it's a big wall, ugly, it's really ugly. you can see it, it's not far away from here. hello and welcome to our viewers joining us here in the united states and all around the world. i'm rosemary church. coming up on "cnn newsroom," refusing to engage. wednesday's hearing on capitol hill would have been the white house's first chance to participate in the impeachment inquiry, but trump's lawyers say no. blizzards, snowstorms, and floods. 50 million americans under some sort of winter weather alert on the busiest travel day of the year. plus the victims of violence. we are learning about the two lives cut short in friday's terror attack in london.

good to have you with us. so u.s. president donald trump and his lawyers are refusing to participate in this week's impeachment hearings. the white house counsel told democratic lawmakers sunday that the hearings are unfair. the proceedings shift to the house judiciary committee this wednesday, which will consider possible charges against the president. sarah westwood has details of the message sent to the committee chairman. >> reporter: the white house responded sunday evening to house judiciary chairman jerry nadler's offer to let the white house have a lawyer present at wednesday's judiciary committee hearing. white house counsel pat cipollone said the white house

will not be sending an attorney to that hearing. cipollone spent much of the five-page letter he sent to nadler on sunday night complaining about the house democrats' impeachment process so far. for example, complaining that the president and administration witnesses have been denied due process, but specifying that the white house would not be taking this opportunity to have representation at wednesday's hearing. again, the first in the judiciary committee throughout this impeachment process. i want to read you part of the letter that cipollone sent to nadler. he wrote, as for the hearing scheduled for december 4th, we cannot fairly be expected to participate in a hearing while the witnesses are yet to be named and while it remains unclear whether the judiciary committee will afford the president a fair process. he goes on to write, accordingly under the current circumstances, we do not intend to participate in your wednesday hearing. now, this had put the white house in a tough spot because of course administration officials and trump allies have complained throughout this process that they have perceived it as

unfair, but sending a lawyer to those hearings on wednesday could have been lending an air of legitimacy to proceedings that trump and his allies have decried as a sham throughout this process. now, interestingly cipollone did leave the door open for the white house participating in future hearings. cipollone writing, we may consider paymerticipating in fue judiciary proceedings if you afford the administration the ability to do so meaningfully. now, cipollone had complained, for example, that not enough information was provided about wednesday's hearing. nadler had set an additional deadline of friday for the white house to specify whether they wanted to mount a public defendant for future proceedings. so the impeachment inquiry about to accelerate dramatically. the white house also has a big day on monday when house intelligence committee members will have their first

opportunity to look at the findings of weeks of work from house democrats in a report that will be distributed behind closed doors to members. sarah westwood, cnn, the white house. >> and thomas giff joins us now. he's a lecturer in political science at the university college in london. thank you so much for being with us. >> thank you, rosemary. >> so we learned late sunday that president trump and his lawyers will not participate in wednesday's impeachment hearings. they say those hearings are unfair. do they have a point, or is this all about trying to avoid legitimizing the process? >> well, i think that what the republicans are doing is defaulting to their standard position in this impeachment inquiry, and that is to attack the process and the rules rather than to try to defend the president on the facts of the case. i think that's because the facts are largely undisputed. it's the same strategy they used when they criticized democrats for carrying out what they said

was a crypto impeachment process behind closed doors prior to all the public testimony. in terms of wednesday's hearings with constitutional scholars, they're essentially arguing first that the balance is inequitable with three of the four experts being called by the democrats and only one by the republicans. and, second, it's unfair to ask the white house to mount a defense when the president doesn't even know who the democratic witnesses will be, and also the schiff report hasn't even been issued until wednesday. so this is basically, you know, the case that they're going to try to make to the american people. >> right. and the house judiciary committee will consider possible charges or articles of impeachment against the president. how strong is the evidence so far, and does it rise to the level of high crimes and misdemeanors? >> well, democrats are certainly going to make the case ha that does. i think the evidence seems to be overwhelming that donald trump did try to engage in a quid pro quo with ukraine. i think the real problem for

democrats, though, is that despite all the dramatic testimony we've seen and the substantial evidence that the president did seek out this quid pro quo, the impeachment inquiry hasn't budged public opinion very much. and so support for impeachment still stands at about 50% of americans, and that's split very cleanly along party lines. 50% is a non-trivial number, but democrats really haven't seen the kind of bipartisan support for impeachment emerge that nancy pelosi was hoping would happen when this entire impeachment process began. >> and what's the white house strategy going forward, do you think, and can they continue to stonewall as they have so far? >> well, they're certainly going to try. and trump has said since the very beginning that the impeachment inquiry is a hoax, that it's a witch hunt. he's much more comfortable standing on the sidelines and criticizing this inquiry as politically motivated. i think he's going to continue to try to do that. and some republicans even think that the impeachment inquiry could help donald trump in 2020

by mobilizing the base, galv galvanizing, fund-raising, and so on. so i think donald trump is basically going to double down on the strategy that he's already taken up until this point. >> is this, in the end, though, an exercise in futility because once it does get to the senate, it's not going to get through, is it, no matter what? >> well, reasonable minds can disagree on this. my own opinion is that at the end of the day, it will be largely an academic exercise so to speak, simply because i think that the standard prediction going into this impeachment inquiry has really held. and that is democrats will impeach in the house. republicans will block in the senate. then at the end of the day, the president will stay in office. and whether trump gets four more years will be a function of what the american people think rather than congress. so, you know, unless we see some sort of game-changer emerge in the next few weeks, which until this point we really haven't seen that, i do think it's likely that donald trump is going to survive this process

and continue into the 2020 election. >> which means for the democrats, this is going to look like a political exercise and a very costly one at that. so what could be the political consequences of that when it comes to the vote in 2020? >> well, this is something that nancy pelosi has really tried to avoid since the very beginning, and i think was one reason why she was so reluctant to engage in this process, simply because the american public is relatively split in terms of public opinion over this impeachment. democrats basically are going to make the case that, you know, despite what the american public thinks, that they have an obligation to go through this process because they think that the president engaged in a clear act of wrongdoing, abused his oath of office, and so regardless of the politics of it, that democrats have an obligation to investigate and to get to the bottom of these facts. so that's basically the case that they're trying to make, and

we'll see if they ultimately do get the game-changer they're looking for. >> thomas gift, we appreciate your analysis. many thanks. >> thanks, rosemary. well, millions of travelers in the united states are scrambling with powerful winter storms causing headaches from coast to coast. and it comes right after the thanksgiving holiday with some of the busiest travel days of the year. in buffalo, new york, the weather caused a plane to slide off the runway. more than 900 flights have been canceled nationwide, and nearly 8,000 have been delayed. places like south dakota have seen blizzard-like conditions. nearly 50 million people across the country are under some kind of weather alert. on the west coast, the california mountains are getting heavy snow, and it's more rain and strong winds for the lower elevations. so let's turn to our meteorologist, pedram javaheri, to get some more detail on this. how many more days of horrendous travel are people looking at

here? >> you know, rosemary, it's a very slow-moving system. that's the main problem with it. it doesn't help that we had the busiest travel day of the year in the past 24 hours, and of course the northeastern united states seeing the brunt of this very slow-moving system. you can easily pick out the center of circulation across the eastern great lakes as it gradually shifts on in towards the east. we think through much of monday and into early tuesday is when we finally see this system exit stage right. at this hour, snow showers across interior portions of new england, eastern areas of pennsylvania. some of the major metro cities beginning to see a wintry mix in place. as you noted, about 50 million people dealing with the winter weather alerts and advisories. upwards of 20 states dealing with wintry weather across the united states. snowfall amounts coming in ranging from three inches out of boston to upwards of a foot across portions of new york state. but those three inches responsible for about 500 flights that were either delayed or canceled out of boston's logan airport. so it really doesn't take much. notice again very slow

progression off towards the east. we expect a heavy rainfall mixing in with snow in the early hours say around new york city and boston as well. when you break down what comes of the system once it does exit out of here, because it is just a little too warm across the major metro cities, the snow accumulations will not be as impressive. it will be windy and that will lead to travel disruptions, but it is that slushy snow that makes the biggest problems across some of these cities. the white contours are two to four inches for these cities and the purples and pinks, we're talking six, eight, or as much as 12 inches of snowfall. again, that's into the interior portion of new england. that's the concern moving forward. notice disruptions even into the early morning hours of monday. these are preemptive cancellations and delays. 100 across the united states with 500 flights already delayed. of course the day is only about two hours young. we expect more delays in the works. but out towards the west, another impressive storm system coming in.

notice this. get up above 6,500 feet, and we're talking two to four feet of snow possible across portions of the siskiyous and the sierras. there is another system across the southwest. we expect rainfall from san diego into los angeles and of course climb up into the mountain passes. that all translates into snowfall. so it is a wet go. it is also a rough go across the western u.s. but the broad perspective shows you quite a bit of snow in the forecast there over the next couple of days, even out west, rosemary. >> all right. appreciate it, pedram. thanks. well, there's now an investigation in south dakota to determine if the blizzard-like conditions were the cause of a plane crash that killed nine people. cnn's nick watt has the latest. >> reporter: the plane took off from chamberlin, south dakota, around lunchtime on saturday heading to idaho falls, but it did not get very far. that plane crashed very soon after takeoff, during what we're told was some horrific weather conditions.

now, the national weather service confirms there was a snowstorm in the area at the time. we're told that snowfall was about an inch per hour and visibility was very poor. now, a county official claims that weather was a factor in this crash, but we do not know that for sure. and the faa and the ntsb, who are investigating, it will take them some time before they come up with any determination. nine people dead, three survivors. now, first responders had to battle through that weather to reach those three survivors. they were then taken to sioux falls to the hospital. the plane itself, a single-engine swiss-made plane with a pretty good safety record. but nine people perished in this crash. among them, the pilot, two children, and we're also told two men by the name of jim and kurt hansen, who were both founders of an idaho falls-based company called kayani, which is a health and wellness supplements company. we have no more information yet

as to who the other victims were. but what we do know, nine people perishing in this crash of a small plane in south dakota. nick watt, cnn, los angeles. in just a few hours, the victims of friday's london terror attack will be remembered at a vigil. jack merritt and ses kia jones were involved in a prison rehabilitation program called learning together. they had been attending an event linked to that program when they were stabbed by a man convicted on terrorism offenses who was out on early release. three other people were also injured in that attack. cnn's nina dos santos has more. >> reporter: 25-year-old jack merritt and 23 yield, sass kia jones. both were cambridge graduates, both passionate about giving even the most serious offender a second chance. it was this belief that brought

them to an event near london bridge to discuss rehabilitation with former prisoners and a belief that put them into contact with usman kahn, a convicted terrorist out on license. the fact he was freed early has been seized upon by the prime minister, already pledging to get tough on law and order with the general election now less than two weeks away and days before a nato summit in the uk, which will see the country welcome world leaders including the u.s. president. >> i think it's repulsive that individuals as dangerous as this man should be allowed out after serving only eight years, and that's why we are going to change the law. >> i think there has to be an examination of how our prison services work, and crucially what happens to someone released from prison. >> reporter: over the weekend, authorities have increased their surveillance of criminals on license like khan. that led to the arrest of a 34-year-old man on sunday night.

in a statement, jack merritt's family described him as a beautiful, talented boy who believed in redemption, not revenge. and they urged johnson not to politicize his passing. we know jack would not want this terrible isolated incident to be used as a pretext by the government for introducing even more draconian sentences, they said. a legacy captured in jack's own words, describing his work in this radio interview earlier this year. >> our students in prison often have a very firsthand, very real but also very nuanced idea of how the law works. we essentially start talking to our students about ideas of justice and access to justice. >> khan's lawyer says longer sentences aren't the answer. the focus instead should be on rehabilitation before release. >> the point to learn from this is that the system could benefit by reviewing its position on something like this and having offenders interact with deraad

callizers sometime before they are to be released in the community. >> reporter: police are still trying to understand the events leading up to friday's attack. what they learn may have important consequences for how and when offenders are released in the future, even if that may not necessarily have been the reform that friday's gathering had been hoping to achieve. nina dos santos, cnn, london. an irishwoan described as an isis bride has been taken into custody. lisa smith was deported from turkey, then arrested sunday at dublin's airport on suspicion of terrorist offenses. smith approached a cnn crew at a refugee camp in syria back in march, carrying her daughter. she told our jomana karadsheh she went to syria to be an isis bride but was ready to return home to ireland. >> i think that people should

just realize that all the people here are not terrorists. >> reporter: this woman declined to give us her name, but she's been identified by irish media as muslim convert lisa smith, a former member of the irish military. she says she came to syria an isis bride. now she's a widow left alone with a 2-year-old daughter. >> i want to go home. >> but you might be prosecuted if you go home. you might end up in jail. are you ready for that. >> i'd know i wouldn't travel and i'd be watched kind of, but prisons, i don't know. i'm already in prison. >> that interview prompted the irish government to repatriate smith and her daughter. now irish officials are working to ensure that child is placed in a safe environment. we'll take a small break here. when we come back, a small mexican town is rattled by a fierce gun battle. details on the bloody clash between security forces and suspected cartel members. plus leonardo dicaprio fires

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a major tourist spot is at the center of a new u.s. mass shooting. police say a shooter wounded 10 people early sunday near the french quarter in new orleans. the victims are being treated in hospital. two were in critical condition after being shot in the torso. authorities have not identified a suspect and say that a person they detained near the scene has been released. a witness told cnn there was a verbal altercation before shots were fired. in mexico, 19 people are dead following a gun battle between security forces and suspected cartel members. the sound of gunshots alarmed a family nearby, forcing them to take cover in their home. officials say four police officers and two civilians were

among those killed in the fighting. the battle broke out saturday in northeastern mexico. the governor of the state says criminal groups have long sought to enter the region, but he vowed to keep them out. cnn's rafael romo has more. >> reporter: it was a brazen attack that happened in plain daylight in mexico just south of the u.s. border. it all started when a group of armed men arrived in more than a dozen trucks and opened fire against a local municipal building in northern mexico. this was the beginning of several shoot-outs in a town located about 40 miles south of the u.s. border town of eagle pass, texas. by the time the shoot-outs were over about an hour and a half later, at least 19 people had died, including 13 suspected cartel members. four police officers and two civilians according to the coahuila state governor, the

attackers belonged to the cartel of the northeast, a criminal group that has long sought to enter his state and that tried once again saturday with the force that is not like anything they had seen in a long time. the shoot-outs happened only days after president trump said he would designate mexican cartels as foreign terrorist organizations. trump also offered to go in and clean it out, but the mexican government rejected the offer. also in northern mexico, less than a month ago, three mothers and six of their children with dual mexican and american citizenship, members of a mormon community, were massacred. this latest incident of violence happened the day before the mexican president was to celebrate his first year in office. andres manuel lopez obrador won the presidency in part because he promised to improve security across mexico. rafael romo, cnn, atlanta. hollywood star leonardo dicaprio is refuting surprising claims linking him to the fires

that have avenravaged the amazo rain forest. without providing any proof, the brazilian president twice claimed that non-governmental organizations started the fires to get donations from activists like dicaprio. >> translator: an ngo hired for, and paid for a photo of the fires. so what did they do? what was the easiest in set the woods on fire, take the film, an ngo spreads it, launches a campaign against brazil, then gets in touch with leonardo dicaprio. then dicaprio donates $500,000 to this ngo. >> dicaprio has denied mr. bolsonaro's claim, posting on instagram, the future of these irreplaceable ecosystems is at stake, and i am proud to stand with the groups protecting them. while worthy of support, we did not fund the organizations targeted. environmental groups have accused bolsonaro of relaxing policies that led to this year's

massive fires in the amazon. coming up next, why swing-state democrats are keeping their distance from having the impeachment conversation with their constituents. and as world leaders are set to gather at the u.n. climate conference, so is one u.s. teen looking to make her voice heard. we will hear from the young activist just ahead. lashmakes every lash fullyrom maybsensational.ork. our fanning brush volumizes every kind of lash... ...for a sensational full-fan effect. lash sensational. only from maybelline new york.

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welcome back to "cnn newsroom." i'm rosemary church. i want to check the main stories we've been following this hour. across the united states, powerful winter storms are causing a nightmare for travelers. more than 900 flights have been canceled, and nearly 8,000 have been delayed. blizzard-like conditions are being blamed for a deadly plane crash in south dakota, and heavy fog for a 25-car pileup in maryland. u.s. president donald trump will not participate in the house judiciary committee's impeachment hearing this wednesday. the president's attorney wrote to the committee saying it wasn't a fair process. he said they will respond separately to a friday deadline about participating in future hearings. if the house impeaches the president, the case goes to the senate for trial. a republican senator is raising a debunked conspiracy theory that ukraine interfered with the 2016 election on behalf of

hillary clinton. john kennedy told nbc's chuck todd that russia and ukraine meddled in the election. take a listen. >> but the fact that russia was so aggressive does not exclude the fact that president poroshenko actively worked for secretary clinton. now, if i'm wrong and -- >> actively worked for secretary -- i mean, my goodness. wait a minute. senator kennedy, you now have the president of ukraine saying he actoughly worked for the democrat nominee for president. i mean now come on. i got to put up -- you realize the only other person selling this argument outside the united states is this man, vladimir putin. this is what he said on november 20th. thank god nobody is accusing us anymore of interfering in u.s. election. now they're accusing ukraine. we'll let them sort this out among themselves. you just accused the former president of ukraine. you've done exactly what the russian operation is trying to get american politicians to do. >> only one lawmaker has worked on all three of the united

states impeachment probes, and she says president trump's conduct involving ukraine is more serious than richard nixon's watergate scandal. zoey zof gren is a democratic house member from california. as a congressional staffer, she helped draft an article of impeachment against nixon, and she served on the judiciary committee during bill clinton's impeachment. >> president nixon's misconduct related to trying to use the levers of government to hide the watergate burglary, you know, his misconduct had to do with trying to throw the election. but at least it didn't involve involving other foreign nations. if you take a look at what the founding fathers were concerned about, it was the interference by foreign governments in our political system that was one of their gravest concerns. nixon's behavior didn't fall

into that range. so in that way, this conduct is more serious. i want to let the process play out. we're going to have our hearing. then we will have debate that includes all the members of the committee, including the republican members. we've invited the president or his counsel to appear to provide information, and let's see this process play out. you know, if we got it wrong -- it doesn't look like we do, but i would welcome an opportunity to reach a different conclusion about the president's misconduct. this is not a great time for the country to have a president revealed as doing something so counterproductive to the national interest. it would be wonderful if there were some benign explanation. i'm struggling to think what it would be at this point, but we have to at least allow for that

possibility. >> although democrats in washington are gearing up for impeachment, democratic lawmakers in swing states are steering clear of that conversation fearing a backlash from voters. cnn's evan mcmorris-santoro has that report. >> thank you so much to everyone for joining us. >> reporter: congresswoman abigail spanberger has a complicated relationship with impeachment. in september, she joined six fellow first term democrats with national security backgrounds in writing an op-ed pushing to open an inquiry. but now spanberger is keeping her distance from the process in congress. have you decided how you're going to vote? >> i'm going to cast my vote depending fully on what articles are put forth. >> the district she won by fewer than 7,000 votes. >> the majority of district is rural, and it's very conservative. >> the district is a wildly unpredictable place politically.

it was home to one of the tea party's biggest wins when one of the faces of the republican establishment was defeated in the 2014 primary. president trump won it by six points in 2016. >> what's going on in the seventh district? >> it's a highly densely populated area, and unfortunately they come out and they vote for non-conservative values. >> reporter: as the house prepares for another round of televised hearings next week, spanberger conducted a two-day tour through her district focused on health care. she didn't mention impeachment at all. so i figured when i went out to go hang out with a democrat the week after last week, the topic would be the president. but i'm looking at your schedule. it doesn't seem to be the topic. why is that? >> the topic is health care because it's the top issue for people within my district. >> reporter: while she's out in the district talking about kitchen table issues, her republican opponents are throwing the impeachment kitchen sink at her. >> their partisan impeachment is a politically motivated charade.

>> reporter: virginia republicans have had a bad month. in statewide elections, democrats gained total control of the state government for the first time in nearly three decades. the gop faithful here see impeachment as a political winner. what would you lead off with to flip this district back to the gop? >> i'd talk about how abigail spanberger has not met up -- has not made good on her promises to be a moderate and to -- she said she would not vote lockstep with nancy pelosi. >> reporter: on tuesday afternoon, spanberger talked to constituents at a forum about prescription drug prices. no one talked about the president. your opponents think that the more we're talking about impeachment, the better it is for them, and the worse it is for you. >> yeah. >> are they right? >> i don't know. >> you sound like you don't know how things are going to go with

this. you're in risky waters. >> i mean i've been in risky waters before. >> we had a big impeachment last week. we're going to have a big impeachment week next week. and the problem for democrats who don't want to talk about impeachment is it's dominating the news. the fact is i've been out with voters a lot during impeachment, and it's not top of their minds, which is no surprise. opinion is basically locked in according to our own polling. the question for democrats going forward is can they talk about impeachment and also talk about what they want to talk about? evan mcmorris-santoro, cnn, richmond, virginia. and we'll take a short break here. still to come, climate change is causing sea levels to rise, and scientists warn many cities around the world are under threat. coming up, the technology london is using to keep the river thames at bay. back with that in just a moment. 448,134 to be exact. they answered 410 questions in 8 categories

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world leaders are gathering in madrid to tackle climate

change at the u.n. conference cop25. for years lawmakers have taken part in the annual summit, and this year scientists say it's urgent countries take action. writing in the journal "nature," researchers say the earth is heading toward a global tipping point, meaning climate change is pushing environmental systems to the point of no return. the paris agreement will likely be a key focus at the conference despite the united states formalizing its withdrawal from the accord, house speaker nancy pelosi will be in attendance with other democratic lawmakers. >> teen climate activist alexandria villasenor will be attending that conference and joins me now from davis, california. good to have you with us. >> thank you for having me today. >> now, you are 14 years old, and you say cop24 failed us all, so what are your expectations for cop25? how might it be different this

time, do you think? >> at cop25, i think it's so important because there's going to be all of the youth of the world is watching this. and so really what we want to see is world leaders make a radical, binding, and a global emissions reduction commitment right now. so we have seen a lot of dire science reports come back over the past 12 weeks, and it's really scary what is happening and what our planet is facing. so there's no time to wait. myself and other fridays for future activists will be at cop25 along with greta thunberg to make sure we hold our world leaders accountable. >> and do you think they will do that? >> i think -- >> those world leaders? >> i think that our world leaders will do and take action just because of how much youth are going to be at this conference. and really cop25, it's the anniversary of so much youth engagement. and so cop24, the failure that

happened there really sparked so much youth to getting involved, and so cop25 is one of these moments where it has everyone watching it. >> so you feel the pressure has increased on these leaders to do something at last. so what are your overall goals for planet earth, and how achievable are they? >> my overall goals for planet earth is to see our world leaders make a global reduction of greenhouse gas emissions so they stay in line with the united nations ipcc report that came out last october. and so one of the ways that we are going to really hold our world leaders accountable is the united nations petition, the one that i'm a part of. that petition was filed to the committee on the rights of the child stating that five countries, argentina, germany, turkey, and brazil are violating our rights by their inaction on the climate crisis.

and so on november 20th, our petition was accepted by the united nations committee on the rights of the child. and so those five respondent countries have two months to respond on the admissibility of our case and six months to respond to the merits of our case. and so then we hope the committee agrees our human rights are being violated and rules in our favor. so that is just one way that you see youth are really stepping up and taking new ways of action. >> so how optimistic are you about the future of our world? >> i am optimistic about the future just because of the youth climate movement. and the youth climate movement is only just beginning. there are -- there will be more strikes, but you're going to see a lot of new kinds of actions that will be taken by the youth. we're going to show up in decision-makers' offices, in our classrooms and institutions, and in front of corporations. and of course you're going to

see us in the streets. and so with more youth getting engaged, it makes me optimistic because we are really showing our world leaders that we are demanding that they take action. >> and we salute your hard work and your passion on this issue. alexandria villasenor, thank you so much for joining us. >> thank you for having me. well, as a result of climate change, scientists say hundreds of millions of people around the world are at risk of rising sea levels. a study released in october predicts entire cities could be submerged in the coming decades, and that includes london, as cnn's phil black reports. >> reporter: london has long respected the power of the sea. straddling the city's famous river, you'll find this -- the thames barrier. finished in the early '80s, it's a mighty, mechanized fortification. this sped-up video of a recent test shows how it works.

fully extended, the gates stand five stories high. it's designed to hold back the north sea on its angriest days, to protect lives and the vast riches of one of the world's wealthiest cities. >> if there was flooding, it would be absolutely catastrophic, particularly if it happened at night. if something was to go wrong, the city would absolutely grind to a halt. you know, flooding of subway stations, flooding of the tubes. >> reporter: we meet this oceanographer on the day the thames is swollen by a big tide and a storm surge. have you ever seen the thames look like this before? >> i've never seen it this high. >> reporter: it's a close call, but experts monitoring the river have decided no the to close the barrier. the thames, looking bloated and full, gives a power sense of london's vulnerability to what scientists now consider inevitable -- sea level rise caused by climate change. >> at the moment, we're on track to reach at least a meter.

>> and that's factored in, we expect that regardless of sort of policy decisions from here forward? >> so that's very much dependent on whether we follow the paris agreement or not. >> reporter: the paris agreement's goal is to sufficiently cut carbon emissions to keep the average global temperature increase below two degrees. that's to avoid the worst consequences of climate change. scientists say achieving that goal will limit rising sea levels from expanding water and melting ice sheets. but it's already too late to prevent it. scientists say even if some of the best-case forecasts prove accurate, this big, impressive piece of infrastructure still has a limited shelf life. sea level rise means long before the end of this century, it will have to be replaced by a new, bigger, hugely expensive barrier further downstream. these ten yearly forecasts show what will happen to london if it doesn't have a barrier and the world doesn't act quickly to cut

emissions. by 2100, wide areas of land along the thames turn blue. within another 200 years, the river swallows much of central london. for this advanced inland city with vast money and resources, managing rising sea levels will be an extraordinary challenge while around the world, small islands, coastal cities, and river delta communities will be making do without those advantages. phil black, cnn, london. we'll take a short break here. still to come, like donald trump, the world wants to know who is anonymous, the author of the scathing book on the u.s. president. hear how soon his or her identity could be revealed. back with that in a moment. about being a scientist at 3m. i wanted them to know that innovation is not just about that one 'a-ha' moment. science is a process. it takes time, dedication.

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come. those words from the person identifying themselves as anonymous, who wrote the new white house insider book titled "a warning." the book publisher confirming to cnn that the anonymous author answered questions on reddit, defending their decision to remain anonymous and suggesting that president trump will know his or her identity by the 2020 election. i will not keep my identity shrouded in secrecy forever, anonymous writes. i am not afraid to use my own name to express concerns about the current occupant of the oval office. donald trump has not heard the last of me. anonymous claims to be a senior official in the trump administration. last september, a person identified as the same official captivated the nation's attention after writing an op-ed in "the new york times" titled "i am part of the resistance," vowing to thwart parts of president trump's agenda and his worst inclinations. but in the q&a, anonymous said that was, quote, dead wrong, writing no one can thwart his attraction to wrongdoing.

>> the latest active resistance is the op-ed published in the failing "new york times" by anonymo anonymous, gutless coward. you just look. he was -- nobody knows who the hell he is. >> reporter: the newly released book portrays a white house in crisis with anonymous claiming that senior administration officials threatening to quit en masse to call attention to the president's alleged mismanagement and erratic behavior. and anonymous also says that our fears within trump's inner circle that he does putin's bidding. the author teasing on reddit that more bombshells could be released before next november, claiming to one questioner, quote, other people who are currently serving and who have left are also considering adding their voices before votes are cast in 2020. >> nobody really knows whether these quotes or these accusations are true because we don't know who it is. there's no way to judge the

veracity of what this person is saying. >> reporter: the white house earlier this month calling anonymous, quote, a gutless coward who doesn't have the spine to put his or her name to their shameful lies. on impeachment, anonymous telling reddit users bluntly that president trump demanded a quid pro quo from ukraine to disrupt the 2020 election, adding, quote, everyone in the white house knows this. even the president himself. but warning how impeachment could further divide the country and saying he believes the country must defeat president trump at the ballot box in 2020 by a convincing margin. in west palm beach florida, kristen holmes, cnn. >> and i'm rosemary church. i'll be back with more news in just a moment. it is nice. nice? this is the most-awarded minivan three years in a row. the van just talked. sales guy, give 'em the employee price, then gimme your foot. hands-free sliding doors, stow 'n go seats, man, y'all getting a hook up and y'all don't even work here. pacificaaaaa!

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welcome back to our viewers here in the united states and all around the world. you are watching "cnn newsroom," and i'm rosemary church. let's get started. refusing to engage. wednesday's hearing on capitol hill would have been the white house's first chance to participate in the impeachment inquiry, but trump's