cost of pens and papers and notebooks and all of that that went up. back to school sticker shock as inflation sent the price of school supplies soaring. the impact it is having not only on parents, but also on business owners and teachers. how some people in california are making money by having their front yards ripped out. it is sunday, august 21st, welcome to a new week. we re so grateful you re waking up with us. good morning, amara. good morning, boris. happy sunday. and we begin this morning with the extreme weather threat across the southwest and southern plains. more than 12 million people under flood watches. yeah yesterday s search and rescue crews were out looking for a missing person in utah s zion national park. rangers say hikers were being swept off their feet by flash flooding on the virgin river. rescue teams were out in the mojave county area of arizona after rushing water washed out roads and trapped vehicles across that region. cnn meteorologist
slowly meander its way across the southeastern tier of the u.s. here is a look at the system in question. you can already see a lot of that moisture bringing some pretty heavy thunderstorms to portions of northern texas, areas of oklahoma now starting to see some of that rain move into portions of arkansas as well as louisiana. you still have some rain in arizona and new mexico as well. but a lot of that is really going to begin to shift off to the east in the coming days. we do still have flood watches in effect for new mexico and texas and oklahoma and some into louisiana and southern arkansas as well. you also have some of that tropical moisture still surging from that potential tropical cyclone we had yesterday. it moved inland, but it is still pushing, that flow is still pushing the moisture from the gulf into the southeastern region. as that stationary front gradually starts to shift off to the east, you re going to see the water go with it. here is a look at where we f
china claims taiwan as part of its territory, despite having never controlled it and repeatedly warned against pelosi visiting the island, vowing to take resolute and forceful measures if the visit goes forward. john kirby addressed the trip on cnn last hour. there s no reason for the chinese rhetoric, there s no reason for any actions to be taken. it is not uncommon for congressional leaders to travel to taiwan. it is very much in keeping with our policy and consistent with our support to taiwan under the taiwan relations act. we shouldn t be as a country, we shouldn t be intimidated by that rhetoric or those potential actions. this is an important trip for the speaker to be on. we re going to do whatever we can to support her. cnn is on capitol hill, but we begin with will ripley in taipei, taiwan. will, what can you tell us the latest about this announcement of the speaker s trip? reporter: well, for one thing, this is not going to be, you know, a fueling brief stop
at mar-a-lago. and cutting it close. the freeze on student loan payments is set to end this month and borrows aren t the only ones in the dark about what s going to happen next. it s the weekend, saturday, august 20th. we re so grateful to be a part of yours. thanks for joining us. sounds like you were well rested last night or something. almost never. almost never. well you do a good job of faking it. good to be with you, boris. a lot of news to get to this morning. first, the white house defending its response to the spread of monkeypox across the u.s. and implementing its new aggressive plan to control the outbreak. yeah. more than 14,000 monkeypox cases in the united states. more than a third of all cases in the world. and listen to this, in the last three weeks the number of monkeypox cases in the u.s. has nearly tripled, according to the cdc. the biden administration declared monkeypox a public health emergency earlier this month after facing criticism tha
donald trump s role in the plot to overturn the 2020 election. including the violent and deadly attack on the capitol by a mob of insurrectionists, and ongoing threat to democracy. they will be the first opportunity for the public to see clips from the star witness, pat cipollone, s recorded testimony last week. the former white house counsel was reportedly cooperative. the panel has requested that an added version of alex holder s newly released documentary, unprecedented. so we could see some behind the scenes footage. not included in the final cut. although, it s not clear just how much we will learn from it. what we did learn is that the trump kids had nothing to say about january 6th. you said before you didn t want to talk about january 6th, the capital hearing let s skip the sixth. let s go to nbc s, julia, at the capitol where anticipation is building. she is getting new information about the committee s witness list. julia, we ve heard another big player, steve