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Heat Wave To Intensify Across Southern Europe; World Leaders Condemn Russia For Terminating Grain Deal; Ukrainian Intel Source Admits Kyiv Behind Bridge Attack; Human Rights Watch Accuses Tunisia Of Carrying Out Collective Expulsions: Of Sub-Saharan Migrants; International Crews to Help Battle Canadian Wildfires; Police Searching Home of Suspected Gilgo Beach Killer. Aired 12-12:45a ET

Aired July 18, 2023 - 00:00   ET

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

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[00:00:45]

JOHN VAUSE, CNN ANCHOR: Coming up here on CNN, record setting deadly heatwave sweeps across the world, from Europe to China to the U.S. And this is just the start of the impact from global warming, it's going to get a lot worse.

Food fight, how Vladimir Putin's decision to end a deal allowing Ukraine to export grain is now raising fears with a big increase in global food prices.

More than a thousand migrants, men, women and children beaten then left abandoned in the searing desert heat by Tunisian authorities.

ANNOUNCER: Live from CNN Center, this is CNN NEWSROOM with John Vause.

VAUSE: Thank you for joining us here for CNN NEWSROOM. And for our viewers, breaking this hour in southern Europe, it will be another long hot day. Already this morning in Athens it's 29 degrees Celsius at 6:00 a.m. so hot authorities have closed the Acropolis.

Temperatures well above 40 degree mark across Spain and Italy as well. Italian authorities have issued a warning to avoid direct sunlight between 11:00 a.m. and 6:00 p.m.

Across Greece, the heat has sparked 81 wildfires. The Civil Protection minister says the day ahead will not be easy for hundreds of firefighters on the frontlines.

Heat waves red alerts have been issued for 20 Italian cities, including Venice, Naples and Florence. And CNN's Barbie Nadeau begins our coverage from the Capitol Rome.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BARBIE NADEAU, CNN CONTRIBUTOR (voice over): Summer is here. But across Europe, people are battling the extreme heat just to keep cool.

Spain, Italy and Greece are just some of the countries that have been battling the blistering sun for days already.

In Italy, authorities issued extreme health warnings, saying that even hotter temperatures are yet to come. And even for locals, it's sweltering.

FEDERICO BRATTI, ROME RESIDENT (through translator): This is not normal. I don't remember such intense heat, especially at this time of year.

NADEAU (voice over): But that didn't stop people from trying to catch a glimpse of the Pope. As priests nuns, locals and tourists filled out St. Peter's Square dancing around in the heat.

One priests from the Democratic Republic of Congo compared Italy's sun to be hotter than Africa.

FRANCOIS MBEMBA, PRIEST, DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO (through translator): The heat goes on well into the night and sometimes we even find it hard to sleep.

NADEAU (voice over): In Rome zoo, it's feeding time, and workers are giving animals frozen fruits as treats to help keep them cool, a welcome break during the heatwave.

Over in Spain, it was a long night for firefighters battling a wildfire in the Canary Islands raging in a dry wooded area. Emergency workers are however not losing hope.

JOSE FERNANDEZ, LA PALMA FIREFIGHTER (through translator): It was a bit difficult because of the shifting wind and the heat of the last days. But we're holding on.

NADEAU (voice over): Last week, tourists who braved Athens heat did so well stopping by the fountain in Syntagma Square to cool down as temperatures rose above 40 degrees Celsius or 104 degrees Fahrenheit in some areas.

These horses also felt the heat after being evacuated from their stables because of wildfires ripping through their home.

After extreme heat caused nearly 62,000 deaths in Europe last year, meteorologists are warning that over the next few days, things could get worse in parts of Europe. And this intense and prolonged period of extreme heat could be the new norm.

Barbie Latza Nadeau, CNN, Rome.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

VAUSE: Well, summer in the northern hemisphere is now just a few weeks old. We have more details on what it will be like for the coming weeks in the coming months from CNN meteorologist Chad Myers.

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CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Some dreadful and deadly heat across the northern hemisphere obviously summertime there but some of these temperatures here especially for places like China, 126 degrees Fahrenheit, 52.2. It has never ever been hotter in any city in China than that right there. That's an all-time country record. So, yes, it has been hot and it's still hot.

Now, there will be a little bit of a tropical system that will cool Beijing down with some clouds and maybe even a shower or two but that's all part of the front that's going to move on by even in parts of Tokyo, cool you down just a little bit as the bayou (PH) just gets a little bit farther to the south there.

[00:05:09]

This is where the rainfall is going to be with the last Typhoon Talim just to the north of Hanoi, likely the heaviest rainfall there.

Here's what the radar would likely look like for this, the forecast radar watched the circulation there to the west of Hong Kong made landfall on Monday. Still going to put down quite a bit of rainfall though for today and into tomorrow, as we start to see that storm kind of wind down in speed intensity, but still bringing an awful lot of tropical moisture with it.

Here's the rainfall across from Tokyo and Seoul. This is where the area is going to cool down a little bit with that cloud cover.

And then we take a look at what South Korea had, almost a half a meter in many spots and more than a half a meter in just a few. We certainly don't need any more rainfall there across parts of South Korea.

The heat is still on in Europe, it's not really going away. Northwestern Europe is in absolutely has been very, very cool. But it's the Mediterranean down here, Italy, Rome all the way into Greece, temperatures are going to be the hottest that they'll be on Tuesday, beginning to cool back down just a little bit.

But Rome 41 in the afternoon, that's going to be a very hot day, then the hottest for the rest of the week as we cooled down back into 30s. But that's still well above normal for Rome. So above normal for Athens as well and not really cooling down there much, temperatures in the afternoon right around 40 degrees.

The United States still has this heat dome over to the desert southwest, and we call it a desert Southwest because it doesn't rain there very much in the summertime. But when it doesn't rain, that awful lot like when India doesn't get the monsoon on time, it can get very, very hot and there will be showers and there will be a southwest monsoon here in parts of the United States Southwest. That will cool the area down in the afternoon where it won't heat up as much. But it will be muggy and the heat index will go way up.

We'll see temperatures in Death Valley, not very many people live there. But people want to go there to visit to feel what 50 degrees Celsius really feels like.

Las Vegas, you'll be in the middle 40s even in the afternoon. There'll be a couple of showers around too just starting that little bit of monsoon there across parts of the Desert Southwest.

So yes, the heat is on. And it seems like worldwide, very few record low places, if any, across the globe right now.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: Our thanks to Chad for that. Now temperatures in El Paso, Texas have topped 100 degrees Fahrenheit or 38 degrees Celsius every day for more than a month. And a heat warning has been issued for Tuesday.

Phoenix, Arizona, a record 18 straight days about 110 Fahrenheit or 43 degrees Celsius, with at least a dozen people having been killed for this month alone from the heat. Salvation Army is opening cooling centers and a mobile unit is delivering water, hats, as well as sunscreen.

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CRISTINA HILL, PHOENIX, ARIZONA RESIDENT: Oh, yes. All the time. I cry all the time. I like yell at -- yell at the heat, to like go away or you know. Just now my friend came to check on me and I was -- I couldn't stop playing. I was supposed to be going to do laundry but I can't stop sweating to get the laundry together. So, it's pretty hard.

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VAUSE: Phoenix is expected a high temperature of 47 degrees or 116 degrees Fahrenheit on Tuesday. Right now they're just to what, around 11:00 at night, it is 40 degrees Celsius.

There has been a lot of worldwide criticism of Vladimir Putin over Russia's decision to terminate the Black Sea Grain Initiative, a deal which has enabled ships to safely transit the Black Sea and deliver Ukrainian grain to Turkish ports and then out to the rest of the world.

So far, a total of 33 million metric tons since that agreement was reached a year ago. But Russia says the deal is unfair, because it has not been able to export its own grain and fertilizer due to financial sanctions. Moscow says it'll reconsider -- will consider rather reviving the deal if its grievances are addressed.

But the thing now is that grain prices and food prices globally will soar, straining cash strapped countries which depend on Ukrainian grain.

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ANTONY BLINKEN, U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE: The bottom line is it's unconscionable, it should not happen. This should be restored as quickly as possible. And I hope that every country is watching this very closely. They will see that Russia is responsible for denying food to people who are desperately need it around the world and to contribute to rising prices at a time when many countries continue to experience very difficult inflation. ANTONIO GUTERRES, U.N. SECURITY-GENERAL: Ultimately, participation in these agreements is a choice. But struggling people everywhere in developing countries don't have a choice. Hundreds of millions of people face hunger and consumers are confronting a global cost of living crisis and they will pay the price.

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NIKOLAY GORBACHOV, PRESIDENT, UKRAINIAN GRAIN ASSOCIATION: It will be a collapse because Ukraine exported on the past season. 58 million ton grain and oil sits at just for one season. And I can tell to you that it's more than 12 percent from the total global trade.

And if Ukraine will not explore these grain, in this case all of us in developed country and in developing country in poor country, all of us will pay that food inflation.

And in my opinion, the international community developed country have to find the leverage how to move grain from Ukraine to the world market.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: That's just what Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy has in mind. There's hundreds of millions of people are now at risk, and he's consulting with the deals other parties, notably Turkey and the U.N. to make it work without Moscow's cooperation.

We must all care about security, about protection from Russian madness. And the Black Sea Grain Initiative can and should keep operating, if without Russia then without Russia.

That was after Russia entered the Green Deal. Russian drones attacked Odessa, Ukraine's major port city on the Black Sea. CNN team there recorded these images of a large explosion in the nighttime sky. Ukrainian officials say air defenses were successful, but they warned several waves of attacks are still expected and missiles could still be incoming.

Meantime, fighting is intensifying in the Kharkiv region. Ukraine's military says Russia has grouped some 100,000 soldiers in the Kupyansk region where they're putting everything they have into breaking through Ukrainian defensive lines.

They say Russia is desperate to have some success on the battlefield after Ukraine gained momentum around the city of Bakhmut.

Still unknown is the attack on Odessa is Russia's retaliation for a strike on the Kerch Bridge early Monday, which damaged the major crossing between Russian occupied Crimea and mainland Russia.

Ukrainian minister says the bridge was hit by naval drones. Vladimir Putin is promising payback for what he calls a senseless terrorist act which left two people dead. More details now from CNN's Fred Pleitgen.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Russian investigators at the scene of the blast on the Crimean Bridge that killed the couple driving this car and wounded their daughter, also causing part of the roadway to collapse.

Russian President Vladimir Putin irate, vowing revenge.

VLADIMIR PUTIN, PRESIDENT OF RUSSIA (through translation): There will be a response from Russia to the terrorist attack on the Crimean Bridge. The Ministry of Defense is preparing relevant proposals.

PLEITGEN (voice-over): A source in Ukrainian intelligence acknowledges Kyiv was behind the attack. The Crimean Bridge connects Russia to occupied Crimea. Ukraine says cutting the roadway could hamper the logistics for Moscow's war effort in Ukraine.

Analysis of the operational situation and the traditions of warfare allow us to cut off the enemy's logistics routes, the spokesman for the SBU says. The Crimean Bridge is currently one of the transportation corridors for military supplies for the Russian army.

It's not the first time the bridge has been hit. In October 2022, a fuel tanker exploded, severely damaging both the road and railway and causing a massive fire. A Ukrainian official only recently explicitly indicating Kyiv's involvement.

Russia now also announcing it is canceling a grain deal that had allowed for the safe transport of agricultural goods out of Ukrainian ports. The move could cause havoc on international grain markets, prices already surging. While the Kremlin says ending the deal is not related to the bridge attack, the E.U. and U.S. blasted the move accusing Moscow of weaponizing world hunger.

SAMANTHA POWER, USAID ADMINISTRATOR: This is a reckless decision that will have profound human consequences. And it's just another example of Russian callousness and disregard for human lives.

PLEITGEN (voice-over): The Ukrainians say they want to salvage the grain deal but will also continue fighting hard to take all of their territory back, including, as Ukraine's president recently told our own Erin Burnett.

VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY, PRESIDENT OF UKRAINE (through translation): We cannot imagine Ukraine without Crimea. And while Crimea is under the Russian occupation, it means only one thing. War is not over yet.

Fred Pleitgen, CNN, Berlin.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

VAUSE: Joining us now is Cedric Leighton, CNN military analysts as well as retired U.S. Air Force, Colonel. Good to see you, Sir.

COL. CEDRIC LEIGHTON (RET.), CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Good to be with you, John. VAUSE: OK, so this is the second time in the war that this bridge has been hit by Ukrainian forces. This time, much more damage it seems in the first. So, with that in mind, here's the Russian president's response to the latest attack.

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PUTIN (through translator): Considering that the second terrorist attack on the Crimean Bridge is already taking place. I'm waiting for concrete proposals to improve the security of the strategic important transport facility.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: So, they want to try and secure the bridge, which they obviously haven't been able to do so far. He's also asking the Ministry of Defense what options he has here in terms of response.

So, what are Putin's options here? And in the bigger picture, how does the attack on this bridge complicate logistics for the Russians, as the Ukrainians push on with their counter offensive?

LEIGHTON: Yes, certainly what happens with an attack like this is it really limits their ability to move things forward, they use that bridge quite a bit, both the rail lines as well as the road. And that creates a real problem for the Russians because a considerable portion of their war material that is destined for the southern front goes over that bridge. We do have other ways of getting things to the southern front, but this is one of the main arteries, that's going to be a major issue.

As far as securing the bridges concerned. Well, obviously, they've lost a chance to do that already. And they're somewhat of a disadvantage because the Ukrainians have found a way to attack the bridge that has gone seemingly undetected by the Russians.

So, we'll see, it's going to be a bit of a losing battle for him in that sense, because the Ukrainians, as long as they have the weapon systems, such as the unmanned surface vehicles that they apparently used in this case, they can mount a pretty big attack.

And as far as response options go, the Russians, they can do everything from a major attacks on cities in Ukraine, using their cruise missiles, using munitions, using their drones, especially the ones they have from Iran.

And of course, if they still have some hypersonics left, they can use the hypersonic missiles to do that, as well. So, there you have several different options.

VAUSE: But we're also hearing that, you know, General Ivan Popov may not be the only field commander relieved from duty for speaking out and you know, saying the truth. According to the Institute for the Study of War, 106th Guards Airborne

Division Commander Major General Vladimir Seliverstov, the seventh division Commander Major General Alexander Kornev, and the 90th Tank Division Commander Major General Ramil Ibatullin have been dismissed, all of them for speaking out in a similar way to Popov.

So, apart from you know, lowering already rock bottom morale among Russian troops, with this many dismissals at such a high level, doesn't it suggest, you know, there's a crisis here in something like the chain of command.

LEIGHTON: Generals in those positions are the translators of the orders from the general staff to the -- to the troops at the lower level. And when those people are removed for whatever reason, especially someone like General Popov who apparently had the allegiance of his troops was considered somebody who looked out for his troops, kind of perhaps a rubble like figure I guess, that would indicate that the Russian military hierarchy is going through a major purge right now, a major, or at least reordering of their staff. And that shows a major weakness. And with that kind of a flux in these positions, it may indicate that there is a lot more -- there was a lot more sympathy for Prigozhin and his Wagner group than has initially been reported.

VAUSE: And given all these problems within the Russian military does raise the question of why the Ukrainians are not retaking more territory at a faster clip with their counter offensive. Ukraine's Foreign Minister explained to CNN why it has been such slow going, listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DMYTRO KULEBA, UKRAINIAN FOREIGN MINISTER: In the beginning of the counter offensive when our forces moved to this -- into this minefields, there were days when Ukrainian soldiers would crawl 200 meters per day, crawl, just physically demining the path for their comrades following them, and to create corridors for tanks and other types of vehicles to advance. This is how it began. And this is why the pace of this counter offensive is not as striking as the previous ones.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: It is something incredibly, you know, granular detail there about what these troops have been going through.

Once these sort of initial obstacles are overcome, is there just sort of more of the same here? Or should there be at some point a much maybe an easier run here for the Ukrainians?

LEIGHTON: At some point, they will probably be at least a bit of an easier run, John, when it comes to the Ukrainian advance.

However, the Russians have had a chance to build up their defenses. They've had six, seven months to do this. And we're seeing, you know, what the result of that is, they're very good, very adept at mining. They're very good of course at you know, putting out artillery fires and doing things like that.

[00:20:02]

So, they are a capable defensive force, and they're using those tactics and techniques that they've honed over many, many years. They were able to deploy those in spite of the issues that they've had with their command structure, the issues that they've had with morale, they're still able to put this out there.

And the fact that they can do this has definitely slowed the Ukrainian advance and as Foreign Minister Kuleba mentioned, the Ukrainians have had a really tough time going through this, but any military force would have had a tough time going through something like this.

VAUSE: Cedric Leighton thank you so much for being with us. We really appreciate it, Sir.

LEIGHTON: You bet, John.

Coming up here on CNN NEWSROOM, expelled by Tunisia and left desperate, starving and trapped in a dangerous no man's land. The appalling and disgraceful treatment of hundreds of migrants.

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VAUSE: Israel has recognized Morocco's sovereignty of the long disputed territory of Western Sahara. The Royal office of Morocco says it was notified of the decision in the letter from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

The statement says Mr. Netanyahu is also examining the possibility of opening a consulate in the city of Dakhla. Morocco wants recognition of its sovereignty over the region but the Algerian backed Polisario Front what an independent state there.

It's called collective expulsion, and it seems to be common now in Tunisia. Here's how it works. According to Human Rights Watch in recent weeks, Tunisian security forces have collectively expelled hundreds of black African migrants and asylum seekers, including children and pregnant women. They take into a remote militarized buffer zone between Tunisia and Libya. Some have beaten, all of them left abandoned without food, water or shelter.

CNN's Nada Bashir picks up the story.

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NADA BASHIR, CNN REPORTER (voice over): Beaten, injured and abandoned. These are just some of what Human Rights Watch estimates to be Hundreds of refugees and migrants recently expelled from Tunisia. They say they'd been stranded for weeks in no man's land here at the country's eastern border with Libya, closely watched by armed border guards. Many are wounded. They say at the hands of the Tunisia National Guard.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): They beat all the women, even the children. I've got children myself. They wanted to hit my little boy, but I protected him. I took all the blows. Some of the women and boys have broken skulls, they beat everyone.

BASHIR (voice over): In videos Human Rights Watch shared with CNN, migrants describe the horrors they have faced. There is no shelter from the sweltering desert sun and no food. Some have even resorted to drinking seawater to survive.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): We need your help, please. We need your help. You have to come and help us. There are babies. We have no food, we need your help.

[00:25:06]

BASHIR (voice over): The vast majority, According to Human Rights Watch are believed to be from West Africa. They say they were arrested in mass raids near the port city of Sfax, then bused more than 300 kilometers to the east, unaware of where they were being taken. Now, many of them are still trapped in the militarized buffer zone that separates Tunisia and Libya.

LAUREN SEIBERT, HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH: I don't know what the government expects could possibly happen other than what is happening, which is people walking for days in the desert, being pushed back and forth by both sides with nowhere to go and then some individuals reportedly dying.

BASHIR (voice over): The crisis comes as tensions grow between two New Zealand citizens and migrants. With the country's President Kais Saied fanning racism and xenophobia against black Africans. In February, Saied made claims that migrants from Sub Saharan Africa would threaten to change the demographic makeup of Tunisia and bring violence and crime to the country.

Words which field anti-immigrant sentiment across the country, but also sparked backlash. Now, the President is insisting that all migrants are treated well in Tunisia.

KAIS SAIED, TUNISIAN PRESIDENT (through translator): The Tunisian people have provided these migrants with everything possible with unlimited generosity.

BASHIR (voice over): Comments made as Tunisia and the European Union finalize a deal worth more than a billion U.S. dollars, aimed at boosting trade relations and crucially, curbing irregular migration across the Mediterranean.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And we agreed that we will cooperate on border management.

BASHIR (VOICE OVER): The deal is set to commit more than $100 million towards securing Tunisia's borders, supporting search and rescue operations and bolstering the country's anti-smuggling measures. But critics accused the E.U. of legitimizing Tunisia's hardline tactics in an effort to make it more difficult for people to reach Europe shores from Africa. AHLAM CHEMLALI, VSISITING SCHOLAR, YALE UNIVERSITY: They have ignored the fact that he doesn't have any infrastructure in place or resources or even political will to govern migrant and asylum seekers on their territory.

BASHIR (voice over): According to Human Rights Watch, some migrants abandoned at Tunisia's eastern border have now been relocated to in- country facilities.

Meanwhile, authorities in neighboring Libya say they have rescued dozens of migrants from the border and are providing them with urgent care. But there remains concern that further expulsions could still be ongoing, with many still believed to be stranded at the border.

As the bodies of refugees and migrants attempting to cross the Mediterranean continue to wash off onto Tunisia's shores, there are also fears that others could be left to die in the desert.

Nada Bashir, CNN, London.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

VAUSE: Still to come, there seems no end in sight to the worst ever fire season in Canada. When we come back, we'll join the firefighters from around the world who are now on the fire lines trying to contain these massive fires.

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VAUSE: Welcome back. I'm John Vause. You're watching CNN NEWSROOM.

[00:30:38]

Twenty U.S. states are under smoke advisers as the worst Canadian wildfires of the season ever continues to rage. For exhausted Canadian farmers, help has arrived. Fire crews from the U.S. and around the world are now on the fire lines, trying to contain some of these massive blazes. Here's CNN's Paula Newton.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PAULA NEWTON, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR/CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): They've come all the way from America's Southwest.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Welcome to Quebec.

NEWTON (voice-over): Now here in Northern Quebec's scorched lands, joining hundreds of other American and international firefighters, doing what they can slow wildfires that just won't quit.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: At this point, we're just trying to secure the edge and make sure that the communities are safe.

NEWTON (voice-over): The Silver State Hotshot Crew is looking for hotspots. They are firefighting crews specially trained and skilled, now taking on Canada's record-breaking wildfires. NEWTON: I know you're from Montana, Big Sky Country, but this was a

big fire.

ZAC KROHN, U.S. FOREST SERVICE FIRE MANAGEMENT OFFICER: Yes.

NEWTON: It's a big territory.

KROHN: And the scope, for us in the States, this would be one of the largest fires ever to occur in -- in the United States. So yes, it's a gigafire.

NEWTON (voice-over): The total area burned in Canada already has shattered records. Now 10 million hectares. That's almost 25 million acres, an area nearly as large as the state of Ohio, and still burning.

MATT RAU, INCIDENT COMMANDER, SOUTHWEST AREA INCIDENT MANAGEMENT TEAM: And when they burn like this, there's no way to even put people in front of it to even stop the fire. There's no amount of resources on the ground or from the sky that's going to be able to stop one of these fires when they -- when they get the momentum.

NEWTON: As shocking and, frankly, unsettling as it is, this fire is just far too large to extinguish. In fact, the area already burned is larger than most countries on the planet. It means that not only does the fire burn, but there is going to be a lot of smoke.

NEWTON (voice-over): And that means many American cities could be shrouded in smoke on any given day for weeks or months to come.

RAU: Don't be surprised if -- if it continues. And secondly, this is -- this is a problem that is going to go on into the future. When it's the year to burn and the conditions are right, it's just going to continue to burn.

NEWTON (voice-over): Here in Quebec, many were evacuated within minutes as the flames threatened towns, and fires burned with raging speed.

Jimmy Seaburn (ph) is grateful to see American help. He says he had minutes to leave in June and was upset to leave behind the family pets. They were fine when he returned six days later, but he fears his home will be threatened again.

NEWTON: C'est incroyable, mais ce n'est pas normal. Oui? It's incredible, but it's not normal.

SEABURN (ph): (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)

NEWTON (voice-over): He says it's not normal. But cautions we should all learn to expect the worst from the weather now.

The rain helps. It has finally arrived in some places. But in the words of a Canadian official, it's like a drop in an otherwise empty bucket. The mayor of this town, Chibougamau, says that the rain is an answer

to prayer. She may not have to evacuate her town again. But they have to adapt, she says. No one imagined so much would burn so quickly.

NEWTON: Where you scared?

MANON CYR, MAYOR OF CHIBOUGAMAU, CANADA: Strangely, I wasn't scared. I was mad. And then I have to come down, and say, Manon, you have a job to do. And that's why, you know, I stayed calm. And I said to my people, let's be patient. Let's do it and keep it Zen.

NEWTON (voice-over): It may be difficult to stay calm as Mother Nature rages.

The cliche applies here in every way possible. Canada is burning. And it's not out of the woods yet.

Paula Newton, CNN, in Northern Quebec.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

VAUSE: Europe is making a major investment in Latin America and the Caribbean to try and counter the influence of Russia and China.

During a summit in Brussels, Team Europe committed more than $50 billion to the so-called CELAC region and the new Global Gateway Program, which is made up 130 projects on both sides of the Atlantic involving clean energy, health, and education.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOSEP BORRELL, EUROPEAN UNION FOREIGN POLICY CHIEF: It's a moment to reunite, to relaunch, and to rebuild relations. We are all together one billion people, 60 countries. I think it's going to be a success in itself. But the meeting -- it's something more; that the meeting is the starting point of a new relationship.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[00:35:15]

VAUSE: Vice president of pariah state Venezuela was granted special permission to take part in the summit. Delcy Rodriguez is one of several Venezuelan officials sanctioned by the E.U. five years ago after a disputed presidential election. They were accused of human rights violations and undermining democracy and were supposed to face a travel ban and asset freeze.

The E.U. is also working to revive a stalled trade deal with the Mercosur block of Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay. The deal aims to remove the majority of tariffs on E.U. exports to the region.

Negotiations have been ongoing for two decades. Brazil's president says he hopes a balanced agreement will be finalized this year.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) LUIZ INACIO LULA DE SILVA, BRAZILIAN PRESIDENT (through translator): We want to secure a relationship of fair, sustainable and inclusive trade. A conclusion of the Mercosur-European Union agreement is a priority and should be based on mutual trust and not in threats.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: A coalition of activist groups are opposed to the deal over concerns of deforestation and labor conditions. They staged a symbolic demonstration outside Parliament, where they tore down cardboard blocks with labels reading "corporate power," "tower of greed," and "extraction."

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GRACE O'SULLIVAN, GREEN MEMBER OF EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT: The E.U.- Mercosur deal is a dinosaur deal. It's antiquated. It's out of date when we see the problems of climate change, of biodiversity decline, when we see problems related to human rights. Then we see that the current deal is absolutely not appropriate. So we need to -- really, to block this deal. And then we continue relations, but not under these terms.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: Still to come, investigators have made a startling discovery at the home of a man charged with at least three murders in the Gilgo Beach case. We'll have the very latest on the investigation.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VAUSE: Well, the wife and daughter of the main suspect in the so- called Gilgo Beach murders in New York state say they were shocked, disgusted and embarrassed when they were told that Rex Heuermann was leading a doubled life.

Police say he also had a stash of hundreds of weapons. That's among the troubling information which has come to light as police continue with their investigations.

CNN's Brian Todd has our report.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The investigation of Gilgo Beach, New York, serial killing suspect Rex Heuermann intensifying. Officials found more than 200 firearms in a walled-off vault behind a locked metal door in the basement of Heuermann's Massapequa Park, Long Island, home. And investigators were still removing the guns on Monday afternoon.

None of the women Heuermann is charged with killing were gunshot victims. But authorities have also searched a storage facility nearby, a source telling CNN they're trying to pinpoint whether Heuermann kept any souvenirs, items belonging to the victims.

[00:40:10]

JOHN MILLER, CNN CHIEF LAW ENFORCEMENT AND INTELLIGENCE ANALYST: In these serial killer cases, what we see in offender characteristics is that they keep things from victims so that they can use them to relive the murders, to fantasize about them again.

The Gilgo Four was a group of four women whose remains were found near Long Island's Gilgo Beach in 2010. The case went cold, but using surveillance, DNA technology and combing through phone records, investigators zeroed in recently on Heuermann and arrested him on Thursday.

He's charged with murder in the killings of Melissa Barthelemy, Megan Waterman, and Amber Costello. And court records say he's the prime suspect in the death of a fourth woman.

RAYMOND A. TIERNEY, SUFFOLK COUNTY DISTRICT ATTORNEY: That investigation is continuing with regard to Maureen Brainard-Barnes. And, you know, we feel confident that -- that we're going to be able to eventually charge that murder. But we're not going to put a timeframe on it.

TODD (voice-over): But those four women are among 11 sets of human remains that were found scattered across the South shore of Long Island between 2010 and 2011.

CASEY JORDAN, CRIMINOLOGIST AND BEHAVIORAL ANALYST: Can they link him to the other seven? I think that, short of a confession, maybe through let's make a deal, it's very unlikely that they would be able to link those to him forensically. It's too much time.

TODD (voice-over): Prosecutors say Heuermann has led a double life.

REX HEUERMANN, MURDER SUSPECT: Rex Heuermann? I'm an architect. I'm an architectural consultant. I'm a troubleshooter. Born and raised on Long Island.

TODD (voice-over): In addition to owning and running an architecture firm, the 59-year-old is married and has two children.

JORDAN: The only way they can keep this trajectory of successful killing going is to have a double life. Or otherwise just move around constantly.

TODD: Authorities say Heuermann's wife and two children were out of state during the times the three women who he's charged with killing died. Heuermann's wife and children are cooperating with investigators.

Heuermann has pleaded not guilty to the three murders he's been charged with so far.

Brian Todd, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE) VAUSE: Speculation is swirling over a mysterious object that washed up on a beach in West Australia. The giant metal cylinder is about two meters long, some believing it may be debris from MH-370, the Malaysia Airlines flight which disappeared almost a decade ago.

But aviation experts say chances are, it's part of a space rocket. Whatever it is, authorities say it is safe and poses no threat.

Not much to do with Western Australia.

Thank you for watching CNN NEWSROOM. I'm John Vause. WORLD SPORT is next. And then I will be back with more news at the top of the hour in less than 18 minutes from now. See you then.

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