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Israel Ready for Possible Ceasefire; Trump Threatens 50 Percent Tariffs to Brazil; Half a Million Afghans Expelled from Iran; Famous Hippo Turns One Year Old. Aired 3-4a ET
Aired July 11, 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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KIM BRUNHUBER, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, and welcome to all of you watching us around the world. I'm Kim Brunhuber. This is "CNN Newsroom."
The U.S. will send more badly needed weapons to Ukraine. Ahead, how they'll get there and who will foot the bill.
Israel says it's ready for a ceasefire with Hamas, but the Israeli Prime Minister is sticking to his demand that Hamas be disarmed.
And we'll hear newly released audio from a first responder trying to save lives in the Texas floods.
UNKNOWN (voice-over): Live from Atlanta, this is "CNN Newsroom" with Kim Brunhuber.
BRUNHUBER: U.S. President Donald Trump says he's made a deal with NATO to get weapons to Ukraine. It comes after Secretary of State Marco Rubio met with the Russian foreign minister and said that the U.S. is actively talking to European countries about sharing Patriot batteries with Ukraine.
Kyiv continues to fend off nonstop Russian attacks. A new U.N. report shows that June saw the highest number of civilians killed or injured in Ukraine in three years.
But Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says that all signals point toward the United States resuming its aid to Ukraine. He made those comments while speaking at the Ukraine Recovery Conference happening now in Rome. Here he is.
(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)
BRUNHUBER: CNN's Alayna Treene is following the developments from the White House.
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ALAYNA TREENE, CNN WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: 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 a hundred percent." He went on to say we're going to be sending Patriots to NATO and the 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 am 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 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. It's 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)
BRUNHUBER: I want to bring in Alexander Baunov, senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, and he joins us from Berlin. Thanks so much for being here with us.
So in terms of President Trump, I mean, we've seen this huge pivot here going from praising Putin's smarts and strength to calling his offers B.S. Trump may finally be realizing that Putin's been stringing him along on Ukraine. But has Putin now pushed Trump too hard right into the arms of Zelenskyy? Has there been a strategic miscalculation here?
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ALEXANDER BAUNOV, SR. FELLOW, CARNEGIE FELLOW FOR INTERNATIONAL PEACE: As far as I see, there is an anxiety in the Kremlin. They don't want to lose President Trump, but they cannot stop or don't want to stop the war right now. They have invested too much in this war and the idea of the victory.
So basically what they are doing with President Trump, they are trying to separate the relations between the United States and Russia -- and Russia's war against Ukraine. Somehow they are even training President Trump to get used to the idea that you can negotiate -- I mean, Russia can negotiate peace with Ukraine and the war can still continue.
BRUNHUBER: The idea of training President Trump is interesting in terms of President Trump and how he's responding to all of this. I mean, we heard from a reporter there that he's promising a major statement on Russia on Monday. If this kind of continues, what are the risks of these two alpha males sort of getting locked into a cycle of escalation here?
BAUNOV: It's not impossible. And again, in the Kremlin, I think they are anxious about this, if not Putin himself, some more rational groups of -- in the Russian elite. There was a sign during this meeting in Kuala Lumpur between the state secretary and Russian minister of foreign affairs. Marco Rubio said that Minister Lavrov has brought some new ideas and
new proposals, but nobody disclosed what it was about. And the reports by Rubio and by Lavrov are very different as usual.
BRUNHUBER: So what do you think? I mean, we've kind of seen this movie before. Do you think Russia's just kind of playing for time here?
BAUNOV: Yes, certainly. And if you see the Rubio's report, the Ukrainian topic Ukraine is in the very center, according to Rubio, it was in the very center of these talks between him and Lavrov.
If you go to the Russian report -- Russian report is about everything, we talked about everything. We talked about, well, Middle East, Iran, trade. I don't know, even re-establishing called direct flights, which is it sounds very strange nowadays context.
It's again, it's an attempt to trade Russian help in global things for maybe less attention from the U.S. side towards Russian war against Ukraine. But I see, again, the signs that the new American administration is getting tired of this approach. So maybe we will see some new steps from both sides.
BRUNHUBER: In terms of the concrete effects then of all of this, with the U.S. sending now more weapons to Ukraine, even with Trump's apparent change of heart, it seems unlikely that the Trump administration will sort of match what we've seen from the Biden administration sending tens of billions of dollars of weapons to Ukraine. But in terms of changing the momentum of the war, how important could this be?
BAUNOV: It could be very important. Of course, it depends on the quantity and the quality of the arms. But we see that simultaneously with the signs of President Trump's disappointment and the Russian stance, we see the increased bombings of Kyiv.
Kyiv was protected quite well. The Ukrainian capital was protected quite well before that. Now we see even increasing bombings of Kyiv.
And as I said, it's from one side, kind of training President Trump to get used to these pictures of Ukrainian cities bombed. And from the other side, they are bringing him to this choice or you see your helplessness, or you help us to achieve peace on the Russian conditions, or to include Russian conditions as the future peace deal.
Otherwise, what is the choice? To continue to help Ukraine in increasingly big numbers of money, arms and so on, and then to follow the line of the previous administration that was so much criticized by President Trump. It's kind of this game of, I don't know, scaring, I would say, the American administration.
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BRUNHUBER: Interesting.
BAUNOV: Intimidating it.
BRUNHUBER: I always appreciate getting your analysis of these affairs. Alexander Baunov, thank you so much.
BAUNOV: Thank you.
BRUNHUBER: 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 the statement on the final day of his visit to Washington on Thursday. Here he is.
(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) BRUNHUBER: Benjamin Netanyahu is making it clear Israel isn't backing away from its original demands that Hamas has to be disarmed and removed from political power in Gaza. 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 Netanyahu of placing obstacles in the way of a ceasefire deal.
Now, despite the prospect of a truce, the daily struggle to survive in Gaza remains intense. Palestinian authorities say at least 15 people were killed in an Israeli strike outside a U.S.-run medical facility on Thursday.
CNN's Jeremy Diamond has the story, but we just have to warn you, the images you're about to see are extremely graphic and very difficult to watch.
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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 non-profit 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, quote, "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 7th attacks, but declined to provide his name.
These four children killed in the targeting of a single militant do have names: Amir, Mohamed, Yasmin and Aya, still in her blood-stained dress.
Mohamed, 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's 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)
BRUNHUBER: New dispatch audio recordings reveal how one emergency responder tried to save lives hours before the flooding disaster in central Texas. We'll have the details, plus the latest on the search for flood victims amid the debris around the Guadalupe River. Stay with CNN.
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UNKNOWN: Is there any way we can send a CodeRED out to our hunt residents asking them to find higher ground or stay home?
UNKNOWN: 10-4 stand by, we have to get that approved with our supervisor.
(END AUDIO CLIP)
BRUNHUBER: Alright, 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.
On Thursday, the death toll rose to 121. At least 150 people are reported missing in Kerr County alone where the river begins. And Governor Greg Abbott asked that more counties be added to the president's major disaster declaration.
CNN's Isabel Rosales is in Center Point, Texas with more on the arduous search for victims.
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(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) ISABEL ROSALES, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): A hit from a cadaver dog.
ROSALES: So you're thinking that there could be remains in there?
JORDY MARKS, OWNER, L.A. DRONE SERVICES: Yes, ma'am. Possibly.
ROSALES (voice-over): Sends Jordy Marks and his team into action.
The private drone company owner launching a surveillance drone over the Guadalupe River to aid the Cajun Navy and first responders in their search.
MARKS: We just heard a dog get a hit. So I'm going to scan that area and make sure, you know, just make sure there's nothing there.
ROSALES (voice-over): With more than 2000 emergency workers on the ground, the search for the missing intensifying. Nearly a week after floods devastated this idyllic part of central Texas.
MARKS: What I'm looking for is anything that's different in the water. Anything that stands out in the water. I'm going to zoom in that area.
ROSALES (voice-over): It took days for the drones to get authorization to join the search after a private drone operating in the restricted airspace over the flood area struck an emergency helicopter on Monday. It was forced to make an emergency landing and all drones were grounded from what has proven to be a challenging search. For the second day in a row, there remains at least 160 people still missing.
MARKS: The current was so strong. I think they took people and put them underneath the debris and the people just trapped in the debris. And while the water is receding, then we're going to start seeing more people.
ROSALES (voice-over): Now they join teams continuing their search in the water and on the ground.
Heavy machinery doing the heavy lifting, flipping over river swept vehicles. FEMA task forces now on site, setting up command along the Guadalupe River. Search crews waiting its waters, moving debris piece by piece.
Cadaver dogs actively scanning miles of riverbanks. Helicopters assisting overhead while ambulances wait on site. All in the grim search for victims of the flood.
RYAN LOGUE, DEPUTY INCIDENT COMMANDER, UNITED CAJUN NAVY: The efforts get more complicated by the day. We covered a lot of area, but now it's the detailed work of getting through all this debris and destruction and making sure that we find every last victim.
ROSALES (voice-over): Isabel Rosales, CNN, Center Point, Texas.
(END VIDEOTAPE) BRUNHUBER: President Donald Trump will head to Kerrville, Texas, in the hours ahead to survey the aftermath. It comes as his administration pushes back on suggestions that its policies weaken the government defenses against disaster threats.
I want to bring in Ron Brownstein, who is CNN's senior political analyst and Bloomberg opinion columnist. He joins us now from Los Angeles.
Ron, so after what we just saw in that piece there, it may seem a bit crass to talk about the politics of this disaster when so many people are still searching for loved ones, residents there are still in the early stages of recovery. But that is the reality, there are often real political calculations being made in the wake of disasters like this, we've seen both sides immediately point fingers, liberals blaming DOGE cuts, and Trump initially suggesting Biden was somehow responsible.
So politically for Trump, when he goes to Texas, what's at stake here?
RON BROWNSTEIN, CNN SR. POLITICAL ANALYST, AND OPINION COLUMNIST, BLOOMBERG: Well, you know, protecting the population at moments of crisis is the first job of government at every level. And, you know, it's really more than politics, Kim. It's really about policies that either increase or reduce our risk to these kinds of tragedies.
Now, you know, we have -- watching this, I feel this sense of deja vu about the aftermath of the wildfires in Los Angeles earlier this year when there were all sorts of questions about whether the response was sufficient on every front. But the underlying issue really is not being discussed enough and is inescapable, which is that these kinds of mass, you know, weather-related disasters are becoming more frequent.
In the last year, we've had the flooding in Asheville, the wildfires in California. Now this, events that are described as once in 100 year or even once in every thousand year events are now kind of coming, you know, tumbling after each other. And really, I think, until we are willing to address the underlying issue that we are changing the climate, we are going to be running after these kinds of aftermaths more and more.
BRUNHUBER: Yes, that seems unlikely, frankly, with this administration, given their policies so far.
I want to pick up on something you said, and that was that Trump seems to have approached disasters very differently in red versus blue states, as you pointed out there. He was very critical of California's wildfire response, but seems to be showing solidarity with Texas. It seems like quite a partisan approach to disaster management from a President.
BROWNSTEIN: Yes, and it really fits in with a larger kind of structure of his presidency.
[03:25:01] You know, I said in his first term, I think it's more true in his second term that he governs as a wartime president with blue America, rather than any foreign adversary as the enemy. I mean, you know, look what we have seen in Los Angeles with the deployment of not only the National Guard, but also the Marines, and then not only their use to guard federal buildings, but to accompany ICE on raids.
They were armored, you know, military vehicles and National Guard troops in full combat regalia sent basically to occupy a public park in Los Angeles, in a major American city this week. And that obviously is very different than the tone and tenor and the actions toward Texas.
So yes, I mean, I do not think that Trump, you know, consistently Trump does not behave as if he sees himself as the president of the whole country. He views himself primarily as the President of Red America. And again, you know, the bigger issue is there really is no way to respond to this pace and magnitude of natural disasters that we are experiencing.
There's always going to be inadequacies in the response. The larger issue is, are we willing to confront? And as you say, so far, this administration is not the underlying reality that we are facing more and more.
BRUNHUBER: Yes, finally, you know, you want to talk about policies here. We're learning that the new Trump administration spending approval requirements possibly delayed FEMA's prepositioning of search and rescue teams by over 72 hours. Trump officials are now doubling down on plans to eliminate FEMA, even as this, you know, recovery is still ongoing.
I mean, it seems a bit incongruous, visiting a disaster site while at the same time proposing to dismantle the federal agency responding to it. I mean, could Republicans pay a political price for this approach?
BROWNSTEIN: Yes, I think some. But, you know, ultimately, this has not been, you know, a first tier issue compared to the economy and so forth for voters. I mean, just think about what we've been talking about.
The pace and intensity of billion dollar disasters is accelerating without question. The administration is dismantling the infrastructure to kind of track them, predict them, respond to them. And as we're saying in terms of climate, you know, in the long run, prevent them.
It's just utterly incongruous. It's a form of unilateral disarmament in the face of what is clearly a growing threat to, you know, kind of the rhythms of life in America. These kinds of disasters are becoming routine in a very scary way.
And as I like to say, climate change doesn't care if we believe in it or not. It is coming, it is here. We are seeing the effects all the time.
And to be dismantling our systems both to anticipate and respond to these kinds of challenges at this moment is a really profound act that I think is not getting enough discussion even as we go through, you know, the debate about whether the response is sufficient on each one of these disastrous events.
BRUNHUBER: Have to leave it there, I really appreciate it. Ron Brownstein in Los Angeles, thanks so much.
BROWNSTEIN: Thanks for having me.
BRUNHUBER: New day, new tariff threats from the White House. We have details on the U.S. President's latest move in his trade war with Canada.
And President Trump is also pushing for new tariffs on Brazil. But this time, it's not all about trade. We'll explain after the break, stay with us.
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BRUNHUBER: Welcome back to all of you watching us around the world, I'm Kim Brunhuber. This is "CNN Newsroom." Let's check today's top stories.
U.S. President Donald Trump says he struck a deal with NATO to send weapons to Ukraine through the alliance. He told NBC that NATO will pay for those weapons. It comes after the U.S. State Department said it strongly condemns Russia's escalating attacks on Ukraine.
Israel's Prime Minister says his country is ready to start talking about a permanent end to the war in Gaza. But Benjamin Netanyahu says Israel will only enter those negotiations if the ongoing ceasefire talks in Qatar lead to a truce. Hamas has been demanding assurances about a permanent end to hostilities.
In the coming hours, President Trump will survey the damage from the devastating floods that swept through central Texas last week. The death toll rose to 121 on Thursday, and more than 160 people are still missing. The Texas governor has asked to add more counties to the president's major disaster declaration.
The U.S. President is threatening steep new tariffs for Canada. Donald Trump posted a letter he sent to the prime minister on his Truth Social website.
It says, quote, "if for any reason you decide to raise your tariffs, then whatever the number you choose to raise them by will be added on to the 35 percent that we charge."
[03:35:05]
That would be a dramatic escalation in the country's ongoing trade war. Canada is the third largest exporter of goods to the U.S. Trump also sent letters to world leaders promising even more tariffs by August 1st.
Former U.S. Vice President Mike Pence is weighing in on Donald Trump's trade war. Pence was governor of Indiana before serving in the first Trump administration. He's a longtime critic of tariffs, saying they're basically a tax that hurts businesses and consumers.
Pence says Congress should use its authority to check the president's tariff powers. Here he is.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MIKE PENCE (R), FORMER U.S. VICE PRESIDENT: I saw Secretary Bessent speaking very glowingly about the projection is $300 billion in tariff revenue this year. Well, tariffs are a tax and American importers and businesses and ultimately consumers pay almost all of that. The administration is right now boasting of the fact that the average American household is going to see about three thousand dollars increase in the cost of goods because we're paying that.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BRUNHUBER: President Trump is also threatening to levy a 50 percent tariff on Brazil, but for very different reasons. CNN's Isa Soares explains.
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ISA SOARES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: President Trump is using the economy as a political weapon. He's been saying that tariffs are about leveling the playing field, that there's a trade imbalance and that the United States is being ripped off by other countries.
In the case of Brazil, that is not true. President Trump yet is imposing a 50 percent tariff on the country. The reason, you ask, a court case against former President Jair Bolsonaro, a case which he says is a witch hunt in this letter and should end immediately.
So this is not about business, but about his body.
SOARES (voice-over): The two have been friends since Trump's first term.
TRUMP: Probably because of the relationship that we have, Brazil and the United States have never been closer.
SOARES (voice-over): And they've been building on that relationship ever since. In 2022, Trump supported Bolsonaro's bid for re-election.
TRUMP: So I strongly endorse President Bolsonaro. He will be your leader for hopefully a long time.
SOARES (voice-over): And even though he lost to current President Lula da Silva, Bolsonaro came out for Trump ahead of the 2024 election in the U.S., praising their exceptional relationship when he appeared at a CPAC convention.
TRUMP: President Bolsonaro, it's a great honor.
SOARES (voice-over): Now back at the White House, Trump using the weight of the office to help his buddy out. But why is Bolsonaro on trial?
Well, remember when Trump's supporters stormed the Capitol? Brazil had its own version on January the 8th, 2023.
Pro-Bolsonaro protesters broke into Congress and the presidential palace. I was there in the aftermath and I personally saw the damage the rioters had done, ransacking government buildings, destroying artefacts, including art pieces, even setting some buildings on fire.
Prosecutors say they found a connection between the riots and Brazil's former president. And earlier this year, they charged Bolsonaro, along with 33 other people, in connection with an alleged plot to overthrow the government. Those accused deny the charges.
For his part, the Brazilian leader says his country has a right to reciprocate the tariffs and has refused to get involved in Bolsonaro's court case, telling Trump to do the same.
LUIZ INACIO LULA DA SILVA, BRAZILIAN PRESIDENT (through translator): If the country has laws, this country has rules and this country has an owner, and that's the Brazilian people. So save your judgments for your own life and keep them out of ours.
SOARES (voice-over): Isa Soares, CNN, London.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BRUNHUBER: President Trump's new tariffs on Brazil could lead to a rude awakening for many Americans that will likely cause coffee prices to soar. Brazil supplies around a third of the coffee sold in the U.S. The tariffs could also cause a spike in the price of orange juice, the U.S. gets more than half of its orange juice from Brazil, and the U.S. orange crop is the lowest it's been in decades because of citrus disease, hurricanes and freezing temperatures in Florida.
U.S. State Department workers are bracing for mass firings. A top State Department official emailed staff on Thursday, telling them that job cuts are coming soon. The State Department told Congress in May that it planned to fire nearly 2000 members of the domestic workforce, that includes members of the civil and foreign service.
Sources say the cuts could begin as soon as today. There are apparently no plans for cuts at overseas posts.
[03:40:04]
President Donald Trump's efforts 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." The Constitution's 14th Amendment clearly states that citizenship is a birthright for all people born on U.S. soil. This ruling is legally significant because the Supreme Court last
month curbed the power of lower court judges to issue nationwide injunctions. It's likely the justices will rule again on this new action.
A Coast Guard official on the Greek island of Crete says the migrant crisis there has reached its worst point the past several years. Right now, hundreds of migrants are crowded into a temporary shelter and Coast Guard crews are working 72 hour shifts to rescue people in boats off the coast of Libya. The crisis has driven Greek lawmakers to vote on legislation that would pause processing asylum applications from people coming from North Africa.
A deepening civil war is creating a humanitarian crisis in Darfur, and the International Criminal Court says it believes war crimes and crimes against humanity are taking an even heavier toll.
And hundreds of thousands of Afghans are being expelled from Iran in one of the largest forced migration efforts in decades. The details on those and more stories coming up, please stay with us.
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BRUNHUBER: The International Criminal Court is warning that systemic sexual violence is being used as weapon of war in Darfur. The court's deputy prosecutor told the U.N. Security Council the ICC has reasonable grounds to believe war crimes and crimes against humanity are being committed in the region as the conflict between the Sudanese armed forces and the rapid support forces escalates.
The U.S. ambassador to the U.N. called for accountability for the genocide in Sudan, saying the rapid support forces have murdered men, boys and even infants on an ethnic basis and engaged in brutal acts of sexual violence against women and girls.
I spoke earlier with the ICC's project director for the Horn of Africa, Alan Boswell, and asked why it took the court so long to pursue claims of war crimes in Darfur. Here he is.
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ALAN BOSWELL, PROJECT DIRECTOR, HORN OF AFRICA, INTERNATIONAL CRISIS GROUP: These are not new as to why it's taken so long. I imagine it's just a bit slower moving for the ICC. But I will say it's sad because two decades the ICC has a mandate on Darfur because it was given it two decades ago.
So we're just seeing history repeat itself. It was given this mandate back in 2005. And now here we are in 2025 talking about very similar things.
BRUNHUBER: Yes. Well, speaking of history, I mean, some of the same actors involved in those previous Darfur atrocities are leading today's conflict. So how's the failure to properly hold them accountable contributed to the crisis we're seeing now?
BOSWELL: Yes, well, this is clearly a failure of attempts to have some sort of system of international justice that holds people responsible for these crimes. I think Sudan is sadly, even before this new war broke out, was a case in point. You had the Sudan's former president, Omar al-Bashir, was himself indicted at the ICC, has never faced trial and others further down the chain.
Most of them also never faced trial as well. And now we see it all repeating itself. So, I mean, I think it's well understood at this point that, you know, the system hasn't worked.
BRUNHUBER: Yes. And, you know, the result, of course, is this absolutely dire humanitarian crisis that's engulfing the country. Particularly, I want to point the spotlight at al-Fashr, which is under siege. Civilians are cut off from aid, I mean, what's it going to take to change that?
BOSWELL: Well, you have aid workers and you have some diplomats who've been who've been working over, you know, essentially the last year trying to get more supplies into al-Fashr to break what's been a very long running, mostly a siege by the Rapid Support Forces, the paramilitary force which controls most of Darfur. But they've had very little, you know, both warring sides at various points have resisted efforts to try to get a ceasefire, depending on who feels the most pressure at the time.
But it's been absolutely horrific for all the residents who are stuck in al-Fashr itself and in the surrounding areas. And you've had many communities have to try to flee through essentially a hostile paramilitary force. And the sort of accounts you get from those who have had to try to flee on foot are just truly horrific.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BRUNHUBER: Hundreds of thousands of Afghans are being expelled from Iran in one of the largest forced migration efforts in decades. According to the United Nations, over half a million Afghans have been sent back to Afghanistan. Many of these migrants have spent years in Iran which leaves them asking the question, why now?
CNN's Nick Paton Walsh has our report.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
NICK PATON WALSH, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): One of the largest forced migrations in decades, Afghan migrants pushed out of the rock of Iran and its menial, low paid labor to the hard place of Taliban, Afghanistan and the economic horrors they fled in the first place.
[03:50:00]
Half a million in just 16 days, according to U.N. figures, a peak that began at the end of the conflict with Israel and 88,000 in just 48 hours of the past weekend before a deadline to leave expired on Sunday. You can see the scale here, but not feel the heat.
MIHYUNG PARK, CHIEF OF MISSION IN AFGHANISTAN, INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATION FOR MIGRATION: There are thousands of people under the sun and you know how hot Herat can be is quite dire. Last week, it was about 400 separated, unconfident children.
PATON WALSH (voice-over): Parisa is 11, but this year was told she couldn't go back to school. We spent six years in Iran, she said, before they told us to apply for the exit letter and leave. We did have a legal census document, but they told us to leave immediately.
They're often arrested on the street and deported without a chance to collect their belongings, sometimes from years working in Iran for better wages.
Bashir is in his 20s and was removed from Tehran. First, they took about $200 from me, he says. Then they sent me to the detention center where I was kept for two nights and they forced me to pay another $50.
In the detention center, they wouldn't give us food or drinking water. There are about 200 people there. They beat us up and abuse us.
For Iran, it's a matter of pride. The music here sets the mood of how state T.V. presents the expulsions.
And Tehran police release images of the manhunt, chasing Afghans, interrogating their employers.
REPORTER (translated): Why did you hire the afghan? It's against the law.
UNKNOWN (translated): I know, but I have to pay them so they can go back. They want to go and are waiting to get paid.
PATON WALSH (voice-over): The answer to why now, why, when Iran should be recovering from a brutal 12-day conflict with Israel, would it choose to focus on undocumented laborers?
Well, there have been accusations Afghans spied for Israel, like these alleged confessions in state media. The evidence may be lacking here, but the messaging is clear.
That person contacted me and said he needed information on certain locations. He asked for them and I provided them, I got $2000 from him.
Iran decided to do this months ago, but perhaps never imagined this pace and Afghanistan, already struggling, perhaps never imagined this new challenge of return ease.
Nick Paton Walsh, CNN, London.
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BRUNHUBER: We'll be right back here on "CNN Newsroom," please stay with us.
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[03:55:07]
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BRUNHUBER: Well, that was the moment when the original Birkin bag became the most expensive handbag in history, fetching the equivalent of around 10 million U.S. dollars at auction.
The iconic black Birkin was the first handbag created by fashion house Hermes for a British actor and singer Jane Birkin. Previous bags belonged to Birkin, who died in 2023, sold at auction for hundreds of thousands of dollars. Speaking to CNN on 2020, Jane Birkin joked that the bags bearing her name had surpassed her own fame.
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JANE BIRKIN, ACTRESS AND SINGER: It was funny to come to New York and they said, oh, Birkin, like the bag? I said, yes, now the bag is going to sing.
Lou told me that people say to her, you mean you're the daughter of the bag? So I thought, oh, bless me, you know, when I'm dead, then not only is it just anyone on plume and blow up, but possibly even only talk about the bag.
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BRUNHUBER: Well, it was a history making debut at Paris's Haute Couture Week. Have a look at some of the creations from the first Syrian designer to debut a collection during fashion's biggest week. Rami al-Ali is known for his elegant evening wear.
He's dressed superstars like Beyonce and Jennifer Lopez. Al-Ali's first runway show is being called a landmark for Arab representation, he says it symbolizes hope for Syria's future.
The Wimbledon women's final is set. American Amanda Anisimova will play Poland's Iga Swiatek for the championship on Saturday.
In Thursday's first semifinal, Anisimova won a grueling match against the world's top player, Irina Sabalenka. Anisimova's victory keeps alive American hopes for a third women's Grand Slam championship this year.
Meanwhile, Swiatek cruised through her semifinal match against Belinda Bencic. Few marks, Swiatek as a potential finalist, despite being a five-time Grand Slam winner.
And finally, this hour, the world's most famous hippo is celebrating a birthday. That's right, Moo Deng, the pygmy hippo turned viral sensation, is now one year old. She and her mother were given a huge tub of tropical fruit as a birthday treat. Moo Deng's cute antics have been featured in memes and viral videos,
making her an international celebrity. Fans flocked to the zoo in Thailand to join the celebration. A cherry auction was held as part of the birthday festivities, and a cast of Mudeng's footprints sold for more than $21,000.
Thanks so much for joining me, I'm Kim Brunhuber in Atlanta. "Amanpour" is next, and then there's more news on "Early Start" with MJ Lee in about an hour.
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