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Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin

Netanyahu Seeking Return To Power As Israelis Head To Polls; Inflation And Bird Flu Make Thanksgiving More Expensive; NYC Workers Can Now See What Jobs Pay Before They Apply. Aired 5:30-6a ET

Aired November 01, 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]

CLARE SEBASTIAN, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: If that deal continues to flounder and if the war continues because, of course, that deal doesn't actually solve the problem -- it's just a Band-Aid -- then we could see food prices continue to rise again. We're already seeing wheat prices come up a little bit off the back of the news that Russia has suspended its participation there.

So this, of course, a serious situation where it puts the onus on the ECB to keep raising rates, even potentially through a recession -- Christine.

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: All right. Nice to see you, Clare -- thanks. A tough story.

All right. Just ahead, the new rules that stop bosses from keeping salaries a secret. And voting now underway in the election that could put Benjamin Netanyahu back in power.

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[05:35:09]

ROMANS: For the fifth time in less than four years, Israelis are heading to the polls. Former prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu is making a bid to return to power. Polls in the final days showed no one with a clear majority.

Hadas Gold live inside a polling place in Jerusalem. And Hadas, Bibi Netanyahu just voted there and he talked to you. What did he say?

HADAS GOLD, CNN JERUSALEM CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Christine. We've been given special permission to film inside a polling station here and just in the last hour, former prime minister-now opposition leader Benjamin Netanyahu cast his ballot in here -- for the first time in 13 years, casting his ballot not as the sitting prime minister. He was ousted last year by a coalition led by now-caretaker prime minister Yair Lapid.

But there are fears that if Benjamin Netanyahu makes a comeback his government will be a far-right-wing government because he will likely need to rely on the support of a far-right-wing party that includes a leader who was once convicted for inciting racism. I asked Benjamin Netanyahu what he says in response to international

concerns his next government will be a far-right one. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BENJAMIN NETANYAHU, FORMER ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER: We don't want a government with a Muslim brotherhood who support terrorists and deny the existence of Israel, and are pretty hostile to the United States, too. That's what we're going to bring.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GOLD: Now, Christine, Benjamin Netanyahu there was referring to the current coalition that for the time in Israeli history had an Arab Israeli party sitting alongside with it.

Now, opinion polls in the final days leading up to today showed that no bloc, whether it's the pro-Netanyahu bloc or the anti-Netanyahu bloc, have a clear majority to have a ruling government. But the Benjamin Netanyahu bloc does seem to be closest and some polls did show that he does have that magic 61-seat number that they would need to have a ruling government.

Now, turnout -- so far, we've been told -- is higher than last year. And as we all know, election days always come out to turnout, but it depends on whose voters turn out. Is it the Benjamin Netanyahu voters? Is it the Arab Israeli voters? Is it the left-wing voters? We'll find out tonight when polls close at 10:00 p.m. local -- Christine.

ROMANS: All right, and you'll be there, I know. Hadas Gold, thank you so much for that.

All right, quick hits around the globe right now.

One thousand Iranians indicted in Tehran for their alleged involvement in nationwide protests. Public trials are scheduled for later this week in Revolutionary court.

Shanghai's Disney resort locking down on Monday to comply with COVID prevention measures. All visitors have been told they must remain in the park until they test negative for the virus.

Richard Branson declining an invitation from the Singapore government to participate in a televised debate on the death penalty. The British billionaire criticized Singapore's decision in April to execute a 33- year-old man for drug trafficking.

All right, this Thanksgiving meal will cost you more and inflation isn't the only reason. Plus, the new laws forcing bosses to make workers' salaries public.

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[05:42:12]

ROMANS: All right, your Romans' Numeral this morning, 292,000,000, as in the long, long odds of winning the Powerball jackpot -- one in 292,000,000. That jackpot, by the way, now up to $1.2 billion for tomorrow's drawing.

OK, you always ask. Take the lump sum, of course. You'll pay a bunch in taxes -- three to 11 percent, depending on which state you live in; 24 percent to the federal government.

And I guess while you're dreaming of how you would spend all that money, don't forget that investing for retirement -- really investing and not buying your lottery ticket -- is the better bet with the best odds, especially when stock markets are down, by the way. Picking up stocks on sale.

Looking at markets around the world right now, you can see gains in Asia, and Europe has opened sharply higher here. On Wall Street, also a good mood to the morning.

Welcome to November after a monster October comeback on Wall Street. The Dow rallied 14 percent for the month, the best month since 1976. The S&P recovered five percent. Tech lagged a little bit, but still up on the month.

The big event now, the Federal Reserve's 2-day meeting set to kick off later today.

Gas prices overnight, by the way, held steady -- right there -- $3.76 a gallon.

All right. Now that Halloween is over we can talk turkey. And yes, inflation means your Thanksgiving bird will be more expensive this year, and that's not the only reason.

CNN's Nathaniel Meyersohn is here. Good morning. What's going on with turkey prices?

NATHANIEL MEYERSOHN, CNN BUSINESS REPORTER: Right. So, all the signs are pointing to a more expensive Thanksgiving this year, Christine.

We see consumer prices for turkeys up 17 percent in September from a year ago. And then you look at the prices that retailers are paying producers -- the wholesale prices for eight- to 16-pound hens -- that's the most popular bird --

ROMANS: Right.

MEYERSOHN: -- come Thanksgiving. Those prices have jumped to $1.80 per pound, up from $1.40 at the same time last year. And that's going to trickle down to consumers and it means that you are going to pay more for your turkey.

ROMANS: So what's driving it?

MEYERSOHN: Right. So it's not just higher inflation, but there was a bout of bird flu this year that killed more than six million birds. So that means that producers have fewer birds to supply to stores. They raised 212 million turkeys this year. That's one of the lowest numbers --

ROMANS: Wow.

MEYERSOHN: -- in years. So now there's tight supply, high demand, and then the producers are facing higher costs for labor, transportation --

ROMANS: Fertilizer.

MEYERSOHN: -- feed, and fertilizer, right.

ROMANS: What about the rest of the meal?

MEYERSOHN: Right. So there's really going to be no escaping inflation at Thanksgiving, Christine. Some of these more -- some of these sides that we really like -- potatoes, more expensive. Fruit and vegetables, more expensive. Ingredients have jumped -- bread, flour, milk --

ROMANS: Yes.

MEYERSOHN: -- eggs.

And then even -- come dessert, even the pies are going to be more expensive, up about 20 percent this year.

ROMANS: What's your favorite pie? I make apple. But what is your favorite?

MEYERSOHN: Apple as well.

ROMANS: Apple.

Any tips on saving for the Thanksgiving meal?

[05:45:00]

MEYERSOHN: Right. So, if you're looking for a specific bird or a specific weight, buy early. Don't wait until the last minute and risk it running out. If you want to wait until the last minute, though, you may -- you may find some discounts.

ROMANS: Yes.

MEYERSOHN: That's when retailers mark it down. They've got to -- they don't need turkeys after Thanksgiving.

ROMANS: Yes.

MEYERSOHN: Also, shop around, check prices. Maybe look at some discount stores. Lidl, which is the German grocery chain -- they say you can get a meal for under $30.00, so that could be a good option.

And then, consider having a potluck this year. Why should you have to foot the bill? Grandma can bring something. The cousins can bring something. It shouldn't be all on you to pay the higher inflation this year. ROMANS: Agreed, agreed.

So, fast food is also getting more expensive. What's going on there?

MEYERSOHN: Right. So even the cheaper stuff is getting more expensive. Chipotle said its prices were up 13 percent last quarter from the same time a year ago. And Chipotle says that it's seen fewer lower-income shoppers visit --

ROMANS: Really?

MEYERSOHN: -- its stores. Right.

And then on the flip side, McDonald's. McDonald's said its prices were up 10 percent, but it's seeing more lower-income customers visit. And that's actually a troubling sign because it means that these customers don't have -- they're not able to afford some of the healthier foods and have to turn --

ROMANS: Right.

MEYERSOHN: -- to McDonald's as a last resort.

ROMANS: Interesting.

All right, Nathaniel Meyersohn, all things consumer. Thank you. Nice to see you this morning.

All right, Twitter's new chief twit is moving fast to shake the money tree. Elon Musk wants to quadruple the price of the Twitter Blue subscription plan from $4.99 to $19.99 a month. It would become the only way to retain verified user status.

According to internal Twitter planning documents viewed by CNN, users who are currently verified by Twitter, with that little blue checkmark badge for no charge, will have 90 days to subscribe to this new Twitter Blue plan or have their verification revoked.

Starting today, many employers in New York City will be required by law to advertise what they pay for a particular position up front. A similar law to improve pay transparency will take place in California in January.

Let's bring in Jessica Kriegel, chief scientist of workplace culture at Culture Partners. Jessica, so nice to see you.

Let's talk about -- the problem here is that some of these companies, especially big companies, have huge ranges in salaries for people doing the same job, and that's a problem. The idea here is more transparency will shrink a wage gap?

JESSICA KRIEGEL, CHIEF SCIENTIST OF WORKPLACE CULTURE, CULTURE PARTNERS (via Webex by Cisco): Yes, absolutely. Right now, women still make 77 cents to the dollar for -- on average across the nation. So this is a first step in trying to combat that. It's going to help companies with the "E" in DEI (Diversity Equity and

Inclusion). There is still a lack of equity across the board. And so, we need to address that and this is going to help get that done.

ROMANS: Yes. It's going to be interesting. It could be messy for some companies, to be honest, because it's going to expose these gaps. And some companies have very messy compensation simply because of where you're hired on the -- you know, on the hiring spectrum. Like, if you're hired in boom times, those people probably have a higher salary than people who were hired in lean times. Am I right?

KRIEGEL: Absolutely. Not only that, it has to do with the negotiating skills of the candidate, right? I mean, someone who is more able to negotiate is going to get a better deal.

It also has to do with the hiring manager's ability to influence the executives. If you want to get a compensation exception and get something outside of the band and you have a closer relationship with the CEO, you're going to be able to do that as a hiring manager or even, maybe, you have a different philosophy. For some hiring managers, they think we need to pay in order to get the top talent; and others, they say absolutely not.

So all of these are factors that can create a really messy compensation table for organizations that now is a complete headache for them. And frankly, many of them have been trying to clean it up for a while --

ROMANS: Yes.

KRIEGEL: -- and this is going to help them speed that along.

ROMANS: Yes. So you say these laws are positive for both companies and workers. Why?

KRIEGEL: Well, for workers, there is going to be an increased sense of psychological safety, and that's good for companies, too. You're creating a culture of trust -- a culture where you know that your employer -- your boss isn't getting away with anything.

You're also -- we've seen studies. Research shows that there may even be productivity implications for pay transparency, meaning that people are more productive when they know what their colleagues are making.

And then, finally, you're just going to have this sense of efficiency that goes -- it gets better. For example, when you're recruiting and you see a candidate that you think is fantastic, you go through the hiring process, you do all of these interviews, and then you finally get to the salary discussion and you realize you're way off base --

ROMANS: Yes.

KRIEGEL: -- on what their salary expectations are. That's going to get better, too.

ROMANS: There are a lot of factors behind the pay gap -- you know, why women make less. Why -- there are all kinds of pay gaps, right, and there are a lot of reasons. Discrimination is one of those reasons.

Do you think this will help maybe even unconscious discrimination that's happening in the workplace?

KRIEGEL: Yes, absolutely. Unconscious bias is one of the most insidious things that's happens in an organization. We make decisions without even realizing that we're making decisions.

[05:50:00]

You've seen those studies that have out from McKenzie years ago about people with names that sound less white get less callbacks and less job offers.

So those kind of things happen without us even realizing it's happening, and that's why these laws are going into effect. It's going to be a first step. There's more work to be done.

ROMANS: Yes, there's a lot of work to be done.

So will it affect people who are already employees at these companies -- not just new hires?

KRIEGEL: Absolutely. If I were working at an organization and I saw that a new job was posted, I'd want to go see what they're saying that job posting was paying.

And then, we're going to have uncomfortable conversations, which is actually a good thing. I know employers are probably not looking forward to it but we are as sick as our secrets and these secrets are going to come out and we're going to have to have some conversations.

ROMANS: All right, awkward moments that lead to a better, more fair place to work.

Jessica Kriegel, thank you so much. Nice to see you -- Culture Partners.

KRIEGEL: Nice to see you again. Thanks for having me.

ROMANS: All right.

Taylor Swift going where no musical artist has gone before.

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TAYLOR SWIFT, SINGER-SONGWRITER: Singing "Bejeweled."

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ROMANS: Taylor Swift taking over the entire top 10 of this week's Billboard Hot 100 chart. All 10 songs are from her new album "Midnight." The singer surpassed Drake, who held the previous record with nine of the top 10 songs during a week last year. All right, back in February, the Bengals were in the Super Bowl. Now they're on the verge of having a losing record.

Carolyn Manno is here with this morning's Bleacher Report. Good morning, Carolyn.

CAROLYN MANNO, CNN SPORTS CORRESPONDENT: Hi, good morning. How are you?

I mean, the curse of the Super Bowl is a real thing, right? Thirty percent of the Super Bowl losers from the previous season fail to make the playoffs, and that is a very scary sign for the Bengals squad this year -- pretty fitting for Monday's theme.

Browns defensive end Myles Garrett arriving for the game in a "STRANGER THINGS" Halloween costume, Christine.

Garrett and his teammates gave Cincinnati quarterback Joe Burrow nightmares, by the way. This happened five times on Monday night. Cleveland scary on offense as well. Nick Chubb had a huge game -- rushed for two touchdowns. Back-up quarterback Jacoby Brissett ran for a score of his own and passed for another.

So, the Browns win in a blowout -- 32-13 the final. Snapped a 4-game losing streak. Ohio native Joe Burrow now 0-4 against Cleveland.

Elsewhere, University of Michigan head coach Jim Harbaugh says the Michigan State football players involved in Saturday's postgame fight should face criminal charges. New footage showing what appears to be a Michigan State player swinging his helmet in a postgame tunnel brawl at Michigan stadium. You can see it spotlighted there. There was after Michigan's win.

Two Michigan football players have injuries from the fight, according to Harbaugh, who is calling for a thorough investigation that will ensure full accountability.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JIM HARBAUGH, MICHIGAN HEAD COACH: I can't imagine that this would not result in criminal charges. The videos are bad. And it's clear what transpired. It seems very, very open and shut. You know, as they say, watch the tape.

An apology will not get the job done in this instance. There should be serious consequences for the many individuals that are culpable.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MANNO: The attorney for one of the players injured, Gemon Green, says he suffered a concussion and cuts to the face.

Police for both schools investigating the fight. Four players from Michigan State have been suspended indefinitely until the full investigation is complete. But such an ugly scene. Tom Brady opening up about his divorce from supermodel Gisele Bundchen. The pair finalizing that separation on Friday after 13 years of marriage. On his "Let's Go!" podcast, Brady talked about balancing being a professional athlete along with his personal life.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TOM BRADY, TAMPA BAY BUCCANEERS QUARTERBACK: Obviously, the good news is things -- it's a very amicable situation, and I'm really focused on two things: taking care of my family and certainly, my children, and secondly, doing the best job I can to win football games. So, that's what professionals do. You focus at work when it's time to work, and then when you come home you focus on the priorities that are at home. And all you can do is the best you could do.

Everyone's going through different things. We all have our unique challenges in life and we're all humans, and we do the best we could do.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MANNO: So much has been made about this, Christine. It's been so public. Of course, every detail of their marriage --

ROMANS: Yes.

MANNO: -- unfolding so publicly. But hopefully, now -- especially with the struggles that Tampa has had -- making this public, he can put it behind him and focus on the rest of this season.

ROMANS: Yes. There's so much public interest in his marriage and family. I mean, that's by being a celebrity in such a -- such a big way.

MANNO: Yes.

ROMANS: The World Series rained out.

MANNO: Yes.

ROMANS: So what does that mean for -- you know, going --

MANNO: Well -- so, tonight and then a couple of games in Houston -- in Philadelphia, excuse me.

ROMANS: Yes.

MANNO: And then they'll go to Houston. But hopefully, OK. Everything pushed back a day but we'll have it picked up tonight after a little bit of rain.

ROMANS: All right, Carolyn Manno. Nice to see you. Thanks so much.

All right, thanks for joining me. I'm Christine Romans.

The debut of "CNN THIS MORNING" is next with new reporting on the suspect who broke into the home of Speaker Nancy Pelosi and attacked her husband. And my friend Don Lemon's exclusive interview with Pennsylvania Senate candidate John Fetterman. No questions were off- limits.

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