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Trump Bans Entry of Nationals from 12 Countries, Partially Restricts Seven Countries; 200 Wildfires Burning in Most of Canada; Saharan Dust Clouds Traverses the Atlantic, Air Quality Affects the Caribbean. Aired 3-4a ET

Aired June 05, 2025 - 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 from all around the world and to everyone streaming us on CNN Max. I'm Rosemary Church.

Just ahead, Vladimir Putin tells Donald Trump he will respond to Ukraine's recent drone strikes deep inside Russia. How Ukrainian officials are reacting to the phone call between the two leaders.

Plus, Donald Trump's new travel ban. The President is barring citizens from several countries from entering the United States. We'll tell you who's affected and why.

And more than 200 wildfires are burning across Canada, devastating communities and forcing thousands from their homes. We'll speak with a fire commissioner about the daunting containment efforts.

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

CHURCH: Good to have you with us.

Donald Trump says he had a good conversation with Vladimir Putin about the war in Ukraine, but it would not lead to an immediate end to the fighting. The call comes as peace talks remain stalled.

The U.S. President offered little evidence of attempts to end the war. Instead, Mr. Trump says that Putin vowed to retaliate against Kyiv for its drone attacks on Russian airfields over the weekend.

Meantime, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is warning world leaders not to show weakness toward Putin, while the Russian president has ruled out meeting with Mr. Zelenskyy for peace talks. He accused Ukraine of terrorist acts, referring to two bridges collapsing in Russia over the weekend, which killed seven people and injured dozens.

I want to go live now to CNN's Sebastian Shukla, following developments from Berlin. Good morning to you, Sebastian. So what more can you tell us about Donald Trump's call with Putin and President Zelenskyy's reaction to it?

SEBASTIAN SHUKLA, CNN PRODUCER: Yes, good morning, Rosemary. So this is the fourth call now that President Trump and President Putin have had as they look to restart the diplomatic negotiations and contacts between Washington and Moscow to try to bring an end to the war in Ukraine.

This call that happened last night is one, though, that seems to have elicited very few next steps, if anything else. You'll remember that all of the other calls have tended to have this is what's going to happen next situation.

The most recent one of those was a sharing of memorandums from both sides outlining their positions on what they need, the steps that need to take place in order to reach a ceasefire. That didn't happen in this call, this one that lasted 75 minutes. And in fact, they covered a lot of ground.

And one of the most interesting things that the president then took to Truth Social and said, which is "President Putin did say, and very strongly that he will have to respond to recent attacks on the airfields." That's a reference to those Ukrainian intelligence services attacks which took place on those airfields across Russia, but some of them as far away as 4000 kilometers from Ukraine.

And what that has left is that some Ukrainians have been left sort of dismayed that that is essentially that the U.S. President didn't try to dissuade President Putin from retaliating. President Zelenskyy took to Twitter -- X afterwards saying, you know, that warning leaders against showing any weakness towards President Putin.

And there is this still, though, all of this, though, still seems to suggest that instead from the Ukrainian perspective, that instead of taking their side, there is this view and feeling that the that the White House still on the side of caution when it comes to blaming the Kremlin and trying to dissuade them to stop attacks inside Ukraine. Rosemary.

CHURCH: And Sebastian, what's come out of the NATO defense ministers meeting so far?

SHUKLA: Yes, this is a very important meeting. This is the meeting before the main meeting, which will happen on the 25th, 26th of June, which is the main leaders summit, and that will take place in The Hague.

Today, we have the NATO defense ministers meeting in Brussels, where the main discussions are going to focus around the 5 percent increase to spending of GDP, which all NATO countries have to abide to as part of the alliance. That is an increase from the two percent threshold that it currently is at now. And U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth just arrived at NATO alongside the Secretary General Mark Rutte, and he had these words to say as he arrived.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) PETE HEGSETH, U.S. DEFENSE SECRETARY: The reason I'm here is to make sure every country in NATO understands every shoulder has to be to the plot. Every country has to contribute at that level of five percent as a recognition of the nature of the threat.

It can't be about the flags that we love, it has to be about the formations that we have, it's that hard power that actually deters. And it can't just be U.S. capabilities.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SHUKLA: So we see the U.S. Secretary of Defense there standing on stage in Brussels reiterating that long held demand from the Trump administration that NATO -- all NATO members have to be spending more in order to secure their defense and not to rely on the United States for always being there to bail it out. The issue though that will circulate today is perhaps not so much about how much the spending should increase by, but how quickly it can happen.

Eastern European countries in particular saying that the current demand of trying to get spending up by 2032 is just too long and it needs to happen sooner because those threats in Europe could come again as a more belligerent Russia continues to knock on the doorsteps of NATO members. Rosemary.

CHURCH: Our thanks to Sebastian Shukla bringing us that live report from Berlin. I appreciate it.

The Trump administration is defending its veto of a United Nations Security Council resolution demanding a ceasefire in Gaza. The U.S. was the only country to vote against the measure which also called for the release of all hostages in Gaza.

A U.S. State Department official called the measure shameful and non- serious saying it draws a false equivalence between Israel and Hamas. Israel's Foreign Minister thanked the Trump administration for standing shoulder to shoulder with his country and vetoing what he called a one-sided resolution.

President Trump has signed a new travel ban that will block people from several countries from traveling to the United States. It will fully restrict entry by nationals from 12 countries including Afghanistan, Myanmar, Chad, Eritrea, Iran and Yemen. People from seven other countries including Cuba, Laos, Sierra Leone and Venezuela will be partly restricted.

The White House says the President's ban fulfills a campaign promise to quote "protect Americans from dangerous foreign actors who want to come to the U.S. and cause harm."

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, U.S. PRESIDENT: The list is subject to revision based on whether material improvements are made and likewise new countries can be added as threats emerge around the world. But we will not allow people to enter our country who wish to do us harm. (END VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: The administration cites a number of reasons countries were chosen for the ban including a large-scale terrorist presence, failure to cooperate on visa security, inability to verify travelers' identities and a persistently high rate of visa overstays. The White House says the ban will take effect on Monday.

The Trump administration is making another attempt to prevent Harvard University from enrolling more international students. The U.S. President signed a proclamation on Wednesday that suspends visas of new international students at Harvard.

The proclamation is valid for six months but it can be extended. This comes after a district court ordered the Trump administration not to make any changes to Harvard's international student visa program indefinitely. Harvard called this new move another illegal retaliation by the White House and pledged to protect its international students.

As expected, the Trump administration's newly imposed 50 percent tariffs on steel and aluminum imports are not going over well with the United States' neighbors.

The Canadian Prime Minister says his government is preparing reprisals if negotiations fail to remove the double tariffs. Mark Carney also said Canada would take some time to respond but not much.

And the Mexican president said on Wednesday that there is no legal basis for the tariff increase. Claudia Sheinbaum also promised to announce countermeasures next week if the import taxes are still in place. She said it's not a matter of revenge but protection.

Joining us now from Silver Spring, Maryland is Ernie Tedeschi. He is the Director of Economics at The Budget Lab at Yale. Appreciate you joining us.

ERNIE TEDESCHI, DIRECTOR OF ECONOMICS, THE BUDGET LAB AT YALE: Thanks for having me.

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CHURCH: So you and your Budget Lab have estimated the effects of all U.S. tariffs and foreign retaliation implemented this year up to June 1st, including the impact of those 50 percent steel and aluminum tariffs just announced. What did you find?

TEDESCHI: So this is an equivalent of an increase in the average U.S. tariff rate of 12 percent. So that raises it to the highest U.S. tariff rate since 1938, since before World War II.

But to put that more practically, it's going to lead to an increase in prices of about 1.5 percent, which doesn't sound like a lot. But on a per-family basis, that's like every family in America losing on average about $2500 per year in purchasing power.

So it's a meaningful hit. I would add too that tariffs are a regressive tax. That means that they hit lower and working class families more than they hit upper income families. So families at the bottom of the income ladder are going to do worse than the average.

CHURCH: Right. So -- and I was going to ask you about the effect on consumers, you've answered that. What about small businesses?

TEDESCHI: So for small businesses, I think the main effect of tariffs so far is creating uncertainty for them, in addition to obviously raising costs. So, yes, tariffs have a direct effect on business costs. But I think that the bigger factor right now and the bigger factor in the market turmoil that we've seen is just the sheer uncertainty.

It's the fact that businesses don't know what the final tariff rate is going to be an hour from now, a week from now, a year from now. And so there are a lot of businesses are sitting on their hands and not investing in capital expenditures or hiring because they don't know what the economy is going to look like a year from now.

And the court cases that are working their way through the United States are only heightening that uncertainty because now it's not clear how long businesses and consumers will have to wait to get that clarity.

CHURCH: And we are hearing that President Donald Trump's highly anticipated call with his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, could happen in the coming hours. Now, we don't have any specifics on the time yet. What are you expecting to come out of that call in the midst of rising trade tensions between the two countries?

TEDESCHI: So it'll be interesting to see. I thought that the Chinese response so far has been consistent with a country that very much wants to stick to formal, long dated discussions with the United States. So they're not looking for quick wins or quick headlines with the United States.

They want an established process for coming to a durable trade agreement with the United States. That takes a lot of time, but that might reduce that uncertainty I was talking about in the longer run because you have an agreement that's going to stand the test of time. So it'll be interesting to see what China says to all of this.

I will say that before this year, just based on what then candidate Trump was saying when he was running for election last year, you know, he was talking about a 60 percent tariff on China. We're already at 30 percent as a result of this pause. So I actually think that there's some room for optimism that, you know, if not eliminating tariffs with China entirely, this administration might show some flexibility on certain tariffs.

CHURCH: Right. And of course, any agreement with China, that's the big one that the markets are waiting for. But also the deadline has just passed for all countries that want to trade with the United States to submit their best trade deals to the administration.

What do you make of this method of making trade agreements, given the Trump administration was touting back in late April that there would be 90 deals in 90 days and that July 8th deadline is fast approaching with little more than the U.K. deal on the table? There aren't many specifics attached to that, are there?

TEDESCHI: Right. Yes.

I was going to say, I think it's a chaotic mess that the way they're going about it, but the way that they've rolled out the tariffs and the way that they're approaching these deals on an individual country basis.

And as you said, it's only the U.K. where we've reached a deal, which is interesting because the U.K. is one of the few countries where the United States has a trade surplus at the moment. And yet the administration insisted on keeping the 10 percent reciprocal tariff in place with the U.K., which just raises the question, what is the policy goal here of having a tariff like that if we already have a trade surplus with a particular country?

So I think that other countries, in particular China and the E.U., Japan, Vietnam, have all taken note of that.

[03:10:04]

They've taken note of the court cases and the legal threats to President Trump's tariffs. And, you know, I think that we will ultimately come to deals with these countries. But I think that the last couple of weeks have bolstered the negotiating position of a lot of other countries in the process.

CHURCH: Ernie Tedeschi, thank you so much for joining us. I appreciate it.

TEDESCHI: Thanks so much for having me.

CHURCH: Still to come, Pope Leo will be meeting with those at the Catholic Church in charge of protecting minors from abuse. We will have a live report.

Plus, we'll check on the mother of a British Egyptian activist currently on a hunger strike in hopes of freeing her son.

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CHURCH: Less than a month after becoming a pontiff, Pope Leo XIV is about to deal with one of the most sensitive issues in the church. At this hour, he is set to meet for the first time with the Vatican's commission in charge of protecting minors.

For more, our Vatican correspondent Christopher Lamb joins us live from London. Good morning to you, Christopher. So what's Pope Leo expected to say at this private meeting? CHRISTOPHER LAMB, CNN VATICAN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Rosemary,

obviously, dealing with clerical sexual abuse is really very high up on the new Pope's intray. Of course, the scandal of abuse of minors by clergy and others in the church has really devastated the credibility of the Catholic Church, obviously devastating for the victims of abuse. It's something that a series of popes have had to address over the last couple of decades.

Now, the Pope is due to meet with those who are experts in the field of safeguarding, who are involved in this commission that deals with abuse and its prevention. I imagine Pope Leo will want to set out the agenda he wants them to follow.

Pope Leo has already met the president of the commission for a private one-to-one audience very soon after his election. That's Cardinal Sean O'Malley, the former Archbishop of Boston, where, of course, the sexual abuse scandal blew up in 2002.

Now, as an American pope, I expect Pope Leo has a level of sensitivity to the abuse crisis, and he did, as bishop in Peru, have to deal with abuse cases and also had to deal with them when he was at the Vatican.

So I think the fact he is meeting with the commission so soon after his election, the fact he's already met with the president of the commission shows he is taking this seriously and that it is obviously very high up on his list of priorities. Rosemary.

CHURCH: All right. Our thanks to Christopher Lamb bringing us that report from London. I appreciate it.

Well, doctors are warning that the mother of a British Egyptian human rights activist is now at risk of dying. Leila Soueif is in critical condition and receiving urgent care in a hospital after returning to a full hunger strike last month. She's trying to pressure the British government to intervene to help free her son, who's detained in Egypt.

Nada Bashir has more.

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NADA BASHIR, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): This is Alaa Abd El- Fattah, a British-Egyptian human rights activist and writer, seen here in his family home in Egypt back in 2011, being welcomed by friends and family shortly after his release from prison. But his freedom would be short-lived.

Alaa was arrested once again in 2013 and jailed for over five years. He was later rearrested in September 2019 and sentenced to a further five years behind bars in 2021. He was charged with allegedly assaulting a police officer and spreading false news after sharing a Facebook post highlighting human rights abuses in Egypt's jails.

Alaa's detention has sparked a years-long campaign led by his family, who say he has been arbitrarily detained. His mother, Leila Soueif, has been at the heart of the campaign, holding regular vigils outside Downing Street, demanding that the British government do more to pressure Egypt's president, Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, to free Alaa from detention, and even embarking on a hunger strike in September when Alaa's family had expected him to be released after completing his sentence.

With some signs of progress, Leila was persuaded to shift to a partial hunger strike in March, surviving on just 200 calories a day. But her return to a full hunger strike in May has left her in a critical condition, with doctors at London's St Thomas' Hospital now providing urgent care.

SANAA SEIF, ALAA ABD EL-FATTAH'S SISTER: My mom has lost like half of her body weight. She looks like a totally different woman now, she also looks like she's aged 10 years in the past seven months, and she's really putting her body on the line for Alaa's freedom.

BASHIR (voice-over): Leila's hunger strike, and gradual decline, has been documented in videos filmed by the Free Alaa campaign.

LELA SOUEIF, ALAA ABD EL-FATAH'S MOTHER: What hits me is when I actually see my body and my face. I look at my face in the mirror. It's so different.

[03:25:00]

BASHIR (voice-over): While Leila's daughters have championed her campaign for Alaa's freedom, they fear she may not have much time left. It's a concern echoed by some lawmakers in Westminster, who are calling on Prime Minister Keir Starmer to take urgent action.

JOHN MCDONNELL, BRITISH MEMBER OF PARLIAMENT: We think the only thing that will shift CC is direct representations from the Prime Minister again. But we've tried.

We've tried the carrot. Now we need more of the stick.

BASHIR (voice-over): According to Downing Street, the Prime Minister raised Alaa's case directly with the Egyptian president in a recent call.

KEIR STARMER, BRITISH PRIME MINISTER: In this case, I have met Leila and given her my commitment to do everything I possibly can.

BASHIR (voice-over): But as Leila's condition continues to deteriorate, campaigners are warning that a failure by the British government to intervene could not only cost Alaa's freedom, but also his mother's life.

SEIF: She's really convinced that Alaa will be free and will be with Khaled in Brighton with his son. She's just not sure whether she'll attend that or not.

BASHIR (voice-over): Nada Bashir, CNN, in London.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CHURCH: Republican lawmakers are scrambling to downplay Elon Musk's criticism of President Trump's Big, Beautiful Bill. What Musk is saying about the legislation, that's next.

A dust cloud from the Sahara Desert is making its way across the Atlantic and now affecting the Caribbean. We'll have details for you just ahead.

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[03:30:00]

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CHURCH: Welcome back to "CNN Newsroom." I'm Rosemary Church. I want to check today's top stories for you.

Donald Trump has signed a proclamation banning travel from a dozen countries into the United States. Seven others will have their travel heavily restricted. The President says the measure will help protect the U.S. from dangerous foreign actors and that more countries could be added to the list.

NATO defense ministers are meeting in Brussels this hour. The Secretary General says the alliance is expected to decide on increases to defense spending. The U.S. Defense Secretary is calling for every member country to contribute to the goal of spending 5 percent of GDP on defense.

At least 11 people were crushed to death as they tried to push their way into a cricket stadium in India. Officials say 33 others were injured Wednesday as fans attempted to break a gate to join the celebrations of their team's victory in the Indian Premier League. Prime Minister Narendra Modi called the incident heart-rending.

Senate Republicans are optimistic about the future of President Trump's so-called Big Beautiful Bill after meetings at the White House on Wednesday. Lawmakers said they had constructive conversations about the bill to fund the president's domestic agenda, which has split Congress and even the Republican Party on some issues, but Republicans say they have found a path forward.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. JOHN BARASSO (R-WY): Republicans are committed to a safe and prosperous America and that's what this bill does. It provides for safety as well as prosperity for the American people. We shared with the President the fact that the American people trust Republicans much more on the economy than they do the Democrats and this bill does what the American people want us to do.

And the number one most important thing is that this bill prevents a four trillion dollar tax increase, which would be the largest tax increase in the history of the country.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHURCH: When asked about the reaction from former presidential advisor Elon Musk who called the bill quote "a disgusting abomination," senators said the Tesla CEO was only referenced in passing during the meeting. CNN's Manu Raju has more reactions from lawmakers on Musk's criticism.

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MANU RAJU, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): He had been one of President Trump's loudest allies.

ELON MUSK, THEN-DOGE ADMINISTRATOR: The chainsaw for bureaucracy.

RAJU (voice-over): But now Elon Musk is becoming a major GOP problem as he lashes out at Trump's sweeping policy bill, angering Republicans as they labor to get the votes.

REP. ELI CRANE (R-AZ): Why wasn't he talking about this before the bill, right? And that's what frustrates me. Hey, if you're going to be in this fight, be in this fight when we need you because we needed him.

RAJU (voice-over): Musk waited until Tuesday to put out his most scathing criticism, calling the measure a disgusting abomination, saying shame to those who voted for it. And today, continuing his attacks, giving ammunition to the bill's GOP critics who say the bill would balloon the national debt that has already grown an additional $16 trillion since 2017.

SEN. RAND PAUL (R-KY): The new spending in this bill actually exceeds all the work he did to try to find savings. So I can understand his disappointment.

RAJU (voice-over): Musk putting GOP supporters on the defensive.

[03:35:02]

RAJU: He says you're basically saddling this country with unsustainable debt.

UNKNOWN: Well, he's right. The debt is unsustainable.

RAJU (voice-over): After the House passed Trump's bill by just a single vote, the Senate GOP now debating changes to the massive bill, which includes a major overhaul of the tax code and federal spending cuts, including to programs like Medicaid and food stamps.

All as the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimated the House bill would raise federal deficits by $2.4 trillion over a decade and leave nearly 11 million people without health insurance. Yet GOP supporters argue it would raise revenue through economic growth.

REP. MIKE JOHNSON (R-LA), SPEAKER OF THE U.S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES: We're not buying the CBO's estimates. I don't think that's right.

RAJU (voice-over): Speaker Mike Johnson spoke for half an hour with Musk on Tuesday and thought they were on the same page. Later, Johnson said Musk, the owner of Tesla, was objecting to electric vehicle tax incentives due to be phased out under the bill.

JOHNSON: That is going away because the government should not be subsidizing these things. I know that has an effect on this business, and I'll admit that.

RAJU: Do you think that's Tesla's what's driving this, is that what you're suggesting?

JOHNSON: I'm going to let others draw their own conclusions about that.

RAJU (voice-over): GOP leaders are facing pressure from Senate moderates like Lisa Murkowski, worried about quickly phasing out green energy tax breaks and cutting back on Medicaid.

SEN. LISA MURKOWSKI (R-AK): We've got some work to do to make sure that Alaskans are not going to be negatively impacted.

RAJU (voice-over): Yet if Murkowski gets her way, it could cost support from House hardliners, who are pushing for deeper cuts.

REP. CHIP ROY (R-TX): So if the Senate wants to go that direction, then this bill is, I mean, it's not even close to passing. So they need to go further or the bill's dead.

RAJU: Now the speaker did indicate that Trump was upset at what he saw from Elon Musk, but Johnson also suggested that it would not have an ultimate impact on their goal here, which is to get this to become law this summer, as soon as July 4th.

He said that even though Elon Musk has the largest social media platform in the world, with followers of 120 million on X, he said that the trajectory ultimately is still, they're still on pace to get this bill across the finish line, and it would not have an impact on their ultimate goal.

Manu Raju, CNN, Capitol Hill.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CHURCH: Multiple sources tell CNN that the Trump administration is taking migrant children out of their homes and into government custody. It's believed immigration and customs enforcement have removed around 500 children.

The removals happened after so-called welfare checks deemed their situation was unsafe or because of immigration actions against the children's sponsors, the majority of which are parents or family members. Children are also remaining in custody longer due to tougher policies that make it harder for them to be released.

Wildfires are raging across parts of Canada. The flames have already scorched one historic lodge and forced thousands of people to flee their homes. We'll have details for you on the other side of the break, stay with us.

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[03:40:00]

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UNKNOWN (voice-over): This is CNN Breaking News.

CHURCH: We have this breaking news this hour. Israel says it has recovered the bodies of two Israeli-American hostages from Gaza. Gad Haggai and his wife, Judy Weinstein Haggai, they were killed during the October 7th terror attacks.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reports the bodies were recovered in a special operation by Shin Bet and the IDF. A spokesperson for kibbutz Nir Oz said their bodies had been returned to Israel and would be laid to rest. Family members say they are grateful the couple can now get a proper burial at home in Israel.

More than 200 wildfires are now burning across Canada, and fire officials say half of them are burning out of control. About two million hectares have burned so far, as scores of wildfires have spread over the past few weeks.

Most of the fires are burning in the provinces of Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta. Flames have driven thousands of people from their homes in Saskatchewan, destroying some 400 structures, including the historic Robertson Trading Post in La Ronge.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JORDAN MCPHALL, MEMBER, LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY OF SASKATCHEWAN: In my home community, I know that we lost a very big piece of history in Robertson's Trading Post, and we've heard of other local businesses and family homes lost yesterday. The devastation is real.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHURCH: Smoke from the fires has spread into parts of the northeastern U.S. and the Midwest.

Marlo Pritchard is the president and fire commissioner of the Saskatchewan Public Safety Agency, and he joins me now from Prince Albert. Appreciate you talking with us.

MARLO PRITCHARD, PRESIDENT AND FIRE COMMISSIONER, SASKATCHEWAN PUBLIC SAFETY AGENCY: Absolutely Rosemary, it's a privilege to be on talking with you tonight.

CHURCH: So what is the latest information that you have on the active wildfires burning across parts of Canada right now, and what is the level of containment?

[03:45:00]

PRITCHARD: In Saskatchewan, as we've been reporting for a number of weeks now, we're seeing absolutely unprecedented fire activity in the northern part of Saskatchewan. As of tonight, we have 24 fires burning. Nine of them are not contained, four of them contained, eight assessment, and two protecting values.

Some of those fires are extremely large, and just to give you a context of the season up to this point in Saskatchewan, you know, to date we've had 243 wildfires. Our five-year average at this point in time is 135. So not only did we start earlier, but there are a lot more starts, and many of them just started to run on us, and they've become just huge wildfires that we are throwing a lot of resources into trying to contain, slow, manage, and protect values.

CHURCH: Those numbers are just shocking, I have to say. So how many people have been evacuated from their homes so far, and how many more do you expect will need to start packing up and getting out?

PRITCHARD: Well, we estimate that there's probably between 10,000 and 15,000 that have been displaced. We know that the Red Cross are supporting around 5000. We're supporting around 800, the SPSA are supporting 800.

There's a number of other individuals that have self-evacuated or evacuated communities and gone to family and friends or contacting us from those locations. We don't know what other communities. There are a lot of the communities to date, I believe at this point in time it's about 36 communities have evacuated.

There's a couple other ones that are moving some of their priority individuals, ones that have health issues. They're not doing a full evacuation. So to say how many other communities will evacuate, I can't say that, but there are a number of other communities that are still in the area and being threatened by the wildfires.

CHURCH: And what rescue efforts are underway right now?

PRITCHARD: It really is an all of Saskatchewan effort here to either evacuate or support once they evacuated. But many of these are community-led evacuations. We have our Saskatchewan Health Authority that supports moving people out of hospitals.

We have our first responders that are escorting vehicles through those areas that might be difficult or with highways being blocked and then opened up again when safe to do so. Our staff, our wildfire staff will also assist not only with suppression efforts, but we will definitely, if needed, move those patients or those individuals that need to be transported in some other fashion.

So it really is a number of first responders and community members that are all stepping up to help move people out of those communities when they are being threatened.

CHURCH: Right. And what impact are these active fires having on air quality and smoke?

PRITCHARD: In some of these areas, there has been ongoing air quality alerts, depending on which way the wind is blowing. We've seen smoke right down to the southeast part of Saskatchewan. Near these fires, extremely, extremely heavy smoke laying low, which

is causing issues with our water bombers, helicopter efforts just because of the visibility and making it very difficult. So yes, air quality is absolutely impacted, especially near those fires.

CHURCH: And what are your biggest concerns right now?

PRITCHARD: Well, I mean, the fires are huge. So, I mean, our efforts remain always, you know, to protect life and property, we're really working on a number of supporting communities and trying to hold the wildfires out of those communities. We were just up in La Ronge today and we've got a number of fires around that community.

So SPSA, a number of fire departments are all working closely together to try to hold that fire and keep that fire out of that community. And we're doing that in more than just one. We're doing that, unfortunately, in more than one community at the same time, we're really around protecting values, focusing on protecting lives and doing our utmost to minimize future losses.

CHURCH: Marlo Pritchard, thank you so much for joining us and for all the work that you're doing to try to contain these fires. I appreciate it.

PRITCHARD: Thank you for having us on.

CHURCH: A thick layer of dust from the Saharan Desert is traveling across the Atlantic, impacting air quality and casting a hazy veil over areas in the Caribbean.

[03:50:08]

CNN's Patrick Oppmann has more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PATRICK OPPMANN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The weather in Havana in June usually means bright, beautiful skies. But right now, at least, it's very overcast, strangely so. Over the last several hours and certainly compared to the weather in the previous days, it is much grayer than it usually is here.

And the reason behind that is actually quite fascinating. A lot of what you see in the air behind me, this gray, overcast weather, is dust that has blown across the Atlantic Ocean all the way from the Saharan Desert in North Africa.

This is a yearly event, although you don't notice it so much as we are right now. It's not a cause for alarm.

Health professionals say unless you suffer from breathing problems, then perhaps you do need to stay inside on days like this one, where so much dust has crossed the Atlantic Ocean, is now in the air over us.

But otherwise, people are going about their daily routines. Life goes on here as normal, it does feel a little bit warmer. The dust apparently traps some of the heat.

It is a seasonal event at the beginning of the summer. You see, particularly when there's a sunrise and sunsets, that the air quality has just changed somewhat. This year, it seems quite a bit heavier, I don't remember being so overcast in previous years here.

And so it is something that is a phenomenon. It is something that is certainly quite impressive that all this dust is traveling across the Atlantic Ocean.

Now it's over the Caribbean. It will continue on from here, meteorologists say, and go into the southern United States, along the Gulf Coast of the United States, and have an impact there as well. It's not necessarily an entirely bad thing, yes, it affects air quality.

But it also means that hurricanes and hurricane season began on June 1st are less likely to form when you have all this dust that is taking the moisture out of the air. So while that is one positive outcome of this, it is not going to last, typically, in a few days or weeks, there'll be a lot less of this dust that we're seeing right now. And that, of course, will lead to the formation eventually of hurricanes.

Patrick Oppmann, CNN, Havana.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CHURCH: Still to come, global warming puts the world's glaciers at a tipping point, and scientists warn it's probably too late to do anything about it. Back in just a moment.

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[03:55:03]

CHURCH: Right now, the world's glaciers are at a tipping point in dire health and dwindling in size due global warming. Scientists say that trend is irreversible. Our meteorologist Derek Van Dam has more now on the latest warning signs.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DEREK VAN DAM, CNN METEOROLOGIST (voice-over): A glacier's partial collapse buries a village in the Swiss Alps. Thankfully, it's roughly 300 residents had already evacuated.

But even the few homes that weren't engulfed by ice, mud and rock flooded in the aftermath. One resident is still missing.

DR. MYLENE JACQUEMART, GLACIOLOGY PROF., ETH ZURICH: What you see is just something that, like on paper, you knew could happen. But then when you see it, it just takes your breath away.

VAN DAM (voice-over): Days earlier, cracking sounds within Argentina's Perito Moreno Glacier, a last second signal before an ice block the height of a 20 story building falls into the water below. LUCAS RUIZ, ARGENTINE GLACIOLOGIST (through translator): Climate

change is happening. It's present not only in the melting or retreat of glaciers, but we also see it reflected in the instruments we have installed around the region.

VAN DAM (voice-over): And last month, U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres issuing a warning to the Nepali government.

ANTONIO GUTERRES, UNITED NATIONS SECRETARY-GENERAL: Record temperatures have meant record glacier melt. Nepal today is on thin ice, losing close to one third of its size in just over 30 years.

VAN DAM (voice-over): These phenomena mark a bleak new reality. A new study says nearly 40 percent of the total mass of the world's glaciers is doomed, even if global temperatures stopped rising today. With this irreversible trend likely to cause a 113 millimeter rise in global sea level, meaning more scenes like those in Switzerland and Argentina in all corners of the planet.

But that's assuming matters don't get worse. If world climate policies continue as they are, the study finds that 40 percent figure will jump to 76 percent. The difference between those numbers, one scientist says, is the difference between whether or not countries will be able to adapt to this glacier loss.

The study's authors don't want to be alarmist, but rather provide facts and spread an encouraging message. Co-leader Lillian Schuster told CNN her team wants to show we can preserve this glacier ice with every tenth of a degree less of global warming. A beacon of hope for a world prognosis that is nothing short of dire.

Derek Van Dam, CNN.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CHURCH: And thanks for spending part of your day with me, I'm Rosemary Church. "Amanpour" is next, then stay tuned for "Early Start" with Rahel Solomon, starting at 5 a.m. in New York, 10 a.m. in London. Have a great day.

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