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High Temperatures From Severe Heat Wave Affecting Parts Of U.S. Including Las Vegas And Southern California; Farm Owner In Vermont Interviewed On Devastation His Business Experienced In Wake Of Severe Flooding; Suspect Arrested For Murders In Gilgo Beach, Long Island, Beginning In 2010; Belarusian Officials Claim Wagner Mercenary Group Fighters Training Recruits In Belarus; Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu Admitted To Hospital For Dehydration; New Images From James Webb Space Telescope Show Birth Of Stars; Actors Join Screenwriters In Strike Concerning Reduced Pay From Streaming Services And Studio Use Of Artificial Intelligence. Aired 2-3p ET.

Aired July 15, 2023 - 14:00   ET

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

[14:00:03]

CAROLYN MANNO, CNN SPORTS CORRESPONDENT: They squared off last month at the French Open, Djokovic winning that contest in the semifinals. But everybody had their eyes on that match, and I think will have their eyes on this one as well.

FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Right, well, on age, I like what Djokovic said. He was like 36 is like 26. So we'll see what happens.

(LAUGHTER)

MANNO: The 26-year-old versus the 20-year-old.

WHITFIELD: Right. Carolyn Manno, we'll all be watching. Thank you so much.

Hello again, everyone. Thank you so much for joining me. I'm Fredricka Whitfield.

And we begin with extreme heat gripping much of the world and the U.S. Right now more than 85 million Americans are under heat alerts from Florida to California. In the west, a suffocating heat dome is intensifying, leading to record-breaking hot temperatures in so many areas. Phoenix topped 110 degrees for the 15th consecutive day on Friday, and it's forecast to continue that streak through at least Wednesday.

And this is a live earth cam shot of Sedona, Arizona. It's beautiful, but the temperatures are already over 100 degrees, and a high of 106 is expected later on today. Meanwhile, Death Valley, California, already one of the hottest places on earth, could see temperatures reach a scorching 130 degrees this weekend.

CNN's Mike Valerio is in Valencia, California, and CNN's Rafael Romo is in Las Vegas. Rafael, let's begin with you. How does it feel right now. RAFAEL ROMO, CNN SENIOR LATIN AMERICAN AFFAIRS EDITOR: Let me tell

you, Fred, we started out here at about 5:00 in the morning, it was 86 degrees, and the last hour we crossed the 100 degree threshold. And as soon as that happened, we started seeing a lot of people coming this direction, from the street and into the shops. We're here in front of the fashion show Las Vegas. This is the largest mall in the state of Nevada, and that's the option that people are taking right now, because, honestly, the heat right now is feeling very oppressive.

And let me tell you, the National Weather Service says that they expect -- it's a possibility, not for sure, but a possibility that in the next three days or so, they may tie the all-time record at 117 degrees. Let me tell you, being here, I feel like that's already happened.

But we've been talking to people here, somebody told us that they don't mind because they go -- as soon as they get a little hot, they go inside like a lot of these people are doing. And then we found the gentleman who, believe it or not, he was doing a power walk in the middle of this heat. Let's take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think it's going to be a hot one, but we can do it. We're here in Vegas having a good time.

TROY WEAVER, LAS VEGAS RESIDENT: We're trying to beat the heat. It's par for the course. The heat here, it rains different places and thunderstorms, and weather patterns have changed.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMO: You heard that right. He was doing a power walk in the middle of this heat.

Now, the National Weather Service, Fred, is paying close attention to the rising temperatures because they may do three days of high temperatures at 115 degrees and the low at 90. As you can imagine, that's going to create a lot of problems for many people. But as far as we can see, people are being smart about it. They go inside as long as they're starting to get very, very hot. So trying to navigate, trying to manage this very hot weather, Fred.

WHITFIELD: Yes, Rafael, I like what your friends are doing. They're power walking right into that mall behind you. That's a good one.

(LAUGHTER)

WHITFIELD: I will join them. Rafael Romo, thank you so much, in Vegas.

Mike, you're in southern California where folks are going to be having a little fun trying to stay cool at a water park, and finally the crowds have appeared behind you. So how is it feeling now?

MIKE VALERIO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, they are power walking into the park here in Santa Clarita Valley in southern California. I'd say, Fred, that there's a feeling of joy in the air. It's going to be 106 for our high in Valencia, California, today. And people are just so glad that Hurricane Harbor is open after a rainy, wet, cold winter, January, February, and March, that we went through.

But if we look over here, just over my left-hand shoulder, past the mushroom fountains, past these rocks and iguana skeleton fountains, Six Flags opens with a plan of two first aid stations open. About two dozen lifeguards, a dozen medical personnel. They can't just open like it's a normal day. So they certainly have a plan for one ambulance to be standing by just in case anybody succumbs to any heat-related injuries.

But you don't anticipate that's going to happen, at least in this corner of the park right now. We did speak to the Daniels family that was first in line. They told us they would be here no matter what, even with 106 degrees in the forecast. Listen to what they told us.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

[14:05:05]

STACEY DANIELS, LOS ANGELES COUNTY RESIDENT: That's part of why we're here. It's hot, obviously. We're just enjoying the water park with our family.

KIMEYO DANIELS, LOS ANGELES COUNTY RESIDENT: No, I'm not undeterred at all. I love the weather. I'm a California native, so this is nothing. And we've got beaches all over the place. What other state can you go skiing, surfing, dirt bike riding, horseback riding all in the same day? This is California right here, man.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VALERIO: To that end, there's an overachieving family, Fred, that will be here, and then going to the beach about 30 miles away.

But as we look to the desert, 90 miles southeast of here, Riverside County in southern California, three wildfires we have our eyes on. Pictures overnight show glowing embers of hillsides on fire. But the good news, evacuation orders, some of them have been rolled back during the overnight hours. These wildfires don't seem to be near any heavy population centers, near a whole profusion of homes, so that is certainly good news.

We are watching, though, because this is the middle of July. It's when we start to get into wildfire season. But for the time being, everybody is having a great time here at Hurricane Harbor. Fred?

WHITFIELD: Lots of potential dangers, but at the same time folks are trying to find some fun, too. Mike Valerio, Rafael Romo, thank you so much.

Let's bring in CNN meteorologist Brandon Miller. What do you think, Brandon? Power walking to the water park or perhaps to the shopping mall, that's how people are coping. BRANDON MILLER, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Yes, absolutely. And there in

California, unless you are extremely close to the coast, you are under one of these heat advisories, heat alerts, and they're very widespread. One in four Americans, 85 million of us, are under these heat alerts. And if you're in California on the west coast, anywhere in the southwest, it's more like three and four or even more.

And the reason is because of this heat dome. We've been talking about it for weeks because it's not going anywhere. It's just meandering back and forth, sort of between Arizona and Texas, and that dome of high pressure is what it is, and it just prevents storms from forming. It prevents clouds from forming and it causes sinking air. And that's what really builds up that heat.

And people have been asking me, heat dome, I keep hearing about the heat dome. Where did that term come from? It's not a new term, but it is just another name for a high pressure or a ridge. And actually, the heat wave that's going on in Europe right now, they actually give them names, and really crazy awesome names. I think the current one is Cerberus, which is named after the three-headed Greek mythology monster that guards hell. Maybe if we named our heat waves something like that, people would take it a little more serious, because it is. It's 100 possible records this weekend through Monday alone. We're talking Texas all the way to California. A couple down here in Florida, we don't want to forget them. They are boiling down there. The water is extremely hot, as we saw in the piece just last hour affecting the coral down there.

And, again, this is record hot water, and then the sun baking the land, and the Gulf of Mexico is wide open. So these are feels-like temperatures here in Texas -- 107, 102, 106 on Monday in Dallas. And it's going to heat up as we go into next week. This isn't just a weekend thing, because that high pressure, that heat dome -- maybe we'll give it an interesting name -- is going to come back to Texas, and this heat wave is just really unrelenting, and it's going to go on at least through next week. And these watches and warnings from Texas to Arizona, we've had them 35 consecutive days, Fredricka.

WHITFIELD: Brutal.

MILLER: I know. And it's only, only July. We have August to go. It is a long, hot summer.

WHITFIELD: Well, the words "heat dome," that's going to have to be interesting enough. It's hard hitting, we all get it. It's hot and pretty unbearable. But just be safe and be careful out there, folks. Brandon Miller, I appreciate it.

So while rain would be a welcome relief for many parts of the country, forecasts of storms are making an already difficult situation worse in the northeast, particularly -- especially in parts of Vermont that were hit hard by catastrophic flooding. Roads turned to rivers after heavy rain caused waterways to burst their banks, and now areas inundated by flooding are trying to clean up with a likelihood of more stormy weather. I'm joined now by Eric Seitz. He is the co-owner of Pitchfork Farm,

which was devastated by the flooding. Eric, so good to see you. It's pretty miserable really across the country. You've got extreme heat or you've got extreme floodwaters, which has done a lot of damage. Tell me what you're seeing today.

[14:10:03]

ERIC SEITZ, CO-OWNER, PITCHFORK FARM: It's hot, it's muggy. We've got more precipitation on the way, which is not helpful. We're a vegetable farm and we're trying to get back to work, but we can't right now until the water recedes.

WHITFIELD: How have your crops done? How has your farm done.

SEITZ: They're done. Yes, yes, we farm next to one of the larger rivers in the state, and much of the rain that fell in the central part runs next to our fields. But this past week it was running through our fields. We had six or seven feet of water in places.

WHITFIELD: What were your crops? What were you growing or trying to grow?

SEITZ: We're a wholesale vegetable farm. We grow crops for restaurants and grocery stores, primarily focusing on salad greens. We do about 2,000 pounds a week of cut salad, bunched herbs, and crops. And yes, they're all gone.

WHITFIELD: And did I hear that not too long ago you were actually riding in a canoe through your property over what would have been those field of greens? There's the video.

SEITZ: Yes.

WHITFIELD: Tell me what that experience was like.

SEITZ: Surreal. It was kind of beautiful. But I don't know. The adrenaline was still going pretty strong. So it's sort of hard to take in the whole thing. At the time it was just kind of a fun thing to do. But it was bizarre, to say the least.

WHITFIELD: My goodness. So your heart must be sinking, because you're putting your heart and soul into planting the seed, nurturing the crops, and just like that, it's all wiped out by being inundated by rain. And there's nothing really you can do, right, until the storms pass. And apparently there are more storms predicted tomorrow and possibly in the next week. So how do you plan from this point forward?

SEITZ: Well, from this point forward in this season, we're not too concerned about more flooding right now. The river has come down and none of the projections I've seen are talking about flooding. But really, we need some dry weather to get back out there so we can get back to planting. This time of year is sort of the peak of our input on the farm, the peak of the debt. And we incur that debt knowing come late July, August, September, October, we'll see a return. But we're not going to see any return as far as the work we've put in.

So we need to get back to seeding, to planting, so we can start to pay down some of that debt. And amazingly enough, there's a GoFundMe campaign that has been set up on our behalf and on behalf of our neighbor farms, New Farms for New Americans, Diggers Mirth, June Farm, Powell Herb, these are all my neighbors, they're all in the same boat, no pun intended.

WHITFIELD: Sometimes you've got to keep a sense of humor, right, to help you get through it?

SEITZ: I've been able to do that. Mostly, yes, we're concerned about our crew, about our staff, many of whom have been here for a long time, through the COVID, the pandemic. We've been through a lot, and we want to keep them on the payroll. So that's mainly what we want to do. We just want to get back to work.

WHITFIELD: So Eric, while the GoFundMe is a great assistance, is there state and federal assistance you're going to be able to count on to help your farm, help your employees, help your neighbors?

SEITZ: I think so. Obviously, that's all people scrambling. I know the president just declared a federal state of emergency, which will unlock certain doors. But yes, I have full faith in our congressional delegation, Senator Sanders, Senator Welch, Congressman Balint, they're all strong advocates for the kind of work we do. And it's a rural state and agriculture is a huge part of our identity. And I have no doubt that we will see some aid at some point.

WHITFIELD: Eric Seitz, thank you so much. All the best to you, and in hopes for a vibrant rebound for you and your fellow farmers.

SEITZ: Thanks. Yes, we will. We'll be back.

WHITFIELD: All the best.

[14:15:00]

Straight ahead, multiple killings on Long Island puzzled investigators for more than a decade, and now a 59-year-old New York architect is in custody. We'll have details.

Plus, the Wagner mercenary fighters are reportedly now in Belarus and training troops there just after Russian President Putin challenged the group's legal existence.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: There's been a major arrest in a series of murders on Long Island, New York. The killings puzzled investigators for more than a decade and terrorized those communities. But today 59-year-old New York architect Rex Heuermann is in custody, charged in connection with three of the so-called Gilgo Beach murders. These cases date back to 2010. That's when authorities began discovering human remains along the Long Island shoreline. Over several months they recovered at least 10 sets of human remains, most women. [14:20:03]

CNN's Polo Sandoval is joining us right now. Polo, what more do we know about what led to this arrest?

POLO SANDOVAL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: So Fred, in the last hour I actually had an opportunity to speak by phone to Anthony Carter. He is deputy commissioner of the Suffolk County Police Department which was instrumental in the arrest that played out a Thursday. Carter telling me that his agency really never gave up hope that they would arrive at this crucial moment, that they would have an arrest, that despite the lack of information that was being shared in the public eye, his agency was continuing to move forward, never lost momentum.

And back to that last point, Fred, the whole lack of information in the public arena, when you hear from the Suffolk County District Attorney, who I also had an opportunity to speak to today, he says that was done on purpose. They were confident that Rex Heuermann was closely monitoring for headlines, for developments in this investigation, and they feared that if any information would actually leak that he could try to get away. And that is why on Thursday at about 5:00 the district attorney issued that order for detectives to move in and make that arrest on a Manhattan sidewalk.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RAYMOND "RAY" TIERNEY, SUFFOLK COUNTY DISTRICT ATTORNEY: So then you also have to worry about leaks because we've executed a lot of search warrants, and we're just beginning to comb through that evidence, and we hope that we're going to get more evidence. And obviously if the nature of your investigation or how close you are leaks to that one person, all of that evidence disappears. So it's a balancing act.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANDOVAL: It really is, especially when you hear from other agencies, the attorneys saying that the balancing act included preventing any potential leaks so that they could arrest their suspect, but at the same time keeping track and focus on the public safety threat. We do understand, based on information from investigators, they allege that their suspect was continuing to patronize sex workers, so they were concerned that their suspect would strike again. And that was also being considered.

Now, as for the suspect himself, through his attorney he continues to maintain his innocence in this investigation as he remains behind bars.

WHITFIELD: Polo Sandoval, we'll leave it there for now. Thanks so much.

SANDOVAL: Thanks, Fred.

WHITFIELD: Overseas, the Kremlin's closest ally, Belarus, is now training alongside fighters from the Wagner mercenary group, who just last month staged a rebellion against Russian President Putin. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:26:45]

WHITFIELD: Vladimir Putin's closest ally, Belarus, is now saying it has reached an agreement with Russia's Wagner fighters to train its troops. CNN's Alex Marquardt reports that they already appear to be there.

(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)

ALEX MARQUARDT, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: New video on Belarusian state TV claiming to show Wagner mercenaries in southern Belarus training local groups. Neighboring Belarus was where Wagner leader Yevgeny Prigozhin was supposed to be exiled to after his aborted insurrection in Russia, throwing his fate and that of Wagner's into doubt.

In a new interview released today, Putin proclaimed, "We do not have a law for private military organizations. It simply does not exist. The group exists, but legally it does not exist." Putin is referencing Russia's law against mercenary groups, but also stating a new reality. Wagner, as it has existed in Ukraine as a fighting force, could be done. And Prigozhin, once called Putin's chef, may be split from his men.

JOHN KIRBY, NATIONAL SECURITY COUNCIL COORDINATOR FOR STRATEGIC COMMUNICATIONS: We really don't know what the future is going to be here, whether it's in Ukraine or anywhere else around the world. We know that they are still conducting malicious activity, particularly in Africa.

MARQUARDT: After the Wagner mutiny came to a sudden halt on June 24th, Putin furiously accused the mercenaries of being traitors. Then just five days later, Putin said in the interview he invited 35 Wagner commanders, including Prigozhin, to the Kremlin, and offered them a chance to repent. "I showed them possible options for their further service," Putin said, "including the use of their combat experience."

Putin offered the Wagner leaders the chance to continue fighting in the Russian army under their commander, nicknamed Sedoy, or "Gray Hair," Andrey Troshev, a retired colonel and founding member of Wagner. Troshev is sanctioned by the E.U. and the U.K. He's fought in Afghanistan, Chechnya, and Syria, earning Russia's highest military honors. The men, Putin said, nodded affirmatively, but Prigozhin, sitting in the front, said after listening, no, the guys do not agree with this decision.

So what happened after Prigozhin apparently openly disagreed with Putin? That we don't know. Prigozhin may now be out of Ukraine, but he certainly wants to keep his business interests in both Africa and the Middle East. As for what happened to his men, the Pentagon says that the bulk of them are back in Ukraine in Russian-occupied areas, back in their barracks. But the Defense Department says they are no longer taking part in operations in Ukraine.

Alex Marquardt, CNN, Dnipro, Ukraine.

(END VIDEO TAPE)

WHITFIELD: Let's get more analysis now on what's happening. Steve Hall is the CNN national security analyst and a former CIA chief of Russian operations. Steve, great to see you. So if Wagner fighters are in Belarus, as we saw in some of the pictures, for training, what does this tell you about its future?

STEVE HALL, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: Yes, Fred, there's a lot of weird stuff going on here. Let's just start with some of the stuff that Alex was covering back here from the press. From the press perspective, the Kremlin is just being silly about this. Are we really to believe, first of all, that we know where any of these guys are? Because for the past few weeks we've been trying to figure out where they are, to include Prigozhin.

[14:30:00]

And then we have this cockamamie story from Putin himself essentially saying it was like standing in front of the classroom. Prigozhin was sitting in the front and when I offered the deal, he said no, but all of his guys who were sitting behind him nodded their heads. It's unsophisticated, it's silly, and it's, frankly, strange because the Kremlin is usually good about their messaging.

But in terms of the force itself, it does look like perhaps now they're in Belarus. But if Putin thinks that he's safe, if he's really concerned about these guys, Belarus is not that far away. It would be much better if all of them were in Africa, at least for Putin's safety.

WHITFIELD: And it promotes confusion. Then there are comments by Putin, you know, during an interview saying that the Wagner Group doesn't really exist. It exists but not legally exists, so it doesn't really exist. Maybe that is the objective, is just to continue to confuse and keep people guessing, whether it be the whereabouts of Yevgeny Prigozhin, or whether the troops are indeed being trained and if they have a future of being useful to Russia. Isn't this the goal, confusion?

HALL: No, I had forgotten about all the other -- there's so many ridiculous statements that are coming up around this one loses track. But I think what's going on is we're seeing a lot of smoke up front here where people are not knowing exactly what's going on, silly statements are being made. But I think what's that's concealing is a lot of backroom positioning inside the Kremlin. You've got elites that are trying to figure out where do I fit in, who is weakened today, who is going to be weakened next weak, and how do I take advantage of that. And Putin is included in that calculus. He himself is saying, OK, how strong is this person vis-a-vis this organization, and what do I need to do to, above all, stay in power. So that's, I think what's going on behind the scenes. It's always very difficult to find out precisely what's going on in the Kremlin because it's so tightly controlled. WHITFIELD: What does your gut say about Yevgeny Prigozhin? Is he

around still, is he alive? Is he an instrument in any way of Putin, or not?

HALL: Yes, well, I think they're trying to figure out what to do about Prigozhin. And I think, if I had to bet and put money down on it right now, I think what I would say is that because of what we've seen in the past two weeks, so the raid on Prigozhin's apartment in Saint Petersburg where they were finding billions of rubles, millions of dollars, which then Putin turned around and said, by the way, we're the ones who pay Wagner, so that doesn't make any sense. Plus wigs, disguise material, fake passports, we think they're setting him up to look like to the Russian population a corrupt oligarch gone bad that now needs to either go to jail or go into exile or perhaps worse.

WHITFIELD: Justification.

HALL: Yes, I think that's the goal right now for Putin right now for Prigozhin.

WHITFIELD: So the NATO summit just wrapped up this week, there was a real strong show of unity. I think uniformly that's kind of the consensus. So is that a message that Putin is hearing or even likely to respond to?

HALL: I don't see how he can respond to it because it's just bad news after bad news after bad news. I mean, if we look back before the war, Finland was neutral, Sweden was neutral, and Putin at that time was saying NATO is a huge threat to Russia. Now Finland is a member and Sweden, it looks like after the summit, is going to be a member soon.

Some people are complaining about the fact that Ukraine wasn't offered something specific even up to membership. But I think there was a decision amongst the allies to say if we let Ukraine in right now then we are automatically at war with Russia, unless, of course, we suspend or alter the Article Five, an attack against one is an attack against all. But then that kind of guts the whole idea, anyway. So I think this is a pretty good outcome for everybody.

WHITFIELD: Fascinating. Steve Hall, always appreciate your insight. Thank you so much.

HALL: Sure.

WHITFIELD: New today, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu hospitalized. The latest on his condition next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:38:10]

WHITFIELD: Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been admitted to the hospital. And in a video statement Netanyahu suggested that he was dehydrated and advised people to drink more water. The heat warning is in effect for the area where Netanyahu was yesterday. CNN's Hadas Gold has more on what we know about his condition. (BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)

HADAS GOLD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: On Saturday afternoon, the Israeli prime minister's office put out a statement saying that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was being taken to hospital after feeling unwell to undergo tests. Later we learned this was because he had spent Friday at the Sea of Galilee, which is under a heat advisory. It has been very, very hot here now. And that on Saturday he began to feel dizzy, and under advice of his doctor was advised to go to the emergency room at a hospital in a suburb of eastern Tel Aviv, where he underwent tests, and the medical team believed, at least in the initial test, that he was suffering from dehydration.

Later Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu issued a statement that seemed to have been filmed at the hospital itself. Take a listen to what he had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BENJAMIN NETANYAHU, ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER, (through translator): Yesterday I spent time with my wife in the Sea of Galilee in the sun without a hat, without water. Not a good idea.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GOLD: This is not the first time the 73-year-old has been taken to the hospital in the past year. In October of last year, he went to the hospital on Yom Kippur, which is the holiday when observant Jews fast. He was feeling unwell in synagogue and he went to the emergency room here in Jerusalem where he was kept overnight for tests, but then was released.

It's also been a very tense time and proving to be very hot here over the past few weeks, including the rising levels of violence across the occupied West Bank and Israel. Benjamin Netanyahu has faced a lot of domestic political pressures as well. His government is trying a renewed push for this massive judicial overhaul that had been frozen for several months.

[14:40:03]

The legislation for that, parts of the legislation for that are back on the table. That has led to more protests over the past week and more protests are planned for this week. Protesters are already continuing plans to protest this judicial overhaul. But it seems as though, according to Benjamin Netanyahu's office and Benjamin Netanyahu himself, this hospitalization, this visit to the emergency room was a case of dehydration during a heat wave.

Hadas Gold, CNN, Jerusalem.

(END VIDEO TAPE)

WHITFIELD: Thanks so much.

Coming up, new life is being welcomed into the universe. NASA releasing stunning photographs of stars at their moment of birth. We'll show you next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:45:08]

WHITFIELD: We've got a stunning new image from space this week. NASA released pictures of what is described as the nearest star forming region to earth. What we're seeing is the birth of a star. It's happening just a few hundred light years away, which is pretty much in earth's backyard. It's also the first time that we're ever witnessing this phenomenon. The images came from the James Webb Space Telescope which is celebrating one year of sending back amazing photographs at this.

Let's bring in Adam Frank. He's a professor of astrophysics at the University of Rochester and the author of "Light of the Stars, Alien World and the Fate of the Earth." Professor, always great to see you. so fill us in on what we're seeing.

ADAM FRANK, PROFESSOR OF ASTROPHYSICS, UNIVERSITY OF ROCHESTER: Well, this picture is really a tribute to all the moms in the galaxy, because what it really shows is kind of the chaos and the difficulty of giving birth. But in this case it's the birth of stars. What you're seeing, this is this is an interstellar cloud that is collapsing under its own gravity. When that happens, you get stars forming. There's about 50 stars forming in this region. And you can see it's a mess, because what's happening is along with birth, there comes a lot of yelling and screaming. And so for example, that big yellow thing at the bottom, that's a cavity that's being torn out of the cloud by winds and light from one of the stars. You can actually see the star in the center.

WHITFIELD: It's amazing. It looks like a painting.

FRANK: It's amazing. It's beautiful, right?

WHITFIELD: Yes. Keep going.

FRANK: It's funny, I spent about 15 years of my life studying exactly this phenomena, and there's some way in which as an astronomer I really want to know why it looks the way it does, but on the other hand, it's just so beautiful. To look at it and see what the universe can do really it tells us that we should be more appreciative of what's going on.

WHITFIELD: And look at these brilliant, beautiful colors. And there's serenity.

FRANK: The thing about these colors is if you were looking with your eye, you wouldn't see anything. The JWST sees in infrared light. So what it gives us, it allows us eyes that normally -- or vision that normally wouldn't have. So this is all infrared light, and those clouds are different colors of infrared light, just like our eyes can see different colors of visible light. And it, again, shows you how variegated, how gorgeous the universe is, and all of its processing, like star and planet formation. WHITFIELD: It has been a year of beautiful, amazing pictures from the

Webb telescope. And in the last year we've gotten used to it. But it's also given us some reference point of time. So what are some of the most valuable things that we're learning from the first images that we saw a year ago, and along the way, to even this?

FRANK: Yes, I think people, as you said, people can get used to it. We should try not to get used to it, because the James Webb Space Telescope has been a miracle of science and engineering, and we should understand what amazing things we can do when we all work together to get pictures like this. So we've been able to see all the way back almost to the birth of the universe, and we found that there's mysteries back there. There's things about our model of the Big Bang that don't work, which scientists love that. We found that we need to revise our models of how the universe was created.

We've seen planets that are like the earth, and we've looked for atmospheres of them, because we're going to have the possibility of detecting life on those planets. So JWST has done everything from showing us star formation to the birth of the universe to alien worlds where there might be alien life on it. It's been amazing.

WHITFIELD: In fact, let's zero in on something about that. A colleague of yours, an astrophysicist at Harvard has discovered miniscule fragments of what could be alien technology. He says that they are made of an alloy that doesn't match anything in our solar system. So help us understand. What do you think about that?

FRANK: Yes, so the good news here is compared to most of the UFO kind of craziness, is at least here you've got data that people can work with, that other scientists can look at this and decide is there any claim to this. The bad news is this probably -- most of us are pretty skeptical because if you took a magnet and dragged it along anywhere in the ocean, you would get little fields like this. This was discovered about 100 years ago. The ocean floor is covered by these things because of asteroids, volcanos, these are little metal droplets that get dropped into the surface of the ocean.

But the good thing is, this is science, and so his claims are going to have to go through the usual beat-them-up process that is science, and we'll see what comes out of it. But as of right now, most of us are pretty skeptical that this has anything to do with alien technologies.

[14:50:06]

WHITFIELD: Well, it's all so fascinating. In the meantime, we'll just enjoy the brilliance of these pictures. Can't get enough of them. Professor Adam Frank, great to see you. Thank you so much.

Fitness is essential for healthy living, but for adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities, it is vital. This CNN Hero is a dad whose daughter has cerebral palsy, and for eight years he has made it his mission to get people like her moving. Meet John Watson.

(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE) JOHN WATSON, CNN HERO: We want to lead people to a lifetime of fitness. Safety is first, but we want them to have fun. We want them to want to do it.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I love it!

WATSON: When we connect with them on that level, they'll show up to exercise.

(APPLAUSE)

WATSON: We do Pilates, yoga, dance. We have a wide range of abilities. Somebody that might have limited movement, we specifically try to get them to move how they can.

We all want to be part of something, they just don't get the opportunity that often. We create a sense of pride, belonging and love.

(END VIDEO TAPE)

WHITFIELD: And to see John's full story, or perhaps to nominate your own CNN hero, go to CNNheroes.com right now.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:56:16]

WHITFIELD: Some of Hollywood's biggest stars stepping out of the studio and onto the picket line. The major union representing tens of thousands of actors is officially on strike. They joined writers who have already been on strike against the same studios and streaming services since early May. CNN's Natasha Chen takes us to the picket line.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

FRAN DRESCHER, SAG-AFTRA NATIONAL PRESIDENT: I am shocked by the way the people that we have been in business with.

NATASHA CHEN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Actors join writers at odds with major Hollywood studios.

BRITTANY GARMS, SAG-AFTRA MEMBER: I understand that streaming is such an uncharted territory, but all these millionaires are making money. Nobody else is seeing any of that money.

CHEN: Workers across the country who support productions, from janitors to restaurant owners, also face uncertainty.

ROSIE BLOSSER, RESTAURANT OWNER IMPACTED BY STRIKE: It's kind of scary and I'm trying to figure out what can I do today to keep it going.

CHEN: A-list actors are voicing their support of the strikes.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm very much in support of all the unions. MATT DAMON, ACTOR: There's money being made, and it needs to be

allocated in a way that takes care of people who are on the margins.

CHEN: The cast of "Oppenheimer" walked out of their film premiere.

FLORENCE PUGH, ACTOR: It's been a really, really tense few days for a lot of people, not just actors but everybody in the industry who are going to be affected by this decision.

CHEN: Along with better pay, actors say residuals for past work have dried up in the streaming era.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There's a whole middle class of writers and actors that is disappearing because they're making it more and more difficult to just make a living.

CHEN: Add to that artificial intelligence which actors say threatens their future by replacing them.

DUNCAN CRABTREE-IRELAND, SAG-AFTRA NATIONAL EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR AND CHIEF NEGOTIATOR: They proposed that our background performers should be able to be scanned, get paid for one day's pay, and their company should own that scan, their image, their likeness, and to be able to use it for the rest of eternity in any project they want with no consent and no compensation.

CHEN: But studios say they've offered the highest percentage increase in minimum pay in 35 years and that actors aren't considering the reality of declining revenues in traditional media, nor the challenges of streaming services.

BOB IGER, DISNEY CEO: There's a level of expectation that they have that is just not realistic. And they are adding to a set of challenges that this business is already facing that is, quite frankly, very disruptive.

DRESCHER: How they plead poverty that they're losing money left and right when giving hundreds of millions of dollars to their CEOs. It is disgusting.

CHEN: We spoke with Fran Drescher after the strike was announced.

DRESCHER: We really believe that they wanted to make a deal, but in fact now I feel a little duped.

CHEN: How far apart are you?

CRABTREE-IRELAND: Well, there's a fairly big gap. They can make a deal this minute if they wanted to do that. And we remain ready and willing to come back to the bargaining tables.

CHEN: He also told me the studios told SAG-AFTRA they wouldn't sit down for talks while a strike is ongoing. So we're not sure how long this will go on for. And the writers have also not made much progress in the more than two months they've been on strike. This is very much an industry town, and we've heard of cases where a lot of couples both work in the entertainment industry in different functions. And so there are cases where these strikes take down both incomes. In fact, we saw a couple on the picket line Friday with a sign that said we just got married and this is our honeymoon.

Natasha Chen, CNN, Los Angeles.

(END VIDEO TAPE)

WHITFIELD: And then there's this. Perhaps you didn't win the mega millions jackpot after last night's drawing. Good news, no one did, which means you still have a shot. And now the jackpot has ballooned to an estimated $640 million. The next drawing is Tuesday.

And there's another whopper being offered tonight. The Powerball jackpot is now estimated at $875 million.