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GHF Halts Aid Operations As Multiple Violence Continues; Opposition Leader Lee Jae-myung Elects As South Korea's President, Succeeds Impeached President Yoon; Musk Expressed Feelings Over Trump's Big Beautiful Bill; France To Ban Smoking In Most Outdoor Spaces Starting July. Aired 3-4a ET

Aired June 04, 2025 - 03:00   ET

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

[03:00:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CHRISTINA MACFARLANE, CNN CORRESPONDENT AND ANCHOR: Hello and welcome to all our viewers watching from around the world. I'm Christina Macfarlane in London, ahead on "CNN Newsroom."

As the situation in Gaza grows more desperate, an aid distribution group pauses its operations after several days of people being killed while trying to get food.

South Korea has a new President as opposition leader Lee Jae-myung takes the oath of office. We'll take a closer look at some of his key inaugural promises.

And more tariff whiplash as Donald Trump follows through on his promise to double U.S. levies on steel and aluminum imports.

U.N.KNOWN (voice-over): Live from London, this is "CNN Newsroom" with Christina McFarlane.

MACFARLANE: Israel's military is warning residents of Gaza against heading to aid centers today, calling them, quote, "combat zones." The warning follows three days of deadly incidents near aid distribution centers. Dozens of Palestinians were killed and injured while trying to collect aid and there are conflicting reports on what happened.

The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation says it's closing its aid sites on Wednesday for logistical preparations. The U.S. and Israel-backed organization has been criticized by the United Nations for its limited number of distribution sites and the U.N. Security Council is expected to vote on Wednesday on a resolution demanding a permanent ceasefire in Gaza according to a Slovenian diplomat.

The U.N. also reiterated the call for an independent investigation into the aid incidents.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

STEPHANE DUJARRIC, SPOKESPERSON TO THE U.N. SECRETARY-GENERAL: It is unacceptable. Civilians are risking and in several instances losing their lives just trying to get food. Palestinians have the fundamental right to adequate food and to be free from hunger. The Secretary- General continues to call for an immediate and independent investigation into these events and for the perpetrators to be held to account.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MACFARLANE: Well, let's get more now from CNN's Paula Hancocks who's joining us now live from Abu Dhabi. And Paula, the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation now saying it's closing its aid sites on Wednesday for, quote, "logistical preparations." Tell us more about what we know.

PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Christina, I think clearly there's a recognition of just how deadly this has become. More than 60 Palestinians have been killed in just three days. Three consecutive days of deaths and hundreds have been injured of civilians trying to get close to the aid distribution site.

And as you say, there have been conflicting reports. Monday, Tuesday, the Israeli military said they did fire in the vicinity about a kilometer away. But on Sunday, they say that there were false reports that they had been involved.

So while we look at exactly what happened, GHF is trying to prevent it from happening again, it says. So logistical preparations mean that they are going to try and figure out how to deal with tens of thousands of Palestinians coming to this area.

There are only four sites in the whole of Gaza. And this was one of the main criticisms that the U.N. and NGOs on the ground had about GHF was that you were expecting 2.2 million Palestinians to move from where they are to just four sites in Gaza in the midst of a bloody war.

So inevitably, the risk to Palestinians was going to be higher. And we know the Israeli military is always also going to be looking at trying to improve the access sites. Because we've heard from the head of UNRWA, one of the U.N. agencies, that getting aid at the moment is simply a death trap for these Palestinians.

So while this desperate situation continues on the ground, we also know that there will be -- or expecting a vote in the United Nations Security Council later this Wednesday. This has been brought from a Slovenian diplomat, we understand and it's calling for a ceasefire in Gaza.

Now a draft of the text that CNN has seen, says that it is calling for demands and immediate unconditional and permanent ceasefire in Gaza respected by all parties also calling for the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages and aid being allowed in unrestricted and unconditionally into Gaza as well. It has in the past these resolutions been vetoed by one of the five permanent members the United States. It could well be today as well.

[03:05:07] The last time that this kind of vote pushing for a ceasefire in Gaza was brought up in the United Nations Security Council was last November. And that was vetoed by the U.S. Christina.

MACFARLANE: All right, Paula for now in Abu Dhabi. Thank you.

Now the White House is now signaling that U.S. President Donald Trump will be making the final decision on whether to slap additional sanctions on Russia. Mr. Trump met with the top ranking Senate Republican on Monday about the Senate's bypass and Russia sanctions resolution.

But as the Senate Majority Leader put it, Trump isn't, quote, "there yet." The White House press made clear Tuesday the decision to sanction Russia further ultimately lies with the president.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KAROLINE LEAVIT, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: He's willing to use sanctions if he needs them in the Senate and in the Capitol Hill. Understand that the president is the commander in chief and he's leading United States foreign policy as he should.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MACFARLANE: Following the disappointing peace talks in Istanbul, the Ukrainian president called on his American counterpart to support tougher sanctions against Russia. On Tuesday, Ukrainian delegation arrived in Washington to discuss military aid and sanctions against Russia with Trump's envoy for Ukraine. Zelenskyy said the delegation is offering the U.S. quote "very concrete and mutually beneficial agreements."

On Tuesday, Ukraine carried out yet another daring attack just days after striking military targets deep inside Russia. This time, Ukraine Security Service says it hit the Kursh Bridge, a key supply line for Moscow's troops connecting Russia to the occupied Crimean Peninsula.

CNN's Nic Robertson has this.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR (voice-over): Ukraine's latest spectacular attack targeting the Crimea Bridge, vital to Russia's war in Ukraine. 1100 kilograms of explosives hidden underwater. A month's long operation, according to Ukraine's Security Service.

It's not the first time Ukraine has tried to take out the 12 mile rail and road bridge that links mainland Russia to annex Crimea. In 2022, Ukraine blew up the roadway, briefly disrupting Russia's flow of war fighting material. In 2023, Ukraine again tried to take out the bridge, pioneering new technology, a so-called sea baby or water drone hitting the bridge at water level.

But the bridge held. The estimated $3.7 billion link was opened by Russian President

Vladimir Putin in 2018, four years after he illegally annexed Crimea during Russia's first invasion of Ukraine. Roughly the size of Maryland, Crimea is hugely important to Putin, home to Russia's strategic Black Sea fleet and a key hub in attacking Ukraine.

Since his 2022 Ukraine land grab, Putin has also secured a land link to the island-like peninsula. Ukraine has vowed never to give it up. Ukraine's Crimea bridge attack comes days after another spectacular strategic strike, hitting Russia's long-range bombers at air bases thousands of kilometers from Ukraine.

But on the grinding battlefront, Ukraine is incrementally losing ground. Nowhere faster right now than around the northern city of Sumy.

Russian artillery now so close they are striking the city center. At least four civilians killed, about 20 injured Tuesday, according to city officials.

ROBERTSON: With peace talks effectively deadlocked, Ukraine's strategic moonshots definitely a boost for morale and a hint they still have some hidden cards to play. But this, as Putin seems intent to ignore President Donald Trump's calls for a ceasefire, Putin opting instead for a war of attrition.

Nic Robertson, CNN, London.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MACFARLANE: Iran's president says his country will not yield to the Trump administration's demands that it dismantle its nuclear program. President Massoud Pashkyan says he will quote, not compromise on our scientific experts and nuclear rights in any way. The United States is pushing for a new nuclear deal with Iran, a deal which Tehran has called incoherent and disjointed.

Still, a U.S. State Department spokesperson says the White House is not backing down on its demands.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TAMMY BRUCE, U.S. STATE DEPARTMENT SPOKESPERSON: The fact is, President Trump tweeted that there is going to be no uranium enrichment. The maximum pressure campaign on Iran remains in full force.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[03:10:01]

MACFARLANE: CNN's Fred Pleitgen brings us up to date now on the latest on these nuclear talks and where they stand.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SR. INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Momentum appears to be fading in the nuclear negotiations between the Trump administration and the Iranians, as a senior Iranian official has described to CNN the first proposal that was put forward by the Trump administration seeking to curb Iran's nuclear program in return for sanctions relief as both incoherent and disjointed.

And essentially, there are two things that the Iranians have an issue with. One of them is the mixed messaging that they're feeling that they've been getting from the Trump administration, where on the one hand, they have discussions, they say, behind closed doors where certain things are then said, and then other things are messaged to the public in a very different way.

One of the people that they do have an issue with is Steve Witkoff, the negotiator for President Trump, where they said that some of the statements that he has made in the past, saying that Iran is not allowed to have any nuclear enrichment at all, that for them, that is indeed a red line. Of course, President Trump himself has come forward on the True Social network, and also said that there would be no nuclear enrichment by Iran under a deal, including the Trump administration.

Now, the Iranians say that for them, nuclear enrichment is an absolute red line. It's a technology that they say they have developed. It's a technology that they say they have sacrificed for.

And it's also technology that they say they have a right to have and certainly not something that they're willing to give up.

Now, CNN has also learned that part of this proposal could actually see the United States investing in Iran's civilian nuclear program and creating a sort of consortium involving the U.S., involving some Middle Eastern countries, but also involving the International Atomic Energy Agency that would oversee nuclear enrichment that could happen on Iranian territory.

But the Iranians are saying that for them, the technology needs to be completely in their hands. It's something that they say that they're not willing to walk back on.

Fred Pleitgen, CNN, Berlin.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MACFARLANE: Now, celebrations are underway in South Korea, where voters have picked a new president. What he's promising for the economy and relations with North Korea, just ahead.

Plus, why pharmaceuticals could become a vulnerable spot for the Trump administration in its trade war with China.

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[03:15:00]

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MACFARLANE: Welcome back.

South Korea's newly elected president is vowing to revive the nation's economy and restore democracy months after a divisive martial law declaration. 60-year-old Lee Jae-myung took the oath of office just a few hours ago.

The leader of the Liberal Democratic Party won by about three million votes over his closest rival, Kim Moon-soo. He's promising a strong stance on North Korea whilst working to resolve differences.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LEE JAE-MYUNG, SOUTH KOREAN PRESIDENT: Based on the strong South Korea-U.S. alliance as our foundation, we will respond firmly to North Korea's nuclear threats while also keeping communication channels open. We'll also work toward peace on the Korean Peninsula through dialogue and cooperation.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MACFARLANE: CNN's Mike Valerio is rejoining us this hour from Seoul. So, Mike, we were just seeing the new President there give his inaugural address. What did he say and how are people feeling there about his promises?

MIKE VALERIO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I think that there's a mix, Christina, of optimism and certainly wariness, wariness because of where this country has come from since December 3rd, martial law declared troops being sent a few steps away from us to the heart of South Korean democracy.

But he did promise, President Lee, South Korea's newly-minted president, new economic reforms, an emergency economic task force to help out people's livelihoods and address the greater economic crisis that has been besetting this country. But in terms of what you need to know about Lee, here are a few basic facts.

Let's watch.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

VALERIO (voice-over): He's South Korea's choice to lead the nation out of a storm. Lee Jae-myung, South Korea's newly-elected president, taking office six months after his predecessor declared martial law and later was impeached, a move that challenged South Korean democracy and sparked huge protests.

LEE (through translator): Dear citizens of the Republic of Korea, I sincerely thank you. I will never forget the mission you have entrusted in me, and I will carry it out faithfully and thoroughly.

I will uphold the mission of fully overcoming the insurrection and ensure that a military coup that threatens people with weapons would never happen again. VALERIO (voice-over): Lee has two immediate priorities on the world

stage. They are stabilizing South Korea's economy still in the tempest of a trade war, and reassuring international allies taken aback by martial law that South Korea's democracy stands firm.

DUYEON KIM, ADJUNCT SR. FELLOW, CENTER FOR A NEW AMERICAN SECURITY: I think a long cleanup job awaits this current South Korean president because the society is highly polarized. It's coming on the heels of martial law attempt.

VALERIO (voice-over): Lee once described himself as a South Korean version of Bernie Sanders. Lee is a progressive leader whose views were forged growing up as a poor factory worker, his family without enough money to send him to middle school. And Lee's left wrist was crushed in a machine when he was a boy on a baseball glove assembly line.

Lee became a human rights lawyer, mayor, and then governor of South Korea's most populous province. He rose to prominence as a vocal critic of South Korea's conservatives and led the charge to impeach South Korea's former president Yoon Suk-yeol after Yoon's martial law fiasco.

[03:20:06]

LEE (through translator): It was brief, but South Korea was at a crossroads. Whether a true democracy, one of the world's top 10 economic powerhouses, a culturally recognized nation was going to fall into becoming a backward, third world country or to recover to normalcy.

VALERIO (voice-over): Lee takes power at a perilous time. Tech titan South Korea could have its economy take a major hit if trade tremors continue.

There's also North Korea newly aligned with Russia. Lee supports a less confrontational approach to relations with Kim Jong-un, a departure from South Korea's last president.

Still for many, the election was about something deeper, the restoration of normalcy after a brush with authoritarianism.

SHIN KA-RAM, VOTER (through translator): I'm not in the generation that participated in the previous democratic movements, but I felt that democracy was under threat and that feeling pushed me to come and vote today.

VALERIO (voice-over): For years, Lee's been dogged by allegations of bribery, election law violations, and a land deal scandal, charges he denies. It's unclear if presidential immunity will shield him.

For now, a weary nation moves forward. Lee tasked with twin priorities to deliver stability and a reset for South Korea's democracy.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

VALERIO: Twin priorities and twin challenges, Christina. That's really the view from here in Seoul.

So the first challenge, the domestic priority is to reset South Korean politics. I mean, it really can't get more ugly than it did in December when a former president sends the military to take care of, to help rein in an adversarial legislature. I should say adversarial from his point of view.

The legislature would say, well, we were just doing our job and we are being a check and balance to your agenda. So South Korean politics got pretty ugly, couldn't get much lower. So it's incumbent upon this president to set the tone for the next chapter.

And then the other challenge on the international stage, specifically, we're looking at how he's going to strike up a rapport with U.S. President Trump. Is it going to look very chummy? You know, the former president saying American pie at a state dinner at the white house with President Joe Biden.

What is this relationship going to look like? You know, there are close to 30,000 troops that are just a couple of miles, couple of kilometers away from where we're standing. They're spread throughout the country. So that relationship will be key.

A lot on the table for this president in a key part of the world, Christina.

MACFARLANE: Yes, certainly a tall order for the new president. But we hope an end to a very volatile few months for South Korea. Certainly, Mike, I appreciate you there in Seoul. Thank you.

New tariffs on steel and aluminum imports to the U.S. kicked in a few hours ago, now doubling to 50 percent. The struggling U.S. steel industry is applauding this latest broadside from the Trump administration.

But other sectors that rely on the metals are warning of price hikes everywhere from car lots to grocery store shelves, although it's not entirely clear how or when the cost will be passed on to consumers.

Meanwhile, the Trump team has asked all countries that trade with the U.S. to submit trade proposals by the end of today. The White House called the letter that went out a friendly reminder that the deadline is coming up.

Meanwhile, trade tensions between the U.S. and China are still flaring as Chinese state media is taking some new swipes at President Trump with the help of A.I. CNN's Will Ripley explains.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

WILL RIPLEY, CNN SR. INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): This A.I. generated anime is going viral in China, portraying U.S. President Donald Trump as a tariff wielding superhero. It's one of several recent videos mocking Trump's trade war policies, many of them created with A.I. China's English-language broadcaster produced this video, blaming

Trump's tariffs for U.S. inflation and global instability. The video echoes Beijing's official stance.

Since the U.S. imposition of the unilateral tariff measures, it has not resolved any of its own issue, she says, and has instead severely undermined the international economic and trade order.

China's Xinhua news agency produced this A.I. animation featuring a robot named Tariff programmed to impose trade restrictions.

The robot self-destructs rather than obey orders to raise tariffs.

A.I. generated clips like these showing Trump and Elon Musk hard at work in factories have been flooding China's tightly-controlled social media platforms for months, all untouched by Beijing's army of online censors.

Designed to push China's narrative, the U.S. is making a fool of itself, and more importantly, losing ground to China in the global trade war President Trump started.

[03:25:06]

China's foreign trade has been able to withstand the difficulties, he says, maintaining steady growth and showing strong resilience to maintain competitiveness on the international front.

China's Bureau of Statistics put out numbers claiming exports are actually rising despite the trade war, partially due to a surge in orders before the tariffs kicked in. Outside observers often question the accuracy of China's numbers, which are impossible to independently verify.

At this Chinese textile plant, the director says the U.S. no longer dominates their strategy.

The trade war made me realize the U.S. is just a small part of the global market, he says. We'd rather bring Chinese products to the rest of the world, reasonably priced, high quality, and let more people benefit.

China's top diplomat is also firing back, Wang Yi reportedly telling, new U.S. Ambassador David Perdue the U.S.-China relationship's at a critical juncture. The Chinese readout of the meeting also says David Perdue stated that President Trump greatly respects President Xi Jinping. Far from tough talk, China claims, ahead of that likely crucial call between Trump and Xi.

RIPLEY: They sure do have a lot to talk about. The 90-day trade truce they brokered in Geneva is unraveling right now. At stake, rare earth minerals vital for U.S. tech and defense, which China is still restricting.

Washington's latest retaliatory moves include tech sanctions and student visa bans. Both sides are now accusing the other of undermining the agreement, which is putting global markets and supply chains on edge.

Will Ripley, CNN, Taipei.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MACFARLANE: Well one critical front in the simmering U.S.-China trade war involves pharmaceuticals. The U.S. relies heavily on China for certain drug supplies, and Beijing could use that dependence to its advantage.

CNN's Kristie Lu Stout explains.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KRISTIE LU STOUT, CNN CORRESPONDENT: This is the most prescribed antibiotic in the United States. Amoxicillin is used to treat everything from chest and sinus infections to strep throat, and China controls 80 percent of the raw ingredients needed to make it.

DR. BRUCE Y. LEE, PROF. OF HEALTH POLICY, CITY UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK: It's not an insignificant percentage of antibiotics, and also things like heparin are imported from countries like China.

LU STOUT (voice-over): Along with antibiotics like amoxicillin, blood pressure medications like ARBs, and pain relievers like ibuprofen, all are medications that medical experts say are often traced to China.

DONALD TRUMP, U.S. PRESIDENT: There's going to be a tariff wall put up.

LU STOUT (voice-over): That's a major vulnerability, as U.S. President Donald Trump threatens to impose tariffs on imported medicines in a bid to move more drug manufacturing back to America.

TRUMP: We don't make our own drugs anymore. The drug companies are in Ireland and they're in lots of other places, China.

LU STOUT (voice-over): As the world's factory, China has dominated the global drug supply chain in the production of the chemical compounds for active ingredients and the ingredients themselves.

Hong Kong University professor Qingpeng Zhang has identified the factors behind China's dominance, including a government policy that puts a strategic focus on advanced biotechnology through nurturing top STEM talent and building a robust pharma supply chain.

QINGPENG ZHANG, PROF, DEPT. OF PHARMACOLOGY AND PHARMACY, UNIVERSITY OF HONG KONG: It's also super expensive and costly to try to reshape this very well-established global supply chain. So it may take five to ten years and a very high cost to actually manufacture those generic drugs in the U.S.

LU STOUT (voice-over): To be clear, China has made no threat about weaponizing the supply chain. But one Tsinghua University professor has suggested China could use its, quote, "leverage to intentionally limit drug supplies to the U.S." LEE: If there is a cutoff in terms of the actual supply from China or

from any other country, for that matter, that actively supplies medications to the United States, you could see shortages.

ZHANG: It is a moral obligation because this is actually directly linked to patients' lives. And on the other hand, it is also very, I mean, currently it's very profitable.

LU STOUT (voice-over): So far, pharmaceutical products have been spared from Trump's tariffs.

LU STOUT: Now, amoxicillin is already in short supply with only one manufacturer in the United States. Whether Beijing pulls the trigger or not, it is a choke point that China is holding over the U.S.

Kristie Lu Stout, CNN, Hong Kong.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MACFARLANE: Now, the next Taco Tuesday is six days away, but the taco jokes just keep on coming. Now Democrats parked this cheeky taco truck outside Republican National Committee headquarters on Wednesday in Washington.

They're playing off a new acronym for the word TACO on Wall Street, which stands for Trump Always Chickens Out, a phrase that has gotten under his skin. The term refers to President Trump's frequent reversals on tariffs. There are too many of them to list.

[03:30:02]

Alright, still to come, Elon Musk reveals his true feelings about President Trump's Big, Beautiful Bill.

Plus, the family of the man charged in a violent attack in Colorado over the weekend gets taken into ICE custody. The details of that are just ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MACFARLANE: Welcome back to "CNN Newsroom." I'm Christina Macfarlane. Let's get a check of today's top stories.

[03:35:05]

Israel's military is warning residents of Gaza against heading to aid centers today, calling them, quote, combat zones. The warnings follow three days of deadly incidents near aid distribution centers. The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation says it's closing its aid sites today for logistical preparations.

And another bold attack from Ukraine on Tuesday, the country's security service says its agents targeted the Kursh Bridge, which connects Russia to the occupied Crimean Peninsula and serves as a key supply line for Moscow's forces. More than 1000 kilograms of explosives were used to severely damage the underwater pillars supporting the bridge.

Iran's supreme leader says Tehran will not stop enriching uranium. In a speech earlier today, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei insisted it is key to his country's nuclear program. U.S. officials are negotiating with Iran on a nuclear deal, but sources tell CNN the talks are faltering, Iran blames what it calls incoherent and disjointed proposals from Washington.

Now U.S. State Department has revoked the visas for the family of the suspect in Sunday's attack in Colorado, according to the homeland security official. The White House says the man's wife and five children are now in ICE custody and face expedited removal from the U.S. CNN's Whitney Wilde has the latest on this investigation.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

WHITNEY WILD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Law enforcement says that Mohammed Sobry Soliman planned this attack for a year.

At one point, he actually tried to get a gun. He'd taken a concealed carry class. He learned to shoot.

And then when he went to purchase this gun, he was denied because he is not a U.S. citizen. That's when he decided to make Molotov cocktails. And what he told law enforcement was that he learned how to make Molotov cocktails basically by watching videos online.

He waited until one of his five children, his daughter, graduated high school to carry out this attack. And on the day of the attack, he drove to Boulder. He dressed as a gardener to try to get as close as possible to this group.

And that's when he threw two Molotov cocktails at this group. He had 16 more Molotov cocktails he did not detonate.

He is now facing a very long list of charges, 16 charges for attempted first degree murder. He is also facing charges for the 16 Molotov cocktails he did not detonate. He is also facing charges in federal court. He is facing a hate crime charge.

The law enforcement at the federal level and the state level has made very clear that the maximum sentences for these long list of charges that he's facing is, in effect, life behind bars. I mean, just the state charges alone, if he gets the maximum sentence, is more than 400 years behind bars.

And we are also learning more about the victims. One of them is a Holocaust survivor.

We now know the total number of victims is 12. And when we last spoke with Boulder police, the latest information on the two victims, there are two victims who remain in the hospital. We don't have much detail beyond that.

Back to you.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MACFARLANE: Now, Elon Musk is sharing how he really feels about President Trump's big, beautiful bill. He's calling it, quote, "a disgusting abomination," saying lawmakers who voted for it, quote, "no, you did wrong." In later posts, Musk called for action to fire all politicians who betrayed the American people.

President Trump is running support in the Senate for the controversial legislation, which is meant to fund his domestic policy agenda. And according to the White House press secretary, Musk's opinion hasn't swayed the president's thoughts on the bill.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LEAVITT: The President already knows where Elon Musk stood on this bill. It doesn't change the president's opinion. This is one Big, Beautiful Bill.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MACFARLANE: CNN's Manu Raju has more on the reaction from lawmakers in Washington.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MANU RAJU, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Now, Elon Musk calling the Trump bill a disgusting abomination really scrambled the politics on Capitol Hill. Democrats came out cheering Musk's post, including Chuck Schumer, the Senate Democratic leader, who has really been bashing Musk for months.

But at the beginning of his press conference on Tuesday, he was heralding that post, as well as Hakeem Jeffries, the House Democratic leader. On the other side, Republicans pushing back. John Thune, the Senate majority leader, who's trying to piece together a coalition to push this bill through the Senate, said that he has a difference of opinion with Musk.

And then sharper criticism from Mike Johnson himself, the Speaker of the House, who shepherded this bill through his chamber and said that he spoke with Musk at length about what Johnson sees as the virtues of the bill just on Monday. But when Musk came out criticizing this on Tuesday, Johnson fired back and also suggested that Musk's concern was driven in part by the fact that electric vehicle tax incentives would be eliminated from this bill. And of course, Musk owns Tesla.

REP. MIKE JOHNSON (R-LA), SPEAKER OF THE U.S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES: Elon is missing it, OK? And it's not personal. I know that the E.V. mandate, very important to him, that is going away because the government should not be subsidizing these things. But for him to come out and pan the whole bill is to me just very disappointing, very surprising, in light of the conversation I had with him yesterday.

[03:35:04] RAJU: Now, I asked Johnson whether or not he was accusing Musk of attacking this bill simply because of his own business interests, and Johnson would not go that far. He said he'd let others draw that conclusion.

However, there are other Republican senators who share some of Musk's concerns about the impact that this bill could have on debt and deficits, including Senator John Curtis of Utah, who I asked about the projection that the House bill, according to the Congressional Budget Office, could raise the national deficit by trillions of dollars, $4 trillion over the next several years. He said he was greatly concerned by that conclusion.

SEN. JOHN CURTIS (R-UT): If you look at the House bill, just to simplify it a little bit, we're going to spend in the next 10 years about $20 trillion more than the revenue we bring in, and they're cutting $1.5 trillion out of $20 trillion. Most of us wouldn't do that in our businesses, in our homes, and we certainly don't do it in the state of Utah. And so that's a big concern to me.

RAJU: Now, John Thune, the Senate Majority Leader, and other top Republicans who support this bill say that economic growth will lead to more revenue coming into the government, and they contend that the deficit projections won't be as bad as what that nonpartisan scorekeeper of the Congressional Budget Office found.

But ultimately, it'll be up to Thune to try to limit GOP defections in the Senate to just three in order to get this across the finish line, and Thune wants this on President Trump's desk by July 4th.

Manu Raju, CNN, Capitol Hill.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MACFARLANE: Now, preliminary results from Mexico's judicial election show the country's ruling party gained more seats in the Supreme Court. That will give President Claudia Sheinbaum's party control of every branch of government.

Only about 13 percent of voters took part in the controversial election Sunday. Critics say putting the judiciary itself up for a vote was a dangerous move. They warn it could open up avenues for corruption from judges and organized crime, and that it could violate the rule of law.

OK, still ahead, the CEO of Google's DeepMind speaks to CNN about the future of A.I. What he believes are the biggest concerns for the technology, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[03:40:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MACFARLANE: Now, much has been made about the impact A.I. will have on jobs, the economy, and our daily lives. In an interview with CNN's Anna Stewart, the CEO of Google's DeepMind spoke about the fears and hopes for the revolutionary technology.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ANNA STEWART, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Just last week, the CEO of Anthropic warned that half of all entry-level white-collar jobs could be wiped out in the next one to five years. Well, I sat down with Google DeepMind CEO Sir Demis Hassabis at the South by Southwest conference in London and asked if he agreed with that sort of job-apocalyptic view.

DEMIS HASSABIS, CEO, DEEPMIND: No, I don't.

I don't know. I think my view is that what we know for sure is there's going to be a huge change. And in the past when this has happened, industrial revolution, internet era, it's going to be at least of that magnitude advent of electricity.

STEWART: In a shorter period of time?

HASSABIS: Shorter period of time, and it may be a bigger change than that. These tools initially will be incredible enhancers for productivity. So people using these tools for their creativity and other things will be almost superhuman in their capabilities in the next five, 10 years.

But then beyond that, we may need things like universal high income or some way of distributing all the additional productivity that A.I. will produce in the economy.

STEWART: He had a more optimistic view on jobs, but there are other risks that concern him, especially if AGI is achieved. That's human level artificial general intelligence.

Now, the top two, he says, are one, bad actors repurposing AGI for harmful ends, and two, retaining control of the A.I. itself as it reaches new levels of autonomy. AGI is the ultimate goal for Sir Demis and his team, and it has been long before Google acquired DeepMind in 2014.

The company has a huge breadth of A.I. projects. You may know its large language model called Gemini, but also has projects in coding, drug discovery and science.

Sir Demis was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry just last year. And more recently, they've been working on multimodal A.I. like Project Astra and A.I. video generation with VO3. And each project is picked with purpose.

HASSABIS: The North Star is cracking this general intelligence and then using it for scientific understanding. So everything that feeds into that is something that we will attempt to do.

STEWART: And Google will be first? HASSABIS: I hope so. That's the idea. But the most important thing is

to make sure it's done responsibly for humanity, given what's at stake.

STEWART: Well, Sir Demis says AGI is five to 10 years away. But the heads of Anthropic and OpenAI have shorter timeframes. It feels a bit like a race.

It's a big engineering challenge. But Sir Demis says it's perhaps an even bigger policymaking challenge. And creating guardrails matters.

Who achieves AGI, where in the world that is and how it's deployed may determine whether AGI brings about a utopia or dystopia.

Anna Stewart, CNN, London.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MACFARLANE: Fascinating insights and exclusive from our Anna Stewart there.

We'll be right back after this short break. Stay with us.

[03:50:04]

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MACFARLANE: New details are emerging in the trial against Sean Diddy Combs of an alleged attempt by the disgraced rap mogul to hide video evidence of his domestic violence. On day 15 of the trial, a hotel security guard testified that Combs offered a bribe to hide the 2016 video showing Combs assaulting his girlfriend at the time, Cassie Ventura.

CNN's Elizabeth Wagmeister has more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ELIZABETH WAGMEISTER, CNN ENTERTAINMENT CORRESPONDENT: Stunning testimony that shows the great lengths that Sean Diddy Combs allegedly went to, to bury that video of him physically assaulting his ex- girlfriend Cassie Ventura at a hotel back in 2016.

Eddie Garcia, who worked security at the Intercontinental Hotel in Los Angeles back in 2016, took the stand as a prosecution witness and told the jury that Sean Combs repeatedly called him and gave him $100,000 and forced him to sign an NDA to hand over that video.

Eddie Garcia told the jurors that after Combs was caught on camera beating Ventura, that he then received numerous calls at the hotel security desk from Combs' personal assistant at the time, Christina Corum. He told Christina Corum that he would not give over the video. She even showed up at the hotel to ask for it.

And eventually she called his personal cell phone. He said that he doesn't know how he got that number. And then on that call, Christina Corum actually said Sean Combs is on the phone.

When Sean Combs was on the phone, he asked him if he knew who he was. He called him Eddie, my angel, saying that he could really help him. And he said no.

But then Eddie Garcia, who told his supervisor, his boss at the Intercontinental Hotel with the security firm, that Sean Combs said that he would take care of them. And that's when his boss said, okay, I'll sell him the video for $50,000.

That's when Eddie contact Sean Combs. He said that he was very excited that he can sell, that he could get this video back from him. And Sean Combs provided him an address, he shows up to this hotel.

Sean Combs' bodyguard and Christina Corum are there. And that's when Sean Combs hands him an NDA on company letterhead and hands him a paper bag full of $100,000. Sean Combs even had a money counting machine that Eddie Garcia testified that he felt very comfortable using.

So again, brand new details showing the alleged efforts that Sean Combs took to make sure that this video would never see the light of day. Eddie Garcia even said that Combs told him himself that he knew that this video could ruin him.

Back to you.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

[03:55:03]

MACFARLANE: Now, France is extinguishing its long standing love affair with cigarettes. Starting July 1st, the country plans to ban smoking in many public outdoor areas, including beaches, parks, schools, bus stops and sports fields in an effort to protect children. French health officials say smoking kills around 200 people every day in the country, the U.K. announced a similar ban just last year.

Now Greenpeace activists want Emmanuel Macron to stop doing business with Russia. So they claim they borrowed a wax figure of the French president from a Paris museum in protest.

As you can see here, the group posed it in front of the Russian embassy with a banner reading, Ukraine is burning, business goes on. The protesters are critical of Russia's natural gas and nuclear fuel imports. Greenpeace says Mr. Macron publicly supports Ukraine but needs to end trade with Russia.

Now, it's a connection nearly seven years in the making. A young girl vacationing in Florida stumbled across a bottle on the beach. Inside, she found a note. It had begun its journey in the waters of Hawaii.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOSIE LAW, FOUND MESSAGE: I was walking and then the waves were coming and the bottle almost went but I grabbed it really fast. (END VIDEO CLIP)

MACFARLANE: The message reads, hello people who found this, you will be happy that you found this, why? Because you will know me with this number. 21-year-old Peyton Hollenbeck says she wrote the note with her brother before throwing it into the water off Oahu.

They included their phone number and the date, August 17th, 2018. The bottle made its way from Hawaii to Florida's Bradenton Beach, traveling some 4600 miles. Hollenbeck says she never imagined it would have been found and lead to such attention.

Always worth chucking a bottle in the ocean just to see, I guess.

Now finally, this hour, you might want to think twice before throwing out that old cheese in the back of your fridge. The record for the oldest wheel of parmesan cheese has officially been broken and it is still really edible. At 27 years old, the winning wheel weighs 36 kilograms and is six years older than the previous record holder and this Italian cheese doesn't come cheap with an estimated value of more than $22,000. Well, I'm not sure you could pay me to take a slice.

But that is it for now. Thank you so much for your company, I'm Christina McFarlane in London.

"Amanpour" is up next, then stay tuned for "Early Start" with Rahel Solomon at 5 a.m. in New York, 10 a.m. here in London. Have a great day.

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