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Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin
History On The Diamond; New Law Is Terrorizing Uganda's LGBTQ+ Community; Today: Final Reading For First Quarter GDP To Be Released. Aired 5:30-6a ET
Aired June 29, 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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[05:31:24]
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: All right, big night. Major history made in baseball last night.
Carolyn Manno has this morning's Bleacher Report -- perfection.
CAROLYN MANNO, CNN SPORTS CORRESPONDENT: Oh, man, it was incredible. I mean, Yankees fans -- everybody just seeing something that is so rare. We're going to get to that but I want to start with The Match first.
Steph Curry and Klay Thompson facing reigning Super Bowl champs Travis Kelce and Patrick Mahomes in Las Vegas later today. This is the eighth installment of the golf event The Match. Some of the sport's biggest stars going head-to-head in a live 12-hole showdown. So, naturally, the pairing is talking a little bit of trash ahead of the competition.
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STEPHEN CURRY, GOLDEN STATE WARRIORS GUARD: Shooters and golf, it's about the same thing, you know. We see -- we see the course and we can visualize shots. But we're just going to have fun.
KLAY THOMPSON, GOLDEN STATE WARRIORS GUARD/FORWARD: We had to do the same thing for (INAUDIBLE), you know.
TRAVIS KELCE, KANSAS CITY CHIEFS TIGHT END: Good thing I can't block. I'm a way -- I'm a way better shooter than I am a blocker, so we're going to be up there cashing them in as well, baby. Soft hands on a football field and we've got to be soft around the greens.
ANDY SCHOLES, CNN SPORTS CORRESPONDENT: All right. What should the fans expect tomorrow?
PATRICK MAHOMES, KANSAS CITY CHIEFS QUARTERBACK: I'll say good TV. I think it's going to be a good match regardless and we're going to be talking a lot of trash and having a lot of fun, and I'll be drinking a lot of Coors Light. So it's going to be a good time.
(END VIDEO CLIP) MANNO: Our thanks to Andy Scholes for that, right in the middle of all those guys. Some friendly or maybe not-so-friendly banter there, all in good fun, though.
And you can catch The Match tonight beginning at 6:30 Eastern on our sister channel TNT as well as TruTV and HLN. It should be a good time. It always is.
So, from current stars to future stars. Round one of the NHL draft held in Nashville last night went pretty much according to script. The Chicago Blackhawks selecting elite 17-year-old prospect Connor Bedard with their first overall pick. The Canadian center, the most talked about prospect since Edmonton's Connor McDavid, who was drafted back in 2015, and he is expected to make an immediate impact.
With so many people talking about the Bedard, though, it's easy to forget there were other players to draft. Even Montreal Canadiens goalie Carey Price seemed to forget while announcing his team's selection.
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CAREY PRICE, MONTREAL CANADIENS GOALTENDER: The Canadiens are proud to select David (forgets last name) -- we planned it that way -- David Reinbacher.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MANNO: Christine, it's just that everybody gets nervous.
Not Domingo German, apparently, because this was a name and a game that you will not forget. Twenty-seven up, 27 down for the Yankees ace who wrote his name into the record books last night throwing only the 24th perfect game in Major League history. This is a league that's been around for well over 100 years, so this is truly a rare feat. German struck out nine and retired all 27 batters to become the first to do it since 2012.
He said after the game that accomplishing something like this is something that he's going to remember forever being a part of this history.
And Christine, the last inning, he said it was so different. He felt a tremendous amount of pressure that he's never felt before and the key was just to not overthrow it.
But he's been dealing with so much. He lost a very close family member to start the week. He's had a very rough couple of outings. And so last night after the game it was really interesting to hear him tell the reporter, Meredith Marakovits, that his uncle was very much on his mind and this game was for him. And he felt that even early on -- three, four innings on -- that this might be something that could be possible for him, which I don't think a lot of people predicted. But this one was for his family member.
ROMANS: Can you imagine the mental pressure in that last inning -- MANNO: Oh, yeah.
ROMANS: -- you know?
MANNO: Incredible.
ROMANS: Wow, OK.
Nice to see you. Thanks, Carolyn.
All right, quick hits across America now.
At least 16 people are injured after an Amtrak train collided with a truck in Southern California. Officials say the train partially derailed.
[05:35:00]
Two New Jersey firefighters who helped rescue multiple people stranded in the raging Passaic River then had to be rescued themselves by state police. Nobody was injured.
The brushfire near Scottsdale, Arizona is now 30 percent contained. Fire officials say they believe it was caused by humans. So far, it has burned about 2,000 acres.
Just ahead, Madonna has suffered a health scare that is postponing her latest tour. And what some Ugandans are doing as their country wages an extreme war on LGBTQ rights.
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ROMANS: All right. Western nations have widely condemned Uganda's new anti-LGBTQ law, which went into effect just one month ago. Many inside the country are now suffering physical, psychological, and emotional damage. But as CNN's Larry Madowo reports, there are some who still refuse to be silenced.
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LARRY MADOWO, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Uganda's Anti- Homosexuality Act is a reintroduction of a 2014 bill that was thrown out by the courts on a technicality. That law was nicknamed the Kill the Gays Bill because of the death penalty, which has been retained in this one.
[05:40:08]
I've been in Uganda twice this year -- earlier when it was being discussed and more recently after it passed. It remains a popular law with many positive population but it's having grave consequences on the LGBTQI community.
MADOWO (voice-over): Nash Raphael says he was assaulted on the night the Anti-Homosexuality Act became law in Uganda after months of publicity and hostility towards people like him. MADOWO (on camera): How do you feel about the fact that you keep getting attacked?
NASH WASH RAPHAEL, TRANS UGANDAN MAN: It's bad, it's bad. I mean, I wouldn't wish for anyone's daughter or son to through what I'm going through because I know how worse it is.
MADOWO (voice-over): It was the second time this year that he's suffered such a violent attack and the ninth since he transitioned. He says his family disowned him and he got fired from his job for not wearing women's clothes. He's now homeless, jobless, and penniless.
RAPHAEL: I've tried to take my own life. It hasn't worked.
MADOWO (on camera): How would you describe your life right now?
RAPHAEL: It's hell.
MADOWO (voice-over): The act outlaws gay marriage in Uganda, punishes same-sex acts with life imprisonment, and death for what it calls aggravated homosexuality, which includes sex with a minor or otherwise vulnerable person, having sex while HIV positive, and incest.
It was widely condemned internationally before it even passed.
KARINE JEAN-PIERRE, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: And this bill is one of the most extreme anti-LGBTQ+ laws in the world. No one should be attacked, imprisoned, or killed simply because of who they are and whom they love.
MADOWO (voice-over): The U.S. State Department advised Americans to reconsider travel to Uganda due to anti-LGBTQI+ legislation, warning that offenders could be prosecuted and jailed for life, or even sentenced to death.
Opposition M.P. Asuman Basalirwa introduced the bill that includes a 20-year jail term for what is called promoting homosexuality.
ASUMAN BASALIRWA, MEMBER OF PARLIAMENT: I want to disagree with the people who say homosexuality is a (INAUDIBLE) concept. No, it is not. We've lived with homosexuality here in this country -- enough. What is a (INAUDIBLE)? Is it a group of (INAUDIBLE)? That was in Africa.
MADOWO (on camera): You don't see any instances where this law will bring harm to the LGBTQ community in Uganda?
BASALIRWA: But how? But how? How? It is right there. This is like another law. It has no problem.
MADOWO (voice-over): Uganda's LGBTQI+ community is worried that the law accuses all of them of pedophilia, grooming, or recruiting young people.
JOAN AMEK, CO-FOUNDER, RELLA WOMEN'S FOUNDATION: There is nowhere that is safe for any queer person living in Uganda.
This is a LGBTQ safe space.
MADOWO (voice-over): Joan Amek's foundation considers this a safe space for queer women but she has to find somewhere new to live.
AMEK: I have had myself being chased away from where I'm staying.
MADOWO (on camera): You've been evicted from your house?
AMEK: Yes, I have been evicted from my house. I've been --
MADOWO (on camera): For being a lesbian woman in Uganda.
AMEK: I have been evicted for being a queer person living in Uganda.
MADOWO (voice-over): More than 80 percent of Ugandans identify as Christian and almost everyone else is Muslim. The Anti-Homosexuality Act is popular across the religious and political divide.
The Church of Uganda even defied the Archbishop of Canterbury to support the law. Ugandan Anglicans are now separating from the Church of England because of different positions on homosexuality.
REV. CANON JOHN AWODI, ALL SAINTS CATHEDRAL: This is a social problem. People learn it, so that is the stand of the church here. It is unbiblical. It is unnatural. It is against the order of God.
MADOWO (on camera): How come the Church of Uganda and the Church of England are reading the same bible differently on the matter of homosexuality?
AWODI: Well, people interpret the bible differently.
MADOWO (on camera): Everyone we spoke to in the Ugandan LGBTQ community understood the risk they were taking of putting their faces out there. They could get evicted from their homes, fired from their jobs, even attacked by the community. But they didn't want to go further underground -- go in the shadows. They wanted to make sure that they made a statement that they're here and they will not be silenced.
AMEK: Silence is equal to death. And regardless of whether I stay silent or not they will still kill us. They will still -- they will still criminalize us.
MADOWO: It's a defiant note from that activist. This Anti- Homosexuality Act is being challenged in the courts in Uganda but many in the community don't feel that this legal challenge will succeed.
President Yoweri Museveni initially sent back this act to Parliament to water it down, but it didn't change much. It did introduce one thing, though -- rehabilitation of convicted homosexuals to change their sexual orientation even though scientists say conversion therapy, which is what that refers to, is ineffective and harmful.
Larry Madowo, CNN, Nairobi.
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ROMANS: If you or someone you know might be at risk of suicide, please call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline. That number is 988.
[05:45:03]
All right, music icon Madonna has been forced to postpone her world tour due to a health scare. Madonna's manager revealing on social media that the singer spent several days in the ICU with a serious bacterial infection, but he says she is expected to make a full recovery. A source says she is now out of the ICU and recovering.
Madonna's Celebration Tour was scheduled to kick off July 15 in Canada before heading to the U.S. and Europe.
All right. Coming up, the waiting for Godot recession watch. The U.S. economy is resilient but slowing. Critical new readings on the economy in just hours.
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ROMANS: All right, your Romans' Numeral this morning is 200 billion, as in COVID relief fraud. A federal watchdog says the Small Business Administration distributed more than $200 billion in potentially fraudulent coronavirus relief funds. The focus on two programs there -- the economic industry disaster loans and the PPP -- the Paycheck Protection Program -- which provided forgivable loans to small business.
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Looking at markets around the world this morning, European markets are mixed at this hour after the European central bank president said a recession is likely in the Eurozone later this year. Asian finished the day mixed. And on Wall Street, stock index futures here are looking a little bit higher.
It was a mixed day in the U.S. yesterday after the Fed chief Jerome Powell stressed the central bank will be hawkish against inflation. It means more rate hikes. The Nasdaq finished higher.
On inflation watch, gas prices fell a penny overnight to $3.55 a gallon.
In just a few hours, critical new readings on the economy. We get weekly jobless claims, the final reading for first-quarter GDP, pending home sales, and weekly mortgage rates.
Let's bring in Greg McBride, chief financial analyst at Bankrate.com.
You know, Greg, the Fed has raised interest rates 10 times to slow the economy. We've been on a recession watch for months. And yet, housing is perking up again, consumer spending is strong, the job market is strong. And we could get a first-quarter GDP print here today that's maybe 1.4 percent growth. That's not -- that's not blockbuster but that's still rolling along.
What's your assessment of where we are?
GREG MCBRIDE, CHIEF FINANCIAL ANALYST, BANKRATE.COM (via Webex by Cisco): The economy has been remarkably resilient in the face of the fastest pace of rate increases in 40 years. I mean, that's certainly a good thing but it's also why we haven't seen inflation make the progress that we would like.
Core inflation, which is everything except for food and energy -- that's been in a holding pattern really since December. And so, that's why you're hearing this consistent message from the Fed about the battle against inflation still having a long way to go and the fact that they made need to raise interest rates a couple more times.
ROMANS: Yes. The good news is bad news if you're trying to fight inflation.
Here is Fed chief Jerome Powell in Portugal yesterday -- listen.
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JEROME POWELL, CHAIRMAN, FEDERAL RESERVE: Widely, it's been surprising that inflation has been this persistent. But I think the bottom line is that policy hasn't been restrictive enough for long enough to start to see those effects.
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ROMANS: Translation: more rate hikes are coming, right?
MCBRIDE: Higher for longer. That's really been the mantra for 2023 -- that the Fed is going to have to raise interest rates higher than many had expected and keep them there longer than many expected.
The Fed's been pretty consistent on the message. It's really markets and investors that have been kind of skeptical and kind of pushing back on that. The old adage in investing is don't fight the Fed. And the Fed continues to double down on that same message.
ROMANS: You know, I called it the waiting for Godot recession with a nod to people who -- like Beckett -- but I didn't coin that. But it's so interesting to me that we have been looking for a recession for so long.
Could this be what a soft landing really feels like?
MCBRIDE: The odds of that have certainly increased. I am more optimistic than I have been in many months in terms of the likelihood of achieving that soft landing. It may still not be the most likely scenario but I'd say the odds have certainly increased in recent months.
And we are seeing resilience not only of continued strength in the job market but consumer confidence really posted a pretty notable bounce back despite the fact that consumers still expect inflation to stay high over the next year.
ROMANS: And, Greg, housing -- oh my gosh. Home prices have fallen year-over-year for the first time in a decade, or 11 years, or something. But when you look month-to-month this spring the housing market, even with six and almost seven percent mortgage rates, which I know you guys track there, has been perking up.
What is happening there?
MCBRIDE: Yes, that decline in home prices -- that happened in the latter half of 2022. It's been a different story thus far in 2023. Home prices and activity has started to pick up despite those high mortgage rates.
And a lot of this is a byproduct of the fact that there's very limited supply. The number of homes available for sale on the market is at a record low. Demand has dropped but it's still pretty solid. But you marry that up with the limited supply and that's why you're continuing to see those home prices continue to hold steady in many markets or beginning to rebound.
ROMANS: Yes. The supply thing -- I mean, anybody who is looking for a home says house wanted -- I can't find a house, or I'm outbid all the time.
You guys track mortgage rates there. Maybe could it be that people are now getting used to a six percent mortgage rate? They were kind of shocked when they jumped from three percent but now it's -- you know, I guess time is on their side.
MCBRIDE: Yes. I mean, I think what you've seen is that the demand has dropped because those that maybe once mortgage rates got about 4 1/2- five percent affordability priced them out.
What you're seeing now are the buyers -- they may have had to ratchet in their sights a little bit in terms of what they could buy, but they could still qualify with rates at 6 1/2 --
ROMANS: Yes.
MCBRIDE: -- or seven percent. It just may not be for the same size loan or as big a house as they had envisioned maybe a couple of years ago.
ROMANS: All right, Greg McBride. Always nice to see you. Thank you. Have a great day.
MCBRIDE: Thank you, Christine.
ROMANS: All right. Ahead on "CNN THIS MORNING" --
[05:55:00]
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RUN DMC, HIP HOP GROUP: Singing "It's Tricky." (END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: OK, I'm looking forward to this. Honoring 50 years of hip hop. The co-founder of rap group Run DMC will join "CNN THIS MORNING" live.
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ROMANS: All right. Connecticut becoming the first state in the nation to give up to $3,200 to children born into poverty. Starting July first, all newborns who are covered under the state's Medicaid program are automatically eligible for this investment. Now, these funds are estimated to grow over time to up to $24,000, which the kids can access once they turn 18. Gov. Ned Lamont says the goal is to lift residents out of poverty.
All right, thanks for joining me. I'm Christine Romans. "CNN THIS MORNING" starts right now.
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