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Palestinians: 26 People Killed By IDF Near Aid Distribution Site; Witkoff Rejects Hamas Response To U.S. Ceasefire Proposal; Supreme Court Limits Scope Of Environmental Reviews; PBS Sues White House Over Executive Order To End Funding; Doctors Without Borders: Sexual Violence Is Rampant In Darfur. Aired 5-6 am ET

Aired June 01, 2025 - 05:00   ET

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

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[05:00:30]

KIM BRUNHUBER, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome to all of you watching us here in the United States, Canada and around the world. I'm Kim Brunhuber. This is CNN NEWSROOM.

Israel and Hamas don't appear to be on the same page with the U.S. proposed ceasefire. We'll have the latest on efforts to reach a truce.

The U.S. and Iran are trying to hammer out a nuclear deal as a new report accuses Iran of secret nuclear activities.

And the conservative U.S. Supreme Court issues another major setback for environmentalists. We'll have details on the ruling and its potentially significant fallout.

ANNOUNCER: Live from Atlanta, this is CNN NEWSROOM with Kim Brunhuber.

BRUNHUBER: We begin with a chaotic situation that turned deadly in Gaza. Palestinians say at least 26 people were killed this morning after Israeli troops opened fire near an aid distribution site. Close to 180 others are hospitalized, according to Gaza's health officials.

The site is run by a private organization backed by the U.S. and Israel, whose plan has been criticized by the U.N. Israel says it's not aware of any injuries caused by the IDF, and it's looking into the incident.

Now, this all comes amid ongoing ceasefire negotiations. U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff is slamming Hamas' response to a U.S. ceasefire proposal as totally unacceptable.

In Israel, protesters held a huge rally Saturday night with the brother of one hostage, making a direct appeal to Witkoff. Here he is.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Please, Mr. Witkoff, if the hostage deal outline is accepted, place a comprehensive deal on the table immediately, one that will end the war and ensure the return of all remaining hostages. Don't let Netanyahu torpedo this deal and resume the fighting -- the fighting that will cost the living hostages their lives.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRUNHUBER: For more, Salma Abdelaziz, joins us from London. So, Salma, first on those killed at the aid distribution site, Gazans seem to be caught in this no-win situation, dying of starvation and facing death if they try to get food.

SALMA ABDELAZIZ, CNN REPORTER: Absolutely, Kim. Just horrifying scenes this morning at the Rafah -- in Rafah, where an aid distribution turned deadly when Israeli forces opened fire on a crowd of civilians trying to get that desperately needed food to feed their families. This is according to the only medical professionals at the site, the Palestinian Red Crescent Society.

You're looking at the images there of those wounded from that violence this morning flooding into hospitals. Important to remind our viewers that when we say hospitals, the medical system in Gaza is absolutely on the brink of collapse. Doctors and nurses are saying that the rush, again, from the violence at this aid distribution site is overwhelming hospitals.

We now understand there's more than 100 people who have been wounded, dozens of them are in critical condition, again, as they fight just for a scrap of food. Now, we have reached out to the Israeli military for comment. It says it is unaware of the incident and looking into it at this time.

And we've also reached out to the organization behind this distribution site, the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation. It is a highly controversial U.S.-backed and Israeli-backed group. It has been criticized by the U.N. for carrying out aid distributions that it says, the U.N. says violate humanitarian norms and put Palestinians at greater risk.

You're looking at one of those aid distributions right now on your screen where you can just see hordes of desperate people just rushing towards those boxes. And there seems to be very little distributing happening at these distribution sites.

Again, 26 people killed this morning. There was 11 people killed last week during some of these aid distributions. And U.N. agencies are saying this is going to cause more death and more chaos when we're looking at a Gaza Strip that is on the brink of famine. The United Nations describes the enclave as the hungriest place on earth and says that the distributions, the aid that's trickling in is just a drop in the ocean of need. And humanitarian workers are pleading for full and unimpeded access. They say the crisis that you see unfolding there will continue to get worse.

And we're looking at Palestinians now not just dying, Kim, from the bombs and the bullets, from the lack of medical care. They are also dying to get food.

BRUNHUBER: Yeah, that's right. And for aid distribution to be unimpeded, obviously a pause in the fighting is so vital. So, bring us up to speed on the latest on a ceasefire proposal.

[05:05:09]

ABDELAZIZ: Yes. So, this was a ceasefire proposal put forward by U.S. Envoy Steve Witkoff, of course, on behalf of the Trump administration. We got a response to that proposal from Hamas yesterday, with Hamas saying that it is willing to release 10 living hostages and 18 deceased hostages. That matches with Mr. Witkoff's draft proposal. But Hamas also outlined their reservations. And reiterated demands that they have made time and time again, which is a full withdrawal of Israeli troops from the Gaza Strip, a full and permanent ceasefire, an end to the conflict, and a guaranteed flow of aid to the two million people trapped in the Gaza Strip.

Now, Mr. Witkoff's response to that Hamas response was that it was totally unacceptable and that Hamas should just accept that draft proposal. Hamas responded to Mr. Witkoff's response by saying it was not a rejection of the American proposal, but an invitation to continue talking. So, a bump in the road. Mediation efforts, of course, continue.

But for that spiraling humanitarian crisis that you're seeing play out on your screen right now, Kim, that ceasefire needs to happen now. And you're hearing that from humanitarian aid organizations who say we need to flood Gaza with food. We need to flood Gaza with aid.

Because you're seeing also looting of aid trucks, WFP saying 80 of their trucks were looted, mostly by hungry and desperate families as they were smiling, pleading for that bit of help. And the fear among those who are so hungry is that even if they get that scrap of food today, there may be no food tomorrow.

BRUNHUBER: Yeah. So, much at stake for those ceasefire discussions. Salma Abdelaziz, thanks so much.

Two bridges have collapsed in western Russia, and the country's investigative committee described both incidents as being caused by explosions and has labeled them terrorist acts. That's according to state media. Officials say at least seven people were killed and 66 injured when a road bridge collapsed on a passenger train. It happened in Russia's Bryansk region. State media reports that the train was traveling to Moscow when it was hit by debris from the falling bridge and derailed.

Now, separately, a bridge in the neighboring Kursk region collapsed as a freight train was passing over it. A driver of that train was injured. It's not clear whether the two incidents are connected. And despite both regions bordering Ukraine, there's no immediate indication that Kyiv is involved.

European Union is threatening to impose countermeasures against the U.S. after President Donald Trump announced he's doubling tariffs on imported steel and aluminum. Here's what he told steel workers in Pennsylvania on Friday.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) DONALD TRUMP (R), U.S. PRESIDENT: We are going to be imposing a 25% increase. We're going to bring it from 25% to 50%, the tariffs on steel into the United States of America, which will even further secure the steel industry in the United States. Nobody's going to get around that. So, we're bringing it up from 25%. We're doubling it to 50%. And that's a loophole. I said to the group, would you rather have a 40% increase?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRUNHUBER: Well, if no deal is reached with the E.U., those countermeasures are expected to take effect on July 14th. The European Commission spokesperson for trade told CNN that Trump's latest move adds further uncertainty to the global economy and increases costs for consumers and businesses on both sides of the Atlantic.

The United Kingdom also reacted to the news, vowing to protect its steel businesses and jobs. It comes weeks after the U.K. secured a trade agreement with the U.S., which Prime Minister Keir Starmer said would save the industry.

Iran is being accused of carrying out secret nuclear activities dating back to the early 2000s. That's according to a confidential report from the U.N. nuclear watchdog, as reported by "Reuters." The International Atomic Energy Agency says at least three locations in Iran were part of an undeclared program and that some activities used undeclared nuclear material. Tehran rejects the report outright, calling it politically motivated.

A separate IAEA report claims there's been a jump in Iran's stock of enriched uranium. If enriched further, Tehran could have enough uranium for nine nuclear weapons, that's according to the agency.

Despite those findings, the U.S. and Iran remain engaged in negotiating a new nuclear deal. CNN's Betsy Klein has the latest from the White House.

BETSY KLEIN, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE PRODUCER: Now, the president has repeatedly stated that Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon. He has warned of violent consequences if they do so. And this week, just a few days ago in the Oval Office, he said that an agreement with Iran is, quote, "very close."

Now, U.S. Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff has been involved in these talks with Iran over several rounds, moderated by Oman. And Karoline Leavitt, the White House Press Secretary, announced in a statement, Special Envoy Witkoff has sent a detailed and acceptable proposal to the Iranian regime, and it's in their best interest to accept it.

[05:10:20]

Now, that proposal was delivered personally to Iran's foreign minister, Bayou Man, which, again, has served as a key intermediary here, according to a post on social media. Now, Leavitt declined to provide additional details on the substance of what was in this proposal. And a senior administration official told me that a date for the next set of talks between the U.S. and Iran has not yet been set.

But at the same time, there is a lot of urgency here. We are learning from this new confidential report from a United Nations nuclear watchdog that Iran has further increased its stockpile of uranium enriched to nuclear weapons grade levels. So, according to this report from the International Atomic Energy Agency, Iran has amassed about 900 pounds of uranium enriched up to 60%.

Now, that is about a 50% increase just from this past February. So, just a few months, a major significant increase in the amount of enriched uranium Iran has in its stockpile. This report said that this is of serious concern to the international community, but it's also a source of major concern for Israel.

And a reminder that it was just earlier this week that President Trump said that he had warned Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu against interfering or disrupting these U.S.-Iran nuclear talks, saying he told his counterpart that such a move would be inappropriate.

BRUNHUBER: The U.S. Supreme Court hands another setback to environmentalists. When we come back, we'll talk live with an expert about the case and what it means.

Plus, the justices of the high court give a boost to the president's immigration crackdown, but it may only be temporary. We'll have details on the decision after the break. Stay with us.

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[05:15:58]

BRUNHUBER: The U.S. Supreme Court ruled on Friday that the Trump administration may suspend for now a parole program that allowed migrants from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Venezuela to temporarily live and work in the country. The emergency decision isn't final and the underlying legal case will continue in lower courts.

CNN's Rafael Romo has more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RAFAEL ROMO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: This is the second time in less than a month that the Hyde Court has sided with President Trump's efforts to revoke temporary legal status for some immigrants. The Supreme Court had previously cleared the way for the administration to revoke another temporary program that provided work permits to hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans. The Supreme Court's brief ruling was not signed and, more importantly, did not offer any reasoning behind the order, as is often the case on its emergency docket.

Though the decision isn't final and the underlying legal case will continue in lower courts, the ruling allows Trump officials to expedite deportations for an estimated 530,000 immigrants from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Venezuela who received temporary protection status during the Biden administration. The immigrant community reacted with great concern for those affected, especially in Florida where many of the immigrants from those countries live.

PAUL CHRISTIAN NAMPHY, FAMILY ACTION NETWORK MOVEMENT: Terrible, terrible, terrible uncertainty for our community members, people who came here illegally.

MAUREEN PORRAS, DORAL VICE MAYOR & IMMIGRATION ATTORNEY: This is a very devastating decision and now we're going to see a lot of businesses whose employees had work permits under this parole program not show up to work tomorrow. It's really going to have a chilling effect.

ROMO: On the other hand, many Republican political leaders applauded the High Court's decision, including Florida Congressman Carlos Gimenez.

REP. CARLOS GIMENEZ, (R) FLORIDA: I think the Supreme Court actually ruled in the right way. Anything that can be implemented by executive order can actually be, I think, taken away by executive order.

ROMO: Two liberal justices, Sonia Sotomayor and Ketanji Brown Jackson, dissented from the decision. In her dissenting opinion, Justice Jackson wrote that it undervalues the devastating consequences of allowing the government to precipitously append the lives and livelihoods of nearly half a million non-citizens while their legal claims are pending.

And this kind of protection for immigrants fleeing violence or persecution was first used in the 1950s when the Eisenhower administration allowed tens of thousands of people flee in Hungary and Eastern Europe during a Soviet crackdown after World War II.

Rafael Romo, CNN Atlanta.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BRUNHUBER: On Thursday, the Supreme Court issued a ruling narrowing the scope of a key environmental statute. The court limited the scope of reviews under the National Environmental Policy Act, one of the country's foundational environmental laws signed by President Richard Nixon. The decision could speed up approvals for highways, airports and pipelines.

The conservative court has dealt many setbacks to environmentalists in recent years, including shutting down regulations intended to protect wetlands and reduce air pollution drifting across state lines.

Sam Sankar is Senior Vice President at programs at Earthjustice and joins us now from Washington, D.C. Thank you so much for being up early for us here on this important topic here.

SAMBHAV SANKAR, SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT OF PROGRAMS, EARTHJUSTICE: Thank you.

BRUNHUBER: So, very broadly, the environmental report at the heart of this was some 3600 pages long, and the argument by environmentalists was that still it didn't take everything into consideration. So, in the words of one of the lawyers who -- who represented those who supported the rail project at the heart of this, 88 miles of track should not require more than 3600 pages of environmental analysis. So, in such a highly partisan and divided Supreme Court, it seemed like a rare unanimous ruling.

Even the liberal justices agreed your organization was a key participant in this case. I don't want to relitigate the whole thing right now because we only have five minutes. But what do you think the court got wrong here?

SANKAR: Well, first of all, let's step back for a second, as you said, NEPA is one of our foundational environmental laws and the Supreme Court that we have right now has been making it a habit of trying to cut back on those laws.

[05:20:09]

The case here at issue was about 88 miles of railroad that actually were going to allow the extraction of over 300 and well, approximately three hundred and fifty thousand barrels of oil per day, about 88 miles of railroad that actually were going to allow the extraction of over 300 and -- well, approximately 350,000 barrels of oil per day, a kind of dense, waxy crude that could only be taken care of but a couple of refineries down in Louisiana. And those refineries are in areas that are already suffering from serious air pollution and health problems.

So, our position was that the oil, that this small spur of railroad was the only thing that was standing between the health effects and the climate effects of that oil.

Now, what the court ruled was that, what the liberal justices ruled was that the refinery impacts at the very end of this didn't need to be considered under the statute. What the conservative court ruled was that government agencies should get tremendous latitude in doing their reviews under the National Environmental Policy Act. That degree of deference is going to, it could radically upend the way President Trump attempts to implement his pro-fossil fuel and anti-clean energy agenda.

BRUNHUBER: Yeah, so explain that then this case, as you say, specifically involved whether agencies have to consider these upstream and downstream environmental impacts when reviewing these types of projects. So, why is this distinction so important for environmental protection?

SANKAR: Well, the court's decision was less about that distinction than it is about the degree to which courts are going to review environmental analyses more generally. So, what the conservatives on the court said is they wanted to go way beyond the contours of this case into the degree of deference that courts give to the agencies that complete these reviews. And what Justice Kavanaugh said is it should be tremendous amounts of deference.

That's ironic since the Supreme Court has been cutting back on the deference that it has been giving to federal environmental regulatory agencies in recent years. And what we see is that this is a sort of one way only deference. If the agencies are trying to regulate industries, they get very little deference.

And when the agencies are green lighting fossil fuel projects, they're going to get a tremendous amount of deference because let's be clear, the projects that the Trump administration is going to be trying to accelerate are fossil fuel infrastructure projects. Even before this decision, the president was busy trying to shut down wind infrastructure and make sure that the clean energy -- the clean energy revolution is delayed as much as possible.

BRUNHUBER: All right, so on that then, what effect do you think this ruling will have concretely? What types of projects do you think stand to benefit and what ecosystems might be threatened?

SANKAR: Well, the president has declared an energy emergency. That's ironic at a point in which the United States is producing more oil and gas than any other nation in history on the planet. And the president has declared that that's not enough. We need still more and that he's doing everything he can to speed and to limit environmental review and speed permitting of these kinds of projects regardless of their impacts on people around them.

So, what this decision will do was pour more fuel on that fire limit the amount of input that communities have into the decisions that take place around them and limit the amount of information that agencies get. And then worst of all, just rubber stamp whatever the agencies run by Donald Trump's appointees say.

And we've seen already the degree to what, well, what I guess I would say is that the Supreme Court decision says trust the government at a time when we cannot trust the government when it comes to the environment.

BRUNHUBER: All right, well, that's the federal government. I mean, as you say, we've seen the Trump administration increase, you know, oil and gas projects. The barrier to stopping them has become a little weaker as you've described, but we've also seen blue states act to take up the challenge especially states like California. So, how will they now play a bigger role in the legal environmental resistance?

SANKAR: Well, there's been a fair amount of critique of NEPA over the years. And some of that is valid, but by and large NEPA has been a scapegoat on this. And there have been many state, local, and other laws that have needed to be in place in order to make sure that we are doing projects in a sensible manner.

So, many of those laws will still exist and states that care to implement them will presumably be continuing to do so. So, on the other hand, projects that are primarily federal in nature where the federal permitting process is key in these things. I do anticipate their courts are going to be giving a lot more latitude to the state agents or to the federal agencies that are involved in those.

BRUNHUBER: All right. Really appreciate you coming on to break this all down for us, Sam Sankar in Washington, D.C. Thanks so much. SANKAR: Thanks so much for having me.

BRUNHUBER: Several Canadian provinces remain under extreme fire danger through the weekend, including Manitoba and Saskatchewan. Cooler temperatures and rain are forecast in the coming week, but the total rainfall is expected to be very light.

[05:25:08]

There are concerns that winds are expected to pick up, which means the fires could spread even further. Thousands of people have been displaced. On Saturday, leaders of Canada's First Nations called on governments to free up hotel rooms in Winnipeg for evacuees.

And another critical issue is smoke from the nearly 200 wildfires that's moving into upper Midwestern American states, triggering health warnings and reducing visibility.

The Trump administration is facing another lawsuit over public airwaves. Just ahead, public broadcasting is at risk of losing its funding to look at what they're saying about conservative claims of liberal bias on its airwaves. Stay with us.

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BRUNHUBER: Welcome back to CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Kim Brunhuber. Let's check some of today's top stories.

Palestinians say at least 26 people are dead after Israeli troops opened fire near an aid distribution site in Gaza. Close to 180 others are hospitalized, according to Gaza health officials. Israel says it's not aware of any injuries caused by the IDF and it's looking into the incident.

The U.S. Special Envoy to the Middle East says Hamas' response to a U.S. ceasefire proposal is totally unacceptable. Hamas agreed to exchange some hostages for imprisoned Palestinians, but the group demanded a permanent ceasefire and for Israel to withdraw from Gaza.

Russian officials say at least seven people were killed when a bridge collapsed on a train in the southern region of Bryansk. Separately, a bridge also collapsed in the neighboring Kursk region as a freight train was traveling over it. Russia's investigative committee calls both incidents terrorist acts and claims they were caused by explosions.

[05:30:10]

The Public Broadcasting Service and one of its member stations are suing President Trump and several cabinet members. The suit is over Trump's executive order targeting funding for the service.

CNN's Chief Media Analyst Brian Stelter has the latest.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) BRIAN STELTER, CNN CHIEF MEDIA CORRESPONDENT: Right now, public media in the U.S. is fighting to keep its public support. And some local stations say they might be forced off the air without it. Now, "PBS" joining "NPR" in filing First Amendment lawsuits against President Trump, saying that Trump's executive order trying to defund the networks is unconstitutional.

This battle consumed the month of May, and now it's heading into the month of June. It sort of started on May 1st, when Trump signed an executive order directing the Corporation for Public Broadcasting to take away those congressionally allocated funds. The corporation, though, is a private nonprofit entity set up by Congress almost 60 years ago in order to dole out money to local radio and TV stations.

The corporation says it doesn't take directives from any president. It is set up to be insulated from that kind of interference. And the corporation has already sued Trump over a separate but related matter, because Trump tried to fire three of its board members. So, now you have three different lawsuits, all kind of in a group, over the struggle to save public media in the U.S.

Now, here's what the White House is saying about this. Here's the statement that they issued, both when "NPR" filed suit on Tuesday, and then when "PBS" followed up on Friday. A spokesman telling me, quote, "The Corporation for Public Broadcasting is creating media to support a particular political party on the taxpayer's dime. Therefore, the president is exercising his lawful authority to limit funding to NPR and PBS."

Now, the networks and their lawyers are saying Trump does not have that authority. I've read the law that set these networks up in 1967, and it specifically tries to guard against presidential interference.

So, this is now very much a question for the courts. But the claims that the White House is making about political bias are core to this story. "PBS" and "NPR" deny the charges that they're helping Democrats, that they have a liberal lean, but those are claims that have been made by Republicans for decades.

In fact, past Republican presidents have said they would try to defund "NPR" and "PBS," and they never succeeded. Trump is trying much more aggressively to do so.

"NPR" and "PBS" say that Trump's charges of bias, while unfounded, are an example of how he is committing viewpoint discrimination. Because they say, under the First Amendment, you can't have a president trying to bully a network into changing its point of view in order to keep its funding.

So, here's a part of the quote from the "PBS" lawsuit that gets to this matter. Quote, "PBS disputes those charged assertions in the strongest possible terms. But regardless of any policy disagreements over the role of public TV, our Constitution and laws forbid the president from serving as the arbiter of the content of PBS' programming, including by attempting to defund PBS." So, the battle lines are pretty clearly drawn here. You have lawyers

for PBS, NPR, and the corporation all ready to defend the role of public media. They're pointing to local stations, especially in rural areas that are Republican strongholds, and saying those stations are the ones that actually need the taxpayer dollars the most. Big stations in big cities with lots of donors and foundation supporters, those stations might suffer without taxpayer support, but they'll most likely stay on the airwaves. It is the smaller stations that rely more heavily on the government's support each and every year.

Of course, in the U.S., taxpayer support for public media is relatively miniscule, at least if you compare that to some other Western democracies, particularly in Europe, where there are far more substantial sums that are spent on publicly supported media.

In the U.S., it comes out to about $1.60 per taxpayer per year. PBS and NPR officials, they say that's a great deal for American taxpayers. Clearly Trump and his White House aides say otherwise. And this is now yet another front in the administration's battles with the courts.

Brian Stelter, CNN.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BRUNHUBER: President Trump is urging the U.S. Senate to pass his so- called big, beautiful budget bill, and he wants them to keep the provisions from the hardline House Freedom Caucus. That includes additional adjustments to Medicaid and repealing former President Joe Biden's clean energy tax credits. Trump repeatedly pledged to cut taxes on Social Security benefits while campaigning, but that was left out of his sweeping bill. He says the measure will be implemented in a different form, similar to his plan for zero taxes on tips and overtime.

South Carolina Democrats have been holding their state convention this weekend. Events have included a fundraiser and Representative Jim Clyburn's famous annual fish fry. National figures are making appearances as well, including Minnesota governor and former Democratic Vice Presidential Nominee Tim Walz. Here he is.

[05:35:05]

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

GOV. TIM WALZ (D-MN): What Trump learned from his first term to this one is, if you say you're going to get things done and actually do it, even if it's not the right thing, people still give you credit for getting something done. They give you credit for doing it. Now, it's destructive as hell on their side. Think how powerful a tool that will be if we move with the same speed that he's moving to give everybody health care.

BRUNHUBER: Popular Maryland Governor Wes Moore also focused on how the Democrats should fight back against Trump's policies.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. WES MOORE (D-MD): If he can do so much bad in such a small amount of time, why can't we do such good? Let's not just talk about an alternative. Let's not study an alternative. Let's deliver the alternative.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRUNHUBER: South Carolina has played a key role in winnowing the field of Democratic presidential contenders since 2008, when it moved its primary to one of the earliest spots in the electoral calendar.

President Trump has rescinded the nomination of Jared Isaacman to lead NASA. He said the decision was reached after, quote, "a thorough review of prior associations." It comes just days before the Senate was expected to vote on the nomination. Isaacman has traveled twice to space on private missions, and he has close ties with SpaceX Chief Elon Musk. Records show Isaacman donated to Democrats as late as last year. He told Congress he's relatively apolitical. Trump said a new nominee would be mission aligned and would put America first in space.

All right, coming up, a dire warning from Doctors Without Borders about the rise of sexual violence in Darfur, Sudan. And we'll speak with a doctor who just returned from the region. Stay with us.

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BRUNHUBER: Sudan's warring parties have been fighting for more than two years. The brutal civil war has plunged the country into what the U.N. calls the worst humanitarian crisis in the world. Tens of thousands of people have been killed, and some 13 million have been displaced, and famine and disease are spreading.

[05:40:08]

Recently, photojournalist Giles Clark was granted rare access to a country in turmoil, and this is what he found.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

GILES CLARKE, PHOTOJOURNALIST: These are the streets of Khartoum today. After two years of brutal war, this once bustling and thriving capital city has now been reduced to a lifeless, charred ruin.

My name is Giles Clarke. I am a photojournalist currently covering the crisis in Sudan. I have just returned from Khartoum, which the Sudanese army reclaimed in March after two years of rapid support forces occupation. Millions had fled the burning capital in the months after April 2023.

In the two years since, the entire inner city, about 10 miles square, has been looted to the bone by the RSF militants. Today, homes and businesses where people once lived and worked lie bare and stripped of all contents. No doors, window frames, or even electrical wiring.

Hospitals in the center of Khartoum were ransacked and destroyed. Wards and operating rooms plundered. Now, the stench of bodies still rotting in the basement floors below fill the air. In the malnutrition wards at Al-Buluk Hospital, Khartoum's only functioning pediatric hospital during the war, gravely sick children writhe in pain, often three or four on each bed, as doctors desperately attempt to save them. More and more are being admitted as access in and around the city gradually improves.

At Khartoum International Airport, the mangled remains of 20 or so jetliners attacked in the first few hours of the conflict on April 15th, 2023, lie burnt out on the tarmac. The continued RSF attacks on the city make it impossible to know when this airport will open again. Although it will take years to rebuild the center of Khartoum, life is beginning to return to the streets of Omdurman in the city's northern area. People displaced to other regions of the country over the past 24 months are starting to return.

Now that the ground fighting has eased, many will come back to empty homes and shattered businesses. The long and painful road to recovery has just begun.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BRUNHUBER: The aid group Medecins Sans Frontieres, or Doctors Without Borders, has issued a staggering new report. They warn that women and girls in Sudan's Darfur region are facing near constant risk of sexual violence.

I want to discuss this with Dr. Katharina Weizsacker, who's an Obstetrics and Gynecology Advisor for Doctors Without Borders, and she just returned from working in and around Darfur, and she's in N'Djamena, Chad. Thank you so much for being here with us to discuss what's a very difficult topic. Can you walk us through what a typical day looked like for you and your team at the hospital, and what kinds of cases you were treating?

DR. KATHARINA WEIZSACKER, OBSTETRICS AND GYNECOLOGY ADVISOR, DOCTORS WITHOUT BORDERS: I just returned from North Darfur, a relatively small town with a small hospital, about 60 kilometers from Al-Fashir, which is the capital of North Darfur. We have received in the last month and a half quite a high number of internally displaced people. A lot of them coming from Zamzam Camp, which was one of -- or was one of the largest IDP camps in Darfur, and has been there for quite a long time. This camp was attacked by RSF in April, and a high number of people were killed, and a lot of people were displaced.

So, the people who reach our facility have a lot of different needs. We receive sort of the urgent needs, acute dehydration, malnutrition is a big topic. Then, of course, you have infectious diseases. People have walked for a long time. They've been on the road for a long time. But there's also quite a high number of victims of violence, even though we know that many of the more severely wounded did not make it to the hospital, and they were left behind.

BRUNHUBER: Let me ask you specifically about the -- the issue of sexual violence, which was -- which was your specialty as you were treating the people there. What -- what were the immediate medical and physical needs that you saw amongst these survivors, and what kinds of challenges did you come up against trying to treat them in a conflict zone?

[05:45:16]

WEIZSACKER: Right. That's a very good question. We've seen that in our facility, the number of survivors of sexual violence has significantly increased in the last few weeks, especially after the attacks on Zamzam.

Many of these women and girls, there have been a high number of very young girls who were sexually assaulted, reached the facility, and many of the stories they tell are very similar. They have been attacked in a group of people by a group of armed men, don't know exactly who they were, and very often in the -- in the middle of the road, very publicly on the move.

Also, many of them were beaten, or for example, just to give you one example, a 12-year-old girl whose mother was severely beaten, and injured, and the father was killed. So, these kind of stories are the ones that we see, or that we saw a lot in the last few weeks. And the care that we do, so we do some more of the medical urgent care. And also, we do prophylaxis for sexually transmitted diseases.

We do mental health first aid. We try to make sure that there are at least for a moment, they are safe, which is what we can do in our facility.

BRUNHUBER: Yeah, let --

WEIZSACKER: But we also know that many of these women tell that it happened in bigger groups, and only a few of them reach the care that they need.

BRUNHUBER: Yeah, that's obviously such a huge problem. I want to key in on something that you mentioned there, because you talked about youths, and a 12-year-old girl that you mentioned. I mean, the statistics around this are particularly disturbing regarding children. 31% of survivors were younger than 18, 7% younger than 10 years old, almost 3% younger than five years old. Just incomprehensible. How -- hod do you and your colleagues handle providing care to such young victims, both medically and emotionally?

WEIZSACKER: That's a very good question. In some ways, I mean, personally, I don't think there's a good way of doing it. I think you can just try to install, sort of -- you do care for the medical needs. If there are any injuries, medication you provide, pain relief if it's needed, those kind of things.

And then I think among the most important, or among the important first steps is to try to give them back some sense of control over their life situation that they have. Even though in this situation, it's very difficult. Many of these people are still on the move. They still don't feel safe. Even after reaching our facility, they might move on because they don't feel safe anywhere in the floor. So, it is very difficult, especially the mental health aspect, just because the follow-up is so tricky for people who are on the move, who are fleeing from a conflict.

BRUNHUBER: Yeah, listen, we'll end with this because I think it's really important since you've witnessed this crisis firsthand. So, what would you say to the international community to understand about what -- what concrete actions are needed right now to protect them, provide better support for survivors, and maybe prevent it from happening, certainly at such a large scale in the first place?

WEIZSACKER: Yeah, well, I think we really, really need to put as much pressure as possible on all the conflict parties to hold their own fighters, their members accountable for these crimes. Just because it is happening on a really, really large scale. And it's very difficult to protect the women, the girls, or possibly also the men and the boys from this kind of violence if no one is holding them accountable.

BRUNHUBER: Yeah.

WEIZSACKER: Also, a second point is to really try to pressure the parties to make access to material, to care possible, because it's very difficult to get supplies into the region at the moment.

BRUNHUBER: Yeah, it's such an important reminder on a conflict that for too many people has been forgotten. Dr. Katharina Weizsacker, thank you so much.

[05:50:03]

WEIZSACKER: Thank you very much for having me.

BRUNHUBER: All right. We'll be right back with more here on CNN NEWSROOM. Stay with us.

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BRUNHUBER: Celebrations in the French capital after Paris Saint- Germain won the Champions League final. Amanda Davies was in Munich for the match.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

AMANDA DAVIES, CNN WORLD SPORT: With Tom Cruise watching on, what at times has seemed Mission: Impossible for PSG has become mission complete. 14 years in the making. The unashamed, much publicized aim. Since day one when Qatar Sports Investments, QSI, took over as owners at PSG. It's seen the likes of David Beckham, Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Carlo Ancelotti, Thomas Tuchel, and of course Messi, Neymar, and Kylian Mbappe all come and go.

But with Luis Enrique's arrival, a change in ethos and mentality absolutely summed up by the banner unfurled by the PSG fans, head of kickoff translating as together we are invincible. And here at the Allianz Arena on Saturday, this was a team absolutely playing for each other and the cause, setting a new bar. [05:55:06]

A unit from the word go, playing the creative, exciting football to which we've become accustomed, ruled on by an incredible wall of fans and the midfield magicians of Vettinia and Khvicha Kvaratskhelia running the show.

Achraf Hakimi's opening goal after 12 minutes almost seemed too easy. The Moroccan looking embarrassed to have scored such an important goal against his former club. And from there, they couldn't be stopped.

A five-star performance, a deserved double for 19-year-old, yep, 19- year-old Desire Doue after a season that has very much seen him announce himself to the world. He wasn't even a regular starter for his former club a season ago. Number four came from Kvaratskhelia and a record-breaking fifth for 18-year-old Seni Meolu (ph).

But from the celebration to a second final disappointment in three years for Inter Milan, they headed home from Istanbul feeling hard done by in 2023, frustrated they hadn't taken their chances. This evening, they just didn't create enough chances to take. And from talking about a treble on the cards a month ago, well, they're left empty-handed as a frankly miserable May comes to an end.

And it might not only be the month coming to an end, an era too with questions over the future of manager Simone Inzaghi with an offer from Saudi Arabia on the table and the feeling that for so many of these players, it could have been their last chance as well.

Enrique said earlier in this journey, the season's Champions League campaign would make a great thriller or horror film because it's had so many twists and turns. Well, for PSG, the final went exactly to script, a record-breaking Champions League winning score and a Hollywood ending of which Tom Cruise would be proud with plenty of room and potential for the sequel.

Amanda Davies, CNN, Munich.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BRUNHUBER: I'm Kim Brunhuber. Thank you so much for joining us.

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