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Early U.S. Intel Assessment Suggests Strikes On Iran Did Not Destroy Nuclear Sites; NATO Chief Praises Trump's Move Against Iran; Ukraine Urges NATO To Keep Its Eyes On Russia; Fragile Ceasefire Appears To Hold Between Iran And Israel; Early U.S. Intel: Strikes Did Not Destroy Iran's Nuclear Sites; U.S. Braces For Potential Cyberattacks After Iran Strikes; Gaza Health Officials: 49 Aid Seekers Killed Over 24 Hours; NTSB Criticizes Boeing And FAA For Door Plug Blowout; Zohran Mamdani Poised To Win New York Democratic Primary For Mayor. Aired 1-2a ET

Aired June 25, 2025 - 01:00   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[01:00:02]

UIDENTIFIED MALE: This is CNN Breaking News.

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN ANCHOR: Hello and welcome to our viewers joining us from all over the world. I'm Jim Sciutto in Washington. And we begin with new questions about the impact of U.S. military strikes on Iran's nuclear facilities. In particular, President Trump's assertion that they, quote, totally obliterated Iran's nuclear program.

In fact, CNN was first to report on a preliminary intelligence assessment produced by the Defense Intelligence Agency. It found U.S. strikes may have set the program back by perhaps just a few months and crucially, did not destroy core components.

This is, we should note, early intelligence could change as more analysis comes in. However, I'm told that an Israeli assessment found the same less damage, in particular at the Fordow facility. That's the one buried deep under a mountain we're showing you there right now. Less damage than expected.

They say U.S. and Israeli strikes have together, though, set back Iran's nuclear program perhaps by as much as two years. President Trump and the White House, not happy with the reporting on that assessment, are pushing back hard.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, U.S. PRESIDENT: They hit the target perfectly, wiped it out. And the press is very disrespectful. It was perfect. They said maybe it did destroy it. We agree it did destroy it, but maybe it could have destroyed it more. No, no, it couldn't destroy it. Destroyed it. Everyone hit. And it's very disrespectful to those great geniuses and patriots that flew those planes through tremendous danger. (END VIDEO CLIP)

SCIUTTO: The fragile cease fire between Israel and Iran does appear to be holding people across Israel heading back to work, to school. Air raid alerts have fallen silent there. We have more now from CNN's chief national affairs correspondent, Jeff Zeleny.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JEFF ZELENY, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: As President Trump went to the NATO summit with that cease fire deal in hand, the White House spent the day on Tuesday pushing back aggressively on reports of a preliminary investigation showing that the military strikes on Iran may not have caused the type of damage that President Trump has repeatedly said they did.

Now, the president has used the word obliterated, that the strikes obliterated the Iranian nuclear program. There has been no evidence of that. And the president has kept up his defensive language saying it had been destroyed.

But again, the Pentagon has not confirmed that. But now there is an early assessment from the Defense Intelligence Agency, first reported by CNN, that shows the Iranian nuclear program perhaps was just set back by a few months, certainly not obliterated.

Now, the question here is what type of political fallout would there be for the White House? Again, we should point out this is a very early assessment. Intelligence is continuing to in about the future of the Iranian nuclear program and the extent of the damage.

But there is no doubt these reports certainly suggest that the president may have overstated the damage from the military strikes over the weekend. But there is no sign that this is going to impact, at least in the short term, this fragile ceasefire deal that did appear to be holding throughout the day on Tuesday.

The president, of course, spending the day at the NATO summit talking with world leaders. This is something he believes is a great achievement.

But even as the classified briefings on Capitol Hill scheduled to be held on Tuesday were put off until later in the week, on Thursday for the Senate, on Friday for the House, unclear why that change was made.

So the White House very defensive about the reports about the Iranian nuclear program. The question is, when additional reports come in, will there be any political fallout for the president? Jeff Zeleny, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SCIUTTO: Let's go live now to Tel Aviv, retired Major General Amos Yadlin, former chief of Israeli military intelligence. Good to have you back, sir. Thanks for taking the time. MAJ. GEN. AMOS YADLIN (RET.), FORMER CHIEF OF ISRAELI MILITARY

INTELLIGENCE: Good morning, Jim.

SCIUTTO: So I wonder what you think about all the outrage. I mean, as you know from your long service, this is what intelligence agencies do. They assess the effectiveness of military strikes and then that informs the next strikes perhaps.

I mean, the first question is, did anybody expect that a single series of U.S. strikes would completely destroy the entire Iranian nuclear program? Was that even an expectation going in?

YADLIN: Absolutely. When you ask the wrong question, you're getting the wrong answer. Nobody thought that you can destroy 100 percent of the Iranian nuclear program. The Iranians are waiting for this attack for 20 years. They dispersed all the nuclear sites.

[01:05:00]

They fortified it. They put it in the middle of a mountain and under tens of meters of protection. So the physical damage is not important. What is important, that for the first time in history, American president decided to preempt a nuclear program by a rogue state. It was not done vis-a-vis North Korea. And if we go back to history, not against China or Russia.

So an American president joined Israel that destroyed a lot of the sites in saying to the Iranians, we are not going to let you go to a nuclear bomb. So it's not important how much you hold them back. It's important what you will do next. And here there are two scenarios. One, that there will be an agreement that will stop Iran.

I think the Iranians will come weaker to the negotiation. Witkoff will come much stronger and they can reach an agreement that will stop Iran. So it's not important how much they will roll back, couple of months or a year or two. It's important that they will not go back.

And if there is no agreement, if the Iranians will insist on doing and advancing their nuclear program, then who came once can come again. Nobody developed a nuclear program under an attack of air force, the best air force in the world, which is the Israeli Air Force, and the more formidable, the most formidable air force in the globe, which is the U.S. Air Force.

So I don't understand why you are so much going into the BDA. And BDA I think is too early to have the BDA. It's a real intelligence puzzle that you have to create from human, from sigint (ph), from satellites, and then you will get a number. But I'm saying again, how much Iran was rolled back is not important how we deal with Iran going forward. This is working forward.

SCIUTTO: You mentioned those two possibilities. You have a great deal of experience through the years of analyzing Iranian decision making. Do you believe the Iranian leadership, and this is speculation, I understand, is more likely to sit down at the table or try to go deeper to ground. Right. Try to hide more, right, from the eyes to the extent that it can hide more of its program to preserve more of its program.

YADLIN: I think the last 12 days proved that Israel penetration, the Israeli intelligence penetration to Iran is quite high. We don't know what the Supreme Leader will decide. He was in the past very cautious about the nuclear program. He wanted to reach to the bomb not as fast as possible, but as safe as possible.

And I think it will not be safe for Iran to now to break out to the bomb because it's not a rocket in the tunnel in Gaza to develop a nuclear bomb even if you have the 450 enriched uranium in 60 percent and you can enrich it to 90 percent somewhere in Iran, you still need to do all the weaponization the conversion from gas to metal to do it into a warhead, the integration, all the experiment.

You need a huge organization. The scientists are not there anymore and the organization was bombed and all the places that they worked on weaponization are gone. So it's a huge organization that you cannot hide in a cave so I guess the American intelligence, the Israeli intelligence, we look very carefully as the number one priority that Iran will not try to break out the bomb. Will they decide to do it? Maybe.

SCIUTTO: I presume that if Iran attempts to Israel will be watching and is likely to take military action.

YADLIN: I think what we have to agree is a common Israeli, American strategy and we have one. We have had one in Lebanon, in the northern border.

[01:10:02]

We agreed with the American that if Hezbollah is not comply with 1701 U.N. Security Council Resolution and they are going down south of the Litany River or produce ballistic missiles or drones or smuggling, Israel has the right to attack them. And this is exactly what we are doing in the last six months.

So we have to agree with the American, it is not the same case, but it's far away and more difficult. But in Lebanon we don't need the Americans to help us. On Iran, we need a common understanding that the goal now is to stop Iran from breaking out to the border and we can do it on the same principle.

SCIUTTO: Before we go, has and I understand that Israel's own battle damage assessments are still underway and it takes time. Has Israel found anything different from this initial U.S. assessment in terms of how far the damage went from the U.S. strikes?

YADLIN: I understood that the discussion in America is mostly on fodder. And Fordow as we know is under a mountain. And I don't think that anyone was in the mountain because the Iranians or the Israelis somebody blocked all the entrances.

So this argument as I say, is not important. And let me remind you, that there were many in the intelligence community that predicted that there will be thousands of American casualties in the bases in the Gulf if America or Israel will attack Iran, that the closure of Hormuz Strait will happen and the price of oil will go to 200, 300. It's never happened. So I think we need modesty, especially if we trying to make our enemy 10 feet high and he is not.

And we need to think that what have been done by Israel and by the U.S. is a unique historical move that can change the Middle East. And let's concentrate on continuing to weaken Iran. And if Iran is weakened, the Middle East will be different because Iran was the source of instability of terror, of attacking Israelis and Americans and shooting to Saudi Arabia, to the UAE.

If Iran will be weaker and they are weaker and we continue to keep them there, then we can shape a different Middle East with peace, with normalization between Israel and Saudi and Syria and Lebanon. And you know what Jim? Even the Israeli-Palestinian issue can move forward because the Iranians were those who spoiled it all the time by financing, training, sending weapons to the terror organization that wanted to derail the peace process from 96 to the 7 October.

SCIUTTO: Major General Yadlin joining us from Tel Aviv. We do appreciate you taking the time.

YADLIN: It's a pleasure always to be hosted by CNN.

SCIUTTO: Well, Donald Trump is in the Netherlands for a brief stop at the NATO summit that has been tailored to some degree to suit his preferences. As he left Washington on Tuesday, he shared private messages from NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte praising for Trump's decision to launch those U.S. strikes on Iran.

In those messages, Rutte writes congratulations and thank you for your decisive action in Iran that was truly extraordinary, adding that it makes us all safer. He also says all member nations will commit to spending at least 5 percent of their GDP now on defense, up from 2 percent, a long time demand of President Trump's.

The NATO chief commended Trump again saying the spending commitment, quote, will be your win. Donald Trump and Turkey's president discussed the ceasefire between Iran and Israel, among other things, at the NATO summit.

The Turkish government says Recep Tayyip Erdogan told President Trump he hoped the ceasefire would be lasting and he emphasized the importance of dialogue to ending the ongoing wars in Gaza and Ukraine.

President Trump is expected to meet the Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on the sidelines of the NATO summit. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth joining the president on the trip.

[01:15:00]

Ahead of the gathering, Trump dodged a question about his support for NATO's Article 5, which says an attack one NATO member should be treated as an attack on all. He said his support for Article 5, quote, depends on your definition. Though later he said he was committed to saving lives.

Joining us now, Steven Erlanger, Chief Diplomatic Correspondent for the New York Times, joins us from The Hague. Thanks so much, Steven. Good to have you on.

STEVEN ERLANGER, CHIEF DIPLOMATIC CORRESPONDENT, THE NEW YORK TIMES: Thank you.

SCIUTTO: That is not words. I imagine that NATO members, particularly those who are eastern facing, closer to Russia, wanted to hear. A U.S. president saying, well, I'm not quite sure Article 5 means what you think it means, or it's in the eye of the beholder.

ERLANGER: Well, this has been an obsession with Donald Trump. If you remember, in his first term, he was supposed to say at first speech in NATO that he supported Article 5. It was written into his speech. He refused to say it. It caused a very similar kerfuffle. And then he did say, yes, yes, yes, I agree.

But, you know, the thing about Article 5, it's a bit vague, to be honest. It depends on credibility. I mean, what it says is all nations would consult on what they can do for the collective defense. It doesn't commit any one nation to do anything.

So to some degree, the President is making a perfectly serious point in his own not very serious way. But it does shake people. Anytime there's any hint that American support for collective defense is shaky, it just makes people nervous, particularly given the setting.

This is an alliance meeting that's supposed to all be about solidarity in the face of a Russian threat, which President Trump doesn't even like to talk about.

SCIUTTO: And that's the thing, because it's happening at a time when many of those NATO members feel that the Russia threat is so real that it's not just to Ukraine, it's to their own sovereignty. I mean, you speak to the leaders of the Baltic states and they fear they could be next. And they're not alone in that. So the president's comments, I imagine for them are quite meaningful.

ERLANGER: Well, they're meaningful, but they're not new, if you see what I mean.

SCIUTTO: I do.

ERLANGER: I mean, Rutte has met with Trump numerous times, and Rutte always puts a brave face on everything. And of course, nothing at NATO is ever as solid as NATO officials make it sound. But Rutte said he's met with Trump. He's over and over again, Trump is behind NATO, he's behind Article 5, he's behind the nuclear umbrella.

The difference is, of course, over Ukraine, because the eastern flank, people facing Russia see that Ukraine is fighting their war for them. They're fighting the Russia, which is the big threat that they face. So they want to keep supporting Ukraine. They say Russia's the aggressor, it's in NATO's interests. It's in their own interests to keep Ukraine in the fight.

While President Trump, I think, believes much more in Vladimir Putin's narrative, which is, you know, Ukraine's really kind of part of the Russian world, and it should never be part of NATO. And it makes NATO more vulnerable because it gets Russia militarized than less vulnerable. And that's the hidden division underneath all this talk of unity.

SCIUTTO: So what comes out of the summit this time? I mean, clearly, commitment from nearly all, not all the NATO members to meet this new 5 percent threshold. But does anything substantial come out of it in terms of defending Ukraine, or will it just be a sort of difficult rush to some sort of joint statement that everybody could agree on?

ERLANGER: Well, I do think the commitment to military spending is significant. I mean, it truly is. I mean, it was set at 2 percent 10 years ago in 2014. It's a different Russia now. So the commitment is to nearly double what it was before. That's a lot of money. So Europe has a lot of money to spend.

The big question is, will they spend it efficiently? Will they spend it a coordinated way? Will they spend it on the weapons they really need? Are they willing to buy some of them off the shelf from the United States where they're ready? The other question is, if they dump too much money into the system, a lot of factories already have their order books filled.

[01:20:02]

So this is a process. They should have started this, in my view, several years ago, certainly after Russia invaded Ukraine. So they're slow to do it. But it is a very important moment now on Ukraine. You know, Ukraine was the center of the last two NATO summit meetings with President Biden. President Trump feels differently. So Zelenskyy will be on the side, not an integral part of the meeting. But much of NATO does want to support Ukraine.

They've pumped up, you know, NATO members, EU members, who are most of them are also NATO members, have pumped up enough money, certainly to get Ukraine into next year. There's a lot of optimism about that.

And the hope is, and I think the expectation is that American intelligence aid to Ukraine, which is crucial, we will continue even if America doesn't spend money on Ukraine.

SCIUTTO: And they needed an intel not just to pick targets. Right. But to help defend themselves from those ongoing Russian attacks, identify firing positions, et cetera. Steven Erlanger in The Hague, thanks so much for joining.

ERLANGER: Thank you.

SCIUTTO: Well, Ukraine is asking its allies at the NATO summit to remember the massive threat posed by Russia, not just to Ukraine, but to Europe. Russian attacks have killed dozens of Ukrainian civilians once again on Monday. On Tuesday, two of the war's deadliest days in months. Fifteen people killed, more than 170 wounded by a Russian ballistic missile strike on the city of Dnipro Tuesday.

Dnipro's mayor says the strike caused an unprecedented amount of destruction, damaging schools, medical facilities and residential sites. Not once again, military targets.

Still to come, we'll show you the aftermath of one of the last strikes before the Israel Iran ceasefire took effect.

Plus, congressional Democrats lashing out at President Trump demanding answers over the strikes in Iran and why many lawmakers were left in the dark about the intelligence.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[01:26:02]

SCIUTTO: A ceasefire between Iran and Israel that felt so tenuous at this time yesterday appears to be holding today. In the hours before it took effect, the two sides kept up attacks, inflicting more casualties to this conflict. CNN's Jeremy Diamond filed this report from the site of a deadly Iranian missile strike on Beersheba in southern Israel.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN JERUSALEM CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The final countdown to a ceasefire is often the deadliest. It certainly was in Israel's southern city Beer Sheva, as the last volleys of Iranian missiles came raining down. What's left is this picture of utterly avoidable tragedy. The final Israeli victims of this 12 day conflict. A graduating high school senior, her 18-year-old boyfriend and his mother. One more victim has yet to be identified.

An even deadlier picture emerges in Iran, where a punishing wave of Israeli airstrikes killed 107 people in the conflict's final hours, according to the Iranian Health Ministry.

DIAMOND: In the last hour before that ceasefire went into effect, an Iranian ballistic missile slammed directly into this residential building, killing four people. And now, as you can see, the cleanup crews behind me are clearing the debris. The hope is that it will be the last time they'll have to do that.

DIAMOND (voice-over): As Israel rushes back to normalcy amid a tenuous calm, the residents and rescue crews here are still taking stock of this final deadly strike.

YONATAN HONIG, RESCUE WORKER: You see the big block.

DIAMOND (voice-over): This rescue worker arrived minutes after the missile struck. He is clearly still processing what he saw.

DIAMOND: What did you find in the shelter on the top floor?

HONIG: Found a woman that were not recognizable. He could not tell if it's a woman or a man or anything. DIAMOND (voice-over): Paramedics said at least three of the victims

were on the top floor, which took a direct hit where no bomb shelter could save them.

DIAMOND: Where you were when it hit.

DIAMOND (voice-over): But in the neighboring building.

DIAMOND: Do you think about what if you didn't have that safety room?

ZUAR MIKHAYLOV, BEER SHEVA, ISRAEL RESIDENT: I wouldn't be here today.

DIAMOND (voice-over): Zaur and his wife only just moved to Israel nine months ago. Their new apartment now wrecked. They have come back to gather what they can and start over.

MIKHAYLOV: A few minutes later, we walked out and we just followed this destruction.

DIAOMND: What went through your mind in that moment?

MIKHAYLOV: God, not him, not for the safety room. We none of -- my wife and kids, none of us be here today. That's the reality of our life here. But we're going to rebuild.

DIAMOND (voice-over): But if it were up to him, that rebuilding would not come without first avenging his neighbor's deaths.

MIKHAYLOV" I want to see a response because we just lost four innocent lives behind that building for no reason, children and elderly. Hang on. So I want to see response from our prime minister.

DIAMOND (voice-over): But after so much death and destruction in Israel and Iran, quiet prevails, at least for now. Jeremy Diamond, CNN, Beer Sheva, Israel.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SCIUTTO: There are now growing fears of Iranian cyber attacks on the U.S. this after U.S. strikes on Iran's nuclear facilities over the weekend. What officials are saying about those cyber risks, just ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[01:32:48]

SCIUTTO: An early U.S. intelligence assessment is casting doubt on President Trump's claims that the U.S. completely destroyed, obliterated three of Iran's nuclear facilities. The assessment produced by the Pentagon's Defense Intelligence Agency.

Sources tell CNN the analysis suggests the U.S. strikes did not destroy core components of Iran's nuclear facilities. Instead, it's possible the strikes set back the program only a matter of months. The sources say the impact to the Isfahan, Fordow and Natanz sites, largely restricted to above ground structures.

Despite those results and early assessments, the Israeli prime minister is claiming success.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BENJAMIN NETANYAHU, ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER (through translator): We have thwarted Iran's nuclear project. If anyone in Iran attempts to revive this project, we will act with the same determination, with the same strength to cut off any such attempt. I say again, Iran will not have nuclear weapons.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCIUTTO: Though a fragile ceasefire between Israel and Iran appears to be holding, there's still a lot of tensions.

CNN's Sherrell Hubbard has the latest.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SHERRELL HUBBARD, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): President Donald Trump arrived in the Netherlands for the NATO summit Tuesday as the ceasefire he brokered between Israel and Iran appeared to grow more fragile with Israel launching attacks on Iran hours after a ceasefire was expected to take effect.

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I didn't like the fact that Israel unloaded right after we made the deal.

HUBBARD: And Iran launching missiles at a residential building in Beer Sheva right before the ceasefire went into effect.

TRUMP: We basically have two countries that have been fighting so long and so hard that they don't know what the (EXPLETIVE DELETED) they're doing.

HUBBARD: While Trump lashed out at Israel and Iran, some U.S. lawmakers lashed out at the president.

YASSAMIN ANSARI, U.S. HOUSE DEMOCRAT: We have gotten no information from this administration about why they chose to unilaterally and illegally make a decision to take us into conflict.

HAKEEM JEFFRIES, U.S. HOUSE MINORITY LEADER: And chose to ignore the constitutional requirement to get approval from the United States Congress.

[01:35:03]

HUBBARD: Over the weekend, the Pentagon launched Operation Midnight Hammer with the U.S. attacking three of Iran's nuclear facilities.

The White House saying it was working with Israel to end Iran's nuclear threat. The move inserting America into a conflict that began on June 13th, when Israel launched multiple attacks aimed at destroying Iran's nuclear program and its military leadership.

NETANYAHU: We have thwarted Iran's nuclear project.

HUBBARD: Iranian leadership says it will not violate the ceasefire unless Israel does first. Israel says the same.

I'm Sherrell Hubbard reporting.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SCIUTTO: One concern following the strikes on Iran over the weekend, the possibility of Iranian cyberattacks on the U.S.

U.S. officials are keeping tabs now on Tehran-linked hackers. And although there has not been any new confirmed breaches of U.S. organizations, government institutions, the Department of Homeland Security is warning that at least low level attacks are likely.

Joining me now, Karim Hijazi, founder and CEO of Vigilocity, whose platform mythic is used to track, monitor and disrupt cybersecurity threats.

Thanks so much for joining, Karim.

KARIM HIJAZI, FOUNDER & CEO, VIGILOCITY: Thanks for having me, Jim.

SCIUTTO: So exactly what kind of attacks is DHS most concerned about here? Are they concerned about going after critical infrastructure, for instance?

HIJAZI: Yeah, definitely. Critical infrastructure is going to be the main focus for sure. But that's going to be a sort of a secondary wave in our opinion, at least broadly speaking, where they're going to go after some low intensity things like denial of service attacks, defacements, things that are going to be a little less concerning, but they're distracting. And that takes resources away from things that are more critical.

Absolutely. Water treatment, communications, electrical power grids, they're all certainly going to be a very serious focus for, for Iran going forward.

SCIUTTO: I mean, that would be significant because denial, DDOS attacks. I mean, they can be disruptive and the kind of, you know, defacing attacks that that can make a headline, right? But if you're talking about, you know, dimming the lights in New York City or disrupting water supplies -- I mean, that that would be -- I mean, some might even consider that an act of war.

HIJAZI: Absolutely. And that's what we've seen for all these years where I think the cyber end of the military or the intelligence services of either our country or others have restrained in many cases, so they wouldn't push us to that limit or put it into that, that category.

I think now, considering what we've seen in the intensity of the entire thing, all bets are off. Theres a very good chance that were going to see some things and it will come from potentially proxy militias that Iran heavily relies on. So, it won't necessarily come from directly the IRGC or the government themselves. It may come from some proxy groups, hacktivists, other militias they rely on heavily.

SCIUTTO: What is the degree of Iranian capabilities, cyber capabilities? And does the U.S.? I know this is a constant back and forth and a constant adjustment on both sides, but does the U.S. have the -- have the ability to put up -- put up defenses?

HIJAZI: We do. The age-old problem is the asymmetry of the problem, right? So you've got, you know, an attacker that can try many, many times and fail. Defenders can only really fail once. That's the fundamental problem when it comes to defending, you know, an environment that's very, very widespread.

We call it attack surface. We've got an immense one here in the U.S. That makes it very difficult.

The other thing about this that's very interesting is that historically Iran versus say, you know, a Russian, you know, governmental group or Chinese are very different in their strategies. They're much more destructive. They'll use things like wiperware or ransomware, but they don't bother trying to collect intelligence. They go there to destroy it.

So, they can be a little more cavalier in their attacks. They don't have to be -- they can be a bit more brazen, which is part of the problem. They don't have to be as stealthy like the other groups tend to be.

SCIUTTO: No question. And what is the -- just more broadly, what's the current state of the cyber threat from China and Russia in particular? And how active is that space?

HIJAZI: Yeah, it's -- it's an ongoing thing. You know, all of us in this particular part of the world where we're watching the cyber war kind of continue on, even when everyone thinks everything is going just fine. That continues.

And in classic fashion, no good crisis goes unused. We're seeing an uptick across the board from all countries that have an interest in disrupting, you know, the West call it that, broadly speaking.

So, I don't think that's going to change. If anything, we'll see sort of an uptick simply to kind of achieve their ends, their goals for whether it's the information stealing or intellectual property theft or ransomware.

This is an absolutely perfect opportunity because vigilance is high, but it's in one direction. So, you can take advantage of that as another group.

SCIUTTO: Who has the greatest capabilities today from a well -- at least, from a state actor perspective?

[01:40:01]

HIJAZI: Yeah. By far, the U.S. is at the top of the heap without question. But again, to what we just mentioned, we're on the defensive side, where they're trying to kind of combat what might be coming in.

We do have offensive capabilities. They are they are used. They have been used very, very, very quietly. Theres not much conversation about that piece of it. Even when it came to the recent operation that took out those facilities in Iran or allegedly did so.

But from a defensive standpoint, we are -- we've been thinking about this for a long time. So, it's not a new issue. It's just, again, the sprawl of it that makes it very difficult. But we're in the best possible position of any country to manage this for sure.

SCIUTTO: Karim Hijazi, thanks so much for walking us through it.

HIJAZI: My pleasure.

SCIUTTO: Well, Gaza health officials say that dozens of Palestinians have been killed simply waiting for food. When we come back, few food distribution sites once again turn into scenes of violence and chaos.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SCIUTTO: Aid distribution sites in Gaza are turning into scenes of deadly chaos once again. Palestinian health officials say that dozens were killed by Israeli fire over the course of a single day.

CNN's Nada Bashir has more. We need to warn you, the story has some graphic images.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NADA BASHIR, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): At least 49 people have been killed near aid distribution sites while waiting for aid trucks across Gaza over just 24 hours, according to Palestinian health officials.

On Monday, Gaza's health ministry said at least 21 people had been killed by Israeli fire while waiting for aid just south of the Netzerim Corridor, near a distribution site managed by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation.

The controversial aid organization, backed by the U.S. and Israel, has been mired in tragedy and deadly chaos, with multiple instances of civilians being killed trying to obtain life- saving aid.

[01:45:02]

Though on Monday, the organization claimed that aid operations had proceeded smoothly. The Israeli military has said it is reviewing reports of injuries sustained as a result of IDF fire in the area.

Meanwhile in Khan Younis, distressing video obtained by CNN shows civilians being rushed to hospital, wounded while attempting to secure aid elsewhere, according to health officials.

Those who do survive the desperate search for aid still face crippling hunger. The U.N. has repeatedly voiced serious concern and cited that one in five people in Gaza now face starvation.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (translated): I have lost my children, I have lost my family, I have been displaced. I wait for the food, I'm a human who needs to eat. I want to eat but I have no food or water, everyone is exhausted.

We wait and surrender ourselves to death, we came here to die.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SCIUTTO: We came here to die, he said. That was our Nada Bashir reporting.

Well, federal investigators spread plenty of blame at a hearing into the Alaska Airlines mid-air door plug blowout. You remember that moment in those scenes? What they say needs to change now, coming up next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[01:50:20]

SCIUTTO: Welcome back.

We will have more on our breaking news coverage of the situation in Iran. But first, here are some other stories making headlines.

U.S. transportation officials are putting the blame for last year's door plug blowout on an Alaska Airlines flight mid-air on the plane's manufacturer, Boeing, its supplier, Spirit Aerosystems, and the Federal Aviation Administration, the FAA.

At a hearing on Tuesday, they said the FAA should be the last barrier of defense, but that in this case it showed inadequate oversight.

CNN's Pete Muntean reports.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PETE MUNTEAN, CNN AVIATION CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The final cause of the terrifying in-flight blowout on a Boeing 737 Max has now been determined by the National Transportation Safety Board, after a 17-month investigation that put Boeing quality control under the microscope.

NTSB chair Jennifer Homendy says it is a miracle that none of the 177 people on board Alaska Airlines Flight 1282 were killed.

JENNIFER HOMENDY, NTSB CHAIRWOMAN: The crew shouldn't have had to be heroes because this accident never should have happened.

MUNTEAN: For the first time, the NTSB revealed the passengers included three infants without their own seats, as well as for children flying alone.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The potential for serious injury have been greater?

HOMENDY: Yes.

MUNTEAN: Investigators previously focused on the door plug, an optional emergency exit removed at the Boeing factory in Renton, Washington, and reinstalled without the four bolts meant to hold it in place. But now investigators say definitively that Boeing workers were inexperienced, calling their work unstructured and undocumented.

Is this fundamentally a Boeing problem, or is there something else that is symptomatic here?

HOMENDY: I mean, this is a problem within Boeing on procedures that really relied on a single point of failure.

MUNTEAN: Investigators say the plane was then a ticking time bomb. The door plug making invisible movements over 154 flights until, at 16,000 feet, the forceful bang between rows 25 and 26 enough to bust open the cockpit door, making it nearly impossible for the crew to communicate.

PILOT: Alaska 1282, we just depressurized, and we're declaring an emergency. We need to descend down to 10,000.

MUNTEAN: The NTSB is now laying out 19 new safety recommendations, calling on the Federal Aviation Administration to step up its oversight of Boeing manufacturing, which the NTSB called deficient.

The NTSB also wants Boeing to redesign how the door plug attaches to the airplane, so the same failure cannot happen again.

HOMENDY: This could have been catastrophic. There was a lot that went right in a very terrible circumstance.

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MUNTEAN (on camera): The FAA says it's taking the NTSB's new safety recommendations seriously. Even Trump transportation Secretary Sean Duffy is weighing in. He says in a new statement that these new findings will not change the FAA's cap on 737 production put in place after this new findings. Boeing says it regrets this incident, that it's made safety improvements already and that work is not fully done yet.

Pete Muntean., CNN, Washington.

SCIUTTO: Important findings there.

Well, a brutal heat dome over the eastern U.S. is shattering temperature records. Nearly 150 record highs have been broken in just the past three days. Millions in the grip of that extreme heat. On Tuesday, several cities hit or surpassed 100 degrees Fahrenheit, 37 degree Celsius, including New York City, Boston, Newark and Philadelphia. The staff at the Philadelphia zoo used ice cubes to help the animals try to beat the heat.

A heat dome is caused by high pressure system that traps hot air, and as it stalls over a region while preventing cooler air from moving in.

In politics, Assemblymember Zohran Mamdani is on the brink of a stunning win -- an upset win in the Democratic primary for New York city mayor after the former New York governor, Andrew Cuomo, conceded the race Tuesday night.

However, since Mamdani's first round support is below 50 percent, the race will formally be decided by ranked choice votes, which will be announced starting July 1st.

CNN's Gloria Pazmino has the story.

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GLORIA PAZMINO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, the evening ended a lot sooner than the Cuomo campaign would have liked. Former Governor Andrew Cuomo taken to the stage this evening, unannounced, and shortly after the polls closed, to concede to State Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani.

[01:55:02]

He said that tonight had been about Mamdani. He said that he called him, congratulated him and said that he had run a very good campaign.

Now, Cuomo came out to the stage surrounded by his three daughters. He thanked his supporters as well as lawmakers here in New York who supported his campaign. While he conceded the primary tonight, he also left the door open for a potential run in the general election.

Now, Cuomo has said that he would run in the general election as an independent candidate. He still has that option open. But he said tonight that he would take a hard look at the numbers and make a decision.

Without question tonight, a big surprise. Mamdani, considered a Democratic socialist, a young lawmaker who does not have a lot of experience here in New York City politics, is poised to be the winner of the Democratic primary.

The result is not yet official. We still need the first round of ranked choice votes to be counted, and if he does not break the 50 percent threshold, that means there has to be another round of counting. So, it's possible that we will not get an official result for another week. But at least for now, we know that Cuomo -- well, the evening ended a lot sooner than the Cuomo campaign.

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SCIUTTO: Sorry for that slight video glitch there. An important update, though, from that New York mayoral race.

Thanks so much for watching. I'm Jim Sciutto in Washington. Our breaking news coverage continues with my colleague Polo Sandoval right after a short break.