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Trump Says U.S. To Supply Weapons To Ukraine Via NATO; France And UK Agree To Joint Migration Deal; Judge Temporarily Blocks President Trump's Order Ending Birthright Citizenship; Trump Announces 35 Percent Tariffs On Canada Starting August 1; 15 People Killed Outside Medical Clinic In Gaza; Leaders Discuss New U.S. And European Plans to Help Ukraine; Russian Foreign Minister to Visit North Korea Friday; At Least 121 Dead, Search Continues for Dozens Still Missing; Inside Look at Celebrity Impersonator's Routine. Aired 1-2a ET

Aired July 11, 2025 - 01:00   ET

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

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[01:00:25]

BEN HUNTE, CNN ANCHOR: Hello wherever you are in the world. You are now in the CNN Newsroom. I'm Ben Hunte in Atlanta, and it is so good to have you with me. Coming up on the show, President Trump says he's sending defensive weapons to Ukraine via NATO.

The U.K. and France reach a deal on how to handle the influx of migrants.

And meet the fab makeup artist who has taken the Internet by storm with his impersonations of hundreds of thousands of famous celebs. That's coming up.

Welcome. The U.S. State Department says it strongly condemns Russia's escalating attacks on Ukraine. Secretary of State Marco Rubio met with the Russian foreign minister on Thursday. He says that he relayed President Donald Trump's disappointment and frustration during what he calls a frank conversation with Sergey Lavrov.

Rubio also said that the U.S. is actively talking to European countries about sharing Patriot batteries with Ukraine. President Trump told NBC he struck a deal with NATO's to send weapons to Ukraine through the alliance. He says NATO will pay for those weapons.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says that all signals point toward the United States resuming its aid to Ukraine. He made those comments while speaking to reporters at the Ukraine Recovery Conference happening right now in Rome.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY, UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT (through translator): We have a positive dialogue with President Trump regarding the Patriot systems. My Request is for 10 Patriot Systems and the corresponding volume for these systems. Germany is ready to pay for two systems. I have agreements with them. Norway is ready to pay for one system. We have a bilateral agreement.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNTE: CNN's Alayna Treene is following the latest developments from the White House.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ALAYNA TREENE, CNN WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: For us President Donald Trump says he struck a deal with NATO on Thursday to send weapons to Ukraine through the alliance, adding that the NATO alliance will pay for them 100 percent. He told NBC News this in an interview on Thursday. He said, quote, we're sending weapons to NATO and NATO is paying for those weapons 100 percent. He went on to say we're going to be sending Patriots to NATO and then NATO will distribute that.

Now, we have reached out to NATO to see what the status of this deal is, but we do know that the NATO secretary general, Mark Rutte, spoke with President Donald Trump on Thursday. This is what Rutte posted to X. He said, quote, earlier today, I urged leaders to go further so Ukraine has more ammunition and air defenses. I've just spoken with President Trump and are now working closely with allies to get Ukraine the help they need.

Now, we also heard from the secretary of State, Marco Rubio early on Thursday as well, talking about this and how they're working on some sort of plan to try and get Ukraine the aid and specifically weapons that are necessary for them to continue in this war with Russia.

Rubio essentially said that the United States is actively talking to countries in Europe about sharing Patriot batteries with Ukraine. Now, earlier this week, we know that the president, he hinted that the administration was mulling sending more weapons to Ukraine. Listen to what he said.

DONALD TRUMP, U.S. PRESIDENT: They would like it. They've asked for it. They're very rare indeed, you know, because a lot of systems have been sent to Ukraine. But they would like to, I know they made the request. We're going to have to take a look at it. Very expensive, very expensive system.

TREENE: Now, also in that Thursday interview with NBC, the president said that he is very disappointed in Russian President Vladimir Putin, something we know he's been saying repeatedly over the last several days after calls direct talks with Putin have gone more sour.

And then he also said that he's planning to make a big announcement regarding Russia on Monday, though he did not divulge what that would be. I've also talked to some White House officials who would not get further into the details of what the announcement is going to entail. Alayna Treene, CNN, the White House.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HUNTE: The U.K. and France are working together on what the British prime minister is calling a groundbreaking new migrant deal. Keir Starmer says the agreement will take effect in the coming weeks. Under the deal, migrants who travel illegally to Britain by small boats will be sent back to France. For every migrant sent back to France, another person illegally seeking asylum will be allowed to enter the UK.

[01:05:00]

The British Home Office says more than 20,000 people have arrived in the U.K. by small boat so far this year.

Let's dig deeper with European affairs commentator Dominic Thomas. Dominic, thanks so much for being with me again. How are you doing?

DOMINIC THOMAS, CNN EUROPEAN AFFAIRS COMMENTATOR: Great. Thank you, Ben, and thanks for having me on your show.

HUNTE: Always welcome. Let's get into it. Both Prime Minister Starmer and President Macron have pledged actions on migration. But how much of this is substance versus style? And is there a danger that they're validating far right narratives on migration in both countries?

THOMAS: Yes. So I think, first of all, the historic context. There's absolutely nothing new about U.K.-France discussions around controlling immigration. What I think is deeply ironic about this latest development and latest chapter in this history is of course, going back just about a decade now.

The Brexit campaign was essentially run and organized around making immigration the number one issue and threat and leave voters. Those who voted to extricate the U.K. from the European Union voted overwhelmingly in favor of that clause because of the question of immigration control.

And here you have the U.K. Prime Minister going to Emmanuel Macron, which means also, therefore, the European Union to help them manage their immigration question issue.

The obvious answer to your question here, too, is really the way in which they're going about identifying particular issues and problems versus instrumentalizing a question that is once again back on the agenda in the U.K. given the popularity of the Reform Party and its particular stance on immigration.

HUNTE: Yes, the why is the big question. So, from a European affairs perspective, what do these renewed U.K.-France talks actually signal about the future of the post Brexit relationship? Are we seeing the beginning of a genuinely real reset?

THOMAS: I'm not sure that we're seeing a reset in terms of the broader relations with Europe. I think that there's certainly ways in which they're seeking to articulate a range of measures and options when it comes to the question of immigration here, it's important to look at the ways in which, for Keir Starmer and for Emmanuel Macron, these are opportunities for them to appeal to an electorate that continues to be manipulated by these particular questions and to appeal to them. It will not lead to any particular concrete results because the

underlying issues and questions will always be there and the need for labor is going to be there. But it does provide them with a distraction from some of the broader issues and questions that they face at home that have to do with the cost of living, the National Health Service and the general economic morale, and provides a scapegoat and a distraction from those particular issues, as, of course, the focus on international questions does as well.

HUNTE: And the leaders also discussed military cooperation and nuclear deterrences. How should we interpret this increased alignment, especially as NATO's looks a bit shakier than ever and transatlantic trust is clearly weakening?

THOMAS: Yes, those are all absolutely key points, certainly, for President Macron, and this has been the case throughout his presidency in the second term. A president who's about to be termed out in a couple of years time. Focusing on foreign policy has always been his strong point. His ability to take him out and extricate him from a complicated domestic environment in which he lost his parliamentary majority.

And when it comes to this, it's his strong point. Yes, you're absolutely right that the multilateral order is unpredictable and uncertain. And you see here both Starmer and Macron responding in some ways to pressure from President Trump, but also recognizing that the path forward, particularly with these two powers that, let's not forget, along with the United States, the U.K. and France are the only two nuclear powers that are members of NATO.

HUNTE: How does the summit actually reflect wider European political dynamics, especially ahead of lots of elections and with the far right gaining traction across the entire continent?

THOMAS: Yes, not just the continent, but also in the United States. I think in the case of Emmanuel Macron's repeated presence here and discussions with Keir Starmer meeting with the king, I think it's also in some ways in anticipation of a early autumn or late summer planned visit of the U.S. President to the U.K. and how that kind of attempt at diplomacy.

[01:10:04]

Enlisting a power on whom they continue to not so much depend, but are eager to maintain military support with the deep realization that one of the drivers and one of the oxygen for the far-right in Europe is the social and economic situation and the grievances that are there.

And reinvesting at a significant level in the military apparatus is automatically going to mean diverting resources from certain areas of government expenditure, and those are of great concern to Europeans letter than those that are not in favor of an increase of militarization there, too.

So I think there's a broader kind of diplomatic reflection taking place. And the challenge is then balancing that with a domestic electorate that ultimately weighs in on the future parameters of government in those independent countries. Ben.

HUNTE: What sounds super complicated, doesn't it? Wow. What is going to happen next? Dominic Thomas, thanks for joining us. Appreciate it.

THOMAS: Thank you.

HUNTE: President Donald Trump's effort to end birthright citizenship in the U.S. has hit a legal wall.

A federal judge has issued a new nationwide block against the order, saying the move's constitutionality is, quote, highly questionable. CNN's Crime and Justice Katelyn Polantz gets us up to speed.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KATELYN POLANTZ, CNN CRIME AND JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: A federal judge in New Hampshire on Thursday said he had no issue putting in place an order that blocked the Trump administration carrying out its policy on birthright citizenship. Specifically, President Donald Trump wanted to end that longstanding practice of giving citizenship to babies born on American soil, even if they're born to immigrants who are not the country legally or only temporarily.

The judge in New Hampshire, this is the latest of many judges who have said that this executive order on birthright citizenship to end it appears to be unconstitutional and that babies born in the U.S. in this case, after February 20th of 2025 this year, those babies should be getting citizenship. The judge, Joseph Laplant, he looked at what the Trump administration did and said it had been done very fast. There was no input from Congress.

There was public debate as a precursor to issuing this executive order, and that ultimately he's blocking the policy for now because it hurts a lot of people potentially if those babies do not get citizenship if they're born in the U.S. and because the policy to allow for birthright citizenship had been in place for such a long time, he called the Trump administration's approach highly questionable constitutionality.

So saying that it's very likely courts will find this to be not a sound policy legally under the U.S. constitution. Of course, this is the type of decision that is very likely to be appealed. It is being done by a U.S. District judge so the trial level. And the Trump administration has some days to appeal this before the judge's order goes into place.

So far, the Supreme Court has already given direction on this once, saying in what the Trump administration called a win for them, saying just a couple weeks ago at the end of their term that you can't have trial judges just striking down policies for anyone anywhere.

And so the judge in New Hampshire, when he did this on Thursday, he specified the group of people that this would apply to the babies born on February 20th of this year or later. We're going to wait and see, though, what more appeals courts have done or will be doing in the future. There's a lot more to come in this case and the Supreme Court. The U.S. Supreme Court still has not decided on whether there is any constitutional merit to the idea of ending birthright citizenship or if it should be a right given to babies born in the United States.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HUNTE: The U.S. President is threatening steep new tariffs for Canada. He said goods imported from the United States northern neighbor could face a 35 percent across the board tariff. That would be a dramatic escalation in the country's ongoing trade war.

Canada is third largest exporter of goods to the US. This latest threat comes after Donald Trump sent a flurry of letters to world leaders promising even more tariffs by August 1st.

Israel launches a new strike near a clinic in Gaza while patients were waiting in line to get medical care. The horrific aftermath and the plea from families who lost their loved ones.

Plus, hours before floods devastated Central Texas, one firefighter tried to alert residents. We'll have all of the details ahead on CNN.

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HUNTE: After 20 months of brutal fighting, Israel's prime minister says his government is ready to talk about a permanent peace in Gaza. He made a statement on the final day of his visit to Washington on Thursday.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BENJAMIN NETANYAHU, ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER (through translator): At the beginning of this ceasefire, we will enter negotiations for a permanent end of the war, meaning a permanent ceasefire. If it can't be achieved in 60 days of talks, we'll achieve it by other means, by using the power of our heroic army.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

However, Benjamin Netanyahu made it clear Israel is not backing away from its original demands for Hamas must be disarmed and removed from political power in Gaza.

[01:20:09]

The militant group has been demanding assurances that its ongoing truce talks with Israel would lead to negotiations about a permanent end of the war. But Hamas still accuses Mr. Netanyahu of placing obstacles in the way of a ceasefire deal.

Despite the prospect of a truce, the daily struggle to survive in Gaza remains intense. Palestinian authorities say 15 people were killed in an Israeli strike outside a U.S. run medical facility on Thursday. The majority of victims were children who were reportedly waiting in line to receive medical care. CNN's Jeremy Diamond has the story. And I'm going to warn you again, the images you're about to see are very graphic and difficult to watch.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN JERUSALEM CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Children's screams pierce through the smoke filled air in central Gaza. But screams alone cannot prepare you for the scale of the carnage unleashed by this Israeli airstrike. This street is filled with the bodies of dead and injured children whose bodies are quickly loaded onto donkey carts.

And then there are those barely clinging to life, like this woman splayed on the ground. They took my daughter, she says. Her daughter's fate has already been sealed. In her blood stained white dress, four year old Aya is one of eight children killed in this strike.

Aya and her mother were among several families waiting to enter a health clinic run by Project Hope, an American nonprofit whose operations were known to the Israeli military. In her white dress, Aya is impossible to miss. Minutes later, two men walk by the clinic and then an explosion fills the air.

That smoke is soon replaced by an outpouring of grief. Not my sister. No, not my sister. This boy cries. The Israeli military said it regrets any harm to uninvolved individuals and is reviewing the incident. It said it was targeting a Hamas militant who infiltrated Israel during the October 7 attacks, but declined to provide his name.

These four children killed in the targeting of a single militant do have names. Amir, Mohammed, Yasmin and Aya, still in her blood stained dress. Mohammed, wearing a makeshift plastic diaper, is a testament to the desperate circumstances that brought his family to that clinic amid shortages of diaper and baby formula.

Speak to me, Amir's father pleads, hugging his son's lifeless body. His brother Nidal joins him in mourning. But he hasn't just lost a nephew. His 14-year-old daughter, Sama was also killed.

What happened is indescribable. It's a massacre. It's genocide. It's a crime against children, Nidal says. My daughter woke up with a headache and went to get checked at the clinic. Suddenly, we heard the sound and came running to see all the children dead.

Sama's twin sister is inconsolable. Please wake her up. She is lying. I know her. I swear she's lying. As one sister mourns another, a father pleads for it all to end. Sama is gone and the war is still ongoing. Nidal says, may the war be gone with Sama. Jeremy Diamond, CNN, Jerusalem.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HUNTE: World leaders meet to discuss how to help Ukraine now as it fights Russia and how to rebuild the country once the fighting stops. Just ahead, we'll speak to an activist pushing for a green economy in post-war Ukraine.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) [01:29:23]

HUNTE: Welcome back. U.S. and European leaders are meeting in Rome on Friday for the second day of the Ukraine Recovery Conference. They're discovering ways to help Ukraine's war effort and to rebuild the country once the fighting stops. CNN senior international correspondent Ben Wedeman has more.

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BEN WEDEMAN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIOANL CORRESPONDENT: The conference in Rome has been an opportunity for European leaders to stress their role in supporting Ukraine after almost six months of sometimes erratic U.S. policy toward the embattled nation.

[01:30:00]

European Commission President Ursula Von Der Leyen stressed that Europe has been and will continue to be, the largest donor to Ukraine.

While Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk stressed the importance of supporting the Ukrainian war effort, saying that there will be no recovery without victory.

"We are here to discuss how to help Ukraine, not only to survive but to win and to rise again."

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said she expected that the conference will raise more than 10 billion euro or more than $12 billion in investment for post-war Ukraine. It has been estimated that the postwar reconstruction effort will cost more than half a trillion dollars.

Speaking to reporters in Rome, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Zelenskyy was, not surprisingly, more focused on the situation now in Ukraine where two nights of intense Russian drone attacks have shaken already frayed nerves.

He said he's hoping the U.S. and the Europeans will work to ensure and increase the supply of Patriot anti-missile systems and strengthen sanctions against Russia.

Both of these seem to be more likely now that President Donald Trump appears to be losing patience with his Russian counterpart.

I'm Ben Wedeman, CNN -- reporting from Rome.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BEN HUNTE, CNN ANCHOR: Let's dig deeper now with Viktoriya Ball. She's the co-founder and co-lead of Rozviy, a community of young women advocating for a green economy in Ukraine. And she's joining me live from Rome.

Viktoriya, thank you so much for being with me. How are you doing?

VIKTORIYA BALL, CO-FOUNDER & CO-LEAD, ROZVIY: Hello. I'm doing great. Thank you.

HUNTE: And it's so great to have you here.

So Viktoriya, your movement connects climate justice with Ukraine's fight for democracy. But the country is literally at war. Can you just break down for me why a green economy should be prioritized in Ukraine at this moment?

BALL: Yes, of course. So actually, we're here at Ukraine recovery conference in Rome with my team to essentially show that the -- and remind world leaders especially from Europe, that this unprovoked Russian aggression has been funded by millions of euros that (INAUDIBLE) Russian fossil fuels and this has been through imports to Europe, but also through Europe. And this is a direct betrayal of Europe's own climate promises, because it's the funding that's going towards genocide.

It's going also towards ecocide -- the complete obliteration of Ukraine's ecosystems like forests, rivers and unique nature that actually Europe also relies for its own climate stability.

And the shocking thing is the E.U. has paid Russia around US$ 105.6 billion for their gas imports, and that's just gas since the start of the full-scale invasion in 2022, which is equivalent to 75 percent of Russian -- the Russian military budget.

And what we're calling for is for Europe to break up with Russia's gas, break up with Russia's fossil fuels and invest in a green and fair recovery for those who are holding the front lines of the resistance to a brutal and oppressive authoritarian dictatorship that has -- that is committing all of these war crimes on our land.

And it's really important because Ukraine's recovery is already ongoing during war. Essentially, Ukrainians have very -- in their resilience, they have come back to de-occupied towns to come back and rebuild, for example, energy infrastructure, to demine fields so that farmers can continue working and supplying us food.

[01:34:34]

BALL: Also, just like especially in terms of energy infrastructure, there's a trend that increasingly we're rebuilding with renewable energy, which is allowing us to completely decouple from this fossil fuel dependency that's associated with anti-democratic regimes.

HUNTE: Yes.

BALL: And we need to continue investing in these efforts instead of fossil fuels.

HUNTE: I mean, you spoke there about the hypocrisy of Europe funding its climate promises while still buying Russian fossil fuels. How do you think that's undermining both Ukraine's fight and Europe's credibility too?

BALL: Yes. So essentially, Ukraine's recent history can teach us a lot about how to practice democracy and stand against authoritarianism. And Europe claims to be standing up against autocracy and this sort of increasingly -- increasing wave of pro-authoritarians in politics across the world.

But -- and we can see how that's also escalated in the United States with the increasing sort of institutional distrust towards civil society since Donald Trump has come up into office.

And what Ukraine has been doing for the last 11 years, since actually Russia first invaded in 2014, is resisting an authoritarian regime in order to protect essentially our country's sovereignty, but also existence at all.

And Ukraine is part of Europe. It's already aligning with Europe in terms of policy through Europe, joining the E.U. But and in defense, but also Ukrainians and like our country aligns with Europe in terms of values of liberty, justice and democracy.

And it's really important that we need to continue not just speaking about these values, but putting them into practice every day in the defense of basic human rights.

And this starts with both defending Ukraine as sort of the frontline of this resistance through the aid that's coming in for defense, because like, for example, every single day, my friends are living through horrific aerial attacks by Russia, even on Kyiv, which is far away from the front lines and they're not getting any sleep. They are not able to -- well, I mean, it's horrifying the war crimes that Russia is committing.

But also in Ukraine, like what gives us hope at the moment is not just the foreign aid, but also what people in our country are already doing on the ground in communities, which is starting with a sustainable recovery, which is allowing us --

HUNTE: Yes.

BALL: -- to build back better in more independently from these undemocratic leaders and billionaires who are more interested in fossil fuel profits instead of, you know, democracy and sustainability.

HUNTE: Well, it is good to hear that there is some hope there amongst you and your friends as well.

So thank you for your time. We appreciate it. Viktoriya Ball in Rome.

BALL: Thank you so much.

HUNTE: Russia's foreign minister is expected to arrive in North Korea on Friday. His three-day trip comes as North Korea plays a growing role in Russia's war on Ukraine.

CNN's Will Ripley has more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) WILL RIPLEY, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: He's one of Moscow's most powerful men and he's certainly been spending a lot of time in Pyongyang lately.

Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov due back in North Korea for the third time since October, 2023. North Korean and Russian state media reporting three days of talks.

Lavrov will almost certainly meet with his counterpart, North Korean foreign minister Choe Son Hui. It's possible he could also meet with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.

This trip comes at a crucial time. CNN obtained Western and Ukrainian intelligence suggesting that North Korea may soon send up to 30,000 additional troops to fight alongside Russian forces in Ukraine. That's on top of the estimated 11,000 already deployed last year.

Satellite images show cargo planes and troop transport ships moving between North Korea and Russia, hinting at major military logistics underway.

Also, suggestions Russian generals have been inside North Korea helping train Kim's forces. And training manuals from Pyongyang are now being translated into Russian, proof of increasing battlefield integration.

On the ground in Kursk, North Korean soldiers are reportedly living in dugouts eating Korean food, fighting and dying alongside Russian troops. Western officials estimate thousands have already been killed or wounded.

This weekend's visit may formalize even deeper cooperation, and that has the potential to reshape not just the Ukraine war, but the entire security dynamic here in Asia.

[01:39:49]

RIPLEY: China is not saying anything publicly, but here's something interesting. North Korea is welcoming plenty of Russian tour groups, but not a single Chinese tourist has been allowed back in since COVID.

Some see that as a sign of simmering tensions between Pyongyang and Beijing, as North Korea is pulled deeper and deeper into Russia's war.

Will Ripley, CNN -- Taipei.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HUNTE: New dispatch audio recordings reveal how one emergency responder tried to save lives just hours before the flooding disaster in central Texas.

Plus, the latest on the grim search to recover more victims.

[01:40:25]

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(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Is there any way we can send a Code Red out to our Hunt residents, asking them to find higher ground or stay home?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: 10-4, standby. We have to get that approved with our supervisor.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNTE: That was an audio recording of a volunteer firefighter in Texas that was shared with CNN.

He was asking that an alert be sent out to warn residents in the small community of Hunt about the surging floodwaters. It took nearly six hours before some residents got that alert.

President Donald Trump and the first lady will head to Kerrville, Texas on Friday to survey the damage. On Thursday, the death toll rose to 121.

CNN's Ed Lavandera has more on the increasingly difficult search for victims.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ED LAVANDERA, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Passing through the gates of the Last Gap Ranch in Center Point, Texas volunteer firefighter Razor Dobbs takes us to the edge of a sunflower field, the beauty eclipsed by heartbreak.

RAZOR DOBBS, VOLUNTEER FIREFIGHTER: Yes, there's been a lot of victims in this area right here.

LAVANDERA: And this is a place that's home to you.

DOBBS: This river is this whole community's home. This river is like the backbone. This river is where -- people that grew up on this river. And their kids are growing up on this river.

LAVANDERA: This is the story of one spot along the Guadalupe River and the monumental task of finding the missing.

DOBBS: This is -- this is a pinprick. This is a little bitty, one frame of a whole movie of equipment, right? I mean this operation right here is going for 30 miles plus.

LAVANDERA: All the way back to Camp Mystic.

DOBBS: Yes. And so it is crazy.

LAVANDERA: Heavy machinery has taken over the banks of the Guadalupe River. Makeshift roads have been carved into the river's edge to haul out mountains of debris. DOBBS: This whole area right here was a huge debris field. It was full

of not only, you know. Natural debris, but it was full of, you know, remnants of RVs, houses, boats, you know, just names so which triggers the search and rescue people that ok, this is a hotbed.

LAVANDERA: Razor can't say how many bodies have been found along this tiny stretch of the river. But every day since the July 4th flood, he says, search teams have uncovered victims here.

This spot is about 30 miles down river from Camp Mystic, the discoveries uncovered here have shocked him.

What kind of debris have you guys found down here as well?

DOBBS: Well, we've -- we found signage from camp part of the hills. That's up there by Camp Mystic. That's 30 miles away.

LAVANDERA: It's staggering.

DOBBS: That's staggering. That's the power of this -- of this river.

LAVANDERA: This is what the search crews are having to navigate their way through these massive cypress trees that have been ripped out of the ground. All of this was well under water here.

And there's so much debris even up in the trees. You can see how high the water reached here -- probably reached a little bit higher than that. And crews here, when they see something that have to be concerned that there could be someone in that debris pile still high up in a tree.

Navigating our way through the riverbed, we came across a group of volunteers trudging through terrain. A group of strangers who have come together to help.

REX CASHION, VOLUNTEER: We just all had that one common goal of helping the community and helping fellow Texans.

LAVANDERA: One week into this tragedy and there's an outpouring of gratitude for the volunteers and emergency teams working along the river.

As you sit here and you watch this operation and it's heroic on so many levels. But do you think it's possible that there are some families who are just not going to get their loved ones back?

DOBBS: You know? Right now, I'm not even going to think about that. You know, right now, my mentality and our mentality thing is we're bringing people home and that's it.

LAVANDERA: For seven days, Razor Dobbs and his fellow Center Point volunteer firefighters have worked around the clock.

As we navigated the debris field, he seemed frozen for a moment. A few weeks earlier, he enjoyed a picnic in this spot with his wife and friends. Does it hit you pretty hard?

DOBBS: Just still numb. I'm still in work mode. But it -- it's you know, it's filtering in. You know, my wife came down and from the house and just looked and she just started crying because -- not at the destruction of the property.

[01:49:54]

DOBBS: This is going to grow back. But just the horror and the anguish that these families must feel. Number one, they're -- the powerless -- the powerlessness they must feel.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HUNTE: Much more ahead, stay with CNN.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HUNTE: The original Birkin bag has been sold at auction, fetching the equivalent of around $10 million.

The iconic black Birkin was the first handbag to be created by fashion house Hermes for the British actor and singer Jane Birkin.

In addition to being iconic fashion accessories, Birkin bags have also proved to be wise investments with their value outpacing both the S&P 500 and the price of gold.

Elliot Rentz, better known as Alexis Stone, has become one of the world's most famous impersonators. His uncanny impersonations regularly tricked the press and public.

CNN's Anna Cooban got an inside look at how Rentz transforms into some of the world's most well-known people and characters.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ELLIOT RENTZ, CELEBRITY IMPERSONATOR ALEXIS STONE: The guest bathroom always makes people smile. We have Madonna, Meryl Streep, a very sad- looking Lana Del Rey.

ANNA COOBAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: This is the work of transformative makeup artist Elliot Rentz, better known as Alexis Stone, or any number of the hundreds of celebrities he's impersonated.

RENTZ: I think there was 250 we did before we moved on to the 2.0 version of these transformations.

People have an idea that we sort of go to a Halloween shop, and we buy these things over the counter, but everything is handmade and takes decades of experience.

COOBAN: Working with a team, he takes the discipline of movie makeup and prosthetics into the real world, collaborating with fashion houses and celebrities. Although he's perhaps best known for his ongoing partnership with Balenciaga's creative director known only as Demna, whose couture show will be his last collection for the brand.

At his home and studio in Scotland, Rentz showed us what goes into his shapeshifting practice.

RENTZ: I do have to warn people before they come over because out of context, it is a little Jeffrey Dahmer, but it's really important for me to be surrounded by things that visually stimulate me.

Work experiences or muses? We have me as Cruella De Vil. This is the wig that Glenn Close wore in her original makeup test. I got to keep little remnants of it, pieces of her costume.

If we can unlock some of the props from the films, I like to do that just because if I can submerge myself as close to what they were around, it's only going to lean into a better performance from my end.

Even for example, with Jack Nicholson, we worked on having a fragrance made that was just pure tobacco. So when we were walking around, the whole room just ended up stinking.

It's normally like an "FBI's Most Wanted" in terms of visuals on the wall here. This is basically a sculpting block. We would do an initial sculpt of the makeup. We would take those pieces off and then transfer them onto separate molds.

It's almost like a factory in here. I have everything I could potentially need.

And then we have the little museum of artifacts. So this was the plastic surgery mask that I wore when I convinced everyone that I got a new face.

[01:54:50]

RENTZ: That got the attention of Demna and all of these other fashion houses. We have dental impressions from Robin Williams. We wanted to make sure that we had as close to the original.

I do have a deep connection to Robin. Yes, "Doubtfire" was my first transformation, and it was sort of an apology to myself. I got diagnosed with autism during COVID and I thought, I'm not going to suppress these weird urges that I want to do anymore, and I'm going to spend all my money on dressing up as Mrs. Doubtfire.

Balenciaga was the first brand, and from that, my life literally changed.

This was me as Jennifer Coolidge in Milan for Diesel. We did Lana Del Rey for Jean Paul Gaultier.

It's so uncomfortable in the moment, but when I get to reflect on the visuals like this, it makes it so worth it. Everyone sort of like figuring out at their own sort of pace what's going on. You get to literally see it from an outsiders point of view, looking in.

I think when it comes to picking who we're going to do, there are lots of moving factors. There has to be some personal element to why I'm connected to that character.

If I'm spending three months studying them with the fashion houses, it also needs to make sense as well.

So this summer I'm transforming into Anjelica Huston as Morticia Addams in "The Addams Family". When you're a young gay guy, you do empathize with the sort of misunderstood characters, whether its these villains or just beautiful women.

These are the original polaroids from the Anjelica Huston makeup test for referencing, really and just to set the tone. But we'll also have access to the original wig that she wore in the film.

I'm often asked, what's next? What happens after Balenciaga? I do always think of that Linda Evangelista quote, where she said, "The goal is to get out of fashion as quickly as you got into fashion."

I will pull this table ajar though, so you can see what's inside. I think we've all, at some time in our lives, wanted to be a fly on the wall at our own funeral, and I also thought it was symbolic now that my relationship with Balenciaga is coming to a natural end.

So yes, it's cute, right?

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HUNTE: And that's all I've got for you. I'm Ben Hunte in Atlanta. Thanks for joining me and the team. We hope you have a great rest of your day.

I'll see you tomorrow.

But of course, you can get more CNN NEWSROOM with Kim Brunhuber after a quick break.

See you in a bit.

[01:57:16]

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