it's just such an uphill battle. the bright lights, though, are programs like reemerge. the women i met there, they have hit rock bottom and they are just so ready and determined to make a change. and from where i sit here, that seems to be the only way out. /s a top republican senator says if investigators find that brett kavanaugh lied to lawmakers during his testimony, the judge's nomination is over. we'll have the very latest on that ahead. plus, after weeks of intense negotiation bargaining, the u.s. and canada have reached a deal to save nafta. also ahead this hour, heart break in indonesia. authorities there say hundreds of victims of an earthquake and tsunami will be buried in mass graves. we're live from cnn world headquarters in atlanta. we want to welcome our viewers here in the united states and all around the world.

i'm george howell. cnn newsroom starts right now. at 2:00 a.m. on the u.s. east coast, we start with the investigation of president trump's supreme court nominee judge brett kavanaugh, and questions about who is actually pulling the strings. the president continues to insist the fbi has free reign to speak to whoever they choose during this one week limited probe. sources tell cnn the white house counsel is working with senate republicans behind the scenes to keep the investigation narrow and to keep it focused. judge kavanaugh and christine blasey ford, the whom testified kavanaugh assaulted her, are not on the list. kavanaugh's drinking history which has come up in the allegations, that is not apparently part of this probe. the fbi did talk on sunday to a

woman who has alleged kavanaugh drunkenly exposed himself to her while at yale university years ago. we get more now from cnn correspondent boris sanchez. >> reporter: the ranking democrat on the senate judiciary committee dianne feinstein sending out a statement on sunday afternoon requesting the exact directive coming from the white house to the fbi outlining the exact parameters of the fbi probe into accusations made against president trump's pick to replace justice anthony kennedy on the supreme court, judge brett kavanaugh. dianne feinstein saying the stakes are simply too high and that senators on that committee should know exactly what the white house is telling the fbi to do. two sources familiar with the investigation have told cnn that the white house is sort of outlining the exact steps that the fbi should take, maintaining that specific questions about brett kavanaugh's drinking habits in high school are off

limits and sort of outlining that there would only be af handful of interviews conducted in the probe. before diane identify stene feit the statement, president trump said democrats would be unhappy regardless of t regardless of the scope of the investigation. hearing from democrats destruct and delay, those looking into kavanaugh and the witnesses is not enough. hello, for them it will never be enough. stay tuned and watch. of course this news coming from sources just days after president trump said that the fbi would have free reign over this investigation. that is not sitting well with a number of democrats including senator amy klobuchar who spoke to jake tapper on state of the union sunday morning. >> the hard working men and women of the fbi should be able to do their jobs, and on that i agree. but what we are hearing are reports that they are somehow trying to limit this to a few

witnesses or tell them what they should do, and while the white house decides who to nominate and then that person is submitted to a background check, i've never heard that the white house either under this president or other presidents is saying, well, you can't interview this person, you can't look at this time period, you can only look at these people from one side of the street from when they were growing up. >> press secretary sarah sanders was also on the sunday morning talk shows saying the white house does not want to micro manage the fbi, though she admitted that she didn't know whether white house counsel don mcgahn had told the fbi who they could or couldn't interview and what questions they could or could not ask. boris sanchez, cnn at the white house. >> boris, thank you. the fbi investigation that is now underway, it came about after republican senator jeff flake had a change of heart, saying he would only vote to send kavanaugh's nomination to the senate floor with a one-week delay. not long before he made that surprise announcement on friday, this scene happened. it played out on live tv.

two women who said they are sexual assault survivors. they confronted flake in an elevator at the senate office building. they demanded, they asked, what kind of message he was sending to women by letting kavanaugh vote -- that vote, rather, to proceed without approved. shortly after that encounter, flake told his democratic colleague senator chris coons that he had to chat. they worked out a compromise in this investigation. both senators talked to cbs about what they thought of kavanaugh's testimony. >> i was really struck that i thought his anger got the best of him and he made a partisan argument that would have been best left to be made for his advocates and defenders on the committee. >> made you wonder about his suitability? >> in my case, yes, it made me wonder about his suitability to serve on the bench. >> senator flake, you identified with it, you understood -- >> well, the part that he talked about, mentioning the clintons, i didn't like either. it seems partisan, but, boy, i

have to put myself in that spot, you know. i think you give a little leeway there. >> let's talk more about this the professor at university of london. good to have you on the show interjeet. last week was filled with drama, strap into the seat belt because here we go another week of investigation and given what we heard just a moment ago from senators flake and cools, does that put new pressure on whatever comes of this extended investigation? >> i think it just ramps up the existing pressure. this issue, as jeff flake said, has ripped apart public opinion, ripped apart political opinion, and it is -- it suggests it is going to be very difficult indeed for any kind of agreement from whatever the findings the fbi might present. it looks like the partisan battle lines are drawn.

they are pretty hardened by now. and it doesn't look like either side is going to accept if any finding comes forward which doesn't favor them. i suspect the kavanaugh hearing issue is probably going to continue to play out within politics. and it is clearly -- it's very well timed in that regard for having some kind of impact on the midterm elections. >> politically speaking, i'd like to get your thoughts on the scope of this investigation. there are questions about whether the white house is somehow pulling strings to limit the investigation. also, the limited amount of time for agents to actually do their work, can this be construed as a thorough and impartial investigation in your view? >> well, it strikes me as what you would call in the british civil service a declaration of a public inquiry when basically what you want to do is take kinks out of an issue. this inquiry, set of investigation is a bit like

that. it is designed for optics much more than finding anything new. as you say, it's very restricted, it's time limited. it seems to be handled from the white house in such a manner as to ensure that effectively the status quo position is maintained. judge kavanaugh is good nominee, but on the other hand that is not going to play very well. the controversy has already erupted on that question. so, it doesn't seem to be this is going to take very much of the heat out of the situation. so it looks like kavanaugh nomination is going to remain in serious trouble and have political ramifications. >> and the greater question here, more time on the clock, does that make it easier or harder for some moderate republicans for some red state democrats to get to a yes or no? we'll of course have to watch on that. interjeet, though the narrow approach, we know that this investigation, it is underway.

agents focusing on allegations from two women, christine blasey ford, and deborah ramirez. they have not spoken with julie swetnick according to her attorney. should more allegations come forward, if left unchecked, could that further cloud the path for kavanaugh? >> it definitely will. it looks to me the republicans may want to force a vote on this, but i think it's volatile. the red state democrats seem to be behind, new public opinion polls, if you vote for kavanaugh, you're not going to get a public vote, a party vote. so it looks like there is going to be greater level of hardening among conservative democrats in red states, but it looks to me as if this kavanaugh nomination is a really serious question. if the republicans do win the vote, they will pay a heavy price at the polls in november. if they hold on, i think kavanaugh is finished. the chances are they'll probably get another conservative nominee

after the mid terms as a result of that. >> interjeet parmar joining us from london with perspective and analysis. thank you for your time. we'll keep in touch with you. we'll see what happens this week. >> thank you. >> a last-minute deal to replace the north american free trade agreement, better known as nafta, has been reached. canada signed onto the deal salvaging the $1 trillion open trade zone with the united states and mexico on sunday. to talk more about this, let's bring in jeff rosen swieg, i should say, jeff, professor of international business at emory university. i appreciate your time today to talk about this. look, it's clearly something that's been negotiated back and forth, sometimes harsh negotiations you could say, but what is the plus/minus for the united states politically with these closest ally s? >> politically there is a plus for president trump in that he said in the campaign, i'll

renegotiate nafta and now he can say he did it. for the united states, it's a great loss because the only thing that came out of it was a little bit of benefit for our dairy farms. we have 40,000 dairy farms. if we turned off our closest ally, canada, it hurts our national security. also, we make a lot of money from canadians. they are by far our biggest export market. almost 1/5 of our exports go to canada. exports create high-pay jobs. also canadians come to florida in the winter. that creates a lot of jobs. 72,000 people work at disney world, so there's all these industries that could be affected now that we have really hurt relationships with our major ally, with canada, for the sake of a few gallons of milk. >> let's talk more about that. the tangible take aways here. so, what is different now with this deal with canada now signing on? >> well, what's interesting is

the trump administration first came in with a variety of things including to change dispute mechanisms, some talk about autos, et cetera. all that has been taken off the table and a lot of them i thought should be off the table. they were in there for a good reason. so what we come down to is dairy. i think because of that, because trump has to look like, i accomplished something, he forced the renaming of nafta. what could be more silly? and again, we go back to a situation where this is our biggest market and mexico by far our second biggest market. those two countries are more than one-third of our exports. we export to 200 nations, but those two are the predominant markets for us. and with canada, we actually have a trade surplus. with china, george, we have a trade deficit of almost a billion dollars a day. it's approaching 400 billion. we have a level playing field with canada and mexico, and we

have for the last quarter century that nafta has been in place. this changes nothing. it's just a political move. if we should be focused, it needs to be on creating a level playing field with china. >> all right, jeff rosenswieg, we appreciate your time and perspective. certainly something the president will tout as a win. >> oh, yeah. he's -- he was really wanting to get this in before the mid terms. that's why he put a deadline on it. he will spin it. >> >> jennife jeff, thank you for time. >> my pleasure, george. sea here and around the world, you are watching snip. you see the damage left over after an earthquake and tsunami demolished an indonesian city. survivors desperate for food, for water and for shelter. we'll have the latest for you. nu to my parents. psst! craig and sheila broke up. what, really? craig and shelia broke up!? no, craig!? what happened? i don't know. is she okay? ♪

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welcome back. it's been almost three days since the powerful earthquake and tsunami ripped through one of indonesia's biggest islands. the full scale of the destruction still isn't clear. at this point here's what we do know. at least 832 people are confirmed dead. that number is likely to rise. rescue workers continue their work trying to recover victims from all the rubble and damage

that you see there. officials haven't been able to reach some areas, the hard est hit areas outside of palu. overall nearly 2 1/2 million people were affected by this disaster. this according to estimates and survivors are becoming even more desperate for aid. margie siragar joins us now. margie is the emergency response director for world vision and joins us from jakarta. thank you so much for your time. to get a sense first of all of how your crews are getting into this area, given the damage infrastructure, how difficult is it? >> well, we do have already 38 staff in palu before the earthquake because we do have the government project there. and right after our quake actually, we lost contact with them for several hours and only smf can go through.

after that we have two personnel came the naekt day through makasar and went to palu and -- actually not donggala because the roads, you cannot travel. and then the next two days, yesterday we already had another three personnel come from jakarta, also with the same road. and then also there are other three personnel from the district nearby. they came traveling through -- to palu. the estimation of time is around 18 to 20 hours. and i think it's going to be longer because of the traffic

jamb already started to happen. >> margie, we're looking at the devastation as you are explaining what your crews are up against. i want to remind our viewers around the world and the united states what exactly happened when the tsunami came through. we'll look at the video that captured the moment. margie, we see the wave as it pushed in and it really gives a sense of exactly what happened to lead to so much devastation. so the question that i have for you, given what we've seen, the extent of the damage so far, how long do you surmise it will take for recovery to really start taking effect? >> well, learning from earthquake and tsunami and also the other earthquake, at least you need six months for relief

aid, and then another year for recovery. i think that's like what we experienced so far with all these natural disasters. and speaking of witnessing, one of our staff actually witnessed the tsunami because she and her child was actually tried to evacuate themselves in a hotel and she saw the water came -- entering the hotel like chest high. and also like houses of our staff were damaged, even torn down. so, yeah, they are actually affected badly. the office has become -- one of the evacuation came almost 100 people there. and the team there already started to provide -- also for children and young child feeding. and we already had some -- some

of the relief items ready to be submitted today. we are now trying to assess one of the worst affected areas in palu or west palu and hopefully we can do that. but the issue is, of course, it is a very despair community in the area and we have to do some security precaution for that point. >> margie siregar with world vision, again, we appreciate your time monitoring the situation from jakarta. we'll keep in touch with you. >> thank you. >> of course, if you'd like to help, so many people need the help from this earthquake and tsunami in indonesia, you can go to cnn.com/impact. there you will find links to organizations working to bring relief. tropical storm rosa is threatening parts of mexico and the u.s. with heavy rain.

our meteorologist pedram javaheri is now in the international weather center with details on that. pedram. >> george, this was aimen asing storm, a category 4, it has weakened to a shell of itself. something impressive of what is in store across portions of the northwest. it moves ashore we think in the next six hours. this makes landfall across baja, mexico. late monday and eventually tuesday afternoon. it becomes a tropical depression, produces tremendous amount of rainfall potentially in the southwestern united states. in fact, as it moves ashore here, it could bring down as much as three to six months worth of rainfall across portions of the southwest. that's some competition. there is another storm system approaching areas of central california, that will drop further toward the south as well. that will bring additional heavy rainfall. we'll bring you to tuesday in phoenix, tucson, eventually up to the rim to the north. and notice the next system comes in. with it rainfall into southern

california and that's winter weather right there across the highest elevations of the sierra. some snow showers possible because of the cooler temperatures of course as we approach here, as we work our way into the month of october. certainly the heaviest rainfall going to be felt across portions of the southwest in particular, arizona there, where we have 11 million people in the southwest underneath flood watches. how much rainfall are we talking? 4 to 6 inches possible in a few isolated pox et cetera. phoenix, arizona in particular, average 8 inches of rainfall in any given year. 2 to 3 inches could come down essentially, a third to a quarter annual rainfall total the next couple of days. quick glance at what's happening on the other side of the pacific ocean, western pacific, busy across this legion. this is typhoon kong-rey. if you're in tune with that scale, it is equivalent to a strong category 2 feature here and it's been as busy as it comes across this portion of the world. just about every single metric from tropical storms to typhoons to super typhoons are above average in this part of the

world. certainly a storm we are watching carefully because it's poise today strengthen potentially to a category 4 system. and then approach areas of southern japan or eastern china where tens of millions could be impacted in about five day's time. we're going to watch this here, george, as we go into the heart of the week. >> we'll keep in touch with you, pedram javaheri. thank you so much. now to the united kingdom where the cloud of brexit continues to loom large as british conservatives kickoff day two of their conference in birmingham. the prime minister of the nation theresa may insists her checkers plan can still work. that despite it being rejected by the e.u. and even some members of her own party. cnn's bianca nobilo is following the store and i joins us in birmingham, england. bianca, it seems september was difficult for the prime minister. her foreign secretary even penning an op-ed describing her plan as a humiliation. where does miss may take it from here? >> reporter: it's going to be a very bum at this conferenpy con

prime minister, george. it's excruciating in terms of political jabs from former secretary boris johnson. it's only day two of the party conference here in birmingham and boris is already dominating almost all of the headlines, much to the prime minister's disappointment i'm sure because she's keen not only to push the positives of her brexit plan, but also a fresh domestic agenda. we've just come off the back of the labor party, the official opposition party here in the u.k. that had the successful conference by most metrics and suggested a lot of fresh policy ideas. something which the government is really struggling to do because it is so bogged down by brexit. and all of the disputes within the prime minister's own party are being laid bare already with boris criticizing her plans as you mentioned, her cabinet weighing in to support the prime minister, and criticizing boris. we heard from the chancellor who said that boris isn't good, grown up politics and doesn't think he'll ever be prime minister. a put down there to put the former foreign secretary back in

his place. so things are getting off to a fairly rocky start here in birmingham, which is quite a microcosm of how the country is feeling at large. as it only voted to leave in the referendum by 3800 votes. so, you feel a very strong sense of feeling on both sides of the referendum debate. >> and there continue to be the questions about miss may's leadership. the question of whether there could be another referendum around the corner. look, also, the prime minister's plan, she is offering this idea of a national festival to celebrate a post-brexit u.k. and the question some are asking is whether this is appropriate. >> reporter: so, yes, that was yesterday where the prime minister announced this festival for brexit britain, it would be in 2022, and cost in the vicinity of 120 million pounds. she said that it would celebrate the innovation that the u.k. has to offer and also the precious u union between the northern island and the united kingdom. it hasn't got the traction she

was probably hoping for. in fact, it became a mocking hashtag on social media for people alluding to the former brexit secretary david davis said many months ago that brexit wouldn't descend into a mad max dystopia, but that's exactly what people on social media picked up on to mock what this brexit britain festival would look like in 2022. so more bad news for the prime minister there. as i mentioned, she is desperate to push this domestic agenda that she has, but everything seems to come back to two things, this conference, and that is brexit and boris. now, the foreign secretary, the former foreign secretary boris isn't here yet. he's expected to address the rally tomorrow. we'll have to watch that space. a lot of difficulties for the prime minister lie ahead here, george, that is for sure. >> bianca nobilo following the story live for us in birmingham, england. thank you for the reporting. we'll keep in touch with you. here in united states a sex crimes prosecutor questioned kavanaugh's accuser is giving

her assessment of the testimony. we'll have what she says whether she would bring a case against the judge. that story ahead as newsroom continues. ♪

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live around the world and to our viewers in the united states this hour, you're watching cnn newsroom from atlanta. i'm george howell with the headlines we're following for you. negotiators from the united states and canada just beat the midnight deadline, agreeing to replace the north american free trade agreement better known as nafta. canada has now signed on to this rewritten agreement with the u.s. and mexico. u.s. officials say the deal will address trade imbalances and rules for auto exports and open up canada's dairy sector.

in indonesia, officials plan to hold mass burials, this for the devastating earthquake and tsunami. more than 830 people were killed in the disaster and that number is expected to rise. rescue workers are scrambling to dig out any survivors, any that they can find who are still trapped in the rubble. a source tells cnn the fbi has spoken with deborah ramirez in its investigation into supreme court nominee brett kavanaugh. ramirez accused kavanaugh of exposing himself to her at a party. he said it never happened. ramirez gave names to the fbi. sources say christine blasey ford and george kavanaugh are not on the initial list of witnesses. both testified before the senate judiciary committee last week, but there is another woman who wants to talk to investigators. we have more on that story from cnn's sarah sidner.

>> reporter: the newly ordered fbi background investigation has begun into supreme court nominee brett kavanaugh. after questions over its scope, the president responded with this. >> the fbi i believe is doing a really great job. they have been all over it. they have free reign. they're going to do whatever they have to do, whatever it is they do. they'll be doing things that we never even thought of. >> reporter: so far it appears fbi agents are focusing on the accusations of two women, deborah ramirez who says she met kavanaugh while the tua tended yale, and christine blasey ford who says she met kavanaugh in high school. the senate judiciary committee and the country has already heard the emotion-filled sworn testimony from dr. blasey ford who says as a teen kavanaugh held her down and she thought he was going to rape her while he and his friend mark judge were drunk. >> an indelible in the hippocampus is the laughter, the uproarious laffer tughter betwe

two and their having fun at my expense. >> reporter: supreme court nominee brett kavanaugh at times tearfully and often angrily denied the allegations against him. >> my family and my name have been totally and permanently destroyed by vicious and false additional accusations. >> reporter: but neither the committee nor the country has heard a full accounting from kavanaugh's two other accusers. depp rah-rah miraes told the new yorker the details are fuzz he i, but she remembers playing the drinking game with kavanaugh and his friends in a yale dorm room where she quickly became a inebriated. after assessing her memory, she remembered this. brett was laughing. i can still see his face and his hips coming forward like when you pull up your pants. somebody yelled down the hall, brett kavanaugh just put his penis in debbie's face. so far julie swetnick, the third to come forward with accusations against kavanaugh, has heard nothing from investigators. >> if he's going to have that seat legitimately, all of these

things should be investigated because from what i experienced firsthand, i don't think he belongs on the supreme court. >> reporter: she is the only one of the three to have initially sent a sworn declaration under penalty of perjury to the senate judiciary committee. in it she claims she witnessed kavanaugh being abusive toward girls and attempting to remove or shift their clothes to expose private body parts. she says at parties she witnessed efforts by mark judge, brett kavanaugh and others to cause girls to become ineastbound rated ainebriated so they could be gang raped. she said she never saw them being raped. she stopped going to parties after she herself was gang raped at one of the parties. kavanaugh was asked about her allegations. >> what university of shizuoka saying, if i understand it, is that the allegations by dr. ford, miss ramirez, and miss swetnick are wrong?

>> that is emphatically what i'm saying. >> reporter: swetnick's attorney michael avenatti said she has not been contacted by the fbi and the clock is ticking. sarah sidner, cnn, los angeles. >> let's talk more about this now with cnn legal analyst michael sell den, michael also a former federal prosecutor joining us via skype this hour. thank you so much for your time, michael. >> thank you. >> let's start with what we're hearing from rachel mitchell. rachel mitchell conducted the questioning for republicans during the hearing of brett kavanaugh and in a memorandum to republican senators, she says a, quote, reasonable prosecutor would not bring a case against brett kavanaugh based on christine blasey ford's sexual assault allegation given the evidence presented to the judiciary committee. again, she also questioned blasey ford as well. given her thoughts here, what's your assessment? >> well, you have to understand who she is in relation to this case, which is to say that she

was hired by the republican majority on the senate judiciary committee for the purpose of conducting inquiry on their behalf. so she is essentially not an independent neutral, but a hired gun for the republicans. so one would expect that. that said, her assessment may be correct in that most of these cases look for some form of corroborative evidence. that's what the fbi are going to start looking for now that they have been granted permission to go forward in that respect. >> also want to talk to you about the scope of this investigation. we always knew, michael, that it would be narrow and last no more than a week, but now the white house is pushing back against reporting that they are somehow micro managing who investigators can speak to. listen to this from kellyanne conway from earlier today. >> the white house is not getting involved in the fbi investigation in that way. the president very much respects

the independence of the fbi and feels, as he said last night, that they should be looking at anything they think is credible within this limited scope. >> what does that mean, limited scope? >> that's up to the fbi. in other words, i'm not involved in those specific conversations. >> don mcgahn say, you can interview these witnesses but don't interview these witnesses? >> i don't think don mcgahn would do that but i've not talked to him about it. legality me make cle let me make clear we're not trying to interfere. it's the president saying go ahead. it's the republican senators, senator flake and others who said please go forward with this fbi investigation. >> if you parse every word there from kellyanne conway with my colleague jake tapper, you can see she leaves a little wiggle room there, room for gray in her answer about this. but given the questions here, michael, about limitations, do you see this as an investigation that can really bear anything new? >> if the investigators have free reign to follow the leads, then they could perhaps come to

some determination about what ford said and what kavanaugh said. if they are circumscribe, they can only speak to known witnesses and that's it, then this is not really an investigation. it's the appearance of an investigation with no real authority to proceed. in these background investigations, always the last question the investigator asks the witness is who else should i speak to that may have knowledge of this? and they are given or not given names depending, and if they are given names, they are in the ordinary course free to pursue those other individuals. if that's the case here, good. if that's not the case, that is, they don't ask that last question, they only ask people who are presently known, the two or three people that blasey ford said were at the party, then this is not really an investigation. >> all right. look, we are hearing from senators jeff flake and chris coons both who agreed to extend

this investigation by a week, that if there is any indication that kavanaugh lied during the hearing, that his confirmation would be over. what kind of things will investigators be able to review to scrutinize kavanaugh's account? >> well, that's a very good question. you would think that anything that is material to the inquiry would be subject to review by the fbi. that is which bears on the central allegations put forth by at least two, and perhaps the third accuser of kavanaugh, to see whether he said anything that now can be proven to be untrue. whether he said he was at a party on the 7th or the 6th, whether he drank one beer or two beers i don't think is material. it is material if he says, i didn't do something and it's provable that he did do something, of that magnitude, i think his nomination is over.

>> and, you know, we know that the results of the fbi's investigation will remain confidential. only among senators, we also know that it won't draw any conclusions around what agents find. senators will be left to do that task. so the question here, do you see this as a process that can avoid being politicized, where lawmakers effective lyft see what they want to see? >> well, one always sees what they want to see in these types of investigations. i think the investigative report will go to white house counsel mcgahn and the senators. and if it's just gray, that is subject to interpretation those who came into the investigation with the notion that this was credible but required additional corroborative evidence will come out of it in the same way. and kavanaugh will be confirmed 51-49 or 52-48. if there is something in there that is materially different than what kavanaugh testified to or which can corroborate

anything that blasey ford said, then there is no known answer to whether he'll be confirmed. >> michael zelden, thank you for your time and perspective. >> my pleasure. >> and still to come this hour, fears of a growing trend in iraq after a social media star and former beauty queen is gunned down in the capital of that nation. this place isn't for me. that last place was pretty nice. i don't like this whole thing. i think we can do better. change is hard. try to keep an open mind. come on, dad. this is for me, son? principal. we can help you plan for that.

iraqi officials are investigating a disturbing trend after the killing of another outspoken female personality. tara p hares was a former beauty queen. her life-style challenge, her conservative norms of her nation. our ben wideman has this report. >> reporter: she was a social media personality, the likes of which iraq hadn't seen. 22-year-old tara projected an image on instagram, facebook and

youtube of a fun-loving, carefree modern young woman unencumbered by the norms of a society with a strong streak of conservatism. last thursday, unknown gun men shot her three times in her car in central baghdad. her death caught on closed circuit television. tara phares, the daughter of an iraqi christian father and muslim mother. she won the title of miss d baghdad and was runner up for miss iraq. but as she explains in this interview, her short life story was not always a happy one. she married at 16 and soon gave birth to a son, but her husband beat her, she says, and forced her to leave school. divorce soon followed. after forcibly taking away their son, her ex-husband moved to turkey and remarried. yet she carried on, gaining fame for her daring posts, winning

millions of online followers. three years ago she left baghdad and moved to iraqi kurdistan where she felt safer, but often returned to her native city for photo shoots and to visit her family. she is just the latest online female personality or activist to die an untimely death in iraq. and the government has launched an investigation to see if there is a link between them. her murder sparked an outburst of grief fa her followers, but not all mourned her death. one journalist with state media calling her a whore on social media. he has subsequently been fired. the last image to appear on her instagram account shows her in black and white with the words "peace be upon her soul" tara fares. ben wideman, cnn, beruit. >> ben, thank you. doctors didn't think it was possible, but a paralyzed woman is walking again. this thanks to a breakthrough

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an amazing medical development to tell you about in the state of florida.

a young woman was paralyzed four years ago and doctors told her she would never walk again. but a breakthrough technology has changed all of that. our senior medical correspondent elizabeth cohen has this story for you. >> reporter: at age 19, kelly thomas, a young woman raised on a cattle farm and avid equestrian was injured in a rollover truck accident. >> i broke my neck at c 7, t 1, i had a spinal cord injury. >> reporter: she was paralyzed from the chest down. her doctors told her she would never walk again. but in february, three years after her accident, thomas defied them all, taking these first steps. how did that feel? >> i cried. >> reporter: this small device put her back on her feet. surgically implanted, it sends electrical impulses to her spine. they mimic the signals her brain used to send before her accident. and after seven months, thomas

has made even more progress. she can walk around her house, walk into her bathroom and see her reflection standing in the mirror. she can walk along her front porch, or through grass in her yard that's harder to traverse. >> i can walk into the library or walk into dinner with friends. it makes me feel normal again. >> reporter: she showed me how. your stimulator is off right now. >> correct. >> reporter: can you move your legs? >> i can't. >> reporter: now let's see you turn it on. >> with the setting that i have selected, i can move my legs. >> reporter: that's amazing. her phenomenal accomplishment was reported this week in the new england journal of medicine. in the study by researchers of the university of louisville, four paralyzed patients were implanted with the device. two of them, thomas and this man, were able to walk again after intense physical training. another study out this week, this one from the mayo clinic, confirms these findings. the researchers report that one

of their paralyzed patients also walked after getting a stimulator, but with assistance. you were paralyzed. you could not move your legs, and now you can walk. >> yep. >> reporter: what word would you use to describe how that feels? >> it's out of this world, it really is. >> reporter: each step is kp exhilarating and exhausting. >> come on, feet. >> reporter: this is hard work. you don't just turn on the stimulator and go. >> that's absolutely right. it's not a quick fix to being paralyzed. every single step i have to focus. >> reporter: she hopes others one day will experience a similar transformation. >> nothing is going to be able to stop me in life because i took something that was thought to be impossible and i turned it into possible. >> reporter: elizabeth cohen, cnn, la canto, florida. >> elizabeth, thank you. and thank you for being with us on this hour of cnn newsroom. i'm george howell at the cnn let's do it again. another hour of news right after the brk.

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republican senators say if investigators find that brett kavanaugh lied to lawmakers during his testimony, the judge's nomination is over. that from jeff flake. the latest on that ahead. plus, after weeks of intense bargaining, the us us and canada have reached a deal to revamp nafta. also ahead this hour, heart break in indonesia. you see the damage there. authorities say that hundreds of people, victims of this earthquake and tsunami, will be buried in mass graves there. live from cnn world headquarters in atlanta, we want to welcome our viewers from here in the united states and all around the world. i'm george howell. cnn newsroom starts right now.