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U.S. to Deploy a Guided Mission Submarine as Israel Braces for Possible Attacks from Iran and Hezbollah; Trump Questions Harris' Crowd Size in One of Her Rallies; Ukrainian President Blames Russia for Starting Fire in a Nuclear Power Plant; Team USA ties with China for the Most Golds, but Claims Overall Champions at the Close of Paris Olympics; Families now Seeking Help for Victims of the Plane Crash near Sao Paulo, Brazil; Dairy Products Industry is now Facing a Threat as Drought Affects Goat Farming in Italy's Sicily Region. Aired 3-4a ET

Aired August 12, 2024 - 03:00   ET

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

[03:00:00]

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ROSEMARY CHURCH, CNN ANCHOR: Hello and welcome to our viewers joining us here in the United States, around the world and everyone streaming us on CNN Max. I'm Rosemary Church.

Just ahead, a U.S. nuclear-powered submarine is on its way to the Middle East as the world waits to see if Iran strikes back at Israel.

Another bizarre claim from Donald Trump as the former president questioned Kamala Harris' crowd size while the vice president hopes to keep building on the momentum of her campaign.

And Paris bids adieu to the Summer Games with a star-studded closing ceremony and hands off the Olympic torch to Los Angeles, Hollywood- style.

UNKNOWN (voice-over): Live from Atlanta, this is "CNN Newsroom" with Rosemary Church.

CHURCH: Good to have you with us. And we begin with escalating tensions in the Middle East as Israel braces for a possible attack from Iran and the Iranian-backed militant group Hezbollah. U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin has ordered a guided-missile submarine to the region, a message of deterrence to Iran and its proxies.

CNN political and foreign policy analyst Barack Ravid reports that according to a source, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant told Austin that Iran appears to be preparing for a large-scale attack. Tensions were only heightened Sunday night after Israel says about 30 rockets were launched from Lebanon. The Israel Defense Forces says some fell into open areas and no injuries were reported. All this comes ahead of Gaza ceasefire talks due to take place this week.

CNN's Paula Hancocks is following developments. She joins us now live from London. Good morning to you, Paula. So what preparations are underway in the region for a potential retaliatory strike from Iran and its proxies on Israel and what's expected?

PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Rosemary, we've certainly been seeing some military preparations from the U.S. side. The Pentagon announcing that it does have the USS Georgia, a guided- missile submarine, that is going to be deployed in the waters of the Middle East.

This is an unusual announcement from the Pentagon. This is a nuclear- powered submarine which is armed with cruise missiles, and the location of these kind of submarines is not usually publicized. So it is a very rare acknowledgment of exactly where or close to where this submarine is going to be. It was carrying out drills just off Italy, we understand, in the Mediterranean Sea and is now being deployed in the Middle East.

Now there's a fact that it is being telegraphed quite so publicly shows that it is intended as a message. It is intended as a sign of deterrence for Iran and its planned retaliation.

Now, we have heard repeatedly from Tehran that they will be carrying out a retaliation for the assassination of Ismail Haniyeh, the Hamas political leader, on Iranian soil, an attack that Israel has not claimed responsibility for but most in the region believe they are responsible for. They have said that Israel has violated its sovereignty, and so it does have to respond, pointing out that this is going to be separate from those talks you mentioned this week, potentially for a hostage ceasefire deal.

And then also we did see from one of Iran's proxies Sunday night, Hezbollah launching about 30 rockets into northern Israel. According to the IDF, there were no injuries. Rosemary?

CHURCH: And Paula, you mentioned those ceasefire and hostage release talks taking place later this week. What is the latest on that?

HANCOCKS: So the plan remains at this point that they will take place on Thursday. We know that the mediators, Qatar and Egypt, also the United States, want to present some kind of final bridging proposal to both sides, to Hamas and to Israel, in the hope of pushing forward a deal, a ceasefire deal and a hostage deal. We have heard from one Israeli source familiar with these talks telling CNN that they believe that the Hamas leader, Yahya Sinwar, is now ready for a ceasefire, is willing to sign up to a ceasefire.

[03:05:00]

And certainly the message that we're hearing from the mediators from Egypt and Qatar saying that Hamas wants to sign up for the deal that is already on the table back in July, that was approved also by President Biden, which does suggest maybe they won't be willing to come to these talks because they believe the deal is there already. Rosemary?

CHURCH: Our thanks to Paula Hancocks for that live report from London. Retired Major General Mick Ryan of the Australian Army joins me now

from Brisbane. He's also a former commander with the Australia Defense College and author of the book "The War for Ukraine, Strategy and Adaptation Under Fire." Appreciate you joining us.

MAJ. GEN. MICK RYAN (RET.), AUSTRALIAN ARMY AND FORMER COMMANDER, AUSTRALIA DEFENCE COLLEGE: Thanks, Rosemary. Good to be with you.

CHURCH: So Israel continues to brace for potential retaliatory attacks from Iran or Hezbollah, perhaps even both. How likely is it that the defensive capabilities of Israel could be overwhelmed by a coordinated attack and how might that force the hand of the U.S.?

RYAN: Well, the Iranians and Hezbollah will both want to hurt Israel, but they also want to calibrate their response so it doesn't result in some kind of major conflict. At the end of the day, as embarrassing as the killing of the leader was in Tehran, it wasn't an existential threat to Iran.

CHURCH: So they're going to carefully calibrate just how serious this attack is going to be. So why do you think Iran and Hezbollah are still waiting to retaliate? What does that signal to you from a military perspective and how extensive will those strikes on Israel likely be, do you think?

RYAN: Well, they're probably planning a strike that will cause the kind of damage that won't force Israel's hand. Probably military targets rather than civilian targets. There's a lot of detailed planning in that.

But, you know, it could well be that Iran is waiting long enough for the United States to have enough deterrence in place to give it an excuse not to go into some large-scale strike against Israel. It knows that it can't win an escalation battle with Israel and the United States.

CHURCH: And, of course, the key to de-escalation in the region appears to lie in Gaza with a ceasefire and hostage release deal. Talks are set for Thursday, but Hamas is now indicating it may not attend. What do they achieve by threatening not to turn up and what might that signal about the impending attack on Israel?

RYAN: Well, at the end of the day, Yahya Sinwar is the sworn enemy of Israel. He doesn't care how many of his own people he kills to hurt Israel. He doesn't really care about the hostages that Israeli families are desperate to have the least. So he's really not thinking about the strategic impact of this other than how do I hurt Israel more.

CHURCH: And U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin is ordering a nuclear- powered submarine and accelerating the arrival of a carrier strike group to the troubled region. Is that just for deterrence or could this signal an expectation on the part of the United States that a wider war is inevitable at this junction?

RYAN: Well, it's certainly about deterrence. The carrier battle group has been bussed up with extra destroyers that have cruise missiles and other capabilities. That ballistic missile submarine has about 150 cruise missiles on it. The U.S. will be hoping that is enough to de- escalate tensions. But whether it would use it against Iran and Hezbollah remains to be seen. Certainly the U.S. last time used a whole range of capabilities to defend Israel against attack, but whether it would use them offensively is not yet known.

CHURCH: And how can a wider regional war be averted if Iran strikes Israel directly? Because, of course, we know that once that happens, then Israel is going to return fire and retaliate.

RYAN: Yeah, Israeli leaders talk about restoring deterrence. It would be very difficult to conceive of them not striking back with even greater force if Iran did hit them terribly. So all sides will be hoping that they're able to calibrate their decisions and any actions just right. But as we know from history, most wars start from miscalculation. Hopefully that won't be the case here.

CHURCH: Mick Ryan, great to have you with us. Share your analysis and perspective. I Appreciate it.

RYAN: Thank you.

CHURCH: Here in the United States, with 85 days to go until Election Day, former President Donald Trump is obsessing about his Democratic opponent's crowd size. In a series of posts on his social media website Truth Social, Trump falsely claimed that nobody attended Vice President Kamala Harris' Michigan rally last week. He also accused her of using artificial intelligence to create fake massive crowds. Trump also said Harris should be disqualified from the election, quote "because the creation of a fake image is election interference."

[03:10:04]

But photos and video of the event, as you see here, show a sizable audience for Harris' Wednesday event in Detroit. Trump's false claims come as Harris is riding a wave of new Democratic enthusiasm after replacing President Joe Biden as the party's nominee.

Well over the weekend, Harris returned to her home state of California for the first time since becoming the Democratic presidential nominee. She attended a fundraiser in San Francisco, telling her donors that the real work for her campaign is still to come. CNN's Kevin Liptak has more.

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KEVIN LIPTACK, CNN SR. WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Vice President Kamala Harris is looking to extend the momentum that has surrounded her presidential campaign into a new week.

She did conclude a five-city introductory tour of the new Harris-Walz ticket. It was followed by an enormous amount of enthusiasm and energy. All told, Vice President Harris spoke to tens of thousands of people at her rallies across last week. That has also extended to her fundraising. On Sunday, the vice president spoke to 700 donors in San Francisco, bringing in around $12 million to her campaign war chest.

And her message to those donors was, don't be complacent. She told them she's never been one to really believe in the polls and that they can take nothing for granted. She does acknowledge that it's been a good couple of weeks, but we have a lot of work to do. And I think Vice President Harris would be the first to acknowledge that good vibes alone are not what's going to win the election in November. And to that end, she did tell us on Saturday that she plans to unveil new policy proposals in this upcoming week, specifically related to the economy and bringing down prices for Americans.

In fact, she did unveil one new piece of policy at her event in Las Vegas on Saturday evening, saying she would work to eliminate federal income taxes on tipped wages. That's something that's enormously popular among workers, particularly where she was in Las Vegas.

It's also a policy proposal that Donald Trump has raised on the campaign trail, and he wasted no time calling her a copycat. A Harris campaign official said that her proposal would need to be worked through with Congress, that it would include income limits, and it would also include provisions to protect against fraud.

Now, in this upcoming week, she will continue this push on the economy. We will see her for the first time with President Biden, their first official joint appearance since she replaced him atop the Democratic ticket.

And it was interesting. In an interview just this weekend, the president discussed how he would be campaigning for Kamala Harris in the months ahead. He said he was planning a tour of Pennsylvania, his home state, and he said he plans to do whatever Kamala thinks I can do to help the most.

Kevin Liptack, CNN, Washington.

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CHURCH: Republican vice presidential nominee J.D. Vance says a Trump administration would not use the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to block access to Mifepristone, seemingly walking back former President Donald Trump's recent comments, suggesting he's open to banning the abortion drug. Speaking to CNN's Dana Bash, Vance also once again distanced himself and Donald Trump from Project 2025, which some say is a conservative blueprint for a Trump second term.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. J.D. VANCE (R-OH), U.S. PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: First of all, Project 2025 is not affiliated with the Trump campaign. Kevin Roberts is a friend of mine, but I wouldn't say that he speaks for the president in the same way I wouldn't say that he speaks for me.

Now, what Donald Trump has said is he respects the Supreme Court's opinion on the Mifepristone ruling. He said it repeatedly that his goal is not to block Mifepristone. It's to let states make the decision on abortion policy.

Now, of course, that does mean, Dana, we have to be honest about this, that California might have less restrictive rules than Ohio, which might have less restrictive rules than Alabama.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHURCH: Ron Brownstein is a CNN senior political analyst and senior editor at "The Atlantic." He joins me now from Los Angeles. Good to have you with us.

RON BROWNSTEIN, CNN SR. POLITICAL ANALYST AND SR. EDITOR, "THE ATLANTIC": Hi, Rosemary.

CHURCH: So Vice President Kamala Harris is back in Washington after spending Sunday in California. She is poised to announce her economic plan this week and enjoying some poll numbers that put her ahead of rival Donald Trump in some battleground states. How significant are those numbers at this time and where do you see this race going from here?

BROWNSTEIN: Well, those polls that came out in Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin from The "New York Times" and Siena, which is really one of the most respected public polls, they basically would have Kamala Harris as president because if she wins those three states, the odds are it's virtually certain that she will in fact win and she was up by identical margins of 50 to 46 in all three.

[03:14:57]

There is a long way to go, but what I took out of those polls that was significant was there was not an intrinsic pullback from her as a mixed race woman among older and blue collar white voters as compared to the support that Biden was winning. And what that says to me, it's not that those voters are guaranteed to be with her all the way to the end, but the Republicans are going to have to dislodge them. They were not inherently running for the exits and the fact that she was running better than Biden did in 20 among working class white voters in all three states, I think is a striking result and one that underscores the challenge ahead for the Trump campaign.

CHURCH: And Ron, meantime, Donald Trump is struggling, it seems, to adapt to this new race with Harris at the top of the Democratic ticket. He's falsely claiming one of her campaign photos was created by A.I., apparently haunted by the massive crowds that she's attracting. Why is he so distracted while also dealing with a campaign hack?

BROWNSTEIN: Yeah, no, look, I mean, he they felt that they had essentially put the race away at that debate, that the basic construct that voters were looking at was Biden defined by age and weakness as opposed to Trump being defined by strength.

You know, strength is still Trump's strongest asset with the public, but against Harris, things look very different. She looks energetic, vibrant. Suddenly he's the candidate who seems older. You know, that press conference the other day, a lot of his answers kind of hard to figure out where he was going.

They, I think, are going to end up with an ideological argument that she is too liberal and too weak to keep you safe on issues like immigration, crime and national security. But they are sure flailing as they try to get toward that.

CHURCH: Yeah, and Trump's V.P. pick, J.D. Vance, is responding to Democrats labeling him weird, saying Harris and Walz are name calling instead of saying how they will make the lives of Americans better. But isn't that exactly what Trump is doing? So who wins in the name calling stakes, especially if policies are ignored?

BROWNSTEIN: Yeah, well, I mean, yeah, for anyone associated with Donald Trump to accuse anyone else of name calling, you know, given, you know, crazy Nancy Pelosi and, you know, the names he applies to Hillary and to Ron DeSantis and to bird brain Nikki Haley, it's equally, I mean, to me, equally incredible is the idea that J.D. Vance wants to accuse anyone, Tim Walz, of dodging military service when Donald Trump got out of Vietnam with a diagnosis of bone spurs in his feet that is still disputed and later said that his equivalent of Vietnam was avoiding sexually transmitted diseases while dating models in Manhattan in the '80s and '90s.

You know, you got to kind of look in the mirror. I mean, there are vulnerabilities that Harris will have between now and the finish line, as I said, largely around issues of strength and ideology and who can keep people safe.

But the Trump campaign, since the replacement of Biden, really has led with their chin with a whole series of arguments that are more likely to drive away than attract voters.

CHURCH: And, Ron, in his first sit-down interview since dropping out three weeks ago and passing the torch to Harris, President Joe Biden said defeating Trump overrode everything, so he stepped aside because he didn't want to be a distraction for other down-ballot races. He now says he will do whatever Harris wants him to do to help get her elected. So how critical was this interview at this particular time?

BROWNSTEIN: Well, he was right, you know. I mean, he was, you know, during the whole controversy when the White House was accusing people of being disloyal for pressuring him to get out after that really catastrophic debate performance, I felt that rather than being disloyal, they were holding Biden to the standard that he himself set in 2020. I mean, he has said repeatedly through his presidency that he views Trump as an existential threat to American democracy as we have known it.

And there are a lot of reasons to agree with that judgment. And so for Biden to then say, well, you know, I may be diminished, but I should get the right to go on no matter what, he was violating the kind of standard that he set out himself. And I think today in that interview, he was basically acknowledging the legitimacy of people like Pelosi who said that he had to put that overwhelming imperative, that kind of prime directive, you know, to quote from Star Trek, over his own personal ambition and his own personal pride.

CHURCH: Ron Brownstein, always a pleasure to chat with you. Many thanks.

BROWNSTEIN: Thanks for having me.

CHURCH: Still ahead, videos circulating online appear to show Ukrainian troops raising their flags in Russia nearly a week after launching an incursion. We'll get a live report next.

[03:20:10]

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CHURCH: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is blaming Russian forces for starting a fire at a nuclear power plant in southern Ukraine. He shared this video online showing smoke coming out of one of the towers at the Russian-controlled Zaporizhzhya plant. But Russia claims the fire erupted after a Ukrainian attack. Zelenskyy says Moscow is just using the nuclear plant to blackmail Ukraine and the rest of the world. He added that radiation levels in the area are normal.

Meanwhile, Ukrainian troops are pushing deeper into Russia's Kursk region after launching an incursion last week. The latest report by the Russian Defence Ministry indicates they have advanced up to 30 kilometers inside Russia.

[03:25:04]

Joining us now is CNN's Clare Sebastian, live in London. Good to see you, Clare. So, what is the latest on Ukraine's incursion into Russia?

CLARE SEBASTIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, Rosemary, what we're monitoring this morning are reports of evacuations happening in a second Russian border region, Belgorod. This is a region that really up until this incursion by Ukraine into Kursk last week was really the epicenter of the cross-border attacks that we've seen, drone attacks, even sort of sabotage groups in the past have crossed into Belgorod.

The governor this morning saying that they are starting to evacuate people from one border district there. He's talking about a disturbing morning, enemy activities on the border. We're monitoring unofficial accounts that Ukraine may have attacked there, although we cannot verify that. As of this point, could this be another attempt to sort of stretch the Russian forces, draw them away from other areas? That is unclear at this moment. Obviously, we've seen evacuations happen in the Kursk region over the weekend.

Russian state media talked about at least 76,000 people having to have been evacuated. They've had to set up temporary accommodation centers in eight other different Russian regions.

So, look, if disruption is part of the plan here, it certainly seems to be working. And, look, for the first few days of this incursion, we didn't hear much from Ukraine at all about this. They were very, very silent. Then on Saturday, President Zelenskyy spoke directly about it for the first time, acknowledging that Ukrainian troops had gone into Russia. He then elaborated further on Sunday, explaining why specifically they decided to attack the Kursk region. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY, UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT (through translator): Only from the beginning of this summer and only from the Kursk region, our Sumy region suffered almost 2,000 strikes. Artillery, mortars, drones. We also monitor every missile strike, and each such strike deserves a fair response.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SEBASTIAN: So, what he's saying, essentially, is that they are attacking in order to defend. They're trying to hit the weapons before they hit Ukraine.

And as we've been monitoring this attack over the past week, we've also been watching for a potential Russian response. We did, of course, have a very deadly attack on a supermarket in eastern Ukraine last week. Then overnight into Sunday, a very large barrage of drones, in addition to some four, what Ukraine described as North Korean ballistic missiles.

Two people were killed in the Kyiv region. And then we saw on Sunday, President Zelenskyy came out, as you noted, and accused Russia of starting a fire at the Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant, the largest nuclear power plant in Europe. It's been occupied by Russia since the first weeks of the war. It's really sort of dropped out of the headlines recently. So, this was certainly notable.

Russia is accusing Ukraine of attacking the plant. The International Atomic Energy Agency, which has observers at the plant, said that they had witnessed the fire at a cooling tower. No radiation risk as of now. But worth noting, because when we saw successful Ukrainian counter-offensives in the autumn of 2022, that is when we started to see Russian nuclear threats also escalate. So, this is something to certainly keep an eye on here, Rosemary.

CHURCH: All right. Many thanks to Clare Sebastian with that live report from London.

And when we come back, it's time to say au revoir to Paris. But before we do, a recap of the thrilling last day of competition at the Summer Games and a one-of-a-kind closing ceremony.

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[03:30:00]

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CHURCH: Spectacular fireworks illuminating the sky above the Stade de France, just outside the French capital. This was part of the Paris Games action-packed closing ceremony after two and a half weeks of exciting and historic competition. Paris chose to go out with a bang.

But before the ceremony, there were still medals to be won on the final day of the Games. 13 gold medals were awarded on Sunday. The U.S. and China, who have been neck-and-neck the last few days, made history in Paris, finishing in a tie for the most golds, with 40 each. Team USA finishes with the most medals overall, 126. Our Coy Wire has more now from Paris.

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COY WIRE, CNN WORLD SPORT: What an incredible ending to the Summer Olympics here in Paris, the U.S. women's basketball team going down to the wire with host nation France in the gold medal game. The Americans entered with an Olympic winning streak that dated back to 1996, but they win by maybe the tip of a toe. France hitting a buzzer beater as time expired. The crowd erupted, thinking the host nation had just shocked the world, sending its overtime.

But Gabby Williams' foot was on the line. It was only a two-pointer. So heartbreak for France, elation for the U.S., claiming an eighth straight Olympic gold. And with that, Team USA dominates total medal count. But it ties China at 40 gold medals each on the very last event of these Olympics. A tie for golds has never happened in the history of the Summer Games.

Now, at the closing ceremony, to show respect to all the athletes and their people from around the world, it was a celebration for the ages. Snoop Dogg, Billie Eilish, Red Hot Chili Peppers, H.E.R. and others performing, marking the official handover to the 2028 Los Angeles Games and the end of these incredible and unforgettable Summer Games here in Paris. The Olympics once again showing that perhaps sport better than anything else can bring people together from all over the world, no matter their differences, to embrace and celebrate one another.

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CHURCH: The U.S. is appealing the International Olympic Committee's decision to strip gymnast Jordan Chiles of her bronze medal in the individual floor routine. The IOC said it would reinstate the medal to Romania's Ana Barbosu, who was knocked off the podium after Team USA filed a score inquiry on Chiles' behalf.

The Court of Arbitration for Sport ruled on Saturday that the inquiry was filed after the one-minute deadline. But Team USA pushed back on Sunday, announcing it had submitted evidence to the court that purportedly shows the inquiry was submitted 47 seconds after the publishing of Chiles' score.

Joining me now from Paris is CNN sports analyst Christine Brennan. Great to have you with us.

CHRISTINE BRENNAN, CNN SPORTS ANALYST AND SPORTS COLUMNIST, "USA TODAY": Great to see you, Rosemary. [03:34:58]

CHURCH: So a stunning closing ceremony at the Paris Olympics. And for the first time, it's a tie for gold medals between the USA and China, with 40 each, the U.S. dominating the total medal count, though. So how did these summer games compare to others in the past and what were the highlights for you?

BRENNAN: Rosemary, really the best, you know, when you've got the backdrops and you've got venues like beach volleyball at the Eiffel Tower, you're able to use all of these amazing landmarks that Paris is so well known for. Tourists know, everyone knows the Seine River, of course, for the opening ceremonies and everything else that happened afterwards. I do think that Paris goes to the top of my list. And as you know, I've been doing this for a while. This is number 21 in a row.

There have been some, every Olympics is fantastic in its own way, but just because it was Paris.

And as far as highlights, you know, I think being at, covering swimming, being at the swimming venue that first week, watching the Frenchman LEon Marchand go four for four in his individual races, gold medals each time, the crowd roaring, singing the Marseillaise, you know, that's what the Olympics is about, that a host nation gets to have that moment.

But, you know, so many across the board, Katie Ledecky, Simone Biles, the two-27 year olds just still on top of their game for the United States, on and on it goes. I could, we could take the whole segment just talking about the highlights because it truly was a terrific Olympic Games.

CHURCH: Yeah, as you say, so many highlights. A couple of low ones, though, the most, I think for most Americans, it's going to be very hard to get past the controversy involving gymnast Jordan Chiles after she was stripped of her bronze medal by the IOC. What will likely happen, do you think, with her U.S. appeal?

BRENNAN: Rosemary, I think she will end up keeping her bronze, by the way, she's already in the United States, so it's not like it's been delivered back to the International Olympic Committee here in Paris. She has it. I'm going to guess maybe they'll give out two bronze medals, one to the Romanian and one, of course, Chiles will keep hers. That's my guess.

The U.S. appeal is going to be strong. The problem was this happened too quickly. The United States wasn't really even aware of what was happening.

And there is now kind of getting into minutia, there is now time stamped video footage that the USA Gymnastics has sent to the Court of Arbitration for Sport that shows the U.S. appeal was within the one minute, 47 seconds. So they did get that appeal in in time. My sense is that they will win their argument at Cass. And I'm surprised, frankly, Rosemary, that the International Olympic Committee let it get this far and didn't just say, hey, you both get bronze medals and let's not have this ruin the last day of a fabulous Olympics.

CHURCH: And of course, it is worth pointing out that U.S. women dominated, winning more medals than U.S. men for the fourth consecutive Olympics. What's behind that incredible achievement, do you think?

BRENNAN: I believe it's the law signed by Richard Nixon in 1972 called Title Nine. That's the law that opened the floodgates for girls and women to play sports. And basically, it wasn't just a half of the U.S. nation, the male half that got to play sports. But now we wanted our daughters, our nieces, our granddaughters, the girl next door to play sports as well.

And 52 years later, look at what has happened at the dominant athletes are women. This is all about the great college system in the United States. It's all about the great professional opportunities now for women in basketball and soccer, volleyball, other things, of course, tennis for years.

And we're seeing the results. And U.S. women are just so confident, so strong, so well coached, all the things that their moms and their grandmothers never had. These American Olympic stars have.

And yes, they won 56 percent of the medals that the U.S. won. If they'd been a nation unto themselves, the U.S. women would have finished third in the medal count behind the full U.S. team and China. That's how dominant the U.S. women were.

CHURCH: Well, that is impressive. Christine Brennan in Paris. Many thanks for joining us. I Appreciate it.

And we are keeping an eye on a possible storm forming in the Atlantic Ocean right now. It's being called potential tropical cyclone five by the U.S. National Hurricane Center. Multiple islands across the Caribbean are under tropical storm watches right now. Meteorologists forecast the system to become a full fledged tropical storm by Monday night as it nears the Leeward Islands. But there's some uncertainty in its track. It's expected to strengthen to a hurricane by Wednesday, but not directly impact the United States.

We are learning new disturbing details about one of the worst school shootings in U.S. history. This weekend, the city of Uvalde, Texas, released a trove of body cam videos, 911 call recordings and other documents related to the massacre at Robb Elementary School.

[03:40:06]

19 students and two teachers were killed by a gunman there in May 2022. And these new materials are shedding more light on the horrors of that day. Camila Bernal has our report.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CAMILA BERNAL, CNN U.S. NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: There's audio, video, text messages that are really hard to listen to, to watch and to read. And most of this, CNN and the outstanding team covering this shooting

has already reported on and shown you. But we did learn that a man who said he was the shooter's uncle called 911 that day and begged a dispatcher to talk to his nephew, hoping that he could put an end to the situation. Take a listen to the new 911 audio.

UNKNOWN: The thing that's happening at Robb right now. I think my nephew.

UNKNOWN: Who's your nephew, sir?

UNKNOWN: I was wondering maybe he could he could listen to me because he does listen to me. Everything I tell him, he does listen to me. Maybe he could stand down and do something.

BERNAL: And that call came into dispatch at 12:57 p.m. That was seven minutes after law enforcement had used the janitor key to get into the locked classroom and kill the suspect. Now, in another one of the 911 calls released that was actually first reported on by CNN in the months after the shooting, a 10 year old girl trapped in a classroom can be heard telling the police dispatcher to hurry because there were a lot of dead bodies.

Now, we also received text messages that show a group of officers expressing fear for their safety in the hours and the days after the shooting, asking if their photos could be taken off the website. One group chat also mentions the DPS director throwing everyone under the bus, referring to the director of the Texas Department of Public Safety. And in a press conference after the shooting, the DPS director did say that the on scene commander made the wrong decision and did not attempt to go into the classroom quickly enough.

He later said that the officers that first responded also acted against active shooter training. We have reached out to DPS for a response on these text messages and have not heard back. And, you know, just this week, former Uvalde school police chief Pete Arredondo told CNN's Ed Lavendera that he felt that he was scapegoated from the very beginning. There are still a lot of questions and law enforcement was heavily criticized for their failed response.

Remember, it took them 77 minutes for these officers at the school to confront the shooter and the families of the 19 children and the two teachers killed. They are still dealing with this and they still want accountability.

Camila Bernal, CNN, Los Angeles.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CHURCH: After the break, family members search for answers as investigators try to figure out what caused last week's deadly plane crash in Brazil.

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[03:45:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CHURCH: Authorities in Brazil say it could be weeks before they have an initial report into the cause of Friday's deadly plane crash near Sao Paulo. They say all of the voice and data information has been pulled from the plane's black boxes. Meanwhile, authorities are working to identify the bodies of the 62 victims with the help of family members.

More now on the investigation from journalist Stefano Pozzebon reporting from Sao Paulo.

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STEFANO POZZEBON, JOURNALIST: The process of identifying the bodies of the victims of flight 2283 here in Sao Paulo, Brazil, is still ongoing as of Sunday night.

This is the Institute of Forensic Medicine, where all the bodies have been taken from the carcass of the plane. And here is where dozens of relatives and family members have arrived on Sunday to participate in this investigation. Only two bodies were possible to have been recognized through facial recognition due to the violence of the impact when the plane crashed to the ground.

For all the other bodies, it's necessary to go through DNA identification and other techniques in order to correctly match their identity. And for some of these family members today was also the opportunity to say goodbye.

FATIMA ALBUQUERQUE, VICTIM'S MOTHER (through translator): I had DNA collected for the identification of my daughter and I don't know what state she will be in. My daughter was 1.7 meters tall, a strong and beautiful woman. You will see her photos on the Internet.

I saw my daughter burn live on television. A mother seeing the plane on fire with my daughter inside. Guys, there is no greater sin. There can't be for a mother. So I'm going to fight as long as I have life, as long as I have life. I'm going to fight because I know that she would be fighting if I had been killed because this wasn't an accident. Don't label it as an accident. Don't use that narrative.

POZZEBON: Just like that mother, the entire Brazil is still waiting for an answer to the question of what could have happened to cause that plane to fall from the sky and crash onto the ground.

On Sunday, investigators from France, where the plane was manufactured in the first place, arrived in Brazil to participate in the investigation.

They are analyzing and going through two black boxes that were successfully retrieved from the carcass of the plane to identify a probable motive.

For CNN, this is Stefano Pozzebon, Sao Paulo, Brazil.

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CHURCH: Coming up, how drought could bring an end to Sicilian cheese that's been prized for thousands of years. We're back with that in just a moment.

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[03:50:00]

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CHURCH: A wildfire is tearing through a region just outside Athens, Greece. It's moving fast like lightning, according to fire officials, and is spreading between residences. Authorities have ordered some people in the area to evacuate their homes. Hot, windy weather is fanning the flames and turning trees, houses and cars into tinder.

Firefighters will resume their operations in the morning. And a wildfire broke out in northeastern Spain on Sunday, spreading quickly due to hot winds. Authorities ordered people in a nearby town to stay inside due to heavy smoke. Both Spain and Greece have suffered intense heat waves and dry weather this summer, making wildfires like these even more dangerous.

Extreme drought in Sicily is threatening the Italian island's goat farming industry. And without enough water, farmers could be forced to send their animals to slaughter. CNN's Barbie Latza Nadeau reports.

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BARBIE NADEAU, CNN REPORTER (voice-over): Roaming under hot temperatures, these goats search for food in fields turned brown by the heat in central Sicily.

Shortage of water and little food make it hard for these Giacentana goats to survive, and the prospects for their survival leave goat breeder Luca Cammarata in despair.

LUCA CAMMARATA, GOAT BREEDER (through translator): The grazing land is zero. As we can see, nothing has grown on the land this year. The animals take a walk, eat what they find, and then we try to supplement their diet with water and fodder.

NADEAU (voice-over): Earlier this year, Sicily enforced water restrictions when the region declared a state of emergency. Italy's Environmental Protection and Research Institute says while other parts of the country are experiencing drought, only Sicily's is considered extreme.

CAMMARATA (through translator): The land is dry. The lakes we have placed in the pastures are completely dry. It is difficult to satisfy the animals with the drinking water we had, and we are forced to plug the problem with water tankers.

ALESSANDRO PANZARELLA, MEMBER, CARABINIERI FORESTRY DEPARTMENT (through translator): We arrive wherever there is an emergency. The water doesn't arrive, so farmers are forced to take the animals to the slaughterhouse. They don't have water and can't quench their animals' thirst, so it's a big problem.

[03:55:02]

NADEAU (voice-over): The cheese and dairy products made from these goats' milk has been prized for thousands of years, but that may soon come to an end. Deprived of water, these animals may be sent to slaughter.

CAMMARATA (through translator): If we cannot at least satisfy the animals' demand for water, they run the risk of being sent to slaughter. There is no other way. No other solution. There is no market for live animals, nor can we give them to a fellow farmer in other regions because there is currently no market for live animals. They are destined to go to the slaughterhouse, and this would be a considerable loss of livestock and a loss of production models.

NADEAU (voice-over): Doing what needs to be done to save the goats will take time, drilling new wells, reactivating dormant desalination plants, importing water. But time, like water, is another thing that is running out for these goats.

Barbie Latza Nadeau, CNN, Rome.

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CHURCH: Hundreds of people marched in Medellin, Colombia, to take part in the city's flower festival, honoring the artisans who create these intricate flower arrangements known as silletas. The florist carried the arrangements on large wooden frames, some weighing more than 100 kilograms or 220 pounds. The festival dates back to 1957, highlighting Colombia's role as one of the world's largest cut flower exporters.

We end on a fun note. Thanks so much for your company. I'm Rosemary Church. Have yourselves a wonderful day. "CNN Newsroom" with Christina Macfarlane in London is next.

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