at least four people killed, 11 others injured after a russian strike on a school in ukraine. this is as the kremlin surprised the world saying that the russian president vladimir putin recently met with wagner chief yevgeny prigoshin, the same man who led a rebellion against russian. and now, president biden headed to italy for a nato leaders. and ukraine wanting to join

nato, and what is happening with sweden? and dozens of people on the east coast being flooded and bracing for more rain. i'm sara sidner with kate bolduan, and this is cnn "news central." new clue or false claim, and either way, russia is now speaking about the mystery surrounding whereabouts of wagner chief yevgeny prigozhin, as the kremlin says that the man who led the revolt against putin met with the russian president days after the mutiny. the meeting held on june 29th, five days of the prigozhin's short-lived rebellion, and lasted for three hours, but for days, the kremlin and putin have been dodging questions about prigozhin and especially where he is at the moment, and why is this claim happening now. fred pleitgen is leading us off.

this is a claim that is very enlightens not only about the whereabouts of prigozhin, but the wagner mercenaries who have been the strongest fighters for russia against ukraine, and what can you tell us? >> hi, there, sara. and yes, you can see that the private military company and how important they are for vladimir putin and the war in ukraine. what we have heard from the kremlin is that the meeting was about three hours and about 35 commanders at the meeting including yevgeny prigozhin, and one of the questions raised is if there was anyone from the russian ministry, because we know that prigozhin had beef with the top general, and the kremlin would not answer that question, but it is indicating that the wagner fighters are

something that putin is missing on the battlefield and is important to him. and if you are looking at the situation around the town of back bakhmut around eastern ukraine, and since the wagner fighters have left, the russians are pulling back and they are under a lot of pressure. one of the interesting things that we picked out of what the kremlin said about that meeting as you said was only five day after the mutiny took place is that vladimir putin spoke about the mutiny, and they all apparently pledged the allegiance to vladimir putin and to the russian state, and they said they wanted to serve the russian state, but putin talked about future combat roles, and that could indicate wagner could make a return to the battlefield, and the other thing that we can see, and this is so interesting to see and to talk about as well, and that is kremlin controlled media which had been talking wagner up over the last couple months as they

had been fighting in bakhmut is that only last night, they had been ripping into him, and he is not a robynne hood, but someone in a criminal past, and seeing what they have been doing in the past as the message is changing, sara. >> and you will be watching the twists and turns, and i wanted to ask you about another chapter in the story, and one of the top defense ministers and generals went missing after the top re revolt, and now video published of him, and what is happening here? >> yes, this is the top general of the russian military, and he is directly under the minister of defense, and there had not within any video out of him out there, and some had been speculating of his role curtailed, and sara, there was some thought that he had been lifted to overseeing the entire war in ukraine and someone extremely important for vladimir putin, and also off of the radar

since that mutiny, and he is one of the people specifically attacked by yevgeny prigoshin, and one of the reasons he is going to moscow, and now resurfaced and possibly vladimir putin trying to bring some calm into the situation, sara. >> fred pleitgen who has spent a lot of time in russia, and you have all of the goods. thank you, fred. and now, after a quick round of meetings, the president has met with king charles and vice president rishi sunak. and now, nick, the president's stop in london was brief but important with the work ahead in lithuania. >> yes, it is ongoing conversations, and they have met for six times in six months and no big headlines out of ita and little challenge from prime

minister rishi sunak of the united states deciding to give ukraine cluster munitions. and what seems to be brewing into something unexpected by everyone, and there was a real hope that remembering on the flight over that p biden had spoken to the turkish president erdogan about allowing sweden to becoming a member of nato, and tur ski the principle country blocking it, and there is a feeling that sweden has done everything that turkey had asked it to do, and yet today, president erdogan has said, whoa, hold up a moment, and let us join the eu first which is something that turkey has been wanting for a long time, and then we can talk about sweden joining nato. this is such a strange term, because a few months ago, the issue of turkey about sweden is the fact that it did not feel

that the counter terrorism measures particularly for the kurdish, and members for the kurdish opposition, that turkey did not feel they were strong enough, and the rest of nato seems to believe that sweden has done everything that it should do, and now erdogan has come up with something else, and we have heard from jens stoltenberg that there can be a positive message, and we have heard from the german chancellor that he believes that they can become a member, and it is not clear how this impasse can go around, but this is an issue to bedevil nato. >> and what about ukraine? there is a question of zelenskyy over the weekend and i don't know if it is questioning if he was going to attend, but more saying that he does not want it to be just, that he is not going there to have fun, and this is clearly a huge moment of talking about where ukraine s and the point of the war where they are, and the future of the quest to join nato. >> yeah, and it is kind of super

in keeping in way of how zelenskyy is carrying on throughout the war. he is not afraid to call out the allies to give him the fighter jets or the tanks and all of that, and this is in the same ilk. what we have heard from the foreign minister is that, look, we do believe we will get swifter membership of nato in the summit of 2008, and the roadmap there has been shortened, and that a positive, and what the new roadmap is going to look like is unclear. >> good to see you, nic. much more to come as the president is headed to lithuania. sara. joining me is jill dougherty, adjunct professor at northwestern university and correspondent of cnn and also we are joined by a u.s. treasury official. and now, this is stunning that

yevgeny prigozhin met with president putin, and he killed russian military on the way to march against moscow, and is this the interesting thing that they talked and the second thing is why. >> oh, yeah, the reality show continues. and yes, i believe it happened. even though a lot of it is really strange, and if that happened, i think that the kremlin wants us to know two things. putin is in charge as usual. everything is fine. and he is kind of calming the waters after that revolt. and number two the fighters of wagner have saluted and said that we will follow our leader, the commander in chief, and we will fight for our motherland. so, those are the two things that they want to get across.

i think it is interesting that the wagner fighters apparently saluted and said that they were going to stay on the side of putin, but there is no indication that prigozhin himself did, and that is a question. but the bottom line is that russia, as a country, they need the private military contractors not only in ukraine, because they fight better than the regular military, but around the world for russia's private military because they need private contrackers to. >> that is a good point, they need them in ukraine as well. and now, let me ask you this question, how do you think this is going to be expressed by president biden and the other members of nato as they gather for the important meeting for

nato. >> well, it is interesting that putin showed the cards, and in all of the years that he has been in power in russia, this is the first significant threat and really exposed the weakness, and vulnerabilities as he did. and when se showing the circumstances that force him to the table, that is something that i certainly hope that president biden, and all of the people at the table, and those at the nato summit will be asking, because the question of whether or not to give more advanced military equipment is in the discord and that is something that president zelenskyy has been pushing for, and the argument is that well, if we give them something like this, it will allow ukraine the ability to go on the offensive inside of russia.

and so, these threats inside of russia is what forced him to the negotiating table, and so it is clear that threats inside of russia is what might push him to the negotiating table. >> and it is something that nato is saying that, look, we might step up the process for ukraine to join, but president biden told our fareed sa carry told us that the entry into nato is not going to happen with this war. what does putin do with that? >>le with, that is part of the debate right now. you could argue that if ukraine is not going to be part of nato until the war is over, and then why doesn't putin just keep fighting inphi ni tim and keep the war going, but what biden is

talking about, look, the position is right now, if you got involved, you are involved in the war against russia. and so anything that separates allies, which this is to a certain extent, putin is going to try to exploit. >> and hargas, real quick, i wanted to ask you about his power, and many people see this as an erosion of his power, and we should not go to the extreme that this is a chance for a change of leadership. >> that is right. i am very cautious about this, and the reason is that in my 12 years in the u.s. government, and i had a lot of dictatorships within my portfolio, and countries like syria, iran, venz

way lor, where we felt that the leaders were so feckless and cowards and they would fall, but their regimes are still there. it is tempting, and fk i am tempted, too, but expect him to last, because the dictators set up the leadership in a way that pit people against each other, and that is a tactic that he has set it up, so that it will be hard for them to the into our calculation, the u.s. and our partners when pursuing the foreign policy with ukraine and seeking potential negotiations. >> thank you both for such great insight. appreciate it.

kate? >> we are getting new details on the breaking news from the last hour about larry nassar, the disgraced gymnastics doctor who was stabbed signed of prison. the man who pleaded guilty of a abusing hundreds of girls, and he is serving decades for it, and he was attacked. plus it was a 1 in 1,000 year event, and forcing people to swim out of their cars, and it is not over yet hitting the northeast very hard. a 14-year-old girl goes missing and found on a military base, and now we are learning about the marine being questioned and in custody. r and next thing i know, o our new car was here and our trade-in was gone. ta-a-da. - [narrator] buy your car with carvana today.

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we are following breaking news that we brought you last hour. the formerly convicted u.s. gymnastics physician larry nassar is serving decades behind bars after being convicted of assaults hundreds of gymnasts including the olympic medalists and including those who spoke out at trial. what more are we learning about th this? >> well, sara, we know that the former usa gymnastics doctor is recovering in a hospital after he was assaulted and stabbed ten

times in the neck, back and chest. that according to local corrections officers' union, and all of this happened in a prison northwest of orlando sunday, and nassar, as you noted there, he is spending rest of his life in prison after he admitted to sexually assaulting athletes at university of michigan and usa gymnastics which trains the olympic athletes. in 2018, he was sentenced up to 175 years in prison after more than 150 women and girls testified in his court case that nassar sexually abused them over several decades at the university of michigan and usa gymnastics. of the women who testified in his case were part of the usa gymnastics team. nassar also plead guilty to

child pornography, and he with are told that he is in the hospital after being assaulted by another inmate and stabbed ten times. >> carlos, so many of us watched each of the gymnasts coming up with the devastating vou for the update of him being physically assaulted. and now, at least 100 homes impact and the threat of flooding is not over. the authorities say high risk of excessive flooding and another risk in new england as well. polo sandoval is in rockland county, and this is one of the hardest hit areas, polo, and it is not over for parts of new york, and parts of vermont and new england, and what are you seeing there today? >> yeah, you have millions of penal, kate, under potential flood alerts and not to mention

the cleanup. i will give you to look at stony point new york, and we are about 45 miles north of new york city, and that water there is normally a babbling brook that overflowed the books in the height of the storm. obviously the water has receded, but it has left behind tons of debris. for cindy buyer who calls this home, fortunately, she said that the water only made it to the basement. right next door is richard buyer who has lived 55 of his 80 years here. he said that he has never seen it so bad. when you are looking at the photos taken just yesterday in the height of the storm, he is telling me that he was reluctant to evacuate yesterday, and not until the first responders made it to his doorstep and knocked on the door and basically pleaded with him to accept some help that he decided to get on the raft and get floated to safety. this what he told my colleagues

a little while ago. when we see that picture of you in that raft or boat, what were you thinking? >> just depressed. depressed and sad that this is happening. i knew that i was going to lose a lot of stuff, you know. what more could i do, you know. >> reporter: depressed and sad, but he is alive. this is cindy's property, and the water caused it to cave in, and finally, the sheer power of the water, and cindy is telling me that the big trunks were carried on to her property here. so really gives you the idea of how swift those currents were, and just how powerful those waters were.

in neighboring orange county, a young woman lost her footing and carried off into the ravine, and the one confirmed fatality after yesterday's historic storm. kate? >> yeah, thank you, and thank cindy, and i know you have to let us see what has happened on her property, and good example of what everybody in that community is dealing with right now, and more to come in other parts as well. polo, thank you. coming up, the 14-year-old girl is back with her grandmother after she went missing for weeks. she was found at a military base in california, and now a marine is in custody and being questioned. and also, the candidates vying for the 2024 republican nomination, and they maybe should have flocked elsewhere like new hampshire. that is ahead. helps restore gum health, and rehardens enamel. i'm a big advocate of recommending things that i know work.

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republican primary calendar is taking clear shape. the iowa republicans voted this week to hold the first in the nation caucuses on january 15th. no date yet for new hampshire's republican contest, the first in the nation primary, but it is likely to take place before the end of january given how things are going. and joining me how to look at the impact of the states, and

senior commentator and im, inspector, and january 15th, is also a holiday and martin luther king day, and earlier in the cycle means what? >> earlier in the calendar means they have more time to prepare and execute. in the case of iowa though, you have to keep in mind that it is a particular electorate that is going to be coming out for the republican caucuses, and it tends to be more evangelical and they will have a couple more sundays out there to have those evangelicals turn out, and those who are tuning into the unusual

calendar, kate. >> ron desantis is struggling in the polls right now, but not struggling in the fund-raising so much. the second quarter numbers is $20 million, and it is less than trump the, but still a big number, and what about the mismatch of the fund-raising and the poll numbers? >> what it is telling you is that the donors are interested in seeing ron desantis take down dr. but unfortunately the voters are feeling otherwise by a large margin as a matter of fact. i am looking through the first dozener so states, and you can't find a place where trump doesn't have like a 20-plus point advantage over ron desantis, and in fact, the first place where they are even remotely close is in wisconsin, but it is in april, and that is on the other side of super tuesday, and the delegates will be delegated. the faction of to donor class

who wants trump, and now we have to find some donors who feel the same way. >> and now, we have to see that we are hearing from the spokesperson of the superpac who is supporting him that they are well behind now, and also, candidates say they don't run their race by tracking the poll numbers and ron desantis is blaming the media for those same poll number, and let me play for you what he said this weekend. >> these are the narratives that the media does not want me to be the nominee. that is very, very clear. why? because i will beat biden and they know i will deliver on these things. >> that is a strategy that is not new as you know, erroll, but is this where people thought

that he would be at this point, and do you think that he was not as well known outside of florida as many suspected that he was or thought that he was? >> well, that is certainly a problem, but all of the money that you alluded to should buy your way out of that problem or to help you to be known. the problem with ron desantis is that the more known he is, the worse he does in the polls. so something fundamentally wrong there. and so when a candidate is blaming it on the media, they have to blame somebody, because they have spent a lot of time and energy and gone to a lot of appearances, and every time he opens up his mouth, it seems that the voters like him less. so, you want to blame the media, blame the media. if he is somehow thinks that the media has a hold on evangelical republican voteers in nevada and in iowa and in south carolina, that is way, way, way more authority or influence than the mainstream media has.

the reality is that he has a real serious problem. he is going to have to fix it. fix it maybe with the help of the media, but by castigating them, it won't help though. >> and it is not a new strategy as we have seen in the past. and maybe the change comes in august on the debate stage, but when it comes to the caucuses of where we started this, the caucuses, and it has a mixed bag if you will of the record in terms of predicting who will be the eventual nominee for republicans, and we did hear the talk over the weekend this time, this year, this cycle, and if trump would win in iowa that the primary is essentially the nominating contest is essentially over, and he is already starting so far ahead, and he has so much momentum that

he would be off and running to that point. what do you think of that? >> that is pretty sound actually, and you are right on both counts, and the iowa caucuses have not been a great predictor of who is the great republican nominee, and you can ask mike huckabee who was the republican nominee, and did not become the republican nominee and the same with rick santorum, and ted cruz, and it is not a great predictor, but if you are mike pence or ron desantis, and that is the base of the base for you, and the evangelical base, and if you cannot win them over, it is really hard to see where you get back into the race. an early knockout blow is what the trump team will try and accomplish. >> thank you, errol louis. a 14-year-old girl who was reported missing was found in a

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a u.s. marine is being in custody and being questioned after a 14-year-old girl was discovered in the barracks. according to girl's grandmother, she was reported missing and then discovered at the barracks two weeks later. what are you learning about happened here and what they are saying as to whether he and the 14-year-old are connected in some way? >> sara, unfortunately the details are limited on this case, and especially because we are talking about a minor here.

all of the information that we got from the marine corps is that the 14-year-old was at the barracks here on base, and that is where the military police found her. they also say that a marine was into custody for questioning all happening on the 28th. this is part of the statement from the marine corps, and this is what they are saying. this command takes this matter and all allegations very seriously. the incident is under investigation, and we will continue to cooperate with ncis and appropriate authorities. the ncis is the naval criminal investigative services. they declined to comment out of respect of the investigative process, but the sheriff's department here released a time line of what happened with the entire situation, and the sheriff's department saying that the grandmother reported her missing on june 13th, but the grandmother told deputies that she ran away from home on the 9th, and the grandmother saying

it was not the first time that she ran away from home, but normally returned home quickly, so they put her name into the databases, and it was not until the 28th that the military police found that girl here on the base, and then the detectives were able to speak to her, and offered resources and reunited her with her grandmother, but yes, a lot of questions in terms of how this all happened, and how this little girl was able to get on the base. we will have to wait for the findings of the ncis investigation, since it is a complicated case because of what we are dealing with here in terms of the 14-year-old girl. sara. >> i think that at least one member of the family member has been vocal and wants a thorough investigation. kate? >> prosecutors in california have said they have won a first of its kind murder conviction. a 20-year-old man convicted of

second-degree murder along with other charges in connection with the death of a fentanyl death. josh campbell is following this for us. josh, the d.a.'s office says it is the first of its kind conviction, and what more are you learning about this? >> yes, it is right, kate. as the law enforcement is trying to counter the fentanyl epidemic, and we are seeing the prosecutors getting more aggressive and then sell fentanyl that kills someone. that is what happened against this man who is accused of providing a fentanyl-laced pill to a 15-year-old girl who then died. he was just convicted of a

15-year-old girl who later dies. this is happening to so many who think they are buying a op yoid, and then it becomes so impacted by the pills, and they are laced, and end up deadly, and the kids are dying. i sat down long with the d.a. to discuss this. >> where we can hold the dealers accountable, we will do so aggressively and teach them that if they come into the community to sell these deadly drugs, they may pay for it with a deadly sentence. >> reporter: so it is different than the cocaine dealers or the meth dealers, and why is this different? >> we have prosecuted drugs that

people overdose before, with but the lethality that it is being sold is changing landscape. >> the 21-year-old drug dealers will be appearing in court. >> there are. >> it is something even though the crisis is overwhelming as the d.a. makes clear. good to see you. and now, we are learning that forever chemicals are found in nearly after of the nation's drinking water, and what can be done and how it affectts you next.

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there are growing calls now to remove forever chemicals contaminating tap water pretty much everywhere. this is after a new study that found half of the tap water in the united states contains these chemicals that have now shown to be harmful and dangerous. they're manmade chemicals known as pfas. they're nearly indestructible and called forever chemicals and almost ubiquitous in everything from nonstick cookware to cleaning supplies to fast food wrappers, microwave popcorn containers, pizza boxes. now you get my drift. if they are everywhere how do we get rid of them now? joining us now is faye, a columnist for bloomberg news, host of follow the science podcast as well. faith, thanks for coming in. you took a look back to understand a little bit of how we got here, especially after

some would seem massive settlements of the chemical companies over these chemicals. what is the back story with pfas? what are they and where do they come from? >> yeah. it's really interesting. the company that had to pay a huge settlement was 3m and they are the main makers or were the main manufacturers of these chemicals, and they were considered a real innovation in the '60s. a chemist i interviewed sent me a book called "the chemical history of 3m" and there was an an be neck dote in there about how the chemists at 3m were so confident these chemicals were safe they actually brought some of them in a chris sta lin form in a corporate meeting and dished it out on paper plates and ate it. they all survived, but this happened because the chemicals are considered inert and thought

react with things and they're safe. it doesn't mean they're going to poison you but they're hard to get rid of and they don't degrade in the environment. >> as has been shown, depending on the levels, they are proving to be harmful. they are showing to be harmful and dangerous and in -- linked to many different things. it wasn't until recently the epa put out a warning saying this class of chemicals was much more dangerous in humans than originally thought. i was doing a read of it and more dangerous even at levels thousands of times lower than previously believed. just that one anecdote in and of itself data point has me wondering how could they be so off on this? what does it say about how much or how little we know about these chemicals? >> some of it is just that it's really hard to know how things lag long term. you can test how things act in the short term, which is what happened at the time, and the

bad effects are things that are cumulative because they build up and build up, they build up in the environment. it's not just in half of our drinking water. it's in 98% of people's blood streams. they've done tests of people and it's -- they've done autopsy studies and it's in most people's liver, so it's really everywhere. i think they haven't been able to get a clear link to cancer. it's considered a possible carcinogen. the more likely effects are parabolic. a lot of compounds affect people's metabolisms and maybe even increase our risk for obesity. >> potential links to cholesterol levels as well. a professor out of notre dame, my fare is this global warming aside this is probably the most expensive environmental problem we're ever going to face. what do people need to know

about what they can do now, if this is such a long-term problem? >> yeah. i think we have to demand they take it out of the trivial uses, fast food wrapping, pizza boxes. it was even in toilet paper. somebody found small levels in toilet paper. we have to demand those uses, which are the main contributors to the build up in the environment, that those stop, that the risks are -- the benefits are not worth the risks. >> absolutely. well, faye, thank you so much for coming on. it was really interesting reading some of your work on this and what you've learned about this through your study as well. good to see you. thank you. this is one of those things unintended consequences. we think we're so smart. >> everyone loves nonstick cookware until you realize it's not helping you it's hurting you. >> right. >> it's the compound, the build up over years, that people are

pointing to which is exactly unintended consequences of our easy lives. >> thank you so much for joining us. this is "cnn news central." she's kate bolduan, i'm sara sidner. john is enjoying his life. "inside politics" is next. starting at just $79.95? the exexam alone is worth... 59 bucks. i mean, people deserve breaks, right? yeah, brakes...! [out of cocontrol] book an exam today at americasbest.com.

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