anything. giving the utmost respect to whoever our opponent is, that we're going to give our best on any day that we have to play. and i think that's our sole focus of the team. >> reporter: the u.s. women's national team have been synonymous with dominance. they've won four of the eight women's world cups ever played. that drive to be the best is engrained in the team's culture. and there's no plan to chaenge that now. >> the goal is just always winning. that's all that matters. that's like our secret sauce is just this like insatiable desire to win, and everything else comes after that. >> i have to say, there are not many people betting against the u.s. success, despite that incredible weight of history that is on their shoulders. the signs are certainly ominous for vietnam, not only because it's their first ever match on the world stage, they lost their last match 9-0 to spain, and

there's such an awareness, not only from the usa but everybody involved in the world cup. this is the biggest ever women's sporting event on the planet. they want to put on a show and the best way to do that is to let their feet do the talking. >> can't wait to watch, amanda davis, thank you. "cnn this morning" continues right now. russia terrorizing the southern ukrainian city of o odesa. >> arguably the most intense yet in terms of the weaponry that we saw on display. >> what appeared to be interception rockets flying every which way, which did appear to take out a missile. >> what evidence does jack smith have? what witnesses has he spoken to that trump and his team are unaware of? >> what criminal activity did he do? he told people to be peaceful. >> our system is not perfect and it is damn near perfect and the best in the world. >> the single most important

question is whether any of these cases actually get to trial before the 2024 election. in rocky mount, north carolina, a tornado packing 150 miles per hour winds pummelled a pfizer pharmaceutical plant. >> we have a lot of damage here in the county at this time. i'm urging the people to stay off the roadways. >> that's my sister's home behind me that's totally destroyed. a witness is sharing what she saw when travis king ran across the border. >> it's believed he sprinted across. >> my mom's lost a son before. this is weighing very heavily on her. >> police in suffolk county are reinterviewing two women after discovering rex heuermann propositioned them two years ago. >> he had this smile on his face. >> for some reason they did not want to meet with him. >> this defendant was living a double life, a part of his life that he very much kept hidden.

we have breaking news overnight, russia launching its most intense attack on the ukrainian city of odesa, since the invasion began, at least one person is dead and two people are injured after russia pummelled the southern port city with intense barrages of drone and missile strikes for the third straight night. it damaged a building and destroyed a nursery as well. officials in odesa are now urging people to stay in shelters until the sirens end. s not only did russia withdraw from the black sea grain deal, they're burning the grain too in attacks he calls barbaric as millions of people in developing nations rely on it. officials claim the previous two days of attacks destroyed 60,000 tons of grain. we want to get straight to cnn's alex marquardt in odesa. alex, are more strikes expected based on what you've seen over the course of the last three days? >> reporter: that is certainly

the fear, phil. i mean, there was a major question about whether it would happen last night after two days, and it certainly did, in an incredibly intense way. this city has never seen an attack like this. last night's strike alone would have been the worst attack on this city so far in this war, but it was three nights this a row. i want to show you this building behind me that was completely destroyed overnight. this is an administrative building near the port. we are told that it has nothing to do with the port, nothing to do with the grain infrastructure, nothing to do with the military, and yet this is where one of those russian missiles landed. you can see how it was completely destroyed, all of this debris here. there's still smoke coming from the rubble. all of that blackened steel from that explosion, firefighters have been trying to put this out, and of course when missiles landed is not just the destruction in that immediate area. there's destruction all around here, that shock wave has knocked out windows for blocks. there is dust everywhere. trees have been knocked over. this was an attack that started just before 2:00 in the morning.

we heard those air raid sirens starting. we saw tracers from air defense guns trying to take drones out of the sky, and then the missiles started. we saw ukrainian interceptor rockets flying up into the sky. there were some explosions causing this huge glow. i want to play with you a short clip of one of these massive explosions that we witnessed. take a look. again, that is just one explosion that we heard during an hour and a half. this was a sophisticated, sb intense attack by russia using almost 20 drones, almost 20 missiles. different kinds of cruise missiles and long range supersonic strategic bombers. odesa was not the only city hit, mykolaiv also another southern port city was hit. there were 19 people hurt there. one person in this building was killed, of course, there is a

concern that that death toll could rise. but phil and abby, in the minds of ukrainian officials there is no doubt this is related to the grain deal, russia of course pulling out of that grain deal on monday. as you noted, phil, some 60,000 tons of grain were destroyed in the second night of attacks. we do know that there was some destruction at the port last night, a local official pointing out to me that not only how important this port is to that grain deal, but they've also been upgrading their machinery, their terminals. russia clearly sending a message not just in terms of the weaponry that they're using, but also the targets. ukrainian officials of course believe that this was related to this grain deal that russia pulled out of. phil, abby. >> alex marquardt, thank you very much. just hours from now, a federal fwrgrand jury is set to meet as donald trump stares town another potential criminal indictment. we're expecting the panel in d.c. to hear more testimony from witnesses as they prepare to

decide if trump will face federal charges for trying to overturn the 2020 election. it's unknown exactly when that big decision might come down. midnight is the deadline for trump's lawyers to respond to special counsel jack smith and decide if they want to put trump on the stand in front of the grand jury. >> and we're also now learning that trump has quietly hired another attorney to beef up his defense team, he's a white collar defense lawyer who used to be a federal prosecutor, and we're tole d that trump's team scrambling to find out if smith has any witnesses or evidence that they don't know about yet in this case. let's bring in cnn's senior crime and justice reporter katelyn polantz. this is potentially a big day, all eyes are on that grand jury. >> yeah, so abby and phil, the grand jury, they industrial have tissu -- a little bit of work to do. a man who was quite close to trump as a person aide after trump left the white house, but who also had worked in the white house, a man named will russell. we don't know exactly what he's going to be testifying about,

but this is his third trip in to provide secret grand jury testimony. we do believe one other witness is going to be going into the grand jury today. the grand jury has a little bit more work to do confidentially. the decision may already have been made at the justice department to bring a charge, an indictment through the grand jury against donald trump for actions related to january 6th and the 2020 election. very likely, i say that because trump gets that target letter. that's not something the justice department does lightly at all, and so now we wait. the grand jury could return an indictment really at any time that they're being convened, but their proceedings are quite secret. on the trump side of things, there really is a scramble happening right now to figure out what's going on. this lawyer, john lauro did come in to work on the january 6th side of the case. kaitlan collins was able to break that news last night. john lauro has been involved around donald trump and the legal proceedings with him

previously. he's wibeen representing attorns who are privy to some of the things that have become part of the cases against trump, specifically that documents case in florida. john lauro was part of the team that's trying to find out is anybody else going to get charged alongside trump. >> we had some investigative reporting that trump's team is increasingly concerned the grand jury has evidence or testimony that they may not be awir of. if they're not aware of it, are you? what could it be? what would they be worried about specifically? >> god, phil, i wish i was aware of it. that would be really great. >> katelyn knows everything. >> you know everything, i know you know. >> i'm trying. we're in this together. but there is very, very likely many things that donald trump's defense team does not know about that would be evidence in this case. first isand foremost, does anyo know what testimony mark meadows, his former chief of

staff has given to the grand jury when he testified. he didn't speak to the house. he didn't speak to congress, and from our understanding, he really was cutting off contact or at least his defense lawyers were cutting off contact with the trump side of things very early on, so huge question mark there, and then of course the justice department has an enormous amount of subpoena power. they can go to tech companies. they can go to banks. they can go to all different kinds of places to get documents to bring into the case as evidence, and you know, trump's team might never know that any of those things are pulled in, let alone whether they exist. that audiotape was really an 11th hour surprise of trump speaking to people in bedminster. we still remain to see whether something like that would emerge in the january 6th investigation. >> you and the team have a big day ahead. thank you. let's bring in former federal prosecutor dan ya perry. today we've been talking about what might happen at the grand jury. they're expected to meet.

as ckatelyn polantz pointed out they have some interviews to do. you look at that, you look at the target letter and what do you think is the potential time line here? >> i think it's not this week. i think it's next week. and we have some precedent here, as katelyn said, target letters are not the usual course of business. it's extraordinary but special counsel jack smith has done it before. he's done it with mr. trump, and an indictment followed within a week or so, just a few days. i think that's likely he has a deadline of today, mr. trump does in order to provide testimony if that's what he chooses to do. it seems he will not. they are wrapping it up. that's clear enough. there's some loose ends. that seems also clear. so i don't know exactly what dates the grand jury meets. katelyn probably does, but it seems that they are finishing their work this week, and i think that given how monumental

this indictment will be and how polarizing, i'm sure sooner is going to be the preference, rather than later. so i expect it would be next week if, in fact, charges come. >> on the statutes themselves that were mentioned in the target letter that's been reporting from "the wall street journal" and "new york times" and others as well. there were three of them, it's the third one that's captured attention, the deprivation of rights. i want to play something that one of the trump team's former lawyers said when we asked him about it. listen. >> going a civil rights route i think gets them into a lot more granular detail of kind of re-examining every single little claim of potential fraud and really relit figating the resul of the election within this trial. that's a lot more extensive than i would have expected. >> you know, saying basically this was a lot more extensive in terms of what they would have to do, relitigating to some degree

all the potential election fraud cases, alleged election fraud cases that ended up not being true and that he was surprised. their team had not prepared for that. why would they want to pursue that if you're the special counsel's office? >> i'm surprised that the defense team is surprised. >> really? >> there's no question that, you know, at the end of the day, there are various schemes here, and it seems clear enough based on the statutes that are listed in that target letter that they are looking no doubt at several of them. a loof attention is focused on e false electoral slate, and given the witnesses that have been in front of the grand jury, that seems likely. but the statute that you mentioned, which is an unusual one, it was enacted shortly after the civil war, but it has been used particularly in the election fraud context and in the context of violence that is used in order to deprive pe of the constitutional right to

vote. we don't know if that's exactly what this means, if that's exactly the scaffolding here for that particular statutory claim. it could be also depriving members of congress of their privilege essentially of casting their votes. so we don't really know, but it's all of a piece, and it seems that this is a statute that could actually capture a lot of the various schemes leading up to january 6th and that encompass january 6th as well. >> sort of like an umbrella for all of these problems trump could face. i do wonder what do you think the evidentiary burden is here? what do they need to show trump did or said in order to prove these charges? >> the evidentiary burden in any criminal trial is beyond a reasonable doubt. i think that special counsel jack smith's team is probably looking to prove it beyond any doubt. but, you know, in this case in particular, i think they are

crossing every t, dotting every i, and looking at all possible defenses, making sure they can rebut them. but i think, you know, in this case, they don't have to prove that, you know, anything really ability the election, whether it was stolen or not stolen, they actually don't need to relitigate all these cases, if they keep it tight and narrow in the way they did with the mar-a-lago indictment that just came down last month, they can actually litigate whether or not there was fraud, whether or not -- and that could be relatively simple, right? were these slate of electors the real slate of electors, or were they fake? and then you don't have to bring in i think a lot of the questions that, you know, mr. pal tor ree was just talking about in relitigating a lot of the cases that the defense has already lost. >> john lauro added to the team, is that a good addition in your view? >> i know todd blanche well. he was a colleague of mine at

the southern district of new york. he was a paralegal on my first trial there, and he's an incredibly hard worker, incredibly meticulous, incredibly smart. i don't know mr. lauro as well. i'm sure they will have a robust and hardworking team. the department of justice is looking into how migrants at the southern border are being treated after reports surfaced that troopers were told to push them back into the rio grande river and deny them water in scorching texas heat. the report stated the treatment comes under governor greg abbott's latest policies. cnn's shimon prokupecz joins us now. some of the photos with the reports were shocking. what's going to happen here? >> what's so shocking here is the fact that this is a state trooper who is working on the border because of the dgovernors policies. they have hundreds of state troopers that are now assigned to work on the border, and he's essentially complaining about what they are doing to the

mig migrants, how they are treating the migrants. and one of the things he talks about in a memo he writes to his bosses is there's this razor wiring they've put across the water to try and prevent migrants from coming to land, and that razor wiring is causing a lot of destruction and harm to the people that are crossing. what we have found is that in some of the photos that were released, you could see there the injuries on this one individual across his stomach. he was caught in the razor wiring. they had to actually cut him out and bring him to land. the other thing what's going on is that because of the way they have placed the razor wiring, which is sort of on the more shallow end of the water, people are going to the deeper end to try and get to land, and they are drowning. so there were five people who died during the week that this particular trooper was working the operation. it's so stunning and really just unprecedented to see a state trooper complaining to his bosses about what they are doing on the boarrder.

he's not the only one. we're told there have been several other complaints. they're complaining that they're not giving water to the migrants. the department of public safety said that's not happening. we don't have that kind of policy. we know it's happening. i spoke to someone who was in a meeting where they were told don't give the my gigrants wate. we don't want to help them come to land. we need to deter them coming to land. >> it's really shocking and potentially allegedly inhumane contact if this is true. what happens next, and has there been a response from greg abbott's office? >> of course greg abbott is continuing to fight. this is our policy, this is what we're doing. we're doing whatever we can to secure the border. the department of justice is now saying they're assessing the situation at the border and really, the question now is will the administration in some way, which we know they're unhappy with some of greg abbott's policies, will they get more involved? will the department of justice get more involved? you talk about this being inhumane. that's exactly what the state trooper is saying in this memo to his boss.

we have gone too far here and what we are doing is inhumane. >> we have to remember also a lot of these folks coming over the border are children as well caught in this razor wire. >> keep us post on the justice department in particular, thank y you. the irs whistle-blowers testifying on capitol hill that hunter biden received special treatment in a federal investigation. house democrats are calling the republican led hearing a theater of the absurd. have you checked your power ball ticket this morning, somebody out there is a billion dollars richer. we're going to tell you where the winning ticket was sold.

this morning, some lucky person in california who is not me, will wake up as a brand new billionaire, and that's billionaire with a b after winning the third largest jackpot in powerball history. the ticketholder will have to decide whether to take a lump sum payment of $558 million or

the yearly payments on the $1 billion prize. both numbers are before taxes, of course, and cnn's stephanie elam is live in los angeles where this ticket was sold. man, stephanie. >> you didn't win, right? >> reporter: friends, would i be here right now? let's just discuss. would i be here right now? >> that's what i told phil. >> that's fair. that's fair. >> come on, that would be a game change. it's a billion little dreams being answered right now for one person, a group of people, who knows. maybe it was an office pool. who knows. >> that's true. >> here in downtown los angeles in the garment district on this very unassuming little street, someone has purchased a ticket, and in case you want the numbers, in case somebody's up, maybe they can't sleep and they want to make sure these numbers are their numbers, it is 7, 10, 11, 13, 24 and the powerball 24. somebody hit all six of those

numbers. and maybe you guys should be buying a plane ticket to come out here because in november there is a $2 billion jackpot that was won in alta deena about 15 miles away. there might be something in the air out here. i think a lot of us are going deep buying into that and buying our tickets. some very lucky person, persons, we don't though who they are yet. here's another fun fact, this little shop here, they're going to get about a million dollars for just selling the ticket. >> wow. >> reporter: they'll get a million dollars too. there is more than just one winner this morning here in california. >> not the three of us. >> that little shop may or may not be there in a few months once they get that million dollar check. >> reporter: they might be ready to move on. >> exactly. following the supreme court's ruling that colleges and universities may no longer consider race, some schools are eliminating legacy admissions. wesleyan university is among

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that's what i thought. introducing the next generation 10g network. only from xfinity. since the supreme court's decision against affirmative

action, more colleges and universities are re-evaluating their admissions processes. legacy admissions have come under increased scrutiny because the practice usually gives preferential treatments to applicants who are the children of alumni, which also tends to favor white and wealthy candidates. the private school wesleyan university in connecticut joins an array of prestigious schools that have ended that practice, including m.i.t., and carnegie mellon. joining us now is the president of wesleyan university, michael roth. president roth, thank you very much for joining us. for years activists have been calling for this step to end legacy admissions and even that playing field. polls also show that a majority of the public just doesn't support this practice. i wonder why did it take so long for your school to get there is this. >> yeah, for us legacy admissions was never a very important feature of our admissions process, and truth be told, several years ago i

suggested that we just do away with it because it's a distraction. we're talking -- you and i are talking about legacy admissions rather than talking about the i inadequate funding of public universities across the country. we're talking about relatively small number of highly selective schools that give unfair preferential treatment to children of alumni. it was clear we should get rid of it. the supreme court's decision saying that we shouldn't consider the groups with which students are identified, racial groups made it even clearer to me that it was indefenseible to give preference to the children of alumni. we love have the children of alumni who deserve to be on campus, and most of the ones who come do deserve to be there, but we don't need to give preferential treatment to people who already have resources bestowed upon them. >> one of the critiques of

getting rid of legacy admission is that it hurts their ability to raise money. do you think wesleyan will be hurt at all financially by this decision? >> i am the president of the university, although i'm a teacher and historian, my job as president is to make sure the school has the financial resources to do the work it needs to do, which includes financial aid for almost half of our students, so i would not be able to make this decision if i thought it was going to hurt the school economically. i believe that wesleyan's alumni will actually be more generous and more supportive because this is the decision that aligns with their values. this is not a decision that will take something away from them. this is a decision that makes them proud an alum of wesleyan. >> i want you to listen to what president biden said about affirmative action after the supreme court made that decision a few weeks ago. listen. >> a poor kid, maybe the first in the family to go to college,

gets the same grades and test scores as a wealthy kid, his whole family has gone to the most elite colleges in the country and his path has been a lot easier, the kid who faced tougher challenges has demonstrated more grit, more determination, and that should be a factor that colleges should take into account in admissions. >> this kind of speaks to what you were talking about earlier, but i wonder, do you think there needs to be preferences for people from disadvantaged backgrounds in spite -- no matter what their race is? >> yes, i think that -- and one of the things i hoped would happen with this announcement is that we would be able to give attention to all the programs we have and schools like wesleyan have to find talented students who think they can't afford to go to a police like wesleyan, but, in fact, it could be free for them, and we want to find students who have not had advantages given to them but have enormous potential, have enormous talent, have great

ambition, and they are the ones who most deserve to be at schools like wesleyan because they have shown the ability to overcome obstacles to get their work done, and to fulfill their ambitions. >> and over in washington some lawmakers are calling for a bill that would basically prevent colleges from using preferences for donors and for alumni. do you think that that is a role for the federal government that they ought to be doing that? >> i don't think that this is a subject for legislation myself. i don't think these preferences should be in place, but i think much more important for congress to work on is to adequately fund k through 12 education to make sure that some people aren't systematically disadvantaged in this country because of where they happen to live, where they go to school. i think it's much more important to focus on where most people go to school, which is not where we have legacy admissions, where most people go to school are big public universities and colleges

and community colleges and it would be great if our legislators spent time worrying about how to fund those schools adequately. >> focusing on that pipeline to c college, not just what happens when they get there. >> exactly. >> wesleyan university president michael roth, thank you very much for joining me this morning. >> thank you for having me. we are about a month away from the first republican debate, and donald trump, he said he doesn't need to be on the stage if he has a big lead in the poll. the republican national committee chair is responding next. and 13 women and two ob/gyns testifying in a texas court after filing a lawsuit challenging the state's abortion ban. their emotional testimony is ahead.

the clock is ticking and time is running out for gop presidential hopefuls to make that debate stage. the republican national committee has three criteria to qualify, reaching 1% in three national polls, having 40,000 unique donors and pledging to support the eventual gop nominee. five of trump's riflevals are o the crux of qualifying.

rnc chair ronna mcdaniel had this response to that. >> i think he should be on the stage. i want everybody on the stage that qualifies obviously. i think it's a mistake to not do the debates , but that's going be up to him and his campaign. >> joining us now is cnn national correspondent john king, the john king. >> contractually that's how you have to respond to it. that's how you have to address him, the john king. >> so john -- so john, what is your sense of things right now? trump is facing his third indictment. he's, you know, 30, 40 pounds -- points ahead in the polls, and ron desantis is really struggling. does he take the debate stage at this point? the expectation if you talk to people close to the former president is yes as of this morning. a the the as of this morning part

is important. you've been through this with donald trump. he likes to keep us waiting. he says he doesn't have to be there because he has this big lead. we have a consequential 39 days between now and that debate. it is certain we will hear from jack smith or almost certain we will hear from jack smith's grand jury looking into election interference. it's most likely we'll hear from fani willis about looking into election interference in that state. are there plenty of opportunities for donald trump to say never mind, i have other things to do. the people around him say despite him leaving it out there, i don't need to be there, they to expect him to be at the first debate as of now, in part because we all know donald trump. he loves that spotlight skprgs h, and he's likely to skip the second debate. he has a long running feud with the people that run that library. i think as of today, you should expect him to be there for the first one, probably not for the second one, but again, it's donald trump. we will have this conversation many times. >> john, i feel like at this point in the race, the

conversations are often talking about the same dynamics over and over again. can we do the thing where like you generously allow me to barge into your office and ask you what are you hearing right now? and you're not too exasperated usually, but you actually tell me really interesting stuff. what are you hearing behind the scenes right now from top campaign officials? >> that we live in this upside down world where bad news benefits donald trump. you were talking about this in the last hour where he's fund-raising. his poll positions have stabilized. you can read that two ways. we can get into some of the polling if you want, where he has usually high 30s, somewhere around 40%. if all these other candidates if there are five, six, seven eight c candidates on the ballot, and donald trump says at 30%, he will be the candidate. we have a long way to go here, but right now in the upside down defy political gravity world that trump has us in for years

now, he short-term benefits from this. that doesn't mean it strengthens him as a general election candidate. at the moment it keeps his base intense and in and keeps him in the high 30s which in a crowded field is good for trump. >> i want to ask you about some news that came in late yesterday which is that new hampshire governor chris sununu who is often out there talking about this race. he decided not to run for president but is a critic of trump's, says the party needs to mover on. he says he's not running for re-election. "politico" had a piece i thought put it well. does this spell the end of that -- the beginning of the end perhaps of that genre of republican governor who can thrive in a purple state, who's trying to chart a course in the middle. does it say anything he has decided not to run again? >> yes, but i think again that's a big tbd as to the impact. there are a number of anti-trump republicans. now chris sununu, liz cheney

being voted out, lose ago primary, leaving the house of representatives. frequently the former lieutenant of georgia, jeff duncan. a number of these republicans are moving to the sidelines, saying i'm going to wait this thing out. i don't like trump being the leader of my party. i'm going to go over to the sidelines and wait this out. it is proof to your point about the power of the trump effect, how he has redefined the republican party. i would say this, chris sununu on the ballot in 2024 probably has to be a little more careful about what he says. if he was running for re-election in a presidential election year. now he's a free agent. he won't be on the ballot in 2024. he's a fierce trump critic. his state has the first presidential primary after the iowa caucuses. his big choice now is does he pick somebody else in that trump field? does he put his popularity to test in new hampshire in that race. >> a big question related to that is how much effect would it have in the state of new hampshire where some republicans

this that state are actually quite far to the right and maybe not so much aligned with the chris sununu's world. >> no question. >> we love having you on early in the morning. wake up early for us again. >> sure thing. come to new york someday. there's a train from here to there. >> oh, yeah. that's a good point. >> we know all about that. >> thanks, buddy, appreciate it. for the first time, a second irs whistle-blower publicly accused the justice department of mishandling an information s into hunter biden. he testified in a six-hour hearing on capitol hill, both men saying federal prosecutors did not follow normal procedures in the criminal investigation into hunter biden's taxes. here's part of that testimony. >> it appeared to me based on what i experienced that the u.s. attorney in delaware in our investigation was constantly hamstrung, limited and marginalized by doj officials as well as other u.s. attorneys. >> we're not disgruntled.

we're not out here to get people. we're here for accountability and that we learn from this. >> cnn's kara scannell is here. kara, i actually watched some of it, read most of the transcript of the hearing, i thought it was a fascinating hearing because of the witnesses themselves. what was your takeaway from watching? >> yeah, that's the first time we've seen is and heard from joseph ziegler, he's a 13-year veteran of the irs. things that both he and his supervisor gary shapley who also testified had said doj dooef wrated from some of its normal course. they said they uncovered evidence that could potentially tie to either president biden or his grandchildren, they were blocked from pursuing that. they wanted to interview hunter biden's children. he wanted to follow the money trail and talk to them. he said they were told, no, they couldn't pursue certain of these

steps, which according to his testimony and shapley, you know, doj prosecutors said that would get them into hot water. so they're raising these as potential red flags. now, the merrick garland, the attorney general, the u.s. attorney for delaware, a trump appointee david weiss, they've pushed back on this. they said there was no interference in this investigation. >> these are serious allegations, but of course the hearing was full of a lot of theatrics including from marjorie taylor greene, which will probably come as no surprise to people paying attention. what did democrats say and do to respond to what was being said yesterday? >> so for republicans this was about, you know, whether doj's politicized and also, you know, they have been talking about investigating the biden family. jamie raskin, the ranking member on the house oversight committee pushed back on this. take a listen to what he said. >> but one thing you will not hear today is any evidence of

wrongdoing by president joe biden or his administration, like every other tri by our colleagues to concoct a scandal about president biden, this one is a complete and total bust. >> as you can imagine, we're going to hear a lot more about this in the months ahead. they're hoping to get david weiss to come testify before the committee as well as merrick garland in september. >> kara scannell, thank you. over the last two weeks, two women were seriously injured in bison attacks at two different national parks. so are the animals being too aggressive, or are people just getting too close? (mom) the momement i loved our subaru outback most... was the moment they walked away from it. (daughter) mom! (mom) oh, thank goodness. and that's why our family will only drive a subaru. (vo) subaru. more iihs top safety pick plus awards than any other brand. love. it's what makes subaru, subaru. a single strand of mrna...

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in just a matter days, two women were injured in bison attacks while visiting national parks. saturday in north dakota a woman suffered injuries to her stomach and when bison charged herp. on monday, a bison gored a woman in wyoming. both were september to hospitals to be treated for their injuries and investigations into the attacks are ongoing. joining us now with more insight into this is yellowstone wildlife safari guide grant trchlt johnson. grant, wow. this sounds really scary and both of these incidents are different, but i wonder, are people just getting too close to these animals or is something else happening here? >> so, overwhelmingly, the

incidences between bison and people are a result of people getting too close to the animals. right now we have a bit of a convergence of who factors. first, the beginning of the bison rut, the mating season. so both the male and female bison have elevated levels of hormones and that makes them a little bit more agitated, a little bit more competitive on the landscape. secondly, july is the busiest month for people to be visiting the national parks. so the risk of being attacked by a bison or any other animal is outrageously low. with this many people in the park, it's not surprising this time of year these things happen. >> i am going to ask the thing i think everybody is thinking. it shouldn't be that hard to not go close to bison. seems like a logical thing. so my initial question as i have seen these reports, is this a social media thing? is this people trying to take pictures? why are people going so close based on your experience?

>> so i think it's a bit of a few factors. i think for sure social media has been a negative influence. people are re-creating photos they have seen or a new one that no one has seen and doing risky behaviors is a way to get that done. also, a lot of people don't have familiarity with real authentic wildlife. when they come to the areas they think they are visiting a zoo. and this is not a zoo. these are national parks, true wild, authentic wildernesses and these answers are wild and potentially dangerous if we push the limits with them. >> what is your advice to people if they find themselves -- we are looking at some scary footage there -- of a bison charging at one? what happens if you are in that situation? what would you advise people to do to basically save themselves from being seriously injured or perhaps even killed? >> so the park service is very clear on their rules that they have set forth. they are not just polite

suggestions. this is the law in the national parks. if you are in your car, there is no risk. as long as you are pulled off the side of the road, stop, ento joy the wildlife, take photos. if you are outside of your car, walking, hiking or just standing on the side of the road, you need to stay certain safety distances away from the animals. bears and wolves, that's 100 yards and all of the other animals, including bison, is 25 yards. if you see the animal drastically changing behavior because of your presence you are too close, even if you are beyond those limits. with bison, they are nice enough to give us warning signs they are getting agitated. you will see an exaggerated head bobbing, scratching and stomping at the ground. and you will see their tail go up. if you see any of those factors happening, back up, increase the amount of space between you and the answer and let other people know, too, they are getting too close. you are not just putting yourself in danger. you are putting other people in danger and putting the animals

in danger. >> national parks are a treasure. it is absolutely worth doing that in the summer. listen the guidance and the safety warnings. appreciate your time. >> thank you very much. right now over fishing and climate change are killing off reef sharks in coral populations throughout the ocean. a lab in florida is making a major push restore endangered sea life in today's "impact your world". >> coral reefs are the center of biodiversity, sharks doing their job in the ecosystem. >> the reef sharks are probably keeping some of their species in check. corals need the nutrients that sharks bring in from other habitats. we just released a study. of the five main reef shark species, they have declined somewhere between 60 and 73% each. what we find is that's because of people fishing them too hard. >> i think we can get people to

reduce fishing overall. >> what we need is the coral reefs to still be there because sharks need habitat. >> shacks are important for corals and corals are important for sharks. around the globe, unfortunately, we are seeing coral reefs degrade. in florida we have lost 90 to 95% of the living coral. we are in the florida keys at the elizabeth moore international center for coral reef research and restoration. it's the largest land-based coral reef in the united states at the moment. the corals are grown in a farm setting and then moved into an offshore nursery and then ultimately all of those corals are outplanted directly on the reef. to date, they have planted over 210,000 fragments of coral on florida's coral reef. i am confident we have the capability of recovering those so they are there to support our

shark population. >> to learn more visit cnn.com/impact or text fins to 707070 to donate. donald trump is beefing up his defense team and is he has hired if another attorney. they are scrambling to find out if the special counsel has more witnesses and evidence they don't know about. and russia intensifying attacks on ukraine's southern region targeting grain storage. we will have a report from the ground coming up next. from big cities, to small towns, and on main streets across the us, you'll find pnc bank. helping businesses both large and small, communities and the ople who live and work there grow and thrive.

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bison. starting with news. odesa, one of the most hellish nights since vladimir putin's invasion began. russian missiles raining down. ukraine says the russians are striking grain facilities which would feed the world. and a pbig day as donald trump faces another potential indictment. the grand jury is getting ready to meet as it prepares to decide if the former president will face federal charges for trying to overturn the election. and this morning somebody out there who is named neither abby philip nor phil mattingly is $1 billion richer. the powerball's third biggest jackpot has a winner. this hour of "cnn this morning" starts right now. ♪ ♪