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Heat Wave Grips Western U.S., 40+ Million Under Heat Alert; Suspect Charged After Threatening To Crash Stolen Plane; Zaporizhzhya Nuclear Plant Loses Main Connection To Power Grid; CNN Report Helps Identify War Crimes Suspect; Results Of U.K. Conservative Party Vote Expected Monday; Suspect Officially Charged In Memphis Woman's Disappearance; Pennsylvania Races Heat Up; Texas Spending Millions To Bus Migrants Cross-Country; FBI Returns 2,000-Year-Old Mosaic To Italy; Study Finds Sharks Are Attracted To City Beaches. Aired 5-6a ET
Aired September 04, 2022 - 05:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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KIM BRUNHUBER, CNN ANCHOR AND CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): 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, a scorching heat wave grips the Western U.S. this holiday weekend. Tens of millions of people are under a heat alert. We'll take you to the CNN Weather Center for the latest.
A reactor at Europe's largest nuclear power plant forced to shut down again as heavy shelling rains over the area. We're live in Kyiv with the details.
And as the migrant crisis on the southern border of the U.S. worsens, CNN speaks with asylum seekers in and out of the country.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice-over): Live from CNN Center, this is CNN NEWSROOM with Kim Brunhuber.
BRUNHUBER: We begin with scenes of utter devastation in Northern California, where wildfires have burned through more than 9,000 acres. The Mill fire has left hundreds of houses ablaze in the small town of Weed. Firefighters say they're making progress but the fire is still only 25 percent contained.
And the nearby Mountain fire is 5 percent contained. Streets are littered with charred remains of cars and cinder blocks where houses once stood. Officials say help is on the way, with fire strike teams ready across the state to respond when necessary.
Now those wildfires are being fueled by a blistering and dangerous heat wave that continues its stranglehold across the Western United States this weekend. More than 40 million people are under heat alerts as temperatures soar 15 to 20 degrees above normal for the fifth day in a row.
Electric companies in California are telling customers to turn off unnecessary lights and appliances. CNN's Chris Nguyen reports from Los Angeles.
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CHRIS NGUYEN, CNN NATIONAL CORREPSONDENT (voice-over): Across the west, the scorching heat is showing no signs of cooling off this holiday weekend.
MARIE METCALFE, LOS ANGELES RESIDENT: Our AC at home can only do so much when we're in these triple digits.
NGUYEN (voice-over): In Glendale California residents are seeking refuge at the Galleria shopping mall, taking advantage of the free air conditioning.
METCALFE: Getting out to the mall and just getting out of the house to get some sort of cool release is nice.
NGUYEN (voice-over): California is in the midst of its longest heat wave of the year, a major concern especially in large cities like Los Angeles where dark pavement and buildings can easily absorb heat bringing little relief overnight.
NGUYEN: Skid Row is an urban heat island which is why water is crucial especially when temperatures hit triple digits.
SOFIA GUADRON, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, WATER DROP LA: Free water. Free water.
NGUYEN (voice-over): That's why volunteers with Water Drop LA are checking up on the unhoused and the elderly.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Do you want water?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, sure.
NGUYEN (voice-over): Handing out cold water to those who need it.
GUARDON: At the core like we're old people and we should care about each other, we should like love each other and we should look out for each other.
NGUYEN (voice-over): The extreme heat wave also testing California's power grid. In Irwindale, Southern California Edison crews are busy moving transformers and extra equipment throughout the region.
DAVID EISENHAUER, SPOKESMAN, SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA EDISON: We have all hands on deck ready to respond if there are outages so that we can get the power restored as quickly and safely as possible.
NGUYEN (voice-over): Many Californians are bracing for more misery ahead.
CARLA LIZAOLA, LOS ANGELES RESIDENT: It's insane. It's unbearable to even be home.
NGUYEN (voice-over): Chris Nguyen, CNN, Los Angeles.
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BRUNHUBER: A new launch date could be weeks away or even longer after a second failed attempt to send the unmanned Artemis I market to the moon. NASA scrubbed Saturday's planned launch after crews found a hydrogen leak and weren't able to fix it in time. CNN's Kristin Fisher looks at what went wrong and what happens next.
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KRISTIN FISHER, CNN SPACE & DEFENSE CORRESPONDENT: A second scrub, a second hydrogen leak. But this leak was much bigger than the one NASA encountered on Monday.
Now they need to fix it. They can either fix it on the launch pad or they can roll the entire rocket all the way back to the VAB, the vehicle assembly building. But to do that would take about 3.5 days. It eats up a ton of time.
But regardless of where they make the repairs, as of now, NASA is going to need to roll the rocket back to the VAB regardless, because they are in the middle or about to be in the middle of a safety violation with the range.
The range is run by the Space Force. And so NASA says they're going to try to ask the Space Force for a waiver or an extension. But they just don't know if the Space Force is going to grant it.
So those are the two issues. What that means in terms of when NASA can try again is they're not going to make this launch window, which ends on Tuesday. So that means the next launch attempt for the Artemis moon rocket is going to be the end of September at the earliest but more likely sometime in mid- to late October if not later.
Here is NASA's associate administrator Jim Free, speaking at the press conference just a few hours after the second scrub was announced.
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JIM FREE, ASSOCIATE ADMINISTRATOR, NASA: We don't go into these tests lightly, right? We don't just say, hey, we think, we hope this is going to work. The confidence to do another launch attempt today was borne out of the fact that we understood the hydrogen leaks that we had on Monday. Those are different than the leak that we had today.
In terms of scale, one was in the same place. But today, it was a different signature and we understood the engine issue. So we weren't confident coming into today. But as the administrator said, we're not going to launch until we're ready.
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FISHER: NASA administrator Bill Nelson was also at that press conference and he pointed out that the cost of two scrubs is less than the cost of one failure.
To be very clear, NASA is very disappointed about this but they're also acutely aware that this could have been much worse. This is not the worst-case scenario. That would have been an explosion on the launch pad or shortly after liftoff.
So while this is a disappointment and a delay, NASA is confident that, at some point, its Artemis moon rocket, more than a decade in the making, is finally going to get off this launch pad. The question is when -- Kristin Fisher, CNN, Kennedy Space Center.
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BRUNHUBER: A dangerous moment in the skies over Tupelo, Mississippi, on Saturday. Police have arrested an airport worker they say stole a plane and threatened to crash it. A resident recorded these images, showing a twin engine plane flying low over homes and farms.
The man at the controls reportedly called 9-1-1 and threatened to crash the plane into a local Walmart. But the store and the immediate area were evacuated. After hours in the air, the plane eventually landed in a farmer's field. The suspect is being held on charges of making terrorist threats and grand larceny.
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BRUNHUBER: For viewers in the United States, we'll have much more on this story coming up on "NEW DAY." That starts in less than an hour.
Ukrainian students head back to school but it is no break from the war. Have a look.
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BRUNHUBER (voice-over): Still ahead, emergency drills are the new normal as the academic year gets underway.
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BRUNHUBER (voice-over): Plus, we're waiting to hear who the U.K.'s Conservative Party has voted for its next leader. The winner will be the country's next prime minister. A live report from London ahead. Stay with us.
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BRUNHUBER: Ukraine's largest nuclear plant has lost its main connection to the power grid again, despite the presence of international inspectors. Ukrainian officials say artillery fire hit a working power line out of the Zaporizhzhya plant on Saturday.
After that, one of the two operating nuclear reactors was shut down and emergency procedures were activated. But the other reactor is still delivering a limited amount of electricity through the backup line.
Ukraine and Russia have blamed each other for shelling at the plant. The U.N. nuclear watchdog, whose inspectors are at the site, says the backup line can deliver power into the plant.
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BRUNHUBER: That's needed to cool the reactors and prevent them from melting down. The facility temporarily lost connection to the grid last week as well, for first time in its history.
Ukraine says one person is wounded after a Russian rocket strike in the east. This was the scene in the city of Kramatorsk on Saturday. The rockets hit a local market.
Meanwhile, Ukraine says it is pushing ahead with its new offensive in the south. Military officials say they have been striking Russian targets across the region. There are indications Ukrainian troops have made modest gains on the ground despite Russian counterattacks.
President Zelenskyy says Russia is not only a threat to Ukraine but also to Europe. Here he is.
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VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY, UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT (through translator): Russia wants to destroy the normal life of every European, in all countries of our continent. It aims to weaken and intimidate all of Europe, every state.
When Russia cannot achieve this by force of arms, it seeks to do this by force through energy weapons. It is trying to hit Europe with poverty and political chaos where it cannot yet use rockets.
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BRUNHUBER: For more, Melissa Bell joins us from Kyiv.
We heard there President Zelenskyy saying Russia wants to destroy normal life in Europe. Even in Ukraine, you've been reporting on how they're trying their best to adapt and get back to normal life as best they can.
MELISSA BELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Kim. And in the majority of parts of the country, because it is a fifth of Ukraine that is now in Russian hands, there is that thousand kilometer front line, of course, along which normality is harder to feel.
But in much of the country, there is this sense, at least since the month of March, when Russian forces were pushed back from the parts of Ukraine that it had tried to take beyond the east and the south, so places like just north of Kyiv where I'm standing, since they were pushed back at that time, there has been a sense in these parts that it is difficult to believe that all of that could be going on in the east and in the south.
There are, of course, telltale signs; military walking around. Fighting aged men can't leave the country, a sense in which the economy is at a standstill. But there was for the children of Ukraine some sense of a return to normality this week.
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BELL (voice-over): Preparing for the first day of school is always nerve-racking, especially in Ukraine, where Hannah (ph) and Max (ph) headed back to class on Thursday for the first time since the war began.
ANDRII KOVALCHUK, UKRAINIAN PARENT (through translator): The truth is you never know where the missile will hit, the school or the house. We went to the school several times and examined the bomb shelter. We believe that everything will be fine with our children in terms of safety.
BELL (voice-over): It was to a school rebuilt that the children headed. Irpin was at the heart of the war when it began. Now over six months later, peace has been restored but the threat it might be shattered is never far.
The drill, more troubling for the parents, it seems, than for the children themselves.
NINA YASHUK, TEACHER (through translator): Here in Irpin, we have not forgotten that the war is going on. Every day we see destroyed houses and it is difficult. The smiling children I see today doesn't mean I'm having fun inside.
Children should not see what we adults are going through. But our hearts are breaking. We're in a lot of pain.
BELL (voice-over): For the children, it was a return to life as it should be. There is a list of games to be played in shelters should the need arise, to give them a sense of normality or at least as much as the war allows.
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BELL: Good news, Kim, for the school-aged children of the country. The worst case scenario almost for Ukraine is just that, that life should continue as normal, even as a fifth of the country remains in Russian hands.
BRUNHUBER: Let's hope they can. Thanks so much, Melissa Bell, we appreciate that.
Ukrainian prosecutors have identified a Russian war crimes suspect, thanks in part to reporting you saw here on CNN. Back in May, we showed you video of Russian troops gunning down two civilians in the outskirts of Kyiv.
Now prosecutors have announced the name of one suspect, saying CNN reporting played a key role in their investigation. Sara Sidner has the story but we want to warn you, some images in this report are graphic.
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SARA SIDNER, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Ukrainian prosecutors say this is the moment an undeniable war crime was carried out by Russian soldiers. This video clip obtained by CNN has yet to be seen by the public.
It shows Russian soldiers firing at something alongside a business they have just overtaken on the outskirts of Kyiv.
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SIDNER (voice-over): Turns out their target is two unsuspecting and unarmed Ukrainian civilians who they shoot in the back.
We first reported on this portion of the video in May, showing the business owner dying where he falls and the guard initially surviving but bleeding to death after making it back to his guard shack.
Both men had just spent the last few minutes speaking calmly with the Russian soldiers who appeared to let them go. But we now see two of the soldiers return and fire on them.
YULIA PLYATS, DAUGHTER OF MURDER VICTIM (through translator): My father's name is Leonid Oleksiyovych Plyats.
SIDNER (voice-over): The guard's daughter, Yulia, told us then she wanted the world to know her father's name and what the Russians did to them.
DISNEY: Yulia, have you seen the video?
PLYATS (through translator): I can't watch it now. I will save it to the cloud and leave it for my grandchildren and children. They should know about this crime and always remember who our neighbors are.
SIDNER: And now, the Bucha prosecutor's office says with the help of CNN's story, it has finally identified one of his executioners. The suspect name, Nikolay Sergeevich Sokovikov. Ukraine has informed Russia that their pretrial investigation has zeroed in on Sokovikov as the perpetrator of the cold-blooded killing.
While prosecutors will not reveal exactly how they identified this particular soldier, we have seen one part of the process being used by Ukrainian officials, facial recognition technology. It's really fast.
The ministry of digital transformation gets an image, loads it into the program they created and it scrubs social media looking for a match. Once they have a match of a soldier dead or alive, they try to corroborate with friends and family and the soldier's social media sites.
"We have identified 300 cases," he says. The identification of the latest suspect of war crimes was months in the making but it is at least one step toward justice for the families who have had one thing taken from them they can never get back, the life of someone they loved -- Sara Sidner, CNN, New York.
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BRUNHUBER: And Russia's defense ministry hasn't responded to CNN's request for comment, either to Sara Sidner's story or our reporting back in May.
The winner of the British Conservative Party's leadership election will be announced tomorrow. Whoever got the most votes will also become the country's next prime minister. Foreign secretary Liz Truss and former chancellor Rishi Sunak are the remaining contenders.
CNN's Scott McLean joins us now live from London with the latest.
What are we expecting over the next two days?
SCOTT MCLEAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Remember, this has been only Conservative Party members, card-carrying Conservative Party members doing the voting in this race. So for most normal British people, well, this race is sort of bubbling up in the background but certainly not necessarily front and center in the headlines for the last month or so.
The most interesting part of it was in the first few days, when Conservative Party MPs were whittling the field down to two, the foreign secretary Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak, the former chancellor.
These are not necessarily the two that polls had as the Conservative Party membership favorites. This is part of the criticism of the system, that MPs don't necessarily represent the Conservative Party members and Conservative Party members don't necessarily reflect the wider electorate.
In fact, a 2018 study found that 97 percent of party members, Conservative Party members, were white; a vast majority male, the vast majority over the age of 55.
This represents in total less than half of 1 percent of the overall U.K. electorate. It is important to point out that the other major parties don't really fare all that differently. They're also majority white, also more than 95 percent white and pretty wealthy as well.
Now if you believe the polls, Liz Truss is very likely to become the prime minister tomorrow. The political talk shows in this country are already talking about her as if she was the favorite.
She was asked about that this morning on the BBC and she downplayed the fact that she is expected to become prime minister but says that nevertheless, she is ready.
As for Boris Johnson, well, the two are going to be flying to Scotland. Very likely, Boris Johnson and Liz Truss will be flying to Scotland on Tuesday for the queen to officially ask Liz Truss to form the government, assuming she wins.
And Boris Johnson wrote a piece in one of the British newspapers, where he's really calling for his party to rally behind whoever wins.
He said, "This is the moment for every Conservative to come together and back the new leader wholeheartedly. This is the time to put aside the disagreements of the last few weeks --
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MCLEAN: "-- fascinating though they may have been, and put the national interest first.
"As I leave Number 10, after three tough but often exhilarating years, I know just how big and demanding this job is. I also know that either candidate is more than capable of delivering for the people of this country."
And, remember, there are some huge challenges ahead. We're talking about inflation, the rising cost of living, rising energy bills, war being fought in Ukraine. The list goes on and on of challenges.
The one that has been dominating the headlines in this country is the cost of energy, which may well end up being the defining issue of whoever becomes prime minister tomorrow. Liz Truss was asked about this today and she says she is under no illusions about just how big of an issue this is. Kim.
BRUNHUBER: Absolutely. Scott McLean in London, thanks so much.
Donald Trump is lashing out at U.S. President Joe Biden and the FBI search of Mar-a-Lago. His controversial remarks at a Pennsylvania rally coming up. Stay with us.
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BRUNHUBER: We're following developing stories dealing with mass shootings in the U.S.
Police in Charleston, South Carolina, say at least six people are wounded following a shooting overnight. It happened just before 1:00 am local time. Police responded to reports of gunshots in the downtown area. It found multiple people had been hit. Victims are being treated at hospitals with the extent of the injuries are unknown.
Meanwhile, authorities in Norfolk, Virginia, are investigating a shooting that left seven people injured. Norfolk is just located just outside of Virginia Beach. Police say two sustained life threatening injuries.
And this just in to CNN.
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BRUNHUBER: Memphis police say they have officially charged a man in connection with the abduction of Eliza Fletcher. This follows word they found the vehicle of interest in the disappearance of the Tennessee teacher and detained a man who was in it.
Police say the 34-year-old Fletcher was forced into an SUV while she was jogging Friday morning. She has not been found. We'll bring you the latest as we learn more.
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DONALD TRUMP, FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT: He's an enemy of state, you want to know the truth. The enemy of the state is him and the group that control him, which is circling around him, do this, do that, Joe, you're going to do this, Joe, right?
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BRUNHUBER: That was the moment on Saturday when the former U.S. President accused the current president of being an enemy of the state. Donald Trump launched a counterattack in Pennsylvania, hitting back after President Biden slammed Trump and his MAGA allies as an extremist threat.
Trump was in the Keystone State campaigning for candidates for governor and the U.S. Senate. The state is crucial for this year's midterms where Trump appears to be looking ahead to 2024. For more on the rally, here is CNN's Kristen Holmes.
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KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Former president Donald Trump was in Pennsylvania to support two of his handpicked candidates, Doug Mastriano and Mehmet Oz.
It sounded much more like a 2020 stump speech. It went over two hours, focusing mostly on his accomplishments in office, anecdotes, grievances on everything from Hillary Clinton to the FBI. He also responded to the search of his Mar-a-Lago home at length, take a listen.
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TRUMP: The Biden administration invaded the home of their chief political opponent, who is absolutely destroying him and everyone else in the polls, I hate to say it. But our opponents have badly miscalculated. This egregious abuse of the law is going to produce a backlash the likes of which nobody has ever seen before.
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HOLMES: Trump's appearance comes days after we saw President Biden in the state, showing you how critical the state has become in 2022, particularly when you look at the seat belonging to retiring Republican Pat Toomey.
Democrats say they believe it is one of their only opportunities to pick up a seat as they cling on, hoping to keep that majority.
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BRUNHUBER: Former Republican congressman from Pennsylvania says Trump isn't doing any favors to his party with rallies like that. Charlie Dent, who is now a CNN political commentator, spoke with me earlier. Here he is.
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CHARLIE DENT, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, it seems that the country is hopelessly polarized. President Trump is in Wilkes-Barre tonight as you indicated. He's up there criticizing the FBI.
I have to be honest, any member of Congress, absconded with classified material, I can assure you that a G-man, somebody from the FBI, would have showed up at their homes and demanded that they return that information.
So I'm not so sure that the former president Trump did anyone any good with that speech tonight. Just by showing up in Pennsylvania, he is making the election much more about himself.
And of course, most Republican candidates don't want anything to do with Donald Trump in this general election. They want this to be about Joe Biden and the Democrats. But to the extent Trump inserts himself into this conversation, he's giving the Democrats a major gift right now.
That's what we're witnessing in Pennsylvania. Mehmet Oz and Doug Mastriano were there. But Mehmet Oz, I don't think, wants to be anywhere near Donald Trump in this fall election. It just doesn't do him any good. He needs to win swing voters, independents and some Democrats.
And it's hard to do that when Trump is really just playing and pandering to the base.
BRUNHUBER: Let's back up a bit and look sort of at the importance of these races in Pennsylvania for Senate and governor.
How important are they as bellwethers that can tell us a lot about the state of national politics, for instance?
DENT: Well, Pennsylvania is really, probably the most certainly the largest swing state in the country. This is a year, too, where Republicans going into the election felt pretty good.
But again, former president Trump inserted himself into the primary election in both the Senate and gubernatorial races, endorsing candidates, that I would say the GOP establishment really were not behind.
Certainly in the governor's race case, by endorsing Mastriano, who's been quite an election denier and very extreme on many levels and so many Republicans view that these races are very winnable, especially in the governor's case.
It's not so winnable now because of this candidate, Mastriano. I should note that I have endorsed Josh Shapiro, the Democrat running against him. He's a mainstream individual and a decent and honorable human being.
BRUNHUBER: Interesting; I know a lot of sort of mainstream, middle of the road Republicans have done that as well.
You talk about the importance of Donald Trump maybe acting as an anchor for these candidates. Let's talk about Joe Biden. He's given several speeches in the state. He's expected back there on Monday.
Is he an important factor with his sagging poll numbers?
Could he drag down the Democratic candidates?
DENT: Well, sure, absolutely. In fact, that's what a midterm election is supposed to be about, the president who is in power and his party; in this case, Joe Biden and the Democrats. And you want the election to be a referendum on them, on Joe Biden and the Democrats.
And I think really the key factor in this upcoming midterm election will be Joe Biden's approval rating. Now it has ticked up a little bit recently. It's still not very good. It's better than Donald Trump's ratings.
But, yes, ordinarily, by historic standards, the Democrats should face some real problems in this midterm. But there have been some mitigating factors -- the Dobbs decision on abortion, the January 6th hearings, the search of Donald Trump's home down at Mar-a-Lago and his absconding with classified material.
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DENT: All these things and to the extent that Donald Trump is out on the stump, again, I don't think that's helping.
Plus, of course, many -- too many extreme candidates in some swing straights, like Doug Mastriano in Pennsylvania, others in other states, who have gotten through the primary process and who are just either unelectable or are certainly deficient in so many ways.
So really, so the Democrats should be in a much more defensive position than they are. But I wouldn't bet against history. I still suspect Republicans will win the House but not by the type of majority they were talking about a few months ago.
Obviously, Republicans in the Senate are facing an even bigger challenge, given some of the candidates who have been nominated this cycle.
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BRUNHUBER: Coming up, thousands of migrants arriving daily at the Mexican border for their chance of a new life in the U.S. Find out what is driving the recent surge. Stay with us.
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BRUNHUBER: In a gruesome discovery at America's southern border, nine migrants found dead along the Rio Grande. U.S. Border officials say six bodies were found Thursday on the U.S. side of the border and three on the Mexican side.
The grim find came while agents on both sides of the border were rounding up dozens of migrants trying to enter the U.S. near Eagle Pass, Texas.
Since late April, Texas has spent millions of to send thousands of migrants to faraway cities in other states. Many cross the border after long and dangerous journeys and are willing to accept the free bus rides without knowing what's at the other end. CNN's Polo Sandoval has the latest.
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POLO SANDOVAL, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: The Texas Division of Emergency Management is the entity tasked with carrying out Texas governor Greg Abbott's migrant bus program.
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SANDOVAL (voice-over): They confirmed for CNN that, since the start of the program, they have spent roughly $12.7 million in state funds to offer these bus rides to migrant families to cities including Washington, D.C., New York and, most recently, Chicago, Illinois.
Typically these migrants, after they're released from federal custody, it is up to them to pay for their own bus or plane tickets as they continue with their asylum proceedings. However, since April, governor Abbott has been offering these migrants free rides to those who volunteer to accept the offer.
Governor Abbott releasing a statement responding to this reporting, showing the $12.7 million in Texas taxpayer spending, saying that, until President Biden and Congress do their jobs and secure our southern border, Texas will continue utilizing every strategy to address this border crisis and protect Texans. We should note, not long after that statement was issued, at least two
buses from Texas pulled into Chicago, transporting about 95 migrants. And the Texas governor made clear that he's considering other blue cities in terms of potentially sending migrant buses their way as well --Polo Sandoval, CNN, New York.
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BRUNHUBER: The Biden administration says it is trying to deal with the unprecedented influx of migrants at the U.S. southern border but, as CNN's Rosa Flores reports, the problem is only growing.
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ROSA FLORES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Little Francillon has been in pain for weeks. His dad, Francillon Senior, has no money for doctors after the family fled Haiti with nearly nothing six years ago.
There's a lot of violence earthquakes. For your family, you left.
They've been living at this migrant shelter in Reynosa, Mexico for about a month.
Pastor Hector Silva runs the shelter and says in 25 years, he's never seen this many migrants. Thousands arriving every week. He drives us to the second shelter he opened a few months ago and estimates about 12,800 migrants, mostly Haitians, are currently waiting in Reynosa. He can house nearly 6,000. The rest are living on the streets.
HECTOR SILVA, MIGRANT SHELTER PASTOR: It's very difficult to stand at the gate and see the mom with a towel and say, I'm sorry, I cannot help you.
FLORES: The question is, why?
Why are so many people flocking here and why now?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: In my -- in my Instagram.
FLORES: Instagram.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.
FLORES: And for you?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Facebook.
FLORES: Facebook.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Facebook.
FLORES: Facebook.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Facebook.
FLORES: Facebook. Many say word has spread including on social media that migrants who come here can enter the U.S. legally if they wait their turn. Silva says, there is some truth to it.
SILVA: The good way.
FLORES: The legal way to do it.
SILVA: The legal way.
FLORES: We checked, from May to July, at the six ports of entry, more than 28,000 Title 42 exceptions were made, which allows migrants to go to these international bridges and seek asylum. This is notable because until recently, exceptions to Title 42 were rare.
Title 42 is the Trump-era pandemic public health rule that immigration agents have used nearly 2.2 million times since 2020 to swiftly expel migrants to Mexico. And per court order, the Biden administration must keep it in place, forcing asylum seekers to cross into the U.S. illegally, advocates say.
Little Francillon's family want to cross legally. That's why they're here after a grueling journey.
So they traveled through 10 countries to get to Mexico.
The pastor shows us how it works. Anticipation builds as he puts migrants on a list by arrival date. Little Francillon's parents arrived in early August and don't make the cut on this day. After months of waiting and paperwork, the pastor buses these migrants to the Reynosa-Hidalgo International Bridge where they walk up to immigration and in most cases, ask for asylum.
On this day, he says he bust more than 200.
This removes the human smuggler. This is them going to the port of entry and in some cases asking for asylum.
SILVA: Yes. They know that there's many people on the list and then it's got to be legal.
FLORES: Legal but still broken. More than 40 percent of the more than 28,000 exceptions to Title 42 have happened here at the Reynosa- Hidalgo International Bridge.
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FLORES (voice-over): Silva has this message for migrants.
SILVA: Do not come to the border. Do not come to Reynosa.
FLORES: Little Francillon's family is already here, risking it all.
What is your American dream?
He says, he wants to work for a better life. And so are thousands of others waiting for their chance at the American dream -- Rosa Flores, CNN, Reynosa, Mexico.
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BRUNHUBER: Hundreds of protesters took to the streets of Mexico City on Saturday, angered by the leadership of president Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador and a struggling economy.
They say he's not doing enough to stop armed criminal groups that have plagued Mexico for decades. Drug-related gang violence in Mexico has impacted millions, leaving more than 100,000 people missing and an untold number dead.
The U.S. special envoy to the Horn of Africa is expected to travel to the region today and visit Ethiopia in the coming days. The trip comes amid renewed clashes among Ethiopian forces and Tigrayan fighters.
The American diplomat is set to meet with government and civil society leaders to urge an end to the fighting and the start of peace talks. Larry Madowo has the latest on the conflict.
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LARRY MADOWO, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Queueing at this makeshift aid center in northern Tigray has become a daily task for these women in the town of Adwa (ph).
This video was captured in June and July by the Catholic missionary who runs the small aid distribution center says the situation has become even more dire since then. The missionary says hundreds arrive daily, as early as 3:00 am, to only be told desperately seeking any food aid.
But every day is the same. Only small amounts of a porridge-like grains are available here. The United Nations says the civil war in Ethiopia's northern Tigray region has left more than 90 percent of the region in urgent need of assistance.
In March, a fragile humanitarian truce between Ethiopian troops and Tigrayan fighters finally allowed aid to start flowing in. But with little fuel to distribute supplies, the United Nations says what has arrived still has not, quote, (ph) translated into increased humanitarian assistance.
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STEPHANE DUJARRIC, U.N. SPOKESPERSON: Our colleagues are telling us that the humanitarian situation in northern Ethiopia continues to be alarming.
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MADOWO (voice-over): Much of the aid had been started to capital of the Tigray region, Mekelle, far from the areas where it is needed the most. But fighting flared again last week, raising new concerns about aid distribution. DUJARRIC: We, of course, renew our call on the parties of the
conflict to immediately facilitate the resumption of rapid and unimpeded passage of humanitarian workers and supplies into all of northern Ethiopia in accordance with international humanitarian law.
MADOWO (voice-over): One 38 year-old single mother of five told CNN that her kids are now weak and prone to illness without regular meals. Still, they join this queue early for whatever little nourishment they can get. On days there isn't enough, they skip school to beg door to door or scavenge for wild greens.
The head of the World Health Organization who's also from Tigray called what's playing out there the worst disaster on Earth (ph).
DR. TEDROS ADHANOM GHEBREYESUS, WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION: I can tell you that the humanitarian crisis in Tigray is more than Ukraine without any exaggeration. And I say that many months ago, maybe the reason is the color of the skin of the people in Tigray.
MADOWO (voice-over): The Ethiopian government lashed out in response, calling his comments "unethical" -- Larry Madowo, CNN.
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BRUNHUBER: Ever wonder why sharks seem to show up at your favorite city beach?
The surprising answer to that question in just a moment. Stay with us.
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BRUNHUBER: A 2,000-year-old mosaic, called a key part of Rome's history, has been returned to Italy after decades in storage in Los Angeles. Depicting the mythical figure of Medusa, it's been cut into 16 pieces.
It was packed in special crates for its return trip home. A lawyer representing an anonymous client contacted the FBI to report the mosaic. They contacted Italian police. It's unclear how the client obtained the mosaic but the FBI says the mosaic belongs to the people of Rome. Once restored, it will be put on public display.
Just imagine your terror, you're swimming and you spot a shark in the water. Researchers say the sharks aren't there looking for you. It turns out sharks like the waters near big city beaches. CNN's Lynda Kinkade has the story.
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LYNDA KINKADE, CNN ANCHOR AND CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Every year, millions crowd the white, sandy beaches of Florida's southern coast to sunbathe and take dips in the cool Atlantic.
And just below the surface, a diversity of shark species. Sharks have been around for over 450 million years but have only experienced large urban areas for a few hundred years. Scientists at the University of Miami wanted to find out if sharks are attracted to or repelled by big cities.
DR. NEIL HAMMERSCHLAG, MARINE ECOLOGIST, UNIVERSITY OF MIAMI: What we were trying to do is track these sharks to see if they would be avoiding areas really close to the city that were polluted, lots of boat traffic, lots of human disturbance. And we really thought they would.
KINKADE (voice-over): Using acoustic technology, researchers monitored the movements of bull sharks, nurse sharks and great hammerhead sharks off the coast of Miami for several years.
HAMMERSCHLAG: Essentially what we did is we placed these transmitters, small little tags on the sharks. They're about the size of a AA battery. And they would emit an ultrasonic sound.
KINKADE (voice-over): The sound included a code that identifies each shark.
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KINKADE (voice-over): They then place listening stations all around the waters of South Florida.
HAMMERSCHLAG: When a shark swims within a few hundred feet of one of those listening stations, it can detect that transmitter. It hears it and it will report that that ID, that shark, swam by that location. So it logs the date and time.
KINKADE (voice-over): They were surprised by the results. Sharks do like big cities.
HAMMERSCHLAG: These sharks were cruising up and down the coastline in areas that there are people that bathe in the ocean. And I think, although this might make you a bit nervous, to me, it just proves the point that sharks really don't want to bite people. In fact, sharks really tolerate people and tend to avoid them.
KINKADE (voice-over): Scientists don't know why for sure but they believe that, as the world's coastlines rapidly urbanize, sharks and other sea life may be adapting to the change.
Also, they may be attracted by people fishing and aquariums and fisheries dumping fish parts into the waters. An uncomfortable finding for many beachgoers but not necessarily a cause for alarm.
HAMMERSCHLAG: Humans are not on the menu when it comes to sharks.
KINKADE (voice-over): Lynda Kinkade, CNN.
(END VIDEOTAPE) BRUNHUBER: All right, before we go, if you have a two-headed tortoise, of course, you give it a double happy birthday wish. Well, have a look at this.
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BRUNHUBER (voice-over): Janus here, named for the two-faced Roman God, Janus turns 25 this weekend at a museum in Geneva, Switzerland. He dines on organic salads, gets daily massages and bathes in green tea.
He lives better than I do. His right head apparently is curious and awake while the left one is passive and greedy. The museum plans to give Janus a birthday party and a surprise present.
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BRUNHUBER: All of us here at CNN sincerely wish Janus a happy birthday.
That wraps this hour of CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Kim Brunhuber. "NEW DAY" is next here in North America. For international viewers, stay with us for "CONNECTING AFRICA."
