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Millions Head To Polls In Sierra Leone Amid Economic Crisis; Today: Indian PM To Meet With VP Harris, Secretary of State Blinken, And Leading U.S. CEOs; Wembanyama Picked First Overall By Spurs In NBA Draft. Aired 5:30-6a ET

Aired June 23, 2023 - 05:30   ET

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

[05:30:00]

STEPHANIE BUSARI, CNN AFRICA SENIOR EDITOR: Christine, a very high- stakes election -- very crucial ones on Saturday for the people of Sierra Leone. And this is actually the fifth presidential election since the civil war ended 21 years ago. And inflation is sky high -- 37 percent in April, according to the IMF.

And security is tense in the capital, Freetown, with one person describing it as preparing for war. We've been speaking to people in Freetown. Take a listen to what they had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BUSARI (voice-over): These Sierra Leoneans are calling out for change as the West African state heads to the polls to elect a new president on June 24. Among the issues citizens are battling are soaring cost of living and massive unemployment, with inflation sitting at around 37 percent in April, according to the IMF.

AMINATA FANTA KOROMA, OPPOSITION PARTY MEMBER: (INAUDIBLE) and we are not seeing any prospects that (INAUDIBLE) are coming down. The inflation is very high. (INAUDIBLE) is very high.

BUSARI (voice-over): Around 3.3 million, less than half the population, are registered to vote in this, the fifth election, since the end of the country's brutal decade-long civil war 21 years ago. And yet, at the current state of the country spilling over in August last year with more than 20 people killed in anti-government protests across Sierra Leone.

Incumbent President Julius Maada Bio's view of those protests.

JULIUS MAADA WONIE BIO, PRESIDENT OF SIERRA LEONE: This was not a protest against the high cost of living -- the chant of the insurrectionists and also a violent overthrow of the democratically- elected government.

BUSARI (voice-over): Former Sierra Leonean child soldier (PH) turned author and human rights activist Ishmael Beah says the mood in the country is not hopeful. ISHMAEL BEAH, AUTHOR AND HUMAN RIGHTS ACTIVIST: Even as we lean

towards election the security situation has gotten tense in the way that you have more presence of armed police, armed military that are basically patrolling the streets as if going to an election is also going to war.

BUSARI (voice-over): Among the 12 candidates challenging Maada Bio in the general election is the leader of the opposition All People's Congress Party, Samura Kamara.

SAMURA KAMARA, PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I want to call all Sierra Leoneans to come out and vote on the 24th, come rain, come sunshine, come the usual barrage of bullets, or come anything else, to protect their votes.

BUSARI (voice-over): The 72-year-old former cabinet minister is facing trial on corruption charges, which he denies. If convicted, Kamara will be barred from holding public office. He appeared before court in April but the case has been adjourned until after the general election.

Fifty-nine-year-old Maada Bio, seen here dancing in the rain on the campaign trail, has promised if reelected to feed the nation and create half a million jobs for young people in five years.

For the people of a country that has faced so much tragedy, its future is by no means decided.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BUSARI: Christine, the people of Sierra Leone are very resilient. They've had to bounce back from so much tragedy.

I was in Sierra Leone myself in 2017 after the devastating mudslides that killed so many people. And there were people asking there why always us. There's really a sense that people are desperate for stability.

And this is a -- this is a country that has abundant diamond resources. You'll remember the movie "Blood Diamond" was based on Sierra Leone.

So they want some of that -- those resources to trickle back to them. To have hope and aspirations for their future. And really, that's the -- these are the stakes that are very high in these elections, Christine.

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: Yes, and they head to the polls on Saturday.

Stephanie, thank you so much for that.

Quick hits around the globe right now.

Self-declared misogynist influencer Andrew Tate is in a Romanian court with his brother Tristan today for a pretrial hearing on detention and to set the court date. They are charged with human trafficking, rape, setting up a gang.

The Vatican says it will hand over evidence to prosecutors in a 40- year-old missing persons case. The 15-year-old girl was the daughter of a Vatican employee who vanished on her way home in 1983.

New sanctions by the European Union targets Russian oil smugglers. It's part of an effort to crack down on illegal sales of crude that could be helping fuel Moscow's war on Ukraine.

Just ahead, the Supreme Court could still hand down some major rulings today. And India's prime minister gets the VIP treatment in Washington.

(COMMERCIAL)

[05:39:06]

ROMANS: Here is today's fast-forward lookahead.

The U.S. Supreme Court will convene later this morning and may announce some opinions. The court has yet to weigh in on affirmative action, gay rights, and President Biden's student loan forgiveness.

Northbound I-95 through Philadelphia will reopen to traffic today at noon days ahead of schedule. A section of the interstate collapsed almost two weeks ago after a tanker truck crash.

President Biden will sign an executive order today strengthening access to contraception. Saturday marks one year since the Supreme Court overturned the Roe v. Wade abortion decision.

Vice President Kamala Harris and Secretary of State Tony Blinken will be hosting Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi for a luncheon today. He's expected to meet separately with leading American business leaders. Top U.S. CEOs from Apple, Google, Microsoft, and FedEx were also invited to Thursday's state dinner at the White House.

CNN's Vedika Sud joins us live from New Delhi. And, Vedika, President Biden clearly sees India as a partner in countering China's growing influence.

[05:40:04]

What's the goal of today's meetings?

VEDIKA SUD, CNN REPORTER: I think today is more about wrapping up loose ends, Christine. And along with that, like you said, he is going to be meeting with Kamala Harris and Sec. Blinken. And we do know that there have been three high-profile visits to India by the top leaders from the U.S. this year. It indicates how important India is as a strategic partner to the U.S.

And I think it will all be wrapped up when the prime minister meets with the (INAUDIBLE) this evening. That's just going to add to the show that you've seen already that was on full display yesterday at the White House. You had song, dance. You had pageantry -- all of it. And then they got down to talking across the table with some very significant deals having been announced.

But I also want to tell you about how India is viewing all of this, and I want to start with a few newspapers from this morning.

This is The Indian Express and it says "Deals closed, doors open." Now the doors open bit, of course, also talks of how Narendra Modi, while he was at the White House, spoke about how Indian Americans were invited inside -- and thousands of them -- inside the White House on Thursday when he was being received officially by the U.S. president.

Let's go on to the Financial Express now. "India-U.S. tie take jet speed" is what it says, and that's because of the jet engine deal that has now been signed.

Very significant there again, Christine, because it's not only the production of jet engines that India and the U.S. will now be getting into, but also the sharing of that technology, which also goes on to indicate and symbolize how America is ready to trust India with their technology here.

Now, I do want to talk about the bigger picture but before that let's just listen into two very important lines from Modi's speech at the U.S. Congress on Thursday.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NARENDRA MODI, PRIME MINISTER OF INDIA: Mr. Speaker, the dark clouds of coercion and confrontation are casting their shadow in the Indo- Pacific. The last few years have seen deeply disruptive developments. With the Ukraine conflict, war has returned to Europe.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SUD: I think what you see out there is Modi talking about China without talking about China -- directly referring to them. And talking of the war and the invasion of Ukraine by Russia without talking about Russia.

Very quickly, in just another 20 seconds, what I really want to say here is that America should be happy with how much India is giving them strategically here because America wants India as an ally but India maintains its non-alignment strategy. So I think Narendra Modi here is giving as much as he can as a strategic partner but just stopping short of being an ally to the U.S. But, of course, Biden trying to draw India in --

ROMANS: Sure.

SUD: -- as close as possible here, Christine.

ROMANS: All right, Vedika Sud. Thank you so much for that.

All right, to the surprise of absolutely no one, the teenage sensation from France is now officially a San Antonio Spur.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) ADAM SILVER, NBA COMMISSIONER: With the first pick in the 2023 NBA Draft, the San Antonio Spurs select Victor Wembanyama. The (INAUDIBLE).

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: All right, a bright future there.

Andy Scholes has this morning's Bleacher Report. Hey, Andy.

ANDY SCHOLES, CNN SPORTS CORRESPONDENT: Yes, good morning, Christine.

So, you know, the NBA has never seen anything like Victor Wembanyama. He's seven-foot-four but has the skills of a shooting guard. Steph Curry has said Wemby -- he's like a player you would trade on the video game NBA 2K. But he is real life. And Wemby is expected to immediately turn around the San Antonio Spurs.

The 19-year-old from France has been working towards this moment last night since he was 12 years old. And he was pretty emotional after walking across the stage and shaking Commissioner Silver's hand.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

VICTOR WEMBANYAMA, NUMBER ONE NBA DRAFT PICK: I can't really describe it. It's still fresh. But one of the best feelings of my life. Probably the best night of my life. I've been dreaming about this for so long. It's just -- it's a dream come true. It's incredible.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCHOLES: After Wemby, the Hornets took Alabama's Brandon Miller. Second fall by Scoot Henderson, going to the Blazers at three.

Draft history was made with the number four and five picks. Identical twins Amen and Ausar Thompson becoming the first brothers to be selected in the top five of the same draft with Amen going to the Rockets and Ausar going to the Pistons.

Now there weren't many surprises last night at the draft. The only real big one was Villanova's Cam Whitmore's slide. The Rockets -- they actually considered selecting Whitmore at pick four but they ended up getting him with their second pick in the first round at number 20.

[05:45:07]

Whitmore saying after he got picked he has no idea what happened but he's happy to be a Rocket.

Gradey Dick, meanwhile, winning the fashion draft. Check out the suit he was wearing. Very nice and shiny. He wore the red for Kansas and it worked out well because he got drafted by the Toronto Raptors. So the suit ended up going with his draft day hat.

All right, elsewhere, the drama continuing at the College World Series. Wake Forest and LSU battling it out for a shot in the final. Their fans sitting through 10 innings of scoreless baseball. But in the bottom of the 11th, Tommy White swung at the first pitch he saw and sent that into left field for the two-run walk-off home run.

So now we're going to have an all-SEC final series between LSU and Florida. It's a rematch from the 2017 final when the Gators won it all. Game one tomorrow night at 7:00 Eastern.

All right, and finally, Nationals manager Dave Martinez put on a show for the home fans against the Diamondbacks yesterday.

So he was arguing balls and strikes in the fifth inning, which got him ejected. Well, then Martinez decided to go all out. He went out there and cleaned the plate off. He even lays down here to make his point about the strike zone being so low. Martinez then continued to talk with umpire Doug Eddings and it actually ended rather peacefully.

The Nats ended up, though, losing that game 5-3, Christine.

And we just had such an entertaining week from all the managers in baseball. A couple of them saying it was the worst calls they've ever seen in their lives.

ROMANS: You're right.

SCHOLES: And then had Dave Martinez laying down there. So --

ROMANS: That was so funny.

SCHOLES: -- some fun stuff.

ROMANS: All right, Andy Scholes. Have a great weekend, Andy. Thank you.

SCHOLES: You, too.

ROMANS: Coming up on "CNN THIS MORNING" the search for answers among the debris after a Titanic tour went horribly wrong.

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[05:51:00]

ROMANS: All right, your Romans' Numeral this morning, 39. The Census Bureau says the median age of the U.S. population has now reached an all-time high of about 39 years of age. In 2000, it was 35. In 1980, it was 30. They say age is just a number but as more working Americans grow older and retire it puts a strain on Social Security and Medicare.

All right, looking at markets around the world right now, Asian markets finished lower. Investors there are concerned that rate hikes by major central banks might hinder global economic growth. European markets also lower following a bigger-than-expected rate hike by the Bank of England. On Wall Street, stock index futures right now down a little bit here.

The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq actually rallied late yesterday snapping a three-day losing streak. The Dow finished slightly lower.

Markets were moved the by Fed chairman's comments to the Senate. Jerome Powell said the central bank would move interest rates at a careful pace from here.

On inflation watch, gas prices held steady overnight at $3.58 per gallon, down substantially from those near-record highs last summer.

The median existing U.S. home price in May was a little over $396,000, down 3.1 percent from a year ago. For years, we never would say that home prices fell -- they only went up. That was the largest annual drop in more than a decade.

Joining me here is Bess Freedman, the CEO of Brown Harris Stevens, a real estate company with 3,000 agents in Florida, New York, Connecticut, and New Jersey.

OK. So we had home prices fall a little bit. I know they rose in the Northeast. They fell more out west than anyplace else. All real estate is local, of course. But the fact that prices are coming down, what's happening?

BESS FREEDMAN, CEO, BROWN, HARRIS, STEVENS: I mean, I think that's a good thing and hopefully, that will inspire consumers to go out there and start negotiating and putting offers in. But I think typically, as rates go up, as we've seen, prices start to come down.

And it's been 15 months of the Fed tightening -- you know, 10 consecutive increases in the Fed fund rate, and that's having an impact. Rates have doubled. So, therefore, prices are now -- we're starting to see them come down, which is a good thing --

ROMANS: Yes.

FREEDMAN: -- because we want to get buyers and sellers working together.

ROMANS: Existing home sales fell 20 percent from a year ago. That's a huge decline in the number of homes changing hands. There's not a lot of supply out there either. I mean, talk to us --

FREEDMAN: Yes.

ROMANS: -- about some of the -- some of these, I guess, wrinkles in the market.

FREEDMAN: That's such a challenge. I mean, some areas or some pockets where there's no inventory on the market, so that's putting incredible strain on the rental market because that's what people are going to have to do. If there is nothing to buy, or prices are too high, or they can't find what they want, then people are opting to rent.

So we need to build more housing. We specifically need more affordable housing in New York --

ROMANS: Right.

FREEDMAN: -- City. And so, we're seeing a little bit of movement but we need more homes. We're desperate for that.

ROMANS: We saw housing starts really spike, though, so we do see the home construction --

FREEDMAN: Is improving --

ROMANS: -- is improving.

FREEDMAN: -- and more fluidness, which is a good thing.

So I think there's good and bad signs. We saw inflation cut in half.

ROMANS: Yes.

FREEDMAN: Good news. And hopefully, prices coming down will inspire some confidence in consumers and have them bidding.

ROMANS: The mortgage rate situation, though. So many people are in a three- or four-percent mortgage. I mean, you're not going to move if you don't have to if the new mortgage is going to be six percent.

FREEDMAN: Well, that's the challenge. I think that people who have great rates who have locked in are not inspired to list their home. So that's another reason why we don't have enough inventory out there.

ROMANS: Yes.

All right, so -- I mean, in a word, how do you describe the real estate market? Stable, recovering, soft?

FREEDMAN: Recalibrating.

ROMANS: OK.

FREEDMAN: Challenging. Ambiguous, I would say, because there's some good and bad out there.

ROMANS: Yes.

FREEDMAN: So --

ROMANS: And there's just not any supply. I mean, anybody who knows somebody trying to buy a house in the Northeast, in particular, knows that there's just not a lot of supply.

FREEDMAN: There's not enough, right, but it's decent. I think we're in a better position than people would expect, and I think consumers are out there, and I think we're doing OK, considering.

ROMANS: All right.

Bess, nice to see you.

FREEDOM: We'll take it. Have a great weekend, Christine.

ROMANS: You, too. Thank you so much. Bess Freedman of Brown, Harris, Stevens.

All right. Coming up on "CNN THIS MORNING" what the Navy knew about the Titan submersible on Sunday just as it lost communications.

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[05:59:17]

ROMANS: All right. Bud Light launching a new ad campaign.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

Bud Light ad campaign.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: The theme is appropriately overcoming adversity, showcasing those little summer mishaps.

Bud Light slipped from its longtime number-one perch over a low-level partnership with transgender influence Dylan Mulvaney to whom it gave a one-off custom can. Right-wing media and anti-trans activists whipped up a fury of negative attention for the beer, helping propel Modelo to the top of the beer sales heap.

Our top of the morning, the top songs in America.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REMA AND SELENA GOMEZ: Singing "Calm Down."

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: "Calm Down" is the most Shazam song in the United States right now.

[06:00:04]

Here's number two.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LIL' DURK, RAPPER: Singing "All My Life."

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: "All My Life."

And number three.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) JAIN, FRENCH SINGER-SONGWRITER: Singing "Makeba."

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: "Makeba" by French singer-songwriter Jain. Released back in 2015, it's now popular again on TikTok -- as it happens.

Thanks for joining me. I'm Christine Romans. Have a great weekend, everybody. "CNN THIS MORNING" starts right now.