U.S. Pledges Lasting Alliance with Afghanistan; Heat Wave Hits Part of U.S.
HILLARY CLINTON, U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE: We see this as a powerful symbol of our commitment to Afghanistan's future.</s>RANDI KAYE, CNN ANCHOR: An unannounced visit to Afghanistan and an announcement that will impact troop withdrawal. Plus, June jobs numbers send investors into panic as the Dow plunges over 100 points. Why the numbers just didn't add up for Wall Street. You're young, healthy and willing, but the Red Cross doesn't want your blood because you're gay. Now lawmakers are trying to change that. It's our 10:30 talker. We start this hour with the weather. We are all hoping for a break from this oppressive heat. Well, sorry, not today. I hate to see all that red on these maps we're about to show you, but those are the heat warnings. And as you can see, it is going to be pretty bad today. The record triple-digit temperatures are being blamed for at least five deaths. And don't forget about the 350,000 people still without power after storms tore through the Atlantic states last week. It has been a week with no power and no air conditioning, but in many of those places cooling centers have opened up to help try to cool people down. Now to Afghanistan and a commitment from the United States. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton spelled out the partnership that will take the two countries beyond the planned troop withdrawal in 2014. Afghanistan is now designated a major non-NATO ally. That means the U.S. will keep up defense, security, and economic relations with Afghanistan even after the withdrawal.</s>CLINTON: I am pleased to announce today that President Obama has officially designated Afghanistan as a major non-NATO ally of the United States. We see this as a powerful symbol of our commitment to Afghanistan's future.</s>KAYE: Before heading over to Afghanistan, Secretary Clinton was in Paris for the so-called friends of Syria meeting. Clinton offered this warning to Russia and China, who have opposed efforts to have Syrian president Assad removed from power.</s>CLINTON: I will tell you very frankly, I don't think Russia and China believe they are paying any price at all, nothing at all for standing up on behalf of the Assad regime. The only way that will change is if every nation represented here directly and urgently makes it clear that Russia and China will pay a price.</s>KAYE: Clinton also argued for United Nations sanctions. The U.N. could still authorize the use of force to topple Assad's regime. Not a good number for President Obama. A weak jobs report left the unemployment rate at 8.2 percent. That means nearly 13 million people are jobless and a large number of them have been out of work for at least six months. The news pushed the markets down, the Dow finishing down 124 points. Needless to say, the jobs report is a big deal on the campaign trail, but as our White House correspondent Dan Lothian reports, it was especially bad news for President Obama, who tried to turn the bad news into a rallying cry.</s>DAN LOTHIAN, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): President Obama's battleground bus tour drove over a big speed bump when dismal jobs numbers over shadowed his message.</s>BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: It's still tough out there.</s>LOTHIAN: At a rally in Ohio, he didn't dwell on negative news but instead played up private sector gains.</s>OBAMA: Businesses created 84,000 new jobs last month, and that means that overall that businesses have created 4.4 million new jobs over the past 28 months, including 500,000 new manufacturing jobs. That's a step in the right direction.</s>LOTHIAN: But unemployment remains at 8.2 percent, and voters are divided over who can best handle the economy. A recent CNN/ORC poll shows 48 percent of registered voters think Mitt Romney, 47 percent President Obama. Looking to keep a tight grip on the battleground states of Ohio and Pennsylvania that voted for him in 2008, the president pushed his message of manufacturing gains, especially in the auto industry, to working class voters. He began the final day of his "Vetting on America" bus tour with breakfast in Akron, Ohio, where the president was joined by three union workers from a nearby Goodyear tire plant.</s>OBAMA: You've been there 20 years? You're still there?</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.</s>LOTHIAN: Then the president toured the summer garden food manufacturing plant near Youngstown, a business that the campaign said is expanding and creating jobs. At Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, his biggest event of the tour, there was one final appeal for a second term.</s>OBAMA: And if you still believe in me like I believe in you, I hope you will stand with me in 2012.</s>LOTHIAN: The president told supporters at almost every stop on the two-day bus tour that he was tough enough to handle negative ads from his opponent and outside groups, but he admitted that he was being out-spent, the first time that's ever happened to a sitting president. Dan Lothian, CNN, Pittsburgh.</s>KAYE: And as we saw in Dan's report, the president started his day yesterday at a diner in Akron, Ohio. No doubt it was a thrill for the owner, Ann Harris. But just about an hour after the president left, the 70-year-old woman died. The local paper reports she had a heart attack. The president was in Pittsburgh when he got the news. He called Harris's daughter back in Akron to offer his condolences. Listen to the call.</s>OBAMA: Michelle and I are thinking of you and your daughters and the entire family.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She enjoyed her visit with you. It brought a smile to her face. Thank you, President Obama.</s>OBAMA: Thank you.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We love you! Thank you.</s>OBAMA: All right, god bless you guys.</s>KAYE: The family said that Ann Harris loved the president and considered him a hero. They plan to blow up the picture the president took with her and mount it on the wall. To other news now, and the run has begun in Pamplona, Spain. It is the traditional running of the bulls, and there they go. The crowd seems to grow every year with thousands of people crowded into the narrow streets. Today is the first day of the festival, which lasts a week. That means several more days of people being chased through the streets by those bulls. Today, six people were injured, including a 73-year-old man who was gored. Inside the world of Scientology, the church says members are the lifeblood, but how many scientologists are there really? The answer may depend on who you ask. And yes, that's an iguana. This Miami fireman is releasing into the wild, but you'll never guess where he found it.