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Wildfires Ranging in Southern Europe Force Evacuations; Red Extreme Heat Warning Issued for Parts of U.K.; International Energy Agency Warns of Possible Winter Gas Crisis; Ukrainian Officials Suspended Over Suspected Staff Treason. Aired 1-2a ET
Aired July 19, 2022 - 01:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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JOHN VAUSE, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, everyone, you're watching CNN Newsroom. Coming up this hour, failing to prepare and preparing to fail. Why is much of Europe been so badly impacted and struggled to cope with days of extreme deadly heat, wildfires and drought.
Plus, the warming ties between Moscow and Iran with Russia's president traveling to Tehran to meet the supreme leader on the agenda Syria, combat drones and Ukraine's grain exports.
And Sri Lanka on it just Parliament accepts nominations for president. Why a new leader may not mean an end to the chaos and turmoil.
ANNOUNCER: Live from CNN Center, this is CNN Newsroom with John Vause.
VAUSE: Historic deadly heat scorching parts of Western Europe is paralyzing cities, fueling wildfires and droughts and pushing infrastructure from power grids to train tracks to the brink. In Spain fires force, the state Railway Company to suspend services between Madrid and Galicia. Passengers on board, this train in Zamora could see flames in the distance and looking at windows to the right and left. Fires have destroyed more than 70,000 hectares in Spain so far this year, which authority says double the average from the last decade.
Coming out as temperatures in England could reach a record breaking 40 degrees Celsius or higher, about 104 degrees Fahrenheit. Monday was the UK's third hottest day on record, melting tarmac, halted flights for a while at Luton Airport outside London but the runway has since reopened.
Temperatures set new records in Wales soaring above 35 degrees. And Ireland logged its worse heat in more than a century. Prince Charles says this hot spell so is how critical it is for the world for reaching net zero emissions.
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PRINCE CHARLES, PRINCE OF WALES: If I may say, so these commitments around Net Zero have never been more vitally important as we all swelter under today's alarming record temperatures across Britain and Europe. And as I've tried to indicate for quite some time, the climate crisis really is a genuine emergency and tackling it is utterly essential for Cornwall, the country and the rest of the world.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: U.K. has issued its most severe heat warning ever, more details on that from Barbie Nadeau.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BARBIE NADEAU, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: Londoners are trying to stay cool by splashing in the city's public pools or trying to catch a breeze in the park. It may look like fun, but there's a deadly side to the heat. The London Met Office issuing its first ever red heat warnings for parts of the country. That means likely risks to the health and safety of people.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Worried about the train being canceled, my trains already canceled. So I'm going to try and get on a different one and hope that it's not worked out. Hopefully I can.
NADEAU: London wasn't built for such extreme temperatures where the average high temperature for July is about 23 degrees Celsius. Less than 5% of homes in the U.K. have air conditioning and less than 40% of trains on the tube haven't either. Rail officials say they're cutting down on schedules to try not to overheat the tracks which could buckle in the heat.
KIT MALTHOUSE, CHANCELLOR OF DUCHY OF LANCASTER: We will learn over the next 48 hours about how the rail system copes with this kind of heat which it wasn't built to cope with. We will learn about how we deal, you know, as a community with heat.
NADEAU: The dangers of the heat are also being felt in southern Europe, parts of France, Spain, Portugal and Italy are battling to control large wildfires fueled by the record high temperatures baking the tinder dry countryside.
On Monday, Spain's Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez visited firefighters on the front lines and says climate change is to blame for the conditions. He says more than 70,000 hectares have already been destroyed in his country by recent wildfires, and says that's almost double the last decades average.
PEDRO SANCHEZ, SPANISH PRIME MINISTER (through translator): I want to say that evidently climate change kills, it kills people, kills our ecosystem. It also destroys the most precious goods of our society, which are affected by these wildfires, homes, businesses, livestock.
NADEAU: Residents of Catalonia are rushing to try to save those very things as fires reached the outskirts of their farms. Thousands of others have already been forced to move to evacuation centers.
[01:05:00] ONOFRE MUNOZ, EVACUEE (through translator): We know that our house is completely burned, our house had quite a few windows they exploded and a powerful flame came inside. We got some pictures in which we saw everything had burned.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: That report from Barbie Nadeau. CNN Meteorologist Pedram Javaheri is tracking the very latest on this heat crisis. He joins us now with the details. Pedram.
PEDRAM JAVAHERI, CNN METEOROLOGIST: You know, John, a few if your goal is to continue for at least another day across northern reach of Europe and as Barbie kind of noted to when it comes to London in particular, less than 5% of home have -- having access to air conditioning in U.K. as a whole, less than 1% of the entire country here has access to air conditioning, which is among the lowest for all of Europe. But notice, when you have this significant threat of exceeding temperatures that are up to 40 degrees with records potentially widespread across the region, you know, it's a serious situation.
In fact, just an hour after sunrise, the current temperatures set at 22 degrees, which is about one degree shy of where we should be into the afternoon for this time of year, the hottest time of year. So an incredible start to what is going to be a historic day across the region and pick your choice. This is the all-time record observations for some cities around portions from countries I should say around portions of western Europe. And for the U.K., it is 38.7 occurred back in 2019. And Cambridge, we think observations this afternoon could exceed that.
Notice just yesterday, we got to 37.8 by one degree shy of the all- time record right here on the English Channel at the jersey Airport. 20 what is average for this time of year, across that region.
Paris will aim for 41 this afternoon. London could get up to 38 degrees again, among the hottest temperatures ever observed. Notice when you kind of compare what's happening in London to different areas, even it's the Middle East shows you the severity of what's happening here. And of course, for folks in London, it is significantly above average, whereas in Tehran, it is in line with what you expect for this time of year.
Now, the good news, you do have a pretty significant change here. When it comes to temperature trend going in from Wednesday into Thursday, you get more of a marine influence here. As we transition from Wednesday to Thursday, much cooler temperatures still going to be above average around the northern tier of Europe. But notice we'll take 26 versus 38. In Paris 41 today, expecting a high of only 26 by tomorrow afternoon. So hang in there for a couple of days. And we'll kind of get out of this. But notice taking the picture out towards areas of the United States. We know significant heat also in place across areas of the central United States, in fact, widespread around the entirety of the U.S. the exception being the northwestern area of the United States where temps across areas of this region, John, could get up to 45 degrees Celsius. That is when you factor in the humidity, over 50 million Americans are underneath these excessive heat alerts as well, which again for their standard this is even impressive as well.
VAUSE: Impressive, yeah, I guess it is, in a way. Pedram, thank you. Pedram Javaheri there, we appreciate it. Thank you.
JAVAHERI: Thank you.
VAUSE: To Cambridge now, joining us is Mike Hulme, Professor of Human Geography at the University of Cambridge. Professor, thanks for your time.
MIKE HULME, PROF. OF HUMAN GEOGRAPHY, UNIV. OF CAMBRIDGE: You're welcome.
VAUSE: So this extreme weather, it's not a surprise. We knew it was coming. We know it's only going to get worse. Well, there has been a global failure to prevent climate change, it seems for the most part, we've also failed to prepare for life on a warming planet. So in terms of preparation, it seems is it a case of the longer we leave it, the more it's going to cost to the worst it'll be?
HULME: I think the first thing to say is that in many senses, human societies have always been unprepared for extreme weather, you know, floods, droughts, storms, heat waves, have always caused dislocation, death, and disaster. So in one sense, it's nothing new. There is no such thing as a perfectly adapted society, that good weather -- extreme weather, without any costs and damages. So I think we need that sort of historical perspective, first of all.
Second thing is that we have known that because of human influences on the climate system, now for at least 30 or 40 years, we've known this, that temperatures are going to increase heat waves are going to become more frequent. And so that requires not just efforts to reduce the human influence in the climate system, but increased efforts to figure out smart ways to minimize those risks and dangers. And that's all you can do, you can only minimize, you can never eliminate the threats and dangers and risks of extreme weather.
VAUSE: And one area which seems less than prepared, and this is kind of crucial is the energy sector, there's a surging demand for electricity, but the extreme heat is impacting the efficiency of the gas fired plants. Nuclear power plants are struggling to keep generators cool. Rivers are running low, and that's impacting hydroelectricity. So what needs to be done? And is it even possible to modify the existing infrastructure to operate under this constant extreme temperatures?
HULME: Well, this is an ISR (ph), isn't it that actually, you know, many of the same technologies that energy technologies that are driving human influence on the climate system R&D now those very same energy technologies that are being exposed -- their vulnerabilities are being exposed because of extreme heat and drought.
[01:10:10] And again, it's the same as I'd say about weather, there is no single source of energy that is entirely weatherproof. You know, if you've ever wind, you're exposed to the variations in wind, if you go to solar, you know, suddenly and as you mentioned, you know, whether it's hydro, whether it's nuclear, actually, in any sense, again, as a deep irony, the energy source that historically has fueled the last 150 years of modernity is actually the one that is perhaps most immune to weather extremes, which is actually cold.
Now, by no means, of course, are we reverting to coal. But we have to think more smartly here about the interaction between both the energies that were causing climate change through but also their vulnerabilities to the changes in climate that we consequently produce.
VAUSE: There's also the circular danger of rising temperatures caused by carbon emissions, which leads to a surge in electricity use to try and stay cool, which then results in increase in carbon emissions in way we go, is there any way of sort of short circuiting that spiral?
HULME: There are ways, there are smarter ways of designing buildings, and there are smarter ways of thinking about lifestyles, that would not require total dependence on air conditioning. And, you know, how you build buildings, whether through passive energy design, so that you actually make your buildings much more resistant to both extremes of heat and extremes are cold. But these are things that you can only do going forward. I mean, there's a huge housing stock, certainly in large parts of Europe, which is a relatively old infrastructure is certainly in our cities, that it's very, very difficult to retrofit for those, using those types of passive infrastructural design.
And Americans like Britain, you know, we've never really been a society with significant amounts of air conditioning, certainly not in the domestic sector. And temperatures like we're seeing at the moment, you know, 39, maybe touching 40 degrees today, you know, these certainly they're uncomfortable when they happen. But I would be cautious to sort of go down a route of widespread installation of air conditioning in domestic homes. The better way to deal with this is through lifestyle management.
VAUSE: Well, right now, in England, flights have been delayed because melting tarmac, train services have been cuddle slow, because the potential damage to heated train lines, and this list goes on, so how bad does it actually have to get before these measures to try and reduce the impact of extreme heat or extreme cold, are actually put into place before we start building to abort energy efficient homes, before we start putting, you know, painting roofs white, for example, which reflects heat rather than solving that kind of stuff?
HULME: Yeah, I think there are some sensible things, but we shouldn't just react in a knee jerk way to, you know, a couple of days of extreme heat like this. There are sensible things that requires long term planning. I mean, we have the same problem in the U.K. that we're not well adapted to extreme cold and winter, you know, all it takes is a couple of snow falls. And again, our transport systems, you know, quite quickly come to a standstill. The problem is society and this takes me back my very first point is that no society is perfectly adapted to all forms of extreme weather it can be exposed to, if we wanted to weatherproof our society in Britain, against both extreme heat and extreme cold, we'd have to be serving it spending an awful lot more of our resources on that weather proofing. And that may very well not be actually the most sensible way of using scarce resource.
So yes, there are smart things we can do. We can rethink about urban design, we can rethink about passive energy building infrastructure, we can think about lifestyle choices, but we shouldn't I don't think sort of go down the route of suddenly investing, you know, 10 times the amount of resource in order to try to weatherproof against extremes that are still and even in the next 10 or 20 years are still going to be relatively infrequent.
VAUSE: Professor, thank you for your time. It's good to see you, back in there. We appreciate your time. Thank you, sir.
HULME: Thank you.
VAUSE: For your heat wave comes a bit and energy crisis with warnings the next few months will be critical when it comes to the consumption of natural gas. As winter approaches and supplies from Russia remain doubt. CNN's Anna Stewart has our report.
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ANNA STEWART, CNN REPORTER: As the moment is spike in Europe, people are turning to air conditioning units which means the continent is using more energy at a time when it needs to be saving it up for the winter. The head of the International Energy Agency warned in a commentary Monday that while Europe has made progress on reducing its reliance on Russian energy it hasn't done enough, especially on the demand side, saying Europe needs to act now and every day counts.
[01:15:16]
Why now Europe's gas storage facilities are around two-thirds full according to gas infrastructure Europe? It's more than this time last year, and following the invasion of Ukraine, the E.U. now mandates that member states have these facilities 80% full before the winter. However, the IEA says that even if gas storage facilities were 90% full by October, so more than that mandate, the block could still face supply disruptions in the event of a complete ration cut off.
Meanwhile it is a critical week on whether Europe will find itself cut off from more Russian gas supplies. Nord Stream 1, a key Russian pipeline to Europe accounting for some 40% of Europe's Russian gas is currently offline for routine maintenance. It's due to be turned back on Thursday. However, there are concerns Russia won't. It's already slashed gas supplies by this pipeline by 60% in June, a move Russia said related to the delayed return of a turbine held up due to sanctions.
A spokesperson for Germany's economy and energy ministry has hinted that the turbines absence might not be the real reason for the cut in supplies, saying the turbine wasn't even supposed to be used until September.
The E.U. has accused Russia of using energy as a weapon. And while the block remains reliant on Russian energy, it's a weapon that threatens to cause severe economic damage and potential energy rationing come winter. Anna Stewart, CNN, London.
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VAUSE: Now to Ukraine, new weapons supplied by the West could potentially turn the tide of the war with Russia. Ukraine's military says in particular longer range artillery is now playing a critical role allowing fighters to hit targets behind Russian lines. That's especially so in the south where Ukrainian troops have been mounting counter offensive to disrupt Russian supply lines.
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VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY, UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT (through translator): The Armed Forces of our state managed to inflict significant logistical losses on the invaders. It is increasingly difficult for the Russian army to hold positions on the captured territory. Step by step we advance, disrupt supplies for the occupiers, identify and neutralize collaborators.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: To the east, Ukraine says its forces still fending off Russian advances in the Donetsk Region, a key target in Moscow's pushed to capture the entire Donbas. And neither is frontlines, Ukrainian officials say Russian shelling hit a two-storey building in the Toretsk killing at least five people, wounding several others.
To the west, Ukraine says Russian forces fired at least seven missiles at the port city of Odessa overnight, hitting homes and other civilian areas. Officials say at least six people were hurt, including a child.
Meantime, allegations of treason are fueling our government's shake up in Kyiv. On Sunday, Ukraine's President suspended two senior government officials saying they failed to purge Russian collaborators. CNN's Nic Robertson has a closer look at the fallout.
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NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: What is perhaps is the first indication of their domestic political honeymoon that President Zelenskyy has been enjoying since the Russians invaded back in February is beginning to end. You know, the country has been united politically. But these moves by the President calling for the suspension of the Prosecutor General and the security services. The SBU chief, there seems to signal a change there. The SBU chief suspension is perhaps coming as no surprise because most people here recognize they had been a political ally of the President or childhood friend of the President. He had no real security experience and had been heavily criticized for the Russia's quick gains in the south of the country.
The Prosecutor General, she has a much stronger profile in the country. And what's interesting about what President Zelenskyy has done, he initially directly called for their suspension and that's not constitutionally permissible. So it's gone back to Parliament who has the constitutional power here to hire and fire in those two positions and ask them for the suspension of the security chief. But so far, it seems Zelenskyy hasn't asked parliament to suspend the Prosecutor General, she's indicated that if Parliament asks her to step, ask her to step down, then she will. So it does seem to show that she is pushing back. But this is in transition at the moment, parliament is likely to follow through with what Zelenskyy has asked for the security chief at least. Nic Robertson, CNN, Kyiv, Ukraine.
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VAUSE: Vladimir Putin is only rare foreign trip visiting Tehran to meet with both Iranian and Turkish presidents in the coming hours. Their main focus is Syria but other topics will likely include Ukrainian grain exports, which are largely frozen due to Russia's naval blockade.
[01:20:13]
Turkish President, Recep Tayyip Erdogan has also renewed his threat to halt the bids from Finland and Sweden to join NATO.
Jill Dougherty is an adjunct professor at Georgetown University, a CNN contributor. And among her many titles, she's a former CNN Moscow Bureau Chief. She is with us this hour from the U.S. Capitol. Jill, good to see you.
JILL DOUGHERTY, ADJUNCT PROFESSOR, GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY: Hey, John, good to be here
VAUSE: OK. So it's a lot of -- a lot to watch for, as these three leaders gather in Tehran. But the big picture seems, is the meeting between the leaders of Russia and Iran and other scientists, the how the interests of both these countries which the U.S. has tried to isolate, are becoming increasingly aligned?
DOUGHERTY: Yeah, that's really a good point. Because, I mean, they do have a relationship. There's no question. And, you know, the ostensible reason or the basic reason for all three leaders, Turkey, Russia, and Iran, to be in Tehran, is Syria, because they're all part of what's called the Astana format, which is looking for some type of solution to Syria.
But I think you're right, you know, Iran -- the Ukraine situation has kind of changed the relationship somewhat, between Iran and Russia. And I think an important part of this that we're going to be looking at will be the economic part of it. I mean, the spokesperson for the Foreign Ministry of Russia, actually mentioned that in the context of the Ukrainian conflict, the Ukrainian war. And so you can see, I'm sure, they'll have a joint statement, as they say, after this, and there will probably be a lot of discussion about, you know, moving the relationship into a permanent relationship, not just a temporary type of security cooperation.
VAUSE: Yeah. And on the economic front, there's talk that, you know, Tehran, as well as Moscow could start doing trade in their own local currencies as a way of avoiding U.S. sanctions. There's also this potential deal for Iran to supply Moscow with combat drones. And that sparked concerns within the Biden administration. Here's the White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan, talking last week. Here he is.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JAKE SULLIVAN, NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISER: Our information indicates that the Iranian government is preparing to provide Russia with up to several hundred UAVs, including weapons-capable UAVs on an expedited timeline. Our information further indicates that Iran is preparing to train Russian forces to use the UAVs with initial training sessions slated to begin as soon as early July.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: How significant is this potential deal between Iran and Russia?
DOUGHERTY: I think it would be quite significant. It's extremely important, but it's complex. And that's why you have, you know, Russia saying no comment. And Iran saying no, that is not happening. So what would be very significant, because, number one, those are our sophisticated weapons, but Iran really hasn't exported them in any great capacity to other countries. So it would be -- that would be significant.
And then also the fact that Russia would turn to Iran, for weapons for these drones, you know, militarized drones, would be very important too, because obviously, they're not able to produce their own or enough of their own drones to do much of anything in Ukraine. So they need some assistance from the Iranians.
VAUSE: We're also seeing the presence of the Turkish's President, Recep Tayyip Erdogan. He's expected to hold your separate talks on the sidelines with the Russian president, in particular about the export of Ukraine grain, which is currently being prevented, being exploited by a naval blockade, by Russian naval blockade. Here's the E.U. Representative for Foreign Affairs at what's at stake.
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JOSEP BORRELL, E.U. HIGH REPRESENTATIVE FOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS: It's some issue of life and death for many human beings. And the question is that Russia has to be block and allow Ukrainian grain to be exported, although while we will have to continue claiming that they are using food as a weapon, without any kind of consideration for human being's life.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: There's some reporting out there that there's just a few minor issues left to resolve to open what is called a green corridor, allow exports from Ukraine. Is this all but a done deal at the moment?
DOUGHERTY: You know, it's looking very promising. And I went back and checked, you know, Putin actually was talking about this, going back to the end of May. But that's been a while and nothing has really happened. But behind the scenes, they have been working on this. The United Nations has been working on it as well. So the idea of this, John, would be as we know, Ukraine has not been able to export nearly as much as it did, you know, previous to the war beginning.
[01:25:03]
So what Erdogan is suggesting in the plan appears to be that there would be kind of a safe corridor that would go through the Black Sea and allow the green to get out, that would mean that Russia would have to stop, you know, we'd have to unblock, as we just heard from Mr. Borrell, unblock those ports.
Now, Russia claims is not blocking them at all. Russia says, you know, the Ukrainians are mining those ports that the Ukrainians are saying, indeed, they are blocked. And the Ukrainians do accuse the Russians of stealing the grain and taking it to other places like Crimea, and exporting it for their own sake, to make money and to export to other countries. So this is very sensitive.
And of course, you know, when you hear words like life and death for people around the world, it really is. I mean, there are this famine beginning in other countries that really depend upon this grain.
VAUSE: Yeah, this is about food crisis, a global food crisis. This is, you know, exports which are desperately needed right now. So, Jill, thank you. Thank you so much for being with us.
DOUGHERTY: Sure.
VAUSE: Still to come, in a CNN Exclusives, Sri Lanka's Acting President says, the previous government was covering up the full extent of the country's economic crisis.
Also head, COVID cases and temperatures on the rise of China. We're live in Beijing as officials a post mass Coronavirus restrictions amid a brutal heatwave, double whammy.
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VAUSE: Welcome back, the U.K. one step closer to having a new prime minister. Four candidates are left in the race to succeed Boris Johnson who's stepping down because of a series of scandals. On Monday lawmakers Tom Tugendhat was locked out of the contest after finishing last in the third round of voting by conservative members of parliament.
Rishi Sunak top the ballot with 115 votes. The fourth round of voting takes place in just a few hours from now. MPs will continue to vote to eliminate the candidates with the least support until there are just two left. From their card carrying members of the Conservative Party around the country about 200,000 people will vote for Johnson successor as party leader and by default, Prime Minister.
Right now, Sri Lanka's parliament is taking nominations for a new president amid growing turmoil across the country. There are currently three non-contenders vying to be the next president, will make this vote in a secret ballot and a new leader expected to be announced Wednesday.
Sri Lanka's ruling party is backing Ranil Wickremesinghe, who is serving as acting president after the previous president was forced to resign last week.
Sri Lanka's view Ranil Wickremesinghe as part of the political elite blamed for causing the current economic crisis and his nomination threatens to inflame an already volatile situation across the country. Demonstrations hit a tipping point earlier this month when protesters took over government buildings.
[01:29:52]
Now to an exclusive interview with Sri Lanka's acting president. He tells CNN's Will Ripley the previous government is covering up facts about the full extent of the countries financial crisis.
Here's more.
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WILL RIPLEY, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: What is your message to those who feel that your presidency is simply more of the same from the previous administration?
RANIL WICKREMESINGHE, ACTING SRI LANKAN PRESIDENT: No, I'm not the same. People know that. I'm not this administration. I came here to handle this one like I did in 2001 (INAUDIBLE).
RIPLEY: Do you think that the previous administration was telling the truth to the people of Sri Lanka?
WICKREMESINGHE: No.
RIPLEY: They were not.
WICKREMESINGHE: They were not.
RIPLEY: They were lying to the people.
WICKREMESINGHE: They are covering up facts.
RIPLEY: What were they covering up?
WICKREMESINGHE: That we are bankrupt. That we need to go to the IMF (INAUDIBLE).
RIPLEY: So what would you like to say to the people now truthfully as somebody who could very likely be their next president? WICKREMESINGHE: We'll tell the people I know what they are suffering. We are going back. We have to pull ourselves up by the bootstrap. But we can do it. We don't need five years, 10 years. By next year, let's start stabilizing and by the end of -- certainly by 2024, let's have a functioning economy, we should start growing export-oriented economy, a dynamic economy.
RIPLEY: What went wrong that got Sri Lanka to this point of crisis?
WICKREMESINGHE: Everyone was playing politics, not talking on the truth.
RIPLEY: We interviewed a man who pushes his son in a wheelchair to dialysis six kilometers each way five days a week. How about trips for (INAUDIBLE) costs went up by six times. What do you say to that father.
WICKREMESINGHE: I can understand what they're going through. And this is going to be the worst period, the protest that is taking place, occupation of houses, burning of houses, that's only adding to it.
RIPLEY: Do you believe that other buildings could be occupied again by protesters?
WICKREMESINGHE: I will not allow any building to be occupied by protesters.
RIPLEY: How will you stop that from happening?
WICKREMESINGHE: I have asked the police and our (INAUDIBLE).
RIPLEY: And they've been authorized to take any -- by any means necessary to prevent people from occupying?
WICKREMESINGHE: I just left to Congress -- I said protect it.
RIPLEY: You had your own home burned down.
WICKREMESINGHE: Yes. The furniture were mainly from my grandparents, my parents, their grandparents. I had a piano, 125 years old from my great grandmother, all destroyed.
RIPLEY: A lot of people would have that experience and say, that's it, I'm out. I don't want to do this anymore. Why do you want to be president and put -- make yourself potentially a target for this kind of thing.
WICKREMESINGHE: I don't want this happening in this country again. What happened to me I don't want others to suffer. There has to be law and order in the country.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: That was Sri Lanka's acting president speaking exclusively to CNN's Will Ripley. When we come back, families of victims of the Uvalde, Texas school shooting demanding accountability after a damning report on the police response. Details in a moment.
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VAUSE: Welcome back everyone. I'm John Vause. You're watching CNN NEWSROOM.
China has reported almost 700 new local COVID cases on Tuesday, the most since May. With the Omicron sub variant BA.5 spreading nationwide, many cities under a full or partial lockdown. All this as temperatures soar to as high as 42 degrees Celsius. There it is -- the number of cases.
CNN's Selina Wang joins me now from Beijing with the very latest. And you know, we know that these partial lockdowns or this whole lockdown conditions are pretty miserable at the best of times. But when you're stuck inside, quite often these homes don't have air conditioning, they don't have fans, and life is pretty miserable with another layer on top of it.
SELINA WANG, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, John. And actually if you were in mandatory government quarantine, especially for international travelers, actually many of those government quarantine hotels do not even allow you to turn on air conditioning. It's against the rules.
So yes, this heat wave plus China's zero-COVID policy towards COVID, this is a double whammy on people's daily lives, it's a double whammy for the economy.
Now, right now, more than 50 cities, they have issued an orange level alert for high temperatures. That follows last week when more than 80 cities had issued a red level alert for high temperatures. That means they expected temperatures to exceed more than 104 degrees Fahrenheit.
All of this coming as China is reporting a surging number of COVID cases, nearly 700, the highest daily number since May. And those snap lockdowns continue which is ruining some people's summer holidays.
For instance just this past weekend, thousands of people were trapped in the resort town in Beihai City (ph), this is a very popular summer destination. Authorities ordered that testing and for people to stay in their homes. And many cities are still requiring residents to do regular mass testing.
Here in Beijing, just this past weekend, in 99 degree weather, I was standing in a very long line waiting for my COVID testing. We saw people put up their umbrella, holding ice cold water. Some people just stooping on the side of the road because they couldn't take the heat anymore.
All of this is very, very tough on these COVID workers who are standing outside for long hours frequently wearing full body head to toe hazmat suits. And there have been increasing reports of COVID workers collapsing due heat stroke, due to this unbearable heat. And some of them have gotten creative with some viral images of them hugging giant ice cubs or scrapping these ice cold snack popsicle packs on top of their hazmat suits.
Now this of course is also bad news for China's economy. This is bad for crops (ph) and it threatens to further push up inflation. Authorities have said this heat wave could have an adverse effect on corn, wheat and soy bean production. We've already seen significant increases in the price of pork because of rising prices of feed.
So for an economy that's already been battered by the pandemic, by zero-COVID, this heat wave only makes it worse, John.
VAUSE: Absolutely, Selina. Thank you. Selina Wang there live for us in Beijing where it's going to be hot.
Well, the U.S. now has five labs capable of testing for monkey pox. At the start of the outbreak the only test from the CDC were available.
And the CDC says more than 13,000 cases of monkey pox have been detected in at least 69 countries. Experts continue to recommend limiting sexual partners and prolonged skin to skin contact to reduce the risk of transmission.
After nearly two months -- after a mass shooting rather which left 21 dead, Uvalde's school board met with students to hear their concerns about returning to the classroom. Listen to the sister of one of the victims.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JAZMIN CAZARES, SISTER OF UVALDE SHOOTING VICTIM: How am I supposed to come back here? I'm going to be a senior. How am I supposed to come back to your school? What are you guys going to do to make sure I don't have to watch my friends die? What are you going to do to make sure I don't have to wait 77 minutes bleeding out on my classroom floor just like my little sister did?
I know there's nothing you can do to bring my sister back, but maybe -- maybe if you do something to change this, you can prevent the next family from losing their child.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: Meantime, the school district has announced new security measures -- they did that at that meeting. And that includes buying eight-foot high, non climbable fencing for some schools. The district superintendent added that it's also considering a virtual (INAUDIBLE) for students to return to class.
Families of Uvalde shooting victims are demanding accountability after the release of a preliminary report on the police response. It was damning.
CNN's Rosa Flores has more. [01:39:56]
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ROSA FLORES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: New body-cam video --
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Shots fired. Get inside.
FLORES: -- offering a new perspective of law enforcement's failed response to the Uvalde school shooting.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What are we doing here?
FLORES: Officers sounding unsure what to do about 20 minutes after the first shot as they wait for backup. For the first time, we see school district police chief Pete Arredondo hunkered down with other officers in a hallway.
PETE ARREDONDO, UVALDE SCHOOL DISTRICT POLICE CHIEF: Let me know if there's any kids in there or anything?
FLORES: He tries to speak to the gunman who had already fired his first shot more than 30 minutes before.
ARREDONDO: This could be peaceful.
Could you tell me your name? Anything I can know please?
FLORES: Moments later, another body cam reveals a 9-1-1 dispatch relaying to officers a chilling call from a student inside the classroom.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We do have a child on the line. He is in the room full of victims -- full of victims at this moment.
FLORES: Remember Chief Arredondo did not have his police radio in the hallway telling the Texas Tribune, he was unaware of the dispatch report.
Six minutes later, he's seen trying keys to open an adjacent door, none of which appear to work.
Minutes later, more gunfire. But the police posture is again to hunker down, as Arredondo attempts to speak to the gunman.
ARREDONDO: Sir, if you can hear me, please put your firearm down, sir. We don't want anybody else hurt.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We got kids in --
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I know. I know.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That's what we're doing, we're trying to get them out.
FLORES: The video was released by the Uvalde mayor just as the Texas houses committee released a damning interim report Sunday on the law enforcement response calling it chaotic, lackadaisical, without any person obviously in charge.
In that report Arredondo offered this as part of an explanation to the committee. "When there's a threat, you have to visibly be able to see the threat. You have to have a target before you engage your firearm. Getting fired at through the wall coming from a blind wall. I had no idea what was on the other side of that wall. I never got to physically see the threat or the shooter."
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There were cowards that day.
FLORES: The report angering Uvalde residents and victims families.
Jesus Rizo who says he's like an uncle to Jacklyn Cazares releasing this video of the two while telling CNN he wants accountability at the top.
JESUS RIZO, FAMILY FRIEND OF JACKIE CAZARES: They stood there as people bled out. They stood there as they took their final breath.
FLORES: Uvalde's mayor announcing shortly after the report came out the acting chief of the Uvalde police department was put on administrative leave.
MAYOR DON MCLAUGHLIN, UVALDE, TEXAS: You are assuming there's a cover up. Well, let me put it this way. This has been the worst professionally-run investigation that -- I mean I've never seen anything of this magnitude.
FLORES: According to Texas Department of Public Safety, the ongoing criminal and the key word here is "criminal" -- the ongoing criminal investigation includes the examination of the actions of law enforcement on that ill-fated day.
Rosa Flores, CNN -- Uvalde, Texas.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: Still to come, Russian-born, Russian-raised, now fighting for Ukraine. Why Putin's war of choice forced a Russian soldier to take up arms with the Ukrainians against his countrymen.
[01:43:11]
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
VAUSE: Nearly five months since Russia's war on Ukraine, there had been a number of stories of foreign fighters choosing to take up arms to help the Ukrainians.
Now CNN's Scott McLean has the story of a Russian soldier disillusioned with the Putin regime now fighting alongside Ukrainians to defend their country.
A warning some of the images you're about to see are graphic. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SCOTT MCLEAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: These are Ukrainian troops striding past the burnt out remains of Russian tanks in March.
"The resorts of Ukraine are waiting for you, one of the hottest tours," shouts Stepan Kaplunov (ph), a soldier shooting the helmet cam footage.
In another video, he's heard arranging transport for a wounded comrade pulled out of the line of fire. Later they narrowly miss (INAUDIBLE) incoming around.
None of this is uncommon for a frontline Ukrainian soldier. What's uncommon is that Kaplunov is Russian. He showed us his identification to prove it.
We met Kaplunov at a rehab center for soldiers on the outskirts of Kiev where he's recovering after being hit by Russian tank fire. He was defending the eastern suburbs of the capitol.
STEPAN KAPLUNOV, RUSSIAN SOLDIER FIGHTING FOR UKRAINE: I remember that I (INAUDIBLE) and my ears were bleeding. (INAUDIBLE) had damage to some internal organs, and a shrapnel wound in my eyes. So when I came for my senses, after a few seconds, I could not see anything.
I tried to crawl away and wanted to blow myself up with a grenade to avoid being taken prison.
MCLEAN: He wanted to die because he says, if caught, he would have been tortured, killed or imprisoned.
This month, the Russian parliament passed the treason law explicitly banning its citizens from fighting with foreign armies against Russia, punishable by up to 20 years in prison.
Kaplunov was born in Ivanovo, about 150 miles north east of Moscow. He says he joined the Russian military and even served in Syria. He says he was never a fan of the Putin regime but never felt compelled to leave until 2014, when Russia invaded Ukraine.
KAPLUNOV: Well, I'm not going to say hundred percent of my maturation (ph) was exactly justice. There is some predisposition in people. People who I could learn to remove safe and I wanted to put my new (INAUDIBLE) skills for good use. I thought we're right and deserve to be felt.
MCLEAN: His decision cost him some friends back home and earned him the ire of the Russian state. The Russian government's official newspaper listed him among hundreds of people suspected of terrorism or extremist activities. He says, he fought with different unites of the Ukrainian military since he arrived eight years ago beginning with the Azov Battalion which at the time, was associated with white supremacist and even embraced Neo-Nazi emblem.
He openly described himself as a Ukrainian nationalist but insists he is no white supremacist or neo-Nazis. He proudly sports a born to kill tattoo and another with a German phrase, but also linked to Third Reich. Victory or death.
That's my motto in life, he says. But in 2019, a pro-Russian blog claims he has a swastika tattoo on his chest which he denied but refused to prove it.
KAPLUNOV: I don't want pull myself off but I DON'T have the statues.
MCLEAN: Have you ever had.
KAPLUNOV: No. I don't need to prove anything to anyone.
MCLEAN: His case I. His case illustrates the complex realities of this war and the ideological and propaganda war being waged in parallel to the real life battlefield. Russia has sought to justify its invasion by magnifying a small minority of far-right extremists in Ukraine while Ukraine has also accused Russians of being racists and Nazis.
Extremist or not, Kaplunov knows he can never return to Russia, nor can he go back to the front lines. But he says that when his wounds finally heal that's exactly where he's going.
Scott McLean, CNN -- Kyiv.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
[01:49:51]
VAUSE: Still to come on CNN, Steve Bannon's contempt trial begins this week as the January 6th committee prepares for another blockbuster public hearing. Details from Washington in a moment.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
VAUSE: Jury selection is now underway in Steve Bannon's trial for contempt of Congress. Long-time ally and former senior adviser to one- term president Donald Trump is now willing to testify to the January 6 House Committee investigating the insurgent attack on the Capitol.
But Bannon still faces criminal charges for his failure to comply with an earlier subpoena.
CNN's Jessica Schneider has details.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JESSICA SCHNEIDER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Steve Bannon's criminal trial for contempt of Congress finally beginning with jury selection after his lawyers tried repeatedly to delay and Bannon made a last minute offer to testify before the January 6th Committee.
Prosecutors saying his late offer would not make up for the near year he's refused to comply with the committee's subpoena. The trial will likely last just a few days. Bannon has pleaded not guilty to two counts of criminal contempt of
Congress but if he is convicted, Trump's former chief strategist would face a mandatory minimum of 30 days in jail for each count.
CAROLINE POLISI, CRIMINAL DEFENSE ATTORNEY: It will set a precedent that look, you know, they can hold this (INAUDIBLE) and it will set an example. If you just continue to flout us we will prosecute you.
SCHNEIDER: Bannon's defense options are limited. The judge won't let his legal team call members of congress to testify, and Bannon will be restricted from bringing up claims of executive privilege. The judge's strict parameters even prompted Bannon attorney David Shone to exclaim, "what's the point of going to trial here if there's no defense."
And his lawyers won't say whether Bannon will take the stand in his own defense.
SHAN WU, FORMER FEDERAL PROSECUTOR: There is little to be gained, defense lawyers don't like their clients to testify. But he likes to have a platform.
SCHNEIDER: Bannon's trial is especially important for the January 6 committee as they negotiate with additional witnesses to testify. The latest public hearing will happen Thursday night in prime time and it's expected to focus on President Trump's alleged dereliction of duty and the three plus hours during the Capitol attack when he was at the White House but didn't call for the violence to stop.
REP. ELAINE LURIA D-VA): We'll go through pretty much minute by minute during that time frame from the time he left the stage at the Ellipse, came back to the White House and really sat in the White House in the dining room, you know, with his advisors urging him to (INAUDIBLE) to take action, to take more action.
REP. ADAM KINZINGER (R-IL): The president didn't do very much but gleefully watch television during this time frame. We're going to present a lot more than that.
SCHNEIDER: The committee is also expecting to hear more from the secret service about the missing text messages from January 5th and 6th. The committee issued a subpoena to the secret service late Friday night after the inspector general met with committee members to complain that the Secret Service had erased text from those two dates.
The Secret Service had disputed that the erasure was malicious and instead chalked it up to a routine phone replacement program. But the committee is pressing for more answers.
KINZINGER: It is quite crazy that the Secret Service would actually end up deleting anything related to one of the more infamous days in American history particularly when it comes to the role of the Secret Service.
SCHNEIDER: And there still are a lot of questions about those missing text messages and if they'll even be able to be recovered. Committee member Kinzinger says they aren't 100 percent sure if the texts still exist from January 5th and 6th especially because the IG hasn't gotten access to them.
[01:54:58]
SCHNEIDER: But the Secret Service is expected to at least respond to the subpoena giving some explanation or even possibly producing the text some time Tuesday.
Jessica Schneider, CNN -- Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: CNN is reporting former deputy national security adviser Matthew Pottinger will be testifying before the January 6th Committee on Thursday. Pottinger resigned in the immediate aftermath of the insurrection. He will be joined by former White House deputy press secretary Sara Matthews who also resigned after the riot.
CNN will have complete coverage of the hearing on Thursday, blockbuster night. Don't miss. Set your DVR.
Brazil's president is renewing his attack on the country's electronic ballots ahead of the presidential election set for later this year. In a meeting with foreign ambassadors on Monday, Jair Bolsonaro went on a tirade, casting doubt on the safety of electronic voting system as well as the justices who will oversee the vote.
The very far right wing leader, the man called the Trump of the tropics has repeatedly attacked Brazil's electoral system as is official since becoming prime minister -- or president.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JAIR BOLSONARO, BRAZILIAN PRESIDENT: In Brazil, there is no way to follow the counting. I don't know what the foreign observers are doing here. What are they going to do? What are you going to observe?
The systems has failed according to the TSE itself. We want to correct mistakes. We want transparency. We want real democracy. Now I am being accused all the time by Barrosso (ph), Rashim (ph), Alexander Morales (ph) as a person who wants to stage a coup.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: Just for the record, officials say President Bolsonaro is making allegations with no basis in reality. There is no record of fraud in Brazil's history of using electronic ballots. Sounds familiar.
Well the record heatwave in the U.K. did not stop Britain's annual Swan census. It's an 800 year old tradition counting the Queen's swans. That began on Monday.
So called Swan Uppers, for the next few days on the River Thames, checking the swans' health and rate. It dates back to the 12th century when the Crown claimed ownership of all swans, these swans apparently, which are then considered a delicacy, often served at banquets.
These days swan upping is not just ceremonial but it's an important part of wild life conservation. Swans.
Thank you for watching CNN NEWSROOM. I'm John Vause.
CNN NEWSROOM continues with my friend and colleague, Lynda Kinkade after a short break. See you right back here tomorrow.
[01:57:30]
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