Record-Breaking Heat In Europe; Jeremy Corbyn Holds Rally On Last Day Of Parliament
HALA GORANI, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: Hello, everyone. Live from CNN London, I'm Hala Gorani. Tonight, parts of Europe have never been hotter as the continent swelters under an intense heat wave. We'll be live in London and Paris, hitting record high temperatures there. Also tonight, Boris Johnson lays out his vision to the House of Commons, calling for a turbo-charged no-deal Brexit response. What does that mean? And as the fallout from Robert Mueller's testimony continues, I speak to one of the congressmen who grilled the former special counsel. It doesn't matter where you are in Europe today, almost everyone is talking about the same thing: the heat. A scorching heat wave has brought temperatures never before seen since records began in Germany, the United Kingdom, Belgium and the Netherlands. And Paris broke a record when the thermometer topped 42 degrees Celsius today. That's 107 degrees if you work in Fahrenheit. Climate scientists say July is shaping up to be the hottest month ever on the planet since records began, at least since those records started being kept in the 1880s. CNN's Jim Bittermann is braving the heat in Paris. And there are concerns with Notre Dame's roof. We'll get to that in a moment. Salma Abdelaziz is on the ground in London. You're near Trafalgar Square. I understand it rained a little bit for a few minutes, which would have been -- brought some measure of relief. What's the situation now like in London, Salma?</s>SALMA ABDELAZIZ, CNN PRODUCER: That's right, Hala. After the hot, there has to come the storm. So we just had a big downpour. We have a few kids behind us, still trying to play in the pool here and keep cool. The sun is back out, so we are seeing those temperatures again. And right now is the time that people are commuting back home, and that's where a lot of the concern comes in. The public was told, actually, to stay at home today, if they could avoid. Because those train carriages are going to be hot, packed. There's very little ventilation across the country. Commuters were saying they were spending hours on these carriages will little water.</s>TEXT: All-Time Heart Record, United Kingdom: August 2003, 38.5 degrees; July 2015, 36.7 degrees. Cambridge, 38.1 degrees. A lot of that is due to the fact -- because these temperatures are rising, the trains actually have to move at a slower pace, half as fast as they usually do, so that the train tracks don't buckle. So we're seeing this all across the country. Of course, the biggest concern is for the young and the elderly. Most people in the U.K., most people in London don't have air conditioning in their homes. So they come to parks, public spaces like this one, to try to keep cool. And while it's all fun and games, this is a very serious concern for the country because the fear is, is that these temperatures will continue to climb, not just this year but on and on through the coming years. But all we can do for right now, Hala, is just stay cool.</s>GORANI: Yes. That's all we can do. It's difficult in some cases, as you mentioned. If you're commuting, if you're in a bus, if you're in a train, if you're elderly as well. We're going to get to some of these dangers in a moment. But Jim Bittermann, you're in Paris, hitting record highs as well there. And there are concerns for Notre Dame, the roof of Notre Dame. Explain why.</s>JIM BITTERMANN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, exactly. So the architect, the chief architect who's in charge of the reconstruction of Notre Dame -- and it's still a very fragile reconstruction, in fact it hasn't actually begun, but -- he's worried about the vaulted ceiling in the church of Notre Dame. Not the roof. The roof, a lot of the roof is all --</s>GORANI: All right. We just lost the shot there, with Jim Bittermann, live in Paris. But Jim was talking about the roof of Notre Dame after that terrible fire. Of course, that there are issues with how structurally sound it is. And this heat is putting a lot of pressure on what is left of that structure in Notre Dame. And it's a question of underpinning some of these beams. We'll get back to Jim as soon as we can. Tom Sater, I want to get to you. it feels like you've heard this heat wave story before. It's because Europe was scorched by another one just last month. They're becoming more and more frequent.</s>TOM SATER, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Yes.</s>GORANI: Talk to us a little bit about where we are now and what the forecast is.</s>SATER: If we can hang in there, Hala, through the night and into tomorrow morning, I think things are going to be a lot better. Remember, last week in the U.S., 500 temperature records were broken. It wasn't the all-time high for the U.K. or London, but it was the warmest July temperatures. Many may remember in the U.K., the infamous 1976 heat wave. Those numbers don't even crack the top 10 anymore. Hey, let's go back the year 1500 for Europe. These are your five hottest summers. No doubt, 2019 could be the top or very top of the list.</s>TEXT: Europe's Hottest Summers Since Year 1500: 2018, 2016, 2010, 2003, 2002</s>SATER: But let's go back to last month's heat wave. All of these areas -- Andorra, France, breaking records. Switzerland, Luxembourg, Liechtenstein, 37.1.</s>TEXT: Andorra, 28 June, 2019: 39.4 degrees. France, 28 June, 2019: 45.9 degrees. Switzerland, 27 June, 2019: 37.0 degrees. Luxembourg, 26 June, 2019: 36.8 degrees. Liechtenstein, 30 June, 2019: 37.1 degrees.</s>SATER: The list goes on and on. Germany, Czech Republic and Poland, only to be shattered yesterday.</s>TEXT: Germany, 30 June, 2019: 39.6 degrees. Czech Republic, 26 June, 2019: 38.9 degrees. Poland, 26 June, 2019: 38.2 degrees.</s>SATER: Yesterday, France had 145 locales break July records, 85 all-time records. And of course, Paris breaking their record, which is a -- you know. Gosh, it feels like 109 Fahrenheit. That's at, you know, 42.1.</s>TEXT: Hottest Day on Record, 24 July, 2019: Netherlands, 39.3 degrees. Belgium, 39.9 degrees. Germany, 40.5 degrees.</s>SATER: Yesterday, 39.3. Belgium, 39.9 and Germany -- only to be shattered again today. First time Netherlands and Belgium have ever topped 40 degrees.</s>TEXT: Hottest Day on Record, 25 July, 2019: Netherlands, 40.4 degrees. Belgium, 40.7 degrees. Germany, 42.6 degrees.</s>SATER: Now, it does get better. Take a look. Thirty in Paris tomorrow. Saturday, you're at 23. And the same goes for many other areas. London, you've missed your all-time record by 0.2 degrees Celsius, mainly because of the cloud cover associated with this rain. The problem is, when you get that kind of heat, you're really going to see tremendous thunderstorms with damaging winds. Thirty-four in London. Paris, 37 currently. Things, I promise, do get better for everyone. The problem is, though, the heat now surges, Hala, up towards Scandinavia. Remember last year in Sweden, the fires, we've got 100 large wildfires in Siberia, Canada, Alaska. Firefighters are still on alert down in parts of Portugal because the heat will continue there. Hang in there, it will get better.</s>GORANI: All right. Tom Sater, thanks very much. But it'll happen again. That, we can pretty much be sure of. Scientists say this hot, hot summer can be blamed on climate change. Joining me now is someone who studies how governments can fight climate change, adapt to the new reality. Michal Nachmany is the policy officer for the Grantham Research Institute. So these are becoming more and more frequent, these heat waves.</s>MICHAL NACHMANY, CLIMATE POLICY ANALYST, GRANTHAM RESEARCH INSTITUTE: Yes. They're becoming more frequent, they're also becoming more intense. And what else they're becoming is on the way to being the new normal. The Met Office in the U.K. says today that if we continue at this track, we are on the way to having this kind of summer, every other summer by mid- century.</s>GORANI: Yes.</s>NACHMANY: So this is not an extreme weather event. I mean, it is an extreme --</s>GORANI: Yes.</s>NACHMANY: -- weather event, but this is not some isolated event. We're going to be living this as the new normal.</s>GORANI: This is -- could be our new normal. I saw some research that was published in the press a few days ago, that London could have the same climate as Barcelona by 2050. We have to adapt the way we live in these cities that are not used to these high temperatures.</s>NACHMANY: Absolutely. First of all, cities tend to suffer more because of the urban heat island effect. He is trapped, it bounces off surfaces, off roads, off glass surfaces. It doesn't have enough green spaces. So temperatures in cities are two to three degrees higher, potentially, than outside of cities. Half of the world's population today lives in cities and works in cities, so that means a lot for them. We have to adapt our homes. We have to adapt our workspaces. We have to adapt our commutes in order to be able to survive those. And I mean literally survive, because these are causing excess deaths that are preventable.</s>GORANI: Especially among those who are more vulnerable among us. The elderly, I remember a heat wave in France about 10 years ago -- in Paris, I should say, about 10 years ago, where hundreds of elderly people died because, you know, people weren't necessarily checking in on them, and not aware that this could be extremely dangerous for them.</s>NACHMANY: Absolutely. Last year -- only last year in London, just under 500 deaths. And if you go back to the 2003 heat wave across Europe, that was a 50,000-death toll from the series of heat waves.</s>GORANI: So what do we need to do?</s>NACHMANY: Well, first of all, we need to start adapting and planning for this. Because this is not going away. So we need to make sure that we can open the windows in our homes, that our commutes are -- routes are air conditioned, that our workspaces are adapted. We need to make sure that our health systems are ready because more illnesses occur during these times. We also need to take care of our most vulnerable by making sure our social structures and processes --</s>GORANI: Yes.</s>NACHMANY: -- are in place. Do we regularly check in with our neighbors, with our elderly relatives? And so on.</s>GORANI: Especially in cities, where that doesn't happen very often, where people often live alone. Whether they're old or not, in fact, it's more common for people to live alone in cities. Is any of this reversible? I mean, if humanity takes action now, decisively? Can we start reversing these effects?</s>NACHMANY: That's a very good question. So there's a lag between the emissions that have already been emitted and the --</s>GORANI: Yes.</s>NACHMANY: -- effects of them. So we are definitely going towards an intensifying period of extreme weather events, even if we halted everything now. But in order to make sure that this is as bad as it gets, we need to start reversing our emissions right now. The U.K. and other countries have already set net-zero emission targets and so on, we need to start acting on them now, change our energy structures, the way we consume, the way we travel and so on.</s>GORANI: When you communicate with governments and policymakers, and you say all this to them, and you say, "This isn't a drill, this is an emergency," are they listening? Are they taking you seriously?</s>NACHMANY: I think there is definitely movement in the right direction. But definitely not in the right pace.</s>GORANI: Yes.</s>NACHMANY: so the U.K. has declared a climate emergency, another few countries have declared climate emergency. The policies are not there in place yet to start doing this at the real pace that we need to be acting (ph) --</s>GORANI: Yes. And you can't do it alone. One country can't do it alone. It's a global problem.</s>NACHMANY: This is a group exercise.</s>GORANI: Michal Nachmany, thanks so much for joining us. Really appreciate your time on the program.</s>NACHMANY: Thank you.</s>GORANI: The U.K. is feeling the heat politically as well, after an overnight slash-and-burn saw 17 of 22 of Theresa May's cabinet members replaced. And while you can get rid of old staff, you can -- you can't get rid of old issues. In his first speech to Parliament as prime minister, Boris Johnson said he wants to, quote, "turbocharge preparations for Brexit," saying he's committed to getting out on October 31st, with or without a deal. Anna Stewart joins us now, live from London's Parliament Square. How was that speech greeted in Parliament? And there's a protest behind you. Tell us about that as well.</s>ANNA STEWART, CNN REPORTER: Yes. Well, I'll just explain what's happening behind me because it's kind of hard to hear you, Hala. We got Jeremy Corbyn, the leader of the opposition party. He called this rally outside Parliament to call for a general election. He thinks, of course, that Boris Johnson shouldn't be the prime minister. He thinks that the vote should be put to the people. However, I think this is fairly interesting, given today, this Labour leader did have an opportunity to table a motion of no confidence in the government, to potentially spark an election, of course, if he won it. But he didn't, which means he has to wait all the way until September, when they all come back from their summer recess. Today was the last day M.P.s sat in Parliament. As to Boris Johnson's first speech in Parliament as prime minister, well, I'd say largely, it wasn't that surprising. He says that, as usual, he will take the U.K. out of the E.U., 31st of October, deal or no deal. He wants a deal, but he said he's going to turbocharge no-deal preparations to ensure they are ready. And I think that has some in the E.U. fairly concerned -- Hala.</s>GORANI: As far as Theresa May is concerned, it looks like she's taking her post-premiership in stride. She was pictured enjoying a gin and tonic, I understand, at a cricket match with other dismissed members of government. Let's put that picture up. What is the future -- what does the future hold for Theresa May?</s>STEWART: Well, that remains to be seen. She said yesterday, as she was leaving, that she would remain an M.P. She'll go to the back bench, she'll probably watch on with great interest. But for now, as you say, she's taking some time off. Quite rightly, given the last few months and years that she's had. She looked fairly happy, I'd say, at the cricket at Lord's. I think as a backbench, she'll be very interesting to see, whether she's a rebellious one. She hasn't been in the past. She's always been very supportive of whichever government she works for, although she's largely been a cabinet minister of late, so it will be a first, really, for her to be such a well-known backbench M.P. But we know her position, of course, on Brexit. We know that she does not want a no-deal. So if Boris Johnson pushes towards that way, you wonder how many Tory rebels, including, maybe, the former prime minister, could be there to defeat him on that -- Hala.</s>GORANI: And I wonder, what is Labour's strategy? Because in their minds - - and I spoke to several Labour M.P.s over the last few days -- they want a general election because they seem to think that if they get an election, they'll win. But that's far from certain, isn't it?</s>STEWART: I think it's very uncertain. And I think they're very worried that they certainly wouldn't win a confidence vote at this stage in Parliament. Because if they thought that, then they could have got general (ph) election, they could have done that today. They had the opportunity. The other opposition party, the Liberal Democrats, said that they wanted Labour to do this. They would have supported that, but they didn't. I think Labour do want a general election, if you listened to Jeremy Corbyn behind me, he's certainly calling for one. Trouble is, will that happen now? Unlikely. I think the summer recess will be filled with political noise from both sides of the divide. But if we approach the October 31st deadline -- if we approach that and a no-deal is looking likely, that is when we're more likely to see a confidence motion table. Because at that stage, you may see rebellious Tory M.P.s deciding to vote with Labour, with the opposition. And that would spark a general election. The current government won't be calling one before Brexit, at least that's what Boris Johnson always maintained during his campaign -- Hala.</s>GORANI: All right. Anna Stewart, thanks very much. A lot more to come. The dust is settling after Robert Mueller's long-awaited testimony on Capitol Hill. The question now is, what happens next? We'll look at the fallout and speak with a congressman who's calling for impeachment proceedings against President Trump to begin. We'll be right back.