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Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin
Israel Raid Into Jenin Turns Into Pitched 11-Hour Battle; Search And Rescue Underway For Missing Titanic Sub; U.S. Markets Thriving Despite Economic Uncertainty. Aired 5:30-6a ET
Aired June 20, 2023 - 05:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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[05:33:35]
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back.
The U.S. urging de-escalation between Israelis and Palestinians this morning after an Israeli raid on the West Bank town of Jenin Monday left at least six Palestinians dead and dozens wounded.
Journalist Elliott Gotkine joins us live from Jerusalem. Eliot, bring us up to speed on what's happening right now.
ELLIOTT GOTKINE, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: Christine, right now, the funerals of the six Palestinians killed in that incursion on Monday is underway in Jenin.
As far as the attack and the violence that we saw on Monday, the dust has settled from that. But I think the ramifications from what we saw on Monday will continue to be felt for some time, not least of the ferocity of the gun battle and then, of course, that improvised explosive devices -- that IED that took out at least one Israeli military vehicle and damaged several others. The idea that described this IED as pretty advanced. It wasn't expecting that kind of -- that kind of explosive to attack one of its vehicles.
And, of course, as the Israeli soldiers got bogged down -- and we know that eight were injured in total -- they called in an Apache helicopter for cover. That's something that hasn't happened in the West Bank in some two decades.
So at the end of the day, we saw six Palestinians killed -- or five on Monday, and one more succumbed to his wounds today. Half of those were claimed by the Jenin brigades. That's a militant group associated with Islamic Jihad.
And we know eight -- the eight Israeli soldiers that were wounded -- some of them received a visit from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday afternoon, who reiterated that Israel would continue to carry out such raids as and when it feels that they are necessary. And also, I suppose to show that his hands are on the wheel given all the political controversies and pressures that he's under right now.
[05:35:13]
As you say, we've heard from the State Department calling for a de- escalation. I don't think that is likely to happen. Israel will continue to carry out these raids. But perhaps given what it saw on Monday it may see the need to adjust its tactics somewhat to be prepared for future IEDs and other ferocious gun battles of the sort that we saw on Monday -- Christine.
ROMANS: All right, Elliott. Thank you so much for that.
Quick hits around the globe right now.
Swiss voters approve a new law cutting the use of fossil fuels they hope will reduce the levels of planet-heating pollution. The country's glaciers are melting at an alarming pace.
U.K.'s Parliament has approved a new report that Boris Johnson knowingly misled lawmakers when he said that COVID lockdown rules were followed at Downing Street while he was prime minister.
The city of Rome opening the ancient square where Julius Caesar was killed today. Tourists can now visit the temple ruins where Roman senators stabbed the dictator to death back in 44 B.C.
All right. Just ahead, President Biden about to meet with experts in the new frontier of artificial intelligence. And a surprising upset for Venus Williams after a marathon round at the Birmingham Classic.
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[05:40:27]
ROMANS: Here is today's fast-forward lookahead.
President Biden will meet with leaders in artificial intelligence in San Francisco today. The White House says it's designed to tap into the opportunities AI presents while managing the risks.
Special counsel John Durham meets behind closed doors with members of the House Intelligence Committee today. It follows his report suggesting the FBI should never have launched a probe into connections between Donald Trump's campaign and Russia during the 2016 election.
The search for that small submersible with five people on board will resume today in the North Atlantic. The craft was lost during a trip to see the wreckage of the Titanic Sunday.
More now on the search from CNN's Paula Newton.
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PAULA NEWTON, CNN CORRESPONDENT (on camera): The U.S. Coast Guard is taking the lead on this search and rescue mission and they confirm, in fact, that this is a very challenging mission. The reason is that they say this area in the North Atlantic is very remote if you can imagine. Not only do they have to search such a large area in, perhaps,
challenging weather -- we do know now that fog has rolled in -- but the fact that they have to search, perhaps, an area of the seabed as far as nearly 2 1/2 miles down. That is where the Titanic wreck is and that is when presumably they lost contact with this submersible. It's only 21 feet long.
And so, this will continue to be a challenge as the hours roll on here.
I want you to listen now to the U.S. Coast Guard.
REAR ADM. JOHN MAUGER, COMMANDER, U.S. COAT GUARD FIRST DISTRICT: To make sure that we're looking on both the surface using aerial and surface vessels, but then expanding into underwater search as well. Right now, our capability is limited to sonar buoys and listening for sounds but we're working very hard to increase the capability.
NEWTON (on camera): Now, the rear admiral there is confirming the fact that they are going on what they know from the company, OceanGate Expeditions. That they have 96 hours or thereabouts, in total, of emergency life support. That would include fuel and oxygen.
They continue to ask for more resources to go to the region. And the Canadian Armed Forces tells me that they will continue to cycle fixed- wing aircraft through that area in order to help with the search, but they're also calling on commercial vessels to go to the area as they continue to try and locate this submersible, really, when they lost contact with it on Sunday afternoon. They still have had zero communication and therefore, it makes it much more difficult to even pinpoint a search location.
Paula Newton, CNN, Ottawa.
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ROMANS: Watch this space. We'll continue to follow that story.
The NBA Draft is just two days away and the teenage sensation expected to go at number one has arrived in the U.S.
Andy Scholes has this morning's Bleacher Report. Hey, Andy.
ANDY SCHOLES, CNN SPORTS CORRESPONDENT: Yes, good morning, Christine.
So, Victor Wembanyama -- he's the best NBA prospect since LeBron James -- something -- he's actually the best ever. And the seven-foot-five 19-year-old Frenchman touching down in the U.S. yesterday ahead of the draft. Wembanyama was mobbed by fans and, well, autograph hounds. He signed as he made his way through the Newark airport. Someone even had a Spurs jersey ready for him.
And Wemby said he was a little surprised at how many people were there.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) VICTOR WEMBANYAMA, PROJECTED #1 NBA DRAFT PICK: I don't know how they knew my -- what flight I was on but, you know, it's fun seeing that you could have such an impact on people.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SCHOLES: Yes. So, San Antonio is going to be taking Wembanyama number one on Thursday night.
One Spurs fan -- well, he is certainly ready. Check out this Wembanyama haircut that he got on the back of his head. It's -- I can't believe they could even make a haircut like this. It's certainly impressive. That's a big Wembanyama fan right there.
All right. Venus Williams turning back the clock yesterday getting her first win over a player in the top 50 in almost four years two days after her 43rd birthday and with right knee problems restricting her movement. Venus outlasted Camila Giorgi in a marathon that lasted more than three hours. The seven-time Grand Slam champion upset the world number 48 and it's only her third win of any kind in the last three years.
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VENUS WILLIAMS, 7-TIME GRAND SLAM SINGLES CHAMPION: I thought I played so well today and she also played incredible. I'm so surprised she's not number one in the world. There were so many moments where I just thought this match is over and she would hit a shot from out of nowhere. So she pushed me to be better than what I thought I could be and this is great -- great for me. I haven't played a lot of matches and it's great to come through.
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[05:45:06]
SCHOLES: All right. Top-ranked Wake Forest taking another step towards the College World Series title yesterday against LSU, and they can thank catcher Bennett Lee. In the top of the eighth, LSU, first and third. Lee with a nice tag there to get the runner to keep the game tied at two. Then in the bottom of the inning with a runner on second, Lee comes up with the clutch RBI single.
Wake ends up winning this one 3-2. They need just one more win to make it to that final series.
All right, in the big leagues, former MVP Joey Votto getting a standing ovation from the Cincinnati crowd as he was back in the starting lineup for the Reds last night for the first time since undergoing shoulder surgery last August.
And he would make his presence felt in just his second at-bat against the Rockies. The 39-year-old sent a solo home run over the right field wall that had the fans all going crazy. Then, in the sixth inning, Votto delivers a go-ahead two-run single that turned out to be the game-winner in the 5-4 victory. Cincinnati now won nine in a row -- their longest winning streak in a
decade. They also move into first place in the division by half a game.
And, Christine, Votto said after the game it was memorable -- more than he expected -- that standing ovation and welcome he got from the Reds fans. A good time to be a baseball fan there in Cincinnati.
ROMANS: Yes, absolutely.
All right, Andy Scholes. Nice to see you, Andy. Thank you.
SCHOLES: All right.
ROMANS: Coming up on "CNN THIS MORNING" what it's really like to ride in a small submersible like the one now lost at sea near the Titanic ruins.
And next, right here, what might be the longest recession watch in history.
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[05:50:49]
ROMANS: Your Romans' Numeral this morning, 250,000. Dozens of big companies have pledged to hire and train over 250,000 refugees in Europe. Among them, Amazon, Cisco, Hilton, Marriott, Microsoft, Starbucks. Today is World Refugee Day.
Looking at markets around the world right now, Asian markets finished mixed. China slashed its key lending benchmarks to jumpstart its slowing economic recovery. European markets are mixed right now.
On Wall Street, stock index futures leaning down a little bit. Markets reopen after the Juneteenth holiday. All three major averages coming off a strong week after the Fed's interest rate pause. It was the best week since March for the Nasdaq and the S&P.
On inflation watch, gas prices held steady overnight and are down about $1.40 from last summer.
The main event his week will be congressional testimony from the Fed chief later this week. Housing starts are due out later this morning.
All right. U.S. stocks look like they're thriving despite all of the economic uncertainty, which leads to the question, is this too good to be true?
Let's bring in Seema Shah, chief global strategist at Principal Asset Management. Good morning, Seema.
You know, all the major U.S. markets are up this year. The S&P 500 has, I mean, technically entered a new bull market. So what's driving the optimism? SEEMA SHAH, CHIEF GLOBAL STRATEGIST, PRINCIPAL ASSET MANAGEMENT (via Skype): Good morning.
Well, I think what's driving the optimism at the moment is simply just down to a handful of stocks and what's really down those mega-cap tech stocks driven by this AI craze, which is really taking over the market.
If you look underneath the surface of the S&P 500, for example, you can actually see that most of the other sectors are struggling and earnings growth has been fairly weak for a lot of these sectors. So it's all being held up by these couple of stocks, and I think that's what we really need to watch from hereon.
ROMANS: Yes. The president is in Silicon Valley today to talk with AI leaders. The New York cabbie is bullish on NVIDIA.
You told Yahoo Finance anything that can benefit or even ride on the back of some of these AI stocks and the technology we think stands to do well.
So is this the next big thing, AI, or a dotcom -- like, fad? And, Seema, how does the regular investor profit from this?
SHAH: So we do think that this is the real thing. We think that this will be bringing on a formidable shift improvement in productivity and probably a change in many things in the way that we live.
The thing to consider, though, is investors are expecting this -- kind of the gains to come through within six months or so. This is a fairly long-term project. We wouldn't expect to see meaningful improvement in productivity for at least a couple of years. So maybe things have gone a little bit too far too fast in the near term. But if you're looking at the longer term, then, certainly, there are clear benefits to be had.
And for investors, probably, this isn't the time to be increasing your exposure to these mega-cap tech stocks and valuations are absolutely through the roof. But at some point, when some of the froth comes off the market these prices will be more reasonable. And really, at that point, investors should be thinking about how they can get exposure to this AI fad, whether it's directly to the stocks --
ROMANS: Right.
SHAH: -- or anything else which is going to benefit along the way.
ROMANS: Seema, this has been probably the longest recession watch in memory. You think a recession is still coming later this year -- Q4 of Q1 next year -- but it won't be a really bad one. There's a joke on Wall Street if this is what a recession watch feels like, bartender, pour me another. Because it doesn't feel like something big and terrible is about to come.
Where are you on the recession watch right now? SHAH: Yes, you're right. It's been -- it's been waited for forever. And I think the reason is though there was considerable clear clarity about what the Federal Reserve would have to do in order to defeat inflation last year. So that gave investors and economists a really clear path into what to expect later on down the line.
Now, for us, we are anticipating a recession but we are expecting also to be fairly shallow, I'm quite sure. So, two courses. Peak to drop at 1.5 percent. Historically, that's very short and considerably moderate in depth compared to previously.
So this is probably a recession, which as you look around you probably won't feel it. We're not expecting a very significant rise in unemployment but unfortunately, there will be some implications, at least for a short term in specifically, the markets.
ROMANS: OK.
Seema Shah, Principal Asset Management, thank you so much. Nice to see you as always.
[05:55:02]
All right, coming up on "CNN THIS MORNING" a desperate search near the Titanic wreck site for that missing submarine with five people on board.
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ROMANS: Our top of the morning this Tuesday, the states with the highest number of dogs biting mail carriers.
California tops the Postal Service's annual list timed to National Dog Bite Awareness Week. Yes, that is a real thing, Dog Bite Awareness Week. California had 675 letter carrier dog bites last year. Number two, Texas, not far behind with 404 bites. And number three, New York -- 321 dog bites of mail carriers.
[06:00:09]
The Postal Service says mail carriers are usually bitten by good dogs who have not previously shown menacing behavior.
All right, thanks for joining me this Tuesday morning. I'm Christine Romans. "CNN THIS MORNING" starts right now.
