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Senate Expected to Start Voting on Trump Megabill Today; Trump Paused Most Tariffs in April; Bezos and Sanchez Get Married amid A- List Guests, Protesters; Satellite Images Show New Activity at Iran's Fordow Facility; Aid Crisis Brings Death from Malnutrition to Gaza Children; Trump Threatens to Replace Jerome Powell; "Tehrangeles" Community Reflects on Complexity of War. Aired 3-4a ET

Aired June 28, 2025 - 03:00   ET

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

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BRIAN ABEL, CNN ANCHOR AND CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Hello and welcome to all of our viewers watching here in the United States, Canada and all around the world. I'm Brian Abel in Atlanta.

Ahead on CNN NEWSROOM, the fate of Trump's so-called big, beautiful bill still hangs in the balance as it faces its first vote in the Senate today.

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DONALD TRUMP, U.S. PRESIDENT: Canada's been a very difficult country to deal with over the years.

ABEL (voice-over): President Trump ends trade talks with Canada but U.S. markets have an unexpected reaction. We'll break it down with an expert.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ABEL (voice-over): Plus, just married billionaire Jeff Bezos ties the knot with former TV reporter Lauren Sanchez in Venice. How the star- studded event is creating headaches for locals.

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ABEL: President Trump is celebrating big legal and economic wins and he's hoping to keep the momentum going this weekend.

U.S. senators are expected to start voting on the president's massive tax and spending bill this afternoon. But it is still facing some hurdles among Republicans over spending levels and cuts to Medicaid.

Two senators have already warned they are voting no. And several other holdouts aren't sure how they'll land. They can only afford to lose three Republican votes to advance the so-called big, beautiful bill. President Trump is pushing Congress to send it to his desk by the 4th of July. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT, UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: Well, look, it's a great bill. It's a massive tax cut. If it's not approved, your taxes will go by 68 percent, think of that, 68 percent, a record, the highest in the history. The Democrats won't approve it only because, politically, it's so good for the Republicans.

The Democrats aren't approving it. But think of what they're not approving. They're not approving border security. We've done a great job at the border but we have to add some wall. We have to do various things. We have no money for that.

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ABEL: CNN's chief congressional correspondent Manu Raju has more from Capitol Hill.

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MANU RAJU, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: President Donald Trump and Republican leaders are pressing hard to get his massive agenda through the Senate by the end of this weekend and Saturday is a critical day. That's when we expect the first procedural vote to open up debate on this bill.

But, they can only afford to lose three Republican senators because all Democrats are going to vote no. Can they actually only keep the three defections?

That is the big question at this moment, because already two are threatening to vote against it. That's Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky. He is concerned about the impact that this bill would have on the national deficit. In fact, it's expected to add trillions of to the deficit over the next decade but he is also concerned about the $5 trillion increase that this plan calls for to the national debt limit.

And then there is Senator Thom Tillis, who is concerned about the cuts to Medicaid and the impacts that this bill would have on his constituents. He told reporters on Friday night that he is a no, period, saying that the fundamentals of the bill need to change. We'll see if that ultimately wins his vote, if there are changes made to win him over.

Several other more moderate senators have concerns; Senator Lisa Murkowski, Senator Susan Collins, a more conservative Senator Josh Hawley. They all say -- raise concerns about the Medicaid cuts. All of them want to see the details of this plan before they commit on how to vote. And some of the members want deeper spending cuts.

Senator Ron Johnson, a more conservative member, wants deeper spending cuts, would not say how he would vote on Friday evening. This is what Senator Mike Lee of Utah, who suggested that he, Lee, Johnson and Senator Rick Scott potentially could all vote as one bloc on the vote on Saturday. So that will be something to watch. But, if this bill goes down today, that would be a huge and embarrassing setback for President Trump, who is putting the pressure on these members to vote yes by his self-imposed July 4th deadline and if that fails, they have to retool the package, potentially push it back to later this month.

If it is approved, then the Senate will descend into what's known as a vote-a-rama. That means a marathon series of amendment votes that will take place all through the day, Saturday, Saturday night, into Sunday. Potentially, that could go on for many, many hours, ultimately, before the bill heads to its final vote and final passage.

Then it would come back to the United States House and that's where so many House Republicans are threatening to vote against this measure because of their concerns about some of the changes the Senate made.

Then it will be up to Speaker Mike Johnson as well as Donald Trump to cajole members and the House GOP to fall in line to get it onto his desk by July 4th.

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So a lot of work cut out from in this major bill that deals with a multi-trillion dollar overhaul of the United States tax code.

There is deep spending cuts, new work requirements on Social Safety net programs, hundreds of billions of in funding for defense programs, for national security programs, for border security measures, all of which raises this question, can Donald Trump get it over the finish line and win these members over?

It's uncertain at this moment, as the Republican leaders and the president have a lot of arm twisting to do to get a major victory on President Trump's desk -- Manu Raju, CNN, Capitol Hill.

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ABEL: President Trump abruptly announced Friday that he's ending a months-long trade talks with Canada and will soon announce a new tariff rate for the country.

The reason, according to president Trump, is a new tax on digital services that will hit companies like Google, Meta and Apple. Canada's parliament, though, adopted it more than a year ago. It's set to go into effect on Monday. Mr. Trump has taken issue with those taxes and negotiations with several countries.

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TRUMP: They were foolish to do it. So I said, we're going to stop all negotiations with Canada right now until they straighten out their act. We have all the cards. We do a lot of business with Canada but relatively little. They do most of their businesses with us. And when you have that circumstance, you treat people better.

(END VIDEO CLIP) ABEL: Let's talk about that imbalance that the president just said

there. Canada's imports from the U.S. totaled $349 billion last year, with $413 billion in exports to the U.S. Canada's prime minister said his government is considering its response to the move but will continue to engage with the U.S.

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MARK CARNEY, CANADIAN PRIME MINISTER: Look. We'll continue to conduct these complex negotiations in the best interest of Canadians, these negotiations.

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ABEL: Meanwhile, the U.S. Treasury Secretary said the United States could soon reimpose so-called reciprocal tariffs on more than a dozen countries. That's what Scott Bessent told CNBC on Friday, adding that the administration is nearing deals with 10 nations.

When the tariffs were paused in April, Mr. Trump's new deal deadline was July 9th. That's just over a week away. But also on Friday, Bessent told FOX News that negotiations could be, quote, "wrapped up by Labor Day, September 1st," a more relaxed framework than the original timeframe.

Two out of three major U.S. stock markets hit record highs on Friday, wrapping up a big economic week. That's despite Mr. Trump's vow to end trade talks with Canada. The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq composite both closing up half a point and both set new records.

The Dow, that got close, closing up more than 400 points within 3 percent of its all-time high.

Ryan Patel is a senior fellow at the Drucker School of Management at Claremont Graduate University. He joins us from Los Angeles.

And, Ryan, it seems, at least as of now, that the markets have recovered from that uncertainty that was injected into it by president Trump's liberation day tariff announcement. But a reminder, for context, that was 87 days ago now, not the quickest road to recovery.

And now, with this decision to cut a trade deal with Canada, where do we go from here?

RYAN PATEL, GLOBAL BUSINESS EXECUTIVE: Yes, I mean, it's funny. Short term memory. Loss, right, Ryan? You know. People realize that the markets you know, if you would have told. Me what last. Week that this week would have been this great, you would have said that would have been kind of shocking.

And when you have some of this data, when you were talking about the Canada deal, you know, is it going to happen, is it not?

It creates more frustrations and trust issues between the two. But the market is on a high because there's signs of actual -- I don't say the word hope -- but there's a path that things will get better. It's not going to the other side or it couldn't get worse, I guess is what I think the market is also reacting to.

ABEL: Well, let's talk about that for a little bit here. At least the consumer confidence aspect of it and the sentiment front.

Is there any concern of a mirage to that, considering that those tariff deals they haven't they haven't gone into effect yet?

They're still on the horizon.

PATEL: That's a great point. Right. So the sentiment side, yes, it definitely shows, at least if you look at the numbers, there's a clear rebound, that, you know, Americans are looking to be optimistic because they don't feel it just yet.

However, let me tell you this. In the fall, coming to this year, if we stay where we are and the tariffs kick in, this is going to cost billions to individual companies that are large companies, that are, you know, either buying stuff from overseas or retail and shoes. We see Nike come out with margins going lower.

And we see Walmart -- guess who's going to pay that?

It will be the consumers.

And then what does that mean?

It will get more expensive this fall if we stay where we are right now And that the tariffs hold.

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So that to me, the sentiment could then go the other way. And then people really actually feeling it.

ABEL: OK. There's been a lot of talk about cutting the U.S. interest rate. President Trump has been slamming the Fed chair, Jerome Powell, for not yet doing so. On Friday, Trump called him a stubborn mule. And he also said this in just the last 24 hours.

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TRUMP: The only thing is we have a Fed chairman that is, he doesn't get it. I'd love him to resign if he wanted to. He's done a lousy job.

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ABEL: Walk us through both the potential danger of Powell cutting those rates. Why he hasn't done so but also the danger of the rhetoric. Like what we just heard there against the Fed chair.

PATEL: Yes. So I'll answer the first part. Right.

The Fed has been remarkably consistent since they were a little bit slow in doing the rate cut long, you know, long time ago, a couple of years ago when they thought it was transitory.

So what I mean by being consistent, should they cut now?

There isn't data that really supports the things that they were saying to then, why do they not do it six months ago?

Right. If you argue that they should have done it six months ago, the data and the labor market inflation is not where they want it to be. So to me that's a sharp turn.

And then what does that mean for inflation expectations for the labor market?

You know per se, I think the second piece it's really hard when you have you know, the Fed is supposed to be independent, supposed to make decisions based on the data and how they see it. And it's hard to see Jerome Powell stepping down before his term ends, before he hands out. But that would be very interesting.

ABEL: And Ryan, you mentioned there that you don't think you could see Powell stepping down before the end of his term. I do want to ask you a little bit about that, because, just last week, Mr. Trump said that he would go as far as announcing a successor to Powell, quote, "very soon."

But Powell has 11 months left in his term. So let's say that Trump does follow through with that and name a successor.

Does that effectively make that person a shadow Fed chair with the potential to undermine Powell?

How would any of that work?

What's the context for that kind of move historically?

And what could that do to the market uncertainty?

PATEL: Well, one, if you turn it into a logical, when there's two teams coming together and work out, it's a nice succession plan that you can kind of hand off.

However, if the, you know, the person that's taking over is being very loud about what the Fed isn't doing, it would cause more confusion and distrust in the market. So I would hope that that wouldn't be the case.

I think for Powell, I mean, it's really up to him if he wants to step down and go, I don't want to deal with this anymore, which I don't. I mean, I would assume he'd finish the job of what he put on and then be able to hand it over. And I think that would be the ideal is to be able to have that transition.

I mean, even times right now, like you said, historically, that hasn't been happening to be the case.

But you know, could you have a symbiotic relationship of making sure the economy continues to grow and that everyone's on the same page to that degree and giving some certainty to the market with some, you know, what does it look like for rate cuts in the future?

Again, I know you're going to say I'm living in an ideal world but that that to me would be a great transition if that was going to happen properly.

ABEL: You know, there's something to be said for idealism. We'll see what actually happens. Ryan Patel, appreciate your expertise and your time. Thank you.

PATEL: Thank you.

ABEL: President Trump is celebrating what he called a giant win from the Supreme Court on Friday. A majority of the justices ruled to limit the power of lower courts to block his policies on a nationwide basis.

The case stemmed from the president's executive order ending birthright citizenship but the ruling does not settle the issue of whether the president can enforce that order.

Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote in dissent, quote, "No rights is safe in the -- in the new legal regime the court creates."

But president Trump says ruling was a victory.

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TRUMP: Thanks to this decision, we can now promptly file to proceed with these numerous policies and those that have been wrongly enjoined on a nationwide basis, including birthright citizenship, ending sanctuary city funding, suspending refugee resettlement, freezing unnecessary funding.

Stopping federal taxpayers from paying for transgender surgeries and numerous other priorities of the American people. We have so many of them. I have a whole list.

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ABEL: Billionaire Jeff Bezos' lavish wedding in Venice cost a bundle and it's also giving the city's tourism industry a big boost. Those details are just ahead.

Plus, new satellite imagery appears to show fresh activity at Iranian nuclear facilities that were damaged by U.S. strikes. New details in a live report later this hour. Stay with us.

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ABEL: Billionaire Jeff Bezos married former reporter Lauren Sanchez in Venice on Friday. The lavish, star-studded wedding weekend, it reportedly cost as much

as $55 million in Venice, could rake in over $1 billion from tourism. Dozens of A-list guests attended and protesters, they were also there trying to disrupt the festivities. CNN's Melissa Bell has more from Venice.

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MELISSA BELL, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: It is day two of the three-day extravaganza. That is the Jeff Bezos and Lawrence Sanchez wedding here in Venice, held in the scorching heat.

We first caught a glimpse of the bride and former journalist today as she exited her hotel in style on a water taxi with two huge diamond rings and a bracelet with the initials "LB."

She was soon followed by the Amazon founder and a sea of photographers, as they headed over there to the private San Giorgio Maggiore island here in Venice, where they tied the knot in front of 200 guests, a barrage of celebrities, including Oprah Winfrey, Kendall and Kylie Jenner, Usher and Tom Brady.

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And we know that a performance by Matteo Bocelli is happening there tonight. He is the son of the legendary Italian opera singer Andrea Bocelli and here is the now Lauren Sanchez Bezos on the cover of "Vogue" in her Dolce & Gabbana wedding gown finally revealed after much anticipation.

Italy's tourism minister said, Venice can expect to reap as much as $1.1 billion as a result of the billionaire's wedding.

But we have been kept almost entirely in the dark throughout the three days about exactly when and where the ceremonies will be taking place, not just so that they could keep the press and the paparazzi at a distance but also, of course, the protesters who are threatening to disrupt proceedings.

And so, it is from afar that if we have watched the happy couple tie the knot and dance the night away -- Melissa Bell, CNN, Venice.

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ABEL: And Venice deputy mayor Simone Venturini joins us live now.

And Simone, obviously deputy mayor, a huge event for your city. And with it, a huge logistical challenge, given the necessary security involved with so many high-profile guests.

Can you first walk us through the resources devoted to this wedding and any potential strain there?

SIMONE VENTURINI, COUNCIL MEMBER; DEPUTY MAYOR FOR TOURISM, VENICE: It's just one. Of many. Events that the city hosts every year we host 400 wedding important wedding around the city. We have pope visit, minister visit G20, G7, the movie festival. So

it's not a big deal for the city even because there is only 200 guests involved. So very high profile guests. Of course. But nothing. Extraordinary and. Nothing too. Complicated to be. Managed by the city. We are. Used to do it.

And so the city is ready. We have, of course, some local police. Trying to keep. The. Paparazzi and so on. Outside the. Area and. We are looking forward to a. Small. Protest today by. Just 100 people complaining again. Against capitalism. And so on.

But the city is quiet. All services are OK. We have. No red. Zone, no circulation stops. So it's all. Quiet in Venice right. Now.

ABEL: Deputy mayor, your city over the years has faced some hurdles when it comes to tourism, overcrowding, congestion, damage to some historical sites from the strain on infrastructure as well as other things.

I know your city has worked to address those issues that have persisted as recently as the Venice carnival. Now with the Bezos wedding, there's this renewed spotlight on your city.

How does the wedding impact tourism there?

And what do you say to residents who feel the ship traffic and the overtourism is negatively impacting the quality of the city and the life for residents?

VENTURINI: Overtourism is not related with Bezos' wedding. The events sector, the wedding event sector are a good kind of tourism. High quality tourism. People that can stay here. Overnight can spend. A. Lot. Of money. Can. Move a big income. Even to small businesses. As flowers higher. Craftsmen and so on.

So it's. Not. Related with overtourism. Overtourism is caused. By mass tourism, low cost. Cheap flights. Coaches and day trippers. So we are addressing day tripper problem. Right now with a new tax on the entry fee based on daily base. Tourism.

And we are doing a lot of other measures on retail. Spaces and. Fast food takeaway. And so on. To stop the new opening of this kind of cheap. And not related with the soul of the city shops.

And this is why we are not concerned about the wedding. We love the wedding. We love the events. We love this kind of events but we are focused on the bigger, the very biggest threat that is mass tourism and day tripper.

ABEL: You mentioned the protesters there, Simone. There have been people protesting Bezos' presence in Venice.

How has the city engaged with them and what's been the reaction of them by tourists and residents alike?

VENTURINI: I think that there are a very small, small group, a small minority, always the same, the same people. That was against the MOSE system, the system that defend Venice from the flooding and the high tide.

Right now, our complaining against this, this wedding, I think, I think that they are a little bit narcissistic because they exploit the attention of the world to the wedding to make some protests and became famous all over the network. So they are exploiting the city and the image of the city, not the best wedding.

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ABEL: Deputy mayor, I want to take this opportunity to ask you about what the city is doing with rising water and climate change. I understand that that is a constant challenge for you and I'm curious what the intersection with the tourism issues that that we are talking about, if there is any intersection between those issues.

VENTURINI: No, there are no interception. The sea level rise is a worldwide problem. Of course it affects Venice more than other city. So we are we use this new submarine dam that is used to keep Venice safe from the high tides during winter season and the flooding.

In 2019. We suffered a very big events that destroys a lot of ground floor around Venice. And since 2021, the system is working and it defends the city from the flooding. And, of course, we are doing a lot of work all around the city, in St. Mark's Square, particularly, to keep St. Mark's Square and St. Mark's Church waterproof.

Even because lagoon water is salted, so it destroys more stones and marbles, the hood (ph) than normal water. So, of course, we are dealing with this kind of threats and it's a worldwide threat. And we are trying to do something in Venice.

But, of course, the big answer is up to the world leader right now to fight the climate change, to fight the climate, the climate threat that we are still facing right now.

ABEL: Simone Venturini, wish you the best and the best for your city of Venice as well. Thank you.

VENTURINI: Thank you, 'bye.

ABEL: And thank you for joining me. I'm Brian Abel. For our international viewers, "AFRICAN VOICES: PLAYMAKERS" is next. And then, for our viewers in North America, I'll have more news in just a moment.

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ABEL (voice-over): Welcome back. You're watching CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Brian Abel in Atlanta.

Today's top stories: U.S. senators are expected to start voting on president Trump's massive tax and spending bill in the coming hours. He says he wants it on his desk by July 4th. But it's still facing some hurdles among Republicans over spending levels and cuts to Medicaid.

The U.S. Supreme Court has curbed the power of federal judges to block president Trump's executive orders in a 6-3 decision. The ruling limits the ability of lower level courts to issue nationwide injunctions.

The president praised the ruling, saying that a whole list of his administration's policies can now move forward.

Two of the three major U.S. stock markets hit record highs on Friday. The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq, both setting new records. Meanwhile, the Dow closed within 3 percent of its all-time high. That's despite Mr. Trump's vow to end trade talks with Canada.

ABEL: Iran is holding public funerals for senior military commanders and nuclear scientists who were killed in Israeli strikes.

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ABEL (voice-over): Images here from Tehran as people pay their respects to top officials and other key figures, including the head of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. Reports say at least four women and four children also will be buried.

Israel claims it killed 11 Iranian nuclear scientists and 30 senior security officials, including three top commanders. The Iranian health ministry has said that 627 people were killed in Iran by Israeli military action.

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ABEL: New satellite imagery appears to show fresh activity at Iran's Fordow nuclear facility. The site was a key target in U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran's nuclear program. Excavation and earth-moving equipment are visible in these images that were captured Friday.

U.S. President Trump has repeatedly claimed the U.S. strikes, quote, "obliterated" Iran's nuclear program. But an early U.S. intelligence assessment has raised questions about the extent of the damage and the impact on Iran's nuclear capabilities.

Iran's ambassador to the U.N. says the country is open to transferring its stockpiles of enriched uranium to other countries under certain conditions.

Meanwhile, president Trump says he would quote, "absolutely" consider further military action if Iran pursues nuclear weapons. The Trump administration also told U.S. House members on Friday they are working to bring Iran back to the negotiating table.

Live for us now in London is CNN's Nada Bashir with the latest on this.

Hey, Nada.

NADA BASHIR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, that's right. We have. Been seeing throughout the morning those videos coming through from state media. In Iran. Of those funeral. Processions to mark the deaths of what has been top. military and security. officials, as well as. top nuclear scientists.

As you mentioned, the head of Iran's highly secretive Revolutionary Guard Corps as well, his death being marked there in those funeral processions. We have seen these videos being carried by state media, along with very patriotic music. It's clearly a moment of huge grief and mourning for many in Iran.

And, of course, important to underscore that we are not just talking about officials and security officials and nuclear scientists but also, according to officials in Iran, we have seen hundreds of others killed and injured as a result of that 12-day conflict.

So clearly, still, despite the tone of triumph and victory that we've been hearing from Iranian officials, including Iran's supreme leader, this is clearly a moment of also huge mourning and grief for many in Iran. Following that conflict.

And as we continue with this fragile ceasefire and, of course, we are also learning more about the extent and the scope of the damage caused by those strikes carried out, both by the Israeli military and also those strikes carried out by the United States.

We've heard, of course, from Iran's foreign minister, who has described the damage sustained to Iran's nuclear sites, including the Natanz, Isfahan and Fordow nuclear sites, as being extensive and serious damage.

Of course, we've been hearing repeatedly now from U.S. officials, including the U.S. president, Donald Trump, saying that the nuclear capacities within Iran have been completely "obliterated," in his words. And, of course, as you mentioned, we have been hearing from the White House.

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Saying that there is no evidence that Iran was able to actually move or relocate its enriched uranium stockpile ahead of those U.N. strikes and really hammering that in.

We've been hearing from the U.N.'s nuclear watchdog or the head of the nuclear watchdog, Rafael Grossi, who has said just yesterday that there that they have evidence that the centrifuges at the Fordow nuclear plant, which is, of course, one of Iran's most important nuclear sites, are no longer operational.

And, of course, it is the targeting of Iran's nuclear sites which has drawn such fierce criticism from Iranian leaders, who have maintained that they were not pursuing a nuclear weapons program but rather a civilian nuclear program. Take a listen to this statement from the Iranian president. Just yesterday.

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MASOUD PEZESHKIAN, IRANIAN President (via translator): The attacks by the United States and the Zionist regime on Iran's peaceful nuclear facilities, which were under the full supervision of the International Atomic Energy Agency, are a gross violation of all international rules.

And an irreparable blow to the status of the nuclear nonproliferation regime by a permanent member of the Security Council.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASHIR: Now, of course, there have been questions circling around the potential for any diplomatic progress or movement. We had potentially been anticipating talks between Iranian and U.S. officials in the coming days.

But what we've also seen, just in the last day or two, is this tit- for-tat. We've seen the Iran supreme leader saying that Iran will never surrender to U.S. demands again, framing this ceasefire as a victory for Iran.

President Trump has also taken to social media to blast Iran's leader. But he's also said that, while he had been considering lifting sanctions, potentially looking at a diplomatic route for some nuclear deal with Iran, this may not be the case anymore.

ABEL: Clearly, some chest pumping happening between both leaders. Nada Bashir, thank you.

President Trump is predicting there will be a ceasefire in Gaza soon. But fighting in the enclave still goes on. Several people were killed and buried in the enclave under the sand when an Israeli airstrike hit tents sheltering people.

And first responders rushed to recover victims and put out fires after an Israeli airstrike hit a school building in northern Gaza. Gaza civil defense says it was housing individuals who had been displaced.

"Inherently unsafe." That's how the United Nations' top official describes a Gaza aid initiative backed by the United States and Israel.

Hundreds of Palestinians have reportedly died at sites run by the controversial Gaza Humanitarian Foundation. It hands out packaged food at a handful of locations in southern and central Gaza. On Friday, U.N. secretary general Antonio Guterres criticized the initiative.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANTONIO GUTERRES, UNITED NATIONS SECRETARY-GENERAL: Israeli military operations. Have created a humanitarian. Crisis of. Horrific proportions. More dire today than at any. Point in this long and brutal crisis. Bombs are falling on tents, on families, on those with nowhere left to

run and people. Are being. Killed simply trying to. Feed themselves and their families. The search for food must never be a death sentence.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ABEL: The GHF denied the deadly incidents happened at or near its sites. It accused the U.N. of a misinformation smear campaign.

And the shortage of aid in Gaza has resulted in a food crisis. The Palestinian health ministry says that two more children have died of malnutrition, bringing the total number to 66.

CNN's Jeremy Diamond reports on the death of a three-month-old baby girl who had been born healthy -- and a strong warning. Some of the images that follow are extremely disturbing.

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JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN JERUSALEM CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Three months ago, Jouri Al-Masri was being carried out of a delivery room, swaddled in a baby blanket just like this one. Now her tiny body is set down on the cold, hard marble slab of a Gaza hospital morgue, drained of all signs of life.

Every millimeter of her body is a testament to Gaza's humanitarian crisis and Israeli policies that have enabled it. Her father says Jouri was born a healthy 7.9-pound baby but needed lactose-free baby formula, which she couldn't find in any Gaza hospital.

Closing the crossings and depriving children of milk is one of the war crimes against our children, her father says. I do not know what the reason is and what their sin is to be killed in this manner. Their only fault is being innocent babies.

For weeks, Gaza's doctors and nurses have warned baby formula shortages are threatening the lives of Gaza's most vulnerable.

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Like the babies in this neonatal unit at Al Helou Hospital.

MOHAMMAD TABASHA, HEAD NURSE AT AL HELOU HOSPITAL: We have a bigger problem of shortage of milk, especially for special formula milk for all of the neonatal --

DIAMOND (voice-over): Israel's aid coordination agency, COGAT, said it, quote, "Does not prevent or restrict the entry of baby food." And said, more than 1,100 tons of baby food have entered Gaza in recent weeks.

Israel lifted its eleven week total blockade of Gaza in May but has continued to restrict the number of aid trucks and types of aid allowed into Gaza. The result, thousands of cases of acute malnutrition among children. Food shortages are also driving up the need for baby formula in Gaza as malnourished mothers like Fatmeh struggle to breastfeed their babies.

A mother does not even have enough to eat for herself. How can she feed her children or breastfeed them?

Fatmeh asks. I was nine months pregnant when the ceasefire began and I expected that everything would be available, especially milk. For now, Fatmeh has formula to keep her babies alive, even though limits on aid into Gaza means formula deliveries are inconsistent.

But for Jouri it is too late. Three months after she came into this world, she became the 66th child to die of acute malnutrition during the war in Gaza according to the Palestinian Health Ministry. Her father says he was out hunting for her formula when she died. It was nowhere to be found -- Jeremy Diamond, CNN, Tel Aviv.

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ABEL: In the discussion earlier with Ryan Patel, you may have heard Donald Trump has made no secret of his unhappiness with Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell. The president wants someone who will cut interest rates and he says he'll announce Powell's successor very soon.

[03:45:03]

CNN's Matt Egan explains what the White House strategy seems to be and what it could mean for the country.

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MATT EGAN, CNN BUSINESS SENIOR WRITER: President Trump is so frustrated with Jerome Powell that he could do something unprecedented to undermine him. President Trump has said that he could name. A replacement. For Powell soon.

"The Wall Street Journal" says. That could. Happen. As soon as this summer. The problem, though, is that Powell, his term is not up. Until next May. In this news cycle, that is a lifetime away.

Now this echoes a plan that was first floated by Scott Bessent last year before. He became Trump's treasury. Secretary. Bessent said what you could do is name a replacement for Powell so early in the cycle that this person ends up becoming the shadow Fed chair.

This is. Something that has never happened in the Fed's 111-year history. Economist and former Fed officials, they tell CNN that it could backfire by adding even more uncertainty and chaos to what is already an uncertain environment.

I talked to Alan Blinder, the former number two at the Fed in the 1990s. And he told me it's an absolutely horrible idea. If they're not singing from the same playbook, which seems likely, this is just going to cause confusion in markets.

And, of course, there would be confusion. You'd have effectively have two Fed chairs at the same time, one of them, who the president despises; one of them who the president loves, both of them nominated by the president. Investors wouldn't know who to listen to.

And just to remind everyone of why the president is so frustrated with Powell., of course, this is all about interest rates. During Trump's first term. Rates were very low. Three years ago, the Fed spiked interest rates to try to put the inflation fire out. Rates have come down.

But they do remain elevated and that makes it an expensive time for consumers and businesses to borrow. It's also an expensive time for the federal government to borrow. The president would like to see interest rates come down.

But Fed officials are reluctant to cut rates until they get a better sense for just how much damage the president's tariffs are going to do to inflation.

One last point here. Some economists have told me that this idea of a shadow Fed could end up being counterproductive by unnerving investors to the extent that they end up driving long-term interest rates, the ones controlled by the market, driving those rates even higher.

And, of course, that is exactly the opposite of what president Trump wants. Back to you.

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ABEL: Matt Egan reporting there.

New York City mayor Eric Adams is defending his relationship with president Trump. And he says voters are not concerned with the corruption charges he once faced. The Trump administration dropped those charges in return for his cooperation with things like immigration enforcement.

Adams tells CNN that voters should look at what he's done for the city.

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MAYOR ERIC ADAMS, NEW YORK CITY: Well, I think look at the numbers. When you allow New Yorkers to hear the real story of the success and the turnaround of developing more jobs in our individual senior years in the history of the city.

In 3.5 years, we have ensured that we develop housing that's needed more than the previous two mayors combined. And then when you look at the small business operating, the safety of the city, I ran on a public safety platform and we delivered on that. The last six months, we had the last lowest number of shootings and homicide in recorded history of this city. I am going to be able to tell the real story of how we turned the city around.

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ABEL: In November's election, Adams will likely face former New York governor Andrew Cuomo and the presumptive Democratic nominee, 33-year old Zohran Mamdani. Adams was elected mayor as a Democrat but he's now running as an independent. Sources tell CNN that Cuomo will also run as an independent.

The conflict between Israel and Iran does not look so simple in one California community. Coming up, why residents of Tehrangeles say their feelings are complicated.

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ABEL: Some residents of a California community have a unique perspective on the fighting between Israel and Iran.

CNN's Nick Watt went to the neighborhood known as Tehrangeles to find out why it's been so hard for them to watch the conflict unfold.

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RABBI TARLAN RABIZADEH, AMERICAN JEWISH UNIVERSITY: Now that all of my countries are involved in this war, all of them, Israel, Iran and now the USA, it is just all consuming and terrifying. I want to say that first and foremost. People dying is the last thing that I want.

NICK WATT, CNN REPORTER (voice-over): Rabbi Tarlan Rabizadeh is among the 20,000 or so Persian Jews living here in LA, so is the mayor of Beverly Hills.

SHARONA NAZARIAN, BEVERLY HILLS, CALIFORNIA MAYOR: There are a lot of people that are very concerned. They have family members in Iran. They have family members in Israel and they are all being impacted by this.

WATT (voice-over): News from the old country plays in a grocery store in a neighborhood known as "Tehrangeles."

RABIZADEH: We care about Israel surviving because it's our homeland but so is Iran and I wish people would understand that.

NAZARIAN: Iranian Jews have lived in Iran for 2,500 years since the time of Queen Esther.

WATT (voice-over): The biblical Jewish queen of a Persian King.

RABIZADEH: The country was originally Zoroastrian. People were forced to convert to Islam and Jews thrived there.

WATT (voice-over): Religions had co-existed for maybe 2,000 years. Then most Jews fled around the time of the Islamic Revolution in 1979. Mayor Nazarian was just a little kid.

WATT: Have you ever been back?

NAZARIAN: No. We were persecuted for our religion that we were exiled.

WATT (voice-over): This week, Persian Americans in LA demonstrated their desire for the end of the Ayatollah's regime.

WATT: I mean, you are, in some senses, the Ayatollah's worst nightmare.

RABIZADEH: Maybe. I don't have enough followers for that but yes.

WATT: You would like an Iran free of the current regime.

RABIZADEH: Absolutely and I would say that the majority of the Iranian people would feel the same way.

And I am not going to apologize that I would love to be able to go back to a free Iran.

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And see where my ancestors came from.

NAZARIAN: My community is very hopeful that they're going to be able to see peace in their time and be able to visit.

RABIZADEH: I remember when we invaded Iraq and my family kept shaking their heads at the television and saying, wrong country, man. We wasted a lot of lives there, though and Americans are really scared about putting our soldiers at risk again and I don't blame them.

NAZARIAN: This is going to be something that is going to have to happen at the hands of the Iranian people themselves, with their own courage, their own strength, to be able to see freedom.

WATT (voice-over): Nick Watt, CNN, Los Angeles.

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ABEL: Denmark plans to fight deep fakes by giving its citizens property rights over their likenesses and voices. Hyperrealistic bogus images and videos generated by artificial intelligence target everyone from politicians, portrayed inaccurately, to ordinary people whose faces are used in phony porn.

The Danish legislation would give people the right to ask platforms to take down the fake content. But the culture minister warns, deepfakes are so widespread, technology has outpaced legislation.

He expects the measure to be made law this fall. He says the next step would include fines on companies that don't comply.

A parade of life-sized puppet animals marched through London Friday. The public art project is called The Herds and it's trying to raise climate change awareness. The animals are made of biodegradable materials and the project is called The Migration and will visit 11 different countries.

Local performers are trained to perform in each city. The migration started in the -- excuse me -- the Democratic Republic of Congo and will travel 20,000 kilometers or more than 12,000 miles, to the Arctic Circle.

Impressive.

That wraps this hour of CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Brian Abel in Atlanta. CNN NEWSROOM continues with my colleague Ben Hunte next.