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Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin

Soon: U.K.'s New Leader Faces Questions From Parliament; Businesses Cut Ties With Kanye West After Antisemitic Remarks; Floods Putting Nigerians At Risk For Disease And Food Insecurity. Aired 5:30- 6a ET

Aired October 26, 2022 - 05:30   ET

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


[05:30:00]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RISHI SUNAK, BRITISH PRIME MINISTER: I stand here before you ready to lead our country into the future. To put your needs above politics. To reach out and build a government that represents the very best traditions of my party.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: Let's go live to London and bring in CNN's Bianca Nobilo. What else did the new prime minister say, and what kind of reception is he -- is he getting?

BIANCA NOBILO, CNN ANCHOR AND CORRESPONDENT: He had a businessman- like, statesmanlike start. His tone was serious. I think he was trying not to seem jubilant or too celebratory because he hasn't been elected by the general public; he has been appointed by his own conservative lawmakers. And also, he wanted to underscore these profound economic challenges ahead. So, tonally, it was all about facing up to these difficulties and being the right man for the job, and promising to unite the party and the country.

And today, he met with his cabinet for the first time, just about an hour ago -- and that's been a newly-appointed cabinet as of last night. And he's been trying to demonstrate with these appointments the fact that he's going to back up his calls for unity for with action. He's drawing from the right wing of the party, the left wing of the party.

There's been some controversy over the reappointment of the Home Sec. Suella Braverman after she was sacked last week by the former prime minister for a security breach. Some suggesting perhaps that was the result of a backroom deal, but his team assures us that isn't the case.

Today, the most daunting task that the new prime minister will face is prime minister's questions, which will take place in about an hour and a half. Now, even the most seasoned of leaders of this country say that is usually the scariest part of their agenda, even at the very end of their tenure. So the pressure on Sunak will be immense. He'll be facing around 600 lawmakers crammed into that small room in the House of Commons with jeering and cheering, boos and applause.

So it will be really interesting to see how he handles this because he isn't known for being particularly spontaneous or especially charismatic, or commanding a room effectively. He's sometimes criticized for being robotic. But this could be a chance for him to start to define his prime ministerial style -- to gain the confidence of the benches behind him and the telegraph to the country and Parliament that he's got what it takes to be prime minister.

But everyone will be watching --

ROMANS: Yes.

NOBILO: -- to see how this goes, Christine.

ROMANS: And just looking at the U.K. economy, he's got nothing but a lot of very hard decisions to make and hard decisions -- hard choices to sell to Parliament and the British people.

Bianca, thank you so much. Nice to see you today.

All right, more companies cutting ties with Kanye West over his antisemitic rants. And a 20-minute Grand Canyon walking tour turns into a 31-hour nightmare underground.

(COMMERCIAL)

[05:37:26]

ROMANS: All right.

It appears Kanye West's antisemitic hate speech is finally catching up to him. More businesses are now cutting ties with the rapper after weeks of public pressure to act. And on Tuesday, Adidas was the first shoe to drop.

We get more from CNN's Brian Todd.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KANYE WEST, RAPPER, SONGWRITER, RECORD PRODUCER, FASHION DESIGNER (DRINK CHAMPS PODCAST): I could say --

BRIAN TODD, CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): In recent days, Kanye West said this on a podcast.

WEST: The thing about me and Adidas -- it's like I could literally say antisemitic and they can't drop me.

TODD (voice-over): Now, the German sportswear giant has, indeed, dropped West who now goes by the name Ye. Adidas has partnered with him for nine years. His line of sneakers with them was hugely successful. And Adidas says it will take a hit of more than $240 million to its fourth-quarter sales by cutting ties.

JONATHAN GREENBLATT, ANTI-DEFAMATION LEAGUE: I wish it had happened sooner, but this does send a strong statement that there are consequences when you express antisemitism and any form of hate.

TODD (voice-over): On October 8, West tweeted he was, quote, "going death con 3 on Jewish people." His Twitter and Instagram accounts were locked. He's since been abandoned by the Gap, Vogue, the fashion house Balenciaga, and his powerful agents, CAA.

For a man who has won 24 Grammy awards and has been a trendsetting fashion mogul, how big a fall from grace is this?

DAN BAUM, STRATEGIC COMMUNICATIONS ADVISER, CEO, MULTIPLY: Zero to 10, this is 11. This is as extreme as it gets. And the real problem is that he's crossed over a moral line through hate speech and antisemitism.

TODD (voice-over): Observers say one danger with West's public remarks is that his audience is young and impressionable. Another is the current political and social climate in America.

LZ GRANDERSON, OP-ED COLUMNIST, LOS ANGELES TIMES: He's (PH) using it as platform in the context of a post-2020 America with everything that we know that's going on in terms of hate crimes, in terms of antisemitism, in terms of racism. So we're in a climate right now that's very, very tense.

TODD (voice-over): In recent days, a group of demonstrators appeared to show support for West's antisemitic remarks by hanging banners from a freeway overpass near L.A.

GREENBLATT: It was a dangerous thing for Kanye to do at a time when the danger facing Jewish people is all too real.

TODD (voice-over): This post by Jerry Seinfeld's wife, Jessica, getting hundreds of thousands of likes and shares online.

But West's actions go beyond upsetting the Jewish community. He recently wore a "White Lives Matter" t-shirt at a Paris runway show. He suggested that George Floyd died from a fentanyl overdose rather than police brutality.

Can West reverse any of this and make a comeback? The apology tour hasn't been convincing. He recently told an interviewer he was sorry for the hurt that the death con tweet caused but wasn't sorry he said it.

[05:40:03]

His ex-wife, Kim Kardashian, just issued a statement criticizing hate speech, but only after she was called out for not addressing West's behavior earlier.

One damage control expert says this.

BAUM: These are his real thoughts. There's really no coming back from this. If these thoughts are the result of a mental health condition, I think that is a mitigating fact. TODD (on camera): There is speculation that West's behavior could be

related to mental illness. He, himself, has previously acknowledged a diagnosis of bipolar disorder, but he's also cast some doubt on that.

Brian Todd, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ROMANS: All right.

The worst flooding Nigeria has seen in a decade is putting many people at grave risk of cholera and other series health dangers.

CNN's Larry Madowo is live on the ground in Nigeria for us. What are you seeing there, and what are officials worried about here going forward?

LARRY MADOWO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Christine, this is the reality for life -- for people here in Yenagoa. This is the capital of Bayelsa State in southern Nigeria. They have been living through this for weeks -- at least three weeks and counting.

In fact, the warning is that in Bayelsa and at least four other states in Nigeria, there could be more rainfall until the end of November, which means the water levels could drive already hundreds of thousands of people at this place in this state alone across Nigeria. More than 1.5 million people are displaced and more than 600 people have died because this flooding is affecting 33 out of 36 states.

It's very similar to what we saw earlier in Pakistan. There's a warmer climate that's causing more intense rainfall. But here, also, there's also a number of other factors -- poor infrastructure, a dam that's overflowing in neighboring Cameroon, but also climate change. And some Nigerians don't like that -- that the government is blaming this on climate change -- because they feel it's the result of negligence.

But here in this city, imagine a big city like Philly or Oregon completely underwater like this. Their businesses and homes completely submerged. We have seen in this city -- some residents say they've seen bodies floating in these waters.

And so, people are making do with it because they feel the government has not come to their aid. They're doing their best. They're using boats. They're using this little 3-seater, 3-wheeled cars to get around. But they have to find a way to rebuild their lives.

If you look across the street you see a car that's completely submerged. You see a building that the first floor cannot be used. And that's a reality not just here in the state capital but across most of this state that remains cut off from most of Nigeria. And they fear that it could get worse.

The likelihood -- if you look into this water, Christine, it's really black. It's a mixture of oil, it's a mixture of fecal matter -- all sorts of impurities. So one of the fears here is bilharzia, cholera, and other waterborne diseases. But that's the reality for people that live here.

ROMANS: The reality for people that live there.

Stay safe. Thank you for your reporting, Larry.

All right, Google not immune to recessions fears. The company's weak earnings and what they could mean, next. And children's hospitals overwhelmed with respiratory illness on the rise.

(COMMERCIAL)

[05:47:06]

ROMANS: All right. Your Romans' Numeral this morning, 27, as in a 27 percent drop in profit -- a big earnings miss for Google's parent company Alphabet. A bad omen for digital spending amid worry about the global economy, high inflation, rising interest rates. Online advertising slowed. Advertisers cutting back on ad spending.

On Wall Street, stock index futures leaning a little bit lower here this morning. It was the third straight day of gains, though, at the close yesterday. The Dow closed higher. The Dow at a 6-week high.

More evidence rising interest rates, though, are cooling the housing market. A record slowdown in August home prices, the largest deceleration in the history of the Case-Shiller index. Home prices still rising but not as fast.

Gas prices fell by two cents overnight, now at $3.76 a gallon.

Looking at markets around the world to start the trading day, Asia has finished slightly higher, finding some stability after two tough days for any kind of Chinese investment. And London -- you can see Asian -- or European markets, rather, narrowly mixed here.

All right, I want to bring in CNN global economic analyst Rana Foroohar. She's the author of the terrific new book "Homecoming: The Path to Prosperity in a Post-Global World." Good morning, Rana.

RANA FOROOHAR, CNN GLOBAL ECONOMIC ANALYST, AUTHOR, "HOMECOMING: THE PATH TO PROSPERITY IN A POST-GLOBAL WORLD" (via Webex by Cisco): Good morning. How are you, Christine?

ROMANS: I'm good.

You know, it's -- you know, stocks in the U.S. have rebounded in October. The Dow up something like 10 percent -- still down dramatically for the year. But there has been a bounce here in October.

There are so many headwinds, Rana. Google's profit, still high inflation, a Fed jacking up interest rates. What are we to make of this moment?

FOROOHAR: Well, it's funny, Christine. Sometimes bad news in the real economy can be good news for stocks, and let me unpack that. You mentioned earlier you're starting to see a little bit of cooling off in the housing market. Consumer confidence has dipped a little bit. But basically, that means that the Fed is doing its work. So those rate hikes, people feel are starting to cool the economy off. And that means that investors think that the Fed may actually start to slow down and maybe pull back a little bit on some of those rate hikes, which would be good for stocks.

It's a kind of bizarre world where sometimes stocks go up when things --

ROMANS: Right.

FOROOHAR: -- seem to feel not so great on Main Street.

ROMANS: That's absolutely right.

Meantime, the recession obsession continues. We've heard recession warnings from JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon for months now. And then at this big conference in Saudi Arabia, he said a recession would be manageable and it's not his biggest worry -- listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JAMIE DIMON, CEO, JPMORGAN CHASE: There's a lot of stuff on the horizon, which is bad and could -- it doesn't necessarily but could put the United States in a recession. But that's not the most important thing for what we think about. We'll manage right through that.

I would worry much more about the geopolitics of the world today. I think the most important thing is the geopolitics that's going to Russia-Ukraine, America-China -- you know, the relationships of the -- of the Western world. And that would have me far more concerned than whether there's a milder, slightly severe recession.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[05:50:13]

ROMANS: It's so interesting because as you point out in your book, at the same time, the underpinnings of the global order of the past half- century are shifting, right? Cheap interest rates -- that's going away. Global supply chains -- kind of a mess. Cheap labor from all over -- all over the world -- it doesn't make sense as much anymore. Cheap energy from Russia -- that's going away.

It's a really global moment here.

FOROOHAR: Oh, it really is. I mean, the world is not flat, you know? That's the headline here. The world is bumpy and that's kind of what I'm looking at in my book.

I do think that this period is transitory. I think we're going to get through it. And I think we're going to get to a world that's a little less global and a little more local. That's been something that's been an issue.

I mean, all of those really highly-complex supply chains between the U.S. and China -- many of us that have been going to China for a couple of decades have always thought not so sure that those are going to be stable when there's a crisis, and that's what we're seeing now.

Now, I take Dimon's point. I mean, one thing I'm really concerned about is what if there were an instance in Taiwan. What is the day-one plan? What is the day-two plan?

ROMANS: Yes.

FOROOHAR: I know that that's something the administration is trying to sort out. But we don't yet know and businesses often don't know where all their supply chain risks lies. And that is something we have got to get a handle on.

ROMANS: All right, Rana Foroohar. The new book, "Homecoming: The Path to Prosperity in a Post-Global World." Thank you. Nice to see you, Rana.

FOROOHAR: Great to see you.

ROMANS: All right.

A high-stakes debate between Pennsylvania's John Fetterman and Dr. Oz for Senate. And parts of Florida still recovering four weeks after Hurricane Ian.

(COMMERCIAL)

[05:56:08]

ROMANS: All right, things got chippy between the Warriors and the Suns, ending up with Klay Thompson ejected for the first time in his NBA career.

Coy Wire has this morning's Bleacher Report. What happened?

COY WIRE, CNN SPORTS CORRESPONDENT: Drama, drama, Christine. Emotions running high in this highly anticipated early-season matchup. The defending champs taken past the boiling point in the desert.

Draymond Green -- he thought he was fouled. He yells at the referee after this play. He goes down hard. Well, the referee shows Draymond that T -- technical foul -- early there in the third. And coach Steve Kerr agreed. He, too, would get a technical.

So a few minutes later, check this out. Klay Thompson gets into it with Suns star Devin Booker. They're jawing at each other. Thompson ends up getting called for a technical. And then, for the first time in his career, Christine -- 796 games -- he's ejected -- escorted off the floor. And as he's saying bye-bye, he points to the ring -- all four of them.

Seven technicals in all in the third, most in a quarter -- in more than a quarter-century.

Warriors are blown out by 29 points.

Devin Booker says afterwards that he has nothing but love for Klay Thompson.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DEVIN BOOKER, PHOENIX SUNS GUARD: I love Klay Thompson and I have from the beginning. From the draft, coming out, I said I want to be Klay Thompson. That doesn't excuse us from competing against each other and we're talking a little mess with each other. So I don't have a problem with it. I'm a big fan of his and his competitive nature and that's that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WIRE: All right, NFL now. The league says that two game officials seen in a viral video interacting with Bucs wide receiver Mike Evans were not asking for his autograph. The league issued a statement yesterday clearing the officials of any wrongdoing.

According to NFL Network's Tom Pelissero, the incident centered around the side judge asking Evans for his phone number so he could pass it along to a golf pro for lessons for Evans. Well, the NFL would not confirm nor deny that.

Evans was asked about it yesterday. Here he is.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MIKE EVANS, TAMPA BAY BUCCANEERS WIDE RECEIVER: I wasn't signing my autograph -- I can tell you that. I talk to a lot of officials. We're all human beings. He's a nice guy. That's all. We were just talking about, you know, golf. That's all we was talking about.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WIRE: All right, there you have it.

Finally, when Golden Knights forward Phil Kessel took the ice in San Jose last night, it was his 990th consecutive regular season game, Christine -- a new NHL record. His run goes all the way back to November 3, 2009. The entire arena -- even Sharks fans -- giving the 35-year-old a standing ovation.

But that wasn't all. Late in the first, Kessel also scored his 400th career goal.

Kessel didn't even miss a game, Christine, when his daughter was born back in March. He played a single shift, took one shot on goal that skated off the ice early, to fly home to be with his family.

Phil Kessel, two-time Stanley Cup champ. Before this streak started, Christine, he overcame cancer -- testicular cancer.

ROMANS: Wow.

WIRE: And then, this 13-year streak. So it's just absolutely incredible -- legendary stuff.

ROMANS: That is some dedication.

WIRE: Yes.

ROMANS: All right, nice to see you, Coy Wire.

WIRE: You, too.

ROMANS: Thanks for joining me. I'm Christine Romans. "NEW DAY" starts right now.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. MEHMET OZ, (R) PENNSYLVANIA SENATE CANDIDATE: He hasn't paid his own taxes 67 times but he's raising mine and yours. Those are radical positions. They're extreme. They're out of touch with the values of Pennsylvanians.

LT. GOV. JOHN FETTERMAN, (D) PENNSYLVANIA SENATE CANDIDATE: Here is what I think we have to fight about inflation here right now. That's what we need to fight about -- inflation -- you know, right now. Because it's a tax on working families, you know. And Dr. Oz can't possibly understand what that is like, you know? He has 10 gigantic mansions.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

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