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Trump On The Campaign Trail; Children Recovering After Weeks In Amazon; Unabomber Dies In Prison. Aired 3-4a ET

Aired June 11, 2023 - 03:00   ET

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

[03:00:00]

LAILA HARRAK, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: Hello and welcome to our viewers joining us from the United States and all around the world. I'm Laila Harrak.

Former President Donald Trump hasn't stopped campaigning for re- election despite being under federal indictment related to his handling of classified information.

The president of Colombia visits the four children rescued after being missing in the Amazon for 40 days. New details on how they survived the ordeal.

And the man known as the Unabomber found dead in prison. We'll look back at the crimes that sent him there for life.

Donald Trump has -- was back on the campaign trail on Saturday, angrily sounding off about the 37-count federal indictment against him in the classified documents case. Appearances in North Carolina and Georgia were his first public events since the indictment was unsealed on Friday. Trump tells Politico he has no intention of taking a plea deal and vows to stay in the race even if convicted.

Well, the charges are extremely serious, and Trump has his first court appearance Tuesday in Southern Florida. The indictment alleges Trump violated the Espionage Act on numerous occasions and obstructed government efforts to recover the documents.

CNN's Kristen Holmes was at Trump's rally in Columbus, Georgia, and has our report.

KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN U.S. NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Former President Donald Trump appeared to be consumed by his legal issues when hearing a political speech talking to the Georgia GOP convention. He responded to that indictment, that federal indictment, for the first time in public, calling it a joke, saying it was horrible for the country, blaming Biden and the Department of Justice. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT: The ridiculous and baseless indictment of me by the Biden administration's weaponized department of injustice will go down as among the most horrific abuses of power in the history of our country. Jack smith, what do you think his name used to be? I don't know. Does anybody -- Jack Smith, it sounds so innocent. He's deranged.

This is a political hit job.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: And that was just a snippet of what he had to say. He did again really seem consumed, spending more than 40 minutes of his speech talking about his legal battles. And, again, it's supposed to be a political speech.

However, while he was focused on those legal battles, the voters here in Georgia did not seem to care. They were happy he was here. They were cheering him on, every insult to Biden, Hillary Clinton. They were cheering for, they gave him a standing ovation, at one point, people were shouting four more years.

We had been asking the question about how Republicans across the country, particularly Trump voters, might view this indictment and if it's any indication in Georgia at this GOP convention they are still viewing Trump favorably.

Now, I want to show one other small piece of video and that was Trump going to the waffle house after he gave that speech. And the reason I'm showing this video is because I want to show who's in the video with him, Walt Nauta. That is his body man, his aide who was charged alongside him in these conspiracy charges. There had been questions as to what was going to happen after Nauta was charged. It appears that at least for now he is sticking by Trump's side.

HARRAK: Well, with us now from England is Natasha Lindstaedt, a professor of government at the University of Essex. So good to have you with us, Professor, thank you for your time.

The former president freshly indicted. What did you make of his tone and tenor during his first campaign speech since the release of the 37-count indictment?

NATASHA LINDSTAEDT, PROFESSOR OF GOVERNMENT, UNIVERSITY OF ESSEX: Well, it's not surprising at all. This is the way Trump has reacted in the past when he's been indicted or accused of different things. And he likes to use it on the campaign trail to galvanize his supporters. He talks about, you know, Jack Smith, respected special counsel, as a deranged lunatic, and that the Department of Justice has been weaponized.

I mean, these words are actually really dangerous, really bad for democracy. We've had past political leaders that have been under fire in the past and they have variously defended themselves but they haven't gone after our very democratic institutions.

[03:05:00]

They haven't gone after the FBI or the Department of Justice. And that's one of the more dangerous things that Trump is doing. And we're seeing it's really firing up the Republican base.

The first indictment back in April in New York didn't affect Him negatively with the Republicans, whatsoever. They seemed to also think it's a witch hunt, that this is much ado about nothing. And he thrives off of this. He thrives off of these types of attacks because then he doesn't really have to talk about policy. He just talks about himself as the world's biggest victim and all the attention is on him. And that's what these campaign rallies seem to be about.

HARRAK: Now, he's known as Teflon Trump. Can he shake off these criminal indictments like he has shaken off political conventions essentially?

LINDSTAEDT: He can definitely shake it off in terms of his base in the Republican Party. Most of the Republicans, even prominent Republicans, including Ron DeSantis, the governor of Florida, who is running for president against him, doesn't want to criticize him. And I think he's going to win the primary because that's going to bring out the more extreme parts of the Republican Party.

But if we were to look at polling of the entire country, and there was a CNN poll back in April that showed that 60 percent of the American public agreed with the New York charges, there were some more recent polls back in May that also spoke to that, that you had a majority of Americans that thought that the charges of stealing documents was serious and that wouldn't be good for him in the 2024 election, it didn't ring well with independents. It didn't ring well, of course, with Democrats. It was only something that was playing well with Republicans.

And the problem for Trump is in the 2024 election, this isn't him just with the Republicans. He has to win over a majority of the public that care a lot about other things besides his legal woes or Hunter Biden's laptop and all the types of things he tries to deflect on.

HARRAK: Now, Professor, you alluded to how many of his rivals for the GOP presidential nominations -- nomination, rather, have come out and essentially denounced the DOJ, some of them. How fine a line are they walking right now? I mean, they are his rivals but they're also protecting him and standing by him.

LINDSTAEDT: It's very dangerous what the Republican Party has done. And I think this is just a sign of how much the Republican Party has become all about Trump, that it's become a very personalized party and it's an autocratic party, where people are just doing exactly what he says. You have a few exceptions with Governor Chris -- ex-Governor Chris Christie who's running for president and Mitt Romney in the Senate.

Otherwise, particularly in the House, Republicans have been very vocal in supporting him and in denouncing our institutions. And this is so incredibly dangerous that they are doing that. But they continue to do that because he has some sort of psychological hold on the Republican Party.

HARRAK: Natasha Lindstaedt, thank you so much for your time. LINDSTAEDT: Thanks for having me.

HARRAK: We're following a developing story out of Russia, where a U.S. citizen has been detained on drug charges. A statement from a Moscow court identified the man as Travis Leek, a former paratrooper and musician. It also says he will remain in custody until August 6th. Video of Leek's arrest and his police mug shot were published in Russian tabloid outlets on Thursday.

CNN also filmed Leek in 2014 for an episode of Anthony Bourdain, Parts Unknown. Leek's mother and the U.S. State Department say they are aware of the reports of the arrest. A State Department spokesperson says they will pursue consular access as soon as possible.

And U.S. basketball star Brittney Griner, who was detained in Russia for approximately ten months, has been harassed at a Texas airport by a man described as a social media provocateur. A source familiar with the incident told CNN that the man yelled at Griner about the, quote, merchant of death. That's an apparent reference to Viktor Bout, a Russian arms dealer who was released by the U.S. in exchange for Griner's freedom.

A spokesman for the Bring our Families Home Campaign condemned the incident at the airport, saying that accosting Griner was unacceptable. It called on social media companies to prohibit the monetization of any resulting content.

The Biden administration is now confirming that China has been operating military and spying facilities in Cuba for at least four years. An administration official and two other sources tell CNN China has been spying on the U.S. from various sites in Cuba and upgraded its facilities in 2019.

[03:10:02]

And earlier this week, CNN confirmed that Cuba will allow China to build a new spying facility to eavesdrop on U.S. electronic communications, which the Biden administration had previously denied.

The official says the U.S. is working to counter China's intelligence efforts in Cuba, and the official said experts believe the U.S. efforts have at least slowed down the Chinese.

Ukraine's president gives a strong indication about the widely anticipated counteroffensive. You'll hear what he said in a diplomatic setting and what his troops reportedly did on the ground. That's ahead.

Plus, four Colombian children are recovering after surviving a plane crash and more than five weeks in the Amazon jungle. What they ate to stay alive, coming up in a report from Bogota.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARRAK: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is dropping his strongest hint yet that the much-anticipated counteroffensive has begun.

[03:15:00]

This is how he put it during a press briefing on Saturday.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY, UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT: The appropriate counteroffensive defensive actions are taking place in Ukraine. And I will not go into detail about what stage they are at. And I hope that we will all definitely feel it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARRAK: While Mr. Zelenskyy said he's not ready to share any more details for now, but he spoke after Ukraine said its forces had advanced up to 1,400 meters in some parts of Bakhmut, while Moscow claims it repelled multiple Ukrainian attacks in the Donetsk and Zaporizhzhia regions.

Let's get you more now with our Clare Sebastian joining us live from London. Clare, Ukrainian president there tacitly more or less signaling forces have started their offensive.

CLARE SEBASTIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Laila, tacitly being the operative word. The Ukrainians are being very deliberate, very careful about what information they release about this certainly when it comes to strategy. And this wasn't an announcement as such by Zelenskyy. He was responding to comments by President Vladimir Putin of Russia on Friday, who definitively said the Ukrainian counteroffensive was under way and that it had so far failed in all of its goals. So, he said it's good they're at least feeling it. There are certainly information operations going on alongside this.

But what is sort of coming clear is unlike previous counteroffensives that we've seen from Ukraine around Kyiv in the spring of 2022, Kharkiv last autumn, which were more localize the areas, this is shaping up to be a very large operation taking place at multiple locations along hundreds of miles of frontline. We're hearing about operations up in the north, in Donetsk, around Bakhmut where the Ukrainians, as you say, have claimed to have advanced fairly significantly.

There is Russian reports around the border of Zaporizhzhia and Donetsk further south, and then towards the western part of Zaporizhzhia, the town of Orikhiv, seems to be another sort of nexus of fighting at the moment.

The Ukrainians -- the Russians, rather, are saying that they've repelled several attempts by the Ukrainians to break through, certainly in that western part of Zaporizhzhia. So, that is sort of the picture that we're getting at this moment.

And there continue to be these aerial assaults as well. Overnight, the Ukrainian military says Russia launched eight missiles and 35 Shahed attack drones of which they shot down two missiles they say and 20 drones. So, we're awaiting more information as of that. And there was an attack the previous night which seemed to have targeted Odessa with drones that were shot down but still three people there were killed and 26 wounded. So, they have announced a day of mourning today in that town, which I should note is also affected by the fallout of the breach of the Kakhovka dam, the flooding and the rescue efforts continue there.

HARRAK: Clare Sebastian, thank you very much for your continued coverage.

And we're now joined by Masha Gessen, staff writer for the New Yorker and author of the book, Surviving Autocracy, which won the U.S. National Book Award in 2017. Masha has been covering Russia and Vladimir Putin for years. Masha, it's good to meet you. Thank you for doing this.

As we see Ukraine stepping up its military activities right now, let's take a listen to Putin's reaction.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

VLADIMIR PUTIN, RUSSIAN PRESIDENT: It can be stated with absolute certainty that the counteroffensive has begun. The Ukrainian troops have not achieved the tasks assigned to them in any of the main sectors of the military operations. This is an absolutely obvious thing.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARRAK: So, obviously, Masha, there a defiant Putin. What are the risks that Putin faces right now?

MASHA GESSEN, STAFF WRITER, THE NEW YORKER: You know, actually, I need to correct the translation because Putin did not say that the counteroffensive has begun. Putin said the offensive has begun. Because Russia has still not admitted that it's waging war in Ukraine. Russia calls it a special military operation. And so Putin is very careful in that statement that he made a couple of days ago to not use the word counteroffensive and also not to refer to Ukraine. He refers to the regime in Kyiv, right? So, he continues to deny the very existence of Ukraine.

I think Putin is still fairly confident. I wouldn't call him defiant. I would call him confident. Certainly, the war didn't go as he planned it. He planned it to be a two, three-day war. It has now been going on for 15 months. But he knows that a long, protracted war of attrition places him on the right side, that he stands to benefit from it and Ukraine can't afford it. Ukraine has to make sure that this counteroffensive is successful. And a full victory for Ukraine would mean liberating all occupied land, including Crimea. I think Putin thinks with good reason that this is extremely unlikely.

[03:20:00]

HARRAK: He sounds confident, as you point out there. But infighting among the country's military leadership, we've seen some very -- seen that play out publicly. Are you surprised that he doesn't rein them in and have better control of the situation? How engaged is the Russian leader right now?

GESSEN: I think he's quite engaged. But you're right. There is something that's been happening over the last few weeks in particular that has actually less to do with the counteroffensive and more to do with incursions of small groups of Ukrainian fighters and drones onto Russian territory.

There were eight Russian drones that crashed -- eight drones that crashed in Moscow a couple of weeks ago. There have been drones appearing on the internationally recognized territory of Russia almost every day for the last couple of weeks.

And that creates a kind of plurality of actors in Russia, where local governors -- oh, and also there was a major incursion of an actual fighting unit into the Belgorod region about a week ago. There were casualties and there were prisoners taken, possibly hostages, depending whether they're civilians or military. And so that required the local governor of the Belgorod region to actually become an actor in this war, to decide whether he was going to negotiate with the Ukrainians who had entered Russia.

This is something we haven't seen before. Russians, very much like westerners, have seen the Russian military effort as a monolith with Putin at the helm. And what we're seeing now is -- it's like an inkling, like a stirring of politics for Russians. I wouldn't go too far and draw any conclusions from it, but it is a somewhat new situation.

HARRAK: How destabilizing is it, and how do Russia's elites feel about what's happening?

GESSEN: I wouldn't overestimate how destabilizing it is. The war has broad support in Russia. It's very, very, very difficult to get accurate sort of measures what we erroneously call public opinion in a country where there's no public and no opinion. But from what we can tell the support for the war is actually broader now. It's a passive support but it's broader now than it was even a year ago. And the same is true of the elites.

They have coalesced around Putin. I wouldn't fantasize about them suddenly throwing their hat in with somebody else, even somebody like Yevgeny Prigozhin, who's become increasingly more vocal. He has his own private army that has been fighting in Ukraine. He has criticized Putin for not being decisive enough. He's criticized the Russian Minister of Defense. But while he is important and a destabilizing force for Putin himself, I wouldn't overestimate his influence on Russian society.

HARRAK: But do you feel there is generally a belief that Russia can't lose this war because it has nuclear weapons?

GESSEN: Putin has made that very clear. Putin, I think, wants to remind us that he is serious when he is engaging his nuclear saber- rattling. A couple of days ago, we learned that Russia is about to deploy nuclear weapons on the territory of Belarus. This is, if nothing else, a gesture of preparedness, a signal to the west that, yes, when he says he is ready to use nuclear weapons, he is ready to use nuclear weapons. That's his last resort.

HARRAK: So, you don't feel this is just posturing? I mean, you do think he's willing to go down that nuclear path? I know it's very difficult to obviously predict, you know, his actions. But a lot of people in Europe are of course worried by that.

GESSEN: You know, I think it's a little bit of a false dichotomy. It is just posturing. But just because it's just posturing doesn't mean he isn't going to carry through with it. There may very well come a point if Putin continues to -- if Russia continues to suffer defeats on the battlefield and if there continues to be this very sort of worrisome for Putin increase in the number of voices that can be heard inside of Russia about the war, then he's going to be more tempted and possibly even cornered into a position where he has to assert that he is still in charge of the largest, the most important military force in the country and possibly if he resorts to nuclear weapons the world.

HARRAK: Masha Gessen, thank you so much for this thoughtful and insightful conversation. Thank you.

[03:25:00]

GESSEN: Thank you.

HARRAK: Four Colombian children are recovering in hospital after being rescued some 40 days after they survived a plane crash in the Amazon that killed their mother and two other adults. Searchers found them after hearing the cries of the youngest child, who's just one-year- old.

Stefano Pozzebon reports now from Bogota.

STEFANO POZZEBON, JOURNALIST: In the 24 hours since the four children were rescued from the thick of the Amazon rainforest, and they remain in the central military hospital here in Bogota, just behind my back. They're under medical observations. Colombian authorities say that their conditions are stable but, of course, they were very weak and very affected from this experience.

On Saturday, several members of the Colombian institutions came through the hospital doors to meet them in person. Among them, the president of the country, Gustavo Petro, who came with his wife. He didn't speak with the press.

Who spoke with the press instead was one of the relatives of these children. He also traveled from the Amazon region here in Bogota to be with them in this moment. And here's what he said when we asked him why he -- how he thinks they were able to stay alive for so long in the forest.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) FIDENCIO VALENCIA, CHILDREN'S GRANDFATHER: When the plane crashed, they took out the tapioca flour and with that they survived. And after the tapioca flour was over, they began to eat seeds.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

POZZEBON: So, of course, it's important, it's an indigenous background, upbringing in the middle of the forest. They clearly knew how to move around such a difficult terrain. However, this doesn't take away the outstanding achievements that these four children were able to complete after staying alive for more than five weeks. I think that the youngest of them, Christine, she's only one-year-old. She actually spent her first birthday in the thick of the jungle.

Colombian authorities expect that the children will stay in the hospital under observation for between two and three weeks before being allowed to get out and finally spend their time with the family. And, of course, this is a moment of rejoicing. It's a moment where this country is coming together, really, to celebrate this positive news. For CNN, this is Stefano Pozzebon, Bogota.

HARRAK: Just days before becoming the first former president to be formally charged with a federal crime, Donald Trump is back on the campaign trail and defiant as ever. We'll tell you what he's saying about the federal indictment against him.

And U.S. officials say the man known as the Unabomber has died in prison. We'll have the details on his death just ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[03:30:00]

HARRAK: Donald Trump does not look like someone who's just been indicted on dozens of federal crimes. Instead he's campaigning for president as usual and says he has no intention of quitting the race. Appearing Saturday before capacity crowds in North Carolina and Georgia, Trump dismissed the indictment as a political hit.

Well, the lengthy indictment, unsealed on Friday, details more than 30 alleged violations of the Espionage Act by the former president and multiple counts of obstruction, while Trump's first court appearance is set for Tuesday before a federal judge in South Florida. And as you'd expect, security will be extremely tight when Donald Trump shows up.

CNN's Randi Kaye was at the courthouse in South Florida early Saturday and explains how police and other agencies plan to handle his appearance.

RANDI KAYE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It's really all hands on deck as far as the security effort here ahead of the former president's arraignment here at the federal courthouse in Miami. Securing the scene will really start with the moment he leaves, whichever of his properties he's staying at ahead of this arraignment on Monday night. I'm told by my law enforcement sources that they will probably have an exclusive route reserved, some of the roadways here just for the former president and his motorcade.

And it really is a coordinated effort between Miami police, who will be working on those road closures and detours and, of course, the Secret Service looking after Donald Trump and the FBI and U.S. Marshals are involved as well. As far as the court, there will be a perimeter set up around the court to make sure that the protesters and supporters don't get too close to the courthouse as well.

And as far as the threat assessment that was done here at the Miami courthouse, they did find no credible threats. So, that was certainly good news. And they're going to continue to monitor all of this. They'll be looking very closely at social media. They'll be making sure there isn't any actionable intelligence that they need to do anything about accounts, and then, of course, they're going to be looking at what they would call a call to action, making sure that nobody in their speeches or on social media could be instigating any type of violence here at the federal courthouse. They certainly don't want another January 6th on their hands.

And when Donald Trump does appear here, he will very likely go into a side door or a back door. They won't be take him straight through the front door. They want to limit his exposure to anybody who is here, whether it's a supporter or protester, very likely even the media. Then he will probably be taken underground through tunnels and then upstairs to the courtroom where he will be arraigned. And it's very likely that he will leave this courthouse the same way he came in.

Randi Kaye, CNN, Miami.

HARRAK: Well, barely 24 hours after his federal indictment was unsealed, former U.S. President Donald Trump defended his handling of classified documents by repeating this claim about President Biden. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: By the way, Biden has got 1,850 boxes. He's got boxes in Chinatown, D.C. He's got boxes all over the place. He doesn't know what the hell to do with them. And he's fighting them on the boxes. He doesn't want to give the boxes. And then they say Trump is obstructioning. He's obstructing. No, it's a sad, sad day for the country.

Think of it, 1,850 boxes he had. Mine is peanuts.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARRAK: Well, CNN's Daniel Dale fact-checked this claim.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DANIEL DALE, CNN REPORTER: These are boxes that President Biden donated very publicly, legally and normally in 2012 to the University of Delaware, his alma mater. The key point here is that they are boxes from his 36-year career as a United States senator.

[03:35:02]

Why is that so important? Well, if you're the president, you're subject to the Presidential Records Act, which says that all of your records are owned by the federal government when you leave office. There is no Senate Records Act. If you're a senator, you own your office's records. And you can do whatever you want with them. You can decorate your house with them. You can give them to your dog. You can do absolutely anything. The president, like many senators, donated them to a university. And that is, again, entirely normal.

The second key difference between the Biden case and the Trump case is that there is no current indication, Alex, that there is anything classified in these 1,850 boxes of Biden's Senate records. The FBI conducted two searches of the University of Delaware with the Biden legal team's consent. And as of February, when they had done initial analysis of these documents, a source told our colleague, Paula Reid, that there was no sign that there was any classified marking on any of these documents.

ALEX MARQUARDT, CNN ANCHOR: This is something we've heard in him before. We heard it at our own CNN town hall. Is there any relevance to the indictment that he is now facing?

DALE: I don't think so. And he's trying to create relevance by saying things like Biden has been obstructive about these boxes, he's been totally uncooperative, won't let anyone look at them. Again, that's wrong. He's let the FBI look at them. He even said at the town hall that no one knows where these boxes are. We do know where they are. They're at the college, at the University of Delaware, where they have been since 2012. The university published an article on its website when they arrived, still has a web page saying the papers are there. They have not vanished whatsoever.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HARRAK: And you can read more of Daniel's fact check on this at cnn.com.

U.S. authorities say Ted Kaczynski, the so-called Unabomber, who carried out a deadly bombing campaign across the country, has died at 81. From 1978 to 1995, Kaczynski mailed and delivered homemade explosives that killed three people and wounded 23 others.

CNN's Polo Sandoval has more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

POLO SANDOVAL, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Known infamously as the Unabomber, Ted Kaczynski was serving eight life sentences for his 17- year deadly reign of terror when he died Saturday. Prison officials tell CNN the ailing 81-year-old was found unresponsive in a cell overnight. His cause of death not yet released.

In December 2021, Kaczynski was transferred to a federal medical facility in Butner, North Carolina, used to house inmates with health conditions. ANDREW MCCABE, CNN SENIOR LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: I think it's very important for transparency reasons to fully understand the circumstances around the death. But I would caution speculation at this point. We don't really have any reason to believe anything untoward happened here just yet.

SANDOVAL: Andrew McCabe is a former FBI deputy director who was with the bureau as agents closed the Unabomber case.

It was in 1978 when Kaczynski started his campaign of violence by leaving a mail bomb in a parking lot at a Chicago university. He would go on to plant explosives on an airplane, university buildings and by computer stores. He also mailed powerful bombs to university professors and business executives.

By the time he was arrested in 1996, his 16 devices killed three innocent people and injured 23 others. His own words published in a manifesto were what eventually led FBI agents to his off the grid primitive cabin in the woods of Montana, tipped off by Kaczynski's own brother.

MCCABE: He pursued this bombing campaign as a way of striking back against technological advancement, which he believed was damaging the environment in ways that needed to be stopped.

SANDOVAL: Before becoming a prolific bomber, Kaczynski was a high school honors student in Illinois who enrolled at Harvard at just 16. It was during his college years that Kaczynski took a dark turn, recalled his brother.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Ted was withdrawing. There wasn't the desire to come home and enjoy the family.

SANDOVAL: As part of a deal with prosecutors to dodge the death penalty, Kaczynski admitted to the bombings and was sent to Colorado's super max prison where he remained until his medical transfer. At the time of Kaczynski's 1998 sentencing, the widow of victim Gill Murray wrote, he will never, ever kill again.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SANDOVAL (on camera): And as we look to learn more about the circumstances surrounding Kaczynski's death, the Federal Bureau of Prisons confirming that they located him, he was unresponsive in his cell over the weekend, he was transferred to a hospital where staff there pronounced him dead.

Polo Sandoval, CNN, New York.

HARRAK: A Colorado woman says police didn't respond quickly enough when she told them that her husband was being held hostage. According to the woman, she even told them where her husband was. But, tragically, she says she ended up arriving before the police and her husband was dead.

CNN's Camila Bernal picks up the story. CAMILA BERNAL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Police not saying much about this case, saying they did receive a 911 call but not going into details because they say this is an ongoing investigation.

Now, a lot of the information we are getting is from Campbell herself.

[03:40:00]

This is a widow that is heartbroken and planning her husband's funeral. But she says that this all happened on June 2nd as she says she got these text messages from her husband, not just with a photo but also with a location of where exactly her husband was at the time. She says she was able to call 911 and tell them exactly where her husband was, give them a description of the man in the photo and tell them that her husband needed help. She says she didn't sense urgency from the dispatch operator at the time, so she decided to drive to where her husband was.

Now, she was about an hour away and by the time she got to that location she says there were no officers. So, she says she saw her husband's car and saw her husband slumped over the driver's side of the car, and as soon as she saw that she says she fell to her knees crying but also felt she had to do more. Here's what she said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TALIJA CAMPBELL, HUSBAND KILLED: I wanted to see if my husband may still be alive. I wanted to see if he had a pulse. I opened the door and I put my fingers on his neck. I couldn't feel anything. I put my fingers on his wrist, I still couldn't feel anything. So, my uncle was the only one that was big enough to help pull him out of the car in a pool of blood. It was me that had to try to perform CPR on my husband in a pool of blood.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERNAL: And she was extremely emotional as she stepped away from that microphone. She said she shouldn't have been the one to have to do that. It's why, through her civil rights attorney, she is asking for accountability, ask why it took police so long to respond, what other calls they were receiving at the time or what other incidents took priority over her husband's incident.

Police, again, not saying too much about this case but releasing a statement saying this. We are aware there is information circulating about this case and we understand the concerns and questions that arise as a result. We will continue to gather all relevant details about Mr. Campbell's death and ensure the accuracy of our findings.

Now, they do say this was a murder-suicide but, again, say there is more to this investigation, all of this while this widow continues to demand answers.

Camila Bernal, CNN, Los Angeles.

HARRAK: Italian doctors say they're pleased with the pontiff's progress as he recovers from surgery. We'll find out how Pope Francis is getting back to work from a hospital bed in Rome. That's just ahead.

And the sign of good luck in Hong Kong apparently ran into bad weather. How Mother Nature played a role in the deflation of this popular arts installation, when we return.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[03:45:00]

HARRAK: In the coming hours, Pope Francis will be delivering Sunday's Angelus prayer privately in his hospital room. He's taking the advice of his doctors following abdominal surgery to repair a hernia last week, as Barbie Nadeau reports.

BARBIE NADEAU, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: Pope Francis's doctor is very, very pleased with his progress, telling reporters here at the Gemelli Hospital that the Holy Father is doing better than they had expected. He's moving along at just the rate they were hoping for.

But unlike in 2021 when he was in this hospital for his first surgery, he will not be delivering his Sunday Angelus, and that's doctor's orders.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We suggested to the pope to not celebrate in the public tomorrow the Angelus prayer. And then (INAUDIBLE).

MATTEO BRUNI, VATICAN SPOKESMAN: But he will privately in his own hospital room, he will say the Angelus at 12:00. So, anyone who wants to join him in prayer is welcome to.

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NADEAU: But as his doctors said, the pope did not protest this. He knows that he needs to rest. He knows that he needs to work on getting stronger and healthier so that he can go back to work as usual.

Barbie Latza Nadeau, CNN, Rome.

HARRAK: Canadian officials say firefighters have contained most of the wildfires burning in Eastern Quebec thanks in part to favorable weather conditions. It led to smoky skies in the U.S. which have now dissipated. But experts say this year's extreme fire season may not be the last as sweltering temperatures sweep the globe.

CNN's Allison Chinchar reports.

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ALLISON CHINCHAR, CNN METEOROLOGIST (voice over): Off to a bad start, hot spots from coast to coast in Canada. It's early in the fire season but the blazes have already burned about 15 times the country's annual average over the last decade. And where there's fire there's smoke. Blue skies returning in some parts of the U.S. after smog drifted across the border, which put around 75 million people under air quality alerts.

Scientists say the smoke has drifted as far away as Norway, and some weather experts caution wildfire seasons like this will become more common.

ELIZABETH HOY, NASA CLIMATE AND WILDFIRE EXPERT: So, what we see is as the climate is changing, as we're warming, nine of the last ten years have been the warmest years on record, we're setting the stage with these hotter and dryer temperatures, which can lead to more fire.

CHINCHAR: And speaking of hotter temperatures, the U.K. Met Office is warning London could see its hottest day of the year so far this weekend, with temperatures reaching 30 degrees Celsius.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's incredibly hot today. Sometimes you feel you're not actually in England because it's so hot today. From the moment we woke up this morning and stepped out on our balcony, it was boiling.

CHINCHAR: Siberia is known for its cold winters, but it's breaking records for its red hot temperatures this June, at times, hovering near 40 degrees Celsius in the region's worst heat wave in history.

Asia also broiling in the hot sun, countries like Bangladesh closing primary schools, its power grid struggling to keep up with the rising demand of people trying to find relief from the heat.

MOHAMMAD SUMON, CHICKEN SELLER: I lost over 20 chickens today due to excessive heat. The electricity is going off for over two hours at a time. I can't even sleep properly. I feel so helpless.

CHINCHAR: Temperatures of more than 45 degrees Celsius were recorded last week in China. In Hong Kong, it was so hot, one of the two giant rubber ducks anchored in Hong Kong's Victoria Harbor was deflated after an inspection revealed its surface had stretched due to hot weather. Not a good sign for the rest of the summer, when even a duck in water can't beat the heat.

[03:50:00]

Allison Chinchar, CNN.

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HARRAK: And we'll be right back.

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HARRAK: It was a historic win Saturday at the Belmont Stakes, the third leg of U.S. horse racing's Triple Crown. A gray colt named Arcangelo came from behind late in the race to seal the victory and made the colt's trainer, Jen Antonucci, the first female trainer to win a Triple Crown race. And Arcangelo's jockey, Javier Castellano, has now won two of the three Triple Crown races this year.

And Manchester City reached the pinnacle of European football on Saturday. They defeated Inter Milan 1-0 to win the club's first ever Champions League title. And even better, by doing so, the citizens also managed to complete the treble, winning the Premier League, F.A. Cup and Champions League titles in the same season.

CNN World Sport's Amanda Davies has more now from Istanbul where the historic match was played.

AMANDA DAVIES, CNN WORLD SPORT: The final piece of the jigsaw, that's it. Football completed, as they say. Manchester City have finally won it all and done it all. Manager Pep Guardiola had said ahead of this one it would be a dream but it's now become the reality at last.

[03:55:02]

Manchester City champions of Europe for the first time in their history, and not only that but also joining that elite group of just ten teams to have won the iconic European treble of trophies in the same year, the Champions League, the Domestic League, and Cup.

It has been a very long, nerving and at times heartbreaking road for the last 15 years, since the Abu Dhabi owners rolled into town boldly declaring their sights set on changing the game and building the best club in Europe.

Sheikh Mansour was here watching this evening, just the second time in his tenure he's been seen at the game. He saw an interest eye (ph) to deserve taking a whole lot of credit doing exactly what they said they would, jangling the nerves and disrupting the dominant, free flowing football we've seen so often this season from city.

At times, you could see every pound of the weight of expectation and history on the shoulders of the fans and Haaland and co. And whilst the Norwegian didn't get the goal that the mattered this evening, that went to his teammate, Rodri. He and his teammates can all celebrate, getting their hands on the biggest prize in European club football and producing the greatest season in Manchester City's history.

So, the list of great treble-winning sides, the likes of Manchester United of 1999 or the Barcelona teams of 2009 and 2011, add Manchester City, 2023, which is the greatest -- well, that's a debate we can save for another day.

Amanda Davies, CNN, Istanbul.

HARRAK: And that wraps up this hour of CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Laila Harrak. Kim Brunhuber picks up our coverage after a quick break. Do stay with us.

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