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Over 15 Million In Central And Southwest U.S. Under Flood Watches; Deadly Siege At Luxury Somalia Hotel Ends; Russian Media Reports, Daughter Of Prominent Putin Supporter Killed When Her Vehicle Exploded In Town Near Moscow. Aired 3-4a ET

Aired August 21, 2022 - 03:00   ET

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

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[03:00:00]

KIM BRUNHUBER, CNN ANCHOR: Live from CNN World Headquarters in Atlanta. 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, extreme rainfall puts millions of Americans under flood watch. We will bring you the report from the CNN Weather Center.

Plus, we're learning that a deadly hotel siege in Somalia is now over. Details on how the hostage situation unfolded ahead.

And an explosion in Moscow engulfs this car in flames. Reports say the daughter of one of the masterminds of Russia's invasion of Ukraine was killed in the blast.

And we begin with the extreme weather threat across the Central and Southwestern U.S., more than 12 million people under flood watches. Heavy rains pummeled Phoenix leaving streets and walkways flooded. Meanwhile, a tropical storm warning has been lifted for Southern Texas, but rain from that system could spread into Oklahoma and Louisiana through midweek.

So, let's talk more about this with CNN Meteorologist Derek Van Dam. Derek, so much going on, what is capturing your eye right now?

DEREK VAN DAM, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Well, some of the new flood watches that have been issued by the National Weather Service encompass some large metropolitans across North, Central Texas, that includes, Dallas/Fort Worth. This is 12 million Americans under flood watches as we speak. Lots going on here and we're trying to get all of it.

But I want you to see what's kind of the broader scope of what is happening. There is this low pressure system that is part of the monsoon that has brought the heavy rain and the flooding you saw a moment ago across Phoenix and into Southern New Mexico. But it is going to combine with the remnants of what was a tropical disturbance just off the coast of south -- Southern Texas.

This system never officially got named. And that doesn't really matter. That's not the important point here. As it moves onshore, it will continue to bring an abundant amount of moisture from the Gulf of Mexico. So, both of these systems that I'm describing here are going to working together, and you can almost see that with this available moisture graphic that I put up behind you. And that is going to enhance the rainfall threat across Central and North Texas, in and around the Dallas/Fort Worth region tonight and into Monday morning. That is a concern here.

So, the computer models varying on how much rain we will see, but the weather projection picking up on this -- some of these indications that flash flooding could be ongoing across Southern Oklahoma, into northern and central portions of Texas, in and around Dallas. Again, so, you could see how this is going to evolve over the next 24 to 36 hours. How much rain? Where will the heaviest rain fall? It's really along that I-20 corridor that bisects the Dallas metropolitan area.

It looks as if the heaviest of rain will fall just to the north of that area. However, if that shifts ever so slightly to the south, we could be talking about several million Americans included in this extreme flood threats.

So, we do have a drought that is ongoing across Texas, but when you combine this amount of rain in this short period of time, and, of course, with the ground so hard, not really able to soak up this amount of precipitation, the localized flash flooding will become a concern.

And it is not just the tropics over the Northwestern Gulf of Mexico we are monitoring another, wave off the coast of Africa has 20 percent chance of development, some of our computer models showing this system trekking across the Atlantic, potentially becoming a tropical system by next week. Kim, lots to talk about.

BRUNHUBER: Yes, absolutely. All right, thanks so much. Derek Van Dam, I appreciate it.

VAN DAM: Yes.

BRUNHUBER: And we've just learned of a deadly siege at a luxury hotel in Somalia is now over. At least 20 people were killed after gunmen stormed the Hayat Hotel in Mogadishu Friday evening. Dozens of others were injured.

So, let's get right to CNN's Larry Madowo who is following the story. Larry, what is the latest?

LARRY MADOWO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The latest, Kim, is that that siege is now officially, over according to Somali security forces. This took more than 30 hours. It's not clear why it took that long.

This siege began Friday evening when a gunman detonated several explosives outside the hotel and then made their way into this four- storey building and began shooting at the guests, at staff. They took some hostages. Several people were rescued, but there were still people who were unaccounted for last night. So, now that this siege is over, we're waiting to hear how many more people could have died inside this building. The fear is the death toll could be much higher, because at least one hospital where many of the wounded were being sent to, they had received some in critical condition and some bodies as well.

[03:05:06]

So, when the situation is now over and they begin to take stock of what exactly happened, that death toll could be significantly higher.

The al-Shabaab is a terrorist group that's linked to Al Qaeda. One senior U.S. official has described it as Al Qaeda's largest global affiliate. The U.S. (INAUDIBLE) Command estimates that it has between 5,000 10,000 fighters in Somalia. It was driven out of the capital of Mogadishu, but it controls parts of Southern and Central Somalia, and has been fighting the government there for more than ten years.

This will be the first time, Kim, that this group has targeted the capital of Mogadishu since the election of President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud in May. And he's promised to eliminate the group. So, this seems to be a message to his new administration that al-Shabaab remains strong and will continue to attack the government, to attack the country. This group has carried out attacks all across Somalia, even here in Kenya at a mall, at a university, at a hotel complex. So, it really seems to be expanding its work in the country, Kim.

BRUNHUBER: Disturbing development there. All right, Larry Madowo in Nairobi, Kenya, thanks so much.

We are following news reports out of Russia that the daughter of a Russian intellectual, known as Putin's brain, was killed when the car she was driving blew up near Moscow. According to Russian news agency, TASS, Darya Dugina died when there was an explosion and she lost control. An acquaintance of the family told TASS that the vehicle actually belonged to her family, Alexander Dugin. Video of the scene shows a vehicle in flames. You can see it there.

Dugina's father is a prominent right-wing ideologue who has been called the spiritual guide to Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

And in Ukraine, three more victims have been recovered from an apartment building razed in a Russian rocket strike on Kharkiv. The death toll from the attack on Ukraine's second largest city now stands at least 18 people. Ukraine says that it hit a three-storey building Wednesday night and emergency services are still searching for victims.

In the south, Ukraine is showing video of a strike on a Russian counter-artillery radar. The footage shows massive explosions there that reportedly also destroyed a number of Russian military vehicles on Friday.

The French and Russian leaders are expected to keep talking in the coming days to work out the details on inspections as soon as possible at Ukraine's Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant. Moscow and Paris say Russian President Vladimirt Putin has agreed to allow IEIA inspectors into the plant.

With us, Sam Kiley reports any questions about the inspections remain.

SAM KILEY, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Amid international concerns that there could be a nuclear catastrophe in the worst case scenario, a total meltdown of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, it is being seen by some as a step forward to have extracted from Vladimir Putin a concession that perhaps it would be desirable to see inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Authority get into that location, just about 30 kilometers south of where I am.

Now, that was extracted by Emmanuel Macron, the French president, during a phone call with the Russian president, but it's actually a repeat of the pre-existing Russian position. And it doesn't come alongside a concession from the Russians to demilitarize the nuclear power station, which is what the international community has been demanding and requesting.

It doesn't solve the problem of how inspectors could get in there safely and get out again, because we do know that that is a location that's being used by Russians to fire missiles against Ukrainian targets. Indeed, over the last month or so, they've killed at least 13 civilians in Nikopol, just across the Dnipro River from that location. And we have witnessed the destruction caused by missiles much closer in.

Now, at the same time, the Russians are claiming the Ukrainians are firing back. There is no supporting evidence from that, either from satellite analysis that we've done at CNN nor from Ukrainian eyewitnesses who have recently escaped from that location and whom I've spoken to the last few hours.

Now, of course, we've only got their word for it but they are consistent in their claims that they believe that the Russians are firing low-leveled mortar-type weapons in order to make the Ukrainians look bad but caused no real damage or no actual damage to their own lines.

But this is all part of the very complex process of a conventional, almost Second World War-type war going on here, and then on top of that, a very complex, 21st century hybrid warfare.

Sam Kiley, CNN, in Zaporizhzhia.

BRUNHUBER: Ukraine says more than 40 percent of its schools and universities are ready to resume classes next month, which means that many kids will be headed to school despite risks of fighting, missile strikes and nuclear disaster. And Ukrainian teachers will have the extra jobs due to calm the fears of those in their care.

Iryna Shevchuk is an English teacher in Ukraine and she's also part of a group, Smart Osvita, which facilitates online workshops and training for teachers, and also works on free online classes with teachers from Ukraine and around the world, and she joins me now from Lviv.

[03:10:09] Thank you so much for being here with us.

So, the new school year is starting. Describe what it is like for kids and for teachers who will be heading back to class, some of them for the first time since the war started.

IRYNA SHEVCHUK, ENGLISH TEACHER WITH "SMART OSVITA": So, hello, greetings. Nice to meet you here. You know, the new school year has always been associated with some pleasant emotions just sharing this experience, welcome meetings, new school supplies, school begs and so on. But this year is quite a different school year. I mean, that we are caring about shelters, renovation and take care of our basements and also alarms. And more always is the best (ph) situation, yes.

So, we have spoken about the (INAUDIBLE) we can't afford to, yes, going to offline study. But when we speak about students who can't do it, who are not able to do it, that is why it is very difficult to tell someone a conclusion to tell some important things about it, because, you know, I'm an adult and I am a teacher. And I know that I need to support, but sometimes it is very difficult to do it because this trauma of war affected ever Ukrainian student.

It doesn't matter in hot areas or if they are not in a hot area here from the first grade and on teachers and everybody, the educational system, depending on the number of wants (INAUDIBLE). But I should say that there aren't any (INAUDIBLE), not students and teachers -- I mean, not physical but mentally.

BRUNHUBER: Yes, that is exactly it, you know? I mean, we're showing some pictures of damaged schools and so much infrastructures have been damage, their homes, as well. And not only do the teachers have those challenges, as you say, I mean, they have to try and help those students emotionally. And as you've said, they're trying to cope with the stress of war, maybe the loss as well. I don't imagine anything will have prepared many of the teachers for this. So, how do they handle this extra psychological burden?

SHEVCHUK: You know, first of all, we try to support each other. I mean, equally. Yes, students support me, I support them, yes. The (INAUDIBLE), how to say it, don't leave our classroom, don't leave our meeting without hugging. We stay in touch all times. If we need talk, we can talk on social media. So, we discuss. We ask for advice. And, moreover, I think it helps to plan. We plan a lot of excursions in the future. We plan a lot of things to do, like we plan to celebrate our victory together, our future gathering, of course.

Yes, of course, it's difficult and also teachers need to look for some advices, I mean, doctor advices, how to handle this stressful situation, some advocates for small children, so on, yes, because it's also important. But I think that this support, this (INAUDIBLE) and understanding that we need to stay up, when you to be strong. It helps.

BRUNHUBER: Yes, absolutely. And, you know, there are extra challenges for some who are trying to learn in areas of the country that are currently controlled by Russia. I mean, we are hearing how Russia is sending in its own teachers, literally burning Ukrainian textbooks, presumably not just to rewrite history, but to shape the present. Is it fair to say that the classroom has become its own front in this war?

SHEVCHUK: So, it isn't only (INAUDIBLE) shout about it. Because this Russians war, it's not a war army against army here. It's like planned destruction of our Ukrainian nation. It's like, I should say, genocide of our nation because, actually, what a lot of (INAUDIBLE), not only one, they destroy our culture, literature, our education. And, remember, Volodymyr Vynnychenko, who wants to be Ukraine means to be constantly in the state of proving one's right to exist. They just want to vanish us as a nation. Yes, that's why it's not only like armed conflict, it's fair and we should do everything in order to stay and not to (INAUDIBLE).

BRUNHUBER: You work extensively with international education groups and NGOs. So, we're wondering what more can be done to help this generation of Ukrainian students?

[03:15:01]

SHEVCHUK: Okay. You see, first of all, I want to thank the international community for this enormous support. It's really enormous because we receive not only material but also spiritual, mental support for our teachers and for our students. And this support doesn't allow us to give.

You're faith in our country, yes, it's like emphatic that (INAUDIBLE) and we still crawl, go, yes, move, run to our victory, just stay with us be (INAUDIBLE) us, and in order that our kids, our students, they see that all world together is on our side is going to help us not only with food but with universities, with your education system, medicine, everything, it gives us a big hope for our perfect and peaceful future.

BRUNHUBER: Yes, a great message there to end on. Iryna Shevchuk, English teacher and a member of the group, Smart Osvita, thanks so much for joining us and all the best to you and all of the teachers and students out there who have to deal with all these challenges.

SHEVCHUK: Thank you for this opportunity and your support.

BRUNHUBER: Former U.S. Vice President Mike Pence is weighing in on the search of FBI search of Mar-a-Lago. Coming up, we'll tell you what Pence had to say about dealing with classified materials upon leaving office.

And Texas has been sending thousands of migrants to New York. So, find out what the city is doing to make them feel welcome. Stay with us.

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BRUNHUBER: The Biden administration isn't commenting publicly on the FBI search of Donald Trump's home in Florida, but, privately, many officials admit they are concerned that top secret documents were seized from the former president. Trump claims he issued a standing order to declassify the materials but 18 ex-Trump officials dispute that any such was ever given.

CNN's Arlette Saenz has the latest.

ARLETTE SAENZ, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: The White House has largely refrained from weighing in on the FBI search of Mar-a-Lago, but CNN has learned that U.S. officials have expressed concern over those classified documents taken by former President Donald Trump, especially when it comes to what it could mean for the intelligence community moving forward.

Now, the White House does not have any window into what exactly was contained in that material, but officials are concerned that it could put the sources and methods that the intelligence community uses to gather information at risk. There are also some diplomatic concerns as well, and whether there might be any tensions with allies over some of those documents that were taken by the former president.

Now, the White House has really adopted this very tightlipped strategy when it comes to addressing that FBI search, trying to maintain some distance from the Justice Department's investigation. The White House had said that President Biden has not been briefed on the probe and that they are simply learning of the latest developments as they have emerged through the press.

Now, meanwhile, the man who served alongside former President Donald Trump, former Vice President Mike Pence, said that he took a different approach to classify documents when he left office. In a recent interview with the Associated Press, Pence was directly asked whether he retained any classified information when he left the White House. And he responded, quote, no, not to my knowledge. He also did not refrain -- declined to weigh in any further on that FBI search and the documents that the former president might have taken, saying, quote, I honestly don't want to prejudge it before until we know all of the facts.

So, so far, no further comment from the former vice president as to the way that President Trump handled those documents, but the current White House, behind closed doors, is has expressing concern about this all played out.

Arlette Saenz, CNN, traveling with the president in Wilmington, Delaware.

BRUNHUBER: Now, we don't know what Trump -- why had Trump had classified documents at his home. There is only conjecture and various competing claims. But Trump's former attorney and so-called fixer, Michael Cohen, says he thinks he knows why. Listen to this.

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MICHAEL COHEN, TRUMP'S EX-LAWYER: Donald had no right to take those documents. Those documents don't belong to him. They belong to the American people and they belong to the National Archive. Every president over the last 50, 60 years have complied with exactly the National Archive request for all documents to be stored there, not at their private residence.

Now, I am not talking about the love letters from Kim Jong-un or the love letters from Vladimir Putin or Erdogan or any of the dictators that Donald Trump decided to befriend. I'm talking about sensitive, classified information. And, really, the question is not so much what the documents are but why Donald had them there. And I've been very forthright when I turn around and I say that I believe Donald was going to use it as a get out of jail free card. I think he was going to look to ultimately openly extort America in order to prevent them from incarcerating him or at least indicting him.

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BRUNHUBER: Cohen worked closely with Trump for more than a decade, and said he absolutely, 100 percent believes Trump was capable of using top secret documents as a shield from prosecution.

New York City is seeing an influx of migrants as the new school year is set to begin, many of them Spanish-speaking. Now, this as the governor of Texas sends migrants to the Big Apple in a bid to criticize White House immigration policies.

CNN's Jean Casarez looks at what the city is doing to welcome the new arrivals and what it is calling Project Open Arms.

JEAN CASAREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The project is called Open Arms, and we want to explain to everyone exactly what is happening. As the buses arrive to port authority in New York City, which is really the bus terminal, they are met as they get off the bus and they are taken to the first station where they can get clothes, anything they may need.

[03:25:00]

They are then taken to where they can get toiletries and then school supplies, whatever they think they may need.

Next, it's housing, and there was a bidding process going on right now, with New York City hotels, to house some of these migrants, to give them rooms. They are also shelters. And New York City wants to have schools that are close to where the families are living, because that close proximity is good.

I want you to listen to the New York City chancellor of education. Take a listen.

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DAVID BANKS, CHANCELLOR, NEW YORK CITY DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION: Already, our incredible public school staff are stepping up, working tirelessly to ensure a smooth transition for these new students with minimal disruption in their education.

GARY JENKINS, COMMISSIONER, NEW YORK CITY DEPARTMENT OF SOCIAL SCIENCES: As more families arrive, we will be prepared to support their needs and quickly enroll them in school so that we are doing everything we can to preserve stability for them as they focus on their education.

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CASAREZ: Now let's look at the figures. Since May, there have been 6,000 migrants that have come to New York City since early August, which was about three weeks ago, there had been 600 that have come. And they think that about 1,000 children, kindergarten through eighth grade, at this point, will be entering the New York City school system.

Now, there are some issues that they are still working on. They don't have enough bilingual teachers. They're working with the government of the Dominican Republic to bring Spanish-speaking teachers to New York City. And, finally, they are asking the federal government for money, for everything that they are doing, for these migrants here in New York City.

Jean Casarez, CNN, New York.

BRUNHUBER: All right. We're going to take a quick break. If you are joining us from here in North America, we'll have more news in just a moment. For the rest the world, African Voices Change Makers is next. Please stay with us.

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BRUNHUBER: Welcome back. I'm Kim Brunhuber. This is CNN NEWSROOM. In Utah, extreme weather forced a search and rescue mission at Zion National Park Saturday. Park officials say several hikers were swept off their feet by a flash flood. One person is still missing. Parts of the park are closed while officials continue the search.

And it's not just Utah experiencing extreme weather. More than 15 million people across the southwestern and central U.S. are under flood watches. Parts of Arizona, New Mexico, and West Texas, the risk of flash flooding is high with these areas expecting heavy rain and thunderstorms throughout the day.

Now despite the flash floods in parts of the southwestern U.S., water levels continue to fall in the crucial Colorado River, the main water source for cities like Phoenix, Arizona. Officials there are desperate to find ways to conserve water and avoid a looming disaster as CNN's Bill Weir explains.

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BILL WEIR, CNN CHIEF CLIMATE CORRESPONDENT: Summer monsoons are adding a few precious inches to the Lake Mead water lien but not nearly enough. America's largest reservoir still 25 feet lower than last summer, so this fall parts of Phoenix will see unprecedented tier 2 cuts of their share of the Colorado River, joining Arizona farmer at the end of the water rights line. Do you foresee a day when it's tier 3, tier 4 mandatory cuts that will get really severe?

KATHRYN SORENSON, DIR. OF RESEARCH, KYL CENTER FOR WATER POLICY: So absolutely. I am genuinely worried about the possibility of this system hitting dead pool.

WEIR: You are?

SORENSON: Absolutely I am.

WEIR: Dead pool is when Mead gets low enough to crash the whole Colorado system. And when Kathryn Sorenson was running water departments at Phoenix and Mesa, it was the biggest worry, but now it's worse. And the feds are begging western states to cut up to one out of every four gallons consumed.

I know from our reporting there were some western water managers that were frustrated that the Bureau of Reclamation wasn't tougher. They said you guys work it out or we'll work it out for you, but they didn't do that. What are your thoughts on that?

SORENSON: Well you know, it is disappointing because the longer that we have to endure the uncertainty, the more at risk the entire system is. And I don't envy the federal government, you know, the Biden administration. They have some really tough choices to make. No elected official wants to be the person saying who gets water and who doesn't. I'm sure they are desperately searching for the least worst options, but in the meantime water levels continue to fall.

DOUG DUCY (R), ARIZONA GOVERNOR: And we will invest heavily in conservation, efficiency, reuse, and advanced water technologies like desalination.

WEIR: Arizona's outgoing governor wants to build a desalination plant in Mexico and canals in Kansas to bring more water eventually, but in the meantime the call to use less puts fresh scrutiny on thirsty industries like golf, especially after an Arizona Republic investigation found that 30 to 50 percent of courses here use more than their share of water with little oversight.

State records show that the water cops of Arizona have issued a punishment against a golf course exactly twice in the last 20 years, so it's pretty obvious that from the feds down to the locals people aren't exactly lining up to be the tough sheriff desperately needed to tame water use in the wild west.

SORENSON: I don't golf, so I don't feel a need to defend golf, but I will say this. People focus on it because it's visible, but there are lots of things about what we do, what we consume, what we eat, what we wear that are also very water intensive. So I don't like to think of it in terms of we don't have enough water. I like to think of it in terms of what do we have enough water for. Do we want to build semiconductor factories or do we want to grow cotton? Do we want to grow subdivisions or do we want to have high-density development that is more water efficient? Those are the conversations we need to have. WEIR: Bill Weir, CNN, Phoenix.

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BRUNHUBER: China is enduring its worst heat wave in 60 years with no relief in sight. Multiple cities in South-Central China have bee reporting temperatures above 104 degrees Fahrenheit. That's more than 40 degrees Celsius.

In the Yangtze River, water levels have fallen dramatically over the last few months. The drying river has revealed Buddhist statues thought to be more than 600 years old sitting atop a newly-exposed island.

[03:35:00]

Now monkeypox has caused officials to declare a local public health emergency in King County, Washington. The emergency proclamation was signed on Friday. Officials say it will give them the flexibility to respond effectively. There have been nearly 300 confirmed cases of monkeypox in the county. The Biden administration has declared monkeypox to be a national public health emergency with 14,000 cases confirmed by the CDC.

Polio is making a comeback. Last month one case was diagnosed in Rockland County in the state of New York. The polio virus was found in wastewater in New York City just a few weeks later, but the CDC says further testing shows it was in state water as early as April.

Now health officials say this discovery is just the tip of the iceberg. Earlier we talked to CNN Medical Expert, Dr. Leana Wen, about the dangers of polio, especially for children. Here she is.

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DR. LEANA WEN, CNN MEDICAL ANALYST: This is a virus that used to lead to disabilities, permanent disabilities, incurable disabilities for tens of thousands of children every year, that killed thousands of kids in the U.S. every year.

I mean, when I went to medical school we learned about polio as a disease of history, as something that doesn't affect people in the U.S. acutely anymore, but now it's reemerging.

And what you were saying is exactly right that even one case of paralytic polio is a public health emergency because one case illustrates that there may be hundreds of other cases that are out there that are spreading without our knowledge. This is a real emergency when we're seeing diseases that were otherwise preventable and were otherwise eliminated in the U.S. now coming back because of lack of vaccination.

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BRUNHUBER: All right. Still to come here on CNN NEWSROOM, the widow of basketball star Kobe Bryant breaks down as she describes her panic attacks and anxiety over crash scene photos. We'll have a report from Los Angeles.

Plus after Alex Baldwin deflects blame for last year's fatal movie set shooting and says the tragedy, quote, "has taken years off his life." CNN's one-on-one interview with Baldwin next. Stay with us.

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BRUNHUBER: A SWAT standoff in Ohio leads to two being shot and killed. The suspects have allegedly fired shots from inside a home at a car Friday night. That lead to what local media says was a nine-hour standoff. Police didn't give details on the shooting of the suspects. Photos and video taken by residents show a SWAT vehicle with two bullet holes in the windshield.

A local police official told CNN it was the first officer-involved shooting in the area in many, many years.

Police say actor Gary Busey is facing sex offense charges for an incident that allegedly happened during the annual Monster Mania convention in New Jersey. Police in Cherry Hill say the 78-year-old faces two counts of criminal sexual contact and two other charges for the incident last weekend. CNN has reached out to representatives of Busey for comment. Police say the investigation is ongoing.

More testimony expected in the federal civil lawsuit against Los Angeles county over leaked graphic photos of the helicopter crash that killed basketball star Kobe Bryant, his daughter, and seven others. Bryant's widow was very emotional when she took the stand on Friday. CNN's Natasha Chen has details.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NATASHA CHEN, U.S. NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT, CNN: We heard tearful testimony from Vanessa Bryant on Friday as she told heartbreaking stories of new panic attacks she's never had before but that she started experiencing that after she found out through an "L.A. Times" article about a month after the crash that L.A. county sheriff's deputies and county firefighters had taken and shared close-up images of her loved ones' remains from the crash site.

She talked about the moment she found out about that, how she was with family and had to run out of the house so that her daughters would not see her fall apart. She said that she felt in that moment like running and screaming and jumping into the ocean but, quote, "I can't escape my body, I can't escape what I feel."

She also talked about disturbing messages she would get from strangers online. One of them was even shown to us in the courtroom, a direct message on Instagram from someone using helicopter and flame emojis and threatening to leak the images of Kobe's body.

Now Vanessa Bryant is a co-plaintiff this case. She's been sitting next to Chris Chester, who also lost his wife and daughter in the same crash. Both of them have described this fear and anxiety that these photos could someday surface and that it's a feeling on top of the grief they already felt from losing family members. Now the county in defense has emphasized that neither of them have ever seen any of these photos surface on the internet.

Sheriff Alex Villanueva was on the stand later in the afternoon and he stated that his highest priority was to stop these photos from getting out, in other words, to not let the horses out of the barn. And so he asked the deputies to delete the photos in question instead of waiting for a formal proper investigation to go through.

And the plaintiff's attorneys asked him, does he know for a fact they were all deleted? And he said, I believe that they were deleted. When further pushed on that he said, quote, "Well, God knows, and that's about it." back to you.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BRUNHUBER: Well, now to the latest on the child pornography and sexual abuse trial of singer R. Kelly. Now a grown woman who 20 years ago denied she had sex with Kelly or recorded a sex tape with him took the stand this week, she was called "Jane" to protect her identity.

Jane testified in court that she was only 14 when she recorded a sex tape with Kelly and 15 when she first had sex with him. Kelly is on trial for multiple charges, including producing and receiving child pornography, enticing minors for criminal sexual activity, and obstruction. And he has pleaded not guilty.

Actor Alec Baldwin spoke to CNN about the fatal shooting on the set of the film "Rust" last year. He says he doesn't believe he or anyone else will face criminal charges from the incident which killed cinematographer Elaina Hutchins but he calls it a tragic episode that has taken years off his life and cost him professionally. CNN's Chloe Melas says more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CHLOE MELAS, CORRESPONDENT, CNN: Ten months in, and confusion still persists over the sequence of events that led to a deadly shooting on the set of "Rust." This week an FBI report concluded this gun could not be fired without the trigger being pulled while the gun was cocked, and eventually malfunctioned after internal parts fractured.

In his first interview with CNN, Alec Baldwin denies pulling the trigger.

ALEC BALDWIN, ACTOR: I never once said, never, that the gun went off in my hand automatically. I always said I pulled the hammer back, and I pulled it back as far as I could. I never took a gun and pointed it at somebody and clicked the thing.

[03:45:00]

MELAS: While waiting for the results of the Santa Fe County sheriff's office investigation, Baldwin says he hired his own investigator. BALDWIN: That private investigator, as you probably know, did not have

a difficult time accessing the staff of the sheriff's department. And that person told us, quote, unquote, we've known in the department since January that Alec would not be charged with a crime.

MELAS: A sentiment echoed by his attorney.

Do you think that there is a possibility, though, that he could face charges at all?

AARON DYER, BALDWIN'S ATTORNEY: It would be a huge miscarriage of justice.

MELAS: But the then-president fanned flames against him.

BALDWIN: The former president of the United States said, he probably shot her on purpose. To me, what is really the only time I thought that I needed -- that I was worried about what was going to happen. Because here was Trump, who instructed people to commit acts of violence, and he was pointing the finger at me and saying, I was responsible for the death.

MELAS: No one has been charged for the tragedy on set, but Baldwin said there are two people responsible. Armorer Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, and assistant director Dave Halls. Through their attorneys they accuse Baldwin of deflecting blame. But Baldwin points to the findings of an occupational safety report.

BALDWIN: Hannah Reed handed the gun to Halls and said, "Don't give to it Alec until I get back to the set, I've got to go do something else." And he proceeded to the set, and "A," handed me the gun.

MELAS: Baldwin said Gutierrez Reed should have known the difference between dummy rounds which make a rattling sound and live ammunition.

BALDWIN: I mean anybody on earth who works in that business can determine that.

MELAS: Baldwin raised questions about the supplier of guns and ammunition for the film, Seth Kenny, who is being sued by the armorer.

BALDWIN: What was the provenance of all the bullets on the set? Where did those come from?

MELAS: Well, according to the FBI report, as far as I'm aware, the bullets were commingled.

BALDWIN: Right. So if that's the case, then who commingled them? Did Seth Kenny provide her with prop ammunition where he commingled live rounds with blank rounds?

MELAS: Questions Baldwin says kept him up at neat as he replayed the final days of a talented friend and cinematographer.

BALDWIN: And she was great at her job. And she died. She died. And that's -- that hurts me every day. You know, every day of my life, I think about that. It's horrible.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MELAS: In January the film's armorer, Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, sued the movie's gun and ammunition supplier, accusing it's founder, Seth Kenny, of selling her a cache of dummy ammunition with live rounds mixed in. Now Kenny's attorney filed an answer last month denying any allegations and asking the court to dismiss the case but admitting his company was the sole supplier of ammunition to the set.

In my wide-ranging interview with Alec Baldwin, he said the last ten months had been tough, especially when it comes to finding work and he's been nird from five jobs, just one the other day. But he says he's leaning on the support of his family, specifically his wife, Hilaria Baldwin, who's expecting their seventh child this fall. Back to you.

All right, when we come back, dozens of businesses are testing a way to fight office burnout. Well, how does a four-day workweek sound? We'll see how it's working out for one company ahead. Stay with us.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Keep your hands in. Oh. Hey. I don't know, baby, they --

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh no. No, no, no, no --

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BRUNHUBER: Wow, well you're looking at a brand new slide at a public park in the U.S. forced to shut down just hours after opening. You can see why there. When kids started catching way too much air. Luckily, there were no reports of injuries among the riders who gave the six- lane metal slide a try. But, it was clearly not an experience for the faint of heart.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I was going down way faster than I thought I was. Gravity hurts.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (off-camera): As you were going down the slide what was going through your mind?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Man, I'm going to die.

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BRUNHUBER: Officials at the Belle Isle Park in Detroit say they'll be making some adjustments to slow the ride down. I imagine so. Many in the U.K. are hoping to usher in a new era of work. Thousands

tested the four-day schedule this summer. CNN's Clare Sebastian spoke to one company that made the change.

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CLARE SEBASTIAN (voice-over): Red means don't disturb. This traffic light system just one of the ways this London P.R. firm is trying to squeeze five days work into four.

SAMANTHA LOSEY; MANAGING DIRECTOR UNITY: And that was the single most transformative thing for us. People put their light on red, you have to respect it.

SEBASTIAN (voice-over): Seventy companies across the U.K. and now more than two months into this experiment, moving staff to a four-day week but keeping their pay the same in the hopes that they get the same amount of work done as before.

Here at Unity there are now clear limits on meeting times and strict hand-overs required so that half the team can have Mondays off and half get Fridays.

SEBASTIAN: Why did you take part in this experiment?

LOSEY: It was really, really simple, in fact. We were in the middle of the pandemic. I was so afraid for myself, but also for the team that we were just burning out really, really quickly. And I started thinking about ways to help with this.

OK.

SEBASTIAN (voice-over): It was a rocky start.

LOSEY: We missed things. People didn't sort of communicate well with each other. Things got dropped. And it felt like, what have I done?

SEBASTIAN: Those guys over there have their lights in green.

SEBASTIAN (voice-over): For the team though, those early challenges were worth it.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm really, really enjoying it. I think my mental health is honestly so much better.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (voice-over): I feel like I'm a better friend on my fifth day, so I feel like I have more space to be there for my friends and be there for my family.

SEBASTIAN (voice-over): Critics though have previously argued the four-day week would end up raising costs for businesses, especially public services like healthcare.

SEBASTIAN: Is this going to be a sort of peak for the elite do you think? JOE O'CONNER, CEO 4 DAY WORK WEEK GLOBAL: No, I don't believe so. This isn't going to happen all at once, but we believe that we are at the beginning. Even though the five-day work week and the nine-to-five is the most common work arrangement today. It's not the only work arrangement. So, different versions of reduced work time will need to be put in place for different sectors of the economy.

SEBASTIAN (voice-over): Here at Unity they say there's another advantage. It's helping attract talent.

LOSEY: Recruitment was really difficult and now we're absolutely inundated. I -- we get more offers every week from people coming to us than we could ever possibly use.

[03:55:06]

(Inaudible).

SEBASTIAN: Are people actually working less or are they just sort of packing it into the four days and the evenings and the weekends?

LOSEY: No.

SEBASTIAN: And working secretly? Is it really working this time?

LOSEY: Definitely. Definitely. I think the only person who's doing all of those things is me. And that, I am, I'm secretly working every weekend. It's not every secret. I'm like Saturday, Sunday.

SEBASTIAN (voice-over): She admits it's still too early to know if staff will continue to produce the needed work in less time. But the hope is it could become permanent. And maybe one day the boss will get a day off too.

Clare Sebastian, CNN, London.

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BRUNHUBER: There was a pressure-filled rematch of two Olympic boxing giants. Ukrainian boxer Oleksandr Usyk defeated Brittan's Anthony Joshua in a split-point decision Saturday in Saudi Arabia.

Well, it was down to the wire into the 12th round with Usyk eking out single-digit victories from two of the three judges. The win means Usyk gets to retain his four title belts. After his victory, Usyk received praise from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

In Saudi Arabia held its first-ever publicly broadcast boxing match between women on Saturday. Featherweight Ramla Ali defeated Crystal Garcia Nova in Jeddah. The 32-year-old won in a first-round knockout, improving her career record to seven wins, zero losses.

Ramla Ali was born in Somalia before fleeing to the U.K. as a child. She's the first Muslim woman to win the British boxing national title. The first Somali, man or woman, to compete in boxing at the Olympics. Ali has also helped start the Somali Boxing Federation. I'm Kim Brunhuber, I'll be back in a moment with more CNN Newsroom.

Please do stay with us.

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