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CNN This Morning
Pope Francis Delivers Easter Sunday Address; Airlines Plan Schedule Cuts Amid Air Traffic Control Shortage; 2023 Storm Season Battering U.S. Cities; Tiger Woods Withdraws from the Masters Due to Injury; Giving Birth May be More Dangerous Depending on Where you Live; Israel Strikes Targets In Syria After Rocket Fire; Holy Ceremonies Held In Jerusalem Amid Regional Unrest; Jordan Warns Of "Catastrophic Consequences" If Israeli Forces Storm Al-Aqsa Mosque Again; Pence Praise TX Abortion Ruling, Republicans Stay Mostly Quiet; Biden Expected To Visit Ancestral Homes During Ireland Trip. Aired 7- 8a ET
Aired April 09, 2023 - 07:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[07:00:00]
ANDY SCHOLES, CNN SPORTS ANCHOR: He said after play was called yesterday, not concerned about having to play 29 holes today in order to win the Masters. Tiger Woods, meanwhile, making history yesterday, narrowly made his 23rd straight cut, tying him with Fred Couples and Gary Player for the most ever.
Tiger, though, looking rather miserable in his third round. He hit it in the water on 15 and 16. Has two bogeys, two double bogeys so far is in last place amongst the players who have made the cut.
Guys, play as we mentioned, resumes 8:30 Eastern for round three. Final round expected to start around 12:30 Eastern. They're going to go off in pairs from split tees holds one and 10.
VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN ANCHOR: All right, Andy, thank you so much.
SCHOLES: All right.
BLACKWELL: All right. Eva Longoria continues her culinary adventure in Oaxaca. The new episode of the CNN Original Series, "Eva Longoria Searching for Mexico" airs tonight at 9:00 on CNN. The next hour of CNN This Morning starts right now.
BLACKWELL: Good morning to you. Welcome to CNN This Morning. It's Sunday, April 9. I'm Victor Blackwell.
AMARA WALKER, CNN ANCHOR: I'm Amara Walker. Thank you so much for spending apart of your Easter morning with us. Happy Easter, if you celebrate.
I've got my Easter egg hunt ready. I got the Easter baskets ready because the Easter bunny came last night.
BLACKWELL: Yes. WALKER: So the kids are all excited for their goodies.
BLACKWELL: Yes.
WALKER: And ready to go.
BLACKWELL: You know the only goodie that I had, I picked up the kettle corn peeps.
WALKER: I saw that.
BLACKWELL: Yes.
WALKER: Did you really eat that?
BLACKWELL: I bit a peep head off.
WALKER: And?
BLACKWELL: And that's all I had.
WALKER: OK. Yes.
BLACKWELL: That's the full commentary on the kettle corn peeps.
WALKER: (INAUDIBLE) into me.
BLACKWELL: No too much.
WALKER: All right, here is what we are watching this morning. A weekend of religious celebrations and escalating tensions in the Middle East. The Israeli military has carried out retaliatory attacks in Syrian territory. We are live in Jerusalem with the latest.
BLACKWELL: Top Democrats are vowing to make abortion a central issue in the lead up to the 2024 election after a judge ordered the suspension of a drug use in medication abortions. What Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer is telling his caucus about that fight ahead.
WALKER: Pope Francis has just finished leading Easter mass at the Vatican. His message to his faithful amid conflicts around the world this Easter Sunday.
BLACKWELL: And the summer travel season could be off to a rough start before it even begins. Why airlines are cutting flights at some of the country's largest airports? It's all coming up this morning on CNN.
Now, this is one of the holiest times of the year, but violence in Israel is threatening to overshadow what should be a time of peace and celebration. But Easter Sunday Mass, the Passover priestly blessing and prayers during Ramadan, they are all happening today.
WALKER: But this morning, Israel says it has launched strikes into Syria. The Israel Defense Forces, releasing video it says shows strikes on a Syrian military compound, radar systems and artillery posts. Now, Israel says it launched the strikes after rockets were fired from Syria toward Israeli controlled territory.
CNN Salma Abdelaziz joining us now from Jerusalem. Salma, what are you seeing now?
SALMA ABDELAZIZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Absolutely, you mentioned those rockets coming from Syria in the retaliation from Israel. The real thing to take away from that is just that this conflict is widening. This area of escalation, area of tension, if you will, is growing.
Already, you had rockets and retaliatory strikes on Gaza, southern Lebanon as well, involved now, Syria coming into the conflict, coming into the fray as well. In all of this, taking place on a day where there is an absolute hive of activity within the walls of that old city. Three different religious holidays, three different faith groups celebrating, observing those religious holidays all at once.
You do, of course, have Easter mass taking place. You also had prayers, very important prayer during the Passover happening on the Western Wall today. And then at Temple Mount or the Noble Sanctuary, as it's known to Muslims, Muslims were praying, carrying out overnight prayers as is tradition during the holy month of Ramadan.
All of this, of course, under a heightened security presence. I want to give you a little bit more about what was happening there again at that flashpoint, Al-Aqsa complex. Overnight, there seemed to be a moment of tension where Israeli authorities accused youth of barricading themselves inside the mosque.
Jordan, which is the manager, the protector, if you will, of the Al- Aqsa Mosque complex was quick to respond to those accusations, warning Israeli police not to enter the mosque. Because, remember, that's what started this latest spat and Israeli police raid on the mosque on Wednesday, warning them not to enter the mosque unless -- otherwise there would be catastrophic consequences.
Thankfully, the night passed peacefully. There are eyewitness accounts, though, from some Muslims saying this morning they could not access that mosque complex while Jewish worshippers were entering, passing through under a heavy police presence. But again, that occurred peacefully, occurred largely without incident.
[07:05:12]
But again, you have to remember all of these religious events, all of this sensitivity taking place at a time where you have escalating tensions. And again, it's all about that flashpoint complex, all about the Noble Sanctuary as it's known to Muslims, the Temple Mount as it's known to Jews. Anything that unfolds there, any incident that takes place there, as you see, it has the ability, it has the means, really, to escalate and bring the entire region with it.
WALKER: Yes, seems like quite a precarious situation. Salma Abdelaziz, thank you very much.
Now Israel has launched strikes into southern Lebanon, saying it was responding to rocket fire from that area. BLACKWELL: Israeli forces insist they targeted militant sites, but as CNN Scott McLean reports, the attacks caused damage to a local farming town.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SCOTT MCLEAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): About an hour south of Beirut, the yellow flags of Israel's sworn enemy, the Lebanese militant and political group Hezbollah, is the first sign that the Jewish state doesn't have many friends here. After the police raid on the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem, outrage came in the form of almost three dozen rockets fired across the border from southern Lebanon, where Palestinian refugee camps have for decades sheltered tens of thousands of displaced people.
On Friday, Israel responded, targeting the weapons and the Palestinian militant groups they say launch them.
(on-camera): This is an irrigation channel running through this banana field. This used to be a bridge over top of it, leading to a hotel by the sea. It obviously took a direct hit. Locals say the force was so intense that it shook their homes. They also insist that this would not have been a good place to store weapons.
(voice-over): The aftermath attracted a crowd of local residents and farmhands, among them Halel Elrae (ph), who makes no apologies for the rockets fired at Israel.
This is a response, he says. This, at the very least, is a message that we as the Lebanese people stand for resistance.
Do you want peace with Israel? I asked him. Of course not, he says. Just down the road, though, it is a much different story. Abdulhalad Abdulsatur (ph), a Syrian refugee, shows us the shrapnel he's collected from the blast that left a hole in the roof of his farmhouse. His kids were sleeping here at the time.
Me, my wife and young kids, he says, I couldn't calm them down. We left Syria to flee the shelling, and now this. He walked us through the orange grove, past more and more disturbed earth.
(on-camera): The house that was hit by shrapnel is about 200 yards away from here. It seems far until you see the size of the crater.
Abdulsatur (ph) says there were no weapons here. Incredibly, the only living casualties were the orange trees, some ripped apart at the trunk. Hezbollah has not claimed responsibility for any of the rockets fired from Lebanon, neither has any Palestinian armed group. The Lebanese army vowed to stop the attacks and located and dismantled several rocket launchers and rockets hidden amongst the hillsides and terrorist orchards.
On Saturday, they found one more, though no sign a new attack was on the way, at least for now.
Scott McLean, CNN in southern Lebanon. (END VIDEOTAPE)
BLACKWELL: Scott, thanks for that report.
Joining me now is Ron Dermer, Israel's Minister of Strategic Affairs. Mr. Dermer, good to have you on this morning. Let's start at the beginning and go to --
RON DERMER, ISRAEL'S FOREIGN MINISTER OF STRATEGIC AFFAIRS: Good be with you, Victor, and Happy Easter.
BLACKWELL: Thank you.
DERMER: Happy Easter to you and all your Christian viewers. Happy Passover to the Jewish viewers. And Ramadan Kareem to all your Muslim viewers. And fortunately, today, in Jerusalem, all three faiths were able to practice and worship freely without incident.
BLACKWELL: Thank you very much for that. And Happy Passover to you.
Let me start with Wednesday and the Israeli police raids on the Al- Aqsa Mosque. There was, as Salma mentioned, this warning from the Jordanian foreign minister who says, if there is another raid there, as there were people there overnight that happened, they left peacefully, there would be catastrophic consequences. Why was there an Israeli action there, a police action anyway, that the Jordanians are the custodians of this, that's a violation of status quo?
DERMER: It's not a violation of the status quo. Israel is responsible for security on that side, and it's important for your viewers to understand that for about two weeks before, we had tens of thousands of Muslims who prayed there without incident. What happened on the night where Israeli police were forced to go in was you had about 300 young men who were masked and who armed themselves with rocks, with incendiary explosives, and with weapons.
[07:10:07]
And what they were trying to do the next morning, as non-Jews and Jews were going to go and visit the Temple Mount, they were planning to attack them and to actually have Muslim worshippers, it could have been thousands of them on the Temple Mount, they could have been innocent bystanders in this attack.
And so, the Israeli police decided to go in and to make sure that they could remove those armed -- they weren't praying in Al-Aqsa Mosque, they were there in order to incite and to perpetrate violent attacks. And so, our police went in there and remove those people and then enabled the next day for Muslims to go to that site and to pray peacefully.
Unfortunately, this was taken by a lot of people to mean that Israel simply just stormed and raided the mosque without incident. Those of you who have seen the videos, you may have noticed that there were fireworks that were launched inside the mosque, that was not done by the Israeli police, that was done by Muslim worshippers. Now, what peaceful worshippers -- what peaceful worshippers would actually use fireworks and desecrate the mosque? That's unfortunately what happened. I think it was a desecration to Muslims throughout the world. But Israel was not responsible for it.
Those violent young men who came in who were trying to perpetrate these attacks, these terror attacks against innocent civilians, they were responsible for it and the police had to go in, and they did it, by the way, without killing anybody, without sending anyone to the hospital. And unfortunately, this was used as a provocation to stir up violence in Gaza, in Lebanon, in Syria and elsewhere.
BLACKWELL: Well, Mr. Dermer what -- what's your response to --
DERMER: And that's unfortunate. And I think the media should make sure that it's presenting the full picture of what happened where we're trying to defend lives, not just Jewish lives --
BLACKWELL: Sure.
DERMER: -- Muslim lives and Christian lives in a very, very combustible place.
BLACKWELL: Mr. Dermer, what's your response to the Jordanian foreign minister who says that if Israeli police go back into that mosque for another action that there will be catastrophic consequences?
DERMER: Well, what we can't do as these -- as Israel, who is responsible for security on the site, we cannot allow innocent civilians to be killed by violent terrorists who would barricade themselves into the Al-Aqsa Mosque. That is not a policy that we would be able to adapt -- to adopt. We do not want to go in there. It is the last thing.
Unfortunately, today, Victor, we didn't have to go in because the people who went in there did not go there, according to our intelligence, to perpetrate violence. And so, therefore, there was no incidents. It's very rare when Israeli police have to go into the Al- Aqsa compound.
I think it's happened three times in the last half dozen years. It is the last thing we want to do. But we also have a responsibility to protect our civilians, to protect Muslim worshippers, to protect Jews and non-Jews who go to the Temple Mount, which is part of the status quo.
We cannot allow those violent young men who are masked and we're armed to perpetrate those attacks, because then you'll have a situation that will be infinitely worse than the pictures that you saw on Wednesday.
BLACKWELL: Let me ask you about the condemnation from Bahrain, from the UAE, who say that what happened there -- you say it, was protecting Jews and non-Jews, they condemned it. Are you risking the Abraham Accords and what was accomplished over the last several years with some of your neighbors? DERMER: No, I don't think so. I think they know the truth. We're in close contact with them. I think they understand it. But when there's -- when people get whipped up into a frenzy, when they're shown 15- second of a clip instead of the whole story, a lot of people jumped to conclusions. I think it's a mistake.
And I think here, it's very important for people to present the full picture and actually to put the pressure on Jordan, on the Waqf, the religious authorities who control the Al-Aqsa compound to make sure they do not allow violent people to enter it, which can endanger Muslims, Jews, Christians and everyone else who wants to come to this very, very sensitive area. But I have no doubt that our relations with our peace partners are strong and they're going to continue to get stronger in the future.
BLACKWELL: Let me ask you about these protests that happened again over the weekend to the judicial reforms. Does the prime minister still support the full slate, these four pieces of legislation, these proposals in whole? I mean, he said, that there should be a pause for dialogue, or does he believe that this is the time for some compromise?
DERMER: Well, he definitely believes that this is a time for compromise, and that's why he suspended the legislation. The president of Israel is now bringing the parties together in the hope that we can forge that compromise, and that's what we'd like to see happen.
Look, people in Israel are seriously divided over this issue. There are people who think that if you don't have judicial reform, its -- it endangers Israel's democracy. There are people who think if you do have judicial reform, it endangers Israel's democracy. I think it's important to get everyone in the room together and to try to forge a compromise. That's exactly what the prime minister wants to do.
[07:15:03]
And I think that the problem, Victor, is that there may be people outside of Israel who think that because of this division, Israel is not going to stand united and defend itself against their aggression. They are wrong. They are dead wrong. Israel will stand united, and we will push back against anyone who is trying to harm our citizens, whether it comes from Gaza, whether it comes from Lebanon, whether it comes from Syria.
And there's an invisible hand behind all of this, which is important to understand, your viewers to understand, and that is Iran, which is trying to stir the pot against Israel, is trying to put a noose around Israel's neck in Syria, Lebanon, Gaza, Yemen.
BLACKWELL: But these proposals -- Mr. Dermer, let me interrupt one second.
DERMER: And it's a very, very dangerous actor in the region --
BLACKWELL: These proposals didn't come from Iran. DERMER: -- and I was pleased --
BLACKWELL: These proposals didn't come from Iran. These proposals came from the Likud Party, they came from and were proposed and supported --
DERMER: I'm not talking about the proposals.
BLACKWELL: But that's what -- that's my -- that's what my question is about. My question is about if those proposals, if the prime minister still believes and supports them in full, you say it's a time for compromise to get everybody in a room, why didn't that happen before there were tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands of people protesting for days?
DERMER: Well, we had an election in Israel several months ago, as you know. There's a mandate to push forward with judicial reform. There's obviously people in Israel who were opposed to that reform, and the prime minister made a decision, which rarely happens in democratic countries, where elected leaders have a mandate to do with their voters want them to do.
At the precipice of actually passing this legislation, he decided to suspend it, and he decided to give a chance to have a compromise and to have a discussion. I think that Israel's internal divisions have been misinterpreted. This is why I caught -- I talked about Iran. Misinterpreted by our enemies, and maybe they think this is a time to attack Israel.
Believe me, Israel will stand united and will defend itself against that aggression. I have no doubt that we will stand together and confront anyone who tries to endanger our country and endanger our civilians.
BLACKWELL: You suggested that the country is standing together, that the state of Israel is standing together, but these pictures show that there is a lot of division, especially on these proposals. I want to ask you about the influence of President Biden --
DERMER: Well, the picture show --
BLACKWELL: Let me finish. Let me finish the question.
DERMER: Victor --
BLACKWELL: Let me finish the question.
DERMER: Victor, the picture. I'll -- just a second.
BLACKWELL: Go ahead.
DERMER: The picture shows that there's protests, because Israel is a democracy.
BLACKWELL: Yes. DERMER: There were pictures in Iran a few months ago when you saw protests and the government was killing the protesters, that's the difference between the democratic state and a non-democratic state. All it means is that Israel is a vibrant, healthy democracy. We were a democracy. We are a democracy. And whether these reforms pass or don't pass, whatever compromise we reach, Israel will continue to be a democracy.
BLACKWELL: Sure. We're not comparing in this conversation Israel and Iran. My context here is about, you say that this is showing that Israel will stand united, but the pictures -- and let's put them back up so that we see just, over the last 24 hours, the thousands of people who were out protesting this proposal, you say this shows unity. These are people who are saying they do not want the proposal that has been put forth. You say there's a time for compromise.
And my question is, what influence does the U.S. have over this? President Biden said that there is no near-term plan to invite Prime Minister Netanyahu to the White House. He says that any judicial changes should have broad public support. Does this proposal, from your opinion, former ambassador to the U.S., strain, weaken the Israeli relationship with the United States?
DERMER: No. I don't think it does. And what I said, Victor, is not that those pictures show unity, it shows freedom. It shows that we're a free society and people have different views about different issues. You have protests in the United States all the time, from people on different sides of the aisle who are for or against this particular policy.
There's no question that the U.S. relationship with Israel is rock solid. It will continue to be rock solid under President Biden. I have no doubt about that. I was very pleased to see that the White House put out a strong statement backing Israel's right to defend itself, as did other allies in Europe.
And I saw also, just in the last 24 hours, that the United States has pulled -- has pushed the submarines into the region to send, I think, a clear deterrent message to Iran and to Iran's proxies that if they attack the United States, Israel, its allies, that that would be a very, very grave mistake. So, I think the U.S.'s relationship is very strong and will continue to be strong in the future.
BLACKWELL: Ron Dermer, thank you so much for your time this morning.
DERMER: Thank you.
WALKER: Supporters of abortion rights are furious this morning over the ruling to block a medication abortion pill .Former Speaker Nancy Pelosi called it an outrageous attack on women's health freedom. She tweeted, in part, "Republicans will never rest in their cruel, tyrannical quest to disrespect a woman's right to choose."
Former Vice President Mike Pence praised the ruling out of Texas, but he stood out from the GOP, from his response -- for his response, as most Republicans remained silent on the issue. CNN's Alayna Treene has more.
[07:20:09]
ALAYNA TREENE, CNN POLITICAL REPORTER: Democrats immediately started railing against the court's decision once it was announced. And some, like Senator Ron Wyden and Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, went so far as to say that President Biden should ignore the ruling altogether.
Now, Republican lawmakers, meanwhile, have been far less outspoken and many have been virtually silent on the issue. And that's something that Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer pointed out on a press call Saturday morning. Here's what he had to say.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CHUCK SCHUMER (D), SENATE MAJORITY LEADER: I think the Republicans know that their decisions, the Dobbs decision, this court decision, are wildly unpopular with the American people. They're probably, at least on some of the survey data, unpopular with a large number of Republicans. So what they -- they are afraid to speak out, but that is outrageous.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TREENE: Now, I will argue that Schumer's press call was on a Saturday during a holiday weekend, so I'm not sure how many Republicans were actually paying close attention to him. But Schumer's point was valid. This is very tricky territory for Republicans to navigate.
Abortion in the wake of the Dobbs decision has not been a winning message for them, and we saw that very clearly in the 2022 midterm elections. As for what Congress can do, they don't have many options. The bills that they want to pass are essentially dead on arrival. They can and have already begun applying pressure on the Biden administration to appeal the ruling.
But legislatively, there really isn't much that Congress can do. Schumer has said, however, that Senate Democrats remain committed to passing the Women's Health Protection Act, which is a bill aimed at preserving abortion access nationwide. But that legislation failed to pass last year due to the balance of power in Congress and remains unlikely to pass now, given Republicans control the House and Democrats have a narrow majority in the Senate.
Victor, Amara?
WALKER: Alayna Treene, thank you.
This week, Joe Biden will depart on his first presidential trip to the Emerald Isle.
BLACKWELL: White House officials announced the President will embark in a four-day excursion, stopping first to visit Belfast in Northern Ireland before making his way to his ancestral home of the Republic of Ireland. CNN's Jasmine Wright is at the White House with more details. So tell us more about the President's trip and the reason for the travel.
JASMINE WRIGHT, CNN WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Yes, Victor. Well, this trip will be part personal, part policy. We know it is one that the President is looking forward to. He said previously that nothing can keep him away from it, even as some violence has happened recently in the region.
Still, though, we know that being an Irish-Catholic man is an important part of President Biden's identity. He talks about it a lot, and so this trip will be a perfect place for him to showcase it. Now, on the policy side, you're right. He'll visit Belfast on Wednesday, where he will mark the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement that aimed to end conflict in Northern Ireland.
The last time that a U.S. president made that trip was in 2013 with President Obama. And then he'll head to Ireland, where he will give remarks, the White House said, really talking about the relationship deep historic ties that the U.S. and Ireland have and also the global shared challenges.
Then it turns to the personal side of it. President Biden will meet with distant relatives that still live in Ireland, the White House said, and will visit places that are important to his ancestral family history around the country. Now, even though this is a trip abroad, it will be an important way for the president to connect to American voters here at home, because it's going to be a way for him to really reintroduce himself as an Irish man with those working class roots ahead of what we expect to be his reelection bid.
So an important trip for the president here. And then he has the United Kingdom, where he will meet with the new king after the White House announced that he would not be attending the coronation later on this spring. But before all that, Victor and Amara, we will see the president return here to the White House.
This Easter Sunday after spending the weekend at the presidential retreat Camp David. And then on Monday, he will have the annual Easter egg roll, where our colleague Betsy Klein reported that the White House is set to unveil a new bunny suit that we're told will be excellent.
BLACKWELL: OK.
WALKER: Maybe Victor needs to go unveil his, right?
BLACKWELL: No, no, no, no.
WALKER: Bunny ears. OK, find your bunny ears.
WRIGHT. I want to see it.
BLACKWELL: Wear a bunny suit once in college, and then you're that for the rest of your life. Right.
WALKER: Thank you, Jasmine. Good to see you.
Well, Pope Francis just finished Easter Sunday mass at the Vatican. His message for those marking the holiday around the world amid conflicts in Europe and the Middle East.
BLACKWELL: Some airlines are slashing flights ahead of what's expected to be a busy summer travel season. We got to look at the airlines and the cities where we're likely to see the biggest impact and why some experts say this is the right move.
WALKER: Plus, there have been 500 tornado reports so far this year. We'll explain why this year's severe weather has been so deadly and destructive.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[07:29:01]
BLACKWELL: Christians gathered in Vatican City this morning to watch Pope Francis celebrate the Easter mass from St. Peter's Square.
WALKER: And his Urbi et Orbi blessing, the Pope prayed for the people of Ukraine and asked that the light of Easter shine on the people of Russia.
CNN's Delia Gallagher is covering the story from Rome. Delia, the Pope mentioning quite a few conflicts around the world.
DELIA GALLAGHER, CNN VATICAN CORRESPONDENT: Well, that's right, Amara. You know, the pope looked in good spirits today for this Easter mass. A beautiful morning here. 100,000 people in the square, according to the Vatican and on the surrounding streets for the Urbi et Orbi to the city and to the world.
He spoke about some of the things he said. I'll add a few others. He also mentioned his deep concern, he said, for the recent attacks in Jerusalem and called for renewed dialogue between Israelis and Palestinians. He spoke about conflicts in many other places in the world. Syria, Lebanon, mentioned the Rohingya of Myanmar and many countries in Africa, including south Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo, which are two countries that he just at the end of January.
[07:30:00]
Now, you'll notice that the pope is not able to get around so well anymore. He is using a wheelchair. He cannot stand for long periods of time. That's why he doesn't say mass. So, certainly, his knee problem, for which he does not want to get an operation, he said he doesn't like the anesthetic for an operation, is a concern. However, we have seen him at these events in the last week with a strong voice, suggesting at least he seems to have recovered well from his bronchitis. Amara.
WALKER: All right. That is a little bit of good news. Thank you so much, Delia Gallagher.
Coming up, a shortage of air traffic controllers has major airlines considering summer schedule cuts. We'll explain next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN NEWSROOM ANCHOR: The FAA is taking a hard look at what is behind the recent uptick in near collisions on airport runways. One factor they've identified, a significant understaffing of air traffic controllers.
[07:05:00]
The facility controlling busy airspace in New York is staffed at just 54 percent. Across the country, it's 81 percent staff.
WALKER: So, they've come up with a temporary solution, and it could impact your summer plans. The FAA is asking airliners to cut back on their summer service, which means fewer flights in some of the nation's busiest hubs. CNN's Pete Muntean has more.
PETE MUNTEAN, CNN AVIATION CORRESPONDENT: This is a big admission by the FAA trying to avoid cancelations and delays this summer by having airlines scale back on the number of flights into some of America's busiest airports. American Airlines says it's going to do it. Delta and JetBlue both say that they are considering it. The bottom line here is this air traffic control shortage means that passengers will pay.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MUNTEAN (voiceover): The latest challenge for your next trip is not enough air traffic controllers to keep flights moving. In a new notice, the Federal Aviation Administration is allowing airlines to scale back summer service at New York's three main airports, warning staffing shortfalls could amplify delays by 45 percent.
RICHARD SANTA, PRESIDENT, NATIONAL AIR TRAFFIC CONTROLLERS ASSOCIATION: We need more controllers.
MUNTEAN (voiceover): Richard Santa of the National Air Traffic Controllers Association says staffing shortages swelled during the pandemic, due in part to retirements and a hiring freeze. A union analysis shows the number of air traffic controllers has dropped 10 percent in the last decade, the FAA says nationwide two in every 10 controller jobs are empty. A key air traffic control facility in New York is roughly one half staffed
SANTA: We are critically staffed in most of our air traffic control facilities.
MUNTEAN (voiceover): The new admission comes after airlines delayed more than a half million flights last summer and put some of the blame on the FAA.
SCOTT KIRBY, UNITED AIRLINES CEO: It was tight before the pandemic, and it -- they don't have enough people today, and they need more.
BILLY NOLAN, ACTING ADMINISTRATOR, FAA: We are continuing to hire. MUNTEAN (voiceover): FAA acting administrator, Billy Nolan, says the agency plans to add 1,500 new controllers this year and 1,800 next year. The agency says last June it was flooded with almost 58,000 applications to become an air traffic controller, though it's training academy remains backlogged. The relief can't come soon enough for airlines and passengers with another huge travel rush on the horizon system.
SHARON PINKERTON, AIRLINES INDUSTRY REPRESENTATIVE: The system doesn't have the capacity. We don't have enough air traffic controllers.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MUNTEAN (on camera): American Airlines says it's contacting passengers who will be inconvenienced by those scheduled changes. Delta and JetBlue both say they'll decide later this month what schedule changes those airlines will make. There is one way out here for the airlines to try and make this less inconvenient for you, a procedure called up gauging where they swap out a flight with a larger airplane. But really, this all comes down to less convenience for passengers, meaning fewer seats and maybe higher fares.
Pete Muntean, CNN Reagan National Airport.
WALKER: Thanks, Pete, for putting a damper on my summer travel plans. CNN Transportation Analyst Mary Schiavo joining us now to talk more about this. So, Mary, yes, cutting flight schedules during the busy summer season, obviously, it's going to cost us as passengers. It's going to cost airlines. But look, the FAA is being proactive and you say that's a good move.
MARY SCHIAVO, CNN TRANSPORTATION ANALYST AND FORMER INSPECTOR GENERAL, USDOT: That is. I mean, for once, the FAA is taking some action that it has to take. Now, remember, what kicked all this off was not just the shortage, but what the shortage was doing to our air safety. What was happening is that the major airports, we call them the core 30 airports, those are the busiest airports and they account for a great majority of the traffic in the United States. A lot of air traffic goes into these airports.
But some of them, we were seeing near collisions. We call them near misses, but it's a near collision, and, you know first, the FAA said, oh, we don't know what's causing this giant uptick, and it's an alarming uptick in these near collisions. And finally, they said, well, we don't have enough air traffic controllers, and there's only one solution until we get more, and that is to put more distance between the aircraft. And at these busy airports, the only way to put more distance between the aircraft is to reduce the number of aircraft you have a peak times.
So, this is really a safety measure. And, yes, it's going to be terribly inconvenient. But passengers are going to have to be very proactive. Take the first flight of the day. Then, if you get, you know, tied up on the tarmac, you've got some leeway and try to get a nonstop, so you don't have to change plans. WALKER: We've been hearing about these shortages with air traffic controllers for some time, especially with these near collisions, not near misses, as you say. Is there more to it than, you know, that the cuts that we saw during the pandemic and trying to refill these jobs? I mean, is there just lesser interest in people -- in the air traffic controller positions?
SCHIAVO: No, there's great interest because the position -- the average air traffic controller -- this is average, this is not the high peak high workload areas, make 130,000 a year. But the FAA has a lot of restrictions that they want people under 30. They have provisions where you are -- they want you to retire at age 56. They have all these provisions and then also, you don't have to go to the FAA academy, you can go to many colleges, have air traffic controller training. So, there are lots of ways to get on board.
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But once you're on board as an air traffic controller, the problem is you have a long learning curve? The FAA likes to say, you're in training for a year, even after you're trained. So, the problem is that they should have been training even through the pandemic. During the pandemic, they cut their hiring in half, from almost 1,910 per year to 500 per year. And, you know, they plan for reduced airflow. They planned for reduced flights, and of course, that's all gone now. We're back -- almost back up to the busy peak periods we had way before COVID.
WALKER: So, back to these near collisions, Mary, because, you know, there was one thing that stood out to me, and there was a British pilot named Terry Tozer, who talks a lot about, you know, airplane safety, and he recently told CNN that, you know, when he flew to the U.S., he would feel very uncomfortable, those were his words, because America clears aircraft to land when there will often be a plane on the runway that's about to take off. That doesn't happen in most of Europe because a protocol is there is no clearance until the runway is clear. Should we be adapting of that kind of protocol as well?
SCHIAVO: Yes. And that's partially what they're doing here. So, over the years, we have decreased the separation between aircraft because the theory was the equipment had gotten so much better, and it did, and aircraft had collision avoidance, et cetera. But now, pilots and others complained that some of that equipment is not functioning as it should and not all airports have the collision avoiding equipment, especially for taxi collision avoidance, aircraft moving around on the ground.
And, yes, the United States decrease the separation. And now, with this air traffic controller shortage, the only thing that is going to save lives is increasing the separation, and that's why the FAA has to do this. And again, this is an FAA problem and the FAA caused it, they have to fix it.
WALKER: Ms. Schiavo, good to see you. Thank you. Back after this.
SCHIAVO: Thank you. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
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WALKER: In the last few weeks, the U.S. has been hit with several rounds of violent and deadly storms. At least 26 people were killed last month when destructive tornadoes ripped through Rolling Fork, Mississippi. And then, a week later, another tornado outbreak across the south left more than 30 dead.
BLACKWELL: And just last week, at least five people were killed after a possible tornado struck Bollinger County, Missouri. Now, all of those deaths now make tornadoes and severe storms in 2023 more deadly than all of last year.
CNN Meteorologist Allison Chinchar is with us now. So, we're just hitting the peak month for severe weather season. And why have there been so many tornadoes so far?
ALLISON CHINCHAR, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Yes. In a very active pattern lately. You know, we've talked about all those atmospheric river events that have hit California.
BLACKWELL: Yes.
CHINCHAR: But they don't just disappear once they go from California, they traverse across the country, and that's helping set up that very moist atmosphere as they go forward in February. It was so warm in February. So, it's that combination of that warm air and that moist condition that really helped fuel a lot of these events in the eastern half of the country. And yes, unfortunately, making them very deadly. 68 deaths so far this year. The annual average is 71. So, we are very close to where we would normally be by the end of the year.
WALKER: So, why are we seeing these storms to be? I mean, are they more destructive and deadly this time around?
CHINCHAR: Yes. So, we -- there's two components here, population. You know, we think of 22 Alley (ph), that's the planes, but population isn't really the that hi there. These have hit the Midwest, the southeast, you're talking cities like Chicago, Memphis, St. Louis, a lot of these areas have seen it, and the populations are much larger there. So, that's an unfortunate aspect.
And also, to nocturnal. So many of these tornadoes have happened at night or overnight hours. People are asleep. They just -- they don't think about getting that warning or they think, oh, there'll be a siren or something will wake me up. They're just not as prepared going into the overnight. And basements, that's another key component. These areas of the country don't have the access to basements and underground shelters like they are more prone to thinking about in the Great Plains.
BLACKWELL: Yes. That's why it's important to have that weather radio, which we're always reminded to have that there will be something, that is something that can wake you up in the middle of the night. We're heading into the peak season, are we expecting these to continue, this trend to continue?
CHINCHAR: Right. I mean, statistically speaking, May is the peak month. So, you would like to think that, yes, these numbers will continue to go up. The three-month average is April, May and June. So, we've just started into that.
Now, I will say the good news, and let's end on a good note here. There's nothing in the short-term forecast. We don't really have a lot of severe weather expected for this week. But, yes, in the long-term, certainly, when we think about it, May is statistically when we would see the most.
BLACKWELL: All right. Allison Chinchar, thanks so much.
WALKER: Thank you.
BLACKWELL: All right. We're just getting this, Tiger Woods is out at the Masters. The Five-time green jacket winner withdrew from the tournament this morning due to an injury. And the Tiger has been struggling in the days leading up to the tournament, battling with noticeably limp. He narrowly made his 23rd straight cut. And on Saturday, he was in last place among players who made the cut. He withdrew after completing seven holes of his third round.
WALKER: Yes. Probably it doesn't come as a surprise to most of us who have been watching the Major. All right. Still ahead, a new study says giving birth may be more dangerous, depending on where you live. Those details are next.
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WALKER: More and more, we continue to hear about the growing rate of people dying in pregnancy or childbirth here in the U.S.
BLACKWELL: And a new study shows the risks of life-threatening complications during that time can vary drastically depending on where you live. CNN Health Reporter Jacqueline Howard has more on it.
JACQUELINE HOWARD, CNN HEALTH REPORTER: Victor and Amara, the rates of patients nearly dying due to pregnancy or childbirth complications are dramatically different state by state. That's what this new study reveals, looking specifically at Medicaid patients.
The researchers analyzed data on patients with Medicaid insurance from 2016 through 2018, and they found that the rate -- the overall rate of severe complications in pregnancy, childbirth or postpartum ranges from about 80 cases for every 10,000 deliveries in Utah to a rate of more than 200 cases per 10,000 deliveries in Washington, D.C. So, D.C.'s rate was just over 2.5 times Utah's.
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And in general, the states with the highest rates of severe complications among Medicaid patients were California, Nevada, New Jersey and New York, plus the District of Columbia. The five states with the lowest rates were Utah, Maryland, Rhode Island, Nebraska and New Hampshire.
And in states where race and ethnicity data were available, the study also found that non-Hispanic black patients were about 62 percent more likely than non-Hispanic white patients to experience pregnancy and childbirth complications, like eclampsia or heart failure. And the hope here is that this new data can help guide state policy discussions around maternal health across the country. Victor and Amara.
WALKER: Yes. Very concerning. Jacqueline Howard, thank you.
And a quick programming note, what started with the disappearance of 20 people from a small town in Oregon ended with the largest suicide on U.S. soil. "Heaven's Gate: The Cult of Cults" continues tonight at 10:00 here on CNN. Back after a quick break.
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