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America Votes; Environmental Crisis; Badge of Resistance. Aired 4:30-5a ET

Aired May 27, 2026 - 04:30   ET

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

[04:31:38]

POLO SANDOVAL, CNN ANCHOR: Everybody, let's get you caught up to speed on our top story at this hour. CNN's projecting that Ken Paxton will defeat incumbent John Cornyn of Texas in the Republican runoff for US Senate. The state attorney general will be facing State Representative James Talarico in the November general election. Talarico calling Paxton the most corrupt politician in America.

Meanwhile, John Cornyn will be leaving the Senate after 24 years in that seat. He spoke with his supporters in Austin following his defeat.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOHN CORNYN, US SENATE REPUBLICAN: I've spent most of my time in the Senate building the Republican Party in Texas and in the US Senate. And I've always supported the Republican ticket, and I intend to do so again in this general election.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANDOVAL: In the last hour, I spoke with Democratic strategist Meghan Hays and Republican strategist Katie Frost about Paxton's victory and whether his past controversies may give Talarico an edge.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KATIE FROST, REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST: What I will say about Ken Paxton, he is someone who has won three statewide elections and all of his alleged baggage, it's already out there. Everybody knows everything and they've continued to reelect this man. Whereas James Talarico has not had to face statewide scrutiny, he has not had to be on the national level and defend all of his radical past statements.

So I feel very confident that when voters get a chance to look at these two people, and not just look at what their own decisions are that have impacted their lives. But the decisions that these two men will make and the policies that they will advocate for and how it impacts the lives of Texas families. Voters are going to go with Ken Paxton every time.

SANDOVAL: Meghan, back to you. How can James Talarico aim for perhaps moderate Republicans that may be put off by Ken Paxton? Obviously, it is going to be far from easy in a state like Texas.

MEGHAN HAYS, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: I think he continues to talk about the actual issues that matter to people in Texas, and that's the economy. It always comes back to the economy. And Katie's right, he had some controversial statements that he's going to have to explain and he should have to explain those statements.

But what it really matters, the only issue that she mentioned was immigration. And those are things that she's going to have -- that he, sorry, is going to have to explain. But I think that when you actually talk to voters in Texas who are very, very concerned about how much they're paying for gas, and how much they are paying for groceries and their utility bills, they are going to look for something different.

They're not going to look for a morally bankrupt person who is literally impeached by his own party to be their representative in Congress. I think people are tired of the corrupt nature of politics and I think James Talarico gives them a fresh face.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANDOVAL: So let the race begin. President Trump is reporting another clean bill of health after his latest physical exam at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center. He went on social media and he posted that everything, "checked out perfectly" and he thanked the center staff.

This is Trump's third physical since January of last year when he became the oldest US President to be inaugurated. And it comes just a few weeks before his 80th birthday. The White House physician is expected to release that full report of the exam in the next day or two.

Protesters are denouncing conditions inside an ICE detention center in the state of New Jersey. Detainees are reportedly going on a hunger strike to protest what they describe as spoiled food, overcrowded rooms and also a lack of medical care. The US Department of Homeland Security, which largely runs that facility, is denying the allegations of abuse. Your CNN's Glory Pazmino with more.

[04:35:06]

GLORIA PAZMINO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, that's right. Protests have continued throughout Tuesday and we are now hearing from Newark Mayor Ras Baraka, who is calling for an investigation by the state attorney general of New Jersey, asking them to look into Delaney Hall and specifically the conditions that detainees are being held in.

This all started to escalate over the weekend after demonstrators showed up of Delaney Hall to sort of stage a protest in solidarity with detainees who have been holding a hunger strike for several days in order to call attention to conditions inside the immigration detention center. Now, we've heard from advocates as well as attorneys for those who have been detained inside Delaney Hall who tell us that detainees are being held in unacceptable conditions, including being served food that is expired and spoiled, being kept in cold rooms, a lack of access to medical care, as well as access to their attorneys and legal counsel.

So we have been seeing these escalations between demonstrators and law enforcement officials over the weekend. Demonstrators at one point tried to block a vehicle from leaving Delaney Hall after they found out that they were trying to transfer a detainee. We're told by advocates that they believe that law enforcement officers are retaliating both against the detainees who are in custody as well as those who have been staging protests for the past few days.

We've reached out to the Department of Homeland Security on this. They denied that there is a hunger strike going on inside the facility and said that protesters have tried blocking entrances to the facility.

Here's what the Department of Homeland Security said in part, "Our law enforcement followed their training and used a minimum amount of force necessary to protect themselves, the public and federal property. The First Amendment protects speech and peaceful assembly, not rioting. DHS is taking appropriate and constitutional measures to uphold the rule of law and protect our officers and the public from dangerous rioters."

We should also point out that Delaney Hall is a facility that sort of has had a history in the past year. This is the same facility where Congress, congressmen and local elected officials tried to get access to last year and were arrested in the process. We should also mention that New Jersey Governor Mikie Sherrill tried to gain access to the facility on Monday morning. She was denied.

We've since heard from local members of Congress who have been able to get inside the facility. Gloria Pazmino, CNN, New York.

SANDOVAL: Still ahead here on CNN NEWSROOM. The Dead Sea is slowly dying, but if you can agree on how to save the briny lake, what's behind this ecological crisis?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[04:41:17]

SANDOVAL: Welcome back. If you think it's hot where you are, there's a blistering heat wave that's been breaking temperature records across Western Europe. Some of those highs at times reaching 10 to 15 degrees Celsius above normal this week.

The UK is now perhaps getting some relief, but there is no cooldown yet for parts of France and also parts of Spain. Like many Italian cities, they are currently under health -- heat -- health alerts, I should say. And we are still just weeks away from the official start of the summer in the Northern hemisphere, so it's likely to get even worse perhaps.

Let's go to CNN's Barbie Latza Nadeau who joins me from Rome as she continues to bear this heat. Barbie, this isn't just unbearable, it's proven to be deadly in parts of Europe.

BARBIE LATZA NADEAU, CNN REPORTER: Yes, you know, this is really worrying. Obviously, you know, we're used to this kind of heat in Southern Europe in the height of summer in July and August, but we're talking about just the end of May here. And what's really interesting, I think so many of these tourists have already reconfigured their travel plans to avoid that high summer heat by coming to places like Italy and southern -- and Spain and Greece in May.

And now they're faced with this heat and it does become deadly, you know. There are a lot of places that don't have air conditioning. There are a lot of elderly people, vulnerable people, health wise, who just can't find the relief. And, you know, everybody says hydration play out of the sun.

But if you're in Rome for a couple of days, you want to see the Trevi Fountain behind me or the Colosseum. You want to be among these tourists who are suffering in this heat right now. And, you know, it's too early in the year really for them to have the sorts of situations in place. A lot of times they move in trees so that there are -- there's shade, they give away free water. None of that's in place yet because as you mentioned, summer hasn't really officially started here.

So what we're looking at is hopefully not a relentless summer season, you know, but it's starting pretty hot considering that we are not even into June yet and the hot season generally starts in July, which is, you know, a month, a little over a month away.

SANDOVAL: CNN's Barbie Latza Nadeau not only braving the heat, but also a very noisy crowd behind you. Barbie, thank you so much. Stay cool.

And in the lowest place on Earth, the Dead Sea is dying. The lake's water level has plummeted in recent years, leading to what one resident calls an ecological disaster. CNN's Jeremy Diamond reports from the Dead Sea.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Jake Benzaken is one of the only people licensed to operate a boat on the Dead Sea. And for the last 12 years, that's what he's done.

So you know it well?

JAKE BENZAKEN, LICENSED TO OPERATE A BOAT ON THE DEAD SEA: Yes, I got to see all the faces.

DIAMOND: Giving him an unparalleled view of one of Earth's natural wonders, and the fast moving environmental disaster threatening its existence.

BENZAKEN: So every year we get about new 7.5m of new shoreline because the sea is dropping.

DIAMOND: The Dead Sea is dying. Its surface area has shrunk by about one third in the last 50 years. Its salt-encrusted shores now stand as a testament to the rapid pace of change. BENZAKEN: This is last year, two years ago. Every step, it's a year.

DIAMOND: Each step shows how much the sea level has dropped from one year to the next, at a rate of about 4ft per year, like nothing else in the world. Dr. Yael Kiro has been studying the Dead Sea for over a decade.

There's no other place on earth like the Dead Sea.

YAEL KIRO, GEOCHEMIST, WEIZMANN INSTITUTE OF SCIENCE: no, no.

DIAMOND: To understand why it is shrinking and what can be done about it.

[04:45:03]

KIRO: The main reason is because of the utilization of the water resources around the Dead Sea. This contributes around 60 percent of the drop. And then there is the Dead Sea factories, both the Jordanian and the Israelis, that pump directly the brine and evaporate it in order to extract minerals. And they contribute about 40 percent for the late level drops

DIAMOND: Israel's Dead Sea works and Jordan's Arab Potash Company pump tens of billions of gallons of water out of the Dead Sea each year, evaporating much of that water to extract potash and magnesium, key fertilizer ingredients. Some who want to save the Dead Sea have proposed building a pipeline and pumping water in from the Red Sea. Others advocate for replenishing the Jordan River, allowing the water to flow naturally into the Dead Sea.

But while ideas abound, government action is still missing. The impact isn't just environmental, it's also financial. This graveyard of palm trees and graffiti buildings was once a thriving beach resort. The road leading to it explains why it's been abandoned.

Tourists used to take this road all the time to get to the Dead Sea, but now sinkholes like this one line its path, and the whole area has been abandoned. And the concern is that more sinkholes will continue to happen as the Dead Sea drops and tourism will be severely impacted.

These sinkholes are caused by an underground layer of salt that is now dissolving.

This sinkhole is a direct result of the Dead Seawater levels dropping?

KIRO: Yes, since the lake level started to drop, this salt layer, instead of being exposed to the Dead Sea brine, it is exposed to more fresh water, and then eventually you get collapse.

DIAMOND: Aboard his boat, Benzaken says he sees new evidence of the Dead Sea's man made decay every day. The uncertainty it spells for its future and his own.

What do you call all of this? I mean, what we're witnessing, the way in which it's sinking, how do you qualify all of it? BENZAKEN: You can say an ecological disaster, you know, because it is. And it's also a demographical disaster because it is. And it's also one of the wonders of the world, because it is, you know, I qualify it as home.

DIAMOND: Jeremy Diamond, CNN, the Dead Sea.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SANDOVAL: Argentina has seized more than 700 exotic marine animals in what authorities they are calling a major wildlife trafficking case. They're saying that 102 species were recovered at an airport in Buenos Aires, including pufferfish, lionfish, starfish, and they were headed for the exotic pet trade, according to investigators. Some showed severe signs of stress in fact, many of them were already dead after days in transit and being held in an airport cargo terminal. Just awful. A conservation group which is caring for the animals that survived, they say that this is now the third seizure it has handled in less than a year.

Well, the cockroach may not be the most conventional political symbol, but Indian youths are rallying around it amid growing discontents in their country. We'll explain in a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[04:52:16]

SANDOVAL: State officials in Nevada and Arizona, they transformed the Hoover Dam into a patriotic powerhouse to honor Memorial Day in the US Monday's ceremony featured an American flag that measured 300ft wide by 150ft tall. You see it illuminated there?

The display also incorporated over 550 LED lights that were actually powered by the dam's own hydroelectricity that it produced. It will be viewable every evening through the 4th of July as part of the Road to America 250, the initiative dubbed Great American Road Trip that encourages people to explore the nation's history, scenery and culture.

The Nevada governor echoing that message during his remarks.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE LOMBARDO, NEVADA GOVERNOR: Nearly a century ago, thousands of workers came to the Nevada Arizona border to build something extraordinary. And doing so, they helped build the modern American West.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANDOVAL: The US civil rights movement is remembering a key figure. Clarence B. Jones, a former speechwriter and confidant of the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. has died. His family says that he died Friday in California with his loved ones by his side. As King's personal attorney, Jones was deeply involved in some of the most pivotal moments of the civil rights movement.

He is credited with smuggling pages of King's letter from Birmingham jail out of his cell and also crafting many of Dr. King's speeches, including his most famous, "|I have a Dream," which was delivered on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial during the march on Washington on August 28, 1963.

His family says that Jones lived a life of conscience. He was 95.

Following controversial comments from one of India's most senior legal officials, young people in India have found an unlikely symbol to rally around, The Cockroach.

CNN's Rhea Mogul investigating what's behind this curious new political movement.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RHEA MOGUL, CNN REPORTER: The Cockroach has become an unlikely symbol of resistance in India after the country's chief justice lit up a firestorm.

SURYA KANT, CHIEF JUSTICE OF INDIA: There are youngsters like cockroaches. They don't get any employment. They don't have any place in profession.

MOGUL: He later clarified he was talking about people who entered certain professions using fake degrees. But by then, the remarks had sparked a viral protest movement. Gen Z flipped the insult into a badge of resistance, launching the Cockroach Janta Party.

The party's mascot has appeared across social media and news channels.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It started off as a meme.

DIAMOND: Its Instagram has blown past 22 million followers, more than Prime Minister Modi's BJP, who have 9.3 million. The party calls itself the voice of the lazy and unemployed.

[04:55:10]

But behind the humor is real frustration.

ABHIJEET DIPKE, FOUNDER, COCKROACH JANTA PARTY: One should know where does cockroach exist? They exist in a place which is rotten. So is the system so rotten that the cockroaches are coming out in such a huge number? We have to think about that.

MOGUL: India's youth, age 15 to 29, is the largest in the world and they're growing increasingly more educated and ambitious. But nearly 40 percent of graduates aged 25 and younger are unemployed, according to a recent report.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They are raising the issues of the nations.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think it was a very nice comeback and the way the Cockroach Janta Party have put the point of view of this youth is very different and I think I'm enjoying it.

MOGUL: Last week, the Cockroach Janta Party's X handle was made inaccessible in India, with the platform citing a legal demand. Shortly after, the party emerged with a new handle, Cockroach is Back.

CNN has contacted India's Ministry of Information and Broadcasting X and the BJP for a response. What began as satire has become a rebellion. Rhea Mogul, CNN.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SANDOVAL: I'm Polo Sandoval in New York. Our coverage continues with CNN HEADLINE EXPRESS in a moment.

[05:00:00]