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Ukraine Says It Hit Missile System Inside Russia Using Western Weapons; NEI: Claudia Sheinbaum Projected To Win Mexico's Presidential Election; OPEC-Plus Extends Oil Output Cuts Into 2025; NASA & Boeing Scrub Starliner Launch Minutes Before Takeoff; Highly Anticipated "Parade Of Planets" Mostly A No-Show For Stargazers. Aired 2:30-3p ET

Aired June 03, 2024 - 14:30   ET

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

[14:30:00]

DAVID SANGER, CNN POLITICAL & NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: Versus Netanyahu saying, no, they've got to be completely defeated.

Now, I'm not sure how you would define that. I mean, we went 20 years in the War on Terror. Would you say that we completely defeated al- Qaeda or the Taliban? No. Did we degrade their capability to attack? Apparently so.

JESSICA DEAN, CNN HOST: Yes. Now, it's just continued to be at the center. So what does eliminate Hamas mean if that's how they are judging --

(CROSSTALK)

SANGER: That's right.

DEAN: And that's so important.

I also want to turn to Ukraine because that country is now claiming that it hit a missile system inside Russian territory using Western weapons, which is, of course, coming after President Biden gave the OK for them to use those short-range weapons to do so.

This seems pretty significant.

SANGER: It is. And had it not been for the size of the Gaza tragedy and the president's announcement, I think what he did on Thursday would be recognized as a much bigger, more significant change in the nature of the American involvement in Ukraine or potentially so.

So what the president has always said, until Thursday, is, no matter what the circumstances. U.S. weapons cannot be used against the Russians in Russian territory. He is now saying in a limited area, right around Kharkiv, you can use them.

But we also know that Secretary of State Antony Blinken and others have now begun to say this could expand over time. And if that's the case, between now and the election, you could have the U.S. in much more direct confrontation with Russian forces.

Not with the U.S. pulling the trigger but doing everything but.

DEAN: Right, and that really elevates if that becomes the case. This really shifts a lot of things around.

SANGER: It does. And it's going to tempt President Putin, I am sure, to use the nuclear card again. He's used it many times during the war. We don't know exactly when he will. He's used it when he was doing badly.

And now, of course, what he wants to do is scare the NATO countries into not expanding the use of these weapons against Russians.

And so he knows this is the issue on which President Biden is most sensitive. And so I wouldn't be surprised if he pushes that particular buzzer.

DEAN: There is more to come on that.

David Sanger, great to have you here.

SANGER: Good to be here.

DEAN: Thank you so much.

Up next, she is projected to become Mexico's first female president. Everything we know about Claudia Sheinbaum and her historic win.

And what will OPEC's latest move mean for inflation-weary Americans as we get closer to the presidential election? We've got details on that coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:37:22]

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: The National Electoral Institute now projects Claudia Sheinbaum will be the country's next president, the next president of Mexico. She's going to become the first woman ever to lead the Latin America nation.

CNN's Gustavo Valdes is live for us from Mexico City.

Gustavo, what is the mood like there today?

GUSTAVO VALDES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Brianna, its subdued enthusiasm. The results came out late, or I should say, very early this morning. So there were thousands of people at the Socolow (ph), the main square here in Mexico City celebrating with her.

She made the announcement that she's going to run, she's going to represent all Mexicans regardless of the way she voted. Today, she's been rather quiet. We haven't heard from her. she's probably getting a lot of calls from world leaders judging by the post on social media.

But what she has accomplished, beyond the huge lead she took over her two contenders, is also historic. Who is she? Well, Claudia Sheinbaum, at 61, she is going to be the first woman and the first Jewish person elected as Mexico's president.

Her grandparents migrated from Eastern Europe, fleeing the Nazi regime. She rarely talks about her background this way. But it is a significant achievement given that most people in Mexico are Catholics.

She's the former mayor of Mexico City, one of the largest in the world. And before she was a politician, she was an academic. She is a physicist with a doctorate in energy engineering. She earned her masters at the University of California in Berkeley.

And she is the recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize. Now she was part of a large group of scientists who wrote a paper on climate change. So the group together was named as the recipient, nobody individually.

But certainly quite an accomplish for this woman who is now in charge for the next six years, after October, after she takes over. But she's going to be in charge of Mexico.

KEILAR: Yes. Wow. That is quite the resume there. Nobel Peace Prize, even if you're part of a group, pretty impressive.

Gustavo, thank you so much for the update. Obviously, we will be following her administration. We appreciate it.

And coming up, oil producers agree to a move that could lead to higher gas prices. We're going to tell you about the impact.

[14:39:47]

And the mother of Gabby Petito says she forgives her daughter's killer but she has a different message for his family. We'll have her words next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:44:32]

DEAN: The OPEC oil cartel has just agreed to a new deal that could have far-reaching implications for the global energy markets.

CNN's Matt Egan is here to explain what it could mean for gas prices here in the U.S.

And, Matt, with summer upon us, a lot of people really care about this.

MATT EGAN, CNN REPORTER: Yes, absolutely, Jessica. Listen, OPEC-Plus, they've been keeping supplies low. They're trying to engineer higher prices. Their supply cuts amount to about six million barrels per day. That's significant, almost 6 percent of world demand.

[14:45:05]

Now, OPEC-Plus was scheduled to unwind those supply costs, essentially add new supply to the market as soon as next month. But if they did that, that could have caused prices to go down and they don't want prices to go down because they've got budgets to balance.

Saudi Arabia's even selling shares in its state oil company. And so OPEC-Plus has agreed to extend those supply cuts into next year, most of them into the end of next year.

OPEC-Plus says that they will add some supply, but only gradually, and not until October, and only if the market cooperates.

So I think the message there is not much help coming anytime soon from OPEC-Plus.

What's interesting though, is the oil market reaction. Initially, prices didn't really budge on this. But prices have moved sharply lower. You can see brent crude, the world benchmark, down below $80 a barrel. We haven't seen that since February.

I don't think OPEC-Plus wants or deserves any credit for this. But this is good news nonetheless for consumers. Because, of course, oil prices, that's the biggest driver for prices at the gas pump.

And we've seen the national average for gas falling to $3.53 a gallon today. That doesn't have an account for the oil markets sell off. That is not cheap, but it is a two-month low.

Prices down by $0.14 over the past month. And depending upon where you live, some drivers are seeing even bigger drops. We've seen declines of more than $0.25 a gallon for Oregon, Arizona and Tennessee, more than $0.30 in California, Nevada and Utah. That's over just the past month.

And veteran oil analyst, Andy Lipow, he told me that the national average should drop by $0.05 to $0.10 a gallon over the next few weeks.

Now, of course, the stakes here are huge because, as you mentioned, we're in the middle of summer driving season. Americans are hurting from high inflation. So consumers, of course, want and need a break from high prices.

Also, there's economic implications in terms of when the Fed can start to lower interest rates.

And then there's the political implications. As we know, voters do not like high gas prices. And so this is something we need to keep a very close eye on -- Jessica?

DEAN: All right. Matt Egan for us, thanks so much for that reporting.

Brianna?

KEILAR: Now to some of the other headlines that were watching this hour.

The New York Stock Exchange says a bizarre glitch that briefly paused trading today for some major stocks has been resolved. At one point, Berkshire Hathaway shares were down nearly 100 percent. Officials say there is no indication that a cyberattack was to blame.

They also said that impacted stocks have since reopened and all systems are currently operational.

Also, Hawaii's Kilauea Volcano is erupting again and it's forcing officials to raise safety alert levels. This particular area we're talking about here hadn't seen an eruption in nearly 50 years.

And the mother of Gabby Petito says she forgives her daughter's killer and fiancee, Brian Laundrie, but she doesn't forgive his mother.

Speaking last week at a true crime convention, Petito's mom called Mrs. Laundrie pure evil and said she did not deserve forgiveness. She also accused the Laundrie's have been complicit and aiding and abetting their son.

Gabby Petito disappeared on a cross-country trip with Laundrie three years ago. Authorities found her remains in a Wyoming forest after Laundrie returned home to Florida. She had been strangled.

His remains were later found in ae nature reserve after a week's-long manhunt.

[14:48:38]

And coming up, were you hoping to see the so-called Parade of Planets this morning? Well, why you may have been left a little underwhelmed.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:53:12]

KEILAR: Astronauts aboard Boeing's Starliner spacecraft are still on the ground.

DEAN: Yes, they are.

KEILAR: All right. NASA and Boeing scrubbed their plan launched Saturday. This was just minutes before takeoff because of a computer problem.

DEAN: CNN's Kristen Fisher is here to talk about it.

Kristin, you were there onsite. These astronauts were truly minutes, they were like locked and loaded, three minutes and 50 seconds.

KRISTIN FISHER, CNN SPACE & DEFENSE CORRESPONDENT: That was it.

DEAN: Wow.

FISHER: Yes, so I was talking to you on Saturday and the issue had nothing to do with Boeing, had nothing to do with the Starliner spacecraft that sits on top of the rocket, had nothing to do with the United Launch Alliance rocket, the Atlas 5, that propels that spacecraft into space.

The issue, frustratingly, was with the ground computers, something that's controlled by the United Launch Alliance.

So the hardware on the rocket itself was totally fine. It was just a, bug with one of the ground computers that gives the rocket the final go to launch in those final few minutes before lifting off.

But so now, over the last few days, ULA engineers have been troubleshooting that problem. They think they fixed the faulty computer. And so now we are two days away from the next launch attempt on Wednesday.

I'm heading back to Florida tomorrow. So hopefully, this thing is finally a go. Because there's been quite a few scrubs, as you both know.

DEAN: You've made many trips --

FISHER: I have.

DEAN: And they -- yes.

KEILAR: Yes. All right. We have to ask you too about this Parade of Planets, which sounded like it was going to be so amazing. I feel like we're having her here today to do the news that wasn't.

(CROSSTALK)

FISHER: And then what?

KEILAR: And then it didn't quite go so great.

I like the -- the illustration is nice.

FISHER: Yes.

KEILAR: But the reality, no.

FISHER: I mean, it looks great, right?

(CROSSTALK)

FISHER: -- you can see a parade --

KEILAR: And you see it like this with the white outlines, too, right?

FISHER: Right. Exactly.

(CROSSTALK)

FISHER: Well, that's when you have augmented reality glasses on. No, I'm kidding.

[14:55:03]

But so the issue is you can't see two of those planets because they're too low on the horizon. The sun gets in the way. Two of them are too far away. So in reality, you can only see two, Mars and Saturn. So a little bit of a letdown.

But I will say, later this month, on June 29th, you'll be able to see three planets and the moon in a line. So really this whole planetary parade spectacle that everybody's been so excited about, we just got the date wrong. it's a little bit too early.

Look back in the sky on June 29th.

DEAN: June 29th and the parade will be there.

FISHER: And by then, Starliner, hopefully, will have launched.

DEAN: If you can come back and do the news --

(LAUGHTER)

DEAN: OK, Kristin Fisher, thanks so much.

Up ahead, the latest on jury selection in the Hunter Biden federal guns case. This process could actually be moving quicker than expected.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)