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White House Raising Concerns on Classified Documents Keeping Documents in Mar-a-Lago; Federal Judge Won't Ordering Senator Lindsey Graham to Appear Before Georgia Grand Jury; Russia on Board with International Inspectors Going to Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant. Aired 3-4a ET

Aired August 20, 2022 - 03:00   ET

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

[03:00:00]

KIM BRUNHUBER, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: Welcome to all of you watching us here in the United States, Canada, and around the world. I'm Kim Brunhuber.

Ahead on "CNN Newsroom," the White House is raising concerns about the classified documents Former President Trump may have been keeping at his Florida estate.

Plus, Russia signals it is willing to cooperate with inspections of the Zaporizhzhia separation nuclear power plant, as fears grow over a potential slow-moving nuclear disaster.

And we are keeping a close eye on the tropical system churning in the Gulf of Mexico, and flooding in the South Western U.S.

ANNOUNCER: Live from CNN Center, this is "CNN Newsroom with Kim Brunhuber."

BRUNHUBER: The Biden White House is officially hands-off regarding last week's FBI search of Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago residents, it turned up 11 sets of classified materials, including some with the highest secrecy. Privately, some White House officials admit they are worried about what other sets of documents might be out there in court documents unsealed in relation to that search hinted the death of potential legal jeopardy the former president and his allies could be facing. CNN's Jessica Schneider has this report.

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JESSICA SCHNEIDER, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): New information revealed in documents related to the Mar-a-Lago search sharpening the focus on Former President Trump as a possible subject of the criminal probe. The application for the search warrant unsealed Thursday reveals that among the crimes DOJ's investigating includes the willful retention of national defense information, language that could point to the role of Trump, who would have been authorized to possess national defense documents while in office, but not once he departed the White House and moved to Mar-a-Lago. ELIE HONIG, FORMER FEDERAL PROSECUTOR: The papers don't specify Donald Trump in particular, you usually, as a prosecutor, don't specify a person, but we can sort of try to figure out what they mean by the word they did give us.

SCHNEIDER (voice-over): Trump's former attorney, Rudy Giuliani, who is a target of another criminal probe out of Georgia investigating election fraud, he lashed out, defending the former president.

RUDY GIULIANI, FORMER TRUMP LAWYER: And now, they want to make him responsible for having taken classified documents and preserved them. Really, if you look at the Espionage Act, it is not really about taking the documents, it's about destroying them or hiding them or giving them to the enemy.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Right.

GIULIANI: It's not about taking them and putting them in a place that is roughly as safe as they were in in the first place.

SCHNEIDER (voice-over): Trump and his team continued to push publicly for releasing the full search warrant affidavit, which would have a lot more detail. But they didn't fail any motions to that effect in court. A source tells CNN, that remains a possibility, while Trump is continuing to hunt for additions to his legal team, including someone with experience in Florida.

ALINA HABBA, DONALD TRUMP'S LAWYER: One thing I did like today, and I have to be positive about this, he said, look, there is -- if it's redacted too much, I'm going to take it and I am going to redact it myself.

SCHNEIDER (voice-over): Since the search, threats against FBI agents have reached unprecedented levels, a source tells CNN. That's why house oversight panel is calling on social media companies to take immediate action and identify the number of threats made on their platform since August 8th, the day of the search. The demand comes in a letter to social media companies, including Meta, Twitter and TikTok.

SCHNEIDER (on camera): And then when it comes to the affidavit, prosecutors now have less than one week to submit proposed redactions of the judge, so he can decide what might be released publicly. It will likely be a tall task for DOJ that has repeatedly said, any redactions they would propose would be so extensive it would make the affidavit "devoid of content." Jessica Schneider, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRUNHUBER: CNN's Senior Political Analyst Ron Brownstein joins me now from Los Angeles, and he's also senior editor for "The Atlantic."

Thank you so much for being with us.

So, Ron, looking at the big picture, on one hand, you can say it's been -- you know, a bad week for Donald Trump, with the accumulation of his legal troubles and those of his allies, and associates. But on the other hand, he's reportedly pulling in millions in fundraising on the back of the Mar-a-Lago search. So, even if his legal woes worsen, in the backwards world of Donald Trump, is it actually good for him politicly?

RON BROWNSTEIN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, I think, clearly, that even as his legal problems are mounting his hold on the Republican Party is tightening, right. I mean, when -- in May, when the governor of Georgia and the secretary of state of Georgia who had defended the integrity of the elections in 2020 and push back against Trump's lies, when they won their primaries, there was a great deal of heated speculation that Trump's grip on the Republican Party was loosening.

[03:05:00]

And the summer has sent a very, very different message. I mean, in state after state, in Wisconsin, in Michigan, in Arizona, in Nevada, in Minnesota, a Trump backed election deniers have won Republican nominations, of course, capped by the defeat of Liz Cheney in the primary this week, the resounding defeat in the primary this week that meant that eight of the 10 House Republicans who voted to impeach him are either retiring or were defeated by Republican voters in their primaries.

For better or worse, this is Donald Trump's party. That is the umbrella under which Republicans are going to be running in the fall and I think, the events of the past few months and the fact that so many Republican elect officials rush to defend him after the execution of the search warrant in Mar-a-Lago, and not really knowing anything about the case, all of that underscore how difficult it is going to be for anyone to stop him if he wants the GOP nomination again in 2024.

BRUNHUBER: We are seeing more and more measures to erase mentions of race, gender, oppression and so on in schools, libraries, with books being banned, ideas being censored. Have we ever seen anything like this before in America, beyond maybe the Red Scare? And what effect might this have?

BROWNSTEIN: Well, right. So, there really isn't much that is -- certainly, not at this scale. I mean, the two examples that people cite in American history was the Red Scare in the '50s, when there were loyalty oaths demanded of teachers and university professors. And then, the anti-evolution laws that led to the monkey trial, the Scopes Trial in the 1920s. But many more red states are moving then to restrict the classroom discussion of race, to make it easier for conservative critics to banned books than we saw in the 1920s.

And this is part of a much broader development, whether we are talking about abortion rights, voting rights, LGBTQ rights, book bans, the right to protest, with heightened penalties for public protest, on a whole variety -- and, of course, the class and the censorship of teachers, you are seeing the red states, with the support of the Republican majority in the Supreme Court in many cases, looking to rollback and move in in the opposite direction since the 1960s. Since the 1960s, the general direction of American life has been to nationalize more rights and to reduce the ability of states to restrict those rights. And we are seeing a full-scale counter- revolution of which abortion is the most powerful symbol and the one that may come back to bite Republicans the most. But we are heading to a world which we really haven't seen since the 1950s in America, in which your basic civil rights and civil liberties are going to diverge enormously depending on your ZIP Code, depending on where you live.

And what that means is that essentially, we are going to have one set of rules for half the country and another set of rules for the other half of the country.

BRUNHUBER: I mean, all these ties in with the larger concept of stop the steal as a metaphor, not for vote rigging but for the idea that, you know, people, they don't like Democrats, the woke minorities and so on our ceiling America itself.

BROWNSTEIN: Stealing our country, right. So, in 2012, after the 2012 election, I wrote that we now have a coalition of transformation and a coalition of respiration in American politics, and that is the fundamental fault line between parties. You have a Democratic Party that now relies, predominantly, on the placed and the voter groups who are the most comfortable with the way the country is changing demographically, culturally and even economically in terms of transitioning into the info age economy.

And you have a Republican Party whose voting base is predominantly centered on those voters, non-college whites, non-urban whites, evangelical whites, who are the most unhappy about all of these changes. And what you see in the red states, I think, is a broad counter offensive against a changing America. Many of the states that are making it the hardest to vote are states where you now have a Republican Party that control statewide power due to their strength older white voters and are facing the profound demographic change, in which a majority, they're under 18 population are now kids of color.

BRUNHUBER: Always appreciate the analysis. Ron Brownstein, thank you so much.

BROWNSTEIN: Thank you.

BRUNHUBER: A federal judge won't delay a ruling ordering Senator Lindsey Graham to appear before a Georgia grand jury. He has been fighting a subpoena from a Fulton County special grand jury investigating Republican efforts to overturn the state's 2020 election results. The district attorney already argued Friday that Graham's testimony is crucial to investigators, and the judge agreed. CNN's Sara Murray has more on that and Graham's dwindling legal options.

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SARA MURRAY, CNN POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham is still keeping up the fight, trying to get out of having to appear Thursday before a Georgia grand jury that's investigating efforts to overturn the 2020 election in the state.

Now, a federal judge already told Lindsey Graham she was not going to quash his subpoena. Graham went back to that judge and said, could you stay your decision? Could you essentially put pause on this, because I was planning to appeal? The judge got back to him on Friday saying, Senator Graham raises the number of arguments as to why he is likely to succeed on the merits, but they are all unpersuasive.

Now, Graham does have one other iron in the fire, he also filed with an Appeals Court, saying he plans to file his appeal and asking that court to put a stay again, essentially, to pause his required Tuesday appearance while this appeal plays out. We are still waiting to see what the Appeals Court says about this.

The district attorney who is investigating all of this in Georgia, her office has said that Graham is a crucial witness, they are particularly interested in a phone call that Graham had with Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger. Raffensperger came away from that call feeling like a senator was asking him to throw away ballots in Georgia in a way that would benefit Donald Trump.

Senator Lindsey Graham has denied that. And we will see what happens for his legal challenges and if he has to appear before that grand jury on Tuesday. Sarah Murray, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRUNHUBER: Moving to Ukraine now, and where that Russia is on board with international inspectors going to the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant. The Kremlin and French governments both say Russian President Vladimir Putin indicated his support for the idea in a conversation with French leader Emmanuel Macron.

The International Atomic Energy Agency has been pushing hard for a visit to the plant after several artillery strikes in the area. That has raised fears of a potential nuclear disaster, which Ukrainian President Zelenskyy expressed in very dire terms. Here he is.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY, UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT (through translator): If Russian blackmail with radiation continues, this summer may go down in the history of various European countries as one of the most tragic of all-time. Because not a single instruction at any nuclear power plant in the world provides a procedure in case a terrorist state turns a nuclear power plant into a target.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRUNHUBER: Meanwhile, these satellite images refute President Putin's claim that Ukraine has been carrying out systematic shelling on the plant. CNN compared pictures taken on Friday with earlier ones and they show the plant suffered little to no new damage over the past month.

President Zelenskyy is thanking the U.S. for its latest batch of military aid to Ukraine. The Pentagon says it is spending $775 million worth of new equipment. Among other things, it should help Ukrainians go after Russian tanks and radars and clear Russian minds. Oren Liebermann has more.

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OREN LIEBERMANN, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: This is the 19th drawdown of equipment from U.S. inventories to send into Ukraine. And it now means that since the beginning of the Biden administration, the U.S. has committed to sending more than ten $10 dollars of security assistance to Ukraine. That is what this latest $775 million package.

Now, some of what we are seeing here, we have seen in the past. More ammunition with a HIMARS system, that high mobility artillery rocket system, a GPS guided sort of medium-range rocket system that has allowed Ukraine to hit Russian logistics posts, command and control, as well as ammunition depots.

A senior defense official here, in talking to reporters later earlier on Friday said the Ukrainians have used it very effectively to be able to disrupt the Russian offensive. They don't have all that much ammunition, it's certainly not limitless, but the ammunition the U.S. has provided that Ukraine has used incredibly well. And that is why it is important, the Pentagon says, to keep providing this as this continues.

In terms of what else is going in, 105-millimeter howitzers. And then, for new equipment, the U.S. is sending in a new type of anti-tank weapon, as well as the javelins that were used so effectively at the beginning of this conflict. Humvees are going in, communication equipment, night vision goggles, reconnaissance drones. And then, a new capability the U.S. is sending in here, mine clearing equipment.

And that is important, a senior defense official told reporters on Friday, because Russia has heavily mined Southern and Eastern Ukraine. Ukraine will need this equipment to clear that area if they are looking to carry out any of their own operations or simply to continue life in these areas without the risk of minds.

Oren Liebermann, CNN, in the Pentagon.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRUNHUBER: A Virginia court hands down multiple life sentences to a British ISIS member involved in the kidnapping and death of multiple people, including Americans. We will have the story after the break.

Plus, the U.S. ambassador to China speaks exclusively with CNN and tells our Selina Wang that Beijing overreacted to a recent trip to Taiwan by the U.S. house speaker. Stay with us.

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[03:15:00]

BRUNHUBER: A senior U.S. officials says Iran has dropped a key demand that had been a major sticking point in their efforts to revive the Iran Nuclear Deal. In its response to the European Union's agreements submitted Monday, the official says Iran didn't ask that the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corp be removed from the U.S. list of foreign terrorist organizations. The U.S. had repeated the request.

Monday's version of the agreement has been described by the E.U. as the final draft.

[03:20:00]

On Friday, a member of the execution squad dubbed the ISIS Beatles from their British accents was sentence in a Virginia courtroom. Elshafee El Sheikh was given eight concurrent life sentences. He was convicted in April for his role in the hostage-taking deaths of four Americans and several others, including U.S. journalist, James Foley. The anniversary of Foley's 2014 beheading was Friday, the day the sentence was handed down.

Here's Foley's mother on the verdict.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DIANE FOLEY, MOTHER OF JAMES FOLEY: Let this sentencing make clear to all who dare to kidnap, torture or kill any American citizen abroad, that U.S. justice will find you wherever you are. And that our government will hold you accountable for your crimes against our citizens.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRUNHUBER: Prosecutors said El Sheikh helped run a network of at least nine detention facilities in Syria, in which 26 civilian hostages from 12 countries were held.

Relations between China and the United States weren't great before U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi visited Taiwan. And in the weeks since, they have approach rock-bottom. Now, in an exclusive interview of CNN's Selina Wang, the U.S. ambassador to China says, Beijing overreacted to Pelosi's visit. Now, look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SELINA WANG, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was in Taiwan for less than 24 hours. But the fallout from her visit is still rippling around the world. China swarms the skies and seas around Taiwan with warships and planes, encircling the island in a practice blockade.

NICHOLAS BURNS, U.S. AMBASSADOR TO CHINA: I think there is a lot of concern around the world, that China has now become an agent of instability in the Taiwan Strait, and that is not an anyone's interest.

WANG (voice-over): In his first TV interview since becoming the U.S. ambassador to China, Nicholas Burns said he defended Pelosi's visit to Beijing. WANG (on camera): The night that House Speaker Pelosi went to Taiwan, you were summoned by China's deputy foreign minister. What happened?

BURNS: Yes. I was summoned at exactly the time when the speaker's plane landed in Taiwan. We had a very spirited, I would say, quite contentious meeting. The central issue is that the government in China overreacted, did so in a way clearly designed to intimidate and coerce the Taiwan authorities.

WANG (voice-over): Beijing claims their response was justified in order to defend its sovereignty.

WANG (on camera): After the visit, China said it was going to cut communications with the U.S. on a number of key areas. I mean, how damaging is that, not just to bilateral relations but to the world?

BURNS: It is very damaging. Our government in Washington has been talking to the Chinese embassy in Washington. But there is no substitute for cabinet level, senior conversations. The Chinese have largely set those down.

WANG: When we look at this event, let's say, 20 years ago, are we going to see that Pelosi visit as a moment that fundamentally changed U.S. China relations?

BURNS: We do not believe there should be a crisis in U.S. China relations over the visit. It's a manufactured crisis by the government in Beijing.

WANG (voice-over): Russia's war in Ukraine has raised fears that Taiwan could also suffer an invasion by its more powerful neighbor.

WANG (on camera): What lessons do you think Beijing has learned from the war in Ukraine and how might it be applied to Taiwan?

BURNS: I think that Chinese authorities here know that the United States is watching very carefully as it conducts its relationship with Russia. In the meantime, we have been disturbed by what the Chinese government is telling its own people. Beijing has been blaming the war in Ukraine on the United States, on NATO. These are completely specious and inaccurate arguments.

WANG (voice-over): U.S. China relations are at the lowest point in decades. Mistrust is rampant on both sides of the Pacific.

WANG (on camera): What are you transmitting to Washington about your key observations or about a reality check on what's actually possible when it comes to engagement?

BURNS: We have a difficult competitive relationship with China, but you have to show up at the negotiating table. One of the messages that I would, certainly, as ambassador, like to impart to the government here in China, please meet us. Please meet us halfway. Both to discuss the issues that separate us and to hopefully work on the issues where we might do some good together for the greater good in the world.

WANG (voice-over): Selina Wang, CNN, Beijing.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRUNHUBER: Coming up, a tropical storm warning has been issued for parts of Texas and Mexico. We'll get the latest on that. Plus, extreme weather across the globe from flooding to droughts, the wildfires. We'll go to the CNN Weather Center. Stay with us.

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[03:25:00]

BRUNHUBER: Welcome back to all of you watching us here in the United States, Canada, and all around the world. I am Kim Brunhuber, this is "CNN Newsroom."

Millions of people are currently under flood watches as monsoon storms pummel parts of the Southwestern U.S. Near Phoenix, flash floods ripped through intersections, pushing cars to the side like toys. Officials say the storms are not over yet. Some areas are expected to see up to six inches of rain in the coming days.

And tropical storm warnings are posted for parts of South Texas and the East Coast of Mexico. The National Hurricane Center says the storm system is likely to intensify before making landfall.

Now, let's bring in CNN Meteorologist Derek Van Dam.

Derek, it seems like the tropics are starting to come alive again. What more can you tell us?

[03:30:00]

DEREK VAN DAM, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Yes. That is what we are seeing too across the Western Gulf of Mexico, particularly in the Bay of Campeche. It is this area of organized area of showers and thunderstorms that the National Hurricane Center has drawn its attention to within the past few days. And now, we are starting to see some convective development, showers and thunderstorms, certainly, the (INAUDIBLE) around the center of the circulation. Kind of an ominous sign here.

But the good news is, it doesn't have a lot of landing room here. Not much room before it reaches land. So, we need the ocean -- well, tropical storms need ocean for its energy. So, once it moves overland, it will run out of its energy source and basically be a rainmaker, which you'll see in just a moment.

But current statistics on this potential tropical cyclone four, 35- mile per hour sustained winds. Hurricane hunters have been flying in and out of the system to try to determine if this is a tropical storm. We will get an update at 5:00 a.m. Eastern Standard Time local.

If it is named, it will be named Danielle. Yes, you are reading this right. The last storm was at the beginning of July. So, the hurricane season has been extremely quiet. Looks like it is coming to life though, because there are other tropical waves moving off to the Coast of Africa as well that we are monitoring.

Here's a look at the official forecast track from the National Hurricane Center. You could see, it does anticipate this to become a tropical storm before making landfall in the extreme northeastern sections of Mexico. But they do have tropical storm warnings that include the Brownsville, Texas region, extreme southern portions of Texas. And that, again, extends into the extreme northeastern portions of the country of Mexico.

So, what is going on here? Lots of tropical moisture over the Western Gulf of Mexico right now. And there's a frontal boundary just to the north. So, both of these are going to work together to just increase the amount of rain that Texas will receive over the coming days. In fact, the next seven days are looking very impressive in terms of rainfall totals for Texas.

We are actually going to tap into the monsoonal moisture that is impacting the Great Basin, Arizona, New Mexico, currently. And then, the push of moisture from the Gulf of Mexico associated with this tropical system, it is actually going to enhance our rainfall totals for Central and Eastern Texas as well. Of course, they have been under drought conditions. Perhaps some good news that will put a dent in that, but perhaps, a little too much, too quickly.

Today, we have monsoonal flashflood possibilities today across southern portions of Arizona and New Mexico. National Weather Service recognizing that. Flood watches in effect from Phoenix all the way to Albuquerque. A very busy radar at the moment. We'll lookout for the potential for more flash flooding this weekend. Kim.

BRUNHUBER: All right. We will keep on top of that. Derek Van Dam, thank you so much.

And the extreme weather doesn't stop with the U.S. Places all over the globe are suffering from torrential downpours and severe storms, to droughts and wildfires burning out of control. CNN's Melissa Bell has more on the dangerous and wild weather around the world.

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MELISSA BELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): As though Venice needed more water. Crowd sheltering from of the storm that swooped across Europe this week. Violent winds spread havoc across beaches in (INAUDIBLE) Tuscany, with two killed by falling trees on Thursday.

In Corsica, at least five people were killed as hail, heavy rain and winds bashed the islands at 140 miles per hour, uprooting trees and cars. On the French mainland, two standing up to the elements has been proving to be a losing battle.

Elsewhere in Europe, the rain cannot come soon enough, after weeks of drought and extreme heat. Germany's main shipment artery at a standstill. Low water levels along the Rhine, exposing hunger stones that record ancient and more recent droughts.

100-degree heat fueling wildfires in Sicily. And in Eastern Spain, military units putting down fires reignite it after a brief but all too short rainfall. In North Africa, two, at least 37 people have died of forest fires that have destroyed more than two and a half thousand hectares of land.

BELL (on camera): Such weather patterns, although extreme, are not unheard of in Europe. It is more that they are typical of late autumn rather than of summer. Here in Paris, the parched leaves are already partly on the ground. A dire warning that the worst drought on record could yet cause France lost produce and soaring food prices come September.

BELL (voice-over): Farmers rush to save crops in Mainland China too after that worst heat wave in 60 years. Temperatures soaring along the Yangtze River basin for weeks.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): All is scorched. You see, they certainly cannot grow. The high temperatures slowly roasting sweet potato leaves to death.

BELL (voice-over): But some downpours of rain in Northwest China on Wednesday didn't help. Flooding and mudslides killed 17 people, according to China's state broadcaster. Dozens are still missing. And the difficult weather patterns haven't been limited to the northern hemisphere this week. In New Zealand, hundreds of homes evacuated over fears of landslides. Nelson Tasman declaring a state of emergency after four days of torrential rain.

[03:35:00]

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The area basically just collapsed. So, it was a massive landslide happening. So, we check outside and then, we saw the dirt rolling straight to our property.

BELL (voice-over): In South America too, the grasslands on raging fire along the Parana River Delta in Central Argentina. Lives lost, livelihoods destroyed and more damage on the horizon after a week of extreme weather across the planet.

Melissa bell, CNN.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRUNHUBER: One of Iraq's most mystical and lush regions has been battered by the effects of climate change. The Mesopotamian marshes, home of the biblical Garden of Eden, was once a green wetland area, designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2016. But years of drought have reduced it to dried out streams and puddles of muddy water. Any Rockies who have lived off the land say they no longer have enough revenue to support their families.

Well, still to come here on "CNN Newsroom," people forced to leave their homes and everything they have as they tried to escape fierce fighting in Eastern Ukraine.

Plus, how the United Nations is working to help Ukrainians figure out how to rebuild their lives after the devastation of war. Stay with us. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[03:40:00]

BRUNHUBER: The former attorney general of Mexico is now behind bars. Jesus Murillo Karam was arrested on Friday over multiple charges relating to the disappearance of 43 students back in 2014. The arrest comes a day after authorities determine the case to be a crime of the state. It was covered up by the government.

The disappearance has sparked international outrage. The students were on their way to a protest when they were intercepted by security forces and local police. At the time, authority said a local drug gang mistook them for members of a rival group and killed them. Officials say the remains of only three students have been discovered and identified.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ALEJANDRO ENCINAS, MEXICAN UNDERSECRETARY FOR HUMAN RIGHTS, POPULATION AND MIGRATION (through translator): There is no indication the students are alive. On the contrary, all the testimonies and evidence prove they were cunningly killed and disappeared.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRUNHUBER: As Russia's invasion of Ukraine nears the six-month mark, the number of civilians fleeing the war continues to rise. As of Tuesday, more than 6 million refugees have fled Ukrainian cities into neighboring countries like Poland, Slovakia, Romania and Moldova, as well as other European nations. Millions more are displaced within Ukraine.

Late last month, Ukraine announced the mandatory evacuation from the Eastern Donetsk region, which has seen fierce fighting with Russian forces. On Friday, people packed trains leaving the city in the region.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice-over): There are few complications as of now. Still, you feel a lot of pressure when leaving your hometown, your dear place where you were born and grew up. Everything you have is left there.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRUNHUBER: The task of rebuilding Ukraine will be monumental, not just rebuilding the shattered lives of the Ukrainian people, but also reconstructing crucial buildings like airports, factories, schools, hospitals and churches. Ukraine's prime minister has estimated it could cost more than $750 billion.

For more on the rebuilding efforts happening in Ukraine, let's bring in Kelly Clemens, the U.N.'s deputy high commissioner for refugees. Thank you so much for joining us. So, to start, you just returned from Ukraine where you met with government officials as well as many people whose lives have been upended by this war. So, let's start with the broad strokes. What struck you the most from what you saw?

KELLY CLEMENTS, U.N. DEPUTY HIGH COMMISSIONER FOR REFUGEES: Well, a couple of things. First off, there is incredible urgency to try to deliver aid in advance of winter. And although the temperatures right now don't seem to indicate did, it is going to be cold soon. So, in our discussions with government officials at the local level, at the central level, there is a great urgency to deliver and to delivery quickly. And that is something we are dedicated to do in trying bring in as much aid as quickly as possible to displace people.

BRUNHUBER: You know, you haven't been in the country for some, what, 26 years, it must have been really poignant to see just how much damage and how different the country was from when you were last there.

CLEMENTS: Yes. It's incredible destruction. And in some of the areas that we went, particularly around Kyiv, we saw the remnants of what had happened just a couple of months ago. People are trying to get about their daily lives, even in apartment buildings that were largely destroyed you could still see signs of life. You see the plastic sheeting on people's windows to try to keep the cold out. You see laundry hanging up. People are trying to rebuild. They are trying to bring some semblance of normality back.

But obviously, the needs are huge. And we see this kind of destruction in many parts now of Ukraine. And the U.N. refugee agency, working very closely with the government and other partners. We are trying to bring some light and medium repairs to shelters, again, in advance of the winter, and trying to bring some aid that is desperately needed by those that haven't been just displaced once but several times. And this is obviously something I didn't see the last time I was in Ukraine.

[03:45:00]

BRUNHUBER: Yes. And we are just showing some pictures of your visit, and what strikes me is just how severe the damage is. I mean, you talk about sort of light and medium damage. But when it comes to people rebuilding their homes, tell me about those efforts. I mean, how long might it take to rebuild and is it just a matter of repair or does much of it have to be sort of torn down and rebuilt from the ground up?

CLEMENTS: You know, it's the whole range. It is from broken windows to complete destruction. We saw both ends of the spectrum. For us, as a humanitarian agency, it is really the small-scale repairs. There are going to much larger needs that the government will have to do to receive from the International Community. And some of it will have to be full scale reconstruction.

Now, we saw some of this just in the last few days in Ukraine. We saw businesses, gas stations, malls, stores, that sort of thing, already starting to reconstruct roofs, put back on buildings and the like. And some of the houses that we have been repairing, the same. Slates to make sure that holes in roofs where artillery has landed and the like, that we can actually repair and that people can then have some sense of safety and shelter, particularly as the temperatures change.

BRUNHUBER: And, you know, we are talking a lot about buildings and so on. But it is the people, obviously, that really matter. And I know you met with many women, many strong women there in Ukraine. Are there any stories from those you spoke with that you would like to share that really affected you?

CLEMENTS: Oh, gosh, I met quite a number of particularly Ukrainian women, both older women, 75-year-old, an 82-year-old, in a village that had been really devastated back in March. And the 82-year-old taking care of her husband that was largely immobile, and she runs a little farm. She was showing me where the artillery had landed and basically destroyed her greenhouse, making it impossible for her, of course, to protect your vegetables.

But she had incredible strength. And she was talking about how she was going to rebuild, to be able to plant again, to be able to harvest, to be able to not just provide for her own family but for the neighbors as well. Incredible strength and fortitude.

And others, you know, in terms of trying to lean on family, on neighbors and some are that really are quite alone in this war. Also meeting with young mothers and those who have men and husbands and brothers that are fighting in the war, that don't know when the war is going to stop, wanted to stop now, obviously. And trying to, again, continue with their lives.

BRUNHUBER: We only have a minute, but I did want to ask you, the need to so great out there. What more can the International Community do to help?

CLEMENTS: Well, you know, there are 6.6 million internally displaced people in Ukraine. And of course, many Ukrainian refugees that have sought safety elsewhere. The needs are enormous. Sustained support will be essential. There is a $4.3 billion appeal that remains to be supported. And that is something that we, as an International Community, needs to support Ukraine going forward.

BRUNHUBER: Yes. Absolutely. Really appreciate your insights. Kelly Clements, thank you so much for joining us.

CLEMENTS: Thank you very much.

BRUNHUBER: And if you would like to safely and securely help people in Ukraine who obviously need shelter, food, and water, please go to cnn.com/impact. You can find several ways to help there.

The space ball community is rallying behind one of their own, as an injured Little Leaguer makes an amazing recovery. Coming up.

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BRUNHUBER: LIV golf players who filed antitrust proceedings against the PGA will reportedly have to wait well over a year for their case to go to trial. According to ESPN, a U.S. district court judge set January 8, 2024 as the date for the trial to begin. The suit was filed two weeks ago by PGA Tour players who were suspended for signing on with Saudi funded LIV Golf.

And speaking of the PGA Tour, play continued Friday in the BMW Championship with 2013 Masters champion Adam Scott taking a one-shot lead to close day two. Scott said he cannot remember the last time he held a lead on the PGA Tour. The 42-year-old Australian is chasing his 15th career PGA victory. Permanent play continues through Sunday.

Well, baseball teams from around the world are in Williams Port, Pennsylvania aiming for one common goal, winning the Little League World Series. And with them, in spirit, is Eastern Oliverson, who was supposed to be playing for his team from the State of Utah. But he severely fractured his skull in an accident in the players dorms. His teammates honored the 12-year-old by writing messages on their gear and placing them on the field during warm ups. Utah lost its first game but have a chance at redemption on Sunday.

Now, miles away, Oliverson was cheering on his teammates from the hospital. Despite his injuries, Easton surprised doctors when hours after surgery he showed signs of improvement. His family says well wishes from all over the world are helping his recovery.

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And finally, they want to be the very best, like no one ever was. This year's Pokemon World Championships are taking place in London for the first time ever. Players from around the world are competing for the title of Pokemon world champion and half a million dollars in prices. The competition will wrap up on Sunday.

I'm Kim Brunhuber. Back in just a moment with more "CNN Newsroom." Please do stay with us.

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