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Trump Plays Golf In Scotland As Protesters Voice Anger Over His Visit; DOH Wraps Up Two Days Of Meeting With Ghislaine Maxwell; Source: Maxwell Granted Limited Immunity To Talk To DOJ; Southwest Airlines Plane Dives As Fighter Jet Crosses Its Path; ICE Raids Rattle California Farms During Peak Harvest; California Farm Workers Face Tough Choice Amid Ongoing ICE Raids; Community Rallies For Beloved Pastor Facing Deportation. Trump Says "Finish The Job" On Hamas As U.S. Walks Away From Talks; Researchers Trying To Keep People Safe From Future Floods; Top Investigators Detail Bryan Kohberger's Unusual Behavior. Aired 12-1p ET

Aired July 26, 2025 - 12:00   ET

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

[12:00:00]

CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CNN ANCHOR: -- office. Today, the service faces new challenges, but it keeps going, connecting the country one letter at a time. Rain or shine, red state or blue, it still delivers all over the world.

That's all we have time for. Don't forget, you can find all of our shows online as podcasts at CNN.com/audio and on all other major platforms. I'm Christiane Amanpour in London. Thanks for watching and see you again next week.

ERICA HILL, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, and thanks for joining me. I'm Erica Hill in today for Fredricka Whitfield.

President Trump is in Scotland today, part of his five-day visit, of course, that puts a little bit of distance between him and the growing fallout in Washington, D.C. over the Epstein case, although the distance can't solve all of that. The president golfing right now on his property in Turnberry, Scotland. It is one of two Scottish golf courses the president owns and plans to play during his visit.

The president also set to meet with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and the head of the European Union Commission for trade and tariff talks. The trip to Scotland is not without controversy. The president has already been met with large protests and more are planned.

CNN's Jeff Zeleny is in Scotland for us.

So, Jeff, in terms of this trip and the reception, the early reception, what more -- what have we seen and what more can we expect for the president?

JEFF ZELENY, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Well, Erica, it's very much a typical weekend for Donald Trump playing golf on one of his golf courses except he's doing it here in Scotland. Of course, normally in the summer he would be in a Bedminster or one of his courses in Virginia outside Washington, but he flew overnight here to Scotland. It's a working vacation.

Golf is the first order of business. And then he will have some meeting with European leaders later in the weekend and early next week. But there is no doubt that there were large protests here in Edinburgh as well as other places across Scotland protesting the sheer fact that President Trump is here.

Of course, he has a connection to Scotland. His mother is from Scotland. He has golf courses here. He's done business here for nearly a couple of decades. But that, of course, is part of the controversy.

So we spent some time at one of the protests this morning. And Fiona McPherson, who has dual citizenship between the U.S. and Scotland, had this to say about President Trump's visit.

(BEGIN VIDEOCLIP)

FIONA MCPHERSON, ANTI-TRUMP PROTESTER: I think we're probably going to have to play nice. But I don't want us to. But, you know, America was our ally for so long. We relied on America so much. Now it's an embarrassment.

I don't know. It's very, very tricky. I think politically, yes, we've got to play nice. But on the other hand, if we condone his behavior, what do we -- what message are we sending out to the world?

(END VIDEOCLIP)

ZELENY: But despite the protests outside, and there were several signs mentioning Jeffrey Epstein's name as well as photographs showing the president with the disgraced financier, who was, of course, a longtime friend before they parted ways in the early 2000s. Many people we talked to were actually following that quite closely.

The president, as you said, is trying to move beyond that. It is unclear how long that will last. But for now, at least, he is golfing this afternoon here in Scotland. But those key meetings over the weekend, starting tomorrow with the head of the European Commission, all about tariffs and the trade deals.

The European Union is hoping to reach a trade deal with the U.S. So certainly some working part of this vacation as well. But for now, it's a day on the golf course for Donald Trump. Erica?

HILL: Jeff Zeleny joining us live from Edinburgh this hour. Thank you.

Back here in the U.S., we are waiting to see what the findings are from the Justice Department in terms of those meetings with Ghislaine Maxwell. Her attorney says she held nothing back. Maxwell was convicted of being Jeffrey Epstein's co-conspirator to sexually abused minors and was, of course, sentenced to 20 years in prison.

Her lawyer appearing to suggest, though, she would like a pardon. President Trump was asked about the possibility.

(BEGIN VIDEOCLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Would you consider a pardon or a commutation for Ghislaine Maxwell?

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: It's something I haven't thought about. It's really something --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's a recommended --

TRUMP: It's -- I'm allowed to do it, but it's something I have not thought about.

(END VIDEOCLIP)

HILL: Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle meantime really ramping up the pressure on the administration to release the documents. CNN's Paula Reid takes a deeper, deeper look here into what we actually know about these meetings with Maxwell this week.

PAULA REID, CNN CHIEF LEGAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: On Friday, Maxwell wrapped up her marathon interview with the Justice Department. She answered questions from Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche for roughly nine hours. Her lawyer said that she answered every question. She did not invoke any privilege.

He even went so far as to say she was asked about maybe 100 different people. She answered questions about everybody and did not hold anything back.

[12:05:04]

Now, she went into this with some protections. It was expected that she would get some form of immunity. You'd never put a client, especially one who's been convicted and is appealing that conviction across from the Justice Department, without some sort of protection.

So we've learned that she had limited immunity, which means that she is protected from any further prosecution related to much of what she said unless she lies. You do not get protection for potentially lying to the FBI. But her lawyer insists that she did not do that.

Everything she said, he claims, can be corroborated and insists she's telling the truth. But, of course, we have to view this with some skepticism. The only details we have gotten have been from her legal team. And she, as I noted, is a convicted sex trafficker whose credibility has been called into question in the past.

During her trial where she was convicted, victims spoke about how she was the one who recruited them, groomed them, and in some cases sexually assaulted them. Now, she is appealing that conviction, but there are potential pitfalls for the Justice Department if they were to engage in some sort of deal with her or President Trump or were to commute her sentence or grant her a pardon because a lot of the concern, the outrage over what some perceive as the lack of transparency around the Epstein files is driven by a concern that sexual predators are being protected.

So this is fraught with landmines for the Justice Department and the administration. It is unclear what they have received from Maxwell and what they'll do next. The deputy attorney general has said he will give an update at the appropriate time.

Paula Reid, CNN, Washington.

HILL: Also joining me this hour, Misty Marris, who is a defense and trial attorney. Misty, always good to talk to you. You know, I think what Paula brings up there at the end is so interesting because there are these questions, right? The reason that we are in this moment is this push for transparency.

People want to know more about the information that the Justice Department actually has, but that comes from, as Paula notes, this started with this push to protect children from sexual predators. Can both of these things happen at the same time for the Department of Justice in this situation?

MISTY MARRIS, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Well, this is very tricky, Erica, as Paula mentioned, because you're talking about somebody who has been convicted and sentenced to these serious sex trafficking crimes. So clearly, credibility is an issue at this point in time. Ghislaine Maxwell is sitting down and engaging in these interviews, but her credibility has been obviously a concern in the past.

She would have been in a prime position to come forward with any information she had prior to her trial and prior to her criminal conviction. Also, there's civil depositions, there's testimony where she's denied knowledge of anything relating to Epstein or herself. And then lastly, you know, we're at a point now, I don't think it's a -- it's just the goodness of her heart that she wants to provide information. There's obviously a degree that's self-serving.

She's a 20-year sentence, and a lot of her appeals have been exhausted. So there's incentive to come to the table now, but it's self-serving. So all of those would present credibility concerns about what this information could actually lead to.

HILL: There are also questions about the -- sort of the nature of the questioning itself. Again, we don't know. According to Todd Blanche, we'll find out at the, quote, "appropriate time" what was discussed. Her attorney's saying she was asked about 100 people. She did have limited immunity for these discussions over the span of two days.

But given the fact that her credibility has been called into question by the DOJ in very stark language, quite frankly, what can we get from her at this point? We -- I shouldn't say we -- what can the Justice Department do?

MARRIS: Absolutely. So one thing is, all right, so this is information. It's a download with the Justice Department. And certainly no harm if somebody in her position is willing to come forward and provide information. OK, you can hear it. But the question is, what will come out of it? And that's twofold. So on one hand, we're talking about conduct that goes back 25 years. Are there any viable criminal cases that could come from the information received? Meaning, statute of limitations could be an issue.

Now, when it comes to minors or children, the statute of limitations could be non-existent. So there absolutely could be some information that could lead to charges that are not barred. That being said, nothing is going to be based on her information or ultimately if she were to be a cooperating witness testimony alone. There would have to be corroborative evidence.

And that is also challenging when you're talking about so many years later. So the question is, where does this go from here? Can the government credibly say, this is a cooperating witness that we're giving our stamp of credibility upon, given everything from the past? And also what could actually become of it with respect to potential other criminal charges against others?

HILL: Her attorney also said that this is the first opportunity she's ever been given to answer questions about what happened. I mean, what do you make of that, given she is now, of course, serving a 20-year prison sentence?

[12:10:11]

I mean, this was -- there were multiple years of investigations here. The fact that she was never given the opportunity to answer these questions?

MARRIS: I was very surprised to hear that because again, there would have been incentive to sit down and come to the table once Jeffrey Epstein was arrested before he died behind bars. That she was always a co-conspirator, so certainly -- or is looked at as a co-conspirator, and certainly she would have had her protections.

She could have said, I'm invoking my Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination or otherwise. But the fact that no overture was ever made when you're talking about a criminal conspiracy is very, very unusual. Generally, with criminal conspiracies, prosecutors will want to get information from others involved in order to use it against the mastermind of any organization. So I found that to be very unusual in this case.

HILL: There's also a lot that's been made of the fact that it was the deputy AG, of course, also the president's former defense attorney, Todd Blanche, who was doing the questioning, not, say, a prosecutor who had worked on this case. Does that in any way undermine the information when it does eventually come out at the, quote, "appropriate time"?

MARRIS: Well, there's certainly supposed to be independence when it comes to the Justice Department, to not just be the puppet of the president of the United States, even though they fall under the executive branch. But clearly, Erica, from everything we've seen happen with Ghislaine Maxwell specifically, it truly has been unusual at every turn from a DOJ perspective.

Even the idea of we're going to unseal all the records that were collected during the investigation would go against longstanding Department of Justice policies generally to do so. So in this particular case, there's so much out there from a public perspective and what this looks like. I do think it's really -- there's a dark cloud over whatever information we obtain because of the circumstances and how this came about.

HILL: Misty, always good to talk to you. Thank you.

MARRIS: Thanks, Erica.

HILL: Still ahead here, we'll show you how farm workers are now deciding to stay home and why over concerns about immigration, what specifically has them making that choice. Also, how is it impacting local economies?

Plus, another close call for a passenger plane taking evasive measures to avoid a fighter jet. How did this happen?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[12:17:15]

HILL: FAA officials are investigating a near collision between a Southwest Airlines plane and a privately owned fighter jet near Los Angeles on Friday. According to a flight tracking site, the 737 was just six minutes into its flight when it dove to avoid that privately owned fighter jet, which was crossing its path.

A passenger telling CNN there were people screaming in the cabin. He thought the plane itself was in freefall. Two Southwest flight attendants are being treated for injuries. No passengers were injured. No passengers were hurt.

And then the plane continued its flight to Las Vegas where it did land safely. The FAA, though, as I noted, is now investigating.

As ICE continues its immigration raids at work sites and public places across the country, California's Farm Bill, which is currently in its peak harvest season, is really feeling the pressure. Despite some earlier promises not to target farm workers, the reality for many today is a choice between going to work and risking arrest or staying home and perhaps not being able to pay the bills.

CNN's Julia Vargas Jones spoke to farm workers in California's Central Valley as well as a farm owner about the impact. Julia, what are they telling you in terms of how this is playing out on a daily basis?

JULIA VARGAS JONES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, it's just being felt across the board in the region, Erica. It's not just those farm workers afraid of going to work and then missing days of work. That affects then also the farmers and their harvest that's, like you said, just about to hit peak season.

(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)

VARGAS JONES (voice-over): On their hands and knees for hours at a time, these California farm workers brave the elements daily to put food on America's tables. Now, many are forced to choose between going to work and risk arrest or stay home and lose their livelihood.

Ventura County fields were among the many locations targeted by immigration agents in early June raids that rattled California. And in July, a farm worker died after falling off a roof during another ICE raid in Camarillo. The chilling effects of those raids are hitting hard a state that is the top producer of agricultural products in the country.

VARGAS JONES: California's agriculture is a $60 billion industry. More than one-third of all vegetables and two-thirds of fruits and nuts in the United States are grown right here.

VARGAS JONES (voice-over): 34-year-old Marisol (ph) says she came to the U.S. from the Mexican state of Guerrero 12 years ago looking to make an honest living in a safe place.

VARGAS JONES: You've been paying your taxes this whole time?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (Speaking in Foreign Language)

VARGAS JONES (voice-over): And now grappling with the fear of being deported each day she goes to work.

"Many of us are scared to go do our jobs," she says. "But then we have to pay our rent and bills and we have no option but to go to work and pray nothing happens to us. But we are scared."

[12:20:04]

She and her husband are both farm workers. Her main concern if they were arrested by ICE, she says, is their four-year-old daughter.

"I don't have anyone that could take my daughter," she says, "except for her daycare teacher."

Even those in less precarious situations are afraid here.

VARGAS JONES: You have authorization to work in this country.

"Yes, I am scared," Patricia says. She's heard of American citizens and legal temporary workers getting detained by ICE agents. She says, "They just come and sometimes even hit you before asking if you have authorization to work or not."

For growers like Guillermo Jimenez, who depend on this workforce daily, it's more than a nuisance, especially in summer when produce is ready to pick.

"We are also fearful," he says, "because we've sowed the seeds, but we can't harvest without people."

VARGAS JONES: Would you be able to find American hands to work here?

GUILLERMO JIMENEZ, FARMER: No, (foreign language).

VARGAS JONES (voice-over): The day after the Camarillo raids, 14 workers didn't show. It takes 18 people to harvest one field. Jimenez says if that pattern continues, he will have to scale down.

The Department of Homeland Security, which oversees ICE, did not respond to CNN's request for comment.

(END VIDEO TAPE)

VARGAS JONES: And, Erica, this is a bit of a chain reaction that is happening, especially in this part of California, where Jimenez, that farmer you heard from there, he's saying now his workers who deliver produce are too scared to come into Los Angeles because they're afraid of being stopped by ICE.

He's also saying that there's a whole other side industry that is now being slowed down by the fact that these workers are not going to restaurants, they're not going out, they're not spending their money in businesses that would have benefited from that. That means that, in turn, now, his vegetable orders are going down, and all of it in this kind of vicious cycle where there's a slowing down of work, there's a slowing down of that economy, and both him and those farmers end up paying the price for it.

HILL: Yes, it's such an important story. And as you point out, too, even those are -- people who are legally authorized to work in the United States, they are worried about going to work because they fear being taken.

Julia, I appreciate the reporting, as always. Thank you.

A tight-knit community in Maryland is now rallying behind a longtime pastor who was arrested by ICE over this weekend. He was arrested for overstaying his visa. Daniel Fuentes Espinal is a 54-year-old father of three. He fled poverty and violence in Honduras back in 2001.

His arrest, just one of the latest examples in the Trump administration's crackdown on people in the country who have overstayed their student visas or even cracking down on people who are on green cards. Fuentes Espinal's daughter says he was pulled over without any explanation and later detained after he was asked for identification. Court records show he has no criminal history.

A family friend says the pastor has been battling a bureaucratic nightmare for years as he has worked to obtain his green card. Here's more of what he told CNN's Victor Blackwell this morning.

(BEGIN VIDEOCLIP)

LEN FOXWELL, FAMILY FRIEND OF DETAINED PASTOR: The conditions under which he was detained in Baltimore were not just substandard, they were really subhuman. He was sleeping on a bench, couldn't brush his teeth, was -- and I don't mean to be graphic, but would -- he only had a bucket to use to -- use the bathroom. I mean, this is a man who has lived for 24 years in the United States, has never been charged with a crime, is a model leader of our community, and they are treating him like something less than human.

It is heartbreaking to his family. It is devastating to a community who depends upon him so much, not only for spiritual sustenance, but also as someone who provides food, shelter, and clothing to those who are the most vulnerable. No one bothered to call the family, to let them know where he was and that he was OK.

Victor, let's just call this for what it was. It was a government- sponsored kidnapping.

VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN ANCHOR: Tell me about the impact since Monday.

FOXWELL: A chilling effect on everybody, and particularly within the immigrant community in the town of Easton. I think the prevailing sentiment is that if something this heinous can happen to someone of his stature, someone who is universally recognized and beloved as a community leader, then it can really happen to anybody.

(END VIDEOCLIP)

HILL: GoFundMe has now raised more than $20,000 for Fuentes Espinal's legal expenses.

[12:25:01]

Just ahead here, as the humanitarian crisis in Gaza deepens even further, President Trump pulls the United States negotiators out of talks with Hamas. What the group is now saying.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HILL: New video shows at least 54 children and another 30 adults making their way from Morocco to the Spanish enclave of Ceuta on the tip of North Africa. So they made the swim in rough seas and fog. You can see here in this -- this is Spanish authorities making several attempts to rescue those swimmers. Moroccan nationals detained during the crossings are immediately sent back to Morocco unless they are underage or seeking asylum.

New today, a Hamas official says the militant group was surprised by the U.S. decision to walk away from ceasefire talks this week. The U.S. blamed Hamas for the breakdown in negotiations, and President Trump also weighed in.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: It was too bad. Hamas -- Hamas didn't really want to make a deal. I think they want to die. And it's very, very bad. And it got -- it got to be to a point where you're going to have to finish the job.

(END VIDEO CLIP) HILL: Mr. Trump is, of course, now in Scotland, where U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer says he is ready to go ahead with plans to airdrop aid into Gaza as that humanitarian crisis continues to worsen.

CNN international diplomatic editor, Nic Robertson, is in Jerusalem. So Nic, is there any path forward? Is there a sense that there's any path forward in this moment to some sort of ceasefire talks resuming?

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: I mean, certainly the mediators are hoping that there is. And -- and I think the statement that we heard from Hamas today and -- and a statement they put out last night as well showing their current or their sort of most up-to-date negotiating position that they said showed flexibility on their part, the -- the amount of land to be allowed as a buffer between Israel and Gaza, the number of hostages and -- and Palestinian prisoners to be exchanged, all of that Hamas put forward as to show that they're good faith.

And what they're saying today is, look, what we have heard from both the Israelis they're saying and from U.S. President and his special envoy, Steve Witkoff, that that doesn't match what the mediators were saying. And I think, at the moment, the mediators are scratching their heads. There were briefings for journalists here yesterday, background briefings, that really indicated that what Steve Witkoff had said was really a negotiating ploy, if you will, to put pressure on Hamas to come up with a more realistic negotiating position.

So I think the reality here is that there will be a way back to the table. It's not immediate. It may come sometime next week. And I say may because nobody actually knows. But the assessment by Hamas would be that what has happened right now is Israel wants them to concede on something and therefore wants to have Prime Minister Netanyahu in their view would want to have some kind of victory at home so that he can show the domestic audience he got an additional concession out of Hamas.

If that's what happens, then there is a possibility of getting back to talks. But in all of this, you know, there's the -- there's the very real possibility that even groups like Hamas begin to fragment, divide internally. It took a long time to get an answer from there -- from Hamas on the ground inside of Gaza. And there's a sense by some of those closer negotiations I'm talking to that there's a fragmentation happening within Hamas as well.

HILL: Which could certainly complicate matters. And -- and -- and of course, what is playing out in real time and shocking much of the world is the fact that the situation in Gaza is getting worse, not just by the day, but frankly, by the hour. The Palestinian Health Ministry saying now at least five more people have died from starvation in the last 24 hours. So it's my understanding Israel says 90 trucks of aid were unloaded at Gaza crossings on Friday. I think it was Thursday morning you and I were talking at Thursday morning U.S. time. And we saw those trucks coming in behind you. It is not nearly enough for what's needed. Where do things stand right now in terms of getting more aid to people in Gaza? ROBERTSON: Yes, Israeli officials today have said that that 100 trucks worth of food has gone from that sort of storage area at the border where we were at on the Gaza side, deeper into Gaza for distribution by U.N. and other groups. And another 90 trucks have sort of gone in to -- to take that place and stock it back up.

But -- but absolutely, you're right. I mean, aid agencies are saying this. This absolutely isn't enough. It needs to be much more than that. UNRWA, the sort of main aid organization within Gaza, said they've got 6,000 trucks worth of aid sitting in the neighboring country, Jordan, that's ready to go. If only, they say, Israel would give them the -- the ability to drive more of it in and get it into Gaza. That's the backup.

And we heard as well this morning that from Gazan health officials that six people were killed, 106 -- 160 wounded, as aid came into the north of Gaza. And they say, the health officials in Gaza say that the crowds of people trying to get the aid there were shot at by the IDF. The IDF has come back and said that crowds of people trying to get near the trucks were getting too near the IDF troops, and they were in danger. The troops were, so they had to fire, but they're not aware that they actually killed anyone.

So the scenarios that we have seen repeated so many times over the recent months continue to happen and continue to get in the way of a good flow of aid getting -- getting into Gaza. But those deaths mount. And -- and you know it's now over 120 people that have died of malnutrition or starvation, and two-thirds of them are children. And a doctor explained why that is. Kids just don't have the sort of spare fat on their bodies.

[12:35:24]

They don't have the -- the -- the sort of chemicals in their bodies. They're not developed enough to be able to fight back against a lack of food. And their bodies quite simply break down more quickly. And that's why so many more children are dying than adults.

HILL: It is. It is heart-wrenching. Nic, really appreciate it. Thank you.

Still ahead here, during the summer of massive flooding, CNN is taking an in-depth look at the most vulnerable communities around the country, those most at risk of a catastrophic flash flood. Those findings, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[12:40:35]

HILL: More than 80 million people are under a major heat risk as a heat dome. It takes over the east and the midwest. A number of cities reaching triple digits. And of course, coupling that with humidity. CNN's Allison Chinchar has more on the extreme conditions.

ALLISON CHINCHAR, CNN METEOROLOGIST: It's already been a very hot summer. But now those temperatures are going to go up even higher in some places. And it's all thanks to this dome of high pressure, which is really just kind of keeping a lot of that heat trapped near the surface. And it's for a prolonged period of time. And that's a bigger concern.

Even as we head out into Monday, you'll notice it starts to spread out and impacting many more states even than we will simply have on Saturday. You also start to see these areas of dark red. Indicating those temperatures could be 10 to even 15 degrees above average. Now one of the concerns is, yes, it's summer. We get it. It's supposed to be hot. But when the temperatures start to get that hot and for prolonged periods of time, you also start to have an increased risk of things like heat stroke and heat exhaustion.

And that's going to be the concern where you see this purple color on the map. That is at the extreme portion of the heat risk chart. And as we head into Sunday and into Monday, you start to see that purple area really start to spread out into more communities and more cities. And that's the big concern that we have with this next heat wave in particular.

Looking at the numbers, it's not just temperature but also adding in the humidity. The two combined create what's called the heat index or the feels like temperature. It's going to be in the triple digits for places like Washington D.C., Raleigh, even Atlanta getting awfully close to that on Saturday. But they certainly will by the time we get to Sunday. And a lot of these numbers stay on the high side for several days in a row.

Look at Omaha on Monday. That feels like temperature topping out at 111. Now if it feels like it's been a very hot summer to you. It's not just you. Look at all of these red dots here on the map. These dots indicate the areas that are dealing with their hottest summer to date on record. So it's not just this particular heat wave but even the weeks leading up to it. All of June was very hot for many other places.

You take a look at a city like Atlanta. The average high this time of year is 90. We will spend every single one of the next seven days at or above that number. Possibly even hitting triple digits by the time we get to Monday. Now if you live in the north however. You're still going to get the heat. But you'll finally get some relief by the end of next week.

Take Chicago for example. Average high of 84, you'll top out at 92 on Monday. But finally some relief back into the 70s by the end of next week.

HILL: And our thanks again to Allison for that.

Well this week the confirmed number of people killed in the devastating Texas flooding rose, it now stands at -- at least 136. Texas lawmakers are holding a special legislative session to investigate the state's response to that July 4th disaster. And now a new CNN analysis shows just how many more communities across the country could be at risk for similar flooding. Here's CNN's chief climate correspondent, Bill Weir.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BILL WEIR, CNN CHIEF CLIMATE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): On a hot day in the mountains of north Georgia, few places are more inviting than the Chattahoochee River. And tubing the hooch on days like this makes it easy to forget that the same waterway providing so much joy can take life and property in a flash.

And when the Chattahoochee turned deadly 16 years back, it changed both Georgia and Laura Belanger, one of the top hydrologists in the south.

LAURA BELANGER, SENIOR SERVICE HYDROLOGIST, NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE ATLANTA: So I am in the position I'm in today because of the September 2009 floods. I was young in my career at the time, and there were 10 fatalities in the state of Georgia. That left a lasting impression on me, and wanting to kind of see how we could do better with our hydro services and getting those warnings out, that's what helped be a catalyst for those flash flood warnings to be included in wireless emergency alerts.

WEIR: Today in the tourist town of Helen, Georgia, those wireless alerts and weather radios are the only sources of flash flood warning. Because in a place like this, sirens might confuse people to run for low ground from a tornado instead of high ground from a flash flood. It's been a long time since the water topped that 10-foot marker. It hit 12-feet back in '67, and while there have been some swift water rescues in recent weeks, most people don't remember really high water.

That's the thing that struck me in Texas there. It was -- It reminded me more of covering a tsunami in Japan where children were swept away while they debated what to do because no one could imagine the worst.

[12:45:07]

BELANGER: Yes.

WEIR: And when you're watching tubers here, you can't imagine that water turning deadly.

BELANGER: It's hard to get, especially with how shallow it is at the moment, it is hard to digest what a big amount of water coming through here would look like and how it's inundated.

WEIR (voice-over): And she is especially worried about Enchanted Valley just over the hills. The folks living in these permanent trailers sit smack dab on the Hiawassee River next to one of the flashiest river gauges in the nation.

BELANGER: And so those are the places that keep me up at night. Regardless of the amount of readiness or preparation, the fact that there are people and property that close to the river, that's what the concern is. The biggest question we get is when we see a 100-year flood plain and maybe the water level has risen to this point and someone says, oh thank goodness, we don't have to deal with this for 99 more years. And -- and it happens. The reality is what that means is that there's a one in 100 chance of occurrence in a given year of that happening again.

WEIR: Right. But that math is changing, right?

BELANGER: But that math changes over time as you see flooding occur more frequently.

WEIR: The kind of flood that happened once every 100 years could now happen every decade, the experts tell us, from the First Street Foundation. This is a nonprofit that maps flood risk around the country. The CNN climate team partnered with them to try to evaluate which communities are most vulnerable to a disaster like we saw in Texas.

And from Santa Barbara, California, to the Catskills of New York, from Nogales, Arizona, to Appalachia, we found this combination of topography that creates the flashiest floods, lack of warning systems, a lot of tourists who may not understand the risks, and as the flash flood warning set new records in 2025, knowledge is power and possibly life or death.

Bill Weir, CNN, Helen, Georgia.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HILL: Still to come here on CNN, you'll hear from the investigators who helped bring a killer to justice. What they are still asking though in terms of the murder of those four University of Idaho students.

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[12:51:55]

HILL: An emotional week for the loved ones of the four Idaho College students who were killed in 2020. Convicted murderer, Bryan Kohberger, sentenced this week to four consecutive life sentences without the possibility of parole in their stabbing deaths. The victim's families and friends addressing Kohberger in court this week where they detailed the trauma they have experienced since losing their loved ones.

Police this week also releasing new documents, which shed some light on, among other things, Kohberger's strange behavior in the days after those murders. CNN's Jean Casarez sat down with the Idaho State Police Department's lead investigator in the case.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JEAN CASAREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: You collected an active phone that he had. What did you find on that phone?

LT. DARREN GILBERTSON, LEAD INVESTIGATOR ON KOHBERGER CASE, IDAHO STATE POLICE: When we actually had the physical phone and we were able to do the extract of it, we didn't gain a lot from it. You know, we know that he was clearing a lot of his devices and wiping things from them. We know that he used VPNs. But we also did find screenshots and pictures of -- of news coverage.

CASAREZ: On the case?

GILBERTSON: Correct.

CASAREZ: It has been said that there were pictures on his phone of groups of young people in Moscow and that Maddie, possibly Kaylee, were in some of those photos. Is there any truth to that?

GILBERTSON: No. No truth at all. To this date, we have never found a single connection, anything, between any of the four victims or the other two surviving roommates with him. No pictures, no texts.

CASAREZ: Documents that have not been public have now been made public. And Xana Kernodle, found on the floor, over 50 stab wounds, many of them, much of them defensive. Can you -- can you explain that?

CHIEF ANTHONY DAHLINGER, MOSCOW, IDAHO POLICE: She fought. She fought back and she fought hard.

GILBERTSON: After November 13th, he's never in Moscow again. Never even comes back. He stops using his -- his debit card, his credit cards. He starts only using cash. Video and surveillance that we would collect and pick up after that then he's often wearing gloves. Very strong changes in behavior.

CASAREZ: The lead investigator told me he went to Pennsylvania pending the arrest of Bryan Kohberger, and he actually watched it remotely from the barracks. Kohberger was taken there, and he said when he walked through the door that it was surreal to look into his eyes, because this was the person they had been searching for, for quite a few weeks. He also was the lead investigator in the processing of the crime scene on that Sunday morning.

He said that the most blood would have been in Xana Kernodle's room. But as far as Kaylee, he said her face was unrecognizable. And I asked him, well, could it have been from the fist of Bryan Kohberger? He said, no, it was something else. I said, what about the marks around her mouth? Could that have been from the knife? He said, no, it was something else. She wasn't bound and gagged. And he says we may never know exactly what happened in that area.

Jean Casarez, CNN, Moscow, Idaho.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

[12:55:00]

HILL: Still ahead here on CNN, how the controversy over the Jeffrey Epstein investigation is now following members of Congress back to their home districts.

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[12:59:46]

HILL: Forty years ago this summer, rock stars Bob Geldof, Bono, Sting and more performed at a landmark music event to raise money for famine relief in Africa. See how the legendary concerts in London and Philadelphia came together and how that movement continued in a new episode of the CNN original series, Live Aid: When Rock and Roll Took on the World. It airs Sunday, 9:00 p.m. Eastern and Pacific only on CNN.