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Trump's Inner Circle Jockeying To Influence Veep Choice; Biden And Trump In CNN Debate June 27; At Least 1,000 Feared Dead At Hajj Due To Heat; U.S. Assures Israel Of Full Backing In Potential War With Hezbollah In Southern Lebanon; Public Clash Intensifies Between U.S. And Israel Over Weapons; Paul Whelan Urges "Drastic Action" To Get Him Out Of Russian Prison; Law Upheld Banning Domestic Abusers From Owning Guns; Three Dead In Grocery Store Shooting; Thousands Celebrate Solstice At Stonehenge; River Seine Not Yet Fit For Olympic Swimming; T20 Cricket World Cup. Aired 4-5a ET

Aired June 22, 2024 - 04:00   ET

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

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KIM BRUNHUBER, CNN ANCHOR AND CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Welcome to all of you watching us here in the United States, Canada and around the world. I'm Kim Brunhuber. This is CNN NEWSROOM.

Former U.S. president Donald Trump is getting set to debate current President Joe Biden, right here on CNN.

But who will be Trump's running mate?

We have new reporting.

Scorching heat is affecting more than 100 million people across the U.S. The heat wave is expected to get worse for many over the weekend.

And the U.S. Supreme Court makes a consequential ruling on a law designed to keep guns from domestic abusers.

Now this decision coming on the same day of a mass shooting in the state of Arkansas.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice-over): Live from Atlanta this is CNN NEWSROOM with Kim Brunhuber.

BRUNHUBER: We are days away from the first presidential debate of the 2024 U.S. election. And it will happen right here on CNN. But before the candidates hit the stage, CNN has new reporting on who tops the list to be Donald Trump's vice presidential pick and who are the prominent figures supporting each of them.

Ohio senator J.D. Vance is said to be a favorite of Donald Trump Jr. We've learned that media mogul Rupert Murdoch is urging Trump to consider North Dakota governor Doug Burgum. While FOX News host Sean Hannity has gone to bat for Florida senator Marco Rubio.

Now Trump has said he will announce his choice at the Republican National Convention next month. But here's what some top contenders have been saying about the presidential candidate. Have a look at this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. J.D. VANCE (R-OH): The world is on fire and I sort of see Donald Trump as a bit of a fireman.

GOV. DOUG BURGUM (R-ND): I wish every American could see President Trump the way we've seen in the last six months. He's genuinely exceedingly funny but, as you know, Jesse, the best comics are really smart people, highly intelligent and highly perceptive and they know their audiences. And I think President Trump's been amazing.

SEN. MARCO RUBIO (R-FL): When Donald Trump was president of the United States, this country was safer, it was more prosperous. The country and the world is a better place when he was president. And I would love to see him return to the White House.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRUNHUBER: All right, so you saw that. Now, compare that with what those same contenders said about Trump in the past.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

VANCE: I'm a never Trump guy. I never liked him.

BURGUM: I just think that it's important that you're judged by the company you keep and I --

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Just wouldn't do business with him.

BURGUM: No, I wouldn't.

RUBIO: What we are dealing with here, my friends, is a con artist. He's a con artist. Friends do not let friends vote for con artists.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRUNHUBER: Trump has been using V.P. contenders to help him get ready for the debate.

Here's CNN's Alayna Treene with more on how those preparations are going.

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ALAYNA TREENE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, former president Donald Trump and his team are trying to adjust the expectations for next week's debate. Now what I find really interesting about this is that, for months now, Trump and his advisers have tried to paint Biden as this weak and feeble candidate.

They've argued that he is mentally and physically unfit for office and have even tried to argue that he couldn't stand on a debate stage for 90 minutes as the debate will be next week.

But now they're trying to change that. They believe that Biden really has a low bar and so they're trying to raise the expectations. Take a listen to what Trump told the all-in podcast yesterday.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT: He beat Paul Ryan pretty badly, and I assume he's going to be somebody that will be a worthy debater. Yes. I would say -- I think, I don't want to underestimate him.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TREENE: Now I can tell you from my conversations with Donald Trump's team that there is some concern behind the scene that they have put too low of a bar on for how Biden could perform.

And so that's where a lot of this is coming from. But as for the preparations, unlike the Biden campaign, Donald Trump will not be engaging in mock debates even though in the past, we know people like Rudy Giuliani and Chris Christie have stood in to play his opponent.

Instead he's engaging in what his team is dubbing policy discussions. I'm told he's engaged in more than a dozen of these with vice presidential contenders, senators, policy experts and people from his prior administration, like Kellyanne Conway, Stephen Miller and Rick Renown (ph).

Now some of the topics they have focused on, I'm told, are the economy and inflation, border crime, all of the issues Trump's team sees as the most important ahead of November.

[04:05:00]

But just to give you some specifics here, I know that Donald Trump and J.D. Vance, one of his top contenders for running mate, they met earlier this month at Mar-a-Lago. They tried to sharpen his rhetoric on the economy and try to predict some of the discussion and the questions that the moderators could ask.

He also met last week with senators Marco Rubio and Eric Schmidt, where they talked about American democracy and specifically addressed his handling of the January 6th attack on the Capitol.

Another area and vulnerability, I should say, that they've worked on behind the scenes has been his conviction in the Manhattan courtroom on 34 counts of falsifying business records.

And so even though Donald Trump's team is trying to really downplay the amount of preparation that they're arguing he needs, I've been told for many people that they also recognize he does need to do his homework and he is preparing -- Alayna Treene, CNN, Washington. (END VIDEOTAPE)

BRUNHUBER: Turning to the latest on each presidential campaign's fundraising efforts, in May, Donald Trump outraised Joe Biden for the second month in a row. Biden's campaign says the president's haul last month totaled $85 million.

But that figure pales in comparison to the staggering $141 million that Trump's team say he collected last month. His team says a surge in donations followed Trump's criminal conviction in New York.

Now tune in to see the CNN presidential debate right here, of course, on CNN, coming up June 27th at 9:00 pm Eastern time. And we will replay the debate in its entirety at a few different times.

You can watch it at 7:00 am London time on Friday, June 28. That's 2:00 in the afternoon in Hong Kong or 12 hours later at 7:00 pm in London, 10 in the evening in Abu Dhabi.

The judge in Trump's classified documents case is showing a bit of skepticism when it comes to Trump's efforts to get the special counsel, Jack Smith, removed. Aileen Cannon heard arguments in a hearing on Friday. She pushed Trump's team to defend their claim that Smith's position amounted to a shadow government.

Trump's attorneys argued that Smith was illegally appointed and doesn't report to anyone. The judge also questioned prosecutors about the attorney general's role in the case but they insist they are following all the rules.

The judge didn't say when she will issue a ruling. The trial has been indefinitely postponed after several delays. Trump was initially indicted in June last year and he faces 40 charges in the case.

Now there are two more hearings scheduled on Monday and Tuesday ahead of the CNN presidential debate.

More than 100 million people across the U.S. are under excessive heat watches, warnings and advisories this weekend. New York City could see 90 degree temperatures for the next seven days, which would be the longest ever in June for the city.

That prompted the mayor to open cooling centers across the city. New York's governor has opened an emergency operations center to monitor extreme heat conditions across the state's 62 counties.

Now the worst heat this weekend will be in the mid-Atlantic states. Temperatures in Washington, D.C., could reach 100 degrees Fahrenheit for the first time since 2016. Needless to say, the unrelenting heat dome is making temperatures miserable for millions.

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BRUNHUBER: From the U.S. to the Middle East, the extreme heat has been deadly. The U.S. State Department says multiple U.S. citizens died during the Hajj pilgrimage to Mecca this week. [04:10:02]

Now we want to warn you, we have some disturbing video from that city.

The official death toll at the Hajj pilgrimage stands at 531 but more than 1,000 are feared dead. Here's how one pilgrim described what she saw.

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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): We saw corpses on the road. They were covered with a sheet on the road because temperatures here are really high. And I'm not just talking about I'm old people.

Young people have died, too.

BRUNHUBER (voice-over): Large numbers of unregistered pilgrims are unaccounted for and Saudi Arabia and Egypt have yet to release official figures. We will have more in a live report from Istanbul, Turkiye, in the next hour.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRUNHUBER: A White House source tells CNN that Israel has been told the U.S. would fully support it if there's a full-blown war with Hezbollah. There's still a rift between the Biden administration and Benjamin Netanyahu. That story just ahead.

Plus the alleged gang rape of a 12-year-old Jewish girl in northern France has sparked demonstrations against rising antisemitism. We'll have that story and much more after the break.

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BRUNHUBER: A White House official tells CNN that Israel has been assured it would have U.S. support in the event of a full-on war with Hezbollah.

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The conflict with Hezbollah along the country's border with Lebanon has intensified in recent weeks. Hezbollah has been launching rockets into northern Israel since Hamas' October 7th attack. Israel has been striking back at Hezbollah in southern Lebanon.

This comes as Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu claims the U.S. is withholding weapons Israel wants for its ongoing war with Hamas. CNN's Nada Bashir is live in London with more.

So, for Israel, tension with the U.S. at a time it needs U.S. support most with this growing threat from Hezbollah.

What's the latest?

NADA BASHIR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Absolutely.

We continue to hear warnings from U.S. officials around the potential for tensions between Hezbollah in southern Lebanon and Israel across the border to continue to escalate.

We heard earlier in the week from a U.S. official telling CNN that they believe Hezbollah's armaments and its arsenal of weapons could suddenly overwhelm Israel's air defense system, namely its Iron Dome air defenses, since that is a huge point of concern.

We're talking about an organization that is very different, of course, to Hamas in Gaza. While we have heard from the Israeli military in the past saying it could, quote, "copy and paste" what we're seeing in Gaza, in Lebanon, this is a very different organization.

It is politically and militarily more sophisticated. It has the backing, of course, of the Iranian regime. And it has a military arsenal that is far stronger and more powerful than Hamas.

We are talking about drones and short-range rockets which we have seen used extensively over the last eight months, of course, in response to continued airstrikes. And we're also seeing in southern Lebanon by the Israeli military but they also have longer-range missiles which could target deeper into Israeli territory.

Now we've continued to hear from Hezbollah officials over the last eight months. Characterizing their actions as being directly in response to what we're seeing in Gaza, saying that they do not want to see an outright war with Israel.

But that their actions at the continued hostilities that we're seeing between Hezbollah and the Israeli military will not come to an end until we see a ceasefire in Gaza, until we see the end of Israeli airstrikes in the Gaza Strip.

But of course, there has been mounting concern over the situation on the border between Lebanon and Israel, from members of the international community, not least the United States. Of course, there have been intensive discussions between U.S. and Israeli officials, as well as other regional allies over the last week.

And we've been hearing warnings as well from the United Nations. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANTONIO GUTERRES, UNITED NATIONS SECRETARY-GENERAL: The risk for the conflict in the Middle East to widen is real and must be avoided. One rash move, one miscalculation could trigger a catastrophe that goes far beyond the border and, frankly, beyond imagination.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASHIR: Now, of course, this has been a concern for members of the international community for some time but we are seeing tensions escalate and mount. And we've heard from U.S. officials telling CNN that the situation on the border between Lebanon and Israel is at a dangerous tipping point.

And of course, we've already seen thousands of civilians on both sides, being forced to evacuate their homes; tens of thousands of northern Israel, nearly 100,000 in southern Lebanon; dozens of civilians killed of course, by Israeli airstrikes as well in southern Lebanon. So this is a huge point of concern.

And while the confrontations that we've been seeing, while the exchange of fire has been directly between Hezbollah militants in the south and the Israeli military, we've also been hearing in the past from the Lebanese government, who has said that while they do not want to see an outright war with Israel.

The Lebanese military cannot be expected to stand idly by if Israel threatens to push Lebanon into an all-out war. And, of course, we've been hearing those warnings from U.S. officials around the likelihood of a ground incursion by the Israeli ministry.

So certainly a significant development if that were the case.

BRUNHUBER: A dangerous tipping point, as you say. Nada Bashir in London. Thank you.

Meanwhile, the U.S. is denying that it's withholding weapons from Israel in the war with Hamas. Our Paula Hancocks has more on that.

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BENJAMIN NETANYAHU, ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER: It's inconceivable.

PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Israel's Prime Minister doubling down on a feud with his country's most important ally, repeating his accusation that the Biden administration is withholding weapons from Israel.

Netanyahu told "Punchbowl News" there have been months of significant problems and that barely a trickle of U.S. military aid is coming through in an interview published Friday. The simmering controversy has sparked U.S. frustrations.

KARINE JEAN-PIERRE, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: We generally do not know what he's talking about.

JOHN KIRBY, WHITE HOUSE NATIONAL SECURITY COMMUNICATIONS ADVISER: It was vexing and disappointing to us, as much as it was incorrect.

HANCOCKS (voice-over): U.S. officials say the only weapons posed a heavy bonds that President Joe Biden does not want used in a densely populated area like Rafah.

MATTHEW MILLER, STATE DEPARTMENT SPOKESPERSON: There is one shipment of high payload munitions that we have put on under review and that remains under review. [04:20:00]

That's not a bottleneck. That's a policy review.

HANCOCKS (voice-over): As the IDF insists its ongoing operation in Rafah is limited, the city's mayor strongly disagrees, telling CNN on the ground they are destroying the city of Rafah completely. Adding, anyone who sets foot in Rafah is killed instantly.

DAVID MENCER, ISRAELI GOVT. SPOKESPERSON: The final stronghold in Rafah is being taken apart systematically slowly, with intelligence.

HANCOCKS (voice-over): Footage and satellite imagery of the Rafah crossing between Gaza and Egypt shows the passenger terminal has been heavily burned and damaged. The Israeli military took control of the crossing early last month. Since then it has been closed to aid coming in and critical patients going out.

The U.S. says it has started bringing humanitarian aid in through its floating pier again, although it has not yet been distributed. The pier was dismantled for the second time last week due to high seas and bad weather. The U.N. has given Israel security steps that must be met before it can resume distribution of the aid from the pier.

Humanitarian groups point to increased lawlessness and desperation in Gaza making some distribution simply too dangerous.

HANCOCKS: At least two dozen Palestinians were killed in the area of al-Mawasi on Friday, according to Palestine Red Crescent and the Red Cross, saying it was a strike which hit displaced people.

Tens of thousands have moved to that area. The IDF says, there's no indication they carried out the strike. But the incident is under review -- Paula Hancocks, CNN, Jerusalem.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BRUNHUBER: Allegations that three boys gang raped a 12-year-old Jewish girl in northern France have sparked an outcry against antisemitism in the country. Hundreds rallied against hate Friday in the Paris suburb where the assault allegedly took place.

President Emmanuel Macron has weighed in, condemning what he calls the, quote, "scourge of antisemitism."

That has become a key issue ahead of next week's parliamentary election. Here's Melissa Bell.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MELISSA BELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It's an alleged gang rape that has sent shockwaves through France. That of a 12-year-old Jewish girl

who was 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, anti-Semitic insults were also allegedly used, including calling her, a "Dirty Jew." The boys have

been taken into custody, according to the local prosecutor.

It comes at a critical time in France with an election called 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 anti- Semitism further heightened by Israel's war in Gaza.

President Emmanuel Macron has condemned a scourge of anti-Semitism that he says is festering in French schools. According to France's interior

ministry, anti-Semitic incidents in France rose 284 percent from 2022 to 2023.

But this attack has brought demonstrators to Paris'' city hall.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): As is often the case, anti- Semitism is a barometer of a country's democratic health. And right now, it says

something about French society.

BELL (voice-over): More protests are planned this weekend as anti- Semitism now takes center stage as a political issue just days before the country

heads to the polls.

Melissa Bell, CNN, Paris.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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BRUNHUBER: Ukraine is confirming that it struck a number of oil facilities in Russia. Officials say the targets included this refinery southeast of Moscow where the attack caused a fire, as well as an oil depot in southern Russia, which was also set ablaze Thursday night.

Ukraine says it went after military targets in Russia and the occupied Crimea. Moscow has acknowledged the attacks, saying they left one person dead and six injured. Russia claimed it destroyed more than 80 Ukrainian drones and six unmanned boats.

American Paul Whelan is calling on the White House to take drastic action to get him out of prison in Russia. Whelan spoke exclusively with CNN on the phone on Friday after marking 2,000 days behind bars.

Whelan said the U.S. should start locking up Russians.

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)

PAUL WHELAN, AMERICAN, PRISONER IN RUSSIA: The U.S. needs to go out and do something -- fill up Guantanamo Bay with Russian officials, arrest Russian spies, do something that makes the Kremlin sit up and take notice and say, OK, yes, right.

Now it's time that we're going to get Evan and Paul back and then we want back what you've got of ours and we'll call it a day.

(END AUDIO CLIP)

BRUNHUBER: Whelan was referring to "The Wall Street Journal" reporter Evan Gershkovich, who's going on trial for alleged espionage on Wednesday. Whelan is serving a 16 year sentence for purported spying.

They both deny their charges and the U.S. considers them wrongfully detained.

[04:25:00]

All right.

Still to come, the U.S. Supreme Court's latest ruling will have a major impact on Second Amendment rights as the country grapples with gun violence. The latest mass shooting in the U.S. rocks a small town in Arkansas. What police are saying about the tragedy, That's next.

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BRUNHUBER: Welcome to all of you watching us here in the United States, Canada and around the world.

I'm Kim Brunhuber. This is CNN NEWSROOM.

We are days away from the first presidential debate of the 2024 U.S. election. And it'll happen right here on CNN. President Joe Biden is apparently preparing for the debate with a tight circle of advisers. His preparations will include formal 90-minute mock debates.

And sources say Biden's personal lawyer is likely to reprise his role as a stand-in for Donald Trump during those practice sessions.

Meanwhile, Trump now says Biden is a worthy debater who shouldn't be underestimated. This comes after months of questioning the president's mental state. There is concern among some of the former president's advisers that Republicans have set a low bar for Biden's performance.

The U.S. Supreme Court upheld a federal law that keeps guns away from domestic abusers. The ruling on Friday was nearly unanimous. CNN's Paula Reid reports on the high court's decision and its impact on the U.S. right to bear arms.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PAULA REID, CNN CHIEF LEGAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: A massive Supreme Court ruling on the Second Amendment 8-1, the justices finding that the Second Amendment, like many other rights, does have limits.

Chief justice John Roberts, who authored the majority opinion, said they, quote, "had no trouble" coming to this conclusion.

[04:30:00]

And he really focused a lot on tradition and the history of the United States, saying, quote, "Our tradition of firearm regulation allows the government to disarm individuals who present a credible threat to the physical safety of others."

And a good portion of his opinion is spent analyzing the historical context of firearm regulation.

And that is significant because, two years ago, the Supreme Court really expanded the definition of the Second Amendment and left the door open for a lot of additional challenges like this.

And here, the chief justice, he acknowledged that that has caused some confusion among the lower courts about exactly what they meant.

He writes, "Some courts have misunderstood the methodology of our recent Second Amendment cases."

Now he says, they-- "The reach of the Second Amendment is not limited only to those arms that were in existence at the founding," and then goes on to say that, of course, that any regulations or restrictions on gun ownership, you don't necessarily need to find a twin regulation from the beginning or the founding of this country.

But it has to be something that is relevant and similar. This is significant because, during oral arguments in this case, at least one justice noted that domestic violence, which is what is at the core of this case, has not been treated the same way it is now throughout the history of the United States.

Now there was of course one dissent here, Justice Clarence Thomas, writing for his dissent, "Yet in the interest of ensuring that government can regulate one subset of society, today's decision puts at risk the Second Amendment rights of many more.

"I respectfully dissent."

Now looking forward, it is expected at the Supreme Court will see other challenges related to the Second Amendment, because many justices, even though they all joined the majority, wrote their own concurrences, putting their own spin on exactly what it is that the majority opinion means. And that, of course, will open the door for other challenges, looking

to really clarify exactly how far the Second Amendment extends. They can look through this opinion, try to find a concurrence that matches their argument and try to bring their case back before the high court -- Paula Reid, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BRUNHUBER: David DePape, the man convicted in federal court of the attack on Nancy Pelosi's husband, Paul, has now also been convicted of five charges in state court.

A California jury found DePape guilty of first-degree burglary, false imprisonment, threatening a family member of a public official, aggraded kidnapping and preventing a witness by force or threat.

DePape also already faces 30 years in prison from the earlier conviction for the October 20, 2022, attack. His lawyers say they plan to appeal the convictions.

Police in Arkansas have identified the gunman they say killed three people and wounded 10 others at a grocery store on Friday morning; 44- year-old Travis Eugene Posey is in police custody, facing three counts of capital murder.

A manager at the store in Fordyce says the suspect walked in with a shotgun and ended up in a shootout with police. CNN's Isabel Rosales has details.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ISABEL ROSALES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: This is a heartbreaking moment for the city of Fordyce, Arkansas, forced to deal with a mass shooting that has taken the lives of three of their community members.

We do have brand new information from Mike Hagar, the director of the Arkansas State Police, who has said that there was no active threat to the community.

But the number of civilians killed, that has gone up since our latest check-in. He says that a total of 14 people have been shot. This includes civilians, officers and the shooter. So out of those 14 people, 11 of them are civilians.

Mike Hagar saying that three of them sadly, have been killed, that number going up from the last checkin from police. Now, the survivors, Hagar says the injuries range here from non-life threatening injuries to extremely critical.

We also know that two law enforcement officers have been shot. They have non-life-threatening injuries. And the lone shooter, Hagar says, was shot by officers with non-life-threatening injuries and has been taken into custody.

Now CNN spoke with Matthew Gill. He is the meat manager where this all happened at the Mad Butcher grocery store inside when this all happened. And he tells us that he saw a man walk in with a shotgun and then it all ended with a shootout with officers.

There was also witness outside at a nearby gas station who took this video. You can hear the popping in the background. He thought that that was fireworks because there was a fireworks show right there and quickly realized, as people were running, that this came from a gun.

Just a stunning video, horrible situation for this community that tries to understand why this happened, as police gather evidence here and put those pieces together.

[04:35:00]

Isabel Rosales, CNN, Atlanta.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BRUNHUBER: Now according to the Gun Violence Archive, the United States has seen at least 234 mass shootings so far this year. The agency defines a mass shooting as one in which at least four people are shot and/or killed in a single event.

Well, it's a legal setback for actor and producer Alec Baldwin in the criminal case against him for the fatal shooting in the set of his film, "Rust." A New Mexico judge denied Baldwin's motion to dismiss the involuntary manslaughter charge against him. A separate motion to dismiss the charge will be heard Monday.

Baldwin has pleaded not guilty and the case is slated to go to trial in July. Cinematographer Halyna Hutchins was killed in October 2021 when a gun held by Baldwin fired a live round during a scene rehearsal.

The film's armorer, Hannah Gutierrez Reed, was found guilty of involuntary manslaughter and sentenced to 18 months in prison. She's appealing the conviction.

NASA has delayed the Boeing Starliner's return to Earth for a second time. The spacecraft docked with the International Space Station on June 6th with two American astronauts on board.

Now they were supposed to return after about a week. But engineers on the ground are trying to learn about problems encountered on the trip to the ISS. Those problems include helium leaks and thrusters that stopped working suddenly. A former astronaut tells CNN that the two Americans know what they're facing.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LELAND MELVIN, FORMER NASA ASTRONAUT: This has happened before. This is a test vehicle. So this is -- things are always happening in the test vehicle. And both Suni and Butch, our test pilots, they're used to this kind of thing. But we got to get it fixed. We've got to figure it out, get more data.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRUNHUBER: NASA says the delays mean Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams won't come back to Earth until July.

FAA investigators are trying to understand why a Southwest Airlines plane descended to about 500 feet or 160 meters during its flight. Now it happened as the passenger jet was approaching Oklahoma City but wasn't supposed to be nearly that low. As Pete Muntean reports, that wasn't the first such incident for the airline recently.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PETE MUNTEAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Air traffic controllers really saved the day here. Even still, this is very alarming, especially since this is the second incident in as many months involving a Southwest Airlines flight getting too low.

This case happened after midnight on Wednesday morning. And this is the doorbell camera video in to CNN. It shows flight 4069 on approach to land at Will Rogers World Airport in Oklahoma City. This is about nine miles away from the airport in the town of Yukon.

The plane was lined up to land on the runway that points to the southeast and the data from Flight Radar 24, says the flight got down to 525 feet above ground level. Let's put it into context.

Only about four lengths of the 737 itself, or the height of the Washington Monument, half the height of the Empire State Building. The point is, it's very low for that distance from the airport.

The FAA says a minimum safe altitude warning or MSAW alert sounded in the control tower, prompting the air traffic controller to issue Southwest 4069 a low altitude alert.

Listen.

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Southwest 4069 low altitude alert, you good out there?

(END AUDIO CLIP)

MUNTEAN: The pilots then climbed back up and maneuvered for a safe landing and nobody was hurt. The FAA says it's investigating and Southwest says it's doing its own internal investigation. Here's what the airlines says in a statement.

"Southwest is following its robust safety management system and is in contact with the FAA to understand and address any irregularities with the aircraft's approach to the airport. Nothing is more important to Southwest than the safety of our customers and employees."

Question here is, how this could happen; did the pilots improperly configure their instruments like in the crash of the Korean Air flight in Guam in 1997?

Or were they simply fatigued after a long day? Remember, this flight coming in after midnight. And pilots I talk to say they have been worked especially hard lately. Big questions here for investigators.

The good news is that the layers of safety worked and that the low altitude alerting system in use by air traffic control stopped the accident chain that was headed toward disaster -- Pete Muntean, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BRUNHUBER: The summer solstice is celebrated at Stonehenge and that's despite protesters spray painting the World Heritage Site a few days before. We'll have more on that ahead. Stay with us.

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BRUNHUBER: Thousands showed up at Stonehenge on Friday for a decidedly New Age event celebrating the summer solstice. Organizers estimate 15,000 people were at the World Heritage Site in England to drum and chant and cheer on the longest day of the year during the Northern Hemisphere.

The festivities come two days after activists from the group Just Stop Oil spray painted that landmark using fire extinguishers with orange powder paint, demanding the incoming government phase out fossil fuels.

Officials say the paint caused no lasting damage to the site. On Thursday, activists from the same group painted two private jets on the runway where Taylor Swift's jet was expected to land, another one of the many increasingly high-profile attacks by climate activists.

And joining me now is Susan Greaney. She's an archaeologist and lecturer at the University of Exeter.

Thank you so much for being here with us. So just take me back a couple of days as an archaeologist. I mean, you must have been horrified when you first saw the news that this site had been attacked.

I mean, how sensitive is it to damage?

SUSAN GREANEY, UNIVERSITY OF EXETER: It was initially very shocking. Yes. I was actually traveling on the afternoon. And I did drive past Stonehenge just about when it was happening. But I didn't see anything from the road.

But yes, it was initially very shocking but in some ways not surprising. Just Stop Oil have been using similar tactics at other locations. For example, at the British library, targeting manuscripts and also famous paintings, of course, like the Mona Lisa.

So in some ways, not surprising but still quite shocking initially, yes. Luckily, it seems that they haven't really done any damage to Stonehenge. They used cornstarch powder with a food dye or something similar. And it was relatively easily removed that evening by the custodians at the site.

BRUNHUBER: Yes, many of us might think, well, it's just rock.

I mean, how can that be damaged by such a thing?

But it actually is possible, right?

GREANEY: That's right.

So the monument is quite sensitive. The stones are some that -- the large stones are made of it's quite porous so that dye will get into the stone itself. And also the stones are covered in fairly rare lichens. And of course, these are very sensitive ecologically and it may well have caused damage.

But touch words, luckily, it does seem to have been absolutely minimal.

BRUNHUBER: I mean, this is not the first time Stonehenge has been targeted.

What do you think makes it such an attractive target?

GREANEY: That's right, it's been the focus of protest over the last century, really.

[04:45:00]

There have been graffiti added to the stones, that said "Ban the bomb," back at the time of height of the Cold War. There's also been protests like Fathers for Justice back in the '90s.

So it is a site that does get that attention. And the reason that the protesters are targeting it is because it has such a high profile. It's known around the world, it's familiar to everyone. And what they're trying to do is just get headlines.

They're trying to do exactly this, get media interviews, get people talking about climate change, get our politicians talking about climate change. And in some ways, it's a shock tactic and it's quite an extreme tactic but it does seem to create conversation.

BRUNHUBER: Yes, absolutely. But I mean, given all that do you think it should perhaps be better protected?

GREANEY: It's a really interesting question.

It's a monument in the middle of open countryside. It's surrounded by a low rope. That's all that stops people actually getting into the monument. If you had to protect it more, you'd have to bag check every single member of the public. You'd have to have much more security, high fences.

It would really affect the experience of actually visiting the site and, thankfully, at least so far, these are rare events. And I do feel for the staff who had to try and stop the protesters. And that's their job. I know what that's like to try and protect somewhere.

It must have been terrifying for them but I don't think it will lead to kind of major security overhaul at the site.

BRUNHUBER: You feel for the staff.

Do you also understand the spirit of the protesters, if not their actions in this case?

GREANEY: Certainly, I do. Yes. I think their tactics of raising the profile of climate change is important and they're doing this just at the time we're running up to a general election here in the U.K.

And really the climate has not beat achievely (ph) in the agenda of the main political parties. And it's the most pressing issue. So I fully agree with their stance on trying to get this further up the agenda.

However, it has perhaps turned some people off. Some people see Stonehenge as a monument that has outlasted generations. It's really a symbol of connection between people and nature and the past.

And to attack it is very shocking for people. So I can see that sometimes the tactics might alienate the very people that they're trying to reach. But in other ways, I do think these are conversations that need to happen.

BRUNHUBER: Before we go, I did want to ask you about this, because I mean Stonehenge itself is at risk as much from those who seek to destroy it or damage it as those who seek to honor it, right?

GREANEY: That's why so lots of heritage is at risk from climate change. For example, sea level rise affecting monuments and archaeological sites on the coastline, wetter climates meaning that there's more damage to earthworks and easily archaeology can get damaged and dried out and all kinds of issues.

And Stonehenge itself is a major focus for international tourism. It gets well over 1 million visitors a year. And those people are flying around the world and adding to the climate crisis.

So really it's a question of thinking about how do we change things?

How do we -- it feels bad but do we really need to visit Stonehenge?

Do we have to travel around the world in our jets and our airplanes?

These are the questions we're going to ask ourselves if we want to try and keep Stonehenge protected and future generations being able to appreciate it.

BRUNHUBER: Yes, it's certainly extraordinary and we always are learning new things about it seemingly every month.

We'll have to leave it there. Susan Greaney, thank you so much for joining us. Really appreciate it.

Co-hosts USA and the West Indies meet in Barbados in the Super 8 round of the Cricket World Cup. We will bring you what happened when we come back. Stay with us.

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BRUNHUBER: The River Seine in Paris is set to be a swimming venue for the Summer Olympics in less than five weeks' time.

But it's not safe to swim in. Not yet, anyway, according to French officials, recent heavy rainfall caused pollution runoff that's resulted in poor water quality. But they say new infrastructure is now in place that will clean the water for events like the swimming leg of the triathlon.

And the forecast is calling for clearer skies, which would also help to keep lower pollution levels.

It's a feat that defies the odds. The Edmonton Oilers clobbered the Florida Panthers on Friday, 5-1, forcing a winner-takes-all game seven in hockey's Stanley Cup championship.

The team score early and often and they sealed their third straight win with two empty-net goals in third period. Now they are only the third team in Stanley Cup finals history to force a decisive showdown after being down 3-0 games. The Stanley Cup will be decided in Florida on Monday.

The West Indies beat the USA in their Super 8 match-up on Friday at the T20 World Cup in Barbados. The Americans suffered a heavy nine- wicket defeat. The loss was a jolt and a wakeup for the U.S. who was off to a strong Cinderella start of the tournament.

Shai Hope was responsible for most of the West Indies scoring. He gave his team a total of 130 for the loss of just one wicket.

The Americans aren't out of the tournament. They go up against England on Sunday. The U.S. is co-hosting this tournament with the West Indies. And despite the loss, the Americans have breathed life into a sport that most Americans don't know, as Nick Watt reports.

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QUESTION: Does the president have a message for this unexpected success? NICK WATT, CNN ANCHOR AND NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): They're talking cricket at the White House.

JOHN KIRBY, WHITE HOUSE NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISOR: We all congratulate them on this success. It's tremendous and we're cheering them on.

WATT (voice-over): 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.

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 like baseball but it's better. It's baseball but it's better.

WATT (voice-over): Got a catch barehanded and you're allowed to hit the batter. America's part-timers and semi-pros were never expected to get this far, no way.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice-over): They deserve to be here, playing at this level.

WATT (voice-over): This guy's a software engineer Monday through Friday.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (voice-over): Metrovalka and many others had to call their employers and ask for extra time off to play the Super Eight.

WATT (voice-over): But a stunning, nail-biting victory over powerhouse Pakistan, runners-up last World Cup, got the USA this far.

[04:55:03]

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 with you, we could beat any team in the world and we are going to try to get as far as possible in the World Cup. We want to win the World Cup.

WATT (voice-over): 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: When that national anthem comes on, it gives me some goose bumps and I never thought I'd ever think that way about another country.

WATT (voice-over): 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 vibe here in America and you can see here, it's all here and can't wait for more, it's only going to get bigger and bigger.

WATT (voice-over): These games last about as long as baseball but so far this World Cup on averaged 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 (voice-over): Remember, you fell in love with soccer after that World Cup was here in 1994 and cricket never ends nil-nil. Never. Nick Watt, CNN Los Angeles.

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BRUNHUBER: We shall see.

All right, that wraps this hour of CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Kim Brunhuber. I'll be back with more news in just a moment, please stay with us.