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CNN International: Last Month was the Hottest June on Record by a Huge Margin; Ohio Republicans Approve August Election that Could Thwart Abortion-Rights Push; Israel Ends Jenin Incursion But Threatens Return. Aired 4:30-5a ET
Aired July 06, 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]
OREN LIEBERMANN, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Oren Liebermann, CNN in the Pentagon.
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MAX FOSTER, CNN ANCHOR: A year after the U.S. Supreme Court struck down federal abortion rights, there's a growing push to get the issue back on the ballot in a key swing state.
BIANCA NOBILO, CNN ANCHOR: Plus, the planet is shattering heat records seemingly everyday. Meteorologist Chad Myers has the latest wake-up call in the climate crisis.
CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: And officially now just in, June 2023 is globally the warmest June on record. Details right after this.
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NOBILO: The planet's rising temperature is shattering heat records left and right. New data just in this hour shows that last month was the hottest June on record by a large margin. And that heat then carried through into July as a new record high global average temperature was set on Monday and then broken the very next day. It's just the latest evidence that the earth is heating up much faster than expected. CNN Meteorologist Chad Myers explains.
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CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Data just in from the Copernicus Climate Change Service says that June 2023 was the warmest June on record. And it wasn't really even close. 1.38 degrees Celsius above preindustrial levels. That's 2 1/2 degrees Fahrenheit warmer than before we started burning fossil fuels. And that shouldn't be a surprise. Because nine out of the past nine years have been the warmest on record. And so, I think at 2023, it's going to make that ten out of ten without a doubt.
And El Nino is likely, at least partially, mostly to blame.
[04:35:00] Because we have the cold water that's supposed to be off the West Coast of the Americas now being replaced by warm water from the western Pacific. And when that happens, we change the weather globally. We even can effect the Atlantic hurricane season. That can all be associated with an El Nino event.
The U.K. was over a degree warmer in June from the record. Beijing was 41.1 -- never been that warm in any June day ever. And obviously this big heat dome we had over Texas for most of June, all, all of that contributed to June 2023 now being the warmest June ever.
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FOSTER: Torrential downpours and floods have killed at least 15 people in southwest China, leaving urban areas underwater and toppling buildings. State media say the flooding has killed at least 15 people and four others remain missing. Chinese President Xi Jinping has ordered authorities to step up their prevention and response efforts as the country enters its main flood season. Four counties have issued the highest-level red alert warnings, more than 85,000 people have been displaced just in Sichuan Province and hundreds of emergency teams have been deployed to help rescue and relief operations in the area.
NOBILO: Now to New York, where this drone footage shows about 50 sharks swimming near the beach of a state park in Long Island. It's not clear what kind they are. One expert says likely sand sharks. And they're causing alarm after five people were bitten by what they call a large marine animal in 24 hours alone. Authorities say those were most likely shark bites. Long Island is stepping up its shark patrols to keep swimmers informed and safe. A 15-year-old boy describes what happened to then when he felt a bite.
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PETER BANCULLI, BITTEN BY SHARK: My first reaction to when the shark grabbed my foot was to immediately get out of the water and get help.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I didn't believe it at first. And then my reaction was pure panic. I needed to get to him right away.
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FOSTER: An update now on a case that became a flash point in debates about U.S. abortion rights. A man who raped a nine-year-old girl was sentenced to life in prison on Wednesday in the state of Ohio.
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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Life in prison with the possibility of seeing the parole board after 25 years.
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NOBILO: Gerson Fuentes pleaded guilty to felony rape of a minor avoiding a trial. His victim had to travel to Indiana to get an abortion after her state, Ohio, banned the procedure after roughly six weeks. And that was the result of the U.S. Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade and a federal abortion rights.
And that ruling -- as you might imagine -- enraged millions of people across the country. And now in Ohio, boxes filled with hundreds of thousands of signatures are headed to capital, Columbus. Abortion rights supporters are trying to get abortion access enshrined in the state's constitution through a ballot member.
But as CNN's Jeff Zeleny reports, Republican lawmakers are putting up new road blocks.
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JEFF ZELENY, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Box by box, a summer showdown over abortion in Ohio intensified, as supporters of abortion rights delivered hundreds of thousands of signatures demanding the issue be placed on the November ballot.
ZELENY: These boxes obviously contain signatures of real Ohioans.
DR. AZIZA WAHBY, OHIOANS UNITED FOR REPRODUCTIVE FREEDOM: It's overwhelming. I mean, it's just an absolutely stunning moment. I can't believe we're here.
ZELENY (voice over): For months Dr. Aziza Wahby has been part of an effort to gather support to have voters decide whether to enshrine abortion rights in the Ohio constitution after the US Supreme Court overturned Roe versus Wade and returned the debate back to the states.
WAHBY: I was never very political before all of this started last year, so this has made me pay more attention and I think it'll do the same for others.
ZELENY (voice over): A year after the landmark Dobbs decision, fallout has rippled from courtrooms to the campaign trail, energizing Democrats.
KAMALA HARRIS, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I trust the women of America.
ZELENY (voice over): And alarming Republicans.
NIKKI HALEY, REPUBLICAN PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I don't judge anyone for being pro-choice.
ZELENY (voice over): In Ohio, GOP lawmakers are going to great lengths to stop the abortion rights movement. It started last summer in Kansas, where an abortion measure drew historic turnout for an August election with a resounding 59 percent voting to protect abortion rights. Michigan voters followed suit last fall with 57 percent voting to change the state's constitution.
Those outcomes were so alarming to opponents of abortion rights in Ohio, they are taking the extraordinary step of trying to change the rules in place for more than a century on ballot issues. It's called Issue 1, which seeks to raise the threshold to change Ohio's constitution from a simple majority of 50 percent to a supermajority of 60 percent.
KELLIE COPELAND, PRO-CHOICE OHIO: They're trying to sneak an election in August when people are on vacation, when they're getting ready for school, when you're not used to voting.
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And they're doing that on purpose because they know that their agenda is not the agenda of Ohioans.
ZELENY (voice over): The 700,000 signatures submitted must still be verified by Ohio's Republican Secretary of State, Frank LaRose. At a recent county GOP dinner, he made no apologies for using the August election to stop the abortion rights effort.
FRANK LAROSE, OHIO SECRETARY OF STATE: This is a hundred percent about keeping a radical pro-abortion amendment out of our constitution the left wants to jam it in there this coming November.
ZELENY: Why should this serious of an issue be decided in August?
AMY NATOCE, PROTECT WOMEN OHIO: So there is no time like the present to protect Ohio's constitution.
ZELENY (voice over): Amy Natoce of Protect Women Ohio, a coalition that opposes abortion rights, dismissed suggestions the August election was in any way undemocratic.
NATOCE: Ohioans should be reminded of the fact that this is allowing them to determine how their constitution is amended. You know, we've seen the other side saying one person one vote, this takes away the people's voice, not at all.
ZELENY: So with Ohio the latest frontier in this state-by-state battle over abortion rights, there clearly now is a two-pronged campaign, One for that August special election, that would determine how much the November ballot measure must passed by. It has changed from a simple majority now, to a supermajority that is certainly complicating efforts here in Ohio to enshrine abortion rights in the state's constitution.
Jeff Zeleny, CNN, Columbus, Ohio.
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NOBILO: Americans who plan to travel abroad should pack some patience before they apply for new passports. The U.S. State Department says the wait time for passport applications is not expected to return to pre-pandemic levels before the end of the year. The wait now up to 13 weeks for routine processing, compared to eight weeks or less before the pandemic. Number of passport applications has surged by to up to 40 percent just this year. The State Department says it's trying to meet the growing demand. U.S. Justice Department is appealing a judge's order blocking certain
Biden administration agencies and officials from communicating with social media companies about content. Republican attorneys claim that the administration was silencing conservatives by asking for the removal of misinformation about COVID. The judge had ruled that such content was protected free speech. A White House official says the administration is trying to protect public health, safety and security.
FOSTER: The U.S. government has compiled its most comprehensive survey yet of U.S. water quality and it's not good. The study found that nearly half the tap water in the U.S. is contaminated with harmful chemicals that are not easily detected and even harder to get rid of. These so-called "forever chemicals" are widely used in manufacturing and the most commonly found in water sources near urban areas. The study found contamination in both private and public water supplies with the worst contamination found in the Great Plains, the Great Lakes, the Eastern Sea Board and Central and Southern California.
The chemicals are a class of synthetic compounds known by the initials PFAS. They linger in the body and the environment and have been linked to a wide range of health problems, including cancer and infertility. There are more than 12,000 types of these chemicals but only 32 of them can be detected using current testing methods.
NOBILO: Still ahead with Israeli forces gone, thousands of Palestinians fill the streets of Jenin in the West Bank, but Israel's Prime Minister says his military could be back.
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FOSTER: Back to our top story this hour. The president of Belarus, Alexander Lukashenko says Wagner Group CEO, Yevgeny Prigozhin, is now in St. Petersburg, Russia. Prigozhin led his mercenary fighters in a brief rebellion against Russian military leaders two weeks ago. They marched towards Moscow but gave up their plan as few days later. He reportedly agreed to exile in Belarus. Hasn't he?
NOBILO: We're also learning from Russian state media that police raided a residence and office belonging to Prigozhin in St. Petersburg where they found passports, wigs, cash and guns.
Protests against the Israeli government appear to be heating up again. Hundreds of people blocked Tel Aviv's the main highway on Wednesday after the police chief resigned. Israel's far right national security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir tried to demote the commander, claiming that he was too lenient on protesters earlier this year. The chief says that he could have used unreasonable force against demonstrators but wanted to avoid bloodshed.
FOSTER: Palestinians in the Jenin refugee camp are morning the 12 people killed in Israel's the two-day military operation. It is the largest conversion into the West Bank city in more than two decades. Israel claims all those killed were combatants involved in terrorism. Damage to the sprawling camp is immense with homes destroyed and roads dug up by bulldozers.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says anyone who spills the blood of Israelis will find himself in the grave or in prison.
CNN's Let's go to Salma Abdelaziz who's in Jerusalem. And you saw those very stark scenes, the damage those bulldozers did.
SALMA ABDELAZIZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Absolutely, Max. We arrived just the morning after, just hours after Israeli military withdrew from Jenin camp just as residents, thousands of them, who had fled were also returning to widespread damage. Take a look at what we saw.
My apologies, I'm sorry. I thought that we were running my package this hour.
We do have images to show you and I hope that we can play those for you of what we saw, as soon as we got on the ground. Despite the wide scale devastation that we saw there, Max, one of the first things that happened was that the dead were buried. You mentioned the 12 killed in Israel's military operation, the largest seen in that area in nearly 20 years.
These funerals quickly turned into demonstrations, a show of anger, of resistance, of defiance, armed resistant groups, Palestinian armed factions were present among those in the funeral, carrying their weapons, carrying their flags, burying the banners of each of their groups, firing celebratory gunfire in the air. Making a clear message, a clear signal to Israel that they are embowed, unbroken by Israel's raid and that they will continue to rebuild, rise up, stand again.
But we also spoke to families, Max, who are very much caught in the crossfire. Families who found themselves caught between again these armed resistance factions, fighting Israel's military and Israel's intent as it says to destroy terrorist infrastructure, to dismantle terror networks, to take out weapons depots and command centers.
[04:50:08]
One mother I spoke to, Hanaa Shalaby, a mother of three daughters, says that they were pinned down in fighting, that she thought she was breathing her last breaths with her daughters. As she pointed to her destroyed home, she said to me, look, we can rebuild all of this, but how do I rebuild the psyche of my daughters? How do I ever make them feel safe again?
OK, Salma, live in Jerusalem, thank you for bringing is that.
Still ahead, a hit show slamming the presidential campaign of Ron DeSantis. Details on what the campaign did next.
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FOSTER: A scary moment on Wednesday evening at Yankee Stadium. An errant throw sailed over the first baseman's glove and into the camera appearing to hit a network cameraman right in the head. Look at that. No update on possible injuries or condition, but he seemed to be OK. He was transported off the field holding up his arm and flashing a peace sign. The crowd clapped and chanted MVP as he was taken for medical attention.
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NOBILO: And series in the spotlight this hour, the creators of the hit Netflix show "Peaky Blinders" are condemning a bizarre new ad campaign from presidential hopeful Ron DeSantis.
FOSTER: The video posted on the campaign's Twitter Account features unlicensed footage of "Peaky Blinders" star -- a "Peaky Blinders" star that shows the character. The ad is meant to tout the many laws targeting the LGBTQ community in Florida during DeSantis' time as governor.
NOBILO: The creators of "Peaky Blinders" say they do not support nor endorse the video's narrative and strongly disprove of the use of this content.
Actor Daniel Radcliffe is finally addressing whether he'll be involved in a new retelling of "Harry Potter" books coming soon to streaming.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You're a wizard, harry.
DANIEL RADCLIFFE, ACTOR: I'm a what?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A wizard and thumping good one I wager. If you trade up a little.
RADCLIFFE: No, you've made a mistake. I mean, I can't be a wizard. I mean, I'm --
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NOBILO: That reminds me of our early dynamic when you gave me advice on how to become a news anchor.
FOSTER: And now you are a wizard.
NOBILO: But don't grab your brooms and cauldrons just yet. An interview with "Access Hollywood," the actor says that he has not had any conversations about a new television series based on the very popular book.
FOSTER: And Radcliffe says he's excited to see what other people could do with the character and the story. The studio said that Max is part of CNN's pair company Warner Bros. Discovery, announced the project earlier this year. Is set to run for ten years but that being each to a TV season. The
Thanks for joining us here on CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Max Foster.
NOBILO: I'm Bianca Nobilo. "EARLY START" is up next right here on CNN. We will see you tomorrow. [05:00:00]
