>> hello nurse. >> yogi, why don't you eat nuts and berries like all the other bears? >> nuts and berries. sheesh. what a grouch. >> the ranger isn't going to like this, yogi. that's all, folks. the fire was coming in the back door. come on, grandpa. i said i'm right down the road. >> it is an emotional story of loss. cnn speaks to a man who lost his wife and great grandchildren in a deadly fire happening in the state of california. >> also ahead this hour, u.s. president donald trump returns to washington, turning his quiet weekend into a busy one on twitter. also ahead this hour, voting begins in zimbabwe, and for the first time in decades the name mugabe, that won't be on the

ballot. hello and welcome to our viewers in the u.s. and all around the world. i'm natalie allen. >> and i'm george howell. from cnn world headquarters "newsroom" starts right now. thank you again for joining us. our top story is from california. firefighters hoping they have now reached a turning point in their fight to contain a massive wildfire in northern california. in just a week the so-called carr fire has burned more than 38,000 hectares. that's about 95,000 acres. it has destroyed more than 870 structures. and for the moment it's now 17% contained. but it is still burning everything in its path. even this boat dock. >> wow. at least six people have died so far, including two children and their great grandmother. the widowed great grandfather told our dan simon that he spoke to his family as the fire closed

in on them. listen. >> i left and went to town. my wife called me, she said, we can see the fire way over there. you need to come and get me. i said i'm on my way. so i just throwed down everything, took off over there. i got on quartz hill and there's two or three or four lanes of traffic coming up, wouldn't let me down in in. so i just dropped everything and i took off running down there and i helped some guy that got burnt and was trying to get out of there. i got him and helped him out of there. and when i got back down there, the fire was just intense. but i still tried to get down in there and they come and stopped me, wouldn't let me down in there. i got my car and took off and passed everybody in the dirt and went all the way around to the other end of quartz hill and come up keswick, and my son was in there. he was up there, but i didn't see him. he was up there and then gary, my son, was on the other side of the house. and gary opened the door to go

run to the house and it burned his hair off. and took his breath. so he got back in the car and then he couldn't even hardly see nothing for smoke to get out of there. his house was on fire. he said there was flames probably 70 feet high. i talked to junior on the phone till he died. he just kept saying, "grandpa." he said "come and get me. the fire's coming in the back door. come on, grandpa." i said i'm right down the road. he said, "come get us." emily said, "i love you, grandpa." he says i love you grandpa. and junior says i love you, come and get us, come and get us. i said i'm on my way. he talked until he died. i tried to call him back, and it just went to nothing. poor babies and my wife. >> going through the logistics of what happened, what he did,

what he was trying to do, and hit by the reality of what happened. the story of ed bledsoe and so many stories. bledsoe said that no one told him anything about evacuating. he said that his wife had called 911 and they told her someone would come get her. >> for more now, dan simon has been following this story. he has the latest from one of the worst-hit neighborhoods in california. >> reporter: for the first time we're now beginning to hear fire officials express optimism about the overall effort. they indicated that the containment number is going to go up. that means that the resources that they put into this fire now seem to be working. you have about 3,500 firefighters on the front lines, and obviously a lot of aircraft dumping water on the hot spots. in the meantime we are in the lake redding estates subdivision, and you can see this is one of the homes that has been destroyed. you can see this is a two-car garage. you see the two vehicles right here. and underscoring the random nature of it all, you can see next door, you see this house

that is perfectly intact. you have 38,000 people that rundowner an evacuation order. you have these people that are very restless. obviously, they want to try to get back into their homes and people who of course have homes to get back into. you can't get a hotel in the area. it's just impossible. some of the evacuation shelters have also reached maximum capacity. but now that this containment number seems to be going up, hopefully it means that fire crews will soon have this blaze under control. >> let's bring in buzzfeed news reporter brianna saks. brianna following this story live in redding, california. thank you so much for taking time with us there. tell us about the situation, the conditions as they stand now. as people say this is one of the worst fires they've seen before. the temperature there, the conditions on the ground. what are you seeing? >> sure. so what's interesting is they keep saying -- we've been

dealing with over the past almost year that each one is unprecedented in its conditions, its behavior, its pattern. so we've been at triple-digit temperatures for the past few days here, and that's supposed to remain until i think tomorrow morning, maybe tuesday. and we're going to get some -- but it's hot, it's dry. the winds are erratic. and it's giving firefighters trouble in terms of actually trying to hold a line. they're still very much in the saving residents and homes. that's why the amount of acreage has jumped up. a little above 95,000 now, the latest numbers released at 8:00 p.m. tonight. but the good news is it did jump to 8% and it had been hovering at 5% over the past few days.

>> every bit of acreage that they're able to contain, that is good news and we appreciate you sharing that information with us. but i want to press earlier with the firefighters themselves. we're seeing an image right now, and now we're seeing the flames they're dealing with. but talk to us about what a day's work must mean for them. you're talking about men and women putting their lives on the line for sure. dealing with some really long days and nights. >> yeah. i actually just got a story out on this. so these firefighters, many of them have been constantly on these unprecedented blazes for, you know, months on end and they just -- from incident to incident. they're out on these lines for like sometimes 24, 48 hours at a time. they come back, they get a few hours of shuteye, and then they're back out again. and you know, they go for about -- like maybe two or three weeks without seeing their kids and they tell me that when they do have a break it's usually

about two days, which is really not a lot of time to recharge. you know, one firefighter said to me, i was like oh, how do you deal with, you know, kind 69 emotional toll? and he's like oh, i don't have time to have feelings. it gets in the way of the job. they're stretched. just like the state resources. they're putting everything they have into these fires, and they just keep getting more and more destructive and more frightening. >> and now i'd like to talk about the people there. this area just to the west of the city of regd, so many roads closed thereby, so many new communities being threatened. what is the situation with making sure people evacuate in time and also making sure people get that message clearly and in time to take action? >> yeah. so alerting residents has been an ongoing hot topic of

conversation with the fires now because you know, they do destroy cell towers and the way that people really get the word out is when police are knocking at their door. i went home with one man today who lost his home. he was saying they were kind of just waiting around for police officers to come and get them. they were trusting that. but the fire moved so fast that a literal firenado he called it was at his door in a matter of minutes. so alerting residents has become a very difficult thing because the fire is moving so fast. what they keep saying is the speed at which the flames move is really, really unprecedented. so it's hard to get the word out. all these people are upset. they're like why didn't they tell us sooner? but they're kind of trying to roll with it as much as the residents are. it's really like -- i haven't

really heard a good answer for that unless they evacuate large swaths of the population days in advance. and that creates chaos as well. so it's tough. >> brianna sacks, i'm sure you heard that story just a few minutes ago of ed bledsoe talking about the fact his wife called 911 and they told her that someone would get her. so certainly the evacuation word getting that out very important. thank you for your time today. we'll keep in touch with you. >> no problem. >> thank you, brianna. brianna and our other reporters, pedram is here now, saying this fire just moved ahead of all the officials and the firefighters and the police. it was taking the lead, and that's where they are. >> yeah. an incredible fire. when you think about the month of july across the western if you're watching us from there you know it's absolutely among the hottest we've ever observed. in place like seattle, washington second hottest july going to be wrapping up here soon on record across that region. but really the northwestern

corner of the u.s. and in particular northern portions of california, you look from space, from regd points southward, the smoke, the haze, all of this really seen from space. many, many miles up into space looking down toward the surface because of the vast nature and how expansive the flames have been over the last several days in this region. in fact, when you do the math it's about 140 square miles of land that have been consumed because of the carr fire. you take, say, the island of manhattan, that's about 22 square miles of land. that's about six times the amount of land of manhattan encompassed there and consumes in a matter of a few days. kind of puts a perspective on the scale of this fire. 5% contained. but again you heard firefighters and officials saying that will be expected to be increased in the next couple of days. of course we have the ferguson fire farther toward the east and the cranston fire farther toward the south. but upwards of nearly 90 large-scale fires, almost every single one of them related to at least some drought that's been in place. we know the carr fire associated with a vehicle that had broken down, pulled to the side of the

road, and ignited the flames on the dry grass across that region of northern california. and unfortunately in this part of the state if you have been here you know the lay of the land. very mountainous, very hilly terrain. and the thermal signature of these fires shows you the landscape they're atop of. when you have a landscape as such, when you have sloped land like this, it often allows the fire to pick up speed and tremendous speed as it travels uphill. i use the analogy frequently of taking a match lighting it and holding it straight out. and you see that burn slowly toward your finger. but if you give it a slope it burns very rapidly toward your hand and that's what's happening on these hillsides and these communities. >> that's an easy way to understand it. pedram, thank you so much. >> thank you, pedram. still ahead here on "cnn newsroom," the u.s. president attacks the russia investigation as an illegal scam as he calls it, and that's just the beginning. why he claims the special counsel, who is a republican, he claims he has numerous conflicts of interest. we'll look into that. also ahead, president trump is threatening to shut down the

government over his border wall. but a shutdown could make the midterm elections even more challenging for republicans. we'll delve into that. you're watching "cnn newsroom." come on dad! higher! higher! parents aren't perfect, but then they make us kraft mac & cheese and everything's good again. i wok(harmonica interrupts)ld... ...and told people about geico... (harmonica interrupts)

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an image of the u.s. president there arriving back to washington after a weekend at his new jersey golf club. mr. trump arrived at the white house with his granddaughter on sunday. >> the president did not make any public comments during his weekend away but he did go on another twitter tirade on sunday. this time he called out special counsel robert mueller by name, alleging he has conflicts of interest, that his investigation is rigged, and that he's leading a team of angry democrats. >> it is worth reiterating, robert mueller is a registered republican and he has the justice department stamp of approval to oversee the russia investigation. our boris sanchez takes a closer look now at the president's twitter rampage. >> reporter: cnn has reached out to the white house to get clarity on specifically what president trump was referencing when he mentioned business conflicts with the special counsel robert mueller. we have yet to hear back. but previous reporting may indicate what the president was

talking about here. earlier this year the "washington post" and the "new york times" separately reported that the president had privately expressed frustration with what he sees as conflicts of interest with robert mueller rooted in what he believes are unpaid dues that robert mueller owed his golf club in virginia. a spokesperson for the special counsel at the time responded to the "washington post" saying that those claims being made by president trump were inaccurate. of course the broader context here is that reporting came out when "the new york times" published that four sources had told them that president trump tried to fire robert mueller last year and that in that process he expressed his frustration to don mcgahn, the white house counsel. don mcgahn refused to carry out that order to fire mueller. in fact, he threatened to resign according to sources. at that point president trump backed off of his decision to try to fire mueller. now he's obviously frustrated again, tweeting out some of his

most direct attacks on the special counsel. the backdrop of that of course is this bombshell reporting. sources close to michael cohen, the president's former attorney, saying he is prepared to testify to the special counsel that president trump approved that june 2016 meeting between his son donald trump jr., other members of his campaign, and russian nationals, promising dirt on hillary clinton. it also comes on the heels of the release of that secret recording made by michael cohen of a conversation that he had with president trump. rudy giuliani, the president's relatively new attorney, talked about those recordings this weekend, suggesting that they had been tampered with or doctored. listen to this. >> he abruptly ended that recording as soon as the president said the word "check." we are now -- what we're investigating is why did -- how did that happen? what actually did happen? what was eliminated? and then he's got to raise that question with every one of these tapes, how many of them did he play around with.

we have determined the fact that he tampered with the fact in the sense that he abruptly mid-conversation turned it off. now, we know he didn't do that for a good reason. >> reporter: the president and his legal team strategy here is clear. they want to question the credibility not only of michael cohen, who just a few months ago they referred to as an honorable man, but also the veracity of the recordings that he made. boris sanchez, cnn, traveling with the president just outside bedminster, new jersey. >> let's bring in freddie gray. he's the deputy editor at "the spectator," a weekly british magazine, to talk more about what's going on here on this side of the pond. freddie, thank you for talking with us. we just heard that story from our reporter about what the white house is trying to do to debunk the mueller investigation, something they've done over and over again. the question is is it working? >> well, i think that every time trump goes on one of these

twitter tirades, i think there were 17 yesterday, which is pretty spectacular even by his standards, everybody assumes that it's a sort of venting of frustration. he has obviously the cohen thing hanging over him. he has paul manafort coming up this week, the paul manafort trial. so he must be very tense and anxious. and everybody assumes that this is an unconscious, unwilling venting of rage and anger. i'm not sure it is. i think perhaps he's trying to hype up the sense of drama to a certain extent. and in fact, often when he goes on these tirades about mueller or about the mueller inquiry, i admit yesterday was spectacular, it's really a diversion tactic because he's preparing to do something more significant on foreign policy. perhaps it will be iran. we'll see. >> that's true. well, the president continues to paint the free press as the enemy of the country every step of the way. yeah. >> as this mueller investigation ticks on. saying don't believe anything

you see or hear. the question is how many of his supporters believe him? apparently a lot. how does he continue to get that support do you think? >> well, i think it saddens me to say it as a journalist but i think unfortunately the media are a lot more hated than we'd like to admit. and while we may all agree, and i think you know, even news channels that are usually very opposed to cnn have been supportive of cnn over trump's war with cnn, but i think that the truth is a lot of people don't trust the media. a lot of people think of the media as bad if not worse than the politicians. so it is quite an effective tactic among the base, although i think the vee mens with which he's now doing it is perhaps alienating rather a lot of people who fundamentally believe in free speech, thank goodness. >> yeah. and you talk about that vehemence. "the new york times" met with him recently to talk about that and they wrote about it. if we have that.

about the meeting. mr. trump expressed pride in popularizing the phrase "fake news" when he met with the "new york times" and said "other countries had begun banning it." so the publisher of the "new york times" responded that those countries were dictatorships that that they were not banning fake news but rather independent scrutiny of their actions. it seems, though, the meeting with the "new york times" nothing to cause mr. trump to back down. sorry. we lost mr. gray -- >> yeah. >> thank you so much for joining us. we lost you there for a moment. can you hear me now? >> i can. sorry. you're back. >> oh, yes. so sorry about that. my point was as we have to go here, though, that this president just will not back down no matter how the media tries to respond to his continuous attacks. >> no. he will not back down in the war on the media because he senses he's going to win it. >> well, thank you so much. we'll wait and see about that, won't we? those of us in the media.

freddie gray, thank you, from "the spectator." thanks for joining us. >> we just keep reporting the news. >> yep. that's all we can do. the u.s. president is now 19 months in office and is returning to a central campaign issue that fired up his base in 2016, a promise to build a border wall. but a change in who's paying for it. let's listen. >> we are going to build a great border wall! >> we will build a great, great wall. >> we're going to build a wall. don't worry about it. oh, we're building it. >> i promise, we will build the wall. >> and who's going to pay for the wall? [ crowd shouts "mexico" ] >> how about no? mexico's not going to pay for that wall. in fact, president trump apparently expects congress to foot the bill for his border wall. >> and he's again threatening a government shutdown if he doesn't get his way, tweeting, "i would be willing to shut down government if the democrats do

not give us the votes for border security which includes the wall." meantime, more than 700 children separated from their parents at the border still have not been reunited with their families after the court-ordered reunification deadline passed on friday. cnn's kaley hartung has more for us from mcallen, texas. >> reporter: as we've reported on the impact of president trump's zero tolerance policy, we've learned no two family stories are the same. but there have been some common threads among them. that of confusion and frustration. at times chaos and incredible challenges in communication. the story that best encapsulates where we are today, though, is that of a woman we'll call alejandra. about a month and a half ago she and her 6-year-old daughter crossed the u.s. border. they had fled their home country of honduras because of the gang violence there. when they crossed the border, they were detained and separated. 11 days ago alejandra was told that she would be reunited with her daughter later that day, given her paperwork for release. but that never happened.

as of today she continues to sit in a detention facility in texas. her daughter remains in new york. and as alejandra asks questions, as she sits in limbo, here's what she says she's told. >> translator: the first thing that i ask is always, do you know when will be, my girl will be brought here so she can be reunified with me? and they tell me, no, i don't know anything, they say to me. >> reporter: alejandra's daughter's attorney has been told a red flag has been raised in the child's case. hhs says they will not comment on specific cases. but a spokesperson tells cnn that any family who hasn't been reunited yet is because of specific concerns they have for that family. as i said no, two stories are alike, but frustration remains for so many. kailee hartung, cnn, mcallen, texas. >> kaylee, thank you. california is not the only region with wildfires ravaging that part of the world. europe also has them. and a devastating heat wave.

we'll hear from a client -- a climate expert, i should say, about rising temperatures ahead. also ahead here, president trump will be campaigning is this week as the countdown to the u.s. midterm elections begin. more about it as we push on. sometimes a day at the ballpark is more than just a day at the ballpark. stadium announcer: all military members stand and be recognized. no matter where or when you served, t-mobile stands ready to serve you. that's why we're providing half off family lines to all military.

does your business internet provider promise a lot? let's see who delivers more. comcast business gives you gig-speed in more places. the others don't. we offer up to 6 hours of 4g wireless network backup. everyone else, no way. we let calls from any of your devices come from your business number. them, not so much. we let you keep an eye on your business from anywhere. the others? nope! get internet on our gig-speed network and add voice and tv for $34.90 more per month. call or go online today. live from coast to coast across the united states and for our viewers around the world this hour you're watching "cnn newsroom." thank you for being with us. i'm george howell. >> i'm natalie allen. let's update you on our top stories. u.s. president donald trump fired off a number of tweets sunday, slamming the special counsel robert mueller.

he claims mueller has a conflict of interest because they once had a contentious business relationship, though the president did not elaborate on what he was talking about there. and mr. trump once again railed against the russia investigation, calling it an illegal scam. the publisher of the "new york times" says he warned president trump that his attacks on the media are divisive and dangerous. the two met earlier this no. in a tweet on sunday mr. trump called that meeting interesting and went on to blast the media. voters in zimbabwe are heading to the polls in their first election since former president robert mugabe was ousted under military threat. mr. mugabe ruled the country for 37 years and now he says he will not vote for his former party. instead he is suggesting he supports the opposition leader. in the u.s. state of california firefighters there making some progress, containing a wildfire that has killed at least six people.

the carr fire, as it's called, is now 17% contained after exploding to 95,000 acres, or about 38,000 hectares on sunday. at least seven people are still missing there. the carr fire is just one of 17 fires burning up and down california. and another deadly fire, the so-called ferguson fire, that's happening in the yosemite national park area. >> a second firefighter died battling those flames on sunday. since starting two weeks ago, it has torched 22,000 hectares, about 54,000 acres. it is 30% contained right now. the u.s. certainly isn't alone in dealing with deadly wildfires. europe has fired of its own. in greece and sweden. and it's in the middle of a heat wave. satellite images from the european space agency show just how bad it is. this is denmark in the center. in less than a month you can see the vegetation has been gutted by extreme temperatures.

>> and it happens so quickly, doesn't it? you just see how quickly it happens. it's not just europe. in the u.s. there's also a deadly heat wave in japan. dozens of people there have been killed and thousands more hospitalized. around the world 2018 is on pace to be the fourth hottest year on record. the heat isn't the only problem. japan also has been hit by deadly flooding in recent weeks, and it's been lashed by another typhoon. at the same time severe flooding is striking india. there too dozens of people have reportedly been killed. >> let's talk more about this with andrew revkinds. he's a strategic, environmental, and science journalist with the national geographic society and the author of "weather: an illustrated history from cloud atlases to climate change." andrew, thank you so much for joining us and talking with us. >> it's a pleasure. >> we just referenced a rundown of the heat-related issues going on around the world right now.

from japan to england, canada, california where there are 17 wildfires raging. is global warming the common thread here? do we know? >> it's a common thread. the problem is we live in a world where so many things are changing. when the houston floods happened, i interviewed a jeeg rafr named steven straiter. i was at pro publica at the time. not national geographic society. for a big story on development of disasters. what's happened is almost a fast forward. actually, faster than climate is changing, which is happening, we are building our way into these blood and fire zones all around the world at a speed that's remarkable. steve straider, this villanova university gee og rafr calls it an expanding bullseye. it's as if we're painting a bullseye in the way of these hot zones. >> building our way in.

explain that. >> if you just look at areas like redding, california where they've had this horrible most recent fire tragedy in northern california, central california, just anyone can go on google earth. they have this google earth engine. you can go back in time. go back 30 years and look at the satellite view of the houses. you can zoom and see all these little areas in the woods just being built into so fast that the exposure to fire is happening -- the risk is being driven just by that at a super fast rate. and i've written about this year after year after year in different parts of the country in different like flood zones on the gulf coast, fire zones in colorado, california. the rate of development of these areas is so fast that when you see a new fire if you take a footprint of that fire you look back 40 years ago you see wow, there were hardly any people there 40 years ago. sought thing that's building exposure to hazard fastest is

us. and that kind of gets lost. and that doesn't mean climate change isn't happening also. it just means we have to pay attention to more than one thing at i atime. >> right. we're putting ourselves into pockets where there are situations, especially california, where fires have become so prevalent. in fact, just this weekend the governor of california said this is the new normal where there's been a fire every month since 2012 where it used to be a fire season would settle down, there wouldn't be any in the fall and winter. so what we're seeing around the world, we've got new normal meets we're not really paying attention, are we, to the new normal? >> well, again, whether it's the news, whether it's us, or whether it's policy makers, the governor, jerry brown has been very quick to focus californians and the rest of the world on climate change. he's been a very powerful spokesman on that. but it's very rare to see him or other california politicians in these areas of rapid growth

saying we need to slow down. we need to change our zoning. we need to have tighter standards on how we build. that kind of cuts against the message in the west of the possibility of everyone being able to do what they want. and that really has to be part of the conversation also, especially because even if the world got serious about global warming, even if china and india and we all kimt igss and greenhouse gases, the climate system doesn't notice that for decades. this is a big system. it's in motion. like a bus that's already rolling down a hill. you can't just sort of magically change that. the vulnerability is building right now. you know, in ways that can be changed even as we work on the bigger issue of cutting emissions of greenhouse gases. >> he why, which we haven't done. is this accurate? the world remains more than 85% reliant on fossil fuels. >> yeah. this is my 30th year writing about global warming. i am getting a gray beard.

and i look back at the story i wrote in 1988. it was a big cover story in "discover" magazine. and it's essentially the same story. we were talking earlier, when you were with the weather channel you were on this beat too in the 2006-ish. and that was shortly after katrina and florida was hammered by a bunch of hurricanes. and then we headed -- like a hurricane drought for ten years. everyone kind of goes to sleep. in my new book one of the chapters is back then actually around 2006 all these climate scientists were arguing about hurricanes in a warming world. some were saying, we don't really know the things about hurricanes is they could get weaker in a warming world, blah, blah, blah. but the one thing they all agreed on, they wrote this one letter that's in this book, where they said you know the thing we're really worried about, all of us, is we're building way too fast in hurricane danger zones. and that's the thing that -- that's the message that gets lost too often. >> right. it's a complex issue and every

time these things pop up we try to visit it and check it. but we appreciate so much you taking the time. andrew revkin, environmentalist and science writer with national geographic society. >> great to be with you. just around the corner, the u.s. midterm elections three months away, and president trump is making a big push for republican candidates this week. he'll attend rallies in the u.s. state of florida and pennsylvania. two states in which he won the presidential election two years ago. >> what is at stake? control of the house and senate. cnn's john king has been analyzing the numbers and explains how the powerful in congress could shift. >> 100 days now to the midterm elections. new cnn rankings, brand new rankings give the democrats even more reason to feel bullish about their odds of retaking the big prize, control of the house of representatives. to the campaign trail in a second. first, though, a reminder of the current state of play. let's look at the house as we speak today.

235 republicans. that's the majority. you see the red seats down here. democrats in the minority with 193. but that's the state of play here in washington. let's take a look at our new rankings out on the campaign trail and you will see 235 republican seats. we rank only 158 of them as solid republican going into the final stretch of the campaign. 29 likely 3718 lean republicans. you see the yellow, the gold. that's 27 tossup seats. strong number for the democrats, 182 solid, 9 likely, 12 leaning democratic seats. how will the democrats get to the majority? here is their dream scenario. wnt likelies, win the leans. if they could sweep these tossups, that's the gold down there, 230. if the democrats essentially run the board. 230. well in excess of what they need to be the majority. again, that's a dream vision but it does show you how this is well within their reach heading into the final stretch. one of the reasons they're so bullish, let's take a closer look at the tossup seats. see the red on top? of the 27 tossup seats 25 are

currently held by republicans. 25 of the 27 tossups are currently republican-held seats. only two held by the democrats. again, with the wind at your back a reason the democrats are optimistic. more republican seats moving from the red into the competitive side of our map here. another reason the democrats are optimistic heading into the final 100 days, their standing today is even better than it was at the beginning of the year. they were optimistic then. look at the republican numbers. 177 solid to begin the year. down to 158 solid now. more seats have moved from dark red, solid republican, this way, toward the democrats. the democratic numbers are up. 182 solid now. up from the beginning of the year. so this map looks good for the democrats now at 100 days ow out. even better than it was in january. a lot can happen between now and then, but heading into this final stretch democrats believe their odds are quite good of retaking the biggest prize this november, kroeflt house. >> john king, thank you. for the first time in 37

years the ousted president of zimbabwe robert mugabe is not running for re-election, but he made a surprise intervention. turning his back on the party he helped to create. we'll explain. i don't keep track of regrets. and i don't add up the years. but what i do count on is boost®. delicious boost® high protein nuritional drink now has 33% more protein, along with 26 essential vitamins and minerals boost® high protein. be up for life. boost® high protein. with tripadvisor, finding your perfect hotel at the lowest price... is as easy as dates, deals, done! simply enter your destination and dates... and see all the hotels for your stay! tripadvisor searches over 200 booking sites... to show you the lowest prices...

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voters in zimbabwe are heading to the polls in what will be a major test of the country's democracy. the polls opened in the last hour. it is their first election in 37 years without former president robert mugabe on the ballot. >> mugabe was ousted under military threat back in november. but on the eve of the election he made a surprise intervention. following this story, cnn correspondent parai savenzo is live via skype from harare. tell us about this intervention we heard from mugabe about this election. >> reporter: well, you know, every now and again mr. mugabe pops up and gets himself on

people's television screens simply by calling a press conference. now, bear in mind that the last day of campaigning was saturday, this weekend that's gone by. on sunday he called a press conference and he said some astounding things. he basically mainly complained about the lowness of his pension, that the blue roof mansion in which he's living is falling apart and has not been maintained. but the shocker was him then saying that of all the 23 candidates in this historic election never has there been that number of candidates. he cannot support the people that have given him such misery and have denied him all his rights. of course he's referring to the incumbent president mr. emmerman menungawa. he said of the 22 candidates, chemisa perhaps. that is an astounding claim for the founder of zanu-pf. he's the man who has led this

party and this country for 37 years and it sounds like rancor and a great deal of anger. but not many people see him as being that relevant and in fact this morning all the papers are leading with the same story. the state newspaper says hang on a second, is there chemisa in bed with mr. mugabe? and they're using it to score points. meanwhile the independent newspapers are saying things like this. "it's my day," chamisa is telth people of zimbabwe and to try and vote for him. it's been a very interesting last weekend of campaigning. i have to till, everyone is looking forward to see just who is going to win. many people are calling it very close. of course the main candidates are claiming victory. >> it will be a significant changing of the guard. and at the same time mr. mugabe finding a way to claim relevance, as you say, holding a press conference and saying that he will not back the party that he created.

we'll see how this plays out. far yi sechbdso live for us in harare. gun control advocates are sounding the alarm in the united states. they say the blueprints going online this week pose a serious security threat. we'll tell you about that coming up. higher! higher! parents aren't perfect, but then they make us kraft mac & cheese and everything's good again. my digestive system used to make me feel sluggish. but those days are over. now, i take metamucil every day. it naturally traps and removes the waste that weighs me down. so i feel... lighter.

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welcome back to "cnn newsroom." in a couple of days there will be an entirely new angle to the debate over guns in america. and it comes down to ghost guns and 3-d firearms like the one you see here. what it means is anyone with access to the internet, they will be able to make their own guns like this one with a 3-d printer. >> the blueprints for them are set to go online. as cnn's athena jones reports, gun control advocates say it is a threat to public safety and national security. >> reporter: it could be the dawn of a new era in gun manufacturing. starting as soon as wednesday, people will be able to use 3-d printers to make their own weapons and weapon parts. no background check required. this after the government settled a lawsuit last month with a non-profit group defense

distributed that will allow the posting of 3-d printable gun plans online, a move that's triggering a debate about public safety and national security. the group's founder, coe wilson, has built a website where people will be able to download plans for a handgun he dubs the liberator as well as digital files for a complete baretta m-9 handgun and other firearms. wilson's legal battle began after he posted handgun blueprints online in 2013, leading to a demand from the state department to take them down because they could violate a law regulating the export of defense materials, services and technical data like blueprints. wilson explained his goal in a 2013 interview. >> i'm putting guns -- one is just an exercise in, i don't know, experimentalism. can you print a gun? but really for me it's important as like a symbolic political statement. >> reporter: he described a future in which people could access unregulated guns. >> in this future people will be able to make guns for themselves. that was already true but now it's been demonstrated in yet another technology. >> reporter: the june 29th settlement will also allow wilson's site to post online plans for an ar-15 lower

receiver, a key component of the gun. gun control advocates fear these firearms made almost entirely of plastic would be untraceable and impossible to regulate. the co-president of the brady campaign to prevent gun violence says these hard to detect guns would be a national security threat, making it easier for terrorists and people who can't pass criminal background checks to get their hands on dangerous weapons, adding "i think everybody in america ought to be terrified about that." but experts like lawrence keen, senior vice president for the national shooting sports foundation, the firearm industry's trade association, says "3-d printed guns would have to include metal components to function." and because federal law requires it. >> federal law since the mid 1980s under the undetectible fiernlz act requires a certain amount of metals so they are not undetectible and can't go through metal detectors undetected or through x-ray machines. >> reporter: even with those metal components the guns would not work well. >> the truth is that they don't.

many times they fail after a single shot being fired, they break. they're not very durable. and they really don't work. >> reporter: he said the sort of high-end printer that would be needed to make a gun costs as much as a quarter a million dollars and the resulting weapons' unreliability means the country is unlikely to see a rush of people trying to print their own guns. new york senator chuck schumer expressed similar concerns back in 2013. >> a felon, a terrorist can make a gun in the comfort of their own home, not even leaving their home, and do terrible damage with it. and so the question is what we do about it. >> reporter: last week he demanded the state department and the department of justice reverse the decision or postpone finalizing it and said if they don't he would use emergency congressional actions to block ghost gun websites. >> so we're here to sound the ala alarm. we're here to plead with the administration not to allow these types of websites to go

forward with which they're planning to on august 1st, and we're here to say we'll pass legislation, do our best to pass it, if such a website is allowed. >> reporter: athena jones, cnn, new york. thanks for being with us for "cnn newsroom." i'm george howell. >> and i'm natalie allen. we'll be right back with another hour of news for you. please stay with us. sometimes a day at the ballpark is more than just a day at the ballpark. stadium announcer: all military members stand and be recognized. no matter where or when you served, t-mobile stands ready to serve you. that's why we're providing half off family lines to all military. whoooo. you rely on tripadvisor so you don't miss out on the perfect hotel... but did you know you can also use tripadvisor so you don't miss out on the best price? tripadvisor searches over 200 booking sites to find the hotel you want for the lowest price. saving you up to 30%! so you can spend less time missing out...

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the u.s. president returns to washington with a busy week already planned. he's still made it more complicated with a rant on twitter. plus hope for a tipping point. firefighters in the u.s. state of california working overtime, trying to contain more than a dozen devastating fires there. also this hour, voting is under way in zimbabwe, and for the first time in decades the name mugabe is not on the ballot. live from cnn world headquarters in atlanta, we welcome our viewers here in the united states and around the world. i'm george howell. >> and i'm natalie allen. and you're watching "cnn newsroom." at