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Record-Breaking Heat Scorching Much of Western Hemisphere; U.K. Endures Its Hottest Day Ever as Homes Catch Fire; Raging Wildfires Ravage Parts of Southern Europe; Biden Expected to Announce Plans to Tackle Climate Change; House Select Committee Wants Secret Service Missing Text Messages; Sri Lanka's Parliament Elects Wickremesinghe as Next President. Aired 4-4:30a ET

Aired July 20, 2022 - 04:00   ET

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

[04:00:00]

CHRISTINA MACFARLANE, CNN ANCHOR: Hello and a warm welcome to our viewers joining us in the United States and all around the world. I'm Christina Macfarlane in for Max Foster here in London. Just ahead --

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The weather pattern that happened yesterday when this fire grew so large so quickly it's happening again today.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We have almost double the number of days with a heat index over 90 degrees.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Key secret service text messages from the day before and the day of the Capitol attack are still missing.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We got one text message.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The Secret Service, however, has maintained that they have been fully comply compliant.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Netflix lost 970,000 subscribers. But that's being heralded as good news.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're seeing the end of the era of infinite content.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MACFARLANE: Hello and welcome, it's Wednesday, July 20th, 9:00 a.m. here in London, 3:00 a.m. in the Central U.S.

A global heatwave is scorching the northern hemisphere with hundreds of millions of people enjoying record breaking temperatures. And while world leaders debate on what do about climate change, the torrid hot spell isn't letting up. It's harming public health, buckling infrastructure and fueling deadly wildfires.

In the U.S. at least several cities have appointed so-called heat officers to help people stay safe. Right now, more than 100 million Americans are under extreme weather alerts. And 265 million are facing temperatures upwards of 90 degrees Fahrenheit which is 32 in Celsius. Central plain cities in Oklahoma and Texas are getting the worst of it, they could see 115 degrees. And in many areas people are doing whatever they can to cool down. Boston has already declared a heat emergency and in Toronto, Canada, swimming pool hours are being extended until almost midnight.

Those who can are cranking up the air conditioning and that's putting enormous strain on some of the power grids. Texas set a new record for energy demand on Tuesday and yet another is expected today. But further west in Arizona, thousands of people lost power due to strong storms and the communities affected were dealing with temperatures of around 108 degrees Fahrenheit. Authorities there distributed ice and opened cooling stations, much of the relief to overheated residents.

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DELORIS MARTINEZ, ARIZONA RESIDENT: It felt so good. It felt so good. I can't be out in the heat too much because I get really nauseated. And since we've been here, it's been really nice.

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MACFARLANE: Well, the southwestern U.S. is a hot spot for wildfires. A number of them are already tearing through Texas due to the ongoing drought and extreme heat.

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ADAM TURNER, TEXAS A&M FOREST SERVICE: Be careful with sparks, be careful with any kind of fire if you are outside. Follow burn bans. So that's the biggest thing is help us just lower the number of fires that we have so that we can have the time to recuperate and really handle what's out here.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MACFARLANE: Now to Europe where the high temperatures won't break until mid-next week, that's according to the World Meteorological Organization. But the U.K. will thankfully calm down in the coming hours after setting an all-time record on Tuesday of 104 degrees Fahrenheit or 40 degrees C. That set off a surge of fires in the London area, some spreading to homes. Officials warn that because the ground is tinderbox dry, any spark can lead to flames.

Meanwhile 21 European countries are under heat alerts that stretch as far east as Poland. And in southwest France, wildfires have spread the size -- twice the size of Paris. Now the French president is expected to survey the devastation later today. In tens of thousands of people been forced to flee their homes.

And in the outskirts of Athens, hundreds of firefighters are trying to contain a large wildfire. Power has been cut in several areas with hospitals on high alert.

Meantime in China, at least 31 cities have issued high temperature alerts Wednesday, but rain showers in the days ahead could bring some relief to areas in the south. Meteorologists say it won't last long though with temperatures above 35 degrees Celsius or 95 degrees Fahrenheit to return closer to the weekend.

[04:05:00]

Goodness me. Well, we have reporters around the world covering this historic heat. Barbie Nadeau is in Rome for us, Nina dos Santos in London. But first let's head to CNN Weather Center where meteorologist Pedram Javaheri is tracking the latest temperatures. And Pedram, we're seeing one-third of the U.S. population getting hit by heatwaves right now.

PEDRAM JAVAHERI, CNN METEOROLOGIST: It's incredible. Yes, one in three people dealing with this sort of heat. And you know, we're not just talking about the extreme heat, it is the humidity that's factored in across some of the areas because the human body has evolved to fantastically adapt to being able to offset extreme temperatures, extreme heat, where you sweat, that sweat evaporates off your skin and you cool off and that kind of is your method of cooling your body down.

But when it's humid outside as it's across portions of Texas and into areas of Oklahoma as well, of course the sweat just sits on your skin, it doesn't evaporate much, so you can getting very little relief, losing quite a bit of fluids and it becomes a very dangerous scenario.

In the shade in Wichita Falls, Texas, a record 115 degrees not factoring in the humidity. Besting a record from 2018 of 112 degrees. And you'll notice, Oklahoma City into Albuquerque, Houston, Texas, Colorado Springs, Colorado, all temperatures that were in line about 100 to 110 degrees. So, were talking about say 37 to 45 degree range here across some of these areas.

Again, here is the coverage map and you'll notice the entirety of the state of Texas, portions of the state of Oklahoma, Kansas as well, all of these regions dealing with the excessive conditions and these temperatures that are just a little bit of relief here in the 24 hour span. Dallas goes from 108 down to 95 degrees and then notice what happens, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, we go right back up above 100, again closing in on that 40 degree Celsius mark here. So, temps exceeding what is normal for this time of year even moving forward beyond next week.

Now some of that energy will want to shift farther toward the east and yes, the Northeastern United States of course, most densely populated corner of the United States, also has heat alerts here those heat indices to feel above 100 to 110 in a new spots. And Boston, New York City, Philadelphia are all included here where of course humidity also plays a role in these conditions.

New York City, notice it just stays there over the next seven days, Christina. And this is a concern here this long duration setup with excessive temperatures impacting a lot of people across the United States. MACFARLANE: Yes, and as you said, Pedram, on top of that humidity

making it all the worse. Thanks for now. Let's turn to Nina in London. And Nina, we saw record temperatures here in the U.K. yesterday, truly uncomfortable. But also dangerous in a country that doesn't have the infrastructure to cope.

NINA DOS SANTOS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, that's right. And what infrastructure has been tested in particular is the fire brigade. Because London had to contend with a number of wildfires spreading across all corners of the capital. Largely on the outskirts of the city yesterday evening.

And I'm here in Wennington in east London about three or four miles away from the center of town, not that far away, where authorities had to contain a huge fire that destroyed 90 acres of scrub land, farmland, two rows of terrace houses, a number of other semidetached to detached dwellings and 12 stables as well. It's a miracle that nobody was hurt.

I've been speaking to a local resident who was actually one of the first people to spot the fire. It was his son who called the authorities. And Tim Stock, he is a 66-year-old grave digger, told me that he'd noticed that there was a compost heap in his neighbor's garden that was adjoining his property that spontaneously appeared to have ignited in that 40.3 degree head yesterday afternoon. And very quickly he realized that even though this type of thing had happened a few years before, the conditions were different, there was wind, the land was tinderbox dry, as you said. And even though he and his son rushed out with hose pipes and buckets, after five minutes they realized they were fighting a losing battle, their home was being destroyed, all of homes their neighbors' homes have been destroyed. And he arrived wearing the clothes that he had to evacuate in just a moment or so ago to speak to us here at this site.

Now, as you can see behind me, the police cordoned does remain quite wide. The village of Winnington, which is about 300 people strong is about half a mile in that direction behind me, and although the flames have now finally been put out yesterday evening, there is real concern that this has been a big wake-up call for the United Kingdom. Never before have we seen temperatures in excess of 40 degrees Celsius, more than 104 degrees Fahrenheit. And there's stress on the government and pressure now to try to make sure that authorities are better prepared for heatwaves like these because of the dangerous consequences -- Christina.

MACFARLANE: Yes, Nina, I'd say there was a degree of shock yesterday that the temperatures could reach that high. Thank you for now. I just want to turn to Barbie who is in Rome. And Barbie, you heard Nina saying there that we saw fires break out here in the U.K. yesterday, but on the continent the reality is it has been far worse.

BARBIE NADEAU, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: That's absolutely right.

[04:10:00]

We've got fires spreading across France and Spain, there are fires in the north of Italy right now. And these firefighters are working under incredibly intense conditions. It's very, very hot here. You know, the record that you hit in the U.K. is something that we've been seeing on a daily basis here across southern Europe. And it's just getting worse. And, you know, we're expecting into next week before the temperatures break here causing a lot of distress for a lot of different people especially the vulnerable, elderly who just can't seem to get any relief.

MACFARLANE: Yes, especially the vulnerable as you say, I mean, the elderly and children as well, and of course are suffering. Barbie, thank you. And thanks to Nina and Pedram as well.

All right. U.S. President Biden is expected to announce new actions to tackle climate change in the coming hours while the exact plans aren't yet known, it may be a tall task to get them approved with lawmakers split on the subject. CNN's Jeff Zeleny has more from the White House.

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JEFF ZELENY, CNN CHIEF U.S. NATIONAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: President Biden traveling to Massachusetts on Wednesday to make the case that the administration is still intent on trying to address climate change. This comes in the wake of this dramatic setback in the U.S. Senate when West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin effectively torpedoed the administration's efforts to address global warming through a sprawling economic package that would effectively tax billions of dollars trying to impose climate change. But the White House is now going to take executive action stopping just short of issuing a national climate emergency but the president will start do that on Wednesday.

KARINE JEAN-PIERRE, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: The impact of extreme weather are intensifying across the globe including here in the United States. No one is immune from climate change. It's why the president has been rallying the world to take the decisive action needed in this decade to tackle the climate change -- the climate crisis. It's also why the president is committed to taking aggressive action to tackle climate change and made clear if the Senate won't act, he will.

ZELENY: Even though the White House says this is a priority, the question is what is the credibility of the U.S. around the world on climate change. Because of the setback in Congress, which is narrowly controlled by Democrats, the U.S. simply will not reach its climate goals. Global warming is all around us. We of course can see the extraordinary temperatures here in the U.S. and indeed around Europe and the world. The White House is drawing a link between all of that, which is why the president is taking steps to do some executive actions on climate change. The question will that even scratch the surface of the global crisis.

Jeff Zeleny, CNN, the White House.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MACFARLANE: New details now on the investigation into the U.S. Capitol riot. The Secret Service says it's not yet recovered any of the missing text messages from the -- that the January 6 Committee has requested. But the agency did provide one text exchange to the homeland security inspector general according to a letter to the committee obtained by CNN. The committee wants text messages from January 5 and 6 of last year. But the Secret Service says the agency went through a phone migration at the time. So, any record employees didn't save were likely lost. Much to the dismay of the committee members.

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REP. ZOE LOFGREN (D-CA): In their letter, they gave no indication that they secured the phones in question and done some forensic work with them, that's something we want to know. This obviously, this doesn't look good and so, you know, coincidences can happen, but, you know, we really need to get to the bottom of this and get a lot more information than we have currently. And again, I mean, we don't want to overthink this. January 16th, they were told to preserve everything and within a week or two, they allowed it to be destroyed. So that's very problematic.

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MACFARLANE: Well, despite the missing texts, the Secret Service did provide thousands of documents and other records to the committee Tuesday in response for last week's subpoena. The agency says it will continue to work with the committee's investigators.

Meanwhile day two of former Trump adviser Steve Bannon's contempt of Congress trial wrapped up Tuesday with opening statements and the first witness testimony. CNN's Ryan Nobles has the details.

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RYAN NOBLES, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Steve Bannon's trial is under way, the former Trump adviser is facing a criminal contempt of Congress charge for his defiance of a subpoena issued by the January 6 Select Committee. Now Bannon has tried every which way to either prevent this trial from happening at all or at least delaying it. And the judge in the case just not buying it and as a result, the trial is off and running.

[04:15:00]

Opening statements took place on Tuesday and the government laying out a very specific case, that Steve Bannon was asked to hand over documents and sit for a deposition with the January 6 Select Committee and he refused to do so and he did not have the legal ability to refuse to do so.

Now, Bannon is trying to say this is all about politics, that the committee is not have enough equal representation between Republicans and Democrats and this is just an effort to try to taint the former President Donald Trump. It will be interesting to see which way the jury goes, but it's clear that the trial is going to happen despite Bannon's best efforts to prevent it from happening. After the trial took place, he went after the House Select Committee

Chairman Bennie Thompson saying that Thompson should have been there at the trial on that day and that he and his attorneys should have the right to cross-examine him.

Now, as for the January 6 Select Committee, they want to know where the text messages are, they are just imploring the Secret Service to explain what happened to a batch of text messages on January 5 and January 6 that the DHS inspector general claims were deleted during a device management program.

Now, Secret Service is trying to figure out whether or not these texts ever existed. They are not even 100 percent sure that the agency ever uses text messages to communicate about their movements and the work that they are doing. Regardless, the committee has said that they are going to continue to push for answers. It's part of why they issued a subpoena for a broad range of documents.

And now the National Archives are getting involved. They've asked the Secret Service to explain why these text messages no longer exist. They've given them 30 days to comply. This is a serious request by the National Archives. It is against the law to destroy federal records. If they are not satisfied with the response that the Secret Service gives them, they could hand this matter over to the Department of Justice.

Ryan Nobles, CNN, on Capitol Hill.

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MACFARLANE: And be sure to catch the hearing here on CNN. It set to begin at 8:00 p.m. in New York and Washington, that's 1:00 a.m. Friday here in London.

Well in the U.S. state of Georgia, prosecutors are looking in to Donald Trump's efforts to overturn the 2020 election say 16, quote, fake electors who try to subvert the Electoral College are targets of a criminal investigation. Letters are an indicator that the Fulton County district attorney's investigation into fake electors scheme is ramping up. Its alleged phony electors in Georgia and other battleground states were part of a Trump backed plan to replace president-elect's Joe Biden's legitimate electors during the joint session of Congress on January 6 when lawmakers certify the results of the Electoral College.

Now Sri Lanka's Parliament has just elected the country's new president. CNN's Will Ripley is live in Colombo for us after the break.

Plus, Netflix loses nearly a million subscribers in the second quarter. So, why is this being heralded as a win? That they had on CNN NEWSROOM.

[04:20:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) MACFARLANE: Welcome back. We're turning now to a grim report here in the U.K. on the country's inflation. The consumer price index has jumped to its highest level in 40 years rising to 9.4 percent last month. The increase was driven by higher cost for food and energy and transport costs are up as well. Right now, food prices in Britain are up almost 10 percent from last year.

And this as the race to select Britain's next Prime Minister is now in full swing with a fifth round of voting planned in the coming hours. Right now, three candidates are vying to succeed Boris Johnson. Rishi Sunak is leading the pack followed by Penny Mordaunt and Liz Truss.

Meantime, Mr. Johnson chaired his final cabinet meeting Tuesday before he stands down as the Prime Minister. MPs will keep voting until there are just two candidates left. From there card-carrying members of the Conservative Party, about 200,000 people will vote for Mr. Johnson's successor as party leader. And by default, Prime Minister.

And more than a dozen Democratic members of Congress were among the group of demonstrators arrested outside the U.S. Supreme Court Tuesday. They were protesting the recent decision overturning Roe v. Wade which have protected abortion rights at the federal level.

Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez was among those arrested. Police said the lawmakers were blocking the street. Also arrested was Congresswoman Cori Bush. She tweeted that she and her colleagues put their, quote, bodies on the line because we will leave no stone unturned in our fight for justice. She add, bans off our bodies.

Well, the U.S. House of Representatives Tuesday pass the bill to protect same-sex marriage under federal law. 47 Republicans joined all Democrats to back the respect for marriage act. The final vote was 267-157. Meanwhile the GOP support was notable, more than three- quarters of House Republicans oppose the measure which faces an uncertain fate in the evenly divided Senate.

The U.S. Supreme Court's recent decision overturning abortion rights has raised fears the court's conservative majority could target same- sex marriage and LBGTQ rights.

Now Sri Lanka's Parliament has just elected former Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe as the country's new president. It's a move likely to anger Sri Lankans who view him as part of the political elite who destroyed the nation's economy.

Let's bring in our Will Ripley is joining us live from the capital of Colombo. And Will, Sri Lankans wanted reform, a change from the old establishment, but that is not what they've got today.

WILL RIPLEY, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: They have as their president-elect a six time Prime Minister who specializes in economic recovery he says. That's what he told me a few days ago when I interviewed him. He talked about how he was brought in some 20 odd years ago as Prime Minister to, you know, turn around the collapsed Sri Lankan economy at that time. So, he's very confident in his credentials and apparently so are the

majority of members of Parliament who voted overwhelmingly for Ranil Wickremesinghe to finish out the 2 1/2 years left in the term of the exiled former president Gotabaya Rajapaksa.

[04:25:00]

I have to tell you, even though protest organizers have been warning of anarchy in the streets if this were to happen, that's not what we're seeing. They're taking (INAUDIBLE) ...

MACFARLANE: Oh, unfortunately, we have lost Will's audio there. But we will attempt to get back to Will as soon as we can. That's a shame. Will reporting there on the new president.

Still more ahead on CNN NEWSROOM, including this --

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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think we refocus on two Democratic Senators and I've been saying that forever because a 50/50 Senate sucks.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MACFARLANE: U.S. Democrats are furious with Joe Manchin seeing after he sinks climate action in Congress.

Next, the White House ways in on its options.

Plus, high temperatures in the U.S. spark wild fires in some states. We'll go to the CNN Weather Center to see if there's any relief in sight.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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

Millions of people across multiple continents are facing scorching record-breaking temperatures. Here in the U.K., hottest day on record sparked fires across London. And in the U.S., more than 100 million Americans are under heat alerts. States like Texas and Oklahoma are expected to see temperatures up to 115 degrees Fahrenheit. The scorching heat is fueling wildfires across the Southwest U.S.

Meteorologist Pedram Javaheri is joining me from CNN Weather Center. And Pedram, these wild fires are a real concern. How widespread are they at the moment?

JAVAHERI: You know, across the Western United States, big time fire concerns still in place here.

[04:30:00]