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Texas Investigative Committee Releases 77-Page Preliminary Report; Western Europe Endures Sweltering Heat and Fires; Acting President of Sri Lanka Declares Nationwide Public Emergency; Sri Lankans Waiting in Long Lines to Get Fuel, Basic Necessities; China Faces Major Rise in COVID Cases and Extreme Heat. Aired 4:30-5a ET

Aired July 18, 2022 - 04:30   ET

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

[04:30:00]

CHRISTINA MACFARLANE, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back to CNN. I'm Christina Macfarlane. If you're just joining us let me, bring you up-to-date with our top stories this hour.

Lawmakers in Texas have released a 77-page luminary report detailing how multiple law enforcement agencies failed to act to save the 21 lives killed at the school shooting in Uvalde, Texas. The report states there was an overall lackadaisical approach to the shooting and no real law enforcement command, despite many offices being on the scene. Law enforcement analysts reacted to the report.

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ANDREW MCCABE, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: The widely accepted, widely trained approach to these active shooter incidents is the first responders on scene, whether it is the chief of police for the lowliest beat comp, grab the weapon that you have in your car, coordinate with whoever else is there with you. If you are by yourself then you go by yourself, go to the sound of the gun and try to take that shooter out. You try to kill that person before they can kill or hurt other victims.

And it is inexplicable that this massive team of law enforcement from multiple agencies with heavy body armor and long guns, AR-15s and eventually, multiple ballistic shields never took that crucial action. And you see it's hard to watch that video. You keep asking yourself, what are they doing? They don't even appear to be, you know, really acting with any purpose. It's incredible.

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MACFARLANE: Well, Texas lawmakers who conducted the investigation say law enforcement wasted precious time in prioritizing their own safety over the victims.

Wildfires are raging across northern Morocco as emergency crews raced to tame the flames. In one province on the Atlantic, officials say maybe 1,400 families from 19 villages have been evacuated. Morocco's military is sending reinforcements to battle the blazes. This as dangerous heat striking parts of Western Europe too. The U.K. here is bracing for possible record high temperatures tomorrow and today.

[04:35:00]

Things look so bad in fact, British officials held a crisis meeting, a so-called cobra session to address the heat. And authorities have issued their first-ever red extreme heat warning for parts of the U.K.

Well, things aren't looking any better across the channel in western France. Officials there to their highest temperature alert for 15 departments on Sunday. And the heat is making it even harder to battle several wildfires.

The U.S. is also seeing high temperatures. And we'll get the details from meteorologist Pedram Javaheri at CNN Center in just a moment. But first, I just want to go Barbie Nadeau who is in Rome for us. Barbie, Europe is baking right now. And we know Italy is used to high temperatures but nothing quite like this.

BARBIE NADEAU, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: That's right. And it's just a relentless continuation of these high temperatures. It doesn't get cool at night. We've seen a number of wildfires. We've got droughts in the north of Italy. All of these sorts of things come when this country, like many countries in Europe, are trying to save energy. Running your air conditioning right now is daunting. People don't know if they're going to be able to afford these higher energy prices once those bills comes as well.

And so, we're seeing water rations in the north of Italy. We're seeing, you know, tourists baking in the sun. A couple were arrested for, you know, swimming in a fountain overnight. And you know, just anything people can do to keep cool. But it is dangerous for the elderly. You know, people who are vulnerable are really, really in tough shape right now, because they can't cool off -- Christina.

MACFARLANE: Yes, understandably. That is the main concern or major concern right now, Barbie.

Pedram, to you. This is clearly climate change in action. How long can we expect this current heat wave to last? What are you seeing?

PEDRAM JAVAHERI, CNN METEOROLOGIST: You know, Christina, a couple more days here. I think by the time we get to Wednesday afternoon dramatic changes, at least for the northern tier. Where certainly they're not accustomed to the excessive heat that were seen.

But right now, the conditions across the south and west are beginning to expand a little further toward the north. And of course, climatologically, whether you're in North America or across Europe as you kind of round out the month of July into August that it's typically when the hottest temperatures of the year are observed. But even by the hottest temperature of the year standards -- were talking about Spain -- the middle 30 Celsius, so generally say about, 87, 89 degrees or so Fahrenheit is what is expected this time of year. But temps have been about 100 to 104 or 44 degrees across some of these areas. So, a pretty impressive run of excessive heat. And again, it is

expanding gradually farther toward the north. 26 what is average this time of year in degrees Celsius. In France you notice, 40s widespread across the region. So, and incredible run of heat here in place. And we do expect Paris to knock on the door steps of 40 degrees, which averages out to about 104 Fahrenheit.

London comes in at 37, which is about 100 Fahrenheit. Temperatures that frankly happen very, very rarely across this region. Even along the English Channel we had an observation there at 32 Celsius, that sits at around 91, 92 degrees Fahrenheit. So, an incredible heatwave in place with a 50 percent chance that will exceed 40 Celsius across portions of Manchester, that includes London -- that has never happen. A red warning across this region has also never been issued. The highest level of concern there for excessive heat. 80 percent chance we'll see record temperatures.

But you'll notice, the widespread coverage of heat here does begin to break down as early as Wednesday into Thursday. And we do think at least the northern tier gets a break here over the coming several days. So, London goes from that incredible run of heat back down into the 20s, which is in line with seasonal averages for this time of year and even a chance of rain showers there, come Friday afternoon.

Across the U.S. no such luck. We've had big-time heat, of course, across an expansive area of the Central United States. About 28 million Americans underneath heat alert with heat indices also into the lower 40s, which again, sits in line with about 105 to 110 degrees, depending on where you're tuned in from. And of course, this factors in the humidity. In the shaded there it feels this warm, and you'll notice, very little in the way of greens and the yellows and that is kind of where we're at here in the middle portion -- of the latter portion of July, Christina. And temps there in Chicago going up to 32 over the next few hours. So, incredible heat again across the Central and Midwestern U.S.

MACFARLANE: Yes, rain on the way in London. I welcome that news, Pedram, I hope you're right. But for now, sweltering temperatures there across the northern hemisphere, as you say. Barbie Nadeau there, thanks very much -- in Rome and Pedram, of course.

All right, a deepening crisis in Sri Lanka. A national public emergency has been declared whilst the country waits for Parliament to hold nominations for a new president. CNN's Will Ripley is there.

WILL RIPLEY, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: On the ground here in Colombo you understand the anger when you wait and one of the cues just to get fuel. Imagine waiting for 8 days to fill up your tank. That's next.

[04:40:00]

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MACFARLANE: Hello, welcome back. Now in the U.K. Conservative members of Parliament will vote in the coming hours to eliminate another candidate as Boris Johnson's successor. Right now, there are five Conservative contenders vying to be the next party leader and Prime Minister. Rishi Sunak has emerged as the frontrunner. But the contest has a long way to go. After Monday's vote members of Parliament will keep voting and eliminating the candidate with the least support until there are just two left. From there card-carrying members of the Conservative Party, about 200,000 people, will vote for Johnson's successor.

Now Sri Lanka's acting president has declared a nationwide public emergency. Ranil Wickremasinghe made the proclamation in the interest of public security after protests over the countries deepening economic crisis. This move comes as Parliament is set to hold nominations for a new president on Tuesday.

CNN's Will Ripley is following developments from Sri Lanka's capital city of Colombo and joins me now live. Will, it's good to have you on the ground there. And before we get to the situation on the ground and the people you've been speaking to, Will, we know the process of electing a new president has begun. And we know that current acting President Wickremasinghe has been nominated as a candidates by the ruling party. Shirley, well that's something Sri Lankan people are not going to stand for, given everything we've seen.

RIPLEY: Yes, exactly right, Christina, there's this real disconnect, it seems, between the Parliament, which is heavily stacked in favor of acting President Ranil Wickremasinghe becoming the present for the remainder of the exile president's term, you know, Rajapaksa -- Gotabaya Rajapaksa was the president. But his presidency ended when his residence, which is just a couple of blocks from where I'm standing, was stormed by more than 100,000 people. That's how big the crowd was out here.

[04:45:00]

People furious about the indignant way they have to live their lives when they're talking about these, you know, hours and days long queues for the basic necessities of life. We'll get to that in a moment.

But there is another large protest scheduled for tomorrow. Protesters wanting to make it very clear how they feel to the members of Parliament who will select the next president for Sri Lanka on Wednesday. And the people's power essentially is what caused the resignation of one unpopular president. Could this protest tomorrow be enough to shift the votes in Parliament and have them select somebody that people here feel can actually bring about badly needed change? That's the big question.

But that state of emergency needs police, like these officers here and security, military personnel can be deployed very quickly to suppress anything that is deemed to be unruly, not peaceful. And of course, occupying government buildings, setting the acting president's house on fire last weekend, which is what happened if you'll remember. Certainly, it might be motivation for these military officials and police to be dispatched. But the anger on the ground is really understandable when you stand in one of these queues. And we did -- we did that. We visited people who were waiting more than a week just to get fuel for their vehicles.

MACFARLANE: And Will, tell us a bit more then. You said you've been there on the ground for a couple of days. How is this political and economic turmoil affecting average people? You say there's though, they're queuing for fuel. What about food supplies, medical supplies?

RIPLEY: Well, if we have video -- I'm sorry, Christina, I thought we were going to roll a piece there that show you what we kind of experienced. So, let me just set the scene for you.

We had to drive around about three different gas stations in Colombo the other day just to find one that was open. OK. We could tell the gas station was open because there was a line of cars stretching several blocks and just kind of snaking around, you know, as far as the eye could see. This serpentine queue of tech talks, of motorcycles, Tatas, of cars, of larger vehicles that were commercial vehicles that are needed to deliver goods. And all of these, you know, were waiting, essentially, for this one gas station that was open to turn on the pumps. And when the pumps were turned on, we saw fights break out.

We interviewed a guy who just graduated from high school who has to trade, you know, days sleeping in the car with his dad. This is his summer after graduation and he's spending most of his nights sleeping in the car. He had to wait about eight days before he could fuel up the car. Because right when he got to the front of the line all the police officers moved in. And it's an unmarked vehicles they thought might be friends of the police officers or family members, they filled up. The place ran out of gas. They shut the pumps off. And then everybody just has to sit and wait for the gas queues to open again.

They have a phone chain to kind of let each know in shifts. You know, those that are sleeping there and waiting there all day, and let the other people know, hey, come back, get in your car moving forward, the lines moving. And it's the same situation for food. It's the same situation for medicine. You know, we saw a woman who was pregnant with a fever getting pushed by her husband and friends in a Tata to get to the hospital where she then had to wait for hours just to get medicine to help with her fever. That is the reality of life here. That's why the protests have been happening here. And we'll see what happens on the ground here tomorrow. And after Wednesday's vote in Parliament to select a new president.

MACFARLANE: Yes, I know you'll be across there watching for that us. Will, and as you say, just gives you an idea as to why people came out in the streets and have done what they've done. Why there has been so much unrest given what you have seen their. Will Ripley, thank you very much. There live from the capital of Colombo.

OK, still to come, parts of Asia overcome by new waves of COVID infections and sweltering heat. The latest on how they're trying to slow the spread and keep cool. After the break.

[04:50:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) MACFARLANE: COVID cases are on the rise in the U.S. as a highly transmissible BA.5 variant becomes dominant. According to John Hopkins University average daily cases have tripled over the past three months and the U.S. Health Department says hospital admissions due to COVID have surpassed 40,000 for the first time in about four months. The top COVID expert at the White House says our current tools like vaccinations, tests, and masking are still effective against this latest variance.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. ASHISH JHA, WHITE HOUSE COVID-19 RESPONSE COORDINATOR: DR. ASHISH JHA, WHITE HOUSE COVID-19 RESPONSE COORDINATOR: The public health science is very clear. If you're in a crowded indoor space, especially if it's poorly ventilated, wearing a mask reduces your risk of infection and reduces your risk of spreading it to others. So, we've got to continue to encourage people to do that.

We've been doing a lot to make testing widely available. So, a really good way of slowing down the spread. And then encouraging people to get, you know, vaccinated and get up to date on their vaccines.

And then obviously, as I said earlier, if you end up having a breakthrough infection, getting treated, because we don't want people ending up in the hospital. And treatments are working really well.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MACFARLANE: Well, Chinese officials are rolling out additional mass testing in parts of the country but COVID infections are on the rise. More than 500 new local cases reported on Monday, despite the adherence to a strict zero COVID policy Beijing has become known for enforcing. It comes as a sweltering heat wave is sweeping through the region.

Our CNN's Blake Essig joins me for more here from Tokyo. And Blake, this stifling heat, we're hearing temperatures of 40 degrees Celsius in cities, no doubt making this all the more difficult for this mass testing to happen.

BLAKE ESSIG, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, you know, China's healthcare system is already strained, Christina, and the extreme heat is not helping. The good news here is that temperatures are cooling, but it's still going to be hot for some days to come. That means that healthcare workers wearing full hazmat suits and millions of people who, at times, have been waiting outside in line for several hours in order to get tested for COVID will continue to endure extreme temperatures.

Now nationwide over the weekend more than 1,000 new locally transmitted cases were reported across country. At least 16 provinces have reported new local cases in the past two weeks. That includes the beach resort town of Beihai in southern China where a snap lockdown over the weekend has left more than 2,000 tourists stranded. In this region more than 500 cases have been reported in the past week.

[04:55:00]

As a result of a local government has lockdown parts of the city, ordered mass testing, banned residents from leaving their home, and shut down all entertainment venues.

In the special administrative region of Macau -- China's Las Vegas -- authorities have extended its ongoing lockdown and mass testing through Friday, meaning all nonessential businesses like casinos, have had their operations suspended.

And in Shanghai, many people are worried about another round of mass lockdowns after 17 new cases were identified in the past 24 hours. In an effort to stem community spread the city's government said that they will require more than 18 million residents across the city's 10 districts or 10 of the city districts and some smaller areas, to undergo two rounds of testing for COVID-19 over a three day period starting this week.

Whether it's daily testing or lockdowns, China's zero COVID strategy continues to impact people's lives and the economy. And there are some real concerns that it could get worse as a result of the Omicron subvariant BA.5, which is highly transmissible and possibly less protective against vaccines. So far, Christina, that subvariant has been detected in at least seven cities across China.

MACFARLANE: All right, Blake, well, we know you will continue to keep an eye on this. But for now, thanks very much for the latest update there from Tokyo.

OK, it may have taken 20 years to walk down the aisle. But Hollywood stars Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez have finally said I do. In a newsletter to fans, Lopez says the couple flew to Las Vegas for a small ceremony at a drive through chapel.

The actress and singer wrote in part, quote, love is beautiful, love is kind and it turns out love is patient.

The couple met filming a movie in 2001 and quickly became paparazzi magnets for much of the early 2000s. They announced their first engagement in 2002. Both Lopez and Ben Affleck have children from other marriages after their initial split in 2004. What a nice note to end it on.

That does it for CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Christina Macfarlane in London. Stay with us. "EARLY START" with Kristin Fisher is coming up next.

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