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.
more missing text messages, the washington post reporting tonight that text from trump s acting homeland security secretary chad wolf and his deputy can cuccinelli are missing. they tell the post that the textbook from a key period leading up to january 6th. we have a new cnn exclusive reporting tonight that prosecutors are getting ready for a court battle to force former trump white house officials to testify about conversations they had with the former president. joining me now to discuss all of this, senior crime and justice reporter caitlin pollens, and john wood, former senior investigator for the january six committee. also with us evening, mr. marc mackinnon, the executive producer of the emmy nominated the circus and former adviser to george w. bush. good evening one and all. have to admire the hat. you gotta, mark mckinnon. you guys gotta get your hat game on. caleb got her glasses game. i don t know. i got nothing. john, you got a good luta. good evening one a
excessive climate change. good afternoon, i m jim sciutto in for erin burnett, and outfront tonight, preparing for battle. cnn has learned that investigators want to force former trump officials to testify in court, and will use the court to do so. they want to know the actions of former president trump around january 6th, and this is the clearest sign yet that they are zeroing in on trump s actions as he tried to cling to power. this development is coming as the january 6th select committee is speaking to former acting chief of staff mick mulvaney, and former secretary state steve mnuchin, and a key witness, mnuchin had conversations with trump cabinet members hours after the cabinet, and he had a conversation about trying to remove trump by evoking the 25th amendment, and a number of people that he spoke to included secretary of state pompeo, and tonight, pompeo also appears closer to sitting down with the committee. we have had discussions with them about potential a
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