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Netanyahu to Visit White House as Israel-Hamas Ceasefire Talks Resume; Flood Threat Upgraded in Central Texas Today; Man Killed After Exchanging Gunfire with Border Patrol in Texas. Aired 2:30-3p ET

Aired July 07, 2025 - 14:30   ET

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

[14:30:00]

JESSICA DEAN, CNN HOST: Just a few hours from now, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will visit President Trump at the White House here in Washington. And the meeting is coming at a critical moment for the conflict in Gaza. Just last week, Israel agreed to a U.S.-brokered ceasefire proposal. Hamas responded with amendments but announced Friday it had a positive response to the deal. A sense of urgency is underneath today's meeting, as Trump floats the possibility that, in his opinion, an agreement could be reached by this week.

Joining us now with more on this, CNN's Kristen Holmes and Jeremy Diamond. Kristen let's start first with you. You're there at the White House, where there was just a press briefing ahead of the visit from the Prime Minister. What did they say when it came to this topic?

JESSICA HOLMES, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Jessica, I think one thing to note is that President Trump, when he came back from NATO about two weeks ago, said he believed there would be a deal on a Gaza ceasefire within the week. Obviously, we've passed over that deadline. But there was some hope among White House officials that by the time Netanyahu got here on Monday, that they might have something to announce.

Obviously, again, that has not happened. Instead, the press secretary said there were a lot of things that the two leaders were going to discuss, particularly in the region. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KAROLINE LEAVITT, WHITE HOUSE SECRETARY: The utmost priority for the president right now in the Middle East is to end the war in Gaza and to return all of the hostages. Also, as you know, there was a ceasefire proposal that Israel supports that was sent to Hamas, and we hope that they will agree to this proposal. We want to see all of the hostages released.

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That's on the top of the president's mind, so that will be discussed as well as the many other positive developments we've seen in the Middle East.

(END VIDEO CLIP) HOLMES: And one thing to note about this meeting, I mean, usually when you have the world leaders come to the White House, they do a meeting in the Oval Office. Instead, this is a private dinner behind closed doors with President Trump and Prime Minister Netanyahu. And Karoline Leavitt was asked about that as well.

Was this because of sensitive issues? She kind of brushed off the reasoning to have this behind closed doors, not in front of any reporters, not really in front of anyone, and then went on to talk about the various things that those two leaders were going to discuss. She did not, however, get into any details about that proposal that was given to Hamas.

DEAN: And Jeremy, I want to go down to you. We heard the White House is preparing to send its special envoy to the talks in Qatar. What is the latest on those negotiations at this moment?

JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN JERUSALEM CORRESPONDENT: Yes, well, we are now in the stage that is known as proximity talks between Israel and Hamas, meaning that they are in, you know, basically the same location, separate rooms, a messenger kind of going back and forth between those rooms so that you can try and reach agreements in this final stage of negotiations on some of the outstanding issues more quickly than the several days that it sometimes takes on every single issue over the course of these indirect negotiations.

But even as these two sides are now closer than they have been since the last ceasefire collapsed, we are still seeing that there are still significant sticking points between them. You know, we saw on Friday as Hamas delivered what it described as a, quote, positive response to the latest ceasefire proposal that Israel had agreed to, but offering some amendments to it. The Israeli prime minister then said that those amendments were unacceptable to Israel, but despite that rhetoric, still sent his negotiating team to Doha, Qatar.

And now, as we are learning that Steve Witkoff is also going to get into the mix, traveling to Doha later this week, according to the White House, that suggests on the one hand that the White House is very focused on trying to get to an agreement this week if it can. But at the same time, it also suggests that the need for a senior official like Steve Witkoff, who has been intimately involved in these negotiations for months now, suggests that there are some big sticking points here that require a bit of a more senior hand.

And beyond that, make no mistake that the negotiations aren't just happening in Doha. They very much will be happening at the White House tonight, as President Trump sits down for dinner with Prime Minister Netanyahu. One of the key things President Trump has said, he wants this ceasefire to lead to an end of the war in Gaza. That for now, at least, is incompatible with where Prime Minister Netanyahu stands. Make no mistake, that will be a big part of the discussion.

DEAN: Certainly. All right. Jeremy Diamond there in Tel Aviv for us. Thank you so much for that reporting.

And still to come this afternoon, a man wearing tactical gear was killed after he opened fire at a Texas border patrol facility. We've got details on that coming up next.

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BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: A flood watch has been extended and upgraded for nearly five million people here in central Texas, posing a new threat after the deadly flash flooding over the weekend. We're also learning about what set the stage for the catastrophic deluge in Kerr County.

We're joined now by meteorologist Chris Warren. Chris let's start with the forecast. What do people in this area need to know right now?

CHRIS WARREN, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Well, right now, Boris, there is still the threat for more showers and thunderstorms. Not to the extent of what we saw over the past couple of days, but still there is the threat, the possibility of three out of four on the threat level here for excessive rainfall.

So that's the first step in saying, hey, something could happen. There could be something.

The next is the watch. And that's what you see here. This is the flood watch. And then when the flooding is either about to happen, we're talking minutes now or maybe an hour or two. So much shorter term is the warning. So I think of the watch as we're watching for warnings. And when you get a warning, that's when you have to take action.

So that's what we have right now. This is currently what we are dealing with and what we are seeing in terms of the showers and storms right here near San Angelo. Here's Austin dry for the moment. There's Kerrville. It is also dry at the moment. Future radar shows that drying trend continuing and then a bit of a dry stretch. Absolutely needed after this.

Many of these areas here, including around Kerrville, getting up into that orange and red category, four to six, six to 10 inches, and it's not just in one spot, widespread areas draining into one location. So there are many factors when it comes into catastrophic flooding like this.

First, it's how much rain right here. How does this rain come? How intense is it when it comes down and how long does it last?

And all of those were on the high end and all of that water falling on this on drought, exceptional drought, the most intense form of drought that there is. So the ground is going to be hard. You might think it could absorb more, but that's not necessarily the case.

It is hard ground and already the rocks in the stream bed, water's prone to run off anyways. And then on top of that, in a warming atmosphere, you can have more moisture in it anyways. And then a couple of X tropical systems coming up over the area.

Again, there are multiple factors that lead to a catastrophe like this. And unfortunately, a lot of them came together to do this right here. Rain set up overnight Thursday into Friday, and it was that heavy, scary thunderstorm kind of rain falling in this drainage basin, which isn't very big.

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So it had to hit right here. So the location of this was also worst case scenario, a couple of counties away, and we're not having the conversation about Kerrville here today.

So unfortunately, this is how it all worked out during the night. It was raining, raining, and then it was so much the river gates just shot up from less than a foot, Boris, to just about two stories in a matter of a couple hours.

SANCHEZ: Yes, again, just a wall of water coming toward this area. We're also keeping an eye on some flooding because of the remnants of a tropical storm. That's in North Carolina. Can you walk us through what's happening there?

WARREN: Yes, so what we are watching and continuing to watch is a former system, Chantal, that is moving through the mid-Atlantic and heading into the northeast. And we've been seeing some of the flooding yesterday and during the overnight -- the dark hours here -- which is one more layer if you're out in your car that makes it dangerous to be around.

So with that, here's another look at the watches in green and the warnings in red. And Boris, we can see still dealing with the rain, but this also is getting towards the end of its life cycle and will be heading out as well.

SANCHEZ: Chris Warren, thank you so much for the update there. As we head to break, we want to continue honoring victims of the flooding in Texas. One of them is Julian Ryan.

Julian is being hailed as a hero today. His family says that he made a split second decision to thrust his arm through a window to help his fiance, his two young kids and his mother escape the rushing water. And in breaking the glass, sadly, Julian cut an artery in his arm, leading to major blood loss.

Here's more from Ryan's fiancee and his sister.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHRISTINA WILSON, VICTIM'S FIANCEE: He looked at me and the kids and my mother-in-law, and he was sorry, I'm not going to make it. I love you all.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He's a hero and that will never go unnoticed.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANCHEZ: His sister went on to say the family feels like they're trapped in a nightmare that they can't wake up from and a reality where he will never walk through that door again and be the funny person that he was.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

DEAN: Turning now to some other breaking news out of Texas, where a 27 year old man with a rifle who was wearing tactical gear was killed today after exchanging fire with law enforcement officers at a Border Patrol facility. A DHS official says that man began shooting at the entrance and quote, Border Patrol agents and local police helped neutralize the shooter.

CNN's Ryan Young is following the story. Ryan, what is the latest?

RYAN YOUNG, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, so much information we're still trying to nail down here. But you saw those shots in that door. This man showed up early this morning, started firing toward the door. And at one point there was a response from police officers. We know at least more than 12 rounds were fired. But in the end, police were able to take him down.

Now, as we show you this video, you can see the front door there where the shots have been fired. You also can see another shot where he is down on the ground. From what we've been told by from police that Ryan Luis, 27 from Michigan, they believe showed up heavily armed with tactical gear on and then started firing toward officer.

One officer was hit in a knee, but then they responded back with several shots. They were able to take him down. Take a listen to the police chief.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHIEF VICTOR RODRIGUEZ, MCALLEN, TEXAS POLICE DEPARTMENT: Border Patrol agents returned fire and subsequently neutralized, that is, killed the person that had opened fire upon that building. I cannot tell you how many rounds were fired from the suspect specifically, that is, but there were many, many, many dozens of rounds fired from by by the suspect towards a building and towards agents in that building. The the subsequent scene investigation, which we are trying to wrap up at this point in time, also revealed much more ammunition and other weaponry that the suspect had brought with him at the particular point in time.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

YOUNG: Yes, Jessica, the way this was described is apparently that car was loaded with ammunition. There were more weapons inside of it. Not sure if he tried to use the car to deflect from officers and hide behind it, but you can see they were able to move very quickly to take him down.

We know the FBI is still involved in terms of this investigation. And so far from what they're telling us, there has been no motive provided for why he was there. We know he was reported missing, but there's so many more questions about why he chose this location, showed up with the weaponry and started opening fire.

DEAN: All right, Ryan Young with the latest on that. Thank you so much for that reporting.

I want to turn down to some of the other headlines that we're keeping our eye on this hour right now.

Supporters of Kilmar Abrego Garcia are gathered outside a Maryland courtroom where lawyers are asking a federal judge to return him to his home state. He's currently in pretrial detention in Tennessee, where he's facing charges of human smuggling after being wrongly deported to El Salvador in mid-March. Today, the Trump administration said it would take steps to deport Abrego Garcia before he goes to trial if he's released from criminal custody. And that release could happen as soon as next week. That's according to DOJ.

A troubling new record set for measles in the U.S. At least a 1,277 confirmed cases have been reported so far this year. That is more than in any year since this disease was declared eliminated 25 years ago. The vast majority of measles cases have been in Texas. And according to the Texas State Health Department, most of those cases come from one county where vaccination rates are well below the recommended level.

A jury in Australia has found a woman guilty of deliberately killing lunch guest with poison mushrooms.

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Erin Patterson was found guilty on three counts of murder and the attempted murder of the lone survivor of that lunch. She's accused of killing three relatives by serving the victim's death cap mushrooms. Those are highly toxic. She baked them into a beef Wellington dish in 2023.

And when we come back, our breaking news coverage of these floods in Texas continues, including incredible stories of survival.

Our affiliate KHOU spoke to two brothers who were woken up in the middle of the night and heard screaming from another cabin as these flood waters were rising at Camp La Junta in Hunt, Texas. Both of these boys were evacuated, then rescued by the Coast Guard.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BROCK DAVIS, EVACUATED CAMP LA JUNTA IN HUNT, TEXAS: We jumped up to another bed, like a top bunk and like our bed starting tipping over and like we got to the top really quick and then we like this and then like one of the walls like fall down.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

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