maybe sleeping outside. At night they don't get the relief that they may have had in the past years.
And so that just kind of lowers that threshold for these at risk populations. Unfortunately, a lot of them end up in the ERs, a lot of them end up in hospitals and, as you mentioned, in extreme cases, you can die from these conditions. BRUNHUBER: In Texas, it's usually hot this time of year.
But how unusual is what you're seeing?
You said this feels like the hottest summer you have ever seen.
DURRANI: Usually it comes in waves. You have three or four days with really hot temperatures. And then it will cool down and then hot again. This time, it feels like it does not letting up.
You can tell people to not work outside, not play outside for a certain amount of time. But it is the summer. Kids are going to go out and play. People who work outside are going to have to work. Unfortunately, you're going to see more and more of these illnesses.
The thing I tell my patients is that if you can avoid being outside, avoid it. Hydrate; if you are not thirsty, drink tons of fluids because, when you start to feel thirsty, you're already behind the 8 ball.
And then wear loose clothing, try to be in the shade. Even five minutes in the shade versus direct sunlight can be a huge benefit and save a lot of energy and whatnot. For those that do have comorbid conditions, being extremely careful.
If you have an elderly neighbor or friend, make sure that you check on them because this is an extremely dangerous and the important thing for us to do when you cannot take care of others.
BRUNHUBER: Finally, what we're seeing in Texas, in terms of the heat that is spreading to other parts of the country this week as well, so it is not just a Texas story. And long term, experts say that this type of thing is going to become more and more common because of climate change.
What more needs to be done?
You talked about what people individually can do.
But what more can be done on the city and state level to protect folks from this extreme heat going forward?
DURRANI: Yes, big picture, you can look at the Middle East or Australia, places that have been warm for ages. They've done a really good job of city design. So really, at the city level, especially older cities, encouraging leaders to make decisions and design our cities to have green spaces, painting them a certain color scheme, doing things of that nature.
But also treating heat emergencies as just that, emergencies. If a category 5 hurricane is about to hit Houston, everybody knows about it. People are evacuating. We need to treat this with the same level of seriousness.
So having the resources in hospitals, having cooling centers around the city and making sure that the resources are there and then a particular focus on those that are at high risk, so the elderly, those that may be impoverished, those that may not be near a cooling center, making sure that we do not forget about those individuals, getting them resources.
There are some cities in the United States that do that really well and some that, unfortunately, do not or ignore the issue altogether. So it is going to not get cooler unfortunately. It's going to get hotter throughout our lifetimes and it is something that every city and every state has to have as a priority.
BRUNHUBER: Yes, treating it seriously and not just as inconvenience, as you say, because it can be life threatening. Dr. Owais Durrani, thank you for being here with us. We really appreciate it.
DURRANI: Thanks for having me.
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BRUNHUBER: For the first time ever, astronomers have a new portrait of our galaxy, using matter instead of energy. The so-called ghost particles or neutrinos are tiny high energy cosmic particles.
They can pass through stars, planets and entire galaxies without changing their structure. An observatory in Antarctica showcased a new perspective of the Milky Way. Scientists tested the cosmic particles with a telescope embedded in ice. The research was published in the journal, "Science."
And NASA has used the most powerful telescope ever built to give us an astonishing new look at Saturn. For the first time it sent a picture of the planet with a near infrared camera on the James Webb space telescope.
Here the gas giant appears relatively dark while its icy rings shine bright. NASA capture the detailed image to test the telescope's ability to discover moons around Saturn and to piece together a more complete view of the planet's system.
Well, that wraps this hour of CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Kim Brunhuber. Happy Canada Day, don't forget to follow me on Twitter @KimBrunhuber. For viewers in North America, "CNN THIS MORNING" is next. For the rest of the world, it's "MADE IN..." "Mongolia's Golden Fleece."
