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CNN International: San Francisco Stores Locking Up Everything; Heat Events a Product of Man-Made Climate Change; Police Say Search of Gilgo Beach Suspect's Home Has Been Fruitful. Aired 4:30-5a ET

Aired July 25, 2023 - 04:30   ET

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

[04:30:00]

MAX FOSTER, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back to CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Max Foster. If you are just joining us, let me bring you up-to-date with the top stories this hour.

The grand jury in the Justice Department's 2020 election interference investigation will meet in the coming hours. They it to decide on a possible third indictment for Donald Trump any day now.

And the Federal Reserve will meet later today ahead of another expected interest rate hike. Economists predict the central bank will raise interest rates by a quarter of 1 percent.

Store owners in cities across the U.S. are fed up with crime. Shoplifters and thieves who steal anything right out in the open. And now they're being forced to lock up everything or shut down all together. CNN's Kyung Lah visited one store in San Francisco who was hit three times while she was inside.

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KYUNG LAH, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Richie Greenberg walked into a San Francisco Walgreens when he saw in the frozen food section when he saw this.

RICHIE GREENBERG, SAN FRANCISCO RESIDENT: Chains, heavy chains, that went from padlock to padlock on both sides of the doors. And this was bizarre, something I've never seen before. This is just more icing on the cake telling us that rampant crime is -- has become a regular part of life.

LAH (voice-over): So typical that in the 30 minutes we were at this Walgreens, we watched three people, including this man steal.

LAH: Did that guy pay? Did that guy pay? He didn't pay?

LAH (voice-over): Walgreens says this Richmond neighborhood store with aisles of products like mustard locked behind plexiglass has the highest theft rate of all their nearly 9,000 U.S. stores, hit more than a dozen times a day when thieves turn to cleaning out ice cream and frozen burritos, workers grew so frustrated, they resorted to the chains. They were ordered down by corporate because of the negative messaging. But Walgreens isn't the only retailer impacted in San Francisco.

LAH: You have to ask an employee for help.

LAH (voice-over): At this store, frozen food is controlled with a cable lock, fake eyelashes locked behind plexiglass, along with lotion and nail polish.

At another grocery store, $14 bags of coffee, under lock and key.

LAH: What is this?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don't know. I don't understand why coffee, I don't know.

LAH: Oh, here she is. Oh.

[04:35:00]

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's become kind of like a police state in San Francisco. I don't know how else to describe it.

MARJAN PHILHOUR, SMALL BUSINESS & COMMUNITY ADVOCATE: It's not part of city life. It's not part of the way people should be living, right, and that includes folks who are committing the crimes.

LAH: Marjan Philhour, mom of three, small business and community advocate says these visible problems in her city are leading to renewed activism, driven by residents, like the recall of the city's district attorney last year.

PHILHOUR: I think what we've seen, especially in the last couple of years, is less tolerance, more exasperation and more movement to action by every day San Franciscans to change how their city is run. It's not enough right now, but there is a change, and I think ultimately we will get there.

LAH (voice-over): San Francisco city supervisor Matt Dorsey, former police spokesperson and recovering drug addict, sees the rampant shoplifting as a systemic problem from city leaders to an understaffed police force to the fentanyl crisis.

MATT DORSEY, SAN FRANCISCO CITY SUPERVISOR: When you're seeing that level of retail theft that tends to be sub subsistence level retail theft. People who are --

LAH: People who are hungry.

DORSEY: People who are hungry. There is a level of addiction playing out in many parts of our city. It's happening at levels we really haven't seen in San Francisco.

What I'm hearing from my residents and what I'm hearing from San Franciscans is it's time for tough love. We are not doing any addict in this city favors by enabling behavior that is potentially deadly in ways we have never seen. LAH: Property and violence crime was actually lower at the end of 2022 than it was before the pandemic began. But a recent Chamber of Commerce survey still found that three quarters of those asked felt that the city was going in the wrong direction. So here is a challenge for the city. How to deal with these low level crimes that are so widely and uniformly felt by so many in this city.

Kyung Lah, CNN, San Francisco.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FOSTER: We are witnessing a so-called heat hell in parts of the northern hemisphere. Intense heatwaves an wildfires which scientists say will be virtually impossible without the human caused climate crisis. That's according to a new analysis from a group of scientists who examined the role of climate change in extreme weather events. They found overwhelming evidence that without the rampant burning of fossil fuels, those ongoing heatwaves wouldn't be happening.

We're seeing the effects right now. More than 1,000 wildfires are burning in Canada, the vast majority of those are considered out of control.

In North Africa, fires in Algeria have turned deadly killing at least 34 people. And wildfires in Greece have been raging for a week now. Prompting the country's largest ever evacuation effort. Elinda Labropoulou joins us from Athens to talk about the fires in Greece. Jim Bittermann is in Paris to help break down the scientist report. Elinda, just take us through the latest situation there because it seems to be going from bad to worse. And actually tourists are still flying in, which seems bizarre.

ELINDA LABROPOULOU, JOURNALIST: It does seem a little bit bizarre, you're quite right, because things are not looking good in Greece at the moment. The big fire in Rhodes has been raging for over seven days now and evacuations are still under way. The biggest evacuation ever in Greece has already taken place. We understand that more people are leaving the island. It's a little bit chaotic actually the information that is coming out of there concerning who is going where.

But certainly about the fire, the news is not good. So more villages have been evacuated. And the same is the case certain parts of Corfu as well. We heard from people who were evacuated in the middle of the night from Corfu last night and it remains to be seen if they'll be able go back to their hotels and their homes.

Now, in Athens where I am, the Acropolis, right behind me, is receiving its last visitors for a number of hours because it has been shutting down during the hottest part of the day for a number of days until now. As Greece is going through this prolonged heatwave.

We expect temperatures today and tomorrow to reach absolute maximum again and then to drop on Thursday. This is a time that the firefighters are waiting for and authorities here to try and see if they'll be able to contain the flames that continue to rage in three main fires. The one in Corfu, the one in Rhodes and another one on the island of Evia. This is the island that almost burned down completely two years ago and has been suffering extended damage since. And so until Thursday, it seems like the weather conditions and sweltering heat will continue here in Athens Max--.

FOSTER: OK, Elinda, thank you.

Jim, you've been looking at this report from the scientists, haven't you, and it is always difficult to link these events -- specific events with human emissions, if I can call it that. But they are saying it wouldn't be possible without the climate change caused by humans.

[04:40:00]

JIM BITTERMANN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Exactly, Max. This report was put together by something called the World Weather Attribution Initiative. Basically a group of scientists who are looking at historical data and comparing it to what has been happening this last few weeks in Europe and all around the world, these heatwaves that have taken place. And they say basically that the world should be repaired if nothing change in terms of the human induced climate change. That is to say the amount of greenhouse gases being pumped into the atmosphere. If nothing changes, that we should expect these kind of extreme weather events once every 15 years in North America. Once every ten years in Europe and once every five years in China.

Basically it's a pretty grim picture if nothing changes. And of course, what they are urging is that things change. And that is to say that the amount of greenhouse gases is reduced. Right now the overall global temperatures around the world stand at about 1.2 degrees Celsius over the preindustrial age. And they are increase every year. If they get up to 2 degrees Celsius above the preindustrial age, that's to say they believe -- that the scientists think that you'll have these kind of events every two to five years. And they are urging their people adapt. Basically that there be better urban planning, better coordination between social services and hospitals. Better prediction of heatwaves. When they're arriving. And of course, the reduction of greenhouse gases is what they are urging the most -- Max.

FOSTER: Ok, Jim and Elinda, thank you both indeed for joining us.

Now a new study finds the risk of a deadly heart attack make double when people are exposed to extreme heat or cold and high levels of pollution. Researchers looked at more than 200,000 heart attack deaths in 2015 and 2020 in China. They say older people and women seem to be most at risk. They estimate almost 3 percent of heart attack deaths may be attributed to a combination of extreme temperatures and high levels of pollution.

Now is is not your average dust devil swirling through Arizona on Monday. That's according to a resident who posted this video of a remarkably large whirlwind. She wrote on Facebook that it was bigger than most dust devils that usually form in that area. You can see it here collecting dust from the bottom as it spins over the neighborhood. And they suspected a tornado left a lot of twisted metal behind after

destroyed a home and silos in Missouri on Monday. Fire and rescue personnel rushed to the scene and fortunately no one was injured incredibly.

Still to come, police continue the search of a murder suspect's home in New York. We'll have the latest on the investigation into the Gilgo Beach murders, just next.

[04:45:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE:

FOSTER: A Delta flight heading to New York from Italy had to be diverted due to severe weather. A passenger tells CNN they hit severe turbulence shortly after takeoff on Monday and heard hail hitting the plane. And this damages the nose of the aircraft. The passenger says the turbulence was like a roller coaster ride but the pilot kept everyone calm and landed the plane safely in Rome where passengers thankfully deplaned.

Authorities in Alabama are weighing charges against a woman who now admits her story about a kidnapping was a hoax. Carlee Russell's attorney provided a statement to police apologizing. The 26-year-old disappeared while she was driving home from work nearly two weeks ago. That prompted an intensive search. Russell turned up though at her home two days later. The police chief in Hoover, Alabama says he still doesn't know where she was.

New York police say they've had a, quote, fruitful search of the home of a man charged with at least three of the state's Gilgo Beach murders. A number of items have been taken away by police including unidentified items from a vault containing hundreds of firearms belonging to the suspect. CNN's Jean Casarez has more on the investigation.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JEAN CASAREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Police confirming that they have been using ground-penetrating radar technology and a back hoe to dig outside the home of serial-killing suspect Rex Heuermann to see if they can find anything of forensic value underneath that ground, perhaps more evidence of human remains.

RODNEY HARRISON, SUFFOLK COUNTY POLICE COMMISSIONER: It is a different type of technology that will help us be able to identify anything in that backyard that we need to take into our possession.

CASAREZ (voice-over): Authorities not ruling out today that Heuermann might be linked to more victims than the three murders he is currently charged with.

HARRISON: It's hard to say. Once again, this person's been at large for a long period of time. We'll see if there are any other victims on Ocean Parkway or anywhere else throughout Long Island.

CASAREZ (voice-over): Police will continue searching the home for at least one or two more days, the police commissioner told reporters. And investigators also note the importance of searching through the garage and attic as well. A law enforcement source confirmed to CNN.

BONNIE BEAUFORD, LONG ISLAND RESIDENT: I hope that they don't find something. But at the same token, I feel like it's just going to be more evidence on top of evidence for this guy.

CASAREZ (voice-over): Bonnie Beauford said Heuermann has been to a local grocery store she works at in the past.

BEAUFORD: That's what made me get intrigued with the whole storyline because I'm like then, I'd rarely seen. So, but I didn't suspect that he was doing that, but he looked like he could be up to something.

CASAREZ (voice-over): Investigators not ruling out other suspects in the killings.

SHERIFF ERROL TOULON, SUFFOLK COUNTY, NEW YORK: I think that this investigation is going to last as long as it takes to make sure that every piece of evidence that's gathered, every suspect, or if it's just Mr. Heuermann will be excluded or precluded from this investigation of possibly being a suspect.

CASAREZ (voice-over): The investigation spanning beyond New York to three other states, something the sheriff says was unexpected. The sheriff also noting that Heuermann has been stoic during his interactions in jail.

TOULON: If you think about someone that two weeks ago was walking around freely, he seemed very comfortable inside of the cell.

CASAREZ: Law enforcement says that they cannot confirm the victims were murdered inside the home but say that they have taken numerous articles of potential evidence. There will be testing on those. They also say that they will look into every crevice so as to not miss anything.

From Massapequa Park, New York, I'm Jean Casarez for CNN.

[04:50:00]

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FOSTER: Still to come, a desperate rescue in Texas after a baby is locked in a car in sweltering heat. Details just ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

FOSTER: Switzerland are taking on Norway right now in the Women's World Cup. Today's action takeoff with Colombia battling South Korea. Columbia won 2-nil and will face Germany on Sunday. And cohost New Zealand were hoping for a second historic victory to secure their spot in the knockout, but the Philippines weren't having it. They took an early 1-nil lead and hung on to it earning their first ever Women's World Cup victory.

And one of the worlds top footballers may be heading to Saudi Arabia. Multiple reports say that Saudi club Al Hilal has submitted a world record bid for more than $332 million for Kylian Mbappe. He still has a year left on his contract with Paris Saint Germain. Reports say PSG's owners are ready to accept the deal rather than let the 24-year- old striker walk for free next year. Landing Mbappe would be a huge boost to Saudi Arabia's efforts to create a competitive league.

And the stories in the spotlight this hour, a major cookie recall from Trader Joe's grocery stores because the packages may contain rocks. Sounds like a good way to crack a tooth. The cookie brands that may be affected are almond windmills and dark chocolate chunk and almond cookies.

[04:55:00]

Trader Joe's is urging customers to throw them out and return to the store for a full refund.

In Texas, an infant was rescued from a locked car after the toddlers parents accidentally left the keys in the vehicle with their baby still instead in sweltering heat. This TikTok video show the rescue unfolding. In the parking lot of the grocery store a man who the police identified as the father breaks the front of the windshield whilst a group of people helped him. And now according to the user who posted the video, a woman than climbed through the broken windshield and handed her baby to the father. No charges have been filed.

Britney Spears has hit another music master.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BRITNEY SPEARS, SINGER: Baby, can't you see I'm calling? A guy like you should wear a warning It's dangerous, I'm falling

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FOSTER: Her hit 2003 single "Toxic" has surpassed 1 billion streams on Spotify. Her first song to reach that mark. Spears joins other artists like Abba, Whitney Houston, DJ Khaled and the Billions Club. Spears recently announced the release of a new memoir called "The Woman In Need," due out in October.

Thanks for joining me here on CNN "Newsroom". I'm Max Foster in London. "Early Start" with Christine is up next here on CNN.

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