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Blinken To Meet With Netanyahu; Israel Rescues Four Hostages; Apple Deal With OpenAI; Caitlin Clark Left Off Team USA. Aired 9:30- 10a ET

Aired June 10, 2024 - 09:30   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

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[09:30:48]

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: Secretary of State Tony Blinken spoke moments ago in the Middle East. He was in Egypt and is now headed to Israel with a mission of pushing forward the hostage and ceasefire negotiations between Israel and Hamas.

Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANTONY BLINKEN, SECRETARY OF STATE: The best way, the most effective way to get everyone home, including the American hostages, is through this proposal, is through the ceasefire deal that's on the table right now. That's what we're focused on. That's what we're determined to do - to see achieved.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: Secretary Blinken will next be meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, as well as Benny Gantz. But Gantz resigned Sunday from Israel's war cabinet in protest of Netanyahu's handling of the war.

This, of course, all happens just after the dramatic rescue operations Saturday the brought home four Israeli hostages after eight months in captivity in Gaza.

CNN's Oren Liebermann is in Tel Aviv for us.

Oren, what is the task for Tony Blinken now?

OREN LIEBERMANN, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Kate, Secretary of State Antony Blinken has to accomplish what the administration has been trying to do for months, and that's get to the point where they can announce that there is a ceasefire and a deal that would bring home the remaining hostages. The problem is, that hasn't gotten any closer over the weekend with Israel's operation. Quite the opposite, in fact. It may have moved even farther away. And there was not yet a finish line in sight before this weekend.

So, the challenge remains great here as Blinken is in Egypt and he'll come here. And it may even be more difficult with Israel's political fracturing now with Benny Gantz, as you point out, war time - war cabinet minister leaving the war cabinet. And that makes it even more difficult to try to get - get a deal in place here.

Over the weekend, of course, on Saturday, Israel carried out a daylight raid into the heart of the Nuseirat refugee camp that rescued four hostages. There was great joy here at that news and the U.S. administration also welcoming the news of four hostages that were rescued from a very densely populated area. But that, of course, is the challenge in that operation.

The Palestinian ministry of health in Gaza says 274 Palestinians were killed, hundreds more wounded. The IDF disputes that and says there were less than 100 casualties. CNN can't independently verify those numbers. But either way it makes it one of the deadliest days in Gaza in months. And that - those sorts of major incidents have brought negotiations to a standstill, or at least created a major roadblock for them. And that's what Blinken is stepping into here.

Meanwhile, just moments ago, the mother of one of the hostages spoke out publicly saying how glad she wants to hold her son, Almong Meir, once again after this rescue, and calling on a hostage deal, but crucially remembering those moments that she had prayed for, for so long.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ORIT MEIR, MOTHER OF RESCUED HOSTAGE: I mean last night I had my first full night's sleep in eight months. My birthday wish is for all the hostages families to feel this way. I'm one of the lucky ones.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LIEBERMANN: National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said that it's on Hamas now to accept the deal, but it's not clear that Israel is even in a position where it can accept the deal because far-right coalition members of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government have threatened to take down the government if he accepts the ceasefire deal that's on the table right now.

BOLDUAN: A huge task for Tony Blinken ahead as he's about to head there.

Great to see you, Oren. Thank you very much for the reporting.

John.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: All right, with us now, CNN military analysts, the former commanding general of the U.S. army in Europe, and the Seventh Army, retired General Mark Hertling.

General, always great to see you.

This is where the rescue operation took place. Oren was just telling us about Nuseirat right there. We have this new video that Oren unreleased, or was reporting on earlier, which we can see some of the details about how this operation was carried out.

What do you see when you look at this, General?

LT. GEN. MARK HERTLING (RET.), CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Well, not much from the video, John, to be honest with you. But I did read some reports from the Israeli Defense Forces in terms of how this hostage rescue went down.

[09:35:01]

What we had was one hostage in one building, in an apartment building, three of the others in another one. They had to make the decision, the rescue force, a special operators had to make the decision of either going on a - in terms of a synchronized approach of hitting one building and then the next, or a simultaneous approach, which is extremely difficult, where you have to do both buildings at the same time. The reason for that is, they were concerned about, if they went into one building would the hostages in the other buildings be killed because they knew that Israel was about to go in there.

There were a lot of people around. These hostages were being held by Palestinian family members that had been paid by Hamas, which shows the support that Hamas drives and influences others to give them. So you're talking about a very populated area in a U.N. refugee camp region along with United Nations people in that vicinity.

So, a lot of people who, in these kind of situations, when you're ever doing a hostage rescue against a bunch of terrorists, you don't know who are the terrorist and who aren't, who are just the local standby people, the folks who are the - the honest observers, if you will. So, it was a very difficult operation, especially since it was done during the daylight. And it also tells me they probably got a whole lot of intelligence from a variety of factors to help them execute that.

BERMAN: And, of course, these are the - these are the hostages who were rescued.

How repeatable is this for Israel? Is this the type of operation you could see them ever pulling off again?

HERTLING: Oh, absolutely. You know, these special operations teams train. One of the things they train on is hostage rescue. So what you're talking about is just these four hostages, after they relief (ph), will be able to provide additional information which will help the Israeli Defense Force. They'll talk about patterns of life. The kinds of things that occurred while they were under captivity for eight months. Imagine that. The fact that they were held by a family. The fact that they've probably had conversations with terrorists that might be something that they might consider important but boy when you give that kind of information to the special operators, they know exactly what to do with it, and it will help them put pieces of a puzzle together to potentially find other hostages as well.

BERMAN: I'm going to ask you for a quick answer on what's a very big subject, General. "The Wall Street Journal" is reporting on this effort by the United States to strike some kind of defense treaty with Saudi Arabia. The Biden administration is close to finalizing a treaty with Saudi Arabia that would commit the U.S. to help defend the gulf nation as part of a long shot deal to encourage diplomatic ties between Riyadh and Israel, U.S. and Saudi Arabian officials said.

Now, leave the Israel side out of this. What would it mean from a military perspective to strike this kind of defense treaty with Saudi Arabia?

HERTLING: Well, we've always had a very good partnership with Saudi Arabia, John, dating back to 1990 during Desert Shield when we went into that area and it was part of the operation. But it's also caused a lot of problems for the Saudi Arabian government to have westerners in the land of the holy mosque. But you can't leave Israel out of this. That's the sole purpose for this. They are - Mr. Blinken, Director Burns from the CIA, are all trying to get Saudi Arabia to contribute forces to the end state of Gaza. And it's something that Mr. Netanyahu does not address. He doesn't have a political end state to this war. He just has a military end state. And it's one of the reasons that Benny Gantz resigned yesterday because he didn't see the political outcome of all of this fighting. He knows that as a former soldiers, as a former chief of the Israeli Defense Forces. So, there has to be some type of organization that will go into Gaza and help secure it and provide security, not only from a military perspective, but even such things as police, and take away some of the power from Hamas that has been there close to 20 years since 2006 when the last election was held inside of Gaza and Hamas was voted it and refused to give elections after that. So, there has to be Middle Eastern countries helping in this. And I think that's all part of the deal- making with Saudi Arabia.

BERMAN: Kar Von Clauscwhitz, "war is the continuation of politics by other means." You need the politics there at some point, Benny Gantz is saying.

General Hertling, great to see you. Thank you so much.

Kate.

BOLDUAN: It's time for Siri to phone a friend, apparently. How a new partnership with OpenAI could boost many aspects of Apple devices. The anticipated - the very anticipated announcement coming from Apple today.

And the first black Disney princess is about to get her own Disney ride. A sneak peek at the new attraction replacing the famed, and controversial, Splash Mountain.

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[09:44:30]

BERMAN: This morning, Apple is set to announce its latest software developments for the iPhone at its worldwide developers conference. The main focus will be the new deal with OpenAI that will bring the iPhone into the world of artificial intelligence.

CNN's Brian Fung is with us with what we expect today.

Brian.

BRIAN FUNG, CNN TECH REPORTER: Yes.

Well, John, today is all about showing Apple is on top of the AI challenge. We're expecting the company to make a string of AI-related announcements that could include, as you mentioned, a potential partnership with OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT.

[09:45:03]

It could also mean upgrades to Siri that could turn it into more of a chat bot or make it better at doing tasks, like retrieving old photos you've taken.

The stakes here are really high. Rivals like Google are already using AI to help you draft emails and messages. So, it's possible Apple could unveil something similar to keep pace. But analysts say Apple really needs to showcase something different, something with a wow factor to drive future iPhone sales and to set it up for the long term. This isn't just about what will be in the next iPhone, but potentially about whole new product categories that don't exist yet.

Now, historically, WWDC has been about Apple software because it's a conference for software developers. But whatever Apple announces today could give us clues as to its future hardware plans because all of the new AI features will likely need a ton of computing power, and developers will need to know how much computing power they'll have access to when they're designing their apps for the iPhone or Mac.

So, you know, in addition to the product updates we get today, you can probably expect Apple to outline a broader vision for its technology as AI becomes more widespread.

And one more thing to look out for is that Apple has taken a strong stance on privacy and security. So, it's going to be interesting to see how it applies that to some of the thorniest questions about AI, including, you know, how to handle fake responses, guard against bias, and respect other people's data and intellectual property.

John.

BERMAN: Interesting. You know, Apple stock, we're looking at it right now, down about half a percent. Unclear whether that's in advance of today's announcement and meeting, or whether it's more tied to the Fed and interest rates. Always hard to tell.

Brian Fung, great to see you this morning. Thank you.

Kate.

BOLDUAN: For the first time in Disney's history, a black princess is getting her own theme park ride. It's called Tiana's Bayou Adventure and it's based on the fantastic Disney movie, "The Princess and the Frog." (VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: Set in the 1920s, New Orleans, guests will ride through the bayou as Princess Tiana and her friends get ready for a Mardi Gras party. And there's plenty of jazz music as the characters wave, talk and dance all along the way. Mardi Gras is like the perfect setting for a Disney - a Disney ride. Tiana's Bayou Adventure replaces the former Splash Mountain attractions. Splash Mountain was based on characters from the 1946 films "Song of the South" that has long been criticized for its insulting portrayals of black Americans.

The new ride opens at Disney World in Florida on June 28th and will also then open at Disneyland in California later this year.

Now, that is a ride I would like to see.

BERMAN: Yes, although I do like your idea that Mardi Gras is a terrific setting for - you know, maybe your versions of Mardi Gras are different than the ones that I've been to.

BOLDUAN: Oh, wait, now I understand what you're saying. I'm saying - I'm talking about the music and the food.

BERMAN: It's great, I love the music and the food (INAUDIBLE).

BOLDUAN: John's version of Mardi Gras, everyone. He brought it up, not me.

BERMAN: If you thought her game was good, now, just wait. Caitlin Clark says not being invited to the Olympics just woke a monster.

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[09:52:24]

BOLDUAN: Caitlin Clark, the WNBA's superstar rookie, won't be joining Team USA and its quest for gold at the Paris Olympics this summer. Clark did not make the roster of the women's Olympic basketball team. And, of course, with that there's a ton of reaction. Some left scratching their heads. Caitlin Clark definitively landing in the, it's no big deal category though.

Joining us right now is CNN contributor Cari Champion for more on this.

Cari, were you surprised that Caitlin didn't make the cut for the games?

CARI CHAMPION, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: To be honest, I was surprised. I thought she would at least show up in some capacity. But I see the - I see the philosophy behind the committees decision.

To be honest, though, Kate, no matter what would have happened with this particular supernova, this star known as Caitlin Clark, there would have been a debate. I think that the committee decided to have all the debate before the Olympic games so that we can get all of the distraction out of the way and Team USA can go and do what they plan to do, which is break history and when yet again the eighth gold medal.

BOLDUAN: Yes, and - and, yes, I was going to say, kick butt and take names later once they get to Paris.

CHAMPION: Yes.

BOLDUAN: Let's play - let's play for everybody how Caitlin Clark responded to the news.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CAITLIN CLARK, INDIANA FEVER GUARD: Honestly, no disappointment. Like, I think it just gives you something - something to work for. You know, that's a dream. You know, hopefully one day I can be there. Ad I think it's just a little more motivation. You - you remember that. And, you know, hopefully in four years, when four years comes back around, you know, I can be there.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: I also want to play for everyone how her coach responded.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHRISTIE SIDES, INDIANA FEVER HEAD COACH: Got the call on the bus and she texts me to let me know. And, you know, I just tried to keep her spirits. I mean, the thing she said was, hey, coach, they woke a monster, which I thought was awesome.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: Which I too also thought was awesome. What did you think of that?

CHAMPION: I love that - this is one thing I'll say about Caitlin Clark. I think everyone is having a debate over what's right and what's wrong. And her focus has always been basketball. And this is why I love watching her play. This is why I love watching her game. And she understands that you have to pay your dues.

Now, I will say this. The reason why I was shocked, Kate, that they did not include her was because - because this is an opportunity to introduce this league, this sport, to a global audience. And, you know, most people will be there to watch her. She put seats in the stands. So, I get why there was all this pushback as to why isn't she there.

But the fact that she said she woke a monster, I'm looking forward to her, after the break, because you know they go, they take a month off, and they'll come back and play beginning in August. I'm looking forward to her kicking butt. I'm looking forward to her to saying, OK, I see, you don't think that I deserve, but I do deserve. And I'm - I'm thinking the only thing that can happen moving forward is that all this will do is make everything better for the league. [09:55:04]

Again, it's - it - what time is it in the morning? I don't know where I am on which coast. But we're talking about women's basketball, and it's amazing.

BOLDUAN: I totally agree. And we were just showing - and let's show everybody again, the roster of the women who are going to play for Team USA on the court, it's - it's star after star after star. I mean Brittney Griner's there. Her - it's like her story in and of itself getting back to playing in an Olympic games is amazing, Cari.

CHAMPION: Let's just think about that. She was not more than a year ago in Russia where we didn't know whether or not she'd be back on United States soil within the next year or so. We forgot about that story. We have this star in Caitlin Clark.

And let me tell you, you're right, this roster combined, combined, there's over 18 WNBA championships. We have MVPs, final MVPs. They're stacked.

Now, this still doesn't mean that she may not be an alternate. But she's keeping that close to the vest whether or not she'll show up as an alternate. And we don't know if that decision will ever be announced. But I'll tell you what, all we can say is, we got more Caitlin Clark and we have more Team USA, all wins, all around.

BOLDUAN: Exactly.

It's great to see you, Cari. No matter what universe and coast you're on or time zone, it's always great to have you. Thank you.

CHAMPION: You too, Kate. Thank you.

BOLDUAN: Thank you so much.

BERMAN: Yes, I never know what time it is. (INAUDIBLE) -

BOLDUAN: I know. Cari's - Cari's speaking for all of us.

BERMAN: Thank you all for joining us. This has been CNN NEW CENTRAL. "CNN NEWSROOM" with Jim Acosta up next.

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