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CNN This Morning

Americans Sour on Economy; Ukraine Will Fail Without Aid; Melania Trump to Speak at Naturalization Ceremony; Thermal Batteries for Renewable Energy. Aired 8:30-9a ET

Aired December 15, 2023 - 08:30   ET

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

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[08:31:51]

ERICA HILL, CNN ANCHOR: Indications the economy is only getting stronger. Talk to most Americans, though, and they'll tell you they're just not feeling it. U.S. markets soaring higher again yesterday. This is on the heels of pretty strong economic data. The Fed signaling three possible interest rate cuts next year. The latest data actually shows the U.S. added nearly 200,000 jobs last month. Unemployment dropped to 3.7 percent. And while inflation has cooled to 3.1 percent, that's down from 9.1 last summer. Still, though, the vast majority of Americans say the economic conditions right now are poor. So, the big question there is, why?

CNN's senior data reporter Harry Enten joining us now to dig into this.

Why, Harry?

HARRY ENTEN, CNN SENIOR DATA REPORTER: Why, why, why? You know, you mentioned the stock market. OK, when judging the U.S. economy, you look at what? Stock market index is only 42 percent of Americans look at that when they're judging the economy. The national data that you mentioned, only 66 percent of Americans look at that. Your own experiences, 85 percent of Americans look at that when judging the economy. And take a look here. Think your income is keeping up with inflation? Just 24 percent of Americans say yes. The vast majority, 76 percent, say no.

HILL: So, this is your feeling, right? This is your gut on this as an American answering this survey. How does that figure into the reality and what the numbers show us?

ENTEN: Yes, I mean, if you were to look basically at disposable income, the change in disposable income, that is probably the weakest economic measure there is out there. From the first year of a president's term to now in a term, look at this, we've actually had net negative growth. We've actually decreased the amount of disposable income we've had, 2.7 percent for the Biden administration. Look at that, the average for the president since JFK, it's plus 4.5 percent. And even in the last few months, the last six months, the growth that we've had, just 0.2 percent. The average six months since 1961, 1.1 percent. So, we're even behind on that metric.

HILL: It's kind of depressing.

ENTEN: It is kind of depressing.

And the one last thing I'll note, even wages here not going up. Median wage, minus one since pre-pandemic, minus one since Biden's first year, zero percent. Wages have been stagnant for a long time and it's continuing to be so.

HILL: All right, I did like this breaking thought. Always super informative.

Harry, thank you.

ENTEN: Thank you.

HILL: Poppy.

POPPY HARLOW, CNN ANCHOR: Well, new developments overnight in Ukraine's war with Russia. Hungary blocking the EU from approving more than 50 billion euros in new financial aid. Here in the United States, funding for Ukraine also stalled on Capitol Hill.

We also have new CNN reporting in about just how critical this funding is, Western intelligence agencies calculating how long Ukraine can hold out against Russia without more aid. One senior U.S. military official warns that, quote, "there is no guarantee of success with us, but they are certain to fail without to us."

Let's get straight to Nick Paton Walsh, who joins us from Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine.

Nick, I mean some of these analyses from western U.S. intelligence officials is months, only months that Ukraine can hold off Russia if they don't have more aid from Europe and the U.S.

NICK PATON WALSH, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Yes, I mean, look, in the words of one Ukrainian medic, someone who buried a friend recently, without this aid we are finished. That was said to me last night.

[08:35:00]

And it's a bleak, private assessment you get from pretty much everyone along the front line here. Stoically they'll say, look, yes, we'll fight on till the end, but there are some Ukrainian officials here saying salaries for doctors, first responders, they're going to be problematic by January.

What happened with the EU is yet another part of an abysmal week, frankly, for President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. He managed to put a brave face on, extol really a moment of success when the European Union said they would begin an accession negotiation, essentially membership talks with Ukraine. That's a big symbolic victory. But the real, practical problem he's got now is the European Union, one of their members, Hungary, close to Vladimir Putin, it's leader, Viktor Orban, vetoed that European Union aid. Billions, frankly.

Now, the European Union are being quite sunny in their disposition, saying we'll just have another go of voting on this through (ph) in January. But the signal is there that Europe is not speaking in one voice and the money will be delayed certainly. Even worse is the U.S. situation utterly vital, frankly, to the war effort here because of the military side of it too and the more inexhaustible funds the U.S. can throw at issues. That is not going to happen, it seems, this week. So, it's January when they have another chance, but there's no sign really of some kind of political deal on congressional - there to get this to happen.

And so, yes, Ukrainians here are looking at the money running out possibly, running out soon, and a re-emboldened Russia, invigorated on the front lines, potentially moving forward. I have to say, I've never seen such a bleak moment since the war began. It's a dark time here. And, frankly, it's Ukraine's allies that are letting it down.

Poppy.

HARLOW: Yes. Wow.

Nick Paton Walsh, quite an assessment from you who's spent so much time on the ground. Thank you for your reporting.

In just a couple of hours, Melania Trump will make a rare, public appearance. She will swear in 25 new American citizens.

HILL: Also, we are on verdict watch this morning in the defamation case against Rudy Giuliani. Court is set to resume at 9:00 a.m. So, how many millions of dollars could Giuliani be forced to pay to former Georgia election workers?

Stay with us.

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[08:40:25]

HARLOW: Welcome back.

In just a couple of hours, Melania Trump will speak at a National Archives event where 25 people from 25 countries will officially become American citizens. It is a ceremony she knows well having gone through the same process when she became a U.S. citizen in 2006. The nationalization ceremony at the National Archives is very meaningful and it's a meaningful choice for the first lady. She has largely stayed out of the public eye since leaving the White House.

Kristen Holmes joins us from Washington with more.

She is doing this event while her husband has pledged to expand his hardline immigration policies in many ways if re-elected. That's just an interesting contrast. Do we know why she's chosen to do this right now. KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, it certainly is, Poppy. So, we are told that she was personally invite by the head archivist, Dr. Colleen Shogan. The two had worked together when Trump was in the White House and Shogan was at the White House Historical Association. And as you mentioned, Melania herself is a naturalized citizen.

But there is a bit of irony here, particularly given the fact, as you noted, she is not somebody who was ever in the public space. We have rarely seen her. She is often behind closed doors. Her focus is on her son, Barron. And yet she is choosing to do this event as her husband has pledged if re-elected to expand his hardline immigration policies that would really restrict both illegal and legal immigration.

And, Poppy, I also want to point out that it was the National Archives and Record Administration that asked the Department of Justice to look into Trump's potential mishandling of classified documents after he left office, which resulted in the special counsel probe and eventually an indictment.

Now, despite all of that, we are told by a source close to Trump he is supportive of her speaking at this event. And I will note that the head archivist now was not the same archivist when all of that happened.

Poppy.

HARLOW: Kristen Holmes, thanks for the reporting.

HILL: The effort to create green energy has produced some pretty remarkable results. How do you store that energy though? One company says it's found a simple solution, one that's making a pretty significant impact.

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ANDREW PONEC, CO-FOUNDER AND CEO, ANTORA ENERGY: People sometimes feel like they're insulting us by saying, hey, that sounds really simple. And we say, no, that's exactly the point.

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[08:46:47]

HARLOW: You hear a lot about solar and wind as alternatives to fossil fuels.

HILL: Recently, though, thanks to a California company called Antora rocks are actually being used to fuel thermal batteries for clean energy.

CNN's chief climate correspondent Bill Weir has more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) BILL WEIR, CNN CHIEF CLIMATE CORRESPONDENT (voice over): For the first time in human history, the two most affordable forms of energy do not come from burning fossil fuels.

WEIR: Wow!

WEIR (voice over): But from catching onshore wind or clean abundant sunlight.

ANDREW PONEC, CO-FOUNDER AND CEO, ANTORA ENERGY: Most days, in the middle of the day in California, energy is free. Electricity on the wholesale market is worth zero dollars, sometimes even negative dollars, because there's so much solar that's now been installed in California.

WEIR (voice over): The same thing is happening in the American wind belt. So while Andrew Ponec was the kind of kid who built solar panels in the garage, he realized that renewables are great for topping off batteries and cars and homes, but the factories which make everything from steal to baby food need a lot of energy all the time.

PONEC: The problem is, you can't shut down your factory when the sun goes behind a cloud or the wind stops blowing.

WEIR (voice over): So, with $80 million in investment from backers, including Bill Gates, he started a company called Antora to store clean energy with -

PONEC: This is it.

WEIR (voice over): A box of rocks.

WEIR: I had a hard time explaining to my kids what nuclear fusion is. But this is just a hot rock in a box.

PONEC: Exactly.

WEIR: Heated up either -- by either wind or the sun, right?

PONEC: People sometimes feel like they're insulting us by saying, hey, that sounds really simple. And we say, no, that's exactly the point. You know, there's not much more here than a steel box with insulation inside of that and some carbon blocks inside of that. That's it.

WEIR (voice over): Antora's batteries heat up blocks of carbon like this until they glow like little suns for a full day.

PONEC: What's right in the box right now is about 1,600 degrees Celsius. So, this is hotter than the melting point of steel and it's just a couple feet inside that shell.

WEIR (voice over): By cracking open the box, Andrew says they can release enough heat to make a factory steam and enough light to generate electricity as it glows into a special kind of solar panel. And while the box is tricky it build, the rocks are cheap and abundant. PONEC: There is plenty of production of this, even just 1 percent of

the current production of carbon blocks would be enough to make terawatt hours of batteries, which would be enough to power, you know, the United States.

WEIR (voice over): A competing company called Rondo uses even cheaper bricks in their thermal batteries to create megawatts of power for a single factory without the need for a grid upgrade, which means places with a lot of sun and wind could become magnets for new industry. Both companies were present at COP28 in Dubai, where big oil had a big presence.

But Andrew came back convinced that clean, simple ideas are the future.

PONEC: The transition is inevitable. It's going to happen. And, actually, if you talk behind closed doors to most of the people in the fossil fuel industry, they'll say the same thing. They understand that.

WEIR: Yes.

PONEC: But I'm confident that we're going to be able to take that huge tool that we have in solar and wind and displace fossil fuels faster even than most people think.

WEIR: Really?

PONEC: Yes.

WEIR: Why?

[08:50:00]

Why? What gives you that faith?

PONEC: It's really because of the technologies that are coming down the pipe. If you'd asked me five or ten years ago I would have said, I'm not sure we have everything we need to decarbonize. But today we have the tools we need, we just deploy them.

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WEIR (on camera): One of our ancient ancestors at one point took a hot rock from next to the fire and moved it to a colder part of the cave, inventing the heat battery essentially.

This is the same idea but advanced with modern technology to where you can use a hot rock to make steel perhaps in the future. Right now I think it's just such an elegantly simple idea. There is more energy actually in a thermos of coffee than in your phone, it's just a matter of getting it out, in and out.

HARLOW: Really?

WEIR: And thermal storage, there's now ten times more thermal storage like this than there is the kind of batteries -- lithium batteries we think about for grid storage right now.

So, the future is exciting and simple in some ways.

HILL: This is amazing. I love this. I also love every story that you do, do you know, Bill Weir, so, thank you.

HARLOW: Bill Weir saving our planet one story at a time.

WEIR: Trying.

HARLOW: Thank you, friend.

WEIR: (INAUDIBLE).

HILL: A growing number of black women are choosing not to give birth at traditional hospitals. CNN's Abby Phillip takes a deeper look at the issue in this latest and incredibly important episode of "The Whole Story." Abby's with us next.

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HILL: This Sunday CNN is shining a spotlight on the challenges that face -- that black women face during pregnancy. According to the CDC, black women in America are two to three times more likely to die from pregnancy-related complications than white women.

[08:55:08]

And that reality is why a growing number of black women are now choosing not to give birth at traditional hospitals or birthing facilities.

HARLOW: CNN's Abby Phillip is among them. She chose to give birth at home. And on this week's episode of "THE WHOLE STORY WITH ANDERSON COOPER," Abby takes us on a personal journey to understand the decision she made and that others are increasingly making.

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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: OK. Hi. It's OK.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hi, baby. You're here.

ABBY PHILLIP, CNN ANCHOR AND SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Tis is the sound of new life being brought into the world.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: There you go baby.

PHILLIP (voice over): The kind of moment most pregnant women dream of.

Yet this is the stark reality that most pregnant black women live with.

ANGEL: Yes, I'm feeling pressure.

I was scared. I had like a -- I was crying. PHILLIP (voice over): Angel is in labor with her sixth child.

PHILLIP: What were you afraid of?

ANGEL: Coming in and not coming out.

PHILLIP (voice over): Ashleigh is having her second child in one month.

ASHLEIGH BARNES, EXPECTANT MOTHER: You know, moms are supposed to have this wonderful moment and they just we're not making it out, you know, alive out of the hospital.

PHILLIP (voice over): Elaine gave birth nearly two years ago.

ELAINE WELTEROTH, JOURNALIST, EDITOR AND TV HOST: We're preparing for the worst at the best time in our lives.

PHILLIP (voice over): Three women, three pregnancies, one journey to understand exactly what scares them about hospitals and why some black women, like me, are now redefining the oldest act in human history, childbirth.

A few years ago I was pregnant with my first daughter. I knew the black maternal mortality statistics and I didn't want to take any chances. So I decided to skip the doctor and the hospital, and with the help of a midwife, I gave birth in my own home. It may sound crazy, but it felt so much safer. And, honestly, since then I've been surprised to meet a number of black women who decided to go down the same path that I did.

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HARLOW: And CNN anchor and senior political correspondent Abby Phillip joins us now.

Abby, I've known for a long time you've been working on this amazing documentary, but you really took us into your life and your decision. So, let's start there with how you made that decision, Abby.

ABBY PHILLIP, CNN ANCHOR, "NEWSNIGHT WITH ABBY PHILLIP": It was a difficult one. When I tell you, Erica and Poppy, I did not, in a million years, think that I would be a mom who wanted to give birth at home. I just did not think that was in the cards for me. But when I got pregnant, I decided I wanted, first of all, a safe birth. I wanted a birth with as few interventions that were unnecessary as possible. And I just did not feel like I could be heard necessarily in a hospital. And so many moms that I've talked to as we were making this piece and just throughout my life say the same thing.

Now, I just want to be clear, it doesn't have to be that way. And one of the beautiful things about this piece is that we talk about some ways that hospitals are trying to address that very issue, making hospitals as well a safer place where black women in particular feel more heard in the labor and delivery room, which we know actually has real health results that - that can keep them alive, frankly. HILL: Absolutely. So, drilling down on that a little bit, the CDC does

say structural racism, implicit bias are among the factors contributing to racial disparities in maternal health care. You talk about starting this conversation, which is so important, that can hopefully lead to change. What - what is the sense of what needs to happen to change what exists in the system today?

PHILLIP: Yes, there is no one cause of this problem and so there's no one solution. So, when we talk to people across the spectrum here, they are all saying, this has to be a multifaceted approach where midwives, doulas, nurses, doctors work together to create more supportive care for black women. The biggest issue that we hear from both doctors and from moms is that when women say that they are experiencing something in labor and childbirth and they are not listened to, that can have deadly results.

And so when we talk about structural racism, some of it is about are -- who is being heard in the labor and delivery room and how can we make that so that more women, no matter who they are, feel that their care providers are responding to them in this really vulnerable time. Maybe the most vulnerable time for most women when they have the most interface with the health care system that they might have in their entire lives.

[09:00:06]

HARLOW: And, Abby, I know you also talked to a dad who lost the mother of his child.

PHILLIP: Yes.

HARLOW: A heartbreaking story.

I'm so glad you did this. I cannot wait to watch the whole thing.

Abby Phillip, thank you very much.

PHILLIP: Thank you, guys.

HARLOW: You're going to want to watch the episode of "THE WHOLE STORY WITH ANDERSON COOPER." One whole hour, one whole story, Sunday night, 9:00 p.m. Eastern and Pacific, only right here on CNN.

Right now National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan is in Ramallah in the West Bank.

"CNN NEWS CENTRAL" continues our coverage now.