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Ukraine: Nuclear Plant Cut From Ukrainian Power Grid; Google Searches For "Ukraine" Trending Down; U.S. Republican Senator Meets With Taiwan's Leader; Former U.K. Ambassador Charged With Immigration Crime; Judge Orders Release Of Redacted Affidavit By Friday; Growing Outcry After Nicaragua Detains Bishop; Growing Outcry after Nicaragua Detains Bishop; Record-Breaking European Heat Will be Normal by 2035; Venezuelan Men Hope to Honor Relative with New Life. Aired 1-2a ET
Aired August 26, 2022 - 01:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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[01:00:32]
MICHAEL HOLMES, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, and welcome to our viewers joining us all around the world. Appreciate your company. I'm Michael Holmes.
Coming up here on the program. Crisis averted after Europe's biggest nuclear plant is yanked from Ukraine's power grid. How towns near the plant are preparing for a potential disaster. Plus, coming out swinging, U.S. President Biden blasting Donald Trump in his first speech of the midterm season. And could this be the new normal? Why scientists say the record-breaking heat is here to stay.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Live from CNN Center. This is CNN Newsroom with Michael Holmes.
HOLMES: The largest nuclear plant in Ukraine has been disconnected from the nation's power grid once again sparking fears of a potential disaster. Ukraine says it happened after fires damaged the last remaining power line out of the Zaporizhzhia plant on Thursday. Kyiv and Moscow have been trading blame over outages at the facility, which has been held by Russian forces since March.
While still not connected to the grid, power has been restored to the plant itself. And that is critical because it needs power to call its reactors to prevent them from melting down. President Zelenskyy says his government is not taking any chances.
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VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY, UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT (through translation): I want to assure all Ukrainians we're doing everything to prevent an emergency scenario. But it depends not only on our state. International pressure is needed that will force the occupiers to immediately withdraw from their territory, others after reaching a nuclear power plant. The IAEA and other international organizations must act much faster than now. Because every minute of the Russian military staying at a nuclear plant is a risk of global radiation disaster.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HOLMES: Now the disconnection is raising concerns that Moscow might be drained to divert electricity from Zaporizhzhia to occupied parts of Ukraine. The U.N. nuclear watchdog has also been pushing for its inspectors to go to the plant. The agency's director now optimistic that might happen soon.
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RAFAEL GROSSI, IAEA DIRECTOR GENERAL: I think now there is a general recognition that we need to be there, we need to be there soon. Kyiv accepts it. Moscow accepts it. We need to go and we are going to be there hopefully very, very soon.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Very soon, days or weeks?
GROSSI: Days.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HOLMES: Now power losses might -- not might be the biggest but they're not the only threat to the Zaporizhzhia plant. Sam Kiley with that.
SAM KILEY, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: There are two major threats to the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant. The one civilian, the other military and civilian threat a technical issue reared its head today with two power cuts effectively, the power supply to the nuclear power station was severed. There were four lines that was down to one that was cut the Ukrainian say as a result of Russian shelling. The Russian say as a result of a short circuit.
Either way, the danger is that if that is cut and then not reconnected as it has been, the cooling system to the two functioning nuclear reactors there could be in danger. There is backup generators that are diesel powered, but they can be unreliable and they rely obviously on the supplies of diesel going into a war zone. But the other issue is military and that also poses a severe threat.
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KILEY (voice-over): A fireman tests for radioactive fallout. It's an essential ritual repeated several times a day. It's safe for now.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All OK.
KILEY (voice-over): But the war and the shelling that puts this city of the frontline of a potential nuclear disaster continues.
(on-camera): The pattern over the last month has been that the city has been hit mostly at night. But in the last week, the locals are telling us that there's been regular attacks during the daytime more or less at exactly this time of day, around about 3:00.
(voice-over): While communications are reestablished, an officer explains where the shelling is coming from, pointing to three locations close to a Ukrainian nuclear power station captured by Russia in March.
[01:05:00]
And now Ukraine's top nuclear official is raising fears that Russian trucks which have been parked inside the plant turbine hall could be laden with explosives or cause an accidental fire.
PETRO KOTIN, ENERGOATOM PRESIDENT: And if it happens, then there will be major fire in pro-buying whole and after that it can actually impact the reactor building.
KILEY (on-camera): Essentially, are you saying that that risks a meltdown of the reactor?
KOTIN: Yes, it could be because, you know, you cannot stop this fire if it goes.
KILEY (voice-over): There's been a renewed exodus of civilians living under Russian occupation in the towns close to Europe's biggest nuclear power plant. Safely and Ukrainian held Zaporizhzhia, they consistently told CNN that Russian troops were bombarding locations close to the plant shelling that Russia blames on Ukraine.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translation): The Internet is switched off before it starts.
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KILEY: Now international inspectors may be able to get to that power plant in the next few days. But it won't solve the significant problem that this is a nuclear power plant for the first time in history that is on the frontline of an international war and it is the first time that this nuclear power station has ever been cut from the Ukrainian network. Both of those factors unlikely to be solved merely by inspections.
Sam Kiley, CNN in Kyiv.
HOLMES: Now as the war in Ukraine grinds on, Russia is expanding the size of its armed forces. They will grow by more than 130,000 people, according to a decree signed Thursday by President Vladimir Putin. That means Russia will have more than 2 million members in its military, including more than 1.1 million service personnel. A recent U.S. estimate puts Russia and losses in Ukraine at between 70,000 and 80,000 troops killed or wounded.
Russia meanwhile pushing a counter narrative about a horrific strike on a railway station in southeastern Ukraine. It claims Wednesday's attack hit a Ukrainian military unit on its way to the Donbas. The Russian Defense Ministry claims without any evidence that more than 200 Ukrainian troops were killed. But Ukraine maintains the strikes left at least 25 civilians dead and more than 30 others injured. One survivor says he lost everything.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translation): There is no car, there is no house, shed, nothing. We got home, just walked in three more explosions that were to near the railway. And somewhere further. This is what Russia does to us.
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HOLMES: Meanwhile, Russia has indicated it is open to possible peace talks. The head of the Duma's foreign affairs committee telling state run media, quote, "If the Ukrainian side declares that it is ready for negotiations at any level in any format, then we will discuss and react." No response from the Ukrainian government which of course previously is ruled out giving up any territory in return for peace with Russia.
Ukraine is talking with the U.S. so the country's president spoke on Thursday with Joe Biden congratulating Volodymyr Zelenskyy on the 31st anniversary of Ukraine's independence from the Soviet Union. According to the White House, the U.S. also reiterated its ongoing support a day after pledging a massive military aid package.
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KARINE JEAN-PIERRE, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: We announced the $3 billion tranche yesterday, that shows our support for Ukraine, that shows our long-term support for Ukraine and we're going to continue to support them as long as they need our help.
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HOLMES: Now that $3 billion in U.S. security assistance includes all the military hardware you see listed there on your screen. President Zelenskyy calling this, quote, the best gift for Ukraine on its Independence Day, and expressing particular gratitude for the anti- aircraft missile systems.
Western military aid is pouring in for now. But how long will it keep coming? Now there are indications that international news watchers are reaching their saturation point for news from Ukraine. But if people outside, that country lose interest in the war, will their governments do the same and reduce their support?
For more I'm joined by Nigel Gould-Davies, a senior fellow at the International Institute for Strategic Studies speaking with me from London. I know you've been looking into this very thing. I mean, the analysis this week showing Google searches about Ukraine a near pre- war levels. I mean, how fickle is public attention? How easily distracted are people and what are the risks of that in the context of this conflict?
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NIGEL GOULD-DAVIES, INTERNATIONAL INSTITUTE FOR STRATEGIC STUDIES: Well, it may be the case that overt public attention, could be declining somewhat. Depends on what interprets that though. It doesn't necessarily mean that public opinion is changing. The real key point here is whether or not Western opinion continues to support Ukraine and support efforts to assist it. Irrespective of whether they're still googling Ukraine, they also know a great deal more about Ukraine at the beginning of the war. So there may be those reasons too why they're paying less close attention.
In the broader scheme of things, I think we have to be just very impressed by the emphaticness and breadth of support for Ukraine, not only across governments in the west, but also across wide swathes of civil society, and indeed, the private sector as well, which has amplified Western official sanctions by withdrawing from a business with Russia. And there's a degree of unity which we never saw even in the darkest days of the Cold War.
So at this point, I think we can be impressed by the strength. There are problems ahead, and particularly the winter, maybe we can talk about those. But at this point, I think the resolution remains strong.
HOLMES: What would be the military risks specifically, if Western governments do lose interest or even lower their contribution of material? How vulnerable would that make Ukraine in a military sense, and of course, there is the argument and Ukraine makes it all the time that, you know, this is Europe's war in a way as well, because of Putin's ambitions.
GOULD-DAVIES: Very much. So, Ukraine, on its own, fought off the Russian blitzkrieg in the first weeks of the war, and that was an astonishing achievement and Europe and the West need to be grateful to Ukraine that it did so. But the war has become one of attrition now, and of course, Ukraine is fighting, ultimately, a much larger enemy. And it does need support of various kinds, principally military aid, but also the intensification of sanctions against Russia, which are doing damage on Russia's home front, as well.
So, yes, if in the worst case, there were to be some broader shift of Western policy away from Ukraine, that would take Ukraine in a very difficult position. And Russia knows that. And of course, Western support and Western opinion are not a kind of a natural fact, there are strategic fact. And Putin will be working, especially at the summer -- especially the winter approaches to try to undermine the foundations of that support.
HOLMES: And to that point, with winter approaching, I mean, Europe's looking at energy shortages, rising prices, cold winter coming for many, even in the U.K. where you are, can you see a situation where some of those nations are eventually going to say we've got our own problems to deal with, or being pressured by their publics to think that way.
GOULD-DAVIES: This is the great question of the moment, and it will grow more urgent as European temperatures for. Ultimately, it's a test of political leadership of the respective governments. They need to explain to their people and also support that explanation with effective public policy measures. Why it is essential to bear these costs in order to continue to sustain support for Ukraine. And it would be ultimately self-defeating to abandon Ukraine because of the concerns about Russian energy supply to Europe, because that would reward Russian aggression. And that would send Russia the message that on any future occasion, it can coerce Europe through depriving Europe of gas and achieve its objectives. So there's a debate unfolding now in Europe. We'll see which way it lands, but I think it's very important now that Western governments play that leading role and explain effectively to their populations why we need to continue the present cause.
HOLMES: Yes, important issue, important aspect of this conflict. Nigel Gould-Davies, thanks so much for taking the time. Appreciate it.
Yet another American politician visiting Taiwan in defiance of Beijing, which considers the island a renegade Chinese province. U.S. Republican Senator Marsha Blackburn met with President Tsai Ing-wen assuring her of American support for the self-governing Island.
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MARSHA BLACKBURN, U.S. SENATE REPUBLICAN: And we look forward to continuing to help and support Taiwan as they push forward as an independent nation.
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HOLMES: Now Blackburn does not represent the Biden administration on her trip and her comments do not change the long standing One China policy which recognizes Taiwan as part of China, despite what you heard her say there. Blackburn's visit comes despite increased pressure from Beijing to stop such trips by U.S. officials. Several high profile visits from Congressional lawmakers, including Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi have angered the Chinese government in recent weeks.
Now, the former British ambassador to Myanmar is facing five years in prison accused of violating the country's immigration act. But some say Vicky Bowman's arrest could be retaliation for new sanctions imposed by London. CNN's Paula Hancocks reports.
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PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Vicky Bowman was once the top British diplomat in Myanmar. She's now behind bars charged with breaking immigration laws charged by the military who seized power in a bloody coup in February last year.
MICHELLE BACHELET, U.N. HIGH COMMISSIONER FOR HUMAN RIGHTS: If a former ambassador was being detained or hasn't, can you imagine what happened to so many other normal people without influencers, without a country who can help them like the U.K.?
HANCOCKS (voice-over): Bowman was ambassador from 2002 to 2006. Marrying Burmese artist and former political prisoner Htein Lin, making Myanmar her home. She spoke of her husband's pro-democracy activism in 2017.
VICKY BOWMAN, FORMER BRITISH AMBASSADOR TO MYANMAR: He was very much part of those student demonstrations in '88, which then when the military took over, took him on a very long journey first to the Indian border to Manipur and then to the Chinese border, and then back and then through three jails.
HANCOCKS (voice-over): Both are being held in the infamous insane prison, according to the Irrawaddy, a local news website, although likely separated, a prison filled with political prisoners and tales of beatings and torture. Bowman leads the Myanmar Center for Responsible business and non-governmental group encouraging corporate responsibility.
PHIL ROBERTSON, HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH: Vicky Bowman was always about engagement. She was always about working with people, building coalitions and trying to make the situation better.
HANCOCKS (voice-over): The U.K. Foreign Office well, not naming Bowman, says they are in contact with local authorities and providing consular assistance.
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HANCOCKS: The arrest comes as the U.K. increased sanctions against military linked businesses in Myanmar on the fifth anniversary of the massacres against the Rohingya minority in Rakhine State. The U.K. is also joining a case against Myanmar and the U.N.'s top court, the International Court of Justice, which accuses the military of genocide.
Paula Hancocks, CNN, Seoul (ph).
HOLMES: We are just hours away now from new details on the search of Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort. What we might learn when the Justice Department releases the affidavit used to get it search warrant.
Also, still to come on the program, the U.K. leadership race down to the wire and one of the top contenders is sounding off about a fellow NATO ally. You'll hear what Foreign Secretary Liz Truss had to say about France's president. That's when we come back.
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HOLMES: Welcome back, everyone. The U.S. Justice Department is facing a noon Eastern deadline to release a redacted version of the affidavit used to get its search warrant of Donald Trump's Florida home. But significant portions of the document are likely to be blacked out to protect law enforcement, witnesses and the investigation itself. CNN's Jessica Schneider with details.
JESSICA SCHNEIDER, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: We could see the Mar-a- Lago search warrant affidavit in redacted form at any moment. And that's because the federal judge in this case Bruce Reinhart has ruled that the Justice Department must make public the version they submitted to him on Thursday. Now this is a version that is likely significantly blacked out, but it could still reveal a few procedural details about why the search at Mar-a-Lago happened on August 8th.
The judge wrote that the DOJ must unseal their version of the affidavit by noon on Friday, and we saw that the judge did agree that the DOJ does need to black out substantial portions of the affidavit. Since the judge said it could reveal the identities of witnesses, law enforcement agents, it could even reveal uncharged parties who might eventually be charged with crimes related to this ongoing criminal investigation into classified information.
The judge also said that the DOJ could black out details relating to the sources and methods and grand jury information since we know of course the grand jury has been hearing evidence for months. They even issued a subpoena to Trump for return of some of this material. So the public will soon see a bit more detail but probably not a lot more about what prompted a federal judge to approve this unprecedented search at former President Trump's Mar-a-Lago home and resort. That will be by noon on Friday.
Jessica Schneider, CNN, Washington.
HOLMES: Donald Trump's legal team also facing a key deadline in the day ahead. A U.S. federal judge wants them to better explain why they want a special master to oversee the review of evidence seized in the Mar-a-Lago search. The judge's order makes it clear Trump's attorneys fell short of what would normally be expected in such a court filing. One legal analyst describing it as more of a political message than a legal document.
With U.S. midterm elections a little more than two months away now, President Joe Biden leveling some of his sharpest attacks yet at Donald Trump and the Republicans, in short, openly accusing them of embracing, quote, semi-fascism. At a rally on Thursday night in suburban Washington, Mr. Biden laid out a list of hot button issues that he hopes will drive Democrats to the polls on November 8.
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JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We'll codify Roe v Wade. We'll ban assault weapons. We'll protect Social Security Medicare. We'll pass universal pre-K. We'll restore the child care tax credit. We'll protect voting rights. We'll pass a luxury for and make no -- make sure no one, no one ever has the opportunity to steal election again.
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HOLMES: CNN's Phil Mattingly was at the event and filed this report.
PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: There was no question when you talk to Democrats. They believe their fortunes have shifted over the course of the last six or seven weeks. They don't necessarily believe that it means they can foresaw losing seats, particularly in the House during the midterm elections. But they now very clearly feel like they have something to run on. They have a positive message and a message that is resonating.
I've seen it in special elections around the country. They've seen it in the wake of the Supreme Court decision on Roe versus Wade and those were all issues. The President Joe Biden in his first real campaign rally in the midterms sought to highlight the contrast making very clear, but Democrats believe they've done what Democrats believe they bring to the table when they believe its opponents, the Republicans would do the President going after the former president where he rarely mentioned for the first 18 months of his time in office, and also repeatedly going after congressional Republicans in their opposition to his top agenda items.
Probably the most fiery language we've heard on several fronts Take a listen.
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BIDEN: In 2020, you and 81 million Americans voted to save our democracy. That's why Donald Trump isn't just a former president. He is a defeated former president.
And it's not -- probably now you need to vote to literally save democracy again. Will we be a country that moves forward or backward? Will we build a future or obsess over the past, trumping the extreme MAGA Republicans have made their choice to go backwards, full of anger, violence, hate and division. But we've chosen a different path, forward, the future, unity, hope and optimism.
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MATTINGLY: Now the President was out in Rockville, Maryland is actually a D.C. suburb. This is not exactly battleground or red country, but it was an opportunity for him to kind of get his feet wet. It was a very much a campaign field at gym overflow rooms. The President went and saw everybody, talk to everyone and made clear that the Maryland delegation mostly made up for Democrats has a support.
Real question going forward, though is can the White House maintain some of the momentum the party scene and will it have a real effect in November? We're pushing when you look at the history, Democrats, Republicans alike. First midterm of a new president never goes well, particularly in the House. Democrats now think they have a shot to buck that trend.
Phil Mattingly, CNN, Rockville, Maryland.
HOLMES: Conservative voters in the United Kingdom will finalize their choice next week to replace Boris Johnson as prime minister. But the leading candidate Foreign Secretary Liz Truss is already putting France's president on notice. Have a listen.
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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: President Macron, friend or foe? LIZ TRUSS, U.K. FOREIGN SECRETARY: The jury is out. But if I become prime minister, I'll judge him on deeds not words.
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HOLMES: Relations between the two NATO allies have been stormy ever since Brexit with bitter disputes at times over fishing rights turning especially heated over the past year. Now for his part, President Macron is in Algeria on a fence mending trip over remarks he reportedly made last year that deeply angered many Algerians. On Thursday, the French leader acknowledged the complex and painful legacy that French colonialism had left on the country. And underscoring all of this is the matter of natural gas, which Algeria has, and France needs.
CNN's Melissa Bell with our report.
MELISSA BELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: This is an extremely important trip for France coming as it does as European leaders scramble to get extra natural gas supplies ahead of the winter months. The Italian leader pipping Emmanuel Macron had the post by going to Algiers in July and securing 4 billion cubic meters of extra Algerian natural gas.
(INAUDIBLE) ahead of the visit really dampening down expectations and talking instead about the need for this visit to deal with the history of France and Algeria. The memory question that it has meant that relations have been so fraught historically, over the years, not just the colonial presence of France in Algeria for so long, but the particular brutality of the Algerian war for independence.
To this day, French president's find it difficult to deal with the question when they go to Algeria was 2012. (INAUDIBLE) had been expected to apologize when he'd stopped short of that. Algerians had been extremely upset. There had been hope on the Algerian side when Emmanuel Macron became President, when he went there as a candidate and spoke of the need for France to apologize that things would change.
But in fact, the relationship only then soured with the comments made by the French president last year to agree with the Algerian students about Algeria nationhood having been born as a result of French colonialism, causing a huge backlash on the part of Algeria. The Algerian Ambassador being recalled to France.
In the last few months, Emmanuel Macron trying to improve the relationship with the Algerian president. There have been a number of telephone exchanges. Now it is about bringing that together in the context of France needing Algeria, and its gas supplies and Algeria, hoping that it will convince the world that it is very much on the side of Europe and not on the side of Moscow. Despite several months (INAUDIBLE) between Russia and Algeria.
Melissa Bell, CNN, Paris.
HOLMES: Outcry is growing over Nicaragua's detention of Bishop Rolando Alvarez, a vocal critic of President Daniel Ortega. Alvarez was arrested along with several other clergymen last week. I mean, escalating tensions between the government and the Catholic Church. CNN's Stefano Pozzebon with the latest.
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STEFANO POZZEBON, CNN JOURNALIST (voice-over): A cry of pain is rising from the pulpits across the Americas from Costa Rica to Miami.
SILVIO BAEZ, AUXILIARY ARCHBISHOP, DIOCESES OF MANAGUA (through translation): Lead the prisoners go. My thoughts go to my brother Bishop Rolando Alvarez, who is wrongfully detained and all the priests behind bars in Nicaragua.
[01:29:45]
POZZEBON (voice-over): The detention of Bishop Alvarez and Nicaraguan clergymen and a critic of the government of Daniel Ortega, is just the latest in a yearlong crackdown against Ortega opponents -- the media and now the church.
Catholic radio stations have been shut down. Nuns, including Mother Theresa Missionaries of Charity expelled.
Before arresting the bishop, Nicaraguan police stood guard outside his residence for almost two weeks, preventing him from leaving. The government accuses Alvarez of subversive actions and says that the detention was necessary.
Calls to release the bishop and seven other clergymen arrested with him are mostly coming from abroad. That is because at home, dissent can lead to arrests.
The tension between the church and the government began in 2018, when the clergy acted as mediators during an intense wave of anti government protests. In the years since, Ortega has moved against opponents with brutal efficiency.
In 2021, he won a fifth presidential mandate almost unopposed. His main rivals either jailed or exiled. The church, critics say, is the only institution standing up to the government after political parties and the free press have been quashed.
Marta Sanchez (ph) knows this reality from experience. She used to work for a television station run by Bishop Alvarez.
MARTA SANCHEZ, JOURNALIST: he asked me to be in charge of the news because the government censorship on traditional media was rampant. He saw our role as much more important than just spreading the gospel.
POZZEBON: In 2019, Sanchez says that she had to flee the country due to government repression. She now lives in Costa Rica. When she found out the bishop was being arrested, she was sad but not surprised.
Pope Francis has expressed concern for the church in Nicaragua and called for dialogue to resolve conflicts in the country. But for those in exile, like Gabriel (INAUDIBLE) a Catholic teacher who says he served prison time for taking part in the protests, the Vatican just seems too distant.
GABRIEL, CATHOLIC TEACHER (through translator): Holy Father, we pray you, step in.
POZZEBON: Bishop Alvarez is currently under house arrest in Nicaragua's capital, Managua. The question now is will he appear in front of a court, or like so many who dare to question Ortega's rule, will he be forced to leave the country?
For CNN, this is Stefano Pozzebon -- Bogota.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
MICHAEL HOLMES, CNN ANCHOR: Power outages in Cuba are on the rise. Coming up next on CNN NEWSROOM, how the blackouts are disrupting the lives of thousands across the island, even leading to acts of defiance by the people.
We will be right back.
[01:32:45]
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HOLMES: Wildfires in China are largely contained. This is in Chunking municipality. That's according to local emergency officials who say there were no injuries reported. Fire crews sweeping the area where fires erupted to make sure the flames do not reignite. The wildfires were triggered by drought and the hottest temperatures the region has seen in decades.
Meanwhile, a new study warning the record breaking heat wave that has been scorching Europe this summer is going to become the norm in the coming years, even if countries fulfill their pledges to reduce greenhouse gases.
This analysis is from the U.K.'s meteorological office and says that the searing heat will be considered average by 2035. Researchers looked at how quickly temperatures have been changing across the region and they predict that by the year 2100, the average summer in Central Europe will be hotter by 4 degrees Celsius than it was in the pre-industrial era. That's largely due, of course, to human induced climate change.
The chair of the climate crisis advisory group says this, quote, "Even if countries meet their commitments to reduce emissions they have made so far, the situation is still set to get worse, with weather in Europe predicted to become even more extreme than seen this summer.
Let's get to CNN meteorologist Derek Van Dam for a closer look at all of this. And yes, this summer has been bad, just wait for the next decade or two.
DEREK VAN DAM, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Yes, well said, right Michael. I mean if these are our new normal then we cancel my Spain holiday next summer, right? Because I don't want to be basking in 47-48 degree temperatures. That's what they've experienced in the past couple of summers across central and western Europe. it's incredible.
But in all seriousness, what this report is trying to say is the summer that we experienced this year in July, and talk about the record breaking heat across the U.K., Germany -- so many different locations throughout central Europe -- those temperatures, not only are they going to become the new normal by 2035, but in the long term prospects, by the end of the century, we have the potential for temperatures across central Europe to be 40 degrees Celsius or warmer.
And if we hadn't had been burning fossil fuels since the pre- industrial revolution, without those greenhouse heat trapping gases that we've emitted by burning fossil fuels, temperatures here by the end of the century would be four degrees warmer or higher.
Ok. So this is just a better way to put it into perspective for you. So preindustrial era -- we're talking about before 1850, we have the frequency of let's say a warm day. Let's call it 35 degrees Celsius. That's not the normal. We are not used to that in a pre-industrial world.
But as we have started to burn fossil fuels, start to emit these greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, we saw the frequency of 35 degrees Celsius or warmer days become more common, more frequent, right.
But it is also not only the frequency but it is the extremes that we saw slide over as well in our toleration scale here let's say. Extreme heat reaching higher temperatures. So, we're experiencing temperatures at 40 degrees Celsius or higher.
And just take, for example, London Heathrow last July. Well, incredible to see that spiking over four degrees and I thought this was amazing. A lot of information on the screen but what I want you to see is what was, the ten hottest days on record across the U.K. set many years prior to this and then in July we shattered all those top ten hottest days in the U.K.'s history all set last month.
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HOLMES: Wow, that graphic really does show it, doesn't it? Wow -- all in 2022.
Derek, good to see you my friend. Thanks so much for that.
HOLMES: All right, Bob Ward is with us now from London. He is the policy and communications director of the Grantham Research Institute on climate change and environment. Thanks for being with us. We just heard there from Derek about these rather alarming studies about European temperatures. There are many flow-on impacts of such heat changes, aren't there? There's water shortages, supply chain, even crop failures and food issues.
What are going to be the day to day impact of all of that in terms of in terms of peoples lives and how they live?
BOB WARD: POLICY AND COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR, GRANTHAM RESEARCH INSTITUTE: Well, what we are seeing in Europe at the moment is a combination of both extended periods of heat wave, and very dry periods. It's less clear what has happened to rainfall. But we've had an extended period cuts the worst drought in Europe for 500 years.
[01:39:49]
WARD: That combination is causing all sorts of problems. It is reduced the levels of reservoirs and lakes, of rivers, it's making it more difficult to provide water supplies. It's also causing problems for agriculture. There's a reduction in crop yields across Europe.
And so these are the impacts that we knew were coming. Climate scientists have been warning us for a long, long time that this is what was going to happen. And I'm afraid it's only going to get worse because these are impacts that are accumulating as a result of our emissions of greenhouse gases.
Until we get to zero as a world, they just keep coming and the earliest date the countries are discussing is 2050. That means another 30 years of it just getting worse.
HOLMES: It's not long. And as you pointed out, for literally decades, scientists -- I mean experts like you -- have warned about the impacts of climate change.
How frustrating is it to have watched those warnings be largely ignored or drowned out by the fuel lobby and then see what is happening now?
WARD: Well, unfortunately, there is nowhere there's going back. What we do need to know is realize that these are going to get worse. And we must really make more effort to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions because until they get to zero, it just gets worse.
If we go beyond 2050, it will just be a longer period of worsening impacts. And it is devastating to lives and livelihoods. Lots of people have died as a result of the heat across Europe this summer, mostly people with underlying health conditions. But we had a similar very long heat wave in 2003 in Europe. It killed more than 70,000 people across Europe. And I fear we will end up with figures close to that when we finally see what has happened this summer.
HOLMES: I was going to mention to, in northern Australia, dangerous heat days, as they call them, will make up half of the year, according to research. You have got some entire low lying nations -- I mean Bangladesh, Marshall Islands and so on -- they face devastation.
What could life be like -- ten, 15, 20 years from now?
WARD: Well, unfortunately, we see places which are already got a very difficult climate becoming almost uninhabitable. There is a temperature beyond which it is impossible for the human body to naturally cope with sweating. It's called the -- around about 35 degrees of temperature and 100 percent humidity.
And under those conditions it's dangerous for people outside to do any kind of exertion, even healthy people. So increasingly, there are going to be places that just become uninhabitable, either because it's too hot or because they extend frequent flooding from rivers or from rising seas, levels around the coast.
So, we are going to have to get used to it now. We are going to see large populations displaced. And as I said, we are already locked in a certain amount of that we have to get our emissions down to zero if we don't want to go to catastrophic levels of impact.
HOLMES: Indeed. We are nearly out of time but I wanted to ask you, in terms of investment, I mean what some called future proofing to move on measures to protect ourselves from what is already inevitable, is nearly enough being done in that regard?
WARD: No, we are not adapting fast enough. And we don't have to. Because the only alternative to adapting is suffering. And that just will not be acceptable. So, we will have to make ourselves much more resilient to these impacts.
HOLMES: Yes, yes. A lot of investment.
Bob Ward in London. Good to see you again. Thanks so much. Appreciate it.
WARD: Thank you.
HOLMES: Well, power outages are increasingly commonplace in Cuba. The authoritarian regime there blaming everything from American sanctions to a lack of investment to a dangerous fire.
But as CNN's Patrick Oppmann tells us, the crisis has driven defiant Cubans to do something rare in that country -- protest.
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PATRICK OPPMANN, CNN STATE DEPARTMENT CORRESPONDENT: For many Cubans this is now their life, waiting in the sweltering heat for the lights to come back on.
In this neighborhood, people say the power is regularly cut by the government amid growing energy shortages for up to 16 hours each day.
"It's very difficult, really uncomfortable. When it's time to go to bed you can't," he says. "The mosquitoes eat you alive. The heat doesn't let you sleep."
Power cuts are nothing new here, but Cubans are now dealing with the worst outages in decades as a perfect storm of economic calamity. A drop in tourism and skyrocketing inflation batters the island.
The Cuban government blames increased U.S. government sanctions for the outages, but lack of investment in the state-controlled energy sector and a massive fire that destroyed Cuba's main oil storage facility have brought the crisis to the brink.
[01:44:58]
OPPMANN: As the lights go out more frequently, Cubans fed up with the outages have taken to the streets in rare protest that the government usually does not allow. Cuba's president says protesters need to be patient.
"Some people take advantage of the situation to shout anti revolutionary slogans," he says. "Others take part in vandalism and throw rocks, and break windows and that doesn't resolve the situation. But government officials admit there is no quick solution to the outages.
The power outages have a major impact on peoples lives. When the lights go out food spoils more quickly in the summer heat. People can't go to work, go to school, and they often have to sleep outside on the streets where they're are exposed to mosquitoes that carry diseases like dengue.
At this point there is no indication that the energy crisis is going to get better anytime soon.
Wendy is nearly nine months pregnant and most nights has to sleep on the ground outside of her house. She says out loud what many here are thinking.
"The food spoils and there's no food in the stores. There is nothing," she says. This is going from bad to worse. I want to leave."
Already, a record number of Cubans have left the island in the last year. For those that remain, they know there are more long nights like this one to come.
Patrick Oppmann, CNN -- Havana.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HOLMES: The journey to the U.S. is ending in some unexpected places for thousands of migrants who cross the southern border. As Texas officials put them on buses and send them to northern cities -- but for some the destination isn't as important as the grueling trip to get there.
We'll be right back.
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HOLMES: Some angry demonstrations in Athens in Greece over a phone tapping controversy that has rocked the country.
Hundreds of protesters taking to the streets as you see there on Thursday. Several weeks ago an opposition party leader revealed that his phone had been tapped by the Greek intelligence service.
The surveillance took place while he was a member of the European Parliament in September of 2021. Great law makers are set to debate this manner in parliament on Friday.
Chilean high school students clashing with riot police in Santiago on Thursday, demanding better at their schools. Police using water cannon as you can see to disperse the demonstrators. The students are demanding free transportation, comprehensive sex education, guaranteed internships at technical schools, and universal access to all higher education levels.
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HOLMES: For weeks now, the Texas Governor Greg Abbott has been putting thousands of migrants on buses and sending them to Washington D.C. and New York City as a protest at the Biden administration's immigration policies.
The head of the Department of Homeland Security told CNN that Abbott's relocation efforts are wreaking havoc on the processing system.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ALEJANDRO MAYORKAS, HOMELAND SECURITY SECRETARY: It is problematic, however, when an official works not in collaboration with us. But unilaterally, and that lack of coordination wreaks problems in our very efficient process.
It also puts financial pressure on us in that we fund the nonprofit organizations, and we understand their capacity, we understand their needs and when that action is not coordinated with us and with them, the whole system is out of whack.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HOLMES: Now for thousands of asylum seekers, sent from Texas on buses their arrival in major U.S. cities is the beginning of a new life. And of course the end for what has been for many, a brutal ordeal that got them there.
Our Gary Tuchman reports.
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(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
GARY TUCHMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: A boat with mostly Venezuelan migrants, in the jungle in Panama, the man behind the child is Juan Toledo (ph). He's trying to get to America with his brother and a cousin.
We met that brother Luis Toledo and the cousin Ainer Gorito (ph) last week at a shelter on the border in Eagle Pass Texas where Luis had just received the horrible news that his brother Juan's body had been recovered in the Rio Grande near Eagle Pass.
Juan had drowned in the final minutes of their two month journey while they were all swimming across the river to Texas. One week later after a tragic and traumatizing trip, they are now living in Chicago where they hope to start a new life, minus the poverty and violence they say they experience in Venezuela.
Until a short time ago, they had never been out of South America.
Louis says Chicago is very pretty, very peaceful, very beautiful.
Both cousins took a 42-hour ride on one of the buses provided by Texas's government, who wants migrants to go elsewhere. They rode from Eagle Pass to Washington D.C. And then managed to get to Chicago, where they have family.
This would've been Juan's 27th birthday. Louis says his brother's legacy is honored by them now being in America.
He says, "His sacrifices were not in vain. He is in our hearts. Everyone knew he was an excellent human being. He is here with us even though he didn't have a cake. He was a superhero.
Ainer has two brothers who are already here in the U.S., on part-time jobs. They were able to get Ainer in a wheat shelter in la small apartment that is shared with others. The two men have wives and children in Venezuela, whom they hope to be able to bring here someday.
Do you have any money?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No senior. Nothing. Nada.
TUCHMAN: You have tuxedos? Clothes.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No.
TUCHMAN: Another -- (INAUDIBLE) surrendered to U.S. Border Control when they arrive, to receive documentation that declared they have been paroled into the United States. And are required to show up in court and attend the immigration court hearings in two weeks. They both say they will. We followed them as they went to a Mexican restaurant close to their apartment, asking the owner about the possibility of working there.
The restaurant owner saying, we do not have anything now. Give me your names, and telephone numbers, and we will let you know when we do. But owner Alicia Castro, whose father emigrated from Mexico. No she can't legally employ them without a work permit. Which you can't get if you haven't had your asylum requests approved by an immigration judge.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I wish I could help them right now, with all my heart. But unfortunately I can't at the moment.
TUCHMAN: So for now, Ainer and Luis will share one bedroom and two mattresses with three other men. And hope that one day they and their families back in Venezuela, all become Americans.
When I tell them that many Americans are very critical that so many migrants are allowed into the country. Ainer says, I think everyone has their own judgment. We're all different people, different cultures and nationalities.
But we are not all bad people. Most of us are good. And they say no one is better than Juan whose examples they will try to follow every day to follow every day they are in America. Sadly, Juan's body is in Texas in a funeral home. The whole family wants his body sent to Venezuela but it is very expensive. And they do not have the money.
Family members here have been talking to a migrant advocacy organization here in Chicago asking for some help. In addition the family , who've been here for a couple of years to family members who have been here for a couple of years who have part-time jobs or hoping to get more hours so they can make more money.
They're also hoping to raise some money Hoping to get more money and raise more money. One leader behind two small children in Venezuela.
This is Gary Tuchman, CNN in Chicago
(END VIDEOTAPE)
[22:54:50]
HOLMES: Stay with us. You're watching CNN. Be right back.
[01:54:52]
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HOLMES: Some big news in tennis. 21-time grand slam champ Novak Djokovic will not be playing in the U.S. Open, which starts on Monday. Guess why? Well that's his decision to not be vaccinated against COVID. The U.S. requires non-citizens to be fully vaccinated to enter the country. Djokovic did not compete in the Australian open over the same issue.
Many people think that nothing beats the heat like an ice-cold beer, I would be one of them. Well it turns out that that might be what plants needs as well. Plants naturally produce ethanol or alcohol in dry times.
According to a new study, giving plans of even more ethanol can help them survive droughts for up to two weeks without water.
Scientists say they made the discovery while looking at how plants deal with environmental stress.
They say the findings could help drought prove vital crops such as rice and wheat. I want to know how they discovered that? Are they out there spilling beer on the plants [laughs] it's a waste.
Anyway, thanks for spending part of your day with me. I'm Michael Holmes, you can follow me on Twitter and Instagram @Holmes, at home CNN. Stick around, NEWSROOM continues after the break with Kim Brunhuber
[01:57:52]
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