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Virgin Billionaire Richard Branson Successfully Rockets To Outer Space; Haitian Police Arrest Suspect Accused Of Orchestrating President's Assassination; 4+ Million Under Heat Alerts Across Western U.S.. Aired 5:30-6a ET

Aired July 12, 2021 - 05:30   ET

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


[05:30:00]

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: Classrooms in the fall.

All right, good morning. This is EARLY START, Monday morning. I'm Christine Romans.

LAURA JARRETT, CNN ANCHOR: I'm Laura Jarrett. It's about 29 minutes past the hour here in New York.

So, we all learned in school about the first dog in space, the first chimp in space, the first man. Now, behold the first billionaire in space.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Release, release, release. Clean release. Ignition -- good rocket motor burn. There's mock one trimming now.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

JARRETT: Richard Branson launching into space in a supersonic space plane he helped fund. The plane, dubbed SpaceShip Two, released from a huge mothership, rocketed to a height about 50 miles above earth -- high enough to produce weightlessness for Branson and the five other people on board.

For more, let's go to CNN's Rachel Crane at the Virgin Galactic Spaceport in New Mexico.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RACHEL CRANE, CNN INNOVATION AND SPACE CORRESPONDENT (on camera): Christine and Laura, Richard Branson's maiden space flight went off without a hitch. The company saying that it was a complete success.

And nobody more excited about that than Richard Branson himself. I had the opportunity to speak with the company's founder and new astronaut shortly following this spaceflight. Take a listen to what he had to say.

RICHARD BRANSON, FOUNDER, VIRGIN GROUP: I've dreamt of going to space since I was a kid and I've always pictured what it would be like and it was just far more extraordinary than I could have ever imagined. I would go back tomorrow if I didn't feel I was taking a seat away from the many hundreds of people who've already signed to go up and the many hundreds of people who will want to sign up.

CRANE (on camera): But luckily for Branson, the other mission specialists on board and, really, space enthusiasts all around the globe, this was not a dream. This was a reality.

The company hopes that this could help usher in a new era of space tourism where regular folks myself and you guys can one day travel to space and enjoy the beauty of weightlessness that we just heard Branson describe. And I don't know about you, but I would love to get up there.

But Virgin Galactic says they have two more test flights before they start their commercial operations expected for 2022 -- early 2022. That's when they hope to start flying those some 600 passengers that have paid around $200,000 a ticket to ride on this vehicle. And that's a price that they expect to go up before coming back down -- Laura, Christine.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ROMANS: I don't know about you, she says. Actually, it's not on my list.

JARRETT: Folks like us, not so much.

ROMANS: That has been really fun to watch. I've interviewed him many times over the years about a lot of --

JARRETT: Yes.

ROMANS: -- weighted subjects. I always end asking are you really going to go to space. He always says yes.

I was skeptical. All right, he did it. He was right. He has been saying for years that he would go to space and --

JARRETT: And Bezos is next, right?

ROMANS: -- and he would put tourists in space.

JARRETT: Yes.

ROMANS: And that's what they plan to do.

JARRETT: All right.

ROMANS: All right, 32 minutes past the hour.

Today, President Biden will zero in on reducing violent crime, hosting Attorney General Merrick Garland and leaders in local law enforcement. In many parts of the country, shootings are up as police departments struggle to manage the carnage that has simply ballooned in the last year.

CNN's Jasmine Wright live in Washington with more. Jasmine, what is the president's plan here to reduce this gun violence?

JASMINE WRIGHT, CNN WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Well, a big part of that plan Christine is going to be money, and a White House official tells me that that's something that President Biden will focus on today.

He will tout his increased funding for cities and states to take up measures really targeted at their public safety and invest in things like community policing. It comes from the American Rescue Plan passed back in March. It had increased money in there and President Biden really will set on talking about how he wants to dole it out -- how he wants communities to take advantage of it.

Now, back in June when he announced his plan, CNN had reported that White House officials were nervous and growing concerned about the increased crime rates growing across the country and really sought to put him out in front kind of to preempt that Republican narrative that the Democrats were soft on crime. And kind of trying to -- as we have seen over the last few weeks about White House officials trying to flip that narrative of defund the police back on to Republicans, saying that it's actually them defunding the police because they did not come and support this American Rescue Plan.

So another thing that will be on the ticket today, an official tells me, is talking about gun crime and how to reduce gun crime on the streets.

And another person that will be at this meeting is New York City Democratic primary mayor candidate -- winner, excuse me, Eric Adams. And he has really been a proponent for police reform and gun crime. And he, yesterday on "STATE OF THE UNION" with CNN's Jake Tapper, kind of criticized Democrats' efforts up to this point trying to reduce crime. And he said that more focus needs to be put on handguns.

Take a listen.

[05:35:00]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ERIC ADAMS (D), NEW YORK CITY MAYORAL CANDIDATE: We should have also focus on the handgun. The numbers of those who are killed by handguns are astronomical and if we don't start having real federal legislation matched with states and cities we're never going to get this crisis under control.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WRIGHT: So, Christine, that will surely be a point of conversation today as well as the other range of tools that the president has identified to allow companies -- excuse me, allow communities and cities and states really to focus on public safety, and that includes violence prevention programs as well as summer jobs and other measures that they say have been proven to reduce crime -- Christine. ROMANS: All right, we'll see what happens from that meeting today. We know you'll be watching it, Jasmine. Thank you -- Laura.

JARRETT: All right, to the situation in Haiti now. U.S. officials assisting in the investigation of the assassination of the Haitian president arrived in the nation's capital Sunday. Little is still known about all these suspects and their motivation for the attack, but Haitian police say they have arrested a man they say helped orchestrate the assassination plot.

CNN's Matt Rivers is live in Port-au-Prince, Haiti with more.

MATT RIVERS, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Christine and Laura, we did get some big news here in Port-au-Prince in the investigation into the assassination of President Jovenel Moise, with authorities holding a press conference here in Port-au-Prince on Sunday night.

In part, they held that press conference to announce the arrest of a 63-year-old man that they say was born here in Haiti. They allege that this man actually helped recruit and then subsequently organize here in Haiti this group of Colombian mercenaries that the Haitian government has accused of actually carrying out this assassination.

They say this 63-year-old man had a home that authorities raided. They found multiple boxes of ammunition. They found pistol and rifle holsters. They also found shooting targets as well.

As far as the investigation itself, the numbers really haven't changed so far. Twenty suspects have been detained so far. We know that three suspects officially have been said to be killed by authorities here. That leaves five on the loose at this point. Of the 28 suspects involved, 26 are of Colombian nationality and another two are Haitian- American.

Meanwhile, the political situation here in Haiti continues to be very unstable with a couple of different leaders of different political factions here in Haiti saying that they met with a U.S. delegation on Sunday to talk about the political situation. Based on those tweets, it's clear that no consensus was really formed. There's going to continue to be competition amongst these different factions for who should be running the country in the near term.

And when there is disagreement in the political realm in Haiti it can always lead to protests. That is what we are going to be looking out for over the coming days and weeks -- Christine, Laura.

ROMANS: All right, Matt Rivers for us in Haiti. Thank you for that.

All right. People are returning to the skies after more than a year of sitting at home. But, United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby says the industry has some time before it is fully recovered.

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SCOTT KIRBY, CEO, UNITED AIRLINES: We expect that business demand is really going to pick up in September as mostly, schools are back in and a lot of people are back in offices. But we don't think it really recovers in full until 2023.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: Twenty twenty-three -- especially European travel. Maybe next summer is the year for that.

Kirby added while leisure travel has returned to pre-pandemic levels because of pent-up demand, other parts of the industry like business and international travel are still lagging. Kirby also said he has his fingers crossed that the federal mask mandate for air travel is not renewed after it expires on September 13th.

I took a flight this weekend for the first time --

JARRETT: Yes.

ROMANS: -- since February 2020. Packed flight, packed airport, everyone masked. And it was really kind of weird --

JARRETT: Was weird, yes.

ROMANS: -- to be -- to be back out in it. But for the most part, people were very well-behaved, very patient.

JARRETT: Good.

ROMANS: Everything went off -- yes, you haven't been on a plane yet, have you.

JARRETT: I haven't. I haven't been on a plane since 2019, so -- yes.

ROMANS: Right. So you can see why it's going to take a while to be back to normal next year perhaps.

JARRETT: Yes.

ROMANS: All right. We'll be right back.

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[05:43:15]

JARRETT: Welcome back.

The death toll in Surfside, Florida -- that condo collapse -- has risen to 90 as recovery workers continue to sift through debris more than two weeks after the catastrophe. While the physical work can be grueling, of course, the mental toll can be just as great.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHIEF NICHOLE NOTTE, FLORIDA TASK FORCE 2: I feel like I'm physically digging but I'm also emotionally digging for more strength to continue. I try -- I bring back into mind the families and friends that want some closure and are just desperately waiting for any information, and that gives me the strength and motivation to keep digging.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

JARRETT: Crews at the site work 12-hour shifts, many sleeping in tents nearby instead of even going home.

CNN's Natasha Chen is in Surfside, Florida with more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NATASHA CHEN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (on camera): Christine and Laura, 90 people have been confirmed dead and 31 people still potentially unaccounted for. At this point, the crews have removed 14 million pounds of concrete and debris from the pile. And it becomes a greater challenge with dust clouds on days like Sunday where it didn't rain very much.

They are using heavy machinery to pull pieces off the pile and they're doing so so delicately that we're told they even found undamaged bottles of wine, people's rings, important heirlooms.

And the Miami-Dade police director said they've actually brought rabbis to the scene to help them identify items that may be religiously important. Here's what the police director said about that.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It could be the smallest little thing that to a common person it just looks like a little container but it really means generations -- it's very spiritual. And I'm just so impressed. Our officers are learning so much about culture.

[05:45:09]

There's just so many dynamics here with the sadness and the sorrow. There's like a unity component we learn about each other. So we definitely respect that and honor that.

CHEN (on camera): He also said there's a database where families can upload information about items they're looking for. And at the same time, search teams who are finding items are carefully logging those. Then they go to a storage room so that at a later date the families can reunite with their belongings.

As far as the search teams go, there are some leaving now. The Israeli Defense Forces left on Sunday. The Virginia team is on its way out. But the fire chief did say that on average, the number of personnel over the past 2 1/2 weeks has remained about the same and this is still a 24-hour operation.

Christine and Laura, back to you.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ROMANS: All right, Natasha Chen. Thank you so much for that.

Another weekend scorcher out west. The unrelenting heat shattering temperature records and adding fuel to wildfires. Death Valley, California expected to reach near 130 degrees again today. More than 24 million people remain under heat alerts across the western U.S.

Let's get more from CNN's Paul Vercammen in Los Angeles.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PAUL VERCAMMEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (on camera): Christine, Laura, we caught a break. Temperatures dipped, the breeze picked up -- 80 degrees, Los Angeles. But in other parts of the county, scorching temperatures. An excessive heat warning for the Antelope Valley and other parts of California and officials warning of heat-related illnesses.

And then just across the border in Nevada, it hit a record 117 degrees in Las Vegas. That tied a record.

And it prompted a conservation request from utility officials. They told everyone to conserve power between six and nine at night.

They were citing the excessive heat as well as a problem with the power grid. That's because of wildfires that moved their power into California and Nevada. The big culprit here, a massive fire burning in southwest Oregon. It is called the Boot Hill Fire and those flames were threatening the power grid. So, Californians also told to conserve energy.

Just a scorching weekend throughout California.

And something interesting. We talk a lot about record highs. How about the lows? At one point in Indio, California it did not get below 89 degrees at night and that tied a record and, therefore, casting more heat in the coming days.

Reporting from Los Angeles, I'm Paul Vercammen -- Christine, Laura.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

JARRETT: All right, Paul. That's just incredible.

Four people are now in custody after police found a cache of weapons and ammunition in a hotel near the site of tomorrow's -- tomorrow night's MLB's All-Star Game. Police credit an astute hotel employee for alerting them about the weapons, which sparked fears of a Las Vegas-style shooting just like last week in Chicago.

Denver's Maven Hotel is about a block from Coors Field where the game will be held.

The FBI, in a statement, says there's no evidence the incident is connected to terrorism or a threat directed at the All-Star Game.

ROMANS: All right, to Rome now. Pope Francis making his first public appearance since having colon surgery to treat diverticulitis last week. He held his Sunday prayer from a hospital in Rome, appearing with young oncology patients on a balcony. Vatican officials say the 84-year-old is gradually resuming work while

following the prescribed post-operative treatment.

JARRETT: Statues of two Confederate generals carted away in Charlottesville, Virginia this weekend. Crowds watched and cheered at the removal of monuments to Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson four years after white supremacists descended on that city for that violent Unite the Right rally to protest the city's planned removal of the Lee monument.

Workers also hauling away Meriwether Lewis, William Clark, and the Sacagawea statue.

The city is looking to remove the statues to a museum and military battlefield or a historical society.

ROMANS: The idea is all about context now. Instead of literally putting people on pedestals, let's get some context around them.

JARRETT: Yes.

ROMANS: Let's get a check on CNN Business this Monday morning.

You can see Asian shares closed higher. Looking at markets in Asia -- or sorry, in Europe, they've opened slightly lower here. On Wall Street, stock index futures to start the new trading week narrowly mixed here.

Stocks rebounded last week even after concerns over that Delta variant prompted a selloff earlier in the week. In the end, all three major averages hit record highs on Friday.

Now, this week, investors turn their attention to corporate earnings. A roaring economy means soaring profits for American companies. The S&P 500 companies expected to report profit growth of more than 63 percent from a year ago. That's the biggest jump since the fourth quarter of 2009 -- bouncing back, of course, from a low level from last summer's pandemic recession.

One big question here, though. Are higher costs eating into corporate profit margins, and are businesses raising prices instead.

[05:50:00]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SCENE FROM MARVEL ENTERTAINMENT'S "BLACK WIDOW."

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ROMANS: Finally, the origin story of "Black Widow" -- a big hit for Disney in theaters and on Disney+. The film brought in an estimated $80 million over the weekend -- a pandemic-era record and the biggest domestic opening weekend since 2019.

"Black Widow" also made $60 million globally on Disney+, a strong sign for movies debuting on the big screen and in people's homes at the same time. More studios are deciding on dual releases for their upcoming films as the film industry looks for a bounce back from a devastating year.

JARRETT: Dorothy's iconic dress from "The Wizard of Oz" lost for years has now been found.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SCENE FROM MGM'S "THE WIZARD OF OZ."

(END VIDEO CLIP)

JARRETT: Her gingham dress, a prized piece of movie history, was found in the drama department --

ROMANS: What?

JARRETT: -- at the Catholic University in Washington, D.C.

Now, it turns out the dress had been given to the school back in 1973 by actress Mercedes McCambridge who had been an artist in residence at the school the year before and was a contemporary of Dorothy herself, Judy Garland.

Well, that is your random fact for the day.

ROMANS: That is. That is. That's a movie, by the way, that I always found very scary as a child. But I understand it's a small (ph) part but --

JARRETT: Oh, I loved that movie.

ROMANS: All right, pent-up demand to pop the question. Fine jewelers say sales of engagement rings and wedding bands spiked in April and May. Couples are starting to return to some sense of normal.

One New York-based ring company said sales quadrupled in May compared to last year -- quadrupled.

More evidence the wedding industry is roaring back to life, couples' panic-booking venues after putting ceremonies on hold because of the pandemic.

And I went to a wedding this weekend and I've got to tell you -- I mean, being in, first of all, the church and then in the -- in the ballroom -- like, a real wedding.

JARRETT: You're back with people.

ROMANS: I mean, I was -- it was almost overwhelming to be back -- a sense of community with a bunch of people.

JARRETT: I have a wedding this weekend and so I think weddings are -- you know, they're just back, right? Everybody is just so excited. Everyone's back to being together fully vaccinated. ROMANS: Yes.

JARRETT: -- thank goodness.

But my engagement ring doesn't even fit, so I don't know how much you should really be spending on engagement rings.

ROMANS: Maybe you should go get another one.

JARRETT: You know what? Let's see if my husband is listening right now.

ROMANS: This is the big question for the economy, right? Everything is coming back so quickly and roaring back to life and it's one of the reasons you see prices rise for just about everything.

JARRETT: Yes.

ROMANS: For used cars.

And I was listening to some of the CPAC --

JARRETT: Coverage, yes.

ROMANS: -- coverage this weekend and you could hear that is a talking point on the right and especially among the Trump right that there is this Biden inflation situation happening in the country. And let's be very clear here. The economy is roaring back from a very low position so you're seeing prices rise, but they're rising from a very low level.

And we had inflation very benign for -- I mean, honestly, the last 10 or 15 years or so. So you're seeing those higher prices but it's not fair to blame it on --

JARRETT: Is it --

ROMANS: -- Biden. You blame it on the roaring recovery.

JARRETT: Are there any things where prices are actually going down? Obviously, the price of gas is an indicator. You always point out that people really think about their pocketbook.

ROMANS: Right.

JARRETT: They look at that price at the pump and they say OK, things are not good -- even if it isn't directly related to any of President Biden's policies. But I wonder if there are things where prices have actually gone down in this --

ROMANS: We have seen places where -- like hand sanitizer, for example.

JARRETT: Right.

ROMANS: There was a glut of hand sanitizer. You couldn't -- JARRETT: And then there was too much.

ROMANS: You couldn't give that stuff away.

JARRETT: Right.

ROMANS: So we've seen some weird adjustments like that.

But you're right about the gas prices.

JARRETT: Yes.

ROMANS: I would say that it a family's economic indicator -- having a job and the gas prices. And gas prices, I think, could still be --

JARRETT: Yes.

ROMANS: -- sticky for some families in the months ahead here and that's because of OPEC Plus and because of oil producers who haven't readjusted their production yet --

JARRETT: Yes.

ROMANS: -- for this new normal of a roaring global economy (ph).

JARRETT: And the tanker drivers. I remember reading that was a big issue that --

ROMANS: It is.

JARRETT: I didn't realize there are so many drivers.

ROMANS: A shortage of truck drivers to drive those trucks.

JARRETT: Who couldn't do it, right? Yes.

ROMANS: And that's part of the labor shortage -- the labor mismatch in this country.

All of these things are fascinating angles to study and watch because we are coming out of a historic -- there's no blueprint for this -- kind of disruption in the American economy.

JARRETT: This is how we nerd out on a Monday morning, folks.

ROMANS: Yes, absolutely.

All right, so we'll let -- we'll let "NEW DAY" nerd out next. Thanks for joining us. I'm Christine Romans.

JARRETT: I'm Laura Jarrett. "NEW DAY' is next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[05:59:04]

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: I'm John Berman with Brianna Keilar on this new day.

Breaking this morning, Cubans taking to the streets in the largest protest in decades. And now, the authoritarian government is blaming the United States.

Plus, as the Delta variant surges across the United States, today, a critical meeting where Pfizer will push for booster shots.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN ANCHOR: Lies, conspiracies, and conservatives. How CPAC turned dangerous by giving a platform to Donald Trump and his demagoguery.

An outcry this morning after England's players are hit with racist attacks following the team's championship loss.

BERMAN: Good morning to our viewers here in the United States and all around the world. It is Monday, July 12th.

Images the likes of which we have not seen in generations in Cuba. Thousands of protesters on the streets in Havana.