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President Biden Defends His Decision To Send Controversial Cluster Munitions To Ukraine; Russian Soldiers Captured By Ukrainian Forces Tell Their Stories; Twitter Threatens To Sue Meta Over Creation Of Threads Social Media Platform; Severe Storms Expected Across Central U.S.; Astronaut Points Out Extreme Tourism Into Space Carries Severe Risks; Chicago Police Accused Of Improper Sexual Relations With Migrants Housed At Police Station; Singer Britney Spears Claims Security Guard For NBA Player Victor Wembanyama Slapped Her; Women's Soccer Star Megan Rapinoe Announces Retirement; CNN Hero Makes Efforts To Reduce Violation in Community. Aired 2-3p ET.

Aired July 08, 2023 - 14:00   ET

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

[14:00:00]

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Now you can open your eyes, Cousin Itt.

JEANNE MOOS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Move over Cousin Itt. This is the It girl of the Taylor Swift Heiress tour.

Jeanne Moos, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEO TAPE)

FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: All right, hello again, everyone. Thank you so much for joining me. I'm Fredricka Whitfield.

The Biden administration today defending its controversial decision to include cluster bombs in its latest military aid package to Ukraine. The president himself calling it a difficult but necessary decision as Ukraine's stockpiles of weapons runs low. Russia has already been using them in the war, and earlier today Ukraine's defense minister thanked the U.S. for supplying the munitions.

The bombs are canisters that carry dozens of mini-bombs about the size of a grenade. and this is video of a cluster bomb dropped on Ukraine last year. Sometimes these bomblets don't explode on impact, like in this attack, and that can pose a threat to civilians.

CNN's Priscilla Alvarez is at Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, where the president is spending the weekend. Priscilla, some Democrats aren't necessarily behind Biden's decision. And so what's the White House response to that?

PRISCILLA ALVAREZ, CNN REPORTER: Well, it's a significant development, but as you mentioned, Fred, one that hasn't sat well with members of President Biden's own party. In a "Washington Post" op-ed, Senators Merkley and former Senator Leahy put it quite bluntly. They said that this is, quote, a serious mistake with, quote, devastating impact. And they went on to say the last thing we need is to risk a rupture with key allies over a weapon that the United States should be leading the global effort to prohibit.

Now, this was a decision that evolved over time within the Biden administration. It's one that they did not take lightly. And the national security team eventually unanimously agreed to move forward. And it was President Biden who signed off on it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN, (D) PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We're in a situation where Ukraine continues to be brutally attacked across the board by munitions, by these cluster munitions that have dud rates that are very, very low -- I mean very high, that are a danger to civilians, number one. Number two, the Ukrainians are running out of ammunition. The ammunition, they call them 155-millimeter weapons, this is a war relating to munitions. And they're running out of that ammunition.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ALVAREZ: So you can hear there the president's reasoning for having to provide these munitions, but the concern among Democrats and others and the reason that some countries have banned the use of these munitions at all in modern warfare is because they can scatter bomblets, as you earlier outlined, that can pose a risk in the long term, as well as potentially harm civilians in the short term.

So Ukrainians have assured U.S. officials that they will not be using these in urban areas, but of course, this is a decision that comes as Ukrainians struggle to make major gains in the war against Russia. And it also comes ahead of President Biden's trip next week where he will be attending the NATO summit. And the war in Ukraine is going to be a key topic of discussion, Fred.

WHITFIELD: Priscilla Alvarez in Rehoboth Beach, thank you so much, traveling with the president.

The announcement by the White House comes as Ukraine continues its counteroffensive against Russia. CNN's Ben Wedeman is in eastern Ukraine. So Ben, do we expect the supply of cluster bombs to provide a significant force to Ukrainian forces?

BEN WEDEMAN, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Fredricka, when they arrive, they will. But nobody seems to know exactly when they'll arrive. The advantage of these controversial cluster munitions is that they can be fired from weapons systems that are already being used on the battlefield. And on the battlefield, what we're seeing is that slowly, incrementally, the Ukrainians are making progress in and around Bakhmut, which really is the focal point of the current Ukrainian counteroffensive.

(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)

WEDEMAN: No longer on the front lines, Anton recounts how he ended up a prisoner of war. Back in Russia he was behind bars for the third time for drugs. "When they put me in prison, I heard they were recruiting. Serve six months, and they pardon you," he tells me. So he signed up with Storm Z, a unit made up of convicts attached to the Russian defense ministry. After only two weeks of basic training, he was shipped off to the front lines near Bakhmut.

[14:05:00]

After days of intense shelling, no food and only rainwater to drink, he heard Ukrainian troops outside his foxhole. He assumed they would execute him.

"I thought that was the end," he recalls. "I switched my rifle to single shot mode and thought, I'll shoot myself. But I couldn't."

This video shot by soldiers of Ukraine's third assault brigade shows the tense moments when Anton and his comrade Slava surrendered. The Ukrainian troops told them, unlike Russians, we don't kill prisoners. We spoke to Anton, Slava, and another soldier in a makeshift jail in eastern Ukraine, concealing their faces and not using their real names. The third assault brigade granted us access to the POWs and two of their soldiers were in the room for the interviews. The POWs will soon be transferred to Ukrainian intelligence. They didn't appear to be under duress and agreed to share their stories.

Slava, also serving time for drugs, said conditions in the trenches were grim. "Food was scarce. We didn't have medical kits," he says. His commanders took all the painkillers to get high, he recalled, and as a result, issued nonsensical orders. Morale was terrible.

Sergei was wounded by a grenade before surrendering to Ukrainian troops. He was a contract soldier, not a convict. He completed his six-month contract in Kherson and went home. But when he hesitated to sign another contract, a military prosecutor gave him a choice -- prison or back to the front. He ended up outside Bakhmut under constant Ukrainian fire. Discipline collapsed, the officers fled, all illusions were chattered. "It was very different from what I saw on TV, a parallel reality," says Sergei. "I felt fear, pain, and disappointment in my commanders."

A law passed last year in Russia imposed sentences of three to 10 years for soldiers who surrender voluntarily. If he returns home in a prisoner exchange, Anton may end up again back in a Russian prison.

(END VIDEO TAPE)

WEDEMAN (on camera): But being a prisoner of war will spare him the brunt of some of these cluster munitions that may soon arrive at the front. Regarding the situation generally in the eastern part of the country, we did see Saturday morning several Russian rockets slamming into the town of Lyman, which is just 25 miles north of Bakhmut. People were out apparently buying groceries from food stalls in the area that got hit, according to local officials. At least eight people were killed and more than a dozen wounded. Fredricka?

WHITFIELD: Ben Wedeman, striking hearing from the people that you're interviewing sounding like there is actual relief that has come with being a prisoner of war as opposed to being on the front lines. Thanks so much.

Tomorrow, President Biden embarks on a weeklong trip to Europe for meetings with NATO allies, but before he leaves he sat down with CNN's Fareed Zakaria who asked him about Ukraine's membership into the alliance. Here is some of what he had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

FAREED ZAKARIA, CNN HOST, "FAREED ZAKARIA GPS": When you go to the NATO summit, the big strategic issue is that Ukraine wants membership in NATO. Should it get membership in NATO?

JOE BIDEN, (D) PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I don't think it's ready for membership in NATO, but here's the deal. I spent, as you know, a great deal of time trying to hold NATO together, because I believe Putin has had an overwhelming objective from the time he launched 185,000 troops into Ukraine, and that was to break NATO. He was confident, in my view, and many in the intelligence community, he was confident he could break NATO.

So holding NATO together is really critical. I don't think there is unanimity in NATO about whether or not to bring Ukraine into the NATO family now, at this moment, in the middle of the war. For example, if you did that, and I mean what I say, we're determined to commit every inch of territory that is NATO territory, it's a commitment that we've all made no matter what. If the war is going on, then we're all in a war. We're in a war with Russia, if that were the case.

So I think we have to lay out a path, a rational path for Russia -- excuse me, for Ukraine to be able to qualify to get into NATO. And the very first time I met with Putin two years ago in Geneva, and he said I want commitments on no Ukraine in NATO, I said we're not going to do that because it's an open-door policy.

[14:10:10]

We're not going to shut anybody out. NATO is a process that takes some time to meet all the qualifications, and from democratization to a whole range of other issues. So in the meantime, though, I've spoken with Zelenskyy at length about this, and one of the things I indicated is the United States would be ready to provide while the process was going on, and it's going to take a while, while that process was going on to provide security like the security we provide for Israel, providing the weaponry and the capacity to defend themselves, if there is an agreement, if there is a cease-fire, if there is a peace agreement.

And so I think we can work it out, but I think it's premature to say, to call for a vote now because there's other qualifications that need to be met, including democratization and some of those issues.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: There's more. Don't miss President Joe Biden's exclusive interview with Fareed Zakaria about the biggest challenges facing America and the world. The interview beginning tomorrow morning at 10:00 a.m. on FAREED ZAKARIA GPS right here on CNN.

Coming up, Twitter is now threatening to sue Facebook parent company Meta after its new rival app upends social media. We'll take a much closer look at all of this next.

And as the world grapples with the implosion of the Titan submersible, commercial space companies are pressing ahead with plans to offer adventures beyond the skies. A look at the dangers involved and what could happen if a crew gets lost in space, straight ahead.

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[14:15:55]

WHITFIELD: All right, this news just into CNN. Iowa Republicans have just voted to hold its first in-the-nation caucuses on January 15th, 2024. This is the earliest part of the presidential nominating process since 2012, when caucus-goers gathered on January 3rd. Seven or more GOP contests are expected to take place over seven weeks before super Tuesday, which is March 5th.

Twitter is threatening to sue Meta for trade secrets after Meta's rival to Twitter's Threads. Threads has experienced explosive growth since its official launch Thursday, reporting 30 million sign-ups on the platform's first day. And now it's hit over 70 million. Twitter accuses Meta of hiring its former employees, but Meta is pushing back on that, saying no one on the Threads engineering team worked at Twitter.

CNN's Clare Duffy is joining us now. Oh, boy, this is an interesting feud going on. It looks like Twitter views this new app as a competitive threat. So could it really kill Twitter? And if so, how?

CLARE DUFFY, CNN BUSINESS WRITER: Fred, I think this is a significant threat to Twitter. It's clear that Elon Musk and Twitter consider this a threat. They sent this letter accusing Meta of trade secrets. And it's not clear that letter is going to amount to anything more than a threat. But I do think it shows that Twitter is rattled by this, as well they should be. And 70 million user sign-ups in just two days is really remarkable. It's about a third of the size of Twitter's total user base in just two days.

And that's because it's so easy for people to get started on this new app. They can log in through Instagram. They can port over their whole following list, and so it's really easy for people to join. And look, people on Twitter have been looking for months for an alternative since Elon Musk took over this platform. He's made a lot of really controversial decisions. And so I think there's a threat not only of Twitter users leaving, but also people who have never been on Twitter but who are on Instagram, not they're not going to join Twitter. They're just going to join Threads.

WHITFIELD: OK, so 70 million users and counting have already signed up to Threads. That's pretty impressive. But sign-ups and retained user, very different things. So how is Threads, I guess, going to go about trying to keep the momentum, lure people to stay, not just sign up, but stay?

DUFFY: It's true. Meta executives have even acknowledged the fact that it's easy to get people to sign up, especially when there's so much buzz about a new platform. They are going to have to continue building up this app. It's pretty bare bones still. It's missing a lot of the features that people really love about Twitter, like direct messages, trending topics, the ability to edit your posts. And Mark Zuckerberg is engaging with people on Threads, he's responding to posts with suggestions for the platform, and they say they have plans to continue building out the platform.

The other thing I think they're going to have to do in order to keep people on this platform is avoid some of the things that people don't like about Twitter, things like spam, harassment, misinformation. Especially as we go into an election year, they're going to have to protect their users in order for people to want to keep using Threads.

Just looking at the layout there, it does look a little similar, does it not?

DUFFY: It does. It looks a lot like Twitter, and I think that's part of the reason it's so easy for people to get started here is it feels really natural, really intuitive, it's something that people recognize. The layout looks almost identical to Twitter, the navigation is really similar to Instagram. It's something that's going to feel familiar to people.

WHITFIELD: So it's all about the money, so how long before Facebook, Meta, starts monetizing Threads?

DUFFY: So Meta executives have said that they want to continue to build out this app, they want to get people using it and liking it before they think about adding advertising. But I do think eventually this is going to be a real boost to Meta's advertising business which has struggled in the past couple of years. There's been a downturn across the board in the online advertising market. And so this is something that really could be a benefit to Meta's business. I don't think it will be as big as Facebook or Instagram, but if they have the ability to can a little extra in advertising money on Threads, I think they're certainly going to do it.

[14:20:03]

WHITFIELD: So Meta spent billions on developing the Metaverse, but it is a relatively simple app that seems to be the bright spot for the company. Why is that?

DUFFY: It is really interesting. Mark Zuckerberg has been talking about this future of the Internet, this interactive thing where you put on a headset and you can be inside of the Internet. And yet, and yet they have copied Twitter. But, again, this is Meta's bread and butter. Meta does this thing where it finds features or apps that are working elsewhere. Think of Snapchat stories turning into Instagram stories. They find features that are working elsewhere, and it's really easy for them to recreate those things and use the giant network of users that they already have to make those things really popular on their own platforms.

WHITFIELD: Interesting. Now, that little pretzel like imagery, I don't know. That says confusion to me as opposed to real straight line conversations. But I'm no marketing genius. I'm just saying that's a little perplexing there. Perplexing choice. Clare Duffy, thanks so much.

DUFFY: Thanks, Fred.

WHITFIELD: Still to come, an alleged thief storming into a nail salon, demanding money from customers. But you see them, the customers, arms kind of folded, they're a little confused about what is the intention of this person? How does it end? Straight ahead.

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[14:25:38]

WHITFIELD: This weekend temperatures are expected to reach a boiling point. While it has cooled off a little bit in the northeast, the southwest and Florida could heat up again. This coming after four straight days of record-setting heat around the world. CNN meteorologist Britley Ritz joining me now. Britley, I like the way you put it earlier, it's so hot.

BRITLEY RITZ, CNN METEOROLOGIST: It is. It is. It's awful, and it's dangerous to you and potentially deadly if we're not taking care of ourselves. So just keep that in mind, you need to drink water and keep your body and sodium levels at level two, because it gets hot. You have to keep that in mind. So Gatorade is not a bad idea either.

Excessive heat warnings in place where temperatures are going to climb up nearly 115 degrees, that includes the Grand Canyon and Phoenix. Heat advisories and now excessive heat watches back into parts of southern California. Temperatures over the next three days well into the triple digits. Phoenix where we should be, around 107 degrees. Not the case. We're climbing up around 115 Wednesday and Thursday. Four days in a row this past week where we broke our global average temperature record, and the current is 63.01 degrees. Yesterday didn't quite make it there at 62.96, but still rather impressive.

So what's going on? We've got a lot of land in the northern hemisphere so land heats up a lot faster than water does. Plus, we're dealing with what's called an El Nino where our sea surface temperatures are above normal. And it's a teleconnection pattern, so it's not just happening in one area. It's all across the globe. As our trade winds start to weaken, that warm weather pushes back up toward our western coasts of the Americas. And we're noticing that over the last few years our temperatures just continue to rise, and the last nine years, for that matter, we've hit our warmest on record, Fred. So rather impressive. Just remember to drink lots of water, stay indoors, frequent breaks if you have to be out and about for an extended period of time.

WHITFIELD: Hydrate, hydrate. Thank you, Britley.

OceanGate, the company behind the doomed Titan submersible, says it has suspended all exploration and commercial operations. The company made the announcement on its website Thursday, and it comes weeks after five people, including its CEO, were killed in a catastrophic implosion. The Titan's failure to resurface sparked a massive search that captured the world's attention for days. It also shed light on extreme tourism, a growing trend among thrill seekers pushing the boundaries of safe travel. That extreme tourism is not limited to the seas. As private space exploration grows so, too, does the chance of things going wrong.

And my next guest as a warning for would-be space passengers. If something bad happens in space, the calvary won't be coming to the rescue. I want to bring in Leroy Chiao. He is a former NASA astronaut -- actually, you're always an astronaut, right?

LEROY CHIAO, FORMER NASA ASTRONAUT: Right.

WHITFIELD: Always a NASA astronaut, and commander on the International Space Station. So good to see you. So you wrote an op-ed for CNN.com about the dangers of extreme tourism. What do you say to civilians considering hopping on board a space tourism flight, no matter how much it costs them?

CHIAO: Well, sure. Of course, it's the dream of many people to go into space. It was certainly my childhood dream. And so for people with the means to do it, I think it's something that's worth considering. Now, the key here is what's called informed consent, and it doesn't just apply to these kinds of things. It applies to a lot of different activities that occur here on the earth. And basically, you're being told you need to take responsibility for your own safety.

So before you sign those documents of informed consent, make sure that you are informed. Ask a lot of questions, go look at the hardware, talk to people, ask other experts. It's important that you really, no kidding, do make an informed consent so that you make a decision that's informed and you're not just kind of trusting somebody and signing without really reading the fine print.

WHITFIELD: When the OceanGate sub went missing, several countries were involved in the search. Jurisdiction was a reason, the citizenship of the passengers had also something to do with it. But if things were to go wrong in space, what do folks need to know about the options of rescue? Who is coming to their aid?

[14:30:04]

CHIAO: Sure, it depends on what kind of space flight you're talking about. If you're talking about suborbital space, which is basically a parabolic flight. You're going up and down much like a cannonball, and you're going to come back down kind of like a cannonball. And for Blue Origin, Jeff Bezos's venture, the New Shepherd Spacecraft, as well as Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic spacecraft, you're going to get about three to five minutes of weightlessness in just a few minutes in space before you fall back to earth. So there would be no rescue scenario in space. Your vehicle is coming down one way or the other.

The other option is you're seeing that SpaceX has flown some purely private commercial space flights, and those are currently being flown into the same orbital plane as the International Space Station. Right now NASA and Russia and the other international partners that fly on these vehicles, the SpaceX vehicle and the Russian Soyuz, we depend on the space station as what's called a safe haven or kind of a lifeboat, a place we can go in an emergency, assuming we can dock to it.

And so these purely private commercial flights are also launched into the same plane, and presumably if they can dock they can also use that as a safe haven. But if you don't launch into the plane of the station, you're pretty much on your own. There's no one else able to come and get you. There's no Coast Guard in space to come and look for you.

WHITFIELD: So then do you encourage people who are adventuresome who say, I'm willing to take the risk? Because you did just say at the top of the interview that it really is kind of at your own risk. So would you advise --

CHIAO: Right, sure, sure. And if you look at the people that went on that submersible, one was a very experienced diver, submariner, one was somebody who had gone twice of Jeff Bezos's venture and was no stranger on high-performance vehicles and a lot of these kinds of adventures.

And so these people did presumably do their homework. I'm not sure every person that went on that submersible did. I feel especially bad for the young man, the 19-year-old young man. I don't know if that person really did due diligence and signed the papers with full knowledge of what he was doing. So it's incumbent on every individual that really wants to do this to, no kidding, do your homework.

WHITFIELD: Exploration is all about, you know, risks. And you also kind of underscored that when you write in the piece that life is about balancing risks and rewards, and in most cases society leaves it to adult individuals, I'm quoting from your right to decide for themselves.

CHIAO: Absolutely, yes.

WHITFIELD: So I guess that has to be, I guess, really underscored or encouraged with people, to be able to weigh those balances, if you are going to make this kind of endeavor or make this kind of choice, there could be some great rewards, there could be some great tumultuous pitfalls.

CHIAO: Suer, absolutely. And really the key is not to legislate or regulate away the option to take some of these trips. People are adventuresome, they're curious. And as long as they're making that, no kidding, informed consent, then it's on you.

WHITFIELD: All right, Captain Leroy Chiao, thank you so much. Great to see you.

CHIAO: Thank you.

WHITFIELD: We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:37:41]

WHITFIELD: Welcome back. Multiple Chicago police officers are under investigation for alleged improper sexual relations with newly arrived migrants. It's unclear how many officers are involved or if any of them have faced disciplinary action. Hundreds of migrants have been living in city buildings, including Chicago's police stations, for the past several months. They were bussed to the city after crossing the Texas border.

CNN's Camila Bernal has more on these allegations. Camila?

CAMILA BERNAL, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Fred, these allegations are currently being investigated, that's what's important to remember here, that we have to wait for the results of the investigation, or more details from the Chicago Police Department or authorities in Chicago.

What we know is that this happened in the Tenth District, and we learned of these allegations that say it's improper relations, sexual relations between migrants and police officers. And look, to really understand what's going on here, you have to remember that in Chicago the migrants are sleeping and being housed at the police stations. There's been a lot of criticism over the living situation and using the police stations.

And "The Chicago Sun Times" has been covering this issue and specifically reporting on where these migrants should be housed. So they were the first to report these allegations. And I spoke to people who told me we were not shocked to hear of these allegations. Evelyn Figueroa has been helping these migrants for months now, and here is what she told me about this specific allegation.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. EVELYN FIGUEROA, DIRECTOR, PILSEN FOOD PANTRY: It's such a harsh setup for the police and for the migrants, and I think that this potential sexual assault really exposes the horrible communication that's occurred between the new arrivals and the police.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERNAL: And I also talked to the police union. They say that there are many officers who go above and beyond to help these migrants, but also agree that this is not the proper place to house these migrants. Here is what the president of the union had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOHN J. CATANZARA, FRATERNAL ORDER OF POLICE CHICAGO LODGE 7: We don't even know the validity of this complaint, the origin of this complaint. Who made it? Is there any truth to it whatsoever? Anybody can -- it's ridiculous.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[14:40:00] BERNAL: Now, COPA is the independent agency that is reviewing these complaints. They're within the city. It's an independent department. And they say these allegations are of the highest priority, also say they move swiftly to essentially help or try to figure out what's going on here, and to address any sort of misconduct.

We also heard from the mayor's office today, saying that they're moving all of the migrants from the Tenth District to a shelter. But again, there's just a lot of criticism as to what to do and where the city goes on from here in terms of where you put all of these migrants. That is the biggest question here, Fred.

WHITFIELD: Camila Bernal, thanks so much.

BERNAL: Thank you.

WHITFIELD: Still to come, Britney Spears at first said she was backhanded by security detail for NBA first round phenom Victor Wembanyama. What she is now saying about the incident and how he is responding after the break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:45:26]

WHITFIELD: A legend of U.S. women's soccer is retiring. Megan Rapinoe says she'll call it quits at the end of this year's national women's soccer league season. Rapinoe debuted with the U.S. women's national team back in 2006 at the tender age of 21. She will compete in her fourth and final World Cup this year in Australia and New Zealand as the U.S. women's team goes for its third straight title. The 38-year- old has scored 63 goals for the U.S. in international play, and her 73 career assists tie her for the most in U.S. team history.

And it's case closed in a bizarre incident in Las Vegas. There will be no charges filed against a San Antonio Spurs security guard for blocking singer Britney Spears as she tried to get the attention of number one overall draft pick Victor Wembanyama. CNN's Chloe Melas has details.

CHLOE MELAS, CNN ENTERTAINMENT REPORTER: This story involving Britney Spears and the NBA's number one draft pick, Victor Wembanyama, is taking the Internet by storm. Britney Spears says that she approached Victor at a hotel in Las Vegas because she's a huge fan. She wrote on Instagram that she walked up to him and she tapped him on the shoulder, and that's when allegedly his security guard backhanded her, slapping her in the face, causing her to almost fall over and her glasses to fall off. She has since now filed a police report against that security guard. No charges have been filed. But Victor came out and spoke to reporters on Thursday, and this is what he had to say about what happened.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

VICTOR WEMBANYAMA, SAN ANTONIO SPURS: I didn't see what happened because I was walking straight. A person grabbed me from behind, not on my shoulder. She grabbed me from behind. So I just know the security pushed her away. I don't know with how much force. I thought it was no big deal. And the security let me know it was Britney Spears, so first I was, like, no, you're joking. But it turns out it was Britney Spears.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MELAS: Wembanyama clearly having a different story, claiming that Britney Spears grabbed him from behind, didn't tap him on the shoulder. Britney Spears, though, points out that she's 5'4", he's 7'4", clearly a massive height difference and that she simply was just coming up to just say hello. But she maintains she tapped him on the shoulder, she didn't grab him, and that she was really just trying to say hello.

Britney Spears's husband Sam Ashgari, he took to social media posting some video, saying that security guards of Britney never act like this when fans approach them. Even Britney said about 20 fans approached her in Vegas and that no one on her security detail was slapping anyone. So this is a developing story. Britney Spears says that she is yet to receive a public apology from Victor Wembanyama or the security guard, and that she's upset by his demeanor when he addressed reporters. She feels like he was laughing and making light of the situation. So this story is developing and we will keep you posted. Back to you.

WHITFIELD: Chloe Melas, thanks so much.

OK, so with that incident behind him, Wembanyama focused on his very first game in the NBA's summer league, and he did not disappoint. CNN's Coy Wire has that and more.

COY WIRE, CNN SPORTS ANCHOR AND CORRESPONDENT: Hello, Fred. Expectations are sky high for the 7'4" teenager from France, and fans started lining up at 3:00 a.m. to get into the sold-out arena for his debut against the Hornets Friday night. Wemby-mania reaching a fever pitch when he stepped on the court for the first time in a Spurs uniform. Show what's getting him all the hype, the block in the first quarter. And then most big guys, they'd pass the ball here. But not him. Handles all the way up the court and the no-look pass. Oh-la-la, oui, oui.

And you would expect his defense, scary good. A game high five blocks, including this three-point attempt by the number two overall pick, Brandon Miller. The Spurs had a player get five blocks just one all last season. Wembanyama also showing his range, hitting a three- pointer, getting the foul as well. Just nine points on the night, though. After the game Wemby told reporters he still has a long way to go before the games really start to count.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

VICTOR WEMBANYAMA, SAN ANTONIO SPURS: A special moment, really special to wear that jersey for the first time. It's really an honor. And overall I'm glad we won this game. It's a good way to start. And then, yes, honestly, I didn't really know what I was doing on the court tonight. But I'll learn for the next games and be ready for the season.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[14:50:05]

WIRE: And two years after a title was stripped because of a doping violation, testing positive for marijuana, Sha'Carri Richardson wins the 100 meters at the U.S. championships, ripping off her trademark orange wig as she was introduced. The crowd erupted. She ran a 10.71 in the opening heat, second fastest time in the world this year. And we only need 10.82 seconds to show you her title run. Not a great start, but she turned on the afterburners for the win. The 23-year-old from Texas racing into the world championships in Budapest next month for a lightning fast clash with Jamaica's Shericka Jackson.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SHA-CARRI RICHARDSON, U.S. WOMEN'S 100 METER CHAMPION: I'm ready, mentally, physically and emotionally. And I'm here to stay. I'm not back, I'm better.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WIRE: And finally, a great moment at last night's Red Sox game against the A's. CNN political reporter Andrew Kaczynski throwing out the first pitch on behalf of Team Beans. He and his wife Rachel had helped raise more than $3 million for research to cure childhood cancer. Their daughter, Francesca, nicknamed Beans, passed in 2020 from brain cancer at just nine months old. If you would like to learn more, you go to TeamBeansFund.com. Fred, talk about taking tragedy and turning it into something incredible. They are the perfect example of that.

WHITFIELD: Yes, Andrew and his wife and team, phenomenal.

The U.S. surgeon general recently issued a warning that social media carries what he called a profound risk of harm to the mental health and well-being of children and adolescents. Several school districts have filed suit against the tech giants, alleging they are contributing to a mental health crisis among youth, and hundreds of families are now suing, too, including a mom named Candace (ph) West (ph) and her 18-year-old daughter Cici (ph). Audie Cornish spoke to them as part of a report on the CNN show "The Whole Story with Anderson Cooper." Here is a clip.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I said, can you believe this, these places are actually trying to sue the social media forums and saying it's their fault. I'm like, isn't that ridiculous? She says, it's not ridiculous. So you think it's good that they're going to come after these companies? And she said, absolute, I think it's about damn time. She flat-out told me that, yes, she was pushed, like material that taught her how to hide the food, how to get rid of calories on a certain level, how to purge, how to purge quietly in a way that your parents won't know. AUDIE CORNISH, CNN ANCHOR AND CORRESPONDENT: Did you not realize all

those years when you were doing treatment where she was getting that information?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No, no. And that makes me just plum stupid, I think, because, honestly, Audie, I thought we had things in place through our government that would protect children on this level. I didn't think that was legal.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: Be sure to tune in to an all new episode of "The Whole Story with Anderson Cooper," one whole story, one whole hour. It airs tomorrow at 8:00 p.m. eastern and pacific only on CNN.

The July 3rd mass shooting in Philadelphia has drawn national attention, but for one anti-violence advocate it hit close to tomorrow. 2022 CNN Hero Tyrique Glasgow has been working for a decade to make his south Philly neighborhood safer, building bridges with the police and providing critical support to hundreds of residents. Now the loss of more loved ones has made him even more determined to keep pushing for positive change.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TYRIQUE GLASGOW, CNN HERO: The reality of just hearing gunshots is normal in our community. The family members and friends that I've lost is countless. I knew two of the victims. My cousin always looked out for me growing up. And it's what our organization is about. He wasn't a young man out here selling drugs, carrying guns. He was one of the young men who wanted to do right. And to have him taken away senselessly, I was hurt.

We need to provide a table of resources instead of having this table of grief. Today we start our summer camp, and we're working with the kids, having a safe place for our children.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What's your favorite color?

GLASGOW: That's what we try to do every day.

Our community engagement center helps us really provide those essential quality of life resources. They're small acts that really change a community's trajectory. I believe that that's how we grow as a community, lifting each other up. It allows me to keep going forward.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: And you can find out more about Tyrique's work and nominate your own hero at CNNheroes.com.

[14:55:00]

Nominations close July 31st.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: OK, this is hard to believe, but it's on tape. A nail salon robbery didn't go as planned for an alleged thief in Atlanta when the customers and workers simply wouldn't give the assailant the time of day.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Everybody get down! Empty out your pockets. Empty out your pockets! Get down!

(END VIDEO CLIP)

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