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FBI Seizes Top Secret Documents From Trump's Residence; Online Violent Rhetoric Soars Following FBI Search; Russia Ramps up Offensive in the East; Dangerous Heat and Drought; Author Salman Rushdie Stabbed at New York Book Event. Aired 4-5a ET

Aired August 13, 2022 - 04:00   ET

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

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[04:00:30]

KIM BRUNHUBER, CNN ANCHOR: Hello and welcome to all of you watching us here in the United States, Canada and all around the world. I'm Kim Brunhuber. Ahead on CNN Newsroom, possible violations of the Espionage Act and obstruction of justice, just some of the reasons why the FBI searched Trump's home in Florida. The former President's team is laying blame elsewhere.

Plus --

REP. NANCY PELOSI (D-CA): The motion is adopted.

BRUNHUBER: A historic win for the Biden administration as lawmakers pass a major climate and health care bill what the sweeping legislation means for Americans. And parts of Western Europe are suffering through record heat and drought. We're live at the CNN Weather Center and in Madrid on when people can see relief.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Live from CNN Center. This is CNN Newsroom with Kim Brunhuber.

BRUNHUBER: We now know why the FBI searched former U.S. President Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago home. According to a warrant that was unsealed on Friday, agents were looking for evidence of possible crimes, including potential violations of the Espionage Act related to the gathering, loss or destruction of U.S. Defense Information. We're also learning details about some of the items recovered during Monday's search.

A property receipt also unsealed on Friday reveals that FBI agents seized 11 sets of classified documents including one marked "Top Secret SCI" which stands for Sensitive Compartmented Information, one of the highest levels of classification. They also seized four sets of top-secret documents, three marked "Secret" and three marked, "Confidential."

CNN's Sara Murray explains what else the unsealed documents tell us about the ongoing investigation. SARA MURRAY, CNN POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Newly unsealed court documents are revealing new information, more information about exactly what the FBI took when they searched Mar-a-Lago earlier this week. We are learning that the FBI took with them 11 sets of classified documents that includes four sets of top-secret documents, and various classified TS SCI documents, one of the highest classification levels.

Now while they were there earlier this week, they were there investigating three potential crimes. One of those is violations of the Espionage Act. So gathering, transmitting, losing defensive for information. The other is obstruction, concealment, removing, mutilating documents, and then lastly, destroying, altering or falsifying documents.

Now, of course, we don't know if this is going to lead to any criminal charges. The former president has not been charged with anything. But it is of course, an amazing incredible step to see the FBI there searching Mar-a-Lago and then for these documents to be unsealed by a court.

Trump's allies were taking pains to try to downplay the documents that were taken from Mar-a-Lago and also insisting that the former president has the ability to declassify documents. Of course, that tends to go through a process, a normal process in order to actually do that.

Sara Murray, CNN, Washington.

BRUNHUBER: Former President Trump responded with falsehoods to the latest on the unsealed warrant. On his social media network, he said, quote, "The bigger problem is, what are they going to do with the 33 million pages of documents, many of which are classified that President Obama took to Chicago."

Well the National Archives quickly debunked the claim. In a statement it said, quote, "Assumed exclusive legal and physical custody of Obama Presidential Records," when Obama left office in 2017.

The FBI search is only the latest legal problem facing Donald Trump. He's embroiled in multiple lawsuits and investigations connected to his time in office and his family business. On Friday, a New York State Court judge refused to throw a criminal tax fraud charges against the Trump Organization. It's accused of involvement in a tax evasion scheme going back to 2005. Now that trial gets underway in October.

On Wednesday, Trump refused to answer questions during a deposition for New York's Attorney General invoking his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination. New York's AG is investigating whether Trump's company used fake or misleading asset valuations to get economic benefits.

But what we've already learned about the FBI search at Mar-a-Lago could pose the biggest peril of all to former President Trump. Earlier, I spoke with CNN Legal Analyst Areva Martin about the unsealed search warrant. Here she is.

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AREVA MARTIN, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: What surprised I think all of us, Kim, is the level of detail that the Justice Department provided to this judge that ultimately signed off on this search warrant.

[04:05:09]

We know that Donald Trump and many Republicans are complaining and suggesting that somehow this is a politically motivated action and that this is, you know, some kind of nefarious act against the former president.

But what's clear from what we have been told by the Department of Justice is that there were grounds, there was sufficient evidence so sufficient that a federal judge signed off on a search warrant of this former president's private residence. We know this is unprecedented in U.S. history. But the acts that Donald Trump engaged in in terms of taking secret, confidential, highly sensitive documents from the White House, very serious allegations against him and very serious actions that required this level of intervention from the FBI and the Department of Justice.

BRUNHUBER: Yes, I mean, in that list of potential crimes, some come under the Espionage Act, but that doesn't necessarily mean spying as it sort of sounds to the layperson. I guess it's pretty broad. Take us through that.

MARTIN: Yes, you're right, Kim. When we hear the word espionage, automatically, I think people think that, you know, it relates to spiying on the U.S. government. But that Act covers things broader than just spying. It covers things such as the removal of sensitive documents that could land up -- that could land in the hands of a foreign adversary, someone or some governmental entity that is adverse to the United States.

And we don't know exactly what is in the documents that Donald Trump removed from the White House. But we know those documents are highly sensitive, many of them documents that were only meant to be reviewed inside the White House in the skiff. Documents that were never meant to be removed from the inner, you know, sanctum of the White House.

And the fact that these documents have been taken to a private residence could potentially end up again in the hands of a foreign adversary warranted the level of intervention that we've seen with respect to this search warrant.

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BRUNHUBER: FBI Director Christopher Wray is warning agents and employees to be vigilant due to an unprecedented wave of threats against the agencies since the Mar-a-Lago search. Follows an attack this week on an FBI field office in Cincinnati, the suspect Ricky Shiffer tried to breach the office but was killed after a standoff with authorities. It was believed to be armed with an AR-15 rifle and a nail gun.

Shiffer was known to the FBI because he had an unspecified connection, the January 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol. Violent threats have surfaced online with posters writing that Attorney General Garland needs to be assassinated. The FBI Director says these threats won't be tolerated.

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CHRISTOPHER A. WRAY, FBI DIRECTOR: I don't care what side of the issue you're on, I don't care who you're upset with or what you're upset about on abortion or anything else, you don't get to use violence or threats of violence to act on it. And we're going to go after that conduct aggressively.

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BRUNHUBER: Joining me now is Brian Levin, the Director of the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism, and he's also militia group researcher, and joins me now from Monroe, New York. Thanks so much for being here with us. So we know that, you know, right-wing extremism is the number one domestic threat, that's according to the FBI, and that was, you know, before the raid on Mar-a-Lago. So since then we know that the online violent extremist rhetoric has soared. What have you been seeing in terms of the amount and the nature of this rhetoric?

BRIAN LEVIN, DIRECTOR, CENTER FOR THE STUDY OF HATE & EXTREMISM: A great question. It's been a literal firehose, very broad, although, just let me preface that we see this from time to time. But it's one of the larger fuselage of invective that we've seen for some time. And where it's directed, some of the usual suspects that have been coalesce and galvanize during the pandemic. And what I mean is, at that time, deliberate movement really brought together a series of related grievance-oriented folks together into one kind of swamp. And that's what we're seeing now.

Everything from calls to violence, Deep State Civil War, and a lot of this is venting. But we also saw even just today, the listing of information about some of the FBI agents allegedly involved. It was put up by a former aide of the former president. So this is not good.

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BRUNHUBER: Yes. To say the least, I mean, you --

LEVIN: Yes.

BRUNHUBER: -- touched on the, you know, mentioning civil war. I mean, does it make it more dangerous when many of these right-wing folks on TV and social media are using terms like civil war? I mean, Marjorie Taylor Greene, notably among them. So how close are we to the brink here, not in terms of, you know, an actual civil war, but enough people being radicalized to act on this beyond a few, you know, lone wolves that we've seen so far to take on the federal government that they're being told is the enemy?

LEVIN: That is such a great question. And what I think is so interesting -- and I was talking about this earlier in the week, you know, sometimes, how do I say it -- the so-called lone wolf are actually part of an ecosystem. They operate on a timeframe of their own. But what I think is important to look at, and as I told the Senate last year, and also this year, this is part of the continuing stream of extremism, and it ebbs and flows. But we have this coalesce and galvanize subculture.

And in that, we see two threats. One related to the kind of thing we saw with respect to the FBI assailant this week, but also a more broad one that I think is typified but what we saw in the insurrection. So what I'm seeing is we're taking snapshots in the middle of like the fourth inning. This is going to be a continuing thing. And what we find oftentimes, both hate and extremism goes up in conflictual political national election years.

BRUNHUBER: Yes, which we're seeing now and then you can just imagine, I mean, you know, what would happen if say, Donald Trump was actually, you know, arrested and charged with something?

LEVIN: Excellent point and that's exactly what I tweeted earlier. And other -- what I'm saying is this -- now, look, except for this assailant and similarly situated folks, this particular instance feels to me like a muster call. And then, as this heats up, where there's an event certain and indictment, we're not saying it's happening, but if this does, that will cause this fire to burn more.

The kindling is already out there. And we are quite concerned, because this kind of stuff heats up and gets more directed as we go down that trail as to what's going to happen with respect to possible criminal prosecution of the former president.

BRUNHUBER: What seems incredible here is that the right-wing politicians and media figures, they don't seem to learn anything from January 6 in terms of implicit, or, you know, maybe more explicit calls to violence. Or do you think that they just don't care about the consequences of stoking political violence?

LEVIN: I don't think they care. And we have reams of data showing that both hate crimes, extremist plots, and including homicides go up downstream around this kind of rhetoric. What this does is it labels certain groups and individuals as legitimate targets of aggression. But sometimes that aggression's manifests is what we're seeing in line in this firehose of insults, epithets, and conspiracy theories.

But for some, you're going to act on it either individually or in a more organized fashion. And we saw this time and time again, for instance, after the Muslim ban proposal, hate crimes against Muslims went up. We saw, for instance, the worst day for hate crime just because we can measure it with FBI data was in 2019, was the day that the impeachment was going -- was announced.

So we see this time and time again, with the downstream effects of whatever is percolating in this swamp of grievance where that is then scapegoated onto individuals ranging from Antifa, BLM to the FBI.

BRUNHUBER: Yes. Frightening times, I guess it's too much to expect that common sense would prevail. Really appreciate your expertise on this. Brian Levin, thank you so much.

LEVIN: Thank you.

BRUNHUBER: The U.S. House of Representatives has passed landmark legislation including the biggest investment and combat the climate crisis in American history. We break it all down when we come back.

Plus, Happy Days on Wall Street, but consumers still don't see much of a reason for optimism. We'll explain why coming up. Stay with us.

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[04:18:33]

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PELOSI: The motion is adopted.

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BRUNHUBER: The U.S. House of Representatives has given Democrats and President Biden something they so desperately wanted, passage of the Inflation Reduction Act, a $750 billion climate energy and health care package, which is also meant to cut inflation. CNN's Jessica Dean has details on the new bill.

JESSICA DEAN, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Democrats and President Biden scoring a big win as we saw their massive package focus on climate taxes and health care passing out of the House. It is now headed to President Biden's desk for his signature. We spent the day hearing debate from both sides. But it was very clear from the beginning that this had full Democratic support in the House. This is something that passed along party lines just like it did in the Senate.

The reason behind that, they are using a budget process that requires them only to have Democratic support so they can pass this out of Congress with just their democratic majorities. And that's exactly what happened.

Just a reminder to everyone a little bit what's in this, there's three different planks. There's the climate plank, it's still largest investment in climate that we've ever seen come out of Congress, some $369 billion in climate initiatives. There's also health care provisions in there. They're extending the Affordable Care Act subsidies by three years. They're capping out of pocket Medicare expenses at $2,000. It's also allowing Medicare for the very first time to negotiate the price of certain drug prices.

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Additionally, there are tax provisions in there namely among them a corporate minimum tax of 15 percent that's going to go toward -- that's going to be for the country's largest businesses. They will pay that 15 percent minimum tax. But again, lawmakers now headed out on August recess, they're going back to their districts, back to their states.

And for those who are running for re-election, it was very important for Democrats to be able to talk about this when they went home and say that it had passed and be able to discuss what had been put in there. They're now going to be able to do that. For their part, Republicans continue to criticize this legislation, saying that it will only add to inflation, not bring it down. That it will actually harm businesses, not help them.

And you can expect to hear more from them on that as we head into November. They're certainly going to be talking very much about inflation and the economy. But the big picture here, as the House makes this very historic vote is that it is a win for Democrats. And it's one they certainly, even about a month ago, didn't think that they would be saying.

Jessica Dean, CNN, Capitol Hill.

BRUNHUBER: Democratic Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal, Chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus explained how the new bill will help Americans who need lifesaving medication. Here she is.

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REP. PRAMILA JAYAPAL (D-WA): We will make sure that nobody has to continue to pay for health care without the subsidies that we passed in the American Rescue Plan and that we are extending now for another three years. And yes, it might take a little bit of time to show that we can bring down the cost of insulin and shame on the Republicans for refusing to extend that provision to all Americans that have private insurance, but at least we got our toe in the door.

So, I think we are starting to see these prices come down. We will continue to see American families have more money in their pockets to be able to withstand what might be a couple more months. And at the end of the day, we are making big transformative change on healthcare and on climate.

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BRUNHUBER: Well that's Democratic Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal.

U.S. markets ended the week on a high note following signs that inflation may be easing up.

The three major indices were solidly in positive territory at the closing of bell on Friday. And that's two days after a government report showed inflation in July was lower than the month before. The Dow rose by more than 400 points Friday, are close to 1.3 percent. The NASDAQ and S&P 500 saw even bigger percentage gains. Now those two indices have closed higher each of the past four weeks.

But American consumers are still down in the dumps about the state of the economy despite all the positive news. Consumer sentiment, a measure of optimism or lack of it in the market went up marginally in August. That's according to a survey by the University of Michigan. The benchmark index climbed above 55 points which is higher than in July. But still a far below one year ago.

Consumers are skeptical even though. Gas prices have been sliding for week -- for a week. And they're now just below $4 a gallon. The sentiment survey was done before this week's positive inflation report.

At least 14 people were injured on Friday when a vehicle crashed into a pub in Arlington, Virginia setting off a fire in the building. We say eight people were sent to hospital, four of them in critical condition. A witness told CNN he saw a car careening into the Ireland's four-court pub. He said people were crying and screaming as a woman lay with on the ground with multiple injuries. Authorities say the fire has been put out.

A discovery of highly classified material at Donald Trump's Florida home is getting a muted response from his supporters in Congress. One report from Washington just ahead. Plus, Russia's offensive in eastern Ukraine picks up again and civilians end up in the line of fire. Stay with us.

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[04:27:31]

BRUNHUBER: And welcome back to all of you watching us here in the United States, Canada and around the world. I'm Kim Brunhuber. This is CNN Newsroom.

The U.S. Justice Department has now revealed it had probable cause to investigate whether former President Donald Trump may have violated the Espionage Act by keeping classified materials as Mar-a-Lago home. Court documents unsealed Friday show the FBI removed 11 sets of classified materials from Trump's property on Monday, once that was marked with the highest level of government classification.

Now those are supposed to be kept in a highly secure government location. Agents also seized four sets of top-secret documents, three sets were marked "Secret" and three were classified as "Confidential." In addition, the FBI also recovered a document on Trump's pardoning of Roger Stone, a staunch ally, who was convicted of lying to Congress.

Well, after Monday's search of Mar-a-Lago, many of Donald Trump's supporters in Congress were howling for the U.S. Justice Department to unseal the search warrant. But now that it has, well, there's been little reaction from them on Capitol Hill. We have more from CNN's Melanie Zanona.

MELANIE ZANONA, CNN CAPITOL HILL REPORTER: Well, we are hearing a slightly more muted response from House Republicans, at least compared to their tone earlier when they were threatening investigations into the Department of Justice and attacking the FBI. But Republicans on the House Intelligence Committee held a press conference on Friday, where they heaped praise on law enforcement.

They called on Attorney General Merrick Garland to release more information. And they acknowledged that there were at least some scenarios in which they thought it could be problematic if Trump was hanging on to highly classified documents. Take a listen.

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REP. CHRIS STEWART (R-UT): Look at the premise of most of your questions. Was it nuclear? Was it a hack? Maybe it was aliens? That's the point. We don't know. We're asking them to tell us.

REP. MIKE TURNER (R-OH): There are a number of things that they could show us. And I don't want to speculate on what those would be. That would obviously rise to the level of maybe, you didn't have any options. But I'd be very, very, very surprised as to what those are considering the breadth of what they could have done besides this.

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ZANONA: I also caught up with House GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy and he too called on Garland to release more information beyond just the search warrants on Mar-a-Lago. But he dodged questions about whether he thought there were any scenarios that he thought would be justified to conduct that search on Mar-a-Lago.

[04:30:00]

Now we should point out that Republicans are still standing by Trump. They are still vowing to pursue oversight and investigations into the Department of Justice if they win back the majority, but it is clear that they are starting to calibrate their response after the Washington Post report that Trump might be in possession of highly sensitive nuclear document. Melanie Zanona, CNN, Capitol Hill.

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BRUNHUBER: David Laufman led the U.S. Justice Department's Counter Intelligence Section until 2018. And you oversaw the investigations into both Hillary Clinton's and former CIA Director David Petraeus' handling of classified records. Here's what he had to say about the seizure of top secret documents from Trump's residence. Let's listen.

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DAVID LAUFMAN, FORMER CHIEF OF DOJ'S COUNTERINTELLIGENCE SECTION: In some respects, it's not that surprising given this President's consistent flagrant disregard for the protection of classified information and disregard for the intelligence community throughout his presidency. His careless, reckless disclosure of sensitive classified information, not only to foreign nationals, but to the heads of governments of our foreign adversaries. And it could be said that this is just another version of that flagrant disregard and in contempt. Having said that, it is nonetheless shocking to me having overseen prosecutions of multiple defendants, under provisions of the Espionage Act, to see that same statute leveled as a foundation for a search warrant executed on the home of a former president of United States.

(END VIDEO CLIP) BRUNHUBER: In Ukraine, a stern warning about the situation at Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, the nation's nuclear operator says the facility is now at risk of violating radiation safety and fire safety standards. It's blaming damage from recent shelling of the planet which Russia and Ukraine are pinning on each other.

Meanwhile, Ukraine says the city of Kramatorsk came under artillery fire which damaged 20 residential buildings. Ukraine says five people were killed in attacks across the Donetsk region, including in Kramatorsk on Friday, 35 others were reportedly wounded.

In Kyiv, President Zelenskyy is making a case against letting Russian citizens travel to Europe. He says they shouldn't be allowed to use the so called Schengen visa that allow holders unrestricted travel through most European countries.

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VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY, PRESIDENT OF UKRAINE (through translator): First of all, it should be guaranteed that Russian murderers and accomplices of state terror cannot use visas. Secondly, the idea of Europe itself cannot get destroyed. Our common European values cannot get destroyed, meaning that we cannot turn Europe into a supermarket where it doesn't matter who is coming. What matters is only that the purchases are paid for.

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BRUNHUBER: Our David McKenzie is keeping an eye on developments in Ukraine. And he joins us now from Kyiv. David, let's start with the news from the front lines. What's the latest?

DAVID MCKENZIE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, I think what's very significant in the last few days, in fact, while we've been obviously focusing on the nuclear power plant to the south, to me is the Eastern front line. CNN teams on the ground there say Ukrainian officials admitting that Russians are making gains in Bakhmut, that key town in the region of Donetsk. And you've seen steady gains by Russian forces. Sometimes the Ukrainians push them back. They're both ground forces making pushes into that frontline as well as heavy artillery fire, as you said, Ukrainian officials announcing several civilians, dead in Bakhmut, Kramatorsk and other parts of the Donetsk.

This is significant because these were the original at least part of the stated aims of the Kremlin at the outset of this conflict. They've been making these gains with a very attrition like steady march, but it has been slow, much slower than the Kremlin obviously indicated and the Ukrainians are managing to inflict heavy casualties, according to officials here on the Russians. But this is an important frontline. And in the weeks and months ahead, you could see that the Donetsk region is a key prize for Russian forces as part of those originally stated goals.

BRUNHUBER: All right, and David in a more positive development, let's say we're now seeing ships filled with grain leaving from Ukraine. In fact, I think we even have live pictures of grain being unloaded in Italy. That came from Ukraine. What more can you tell us about this?

MCKENZIE: Well, this has been a positive development over the last few weeks this negotiated settlement between Russian and Ukrainian officials with the help of Turkey. And you see those live pictures of this unloading of grain in Italy. Significantly, one of the first vessels to take grain, which has been charted by the World Food Program will be offloaded at some point to Eritrea and then on to Ethiopia, where it's badly needed to help the severe drought and famine come like conditions in that region. And so this shows that there is some progress in terms of negotiated settlements.

[04:35:09]

The question is, is what is happening with the grain can that happen with this nuclear power plant and it's not that big of a segue because the nuclear power plant has been worrying everyone this week, the ongoing shelling of zones around that power plant, whereas experts have about a possible radiation leak because of a lack of power to the Zaporizhzhia plant if they can negotiate something on grain, perhaps and I think it's a much taller order. There can be some settlement in demilitarizing this nuclear zone to the south of me, but at this stage, it appears that still very much under threat. Kim?

BRUNHUBER: Yeah, interesting point. David McKenzie in Kyiv, thank you so much, I appreciate it.

At least 11 people including two children were killed in a mass shooting in Montenegro Friday according to state media. Local police say the suspect first attacked a family living in his home his tenants then went outside and shot other residents of the neighborhood. The witness said the shooter indiscriminately shot people as he walked through the street. Authorities say the attacker is a 34-year-old man his rampage ended when he was shot dead by a civilian.

Record heat and drought are creating dangerous conditions across Europe. We'll go live to Spain latest on this and more after the break. Stay with us.

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BRUNHUBER: Scientists are warning of a disastrous event that could happen in California in the next four decades and it's not an earthquake. Have a look here, so you'll be seeing what's now drought prone areas in the state that are predicted to one day be a vast inland sea. A new study by science advances which knows that climate change has doubled the chances of what's called a mega flood, climate scientists describe it as a severe flood across a broad region that has the potential to bring catastrophic impacts to society.

[04:40:12]

And experts say the flood would be unlike anything anyone alive today has ever experienced. Now, in neighboring Nevada and unwelcome water show is heavy rain poured into some Las Vegas casinos. I mean, you're seeing here, water gushing through the ceiling onto card tables at Planet Hollywood, unbelievable. It's the second time in two weeks that casinos have been flooded. Las Vegas is facing its wettest monsoon season in a decade.

Experts say record heat in Europe is causing at least one Swiss glaciers to melt at an alarming rate. Layers of ice that are covered a Swiss mountain pass for centuries will soon be completely gone within a matter of weeks. Melting also makes glaciers more unstable meaning they're less suitable for winter sports and hiking which is a vital part of the Swiss tourist industry.

And five people are still missing after a record rainfall caused severe flooding in northern China on Thursday, almost eight inches of rain fell in Shanxi Province. The high water took down houses washed away cars and damaged roads and farmlands and multiple towns. Rain has now stopped by the authorities say rescue efforts are ongoing.

So from severe floods to a heat wave, China's National Weather Center has issued its first highest heat alert this year. Large parts of South Western central and eastern China are expected to see temperatures above 104 degrees Fahrenheit or 40 degrees Celsius today.

Meanwhile, concerns over this satellite image of the Rhine River in Germany showing exceptionally low water levels in some areas due to the lack of rainfall, shipping has been disrupted on the country's most important inland waterway causing transport costs to soar. And it's not just Germany many countries across Western Europe are suffering through record heat and drought.

Now, in Spain, one person is dead and more than a dozen injured as a part of the stage collapse to the music festival near the coastal city of Valencia. Officials say it was due to a strong gust of wind. Have a look.

Authorities suspended the Medusa Festival and you can see in this video disappointed concert goers evacuating as the wind blows debris. Earlier today Valencia's National Weather Service tweeted that warm breezes were producing very strong wind gusts and abrupt increases in temperatures.

All right, so let's talk more about this with CNN Meteorologist Karen Maginnis. But first, Al Goodman joins me now from Madrid. Al, what more can you tell us about the tragedy at that festival. I mean, the pictures we were seeing there were just incredible?

AL GOODMAN, JOURNALIST: Hi, Kim. Spain's National Weather Service tweeted unusually at 3:00 in the morning, local time, that there were at mile -- 80 kilometer per hour winds about 50 mile per hour winds at the Alicante Airport which is just south of where that concert was going on in a beach town on the Mediterranean. About an hour after that tweet from the weather agency is when the event happened with the strong gust of winds taken down part of that stage. 17 people injured in addition to the fatality, three of those 17 in serious condition, according to authorities.

Now, this is a weekend long Music Festival, was expected to attract 10s of 1000s of people. The organizers not only suspended, they later issued another statement expressing their condolences to the person who died and offering their support to all the others people affected. Kim.

BRUNHUBER: All right, Al, then, in Western Europe, I mean, it's dealing not just with heat, as we said but drought as well.

GOODMAN: That's right, you mentioned the Rhine River that vital artery in Germany, the barges running up and down that river are carrying chemicals, coal and grains. And because the water levels have dropped, the German authorities, the rules say that the shippers can continue to but they have to lighten their load. And that's what raises the cost also disrupts the supply chain not as much as getting through.

In England, they've had the driest July in 80 years. There are bands in many municipalities, that people cannot use their water hoses to water their gardens, wash their cars, farmers in northern Italy, some in some places facing up to 80% loss of their crops. Also, in other countries like the U.K., it's an issue of not getting enough water for irrigation to irrigate the crops right now and not being able to grow enough grain and grasses to feed the animals in the winter. So you're having about 60% of the European Union and the U.K. is under some sort of drought warning according to the European Union. Kim.

BRUNHUBER: All right, so turning now to you Karen. I mean, how much longer will this heat and drought lasts?

KAREN MAGINNIS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Yes. Those temperatures can fluctuate fairly easily. We can see that measure that on a fairly quick basis drought that takes much longer more than one or two rain events to bust a drought as we might say.

[04:45:12]

And as you just heard from Al Goodman, about 60% of Europe, under some sort of drought alert, these are the forecast temperatures, we've talked a lot about Western Europe, where temperatures have been in the low, mid, and upper 30s, even around 40 degrees in some sections of southern France, where they've had devastating fires.

Look at the forecast coming up from London looks like as we go beyond that weekend time period, we start to see those temperatures kind of dropping down to near normal levels. And for Paris, yes, it looks like some rain in the forecast. Not for the weekend, we can still stay south fairly hot with 30s, expected for Sunday, but look at the rainfall that moves in by midweek, the average high temperature should be about 25 degrees.

Now, we've talked about that ridge of high pressure, which has been parked across Northwestern sections of Europe, that's going to begin to shift. This will allow some much needed moisture and across a good portion of the European continent.

Now, this is for seven days, it looks very impressive. Or in fact, this is going to be spread out over seven days. So you're not going to see a whole lot of rain at any one particular time. Here's that drought view all across Europe, where as we mentioned, about 60% of the European continent is under some sort of drought alert. All right, this is the Rhine River looks beautiful when it's full. But when you can see some of these coastlines and looks like sandbars that kind of erupt out of the water is very difficult, very challenging for the barges and is dreadful and is truly a crisis, especially this time of year.

And across sections of China. We've seen these temperatures in the low 40s. It'll continue that way. As a matter of fact, they've issued a nationwide alert for these heat, where the temperatures are going to be climbing up into the upper 30s and into the 40s. So this is also a crisis situation across much of that region. And we'll continue to monitor that, Kim, but this has been a really remarkable summer all around the globe. Back to you.

BRUNHUBER: Yeah, absolutely. Right, Karen Maginnis, Al Goodman, thank you both, I really appreciate it.

A visual in Mexico for 10 miners trapped now for more than a week. Relatives are growing impatient. Some say they're not being kept informed about progress in the rescue efforts. Authorities say the response team made three descends into the mineshaft on Friday to remove debris blocking the rescuers. It also knows divers would enter the flooded part of the moment water levels are still too high. Mexico's Attorney General's Office is requesting a judicial hearing to file charges against the owner of the mine.

The French freediver has broken the world record for a dive with fins reaching a depth of 120 meters. Here's what he had to say afterwards side by side with the actual video of the dive here.

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ARNAUD JERALD, FRENCH FREEDIVER: It was an amazing dive, I can't believe. I made it. I put all my effort this winter this -- for my training here to made it but for sure at the end when you made it is bigger than what I can imagine.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRUNHUBER: The celebration erupted after the record of 120 meters was confirmed. The actual time of the dive was three minutes and 34 seconds.

Award Winning Author Salman Rushdie is in hospital this hour after he was attacked at a book event on Friday. The story and the death threats that have followed him for decades after the break. Stay with us.

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BRUNHUBER: Award winning author Salman Rushdie remains hospitalized after he was attacked at a book event in New York State Friday morning. Witnesses say a man rushed the stage stabbing Rushdie at least once in the neck and abdomen. That man is now in custody. Rushdie's agent tells the New York Times the author is on a ventilator with damage to his liver and nerves in his arm and he will likely lose an eye. CNN's Shimon Prokupecz has more.

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SHIMON PROKUPECZ, CNN CRIME AND JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Famed author Salman Rushdie was scheduled to speak at a lecture series at the Chautauqua Institution, when witnesses say a man jumped onto the stage just as the event was getting underway and began punching and stabbing Rushdie.

One witness tells CNN she counted roughly seven to 10 stabbing motions before fleeing for her own safety. Rushdie suffered stab wounds to the neck and abdomen according to New York State Police and was airlifted to an area hospital.

GOV. KATHY HOCHUL, (D) NEW YORK: Was a state police officer who stood up and saved his life protected him as well as the monitor -- or the moderator who was attacked as well.

PROKUPECZ: The suspect was quickly taken into custody. New York State Police identified him as 24-year-old Hadi Matar.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There was a lot of screaming and crying and everything. People rushing from the audience up on the stage.

PROKUPECZ: The 75 year old author was born in Mumbai and later moved to the U.K. Rushdie is accustomed to living under threat. His controversial fourth novel The Satanic Verses, published in 1988 sparked public demonstrations all over the world. Some Muslims consider the book sacrilegious. In 1989, the late Iranian leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini issued a fatwa, a religious decree on Rushdie calling for his death. Rushdie lived under British protection for nearly 10 years before the Iranian government announced it would no longer enforce the fatwa. Rushdie wrote a memoir about that era of his life called Joseph Anton, the name he used while in hiding. He has been outspoken over the years about living through that time.

[04:55:00]

SALMAN RUSHDIE, AUTHOR: Best way that I can -- what I can do to fight this, is to show that, you know, in the way that a child shows a bully in the playground, I ain't scared of you. And the best thing I can do is to go on being the best writer I can be and to lead as open a professional and personal life as far as I can. And that's it's just a way of saying that there may be this danger, and it's a terrible thing. And it's an ugly thing and we need to fight it to really defeat it. But we don't have to hide under the bed.

PROKUPECZ: And the FBI is now part of this investigation, helping authorities learn more about the suspect, the motivation, and whether or not this was part of some bigger plot to kill Salman Rushdie, of course investigators are still trying to go through a lot of information that they're gathering, including a backpack, they were waiting for a search warrant to go through that and also electronics and phones. So authorities still have a lot more to work through here. And we still have yet to learn a lot more. Shimon Prokupecz, CNN New York.

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BRUNHUBER: The Emmy Award Winning Actress Anne Heche is still on life support although according to the law in California, she's now considered legally dead. Her family says she is brain dead but doctors are still working to determine if she's a match for organ donations. Her family called Heche a bright light, a kind and most joyful soul, a loving mother and a loyal friend. And a Hollywood co-stars remembering her as a lovely woman. The actress was badly burned a week ago when she slammed her car into a house in Los Angeles sending off a fire in the accident is still under investigation.

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

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