and russian media reports a car explosion has killed the daughter of an influential russian philosopher and key putin ally. live from cnn center, this is cnn newsroom with kim brun brunhuber. we begin with the extreme weather threat across the central and southwestern u.s. a tropical storm warning has been lifted for far southern texas, but rain from that system could spread into oklahoma and louisiana through midweek. strong winds are expected as the storm moves further inland. meanwhile, more than 12 million people across the southwestern and central u.s. are under flood watches. in parts of arizona, new mexico and texas, the risk of flash flooding is high, with these areas expecting heavy rain and thunderstorms throughout the day. in new mexico, residents are doing what they can to prepare for the worst. water backs up into our yards and also so far we made almost 50 sandbags. we have some that we made last year, but we re making more to prepare for that rain. an
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
and then crashed. the driver dead on the scene. that driver was darya dugina, a commentator and supporter of russia s invasion of ukraine who was sanctioned by the united states and by the uk. she was also the daughter of prominent right-wing ideolog alexander dugin. an explosive device detonated saturday night setting the vehicle on fire. russia has opened a criminal investigation the investigative committee says they believe dugina was murdered. taking into account the data obtained the investigation believes the crime was preplanned and of an ordered nature, a statement said. while forensic work continued the foreign ministry implied ukraine may be behind the attack. if the ukrainian trace is confirmed, foreign ministry spokeswoman wrote on telegram. the ukrainians deny any involvement. translator: i emphasize ukraine definitely has nothing to do with this because we are not a criminal state which the russian federation is and even more so we are not a terrorist state.
many of my colleagues have responded to what i think is a great moral test and challenge of our time. some 160 people safely evacuate from a new mexico national park after being trapped by flash floods. the roads that are washed out and we can t pass through. they don t even know about food and water for us. it is still raining. it s not letting go. i m phil mattingly in washington. pamela brown has the night off. you are in the cnn newsroom. investigators in russia say the car bomb that killed the daughter of a key putin ally was preplanned. a murder investigation is now under way after she died in last night s attack on the outskirts of moscow. her father is an influential russian ultra nationalist and also considered an architect of the ukraine invasion and often described as putin s brain. cnn s fred pleitgen has more. reporter: hi, phil. there is very little in the way of information coming out from that investigative committee as to where exactly things stan
as a huge surprise given the well-established history inside trump world of pressuring potential witnesses in key investigations. washington post lays it out like this, quote. evidence across multiple state, federal and congressional investigations points to a similar pattern. trump and his close allies privately shower potential witnesses with flattery and attention extending vague assurances that staying loyal to trump would be better than crossing him. meanwhile, trump publicly blasts those who offer testimony against him in bluntly personal terms offering a clear example to others of the consequences of stepping out of line. the new york times offers another view of this type of carrot and stick witness pressure campaign reporting this, quote, former president trump s political organization and his allies have paid for or promised to finance the legal fees of more than a dozen witnesses called in the congressional investigation into the january 6th attack, raising legal