Search for Debris From MH 370; Flooding Leaves Dozens Dead in Asia.
JOHN VAUSE, CNN ANCHOR: The search for debris from MH370 could soon expand to nearby island, and testing will begin in the coming days to match a piece of wing with the missing airliner. On the eve of the major announcement from the White House on climate change, flooding leaves dozens dead in Asia. And wild fire swift across California and Australia. And officials in China are taking a closer look at the safety of escalators of yet another serious accident. Hello, everybody great to have you with us I'm John Vause and this is CNN Newsroom. This week experts will try to determine if newly recovered airplane debris belongs to the missing Malaysian Airlines Flight 370. Malaysian officials say the wing piece called the flaperon is from Boeing 777, the same type of plane used by MH370. It was found last week on Reunion Island in the Indian Ocean. Investigators will start analyzing the part on Wednesday in France. Teams from Boeing and the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board will also help. Meantime, search teams and civilians just scouring the beaches on Reunion Island for more wreckage. They find a number of objects but so far nothing link to an aircraft. MH370 disappeared in March last year with 239 people on board and a leading theory is that someone deliberately took the plane of course. But now we're hearing another possibility. A security bridge which could have happened right under the pilot's fate Kyung Lah explains.</s>KYUNG LAH, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: The washed up debris still brings pilots no closer to a consensus on the greatest mystery of their profession. CAPTAIN ROSS AIMER,</s>CEO AERO CONSULTING EXPERTS: There's all kinds of theories. Everybody has a different theory.</s>LAH: U.S. Intelligence Agencies believe it's likely the plain was deliberately stirred by someone on in the cockpit. But retired United Airlines pilot Ross Aimer flew the 777 and trained pilots on the jet at Boeing. He says the debris launch a new round speculation among his fellow pilots. Among the theories a section of the aircraft known as the E.E. Bay or the Electronics Bay may have been breached. What's in the Electronics Bay?</s>AIMER: This is basically the brain and heart of an aircraft. In case of the 777 which is very highly electronic aircraft, all the electronics that control the entire airplane are in that Electronic Bay. So this is the most important part of this aircraft farther than the engines. And so, every pilot that flies a 777 knows how to get down there.</s>LAH: Its design for maintenance access but here you can manage all flights systems, taking total control of the plane. We're not going to show you where the access is on the aircraft. But we will show you what's widely available on the internet. In this aviation video view of thousands of times on line you can see in the bay various electronics, wires, and green tanks. That concern floated by some pilots they say Boeing manufactures and delivers the 777 within unsecured access store. Most of the airlines add a lock and the access is hidden. So only crew and perhaps some aviation enthusiast would know how to get in, that's why a breach abort MH370 as something that pilot says it's possible but unlikely. Investigators around the world found no immediate red flags from anyone on board. More likely believers Aimer a catastrophic fire or even that one of the crew perhaps Captain Zaharie Ahmad Shah or co pilot Farid Abdul Hamid were somehow involved.</s>AIMER: One of the things that investigators do they never leave any stone unturned. They look at just about any possibility.</s>LAH: Kyung Lah, CNN, Los Angeles.</s>VAUSE: Right now the CNN's David Molko is been following developments from Hong Kong. So David, so far just that one piece of airplane debris that's been found on Reunion Island, but that might change because it seems the searching may be getting a little bigger.</s>DAVID MOLKO, CNN CORRESPANDENT: That's right John this is the only thing they have to go by. Remember that in 500 days the only piece of physical evidence. The Malaysians are now asking for help from with its surrounding saying, "Can you help us with your experts, can you help us look out for debris so that something washes up we can identify it?" Now, it's going to be interesting to see what kind of foreign mistakes in countries like the Island of the Mauritius on Madagascar maybe even down the coast of Africa, Mozambique, South Africa. Will we see a search like we saw in the initial weeks after the plane disappearance where there will be boats on the water, or plane -- and planes in the air? Could it be more grassroots with communities combing the beaches looking for a sign of anything at this point? John, know, all they have to go on right now is this flaperon which is now in Toulouse.</s>VAUSE: One of the problems for investigators here is what Malaysian officials have described as a treasure hunt mentality. What does that mean?</s>MOLKO: I don't know if treasure hunt is the most sensitive way of putting it this when we're talking about potentially, you know, 239 people losing their lives. But I think what he's getting at here is this idea that there had been so many false alarms in terms of sighting, not only early on in the investigation but on this island. Remember, John, Reunion Island, tiny island, now at the center of this international search. We heard in the past 24 hours, upwards of 10 or a dozen objects are being turned into police by curious islanders, people out trying to help or actually just trying to get some attention for themselves. Take a listen to what one man there says he found.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Maybe a stick, the edge of a staircase to access the cabin. I don't know.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Where did you find it?</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: On the sea front, not far from where they found the other bit of debris.</s>MOLKO: Nothing conclusive at this point, John, except for that flaperon, that piece attached the wing which Malaysia now has confirmed it's been officially from a 777.</s>VAUSE: And with regards to that piece of wing, the flaperon. The French have no plans to take a serious look at it until Wednesday. That's a week after it was found. Why so long?</s>MOLKO: John, that's at least what they're saying publicly. Just remember how many different parties are involved in this -- into this investigation. The Malaysians are running the investigation, it was found in French territory. The Americans are involved, China is involved as well. What we know of what will happen in the coming hours is French and Malaysian investigators will sit down with the judge in France. That's because this is now part of a criminal investigation. They're going to lay this out, how they plan to proceed. They're going to do this by the book carefully. Everybody wants to be on the same page. And critically, John here, they can't make a mistake. There's no room for error here. The families have said, 99 percent isn't good enough. They want to know conclusively, 100 percent, whether or not this piece is from MH370.</s>VAUSE: Yeah, OK, David, thank you. David Molko, there reporting live for us in Hong Kong. Thanks David. Now to a migrant crisis in Europe, more than 360 African migrants arrived at a Sicilian port on Sunday. According to Reuters, about 1,800 migrants were rescued by the Italian cost guard just over the weekend. A U.N. refugee agency says Italy has received about 90,000 migrants by sea just this year. Meantime in France, Reuters also reporting that police blocked migrants trying to access the Euro tunnel on Sunday night. Migrants desperate to reach Britain have stepped up attempts to cross the tunnel in recent weeks. French and British officials have pledged nearly $11 million to improve security around the tunnel. Monsoon flooding is inundating parts of Asia. A local news reporter in Myanmar stood in chest deep waters to show just how bad it is. The U.N. says at least 27 people have been killed. More than 150,000 people displaced so far. Consistent rain is also a problem in northern Vietnam. Reports say at least 17 people killed in mud slides and flooding. Thousands, again, have been displaced. Environmentalists are concerned about water contamination as thousands of tons of coal may have been swept away in the floods. A tropical cyclone, responsible for this relentless rainfall is slowly moving across central India and also bringing a threat to other parts of Asia being flooding as well. Maybe listen to Derek Van Dam is with us. So, what's the forecast here? What are we looking at?</s>DEREK VAN DAM, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Well, John, unfortunately more rainfall. We're starting to measure rain in meters and not millimeters any longer. This is serious stuff. It's a slow moving storm system. And unfortunately, this tropical cyclone has spawned off landslides that have swept away entire villages across India's most northeastern state that's Manipur in the Chandel District. Take a look at some of the visuals coming out of that area. And you can see people just trying to deal with the inundation of heavy rainfall. And it has been intense. You can see just how difficult that makes life there. Unfortunately, there were 20 fatalities with this particular landslide that swept through this region. You can see with the graphics behind me. If we come back to my weather graphics, you'll see the large area of low pressure that's in question here. This is just drawing in moisture from the Bay of Bengal. It's brought the heavy rainfall to Myanmar as well as Bangladesh. And we mentioned some of the landslides and mudslides that have inundated villages. Look at this. This is flooding from the Myanmar region. And I mentioned also, rainfall being measured in meters, not millimeters. This is impressive. This is mind boggling. I have not seen something like this since working at CNN for the past year. Over 1,000 millimeters of rainfall, that's a seven day total by the way. But nonetheless that is still very, very impressive. We have Odisha State currently with very severe monsoon rains. And that stretches towards the north and west as well. You can just see this large circulation pattern across central India that will continue to bring the heavy rainfall to that area. This is part of a bigger storm system. If you just look, you can see this troff that extends all across Bangladesh into Myanmar as well as Vietnam. You saw some of that video footage coming out of that region, with some of the motorcycles being washed down the stream in city streets. That is all thanks to this large tropical troff that will continue to bring heavy rainfall to the cost of Vietnam. In fact, I've traveled to this region, Hanoi, Ha Long Bay. This is a beautiful part of the world. But it is being shoved in with heavy rainfall and the possibility of more flooding exists. You can see rainfall totals in that area exceeding 150 millimeters on top of what we've already experienced. This is serious stuff. And flooding like this will be catastrophic for some of those smaller villages and the smaller communities. So, people are really bonding together to try and do what they can to protect themselves.</s>VAUSE: And we have a lot of weather to report this hour. So, we've got the flooding there. But we also have fire supposedly raging across a lot of homes. So, let's get to that right now. There's been some major fires that are having a huge impact with southern Australia. Firefighters are battling a huge bush fire in the Blue Mountains. That's in New South Wales, just west of Sydney. Some rain there helped crews get the upper hand. But the rough terrain, gusty winds could keep this fire burning for days. We go to the United States now. At least 21 wildfires are raging across California forcing about 12,000 people to evacuate their homes. The rocky fire in the northern part of the state has swelled to 47,000 acres, more than 19,000 hectares. It's destroyed dozens of structures and is threatening thousands more. And people in a suburb in Jerusalem are returning to their homes after a forest fire. Local media say about 700 people were evacuated. The possibility of arson is being investigated. But the area has recently been hit with searing temperatures. But to the Middle East, is sweltering under those high temperatures. And on top of that, Jordan's capital was hit by a massive sandstorm on Sunday. This is Amman covered by a huge dust cloud. The entire city was engulfed by it all. The storm disrupted air traffic in and out of Amman forcing some flights to be diverted. And today, the United States will unveil a sweeping action plan for tackling climate change. The proposal will set the first ever standards to limit carbon pollution from coal burning power plants and aims to reduce emissions by 32 percent over the next 15 years. This move is likely to draw fire from Republican law makers as well as the coal industry. But president Barack Obama says this action cannot wait.</s>BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT, UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: Climate change is not a problem for another generation. Not anymore. That's why on Monday, my administration will release the final version of America's clean power plant. The biggest, most important step we've ever taken t combat climate change.</s>VAUSE: CNN's senior political analyst, Ron Brownstein joins us now from Los Angeles. Mr. Ron this rather plan is described as an all out push by Obama to spend a legacy as the first president to real action on climate change. But the reality is it will be up to his successors to implement it. And President Donald Trump doesn't even believe in climate change.</s>RON BROWNSTEIN, SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST, CNN: And that's a real challenge. I mean, and I think there is a key development here or key -- the turning point here is whether he is able to get the rule in final form before he leaves office. Because what we saw at the Bill Clinton administration is that, it was much easier for a successor administration to undo regulations that were in process than those that were completed. Once it's completed, environmentalists can go to court to try to defend it with a stronger hand than if it still on process. So, you know, he's had a real sense of urgency. I remember him once, you know, telling to people that I've talked to that he once said in a private setting that he kind of operates with a backward clock from the last eight administrations. Thinking what it would take to put this regulation in the most ironclad position. We'll see, as you said, if Donald will potentially be the next president. But it is something that may be stronger than it looks if he can get it into final form before he leaves office.</s>VAUSE: You know, climate change hasn't really been part of the presidential campaign so far. Does this announcement coming Monday, change that dynamic?</s>BROWNSTEIN: You know, I think it does in the long run. Because one of the striking things about the climate change debate is that it reinforces the existing red-blue political divide that we have in the U.S. By and large, the blue democratic states are less dependent on coal for their electricity, less integrated, and more generally into the fossil fuel economy. And the red states are the ones that rely more on coal which of course is the big loser in his regulation and more integrated to into the fossil fuel economy more generally. Four fifths of the states that voted for Mit Romney in 2012 emit more carbon per capita than the national average. And in perfect symmetry, four fifths of the states that voted for Barack Obama emit less. And so, what I think this regulation does as it becomes an issue and it will be. A big point of contention both in Congress and the courts is reinforce this political divide that we're living in the</s>U.S. VAUSE: This measures alone, as tough as they are, if they're fully implemented, even the White House -- they're not going to do a lot to reduce global temperatures world wide like 0.01 percent, I think. But this is all about symbolism. It's all about this meeting coming up on climate change in December. It's about the United States setting the way for other countries to follow.</s>BROWNSTEIN: Right, and that's why I don't think I would use the word symbolism. It really is about, kind of, reciprocity. I mean, certainly Obama taking these steps. Not only this of course but what he did in his first term in breaking a decades long stalemate over increasing fuel economy standards for automobiles and light trucks gives him more credibility to other countries and make the case that we are taking difficult steps and you need to do the same. You know, the way that Paris talks are structured for this all. They are no longer trying to get some global sweeping international agreement. They are tying to get each major country to set its own targets. And then have a, kind of a verification system for that. And certainly in the agreement that Obama was able to announce last year with China, the fact that he was moving forward on this front gave him more leverage to seek their won changes which really could be the key to, kind of broader movement across the international community.</s>VAUSE: OK, Ron. It's good to speak with you. You know, it will be an interesting one to watch. I think, they're talking at one stage is that it's going to be two hot, possibly, to have this announcement outside. That's quite an issue.</s>BROWNSTEIN: Yes, it's striking.</s>VAUSE: Quite striking, absolutely. Ron, thanks a lot. We appreciate you being with us. Lots of researchers tracking Jericho The Lion has confirmed the animal is alive and well. Oxford University tweeted a photo out of Jericho, was taken on Sunday morning. The Zimbabwe consolation task force told CNN on Saturday that a hunter illegally killed Jericho. Later the group's chairman told our Fredricka Whitfield, they've now confirmed Jericho is in fact alive.</s>JOHNNY RODRIGUES, CHAIRMAN, ZIMBABWE CONSERVATION TASK FORCE: I had received a message from people on the ground, in the wide key area, that they said that Jericho was shot and he was dead. So, we were concerned if it was the same repetition on the -- on Jericho which happened to sizzle. And we thought we'd actually publish it and tell people. Because I had confirmed from three trustworthy people and it wasn't true. Jericho was actually seen this morning. Because anybody can shoot a lion and take the belt and move around, put it on a dog or any other animal. So, we had one of the investigators that got in. And they confirmed that Jericho was alive and the cubs are alive.</s>VAUSE: Jericho was said to be caring for the cubs. As Cecil the Lion who was killed in an alleged illegal hunt and that has caused international outrage. Jericho and Cecil had actually called brothers. But the director of the wildlife conservation unit officer had actually told us that they weren't related. This is disturbing, a janitor at a shopping mall in Shanghai lost his foot after it became stuck in an escalator. It was amputated. Surveillance footage shows one of the steps flipping up the employee tried to mop the escalator. He was able to hit the emergency shut off button. It all happened Saturday evening and all this, less than one week after a mother saved her young son but was herself killed in a similar escalator accident in Central China. Safety officials tell Chinese state media that an increasing number of aging escalators and elevators in the country need to be reviewed. We'll take a short break but when we come back, outrage and sorrow across Israel after a teenage girl's stabbed at a gay pride parade, died of her wounds. Those details still to come. Also, comrades pay their final respects to a British citizen who died fighting ISIS.