♪ the barnes firm, injury attorneys ♪ call one eight hundred, eight million ♪ ♪ the united states locks up the lead in the olympic gold medal count. we'll show you the win that clinched it. as covid surges in the u.s., hundreds of thousands of bikers gather in north dakota. officials hope this won't turn into another superspreader event. showing their green. some europeans are happy to show their vaccine status but others are hitting the streets to protest. live from cnn world headquarters in atlanta, welcome to those watching in the united states, canada, and around the world.

i'm kim brunhuber. this is "cnn newsroom." the final competitions of the 2020 summer olympics are wrapping up with the united states winning the most gold medals and the most medals overall. only a few hours remain before the closing ceremony brings the games to an end. the u.s. has clinched the win in the gold medal count and overall medal counts. let's get the latest on all this with andy scholes of cnn sports. the u.s. was behind the gold medals for almost the whole games here. how did they pull out the win in the snend. >> it was a complete team effort. track and field grabbed seven golds. on sunday, u.s. women's basketball captured their seventh straight gold medal. and then the u.s. women's volleyball team making some history, winning their first-ever gold medal. and there were tons of tears on the court after they scored that

final point to beat brazil in straight sets. women's olympic volleyball, it started back in 1964. the u.s. had medaled five times before making it to the gold medal match three different times. but this the first time ever the women were able to capture the gold, and pretty cool. it's also what got team usa over the top in the gold medal count. the women's usa basketball team, meanwhile, is just a dynasty. they captured their seventh straight gold medal, which ties the longest gold medal streak in any olympic team sport. they beat japan 90-75 in the final. brittney griner setting a gold medal game record, scoring 30 points to lead the team. usa basketball legends 40-year-old sue bird, 39-year-old diana taurasi, playing their final game together as a team, they go out winning their fifth gold medal, the boast by any player, man or woman, in olympic basketball history. the u.s. hasn't lost a game in the olympics since 1992, kim.

55 wins in a row. half of the team wasn't even born the last time the women's usa basketball team lost a game. just an incredible run for them, seven straight gold medals. >> unbelievable. just owning that event. not a surprise in the men's marathon. ke kenyans elhid has his name at the top of the list in terms of men's marathon runners, elhid dip chokinggy winning by more than 80 seconds, the largest margin since 1972. dip chokinggy successfully defending his win from rio, the oldest to win the men's marathon since 1984. he won silver in 2008, bronze in 2004 in the 5,000 meters. kipchoge, the world record

holder for a marathon. 2019 became the first ever to run a marathon in under two hours. didn't count as a record, it wasn't done in race conditions. today, 81% humidity in tokyo, kipchoge finished in 2:08.30, that's 4:50 seconds per mile on average. take a look at what is close to the final medal count for the games. the united states going to finish the olympics with the most gold medals of any team for the third straight summer games. the u.s. going to finish the olympics with the most total medals for the seventh straight summer games. kim, it didn't happen till the final day, but team usa in the end coming out on top, which i'm sure they're pretty pleased with. >> absolutely, seven straight but a lot closer than in rio 2016. andy scholes, thanks so much, appreciate it. here in the u.s., the delta variant is driving coronavirus case numbers to the highest

levels since february. according to johns hopkins university, the u.s. seven-day average is more than 100,000 new cases per day. this comes as just over 50% of the u.s. population is now fully vaccinated. and florida seems to be getting the worst of it. the sunshine state has the highest number of hospitalizations per capita nationwide. it's also reporting its highest weekly number of new covid cases since the pandemic began. but despite raging coronavirus case numbers in his state, florida governor ron desantis is holding firm rejecting the idea of a mask mandate in schools. and he's using it as an issue to inflame his supporters in the covid culture wars. >> i have young kids. my wife and i are not going to do the masks with the kids, we never have. i want to see my kids smiling. i want them having fun. >> but desantis isn't going unchallenged. two lawsuits have been filed against him over his executive order banning mask mandated.

the governor's critics say his appeal to his republican base is playing politics with floridians' health. >> governor desantis is following a political ideology. he's playing politics in the middle of a pandemic. you know, we know in florida, we have hurricanes, we know how to get everybody together, get everybody on the same page. it's really important to do that. but in this moment, governor desantis has done something i think is pretty december spcable, he's taken this health care crisis and tried to convert it to his own advantage politically. he's divided our community. he's divided our community, so now mask usage, even vaccines, just simply healthy practices, have become political statements. and that never should happen, because obviously you want to save people's lives, not put them at risk in order to make a sort of a cheap political point. >> dr. alice mussina is chief of infectious diseases at johns

hopkins all children's hospital and joins me from st. petersburg, florida. florida leads the nation in infections and hospitalization rates for adults and children. what are you seeing in your hospital? >> yeah, so glad you asked. it's been a really, really busy few weeks for us. after a nice little lull in june, we really picked up in july and august is probably going to be even worse, unfortunately. we're just so busy. >> so do you know why infections among kids are increasing so quickly in your state? >> yeah, i think it's a few things, actually. the first thing is that this delta variant is just extremely contagious, far more contagious than the variants prior. i think that's the major driving factor. the other factor is too, and i think why we've been seeing a lot of patients in our pediatric hospital, is because this is largely an epidemic right now of the unvaccinated, and a lot of

children are not old enough to get the vaccine. that's another reason why we're busy. the other thing too is that a lot of the infection prevention strategies that we had been using earlier in the pandemic, like masking, physical distancing, has gotten a little lax after a summer where we actually saw cases drop. so i think if you sort of put all those things together, you know, you have the recipe for a very busy season. the other thing is that even our adults are probably not vaccinated to the rate we would like, although we're getting better. >> yeah, and you talk about sort of getting busy. obviously one of the biggest concerns is you have the rise of the delta variant coinciding with the return to school. many jurisdictions elsewhere in the country are enforcing mask mandates in schools but florida's governor is against them, he's threatened to withhold funding from school districts that don't let parents

decide whether or not to let their children wear masks in school. so from a medical standpoint, should all children be wearing masks in schools? >> well, certainly if you think about it like an infectious disease doctor, you really have to understand that it's a contagious virus that doesn't play favorites. so the things that stop it is getting vaccinated if you can, and wearing a mask. so certainly we aredare advocat that everybody who goes not only to school but any indoor space, whether vaccinated or not, we're really recommending everybody mask up for this variant, which is surprisingly contagious. >> we've seen plenty of resistance to that idea. you see the heated community and school board meetings and so on. what would you tell parents who are skeptical to try and convince them of what you're saying there? >> yeah, you know, i really think that we need to stick to the science. and the science is really clear,

that masks make a difference, vaccines make a difference. and if you layer that approach, you really have the best shot at keeping healthy. so i really think it comes back to looking at the science. >> you touched there on the key here, vaccinations, and you said earlier that florida's been fairly lax. i think some 8 million people in florida who are eligible for the vaccine haven't been fully vaccinated. of that number, i understand the lowest vaccination rate of any group is kids aged 12 to 19. so how do you go about reaching them, or maybe more importantly, their parents? >> yeah, i think that, you know, education is key. a lot of parents are quite understandably a bit hesitant about giving a new vaccine to their child. and as we know, even though this is a very contagious and very dangerous virus, it does tend to spare children the worst of its effects. so if you're a parent you're

saying, well, maybe my kid won't get as sick, so why would i expose this person to this new vaccine? and that's understandable. but i think what parents really need to understand is that at this point, you really have two choices. it's so contagious that you're either choosing to vaccinate your child, or the chance that they're going to get the actual virus is very, very high. so you're really choosing between getting the virus and getting the vaccine. and i think that if you look at the risk/benefit, the risk/benefits of both, you'll really see that the vaccine is by far the safer option. >> vital potential life-saving advice there. we'll leave it on that note, dr. alison mussina from johns hopkins all children's hospital in florida. thanks so much for being with us. >> absolutely. the u.s. is again fighting to balance the dangers of the pandemic with the hopes of

returning to normal. hundreds of thousands of bikers are gathering in sturgis for a motorcycle rally. many are throwing caution to the wind. >> reporter: on monday, south dakota's governor, kristi noem, will hop on a bike and participate in a charity ride. she's among an estimated 700,000 people who will show up to the world's largest motorcycle rally here in sturgis. longtime business owners tell me thanks to the governor's support, events like this can still go on during the pandemic. >> honestly, more than a dozen of people just actually put their hands together like they're in prayer and said, oh, god, thank you so much for giving us a place to go and be halfway normal and get away from the hellhole our city became. and we like your governor, we love her. >> do you think this event will be a superspreader? >> it's highly likely. you can see in instances in other states where there have been large gatherings. most recently the milwaukee

bucks, 100,000 folks, you had some significant spread. we're talking 700,000 people. i wouldn't be surprised if we have a superspreader event there. >> you're worried about covid or the delta variant? >> well, i got body my shots, i guess i'm okay. i hope. >> what about you? you worried about covid at all? >> covid? i got my shots. not at all. >> nope. >> had it, it's fine, not concerned at all. otherwise i wouldn't be here. >> reporter: one rider told me he still keeps a mask in his pocket. he said he didn't show up last year and he's still a little worried this year. the big concern among health officials is when participants step inside, for example, crowded bars or tattoo parlors. that's where there's an increased risk for transmission. adrienne broadis, cnn.

anger is growing in europe over new covid health passes. they're essentially proof that someone is vaccinated or had a recent negative covid test. some governments are making it mandatory to go to many public places. barbie nadeau joins us from rome. in france, this was the fourth weekend of protests. it looked like these were the biggest so far. >> that's right. 237,000 people took to the streets of france. there were multiple arrests but they didn't see the violence they've seen in weeks past. when you look at the images of these people, they're protesting vaccinations, most of them aren't wearing masks. this is happening alongside france battling a fourth wave of the pandemic. they're seeing case loads of like 20,000 new cases a day there. so it's very worrying to health authorities as they get closer to instituting this green pass, which takes effect on monday. people are just concerned about their civil liberties. but what they're probably doing is actually creating superspreader events by protesting, kim. >> let's turn to where you,

italy. protests as well, some demonstrators using very controversial and disturbing imagery to try to make their point. >> reporter: that's right. milan, we saw protesters wearing holocaust victim badges, star of david badge in which they've written "not vaccinated." in those cases as well, you've got people just protesting what they say is becoming a vaccine mandate by requiring these green passes to go inside of restaurants and inside of other venues like cultural venues and museums and things like that. italy also instituted its pass on friday, and they made it mandatory for all teachers to be vaccinated before school starts this fall. that's caused a little bit of controversy as well. you know, italy has seen case loads slowly grow. nothing like we've been seeing in france. but it's still growing here. people are concerned. nobody wants to do another lockdown, nobody wants another round of these heavy, heavy restrictions. and a lot of businesses say, the green pass is the only way to do

it. but they're the ones, restaurant openers especially, the ones sort of playing police officer, looking at the pass, making sure they match. it's a very controversial step. but a lot of people, the health authorities especially, say it's the only way out of this. and so they're going to continue with the green passes in france and italy, and we'll probably see that spread across europe as well. >> interesting. we'll watch for that, barbie nadeau from rome, thanks so much. the tokyo games are winding down after two weeks of olympic action. so we'll give you an update on the latest ahead of the closing ceremony. afghanistan's central government may have been handed another major loss. the latest on what may be a third provincial capital lost to the taliban. ed to protect synths and blends from damage in the wash. like fading, stretching, and pilling. new woolite has evercare, a first of its kind foformula that keeps today's fabrics looking lilike new. new woolite with evercare did you know prilosec otc can stop frequent hearartburn

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along with armored vehicles and weapons. we had this earlier report from kabul as the government keeps losing territory. >> the situation in afghanistan is rapidly unraveling which is why you saw the u.s. embassy come out and urge all americans to leave the country. this comes on the heels of the taliban taking control of two provincial capitals. this is a big deal. they're the first but by no means, unfortunately, probably the last. at least three other cities are under imminent threat. we spoke to the icrc, the international red cross. they had a hospital in kandahar who said in the first six months of this year they saw over 2,300 weapon-wounded patients. that's more than double the amount they saw in the first six months of last year. we've also heard from the new u.n. envoy to afghanistan. she warned that if the international community does not act soon, afghanistan could be a potential catastrophe with few,

if any, parallels this century. >> my colleague michael holm spoke earlier about afghanistan with ashley jackson. she's codirector of the center for the study of armed groups at the overseas development institute. she's also the author of a book about life under the taliban, "negotiating survival: insurgent relations in afghanistan." he asked if people in afghanistan support the taliban or if they're being forced to support them or die. here was her response. >> you have, as you do in any civil war, it's two afghanistans. you have people predominantly in the cities who benefited from the international intervention and who -- you know, jobs and school and all the international aid reached them. you also have a lot of people in the countryside who -- all the warlords we empowered after 9/11, went after them, they gave the taliban an excuse to come back.

it's those people in the rural areas that the taliban now controls who really i think have borne the brunt of the conflict. not only taliban violence, but u.s.-led air strikes, night raids. and they are absolutely exhausted. they have no -- they don't support anyone. they just want a break. they just want peace. >> that was ashley jackson at the overseas development institute. lebanon has just marked one year since the deadly explosion at beirut's port. with the official probe stalled and no one held accountable yet, people expressed their anger and frustration at the government. clashes between protesters and security forces left more than 50 people injured according to the lebanese red cross. people are demanding justice for the blast, which killed more than 200, injured thousands, and changed the lives of many others. cnn's ben wedeman reports from beirut, and we warn you his report does contain graphic images. >> reporter: nurse pamela zenun

was on the phone with her mother at 6:08 in the evening. beirut's nightmare began. pamela, in the ward for premature babies, didn't hesitate. >> i was very focussed to save the babies. >> reporter: with three babies in her arms she walked an hour and a half to find an incubator. while pamela was walking, the injured flocked to her severely damaged hospital, the st. george, where the explosion had killed four nurses. on that awful evening, more than 6,000 people were wounded, more than 200 killed. a city that over the decades has been through wars, car bombs, and terrorism had never seen anything on this scale. a year later, and most of the rubble has been cleared. some of the damage has been repaired. yet deep scars remain. >> i know a lot of my colleagues, they are still on

medication. they are still having a very hard time sleeping or eating. they still are remembering what happened. so it's really tough. >> reporter: paul and tracy najad lost their 3-year-old daughter, alexandra, in the blast. like many they blame the disaster on lebanon's political elite. >> last year after the blast, we decided to leave. which is a normal decision. they killed our daughter. they almost killed us. they destroyed our house. >> reporter: they're still here. paul was recently elected to the order of engineers and has become a vocal advocate for change and accountability. accountability that, until now, remains elusive. ilyas maloof lost his 32-year-old son, george, who was in the port when the blast happened. he regularly joins vigils with other relatives of the dead, demanding justice.

"every day his mother cries and cries. she asks, why doesn't george come over for coffee? why doesn't he come over for the weekend?" the port blast is just one catastrophe visited upon lebanon. which in the last two years has seen unrest, political paralysis, financial and economic collapse, the covid pandemic. >> all of this, when the explosion happened, was full of rubble. >> reporter: hanni and kian have come back to their old flat overlooking the port. >> most of the injuries were on his right side. and he crouched here like this. so that's why you can still see all of this blood -- >> reporter: both wounded by flying glass, scarred and traumatized. they're leaving lebanon. >> if we were see an immediate future, then we wouldn't be. >> reporter: lebanon's future is

dark. the jarring images of a year ago seared into the memories of everyone who lived through it. the nightmare isn't over. ben wedeman, cnn, beirut. many people in japan opposed holding the olympic games during the pandemic. now with the closing ceremony just hours away, we'll go live to tokyo for a preview and see if public attitudes toward the games have changed. plus scenes of destruction as the dixie fire rages out of control in california. we'll have a look at the progress fire crews are making just ahead. you love rich, delicious ice cream. but your stomach doesn't. that disagrereement ends right now. lactaid ice cream is t the creamy, real ice cream you love that will never mess with your r stomach. lactaid d ice cream. for r your best back to schol smile, crest has you covered.

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♪ holding the summer olympics in the midst of a global pandemic wasn't the most popular idea, but tokyo forged ahead and now the historic games are about to come to an end. let's go to blake essig in tokyo where the closing ceremony is just a few hours away. blake, i know organizers are playing things close to the vest. but can you tell us a bit about the closing ceremonies? do you know what's going to happen? >> reporter: yeah, you know kim, i've been standing outside for hours. i can tell you there's been a lot of commotion going on inside the national stadium as organizers continue to rehearse for the event that starts in just a few hours. there's been a lot of commotion outside the stadium too as people gather to take one last picture with the stadium before the lights go out on tokyo 2020. for now we really don't know much about the closing ceremony.

it's still very much shrouded in mystery. what we do know is that the theme for this closing ceremony is "the world we share." organizers say the idea being, even if we can't be together, we can all share the moment and open the door to a brighter future. as we take a step back and reflect on these past two weeks, these olympic games have been anything but normal. virtually no spectators allowed to attend, strict covid-19 countermeasures put in place which seemed to dampen the festival-like atmosphere that would typically accompany the olympics. despite how incredibly unpopular these games were in the days, weeks and months leading to the opening ceremony, once the game started there was a clear shift in mood of the people on the ground. you could sense the curiosity, the desire to experience the olympic games in any way that people could. in fact, right now people are out and about, straining just to take a picture of the stadium

behind me, similar to what we saw the day of the opening ceremony. for some the olympic experience, it's a matter of just coming and taking a picture, hanging out outside the venue. while a lot of people spent time watching the games on tv. according to the ioc, 9 out of 10 people in japan watched the olympics on tv at some point during the games. it's important to explain that the shift in mood really wasn't a shift in support of the olympic movement. the vast majority of people still say that these games shouldn't have taken place because of health and safety concerns. instead, it was more of a support for the men and women competing. i've heard over and over again throughout these games the desire to support the athletes that have worked so hard to be here and sacrificed so much is why that support, that excitement, really has been generated. when we look back at tokyo 2020 decades from now, there's no question the legacy of these games will be defined by the global health crisis. it's an event that many people here can feel like was held against their will. >> in terms of excitement, i suppose it didn't hurt that

japan did so well in the medal count as well. blake essig in tokyo, thanks so much. we want to take a closer look at one of the record-breaking athletes to come out of these games. sprinter allyson felix is now the most-decorated u.s. track and field star in olympics history. she won her 11th career medal in the women's 4x400 meter relay event saturday. cnn sports analyst christine brennan joins me now from tokyo. christine, put her athletic achievements into context. how amazing is what she did on the track? you run out of superlatives here. >> you do, kim, that is true. we've never seen anyone quite like her. as you said, the most-decorated american track and field star. there's a lot of competition for that title. she just passed carl lewis, one of the greats of all time. america is known for track and field stars. the united states has been a track and field nation for decades. allyson felix, age 35, in her last olympics, as a mother, now

as an advocate for moms who are athletes, as someone who has talked about social injustice, racial injustice, really finding her voice. for her to also have these two final medals, bronze in the 400, then that majestic gold medal in the 4x400 as part of a relay that included some younger women who are coming up after her, it was just the perfect ending for an amazing career from one of the greatest of all time for the united states, allyson felix. >> all right. so you touched on some sort of off the track themes there for which she's gained notoriety. so delve into that a bit more in detail. why is she such an icon to moms everywhere? >> kim, as you know, the u.s. women continue to dominate at these olympics. close to 60% of the u.s. medals, 58% of the medals won by the united states were won by women. increasingly, these women are veteran olympians.

they're professional olympians in many ways. they come back for games after games. as i said, allyson felix is 35 years old. so these are women who have had careers, because of title ix, a law that opened the floodgates for women and girls to play sports 50 years ago. they've had opportunities to play in their teens, 20s, and keep going in their 30s. invariably some of these women will want to have children. as allyson felix had her daughter three years ago, all of a sudden nike, her sponsor, she's one of the biggest names in the nike stable, all of a sudden nike says, no, we're not going to pay you while you are pregnant and on maternity leave. she fought that, and she won. nike and other shoe companies, other big names in the sports industry, relented and said, yes, we do need to respect the rights of mothers who continue to compete. a huge victory, and i think we'll see the benefits of that continuing on in the olympic games, kim. there are going to be more women who are veterans, who are moms, who are going to be able to, as i said, reap those benefits that

allyson felix fought for, and turns out once again, won. not only on the field -- >> i think we might have lost christine there. that was christine brennan talking to us from tokyo. i think we got you back, christine? >> i'm here, i can hear you. >> okay, good, you dropped out there for a second. so as you're wrapping up there about her legacy, i'm just thinking about this, that the commonality here, is there a common theme coming out of these olympics, from felix to simone biles, the way female olympians in tokyo are inspiring women in new ways? >> without a doubt. again, this is the super bowl for women athletes. certainly speaking from a u.s. perspective. but you can see it from the australian swimmers, you could see it throughout -- women are just the rock stars of these olympics. i think that will continue to be

the case. simone biles is bringing us to a conversation, worldwide conversation, about mental health. it's frankly a movement now. you consider naomi osaka, michael phelps, others talking about this important issue. allyson felix fighting for the rights of moms, fighting for equal pay for women. the u.s. women's soccer team got the bronze this time. it's led an international movement in women's football for equal pay led by the united states, all these other athletes from other countries with sport that is so popular, and canada won the gold this time over sweden. you're seeing that everywhere you turn and i think it's only going to continue as these women find their voice, as well as win their gold medals. >> well said. the achievement of women, one of the great stories of these games. christine brennan, thank you so much for being with us. >> kim, thank you, my pleasure. the u.s. senate is inching closer to passing the massive $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill.

after months of furious negotiations, 18 republican senators joined democrats to break the filibuster and shut down debate on the bill. senators are confident it will pass, but when is still a little unclear. cnn's lauren fox has the latest from capitol hill. >> reporter: senators are back in washington over the weekend. they'd hoped that they would be able to finish this bipartisan infrastructure bill this weekend. what we now are seeing is that senator bill hagerty, a republican from the state of tennessee, is digging in his heels, not allowing this bill to move any faster through the u.s. senate. he says that he is going to require the senate to exhaust the entire amount of debate time. what that means for people back home, instead of seeing this bill pass over the weekend, you can expect that this debate is going to go into early next week. that is, of course, if they can't get some kind of consensus and convince hagerty to pull back on his threat. so at this point the expectation is this bipartisan infrastructure bill is going to

pass, it's a matter of when it passes, not if it passes. but it's going to take a little bit more time. after that, democrats are hoping to move forward with their democratic-only budget bill. then they will have a vote on voting rights legislation. then they will depart for the august recess. so a lot of moving parts right now. the bottom line is this bipartisan infrastructure bill is going to get pushed off to just a few more days. it's a race against the clock as crews battle the massive dixie fire tearing through california. we'll take a look at where things stand right now after the break. it's a simple fact: it even kills the covid-19 virus. science supports these simple facts. there's only one true lysol. lysol. what it takes to protect.

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to give you a sense of scale, that's more than twice the size of new york city. right now the dixie fire is only 21% contained and it's still growing. that means it's a race against time for crews battling the flames. cnn's camilla bernal is there. >> reporter: it's dry, and it's hot. and the fire is spreading so quickly that in many cases, it's impossible to stop. firefighters with 20, 30 years of experience say they've never seen a fire like this one. they describe the dixie fire as having frightening behavior. over the weekend, though, the focus is to find people who are still unaccounted for. law enforcement saying that they have already found some but that they will continue to search over the next couple of days. firefighters are working around the clock to contain the dixie fire which has already destroyed about 200 structures. they say that about 14,000 others are still at risk.

the river fire, which is about 100 miles from where i am at the moment, also destroying about 100 structures. so a lot of work still to be done in this area. these two fires are essentially surrounding the town of paradise, which was destroyed in 2018 by the camp fire. we spoke to francine lamb, who owne eed a home in paradise and lost everything she had. she said she understands what people are going through right now who have lost everything. >> i would take them in in a heartbeat. they need a place to shower, they need to get some food, they need a place to sleep, they need to be hugged. they need to be held and told that it will get better. it will get better. it did get better for us, but it took a long time. a long time. >> reporter: after the camp fire, francine lamb bought an rv. it is full of food and supplies. she's ready to go in case she has to evacuate one more time. in the meantime, though, she is dealing with the smoke, as are

many other people in this area. some of the counties here even telling people not to go outside because the air quality is unhealthy. that smoke is affecting people not just in this state but other states that are nowhere near this fire. dozens of wildfires are burning right now in greece. officials say firefighters are waging a, quote, very big battle, especially with this huge fire on the island of avia. all residents have been evacuated to the coast. fires in athens have already caused massive def station. linda lab radculo joins us. the scene tells its open story. they've been trying to contain these fires for six days. have they managed to make much progress? >> reporter: the news from athens is much better today, fortunately. it seems that the firefighters

have managed to contain the large fire. as you can see, the devastation behind me is immense. everywhere you look is charred trees. residents here are talking about the lungs of athens being destroyed. the biggest fires at the moment, as you said, on the island of evia, where we still have massive evacuations of populations. people are gathered on the beaches and are waiting to be transferred if needed. fires are burning in the pelyponnese. the firefighters are going to have a tough time today with the wind, containing these large blazes that are still burning. >> thanks so much, alinda labrapulu in greece. olympic champion in the pool, a master with wool. we'll speak with british diver tom daley about his time at the tokyo games.

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when you really need to sleep you reach for the really good stuff. new zzzquil ultra helps you sleep better and longer when you need it most. it's non habit forming and powered by the makers of nyquil. new zzzquil ultra. when you really really need to sleep. a german humanitarian ship arrived in italy saturday after rescuing hundreds of migrants in the mediterranean sea.

it was one of two rescue ships that pulled nearly 400 people from a dangerousry overcrowded wooden boat last week. the migrants were tested for covid-19 before being transferred onto a quarantine ship. migrant boat departures have increased in recent months as weather has improved. one u.n.-affiliated group estimates more than 1,100 people have died on the journeys this year. let's take a check of the olympic medal board as the last few events wrap up in tokyo. the u.s. will end the games in the top spot, winning both the most gold medals and most medals overall. next is china, and host japan has the third highest gold haul. british diver tom daley is taking home two medals from the tokyo games, a gold and a bronze.

but perhaps his most talked about moments have come outside of the pool. he was frequently spotted knitting when not in competition, much to the delight of those on social media, of course. the diver shared his olympic experiences with our will ripley. >> i'm someone that really struggles to sit still. i'm a fidgeter, i'm someone that feels like -- if there's a cupboard or something that needs to be sorted through, i have to do that, i can't sit still and do nothing. it was great to sit back, relax, knit, have something to stay calm, focused mindful. i knit, i crochet, i basically do it everywhere. this morning i made a little cosy for my medals to stop them getting scratched. >> are you going to make another thing for that medal? >> i've been asked if i'm going to make another medal pouch, i was thinking a hat or scarf, i don't know, it gets cold in london. >> you talked about mindfulness, you talked about visualizing your dives. that was fascinating because mental health has been at the

forefront of the conversation this olympics. what have you learned from rio that you put into practice that led to winning your gold and bronze? >> in rio i was heartbroken over how the event went. i came away with the bronze medal, then the individual event, completely heartbroken. afterwards my husband said to me, maybe it wasn't to be. the reason i didn't win a gold medal was our future child was meant to see me win an olympic gold medal. the fact that my son got to watch me win an olympic gold medal is so special to me. and i cannot wait to be able to tell him most of more stories as he gets older. >> what did you think when you saw that video of your husband, and it was your mom, right? that was amazing. >> yeah, i mean, lance was screaming very loud. >> have you ever seen him scream like that before? >> yes, on roller coasters, he screams quite a lot like that. but you know, it's just -- i

think, you know, behind these medals it's not just me. it's my coaches, my support team that are around me. then most importantly, my husband, my mom, who were there, who have loved me and supported me through this whole thing and have allowed me to fly higher than i ever thought i might. i have a lot to thank them for. >> you are now a television personality, gold medalist, husband, and father. >> yes. >> how's that going? >> i mean, being a parent is the best thing in the whole world. and i have loved every second of it. there was a lot of sleepless nights at the beginning. he's just the best. he inspires me every single day. he gets me excited about the world again and what the future might hold. >> you're still so young but you speak with wisdom of somebody who's older. where did that come from? >> i mean, i think i've had to grow up pretty quickly. i was 14 at my first olympic games. i started traveling on my own, like to australia without my parents, when i was 10 years old. so you kind of have to grow up quite quickly. also losing a parent when i was 17 years old.

i all of a sudden had to take on quite a lot of responsibilities. but i don't know, i think i've always kind of been a little bit of an older soul. i'm kim brunhuber. i'll be back in just a moment with more "cnn newsroom." please do stay with us. ugh, these balls are moist. or is that the damp weight of self-awareness you now hold in your hand? yeah-h-h. (laugh) keep your downstairs dry with gold bond body powder.

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medal count. we'll show you the win that clinched it. as covid surges in the u.s., hundreds of thousands of bikers gather in north dakota. officials hope it won't turn into another superspreader event. plus showing their green, some europeans are happy to show their vaccine status, but others are hitting the streets to protest. live from cnn world headquarters in atlanta, welcome to all of you watching us here in the united states, canada and around the world. i'm kim brunhuber. this is "cnn newsroom." as the final competitions of the 2020 summer olympics come to an end, a flurry of gold medals put team usa at the top of the medal board. only a couple hours remain before the closing saer ceremon. a gold medal win