uncertainty building on whether house speaker nancy pelosi will visit taiwan during her visit to asia. we ll have a live report from beijing. plus political chaos in iraq as protests in baghdad force sessions of parliament to be suspended. live from cnn center, this is cnn newsroom with kim brunhuber. it s 5:00 a.m. in eastern kentucky. an area that has already severed through days of heart break and anguish after massive flash floods is waking up this morning to more dreaded news, more heavy rain is on the way. a flood watch is now in effect and that s raising concerns about the ongoing search and rescue operations. at least 25 people have been killed, and that number includes four children, all from the same family. their aunt telling us they were siblings between 2 and 8 years old. neighbors say the parents tried to hold on to them, but the young children were swept away. there was a house there, and this trailer with this family of six, and it just washed them
across the country. and democrats in a race against the recess, trying to pass president biden s key agenda items with the midterm elections looming. how much can congress get done? we re grateful that you are starting your week with us, bright and early this sunday, july 31st. good morning, sarah. good morning to you, boris. great to be with you. we begin today with an update to the ongoing weather emergency in kentucky. the death toll there continues to rise as search and rescue crews make their way through flooded areas and we are expecting yet another round of heavy rain and flash flooding today. at least 25 people are confirmed dead. it is still hard to get the exact number of missing with one local mayor calling the death toll only the tip of the ic iceberg. complicating the response, rushing waters washed away roads and destroyed bridges making search and rescue efforts all the more difficult. i m worried we re going to be finding bodies for weeks to come.
invasion of ukraine. and i will just end by saying that according to officials, there was a discussion of a possible face-to-face meeting going forward. there s no timeline for that, but they are going to follow up and set up that meeting. mj lee, thank you. let s turn now to selena wang in beijing, gathering chinese reaction to joe biden and xi jinping s phone call. what did china have to say about mo pelosi s possible trip to taiwan? reporter: while the readout did not specifically mention pelosi, they gave a strong warning about playing with fire when it comes to taiwan. in that readout, xi jinping said, we firmly oppose taiwan independence and interference of external forces and will never leave any space for taiwan independence forces in any form. if you play with fire you get burned, and i hope the u.s. side can see this clearly. america is sending in one of its top politicians to taiwan, is treating taiwan more like an independent country that. is a clear red line
like this. a great find in the 70s when a fire like this was once in a lifetime. now it is once every couple of years. yes, sir. reporter: do you see it changing the psychology of folks in these wild places? takes a special person to come live out here and we just hope that if you do decide to live out here, that you learn how to prepare yourself, prepare your property, get prepared emergency escape plan and create some defensible space as you see here. this person did a great job at clearing out some combustible vegetation and brush away from his fire. these guys will take all the help they can get in doing this job. especially when it is 97 degrees outside here as well. they have got a couple dozen helicopters, over 300 fire engines, a bunch of water tankers in all of that. ultimately it comes down to sometimes how much yard work they have to do around the house that hasn t been properly hardened against fire. and, again, this is just the beginning of the fire season now.
in these wild places? takes a special person to come live out here and we just hope that if you do decide to live out here, that you learn how to prepare yourself, prepare your property, get prepared emergency escape plan and create some defensible space as you see here. this person did a great job at clearing out some combustible vegetation and brush away from his fire. these guys will take all the help they can get in doing this job. especially when it is 97 degrees outside here as well. they have got a couple dozen helicopters, over 300 fire engines, a bunch of water tankers in all of that. ultimately it comes down to sometimes how much yard work they have to do around the house that hasn t been properly hardened against fire. and, again, this is just the beginning of the fire season now. the deadliest months are in the fall, out west, after a couple more dry hot months. and this is a mutual aid state. you put out my fire, i ll help put out yours, at a certain