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CNN International: More Than 100M People Under Heat Alerts Across U.S.; Heat Wave Claims Hundreds Of Lives During The Hajj; Supreme Court Upholds Ban On Domestic Abusers Owning Guns; Now: Hearing On Trump's Request To Invalidate Special Counsel; Growing Number of Americans Held Behind Bars In Russia. Aired 3-4p ET
Aired June 21, 2024 - 15:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[15:00:36]
ERICA HILL, CNN HOST: It is 8:00 p.m. in London, 9:00 in Paris, 10:00 p.m. in Mecca, Saudi Arabia, and 3:00 p.m. here in New York.
I'm Erica Hill. Thanks so much for joining me today on CNN NEWSROOM.
We begin this hour with the extreme heat baking the northern hemisphere. The first day of summer, bringing deadly heat waves across four continents, dozens of cities in Mexico alone have already broken heat records.
Beijing recording temperatures of 99 degrees Fahrenheit or 37 degrees Celsius. In India, where they've been battling a months-long heat wave, the death toll now over 100 and Delhi, the country's capital, recording its highest ever for temperature, 121 degrees, just shy of 50 degrees Celsius.
These are new highs that could see 2024 easily surpassed last year as the hottest year on record. Here in the U.S., nearly a third of the country is under extreme heat advisories for the fifth straight day and there's a little relief in the forecast. This weekend, more than 100 million Americans will be impacted by this extreme weather.
My colleague Athena Jones is out on the streets of New York City for us.
So, Athena, you haven't melted yet, which is, is good because we know it is not exactly cool out there. How is the city responding to the excessive heat?
ATHENA JONES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Erica. No, it is very, very, very, very hot. You know, I grew up in Texas and I thought earlier today, just a couple of hours ago, this isn't so bad. This isn't terrible.
Now I have to fans because that's how hot it is. The dial says about 93 degrees with a real field with the humidity, 97. And that's what were dealing with a heated the index that is forecast to reach or exceed 100 degrees today. And this whole area, all of New York City, mostly -- most of New York City, not Long Island and not parts of the city right along the water, but most of the city is under heat advisory because of these extremely high temperatures.
And we're on the lookout to see if New York City brief breaks a June heat record, seven consecutive days with the temperatures at 90 and above, we are on day two right now as I just mentioned, 93. And so if -- if we do top -- we do meet that record, that's seven days, it will tie the longest stretch this kind of heat in a decade and the longest period of heat ever in June.
We know that in Central Park, the forecast today to reach 94 degrees, that's the highest temperature in two years. And so this is something that's very dangerous, there's this kind of heat and that is why officials here at across the city of open hundreds of cooling centers. The governor has implemented emergency operations. So it should that up.
We know that they're going to be handing out whether calling cool kits to people who work outside -- delivery workers, construction laborers, and that sort of thing, kits that include electrolytes, a towel, that's sort of thing, all to try to help people beat the heat because this is, of course, very, very, very warm. And if you don't have air conditioning, if you're older, if you're a senior, maybe someone with chronic health conditions, those are the folks who are going to be most vulnerable in this current environment.
And the problem here, Erica, is, this could last for several well more days. This sort of heat, not, not dropping down to low at night, and that is when the heat accumulates and it becomes a cumulative effect. And that is something that folks, I have to be ready to watch out for and making sure they understand and can recognize the symptoms of heat stroke and heat exhaustion, and most of all making sure they're checking on their neighbors and the older folks they know and the people they know may not have air conditioning.
HILL: Yeah, absolutely. So many New Yorkers grateful for some of the splash pads and water features that we have. It's so many of the parks here in New York City, like the one we see behind you.
Athena, I know there have also been because I know I've been getting the text the text messages reminding me to actually turn up my air conditioner to a higher setting and to be really mindful, there are concerns about energy usage.
JONES: Absolutely. That will be the worst case scenario, wouldn't it be, Erica? You know, in this extreme heat, everyone's running their air conditionings, their fan, air conditioners, their fans, and maxing out the system. And so, people are being are encouraged not to -- not to put your air conditioner on 65 to put it at higher so that its not being worked on. It's not doing as much work to keep a place cool, that sort of thing, conserving energy, not running things like dishwashers and washing machines during the hottest periods of the day when there's so much taxiing, so much as taxing the the electricity grid.
But as you can see, lots of folks coming out to places like this, the splash pad right here on the edge of the East River.
[15:05:04]
I've been told by everyone I talked to that this is a favorite place any time of year, but particularly today when its just so incredibly hot. I myself is dipped my arms and legs into that cooling, cooling water -- Erica.
HILL: As you should, you deserve it.
Athena, appreciate it. Thank you.
Well, in Saudi Arabia, this historic heat is actually being cited now in hundreds of deaths among those who are taking part in the annual Hajj pilgrimage. The official death toll says around 500, but the true toll we're told could be more than double that number there reports of as many as 600 Egyptians alone dying on route to Mecca.
Scott McLean is following more for us from Istanbul.
I do want to warn you that some of these images are disturbing.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SCOTT MCLEAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The stoning of the devil, one of the key rituals of the Hajj pilgrimage. It's a symbolic rejection of evil, but with temperatures unusually high, even for this time a year, the temptation here, a much simpler one -- water only goes so far when its 120 degrees Fahrenheit.
Azza Hamid Brahim found out the hard way. Like many, she gave up on the way there.
AZZA HAMID BRAHIM, EGYPTIAN PILGRIM: We thought we were about to die. We didn't even have the strength to reach the steels due to extreme heat.
MCLEAN: The soaring temperatures making this year's pilgrimage exceptionally deadly. Videos shared on social media showed bodies on the sides of roads, their faces covered in some cases, they looked simply abandon.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Most of the people, they died on the roadside and some fainted due to the heat and heat stroke. So, they should make such an arrangements that during the summer season when -- the hot season is in the summer, they should have indirect consultation for (INAUDIBLE).
MCLEAN: Saudi Arabia says it did make some arrangements to deal with the heat, deploying 1,600 soldiers along with 5,000 volunteers, installing dozens of air conditioning tents, and overhead water sprinklers to cool down crowds.
But many are traveling on tourist visas rather than hajj specific ones. They don't get access to these amenities. It adds to the nearly 2 million pilgrims expected officially, the sheer scale and the heat, a deadly combination. BRAHIM: A lot of people died. The ambulances were overwhelmed. You would talk to someone and suddenly they would die. It was a very hot day.
MCLEAN: Hajj, maybe officially over, but with Saudi Arabia yet to release any numbers, be that injured or dead, the number of victims may still yet sharply rise.
Scott McLean, CNN, Istanbul.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HILL: And are thanks to Scott for that report.
For more on this extreme heat, I want to bring in CNN meteorologist Chad Myers.
So, so many people hoping for a break at some point, what are you seeing, Chad?
CHAD MYERS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: A few more days still a very hot weather for the area there, also still a for parts of North America and for Southern Europe, it has just been brutally hot here over the past couple of days in many spots, but kind of three areas of high pressure. Those are the areas that the sunshine is hitting the ground, not a cloud in the sky. And we call them really heat domes the big jet stream goes over the top.
But here are the numbers were talking about. For Saudi Arabia, it was 51.8 degrees. I mean, that's just a number that is hard to get your mind around. It was the warmest temperature ever in Mecca for any date, in a year ever recorded. And it's still hot in Kuwaiti City, up almost 50 degrees there across parts of southern and obviously eastern Europe, we're seeing temperatures in the 30s and even some spots with the heat index approaching 40.
Now, I'll get back into the Fahrenheit numbers here when the parts of the Northeast, we're going to see highs right around 100 with 105 heat index, not out of the question. And still many places are going to break record highs.
We had a few places this week that broke all time record highs, which means the temperature has never been hotter than that day, on any day in any month. And that's difficult to do. It's easy to break a daily record. But when you can do that for the reporting station for the entire calendar year, then all of a sudden, you've made some news. And so the heat risk really today is in the Ohio Valley and tomorrow, it sinks farther down to the south. Same story for the weekend as well.
So what's causing this? Well, if the entire globe is already 1.5 degrees or close warmer than it should be or when it was before we started burning fossil fuels, then all of a sudden you've shifted the bell curve. So which was a 4 mu, a four really standard deviation to get there now is only a two standard deviation to get there. It's much easier for those temperatures to take place and that's just what we're going to see. And that's going to be what will continue to see until we stop burning the fossil fuels, or at least stuck getting them, stop putting more fossil fuels in the air like we did in 2023. Now, we know that was a new record high -- Erica.
[15:10:01]
HILL: Yeah. Chad, really appreciate it. Thank you.
We're going to continue to follow this extreme heat. We'll keep you posted throughout the program.
Meantime, here in the United States, the Supreme Court's current session nearing its finished. A major ruling today on the Second Amendment, on guns, what the justices said in that opinion, what it means specifically for domestic abusers.
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HILL: The U.S. Supreme Court today upholding a law which bans domestic abusers from owning guns.
Chief justice John Roberts writing the 8-1 opinion, said the court had no trouble in his words deciding that, quote, our tradition of firearm regulation allows the government to disarm individuals who present a credible threat to the physical safety of others. Only Justice Clarence Thomas dissented.
President Biden praised the ruling's protection for domestic violence victims, while his campaign attacked the gun lobby, saying the case should never have been brought.
For more on this decision, CNN justice correspondent Jessica Schneider joins me now.
So, Jessica, this is a court that we have seen really expand gun rights over the years. You noted earlier, though this was a pretty straightforward case. So the fact that we have a near unanimous ruling isn't actually all that surprising.
What made it so straightforward?
JESSICA SCHNEIDER, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: It was basically asking whether someone who was prone to violence could own a gun. And the federal law said no. And the Supreme Court said, well, it's pretty common sense that even the founders didn't want violent people owning guns and so that's why they upheld this law.
But it is somewhat of a surprise, definitely a welcome one for gun control advocates because it was just two years ago that the Supreme Court issued that big Bruen decision and it gave individuals broad power to own guns and the test there that was in order for gun laws to stand, they had to have some sort of historical precedent, meaning a very similar law that existed at the nation's founding in the late 1700s.
[15:15:03] And what we've seen throughout the two years since that ruling is considerable confusion for lower courts. Many judges, including in this case at the lower courts, they've been striking down gun laws in scenarios where they just can't find any historical backing.
But, Erica, it was in this case that the chief justice stressed that while the Second Amendment right is broad, it's not unlimited. And as I referenced at the top, it makes sense that guns should be prohibited for anyone prone to violence. And, of course, that's exactly what this federal law does that's now been upheld. It keeps guns out of the hands of people that courts have deemed this credible threat when it comes to domestic violence.
So a bit straightforward for this court, hence, the 8-to-1 decision, it will likely though, leave some questions still as to other gun laws that may or may not be upheld under this historical tradition, test that the courts still upheld today. But basically interpreted it as, of course, the founders allowed laws that took the hands out of guns or took it -- sorry, took the guns out of hands of violent people.
HILL: It seemed almost in -- in my reading it that the chief justice was saying, well, this should really put most of those questions to rest. Sure, there were some questions after Bruen. But as you point out, the chance that this is actually settled is very low because of these other pending cases and because of appeals that were actually waiting to be filed.
SCHNEIDER: Yeah. And the Supreme Court has actually been asked to hear several cases including one that relates to the case of Hunter Biden, who is just convicted on this gun law he prohibited people who use or abuse drugs from owning guns. The Fifth Circuit actually recently struck down that law, saying that it's unconstitutional because the founders never intended for nonviolent drug users to not be able to own guns.
Hunter Biden's lawyers have asked the Supreme Court to hear that case. The Supreme Court hasn't definitively said, whether they'll take it up yet, but that's just one example of a law that has been challenged that the Supreme Court will have to address because this case really only addresses a somewhat narrow subset of gun laws in that this law habits people prone to violence from possessing guns. And -- but there are a host of other gun laws out there that are being challenged that don't involve people prone to violence.
HILL: Jessica Schneider, appreciate it as always, thank you.
Also with me this hour, former federal prosecutor Michael Zeldin.
Michael, always good to see you.
You know, if we pick up actually where we just left off with Jessica the chief justice saying, really it was it was no trouble if everybody gets to this decision, but there was a little bit of back and forth, actually, even though we did ultimately see opinion of eight to one.
And I was struck by something that Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson wrote, suggesting it was largely the Supreme Courts fault for this ambiguity and for the lower courts having a hard time following their rulings, writing: when this court adopts a new legal standard, as we did in Bruen, we do not do so in a vacuum. The test we establish which bind a lower court judge, judges who then apply those legal standards to the cases before them. So when courts signal they're having trouble with one of our standards, we should pay attention.
Do you think this court is in fact paying attention?
MICHAEL ZELDIN, FORMER FEDERAL PROSECUTOR: Well, it's a very good question that I don't know that I know clearly the answer to because the facts of this case were sort of unique in one respect, which was it said in the holding that when a person is under an order -- restraining order -- that person cannot buy a gun during the pendency of the restraining order. So we can interpret this as saying, well, under those very narrow circumstances, the Second Amendment prohibits the holding of a gun because that was there is some historical precedent for it. But if we're thinking more broadly that this case stands for the proposition that anyone who has a violent propensity can't buy a gun, I'm not sure that I read it that way.
And remember the thing about these cases, yeah, it's 8-to-1 in the decision, but there are multiple concurring opinions saying, well, I don't get there exactly this way, but I get there in the end. So I think it's anything but settled. And I think Ketanji Brown is directly on point when she says we've just created more confusion. Justice Thomas's historical parallel test is just unworkable.
HILL: And yet here we are with that.
Stayed with me, Michael. I also want to bring in Gloria Browne- Marshall. She's a professor of constitutional law and Africana studies at John Jay College, and the author of "The Voting Rights War".
Gloria, as you look at this, you know, to Michael's point, the fact that things may be even less settled. What does this mean for those cases coming at the Supreme Court?
GLORIA BROWNE-MARSHALL, AUTHOR, "THE VOTING RIGHTS WAR": Well, it not only means there's confusion and some people might think is opportunity because they'll look at these different concurring opinions and create legislation based on those opinions.
[15:20:05]
We also have to look at now the responsibility of law enforcement. Yes, law enforcement is in danger very often when it goes to a house because of domestic violence issue.
But also, law enforcement now has to enforce this legislation of some kind that's going to be put in place saying that the gun owner cannot have a gun. So, for example, the partner says, this person is under restraining order and has the weapon is going to be law enforcement showing up to the door. So what jurisdiction is going to apply? What concurring opinion in what situation?
People have to have a practical idea how the law is to be applied. And right now, we really don't.
HILL: Justice Thomas who, of course, was the lone dissenter in the case writing he would have struck down a federal ban on guns for domestic abusers.
Michael, were you surprised at all that he was the lone dissenter or surprised by any of his comments?
ZELDIN: Not by his comments. I'm not sure whether Alito would have been second consent -- dissenting vote, but Thomas is the one who created this test of parallel in history. And maybe he's the only one that completely understands it and says that according to my understanding, this doesn't meet that test.
But I think it's pretty self-evident that if you're under restraining order because of a history of abuse during the pendency of that restraining order, you can't buy a gun. And I think the court said, yes, of course, that makes sense. And there's a historic precedent, I suppose somewhere out there that suggests that.
Thomas doesn't seem to find historical precedent for anything. It seems that the Second Amendment in his mind is unfettered because if you look at the bump-stock decision which was on the right to essentially hold a machine gun, he found no problem with that either.
HILL: I found it interesting that Justice Thomas specifically noted muskets and sabers when he was saying clearly in his writing, Gloria, that this the idea of a firearm goes far beyond that now. That's what was around in 1791.
Looking at that though, moving forward burden in terms of the confusion that you just referenced, this idea of historical precedent, Justice Roberts saying that can't be -- I believe he said locked in amber, right? He can't be so locked in. But it's tough to know when it does and doesn't apply. It seems that there's a lot of cherry picking going on at the court, Gloria.
BROWNE-MARSHALL: I think there is massive cherry-picking and is super majority has made so much confusion because it appears they seem to be gerrymandering the law for certain constituency groups. If you think about historically, Clarence Thomas as an African American in some jurisdictions this would have been outlawed from having a weapon. This is during the time period of slavery. So, enslaved people could not have a weapon.
There were so many different historical perspectives that one can take in this particular situation. And I'll give this last perspective. That's a very practical one.
I have a very close person in my life who is looking at a restraining order right now because her estranged husband has weapons in his home. She fears for her life. And so, this is real.
This has to be something that although they say that the justices only really can put their teeth into something that is practical to them, this is practical to many, many women across the country and some men and some young people. We need to understand that the Supreme Court should not be on his Mount Olympus creating decisions no one can apply.
This is not a philosophical exercise. This is the law of the land and the land is asking them, what is the law?
HILL: Gloria, Michael, great to have both of you here today. Thank you.
ZELDIN: Thank you.
HILL: Well, sticking with the theme of some legal news for the day, let's update you on one of the cases involving the former President Donald Trump.
Right now in Florida, Trump's defense attorneys are waging a long-shot bid to delay -- continue delaying I should say, or derail the case over Donald Trump's handling of classified documents.
Judge Aileen Cannon hearing arguments that Special Counsel Jack Smith was unlawfully appointed by Attorney General Merrick Garland. That's what Trumps attorneys are arguing.
The hearing comes as new exclusive reporting from "The New York Times" reveals two federal judges in Florida actually urged Judge Cannon to hand this case off to someone with more experience on the bench. She, of course, refused. CNN has reached out to the named judge who declined to comment.
But that report only adds to the scrutiny over how Judge Cannon, a Trump appointee, has handled this high-stakes, very high profile case, most notably by indefinitely delaying its start.
CNN's Katelyn Polantz is watching all of this for us.
So, so far today, what are we hearing from Trump's attorneys as they tried to essentially say that Jack Smith should have never been appointed in the first place.
KATELYN POLANTZ, CNN SENIOR CRIME AND JUSTICE REPORTER: Well, Erica, they want more hearings.
[15:25:01]
If that's' a surprise, it shouldn't be because they have asked for that over and over and over again with Judge Cannon.
This particular issue that they're arguing today, it was about six or so hours in court in that courthouse in Fort Pierce, Florida, all of the arguments were about the legal validity of the special counsel's office, if that office and Jack Smith has special counsel coming in from outside height of the government, if he was lawfully appointed and could bring a charge in the federal court system against Donald Trump or anyone.
Those arguments went on for much of today. They were very unusual in that there were outside people taking part in those arguments. Law professors, essentially and this is an issue that other judges hadn't spent nearly as much time hand-wringing over in the way the Judge Cannon has.
Yet she could do what she wants. And we really don't know which way she's going to go yet because she hasn't ruled today. And she had a lot of questions for both sides. In some of those questions, she was asking the Justice Department, pressing them on the amount of oversight that the Attorney General Merrick Garland has over Special Counsel Jack Smith and how much communication and oversight there was, what that looked like when the indictment was being brought against Donald Trump.
Now, the Justice Department didn't have a lot of answers there to provide to her and they tend to keep that sort of thing pretty close to the vest, but that's where Trumps team comes in and says, this is the thing that we should have more hearings on. We should get evidence in court before trial, with the added benefit, of course, of it likely delaying things even more if Judge Cannon were to set more hearings in this case on this particular topic.
HILL: And just picking up on that point, the reason the Justice Department tends to keep this pretty close to the vest, right? Is because they don't want it to and correct me if I'm wrong on this, they don't want it to reveal too much about how they do business, or also potentially jeopardize other cases.
POLANTZ: Right, and there is some distance between the special counsels office and the Justice Department, but the Justice Department, the attorney general, is very clear in setting up these special counsel's offices, not just with Jack Smith, but with previous special counsels, Durham, with Robert Mueller, with David Weiss, currently prosecuting Hunter Biden, each of those falls under a very specific set of department policies and also regulations. That's why other courts have upheld the use of special counsels in bringing cases because they have it on the books of how it's supposed to work.
And if there is something that happens where the attorney general is at odds with the special counsel, they have to go tell Congress which then would likely make it public. That is not something that we have seen happened with any of the recent special counsels including Smith, but Cannon seems to be picking more at trying to just get more information about how it worked between the Justice Department and this special counsel. If that's something that she actually is going to get to do more of, it still remains to be seen. Of course, the Justice Department does not want her and definitely not Donald Trump's team prying into that level of detail in their interior business.
HILL: That is for sure.
Katelyn, appreciate it. Thank you.
In a last-ditch effort to stay out of prison, former Trump strategist, Steve Bannon, is now asking the U.S. Supreme Court to hit pause on his sentence. A federal judge ruled Bannon has to report to a low security prison in the state of Connecticut for a four-month sentence by July 1st. This, of course, comes after he was convicted in 2022 for ignoring a subpoena from the House's January 6 Committee.
Just ahead here, the dangers of being an American in Russia as the number of U.S. prisoners held by the Kremlin grows.
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[15:32:10]
HILL: Welcome back.
Just two days after his historic trip to North Korea, Russian President Vladimir Putin is now threatening to arm the hermit kingdom if South Korea supplies arms to Ukraine, all this will also claiming the Seoul has, quote, nothing to worry about after Russia and North Korea signed their new mutual defense pact.
Earlier today, Putin told military graduates that Russia will further develop its nuclear arsenal as a guarantee of strategic deterrents.
And as the Kremlin continues to threaten the West, a growing number of Americans are being detained in Russia.
Matthew Chance reports now from Moscow on the latest trial of a dual citizen.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN CHIEF GLOBAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Yet another U.S. citizen on trial in Russia. This is Ksenia Karelina from Los Angeles, now in a glass cage near Yekaterinburg. The dual Russian citizen, the 33-year-old, was arrested on treason charges earlier this year while visiting family.
In the U.S., she's a beautification and amateur ballerina accused of donating just over $50 to a Ukrainian charity.
Her boyfriend, Chris Van Heerden, issuing a new statement obtained by OUTFRONT calling for her immediate release.
It's hard to believe Ksenia that's been in Russia on unable to return to the U.S. for over six months, he wrote. She is an innocent young woman with her whole life ahead of her. Her friends and supporters are hopeful that the Russian courts we'll see that prosecuting her is a mistake, and send her home to Los Angeles.
Hi. Matthew from CNN. Are you holding up, all right?
No, no questions.
But Russia is now holding a growing number of U.S. citizens in jail, like "Wall Street Journal" reporter Evan Gershkovich, whose trial for espionage is set to start next week.
The 32-year-old journalist denies allegations he was gathering information on a Russian tank factory for the CIA.
Paul Whelan, a 54-year-old former U.S. marine, serving 16 years in a Russian prison.
PAUL WHELAN, IMPRISONED IN RUSSIA: I am innocent of any charges. All of this is political kidnapping.
CHANCE: What U.S. officials say were trumped up spying charges.
And Alsu Kurmasheva, a dual U.S. citizen working for Radio Free Europe, accused of failing to register as a foreign agent.
Critics accused the Kremlin of collecting Americans as bargaining chips to trade.
Not every detained American is accused of spying. School teacher Marc Fogel was sentenced in 2022 to 14 years hard labor for bringing medical marijuana into the country.
STAFF SGT. GORDON BLACK, U.S. ARMY: Just like to say hi to my mom and dad back home in Cheyenne, Wyoming. Love you. Have a happy new year.
CHANCE: And Gordon Black, 34 year-olds staff sergeant in the U.S. Army, was recently sentenced to nearly four years here for stealing money and assaulting a woman believed to be his Russian girlfriend.
There have been prisoner swaps before, like the U.S. basketball star Brittney Griner convicted for carrying cannabis oil into Russia, in exchange for a convicted Russian arms dealer in the U.S. jail.
[15:35:13]
But the prisoner Kremlin most wants now is this man, Vadim Krasikov, an FSB agent convicted of killing a Chechen dissident in a public park in Berlin. But Germany is reluctant to bargain a convicted Russian assassin for the American prisoners the Kremlin maybe willing to trade.
Matthew Chance, CNN, Moscow.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HILL: And our thanks to Matthew for that reporting.
In France, allegations that three teenage boys gang-raped a 12-year- old girl trigger an outcry over antisemitism in that country. Hundreds of people taking to the streets to protest the growing antisemitism, which is also said to be a key issue in the upcoming parliamentary elections. President Emmanuel Macron condemning the, quote, scourge of antisemitism as far-right leaders blamed the left for failing to take the issue seriously enough.
Melissa Bell has more.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MELISSA BELL, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It's an alleged gang-rape that has sent shockwaves through France. That over 12-year-old Jewish girl who is heading home in a Paris suburb on Saturday afternoon when three boys, all 12 and 13 years old approached her and forced her into this abandoned building according to CNN affiliate BFMTV, citing police sources.
As two of the three boys allegedly raped her, antisemitic insults were also allegedly used, including calling her a dirty Jew. Two of the boys are now being investigated for aggravated gang rape of a minor group, violence against a minor but for reasons of religion, death threats and insult for reasons of religion, according to the local prosecutor.
It comes at a critical time in France with an election call to test the rise of the right but that has put the future of the government itself on the line. An attack that has sparked intense political debate on antisemitism, further heightened by Israel's war in Gaza.
President Emmanuel Macron has condemned a scourge of antisemitism that he says is festering in French schools. According to France's interior ministry, antisemitic incidents in France rose 284 percent from 2022 to 2023.
But this attack has brought demonstrators to Paris's city hall.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): As is often the case, antisemitism is a barometer of a country's democratic health. And right now, it says something about French society.
BELL: More protests are planned this weekend as antisemitism now takes center stage as a political issue just days before the country heads to the polls.
Melissa Bell, CNN, Paris.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HILL: And stay with us. We'll be right back.
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[15:40:58]
HILL: Alarming new report, just fossil fuel use last year, we're talking about oil, coal and gas, actually pushed carbon pollution to new record highs and it comes as impacts of the climate crisis are, of course, becoming more intense, more deadly. Humidity experiencing it right now outside your door, brutal heat, wildfires, storms.
We are seeing extreme weather and increased intensity of that extreme weather around the world.
Joining me now to discuss, Bill Nye, the science guy.
Bill, good to see you as always.
You know, we look at this report. I should note, did show that there is clean renewables that are being added at record levels, but the problem is the demand overall globally for energy is growing so fast that its fossil fuels that are still really filling the gap here.
How do we stop that?
BILL NYE, THE SCIENCE GUY: We do everything all at once so that we can make transition to electric vehicles, take advantage of the highway and road infrastructure we have right now. We invest in renewable so-called sustainable aviation fuel. And we continue to support the investments in renewable energy.
I am very hopeful about the future because there's -- there are a great many energy sources we can take advantage of. We just have to curtail our use of fossil fuels.
And we would do that by outcompeting fossil fuels, with cheaper forms of electricity. And when fossil fuels are used to generate electricity and the word everyone is so anxious about regulation. This is a doable thing. This is doable.
HILL: So it's a doable thing, right? The average person watching though, they're not going to be responsible as we know for the regulation, they may not be able to buy an electric vehicle right now, get rid of the car that they currently have.
Are there smaller measures that we can all be taking at this point that would have some impact?
NYE: The thing you could do right now, everybody is vote, plan to vote. Now, I have worked for many years to be political, but not partisan, if I may. But right now, one side of politics, not just in the U.S., but around the world is in denial about climate change, let alone not having a plan to deal with it. They don't -- the other side doesn't even accept that its happening.
But here we are in the U.S. and Canada and Mexico with this heat dome. It's very stable hot air that's very hot and not going anywhere. And there's no clouds and so it gets hotter and hotter, no reflection of sunlight into space then this is going to be a La Nina year, where the cooling, this may surprise many of us, but cooling water in the Pacific will enable more hurricanes to form.
And so this will have an economic effect as these hurricanes come ashore and everybody's got up in some cases literally bail people out. So this is a worldwide problem and the problem is we say all the time, it's happening in slow motion but working together, we can address this we've got to work the problem from both ends, reduce fossil fuels, create new forms of reliable renewable electricity.
HILL: You bring up such an interesting point about it happening so slowly. You know, for a lot of people that's what's tough, right? Or maybe they're faced with a disaster from a hurricane and when that happens to you can wrap your head around one thing at once, right? And deal with that immediate issue is there any sort of a tipping point that you see that you envision could get more people on board and you say you're hopeful, right? So how do you bring more people over to understand that? Yeah. NYE: If you go into any sort of game -- a board game, any athletic competition, any whatever else people play a round of golf, whatever, you don't go into it thinking you're going to lose.
[15:45:11]
You go into it thinking, you're going to win. We can do this people, you got to be optimistic or you don't accomplish anything.
So we can do this and I hearken all the time to World War II, where everybody in the allies got together to resolve this global problem and they got it done very quickly in the global scheme of things, five years, six years. So we can do this. But it takes everybody acknowledging the problem to start with.
And so I appreciate you having people like me on to remind everybody what were up against this year is you made a reference to a tipping point. This year I believe will raise awareness for people around the world where the storms are going to be more frequent, and this heat dome has this extraordinary effects where were having wildfires in the southwest of North America at the same then the very next day, floods because the fires have destroyed the ground cover though vegetation that would otherwise help absorb the flood. So that storms coming and going in these rapid pace.
So this is all -- every year, we say this will be the year when we get together and do something about but vote everybody, vote. No matter what country you're in around the world, vote and take climate change into account when you do so.
HILL: Bill Nye, I appreciate your time this afternoon. Thank you.
NYE: Thank you.
HILL: Iceland's volcanoes, they can be deadly, destructive, beautiful. Could they also though, maybe be green? Icelandic scientists are actually working to harness the intense energy that's stored beneath the Earth's surface, energy, which is actually completely clean.
Here's CNN's Fred Pleitgen.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice- over): The awesome power of nature on full display in southwest Iceland. The Reykjanes Peninsula, close to the capital, suffering a string of violent volcanic eruptions in the past years. Iceland's massive activity both a burden and a blessing for those who live here.
The town Grindavik, close to the eruption site, evacuated -- a fissure running right through the streets and the houses.
Klara Halldorsdottir, one of the more than 3,000 residents evacuated last November, says she's had enough and will never move back. KLARA HALLDORSDOTTIR, FORMER GRINDAVIK RESIDENT: I get goosebumps when I talk about it because it was really, really strange. Just long lines of cars exiting town. It was like in a terrible movie or something.
PLEITGEN: When things appear to get more calm, a few months later, another violent eruption occurs as the Reykjanes Peninsula seems to have entered into a period of high volcanic activity that could last months, years, or even centuries, experts say, keeping the specialists at Iceland's Meteorological Office tasked with predicting eruptions busy round the clock.
SARA BARSOTTI, ICELANDIC METEORLOGICAL OFFICE: The GPS station -- they're telling us if the ground is changing, it is forming, we are maintaining the geochemical monitoring that is telling us which are the kind of gases that are leaving the volcanoes.
PLEITGEN: While volcanoes often have an impact on life here in Iceland, the Icelanders have found ways to harness the power of our violent Earth. Geothermal power plants, feeding off he heat, providing emission-free energy in abundance and leading companies from around the world to move energy-intensive manufacturing, like aluminum production, to Iceland.
Our team traveled all the way to the northeast of Iceland to the Krafla Geothermal Plant. When drilling a new bore hole here at Krafla, they accidentally hit a shallow magma chamber and now are working on harnessing the Earth's energy almost directly from the extremely hot magma.
The project's director says this technology could provide clean energy for hundreds of millions of people.
HJALTI PALL INGOLFSSON, KRAFLA MAGMA TESTBED: We have a very big part of humanity living close to a volcano. And if we are able to harness the volcano directly, reducing the risk by lowering the pressure and lowering the tension in the volcano, then, of course, we have a win- win situation.
PLEITGEN: Using the Earth's natural energy with burning fossil fuels. The scientists acknowledge there is still a long way to go and a lot to be learned, but they also believe the potential energy supply could be virtually limitless and totally clean.
Fred Pleitgen, CNN, Berlin.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HILL: And that would be something.
Just ahead here, Team USA preparing for tough matchup against the West Indies tonight and the Cricket World Cup could the U.S. actually be the next big hotspot for this global sport? That's next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[15:52:42]
HILL: The United States is co-hosting the cricket world cup and the American team is doing surprisingly well, registering not only surprise victory over Pakistan, but also pretty close loss to India, which felt like a win.
Our own cricket experts Nick Watt has the story of Team USA and his appeal to give cricket a chance because who knows? Just might like it.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
NICK WATT, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: I am a cricket obsessed. I've been playing the game badly since I was about 6-years-old. I spent hours watching it on TV, listening to on the radio, much to my children's amusement.
So this is kind of a love letter to cricket and a plea to all of you in America, get into it. It's great.
REPORTER: Does this president of a message for this unexpected success?
WATT (voice-over): They're talking cricket at the White House.
JOHN KIRBY, WHITE HOUSE SPOKESPERSON: We all congratulate them on the success. It's tremendous and we're cheering them on.
WATT: They've been playing cricket in Florida, Texas, New York, to some sellout crowds. America is waking up to this, the second most popular sport on Earth, after only soccer.
Today, our boys in red, white, and blue take on their co-host and two- time winners, the mighty West Indies, with Andrei Russell in their ranks, goes by Dre Russ.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They're a dangerous team England.
WATT: On Sunday, America meets England. They invented this game that eventually gave you all baseball.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's not baseball, but it's better. It's baseball that is better.
WATT: You're going to catch bare handed, and you're allowed to hit the bathroom.
America's part-timers and semi-pros were never expected to get this far, no way.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They did deserve to be here, playing at this level.
WATT: This guy is a software engineer Monday through Friday.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Netravalkar and many others had to pull their employers and ask for extra time off to play the super eight. WATT: But a stunning nail-biting victory over powerhouse Pakistan,
runners-up last World Cup, got the USA this far to the fabled Final Eight.
A New York born batter with a Barbadian lilt, was a hero that day.
AARON JONES, TEAM USA BATTER: I think to be honest to you, we could be any team in the world, we're going to try to get as far as possible and work up. We want to win and work up.
WATT: Most of these guys were born abroad, now, oh, so proud to play the game they love for the adopted country they love.
COREY ANDERSON, TEAM USA ALL-ROUNDER: And when that national anthem comes on, it gives me some goosebumps and I never thought I'd ever think that way about another country.
[15:55:01]
WATT: You have no excuse not to fall in love. It's not that complicated.
A home run is worth six, bounces first, that's four, you're out if caught, or if the ball hits those poles. There are some other ways, but baby steps, America, baby steps.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Cricket is building a new live here in America. And you can see here, it's all -- it's all here. And can't wait for -- can't wait for more. It's only going to get bigger and bigger.
WATT: These games last about as long as baseball but so far this World Cup, on average more than nine home runs every game, nine.
JONES: We always wanted to really and truly open the eyes of Americans as it relates to cricket. I think things are just going to get better and bigger from here.
WATT: Remember, you fell in love with soccer after that World Cup was here in 1994 and cricket never ends nil-nil.
(INAUDIBLE) dividends strayed away.
WATT: Never.
(END VIDEOTAPE0
WATT (on camera): Yeah, the traditional image of cricket is middle aged man wearing sweaters, drinking tea, playing a game that can last five days, but cricket has changed this new version is very quick. There's now a major league cricket in this country in America. And cricket is going to debut at the 2028 Olympics here in Los Angeles.
When there's a gold medal for grabs, maybe that's when you'll all really get into it.
HILL: It's like Nick Watt knows his audience. Thank you to my friend Nick Watt for that.
The USA is back in action tonight, taking on, as Nick said, that squad from the West Indies.
Thanks so much for joining me today. I'm Erica Hill.
Stay tuned. "QUEST MEANS BUSINESS" is up next. Hope you enjoy your weekend.
