A Critical Day For Brexit; Crews Scramble To Save Cycle Survivors In Mozambique
THERESA MAY, PRIME MINISTER OF UNITED KINGDOM: The deal is good for this country. It delivers Brexit and it shall be supported.</s>ROMANS: It is a critical day for Brexit with just eight days to go until Britain is scheduled to leave the E.U. Prime Minister Theresa May travels to European Union headquarters in Brussels. She'll request an extension of next Friday's deadline. Now, what happens if all sides agree and what happens if they don't? CNN's Phil Black joins us from outside Parliament -- Phil.</s>PHIL BLACK, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Christine. So, Prime Minister Theresa May wants to extend the Brexit deadline by a few months, to the end of June. That's what she's asking for and it seems that the European Union -- its leaders are open to that or something around that length. They're going to thrash out the details in Brussels today, but we know they're going to attach a very strict condition. That extension will not be made official. It will not be confirmed unless Theresa May is able to come back to Parliament here in London and convince a majority of members to back the divorce agreement that her government has negotiated with the European Union. Now, that's a really big challenge because Parliament has already rejected that deal twice and rejected it by pretty spectacular, really humiliating numbers. The only thing that's really changed now is that the deadline is so much closer. So if she's able to pass that deal next week, she'll then have a couple of extra months in order to put everything into place -- put everything in a row so that Brexit can happen relatively smoothly. If she can't get it through next week, then the default position remains Brexit on March the 29th, with or without a deal because as it stands, that's what British law says. It's been written into law and unless that happens -- unless it is changed within the next week or so, then Britain is -- well, looking very much at that potential no- deal scenario which everyone fears because of the predicted dire economic consequences, Christine.</s>ROMANS: A lot of no good solutions there. All right, thank you so much for that, Phil Black.</s>BRIGGS: OK. Rescue crews are scrambling to save some 10,000 survivors of Tropical Storm Idai who are clinging to rooftops in Mozambique. The threat of floodwaters rising further as heavy rain continues in hard-hit areas. CNN's Farai Sevenzo on the ground in Beira, Mozambique.</s>FARAI SEVENZO, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: When CNN landed at Beira International Airport just about a few minutes ago, you could see the scene as it was at this place, which was the first landfall of Cyclone Idai. There were several choppers belonging to humanitarian agencies. The South African Defense Force were here, as was a helicopter from the World Food Program. Then you entered the airport and you see a massive wall with rudimentary written words in dire response. And in there, according to the Office of the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs of the United Nations, there are over 22 international organizations that have come to do this Idai response. The response, of course, comes about a week after the cyclone hit and puts so many people's lives in peril. But this is where it first hit in Beira. It then moved on upcountry and created what people are calling inland oceans, which is masses -- massive bodies of water throughout Mozambique. And it went on to Zimbabwe where it crushed people in their sleep by breaking down massive mountains. And, of course, it is quite unclear how many people have been killed -- what the death toll is in either Mozambique or Zimbabwe and, indeed, in Malawi. So at that the moment, as we are here in Beira, we're trying to see the extent of the damage for ourselves and, of course, what can be done to rescue people that still need lifting from very heavily drowned and watered-down villages in and throughout the interior of these three nations. Farai Sevenzo, CNN, Beira, Mozambique.</s>BRIGGS: Farai Sevenzo there, thank you. We'll be right back.