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President Trump Teases Major Statement On Russia; Deadly Strikes Hit Central Gaza As Ceasefire Talks Falter; Trump Intensifies Trade War With Threat Of 30 Percent Tariffs On E.U., Mexico; Hispanic Business Suffering Amid Trump Immigration Crackdown; Slow-Moving Thunderstorms Bring More Flooding And Some Evacuations To Central Texas; Texas Pauses Rescue Operations Amid Renewed Flooding; Government Removes Reference To Bisexual People From Stonewall National Monument Web Site; Gaza's Humanitarian Crisis; Sinner Defeats Rival Alcaraz To Claime First Wimbledon Title; Europe Races To Launch Satellites In Space. Aired 1-2a ET
Aired July 14, 2025 - 01:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BEN HUNTE, CNN HOST: Hello, wherever you are in the world. You are now in the CNN Newsroom with me, Ben Hunte in Atlanta. And it is so good to have you here. Coming up on the show, U.S. President Donald Trump toughening up on Russia just hours before he's expected to deliver a major announcement about the Kremlin's relentless aggression on Ukraine.
The European Union not ready to play hardball with the U.S. in an escalating trade war, or at least not yet. The decision announced by the E.U. hours after the U.S. President threatened a massive tariff hike and Europe wants to launch its own satellites into space, we're going to be diving deeper into this new space race.
Welcome. U.S. President Donald Trump is lashing out at Russia's Vladimir Putin. It comes after Moscow hit Ukraine with escalating drone and missile attacks over the weekend.
President Trump is now teasing possible sanctions on Russia ahead of a major announcement that he's planning to make on Monday. He told reporters that he's very disappointed with Putin. The president is expected to meet with NATO's Secretary General in Washington this week. And that meeting comes just days after President Trump announced he struck a deal with the alliance to send weapons to Ukraine including Patriot missiles.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, U.S. PRESIDENT: I haven't agreed on the number yet, but they're going to have some because they do need protection, but the European Union is paying for it. We're not paying anything for it, but we will send it. It'll be business for us, and we will send them Patriots, which they desperately need.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HUNTE: CNN's Kevin Liptak has more from the White House for us.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KEVIN LIPTAK, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: As President Trump promises this big announcement on Russia to come on Monday. He is also laying out a new plan, defensive weapons systems to Ukraine, in particular those Patriot missile batteries which are so essential as Russia ups its onslaught of missiles and drones towards Ukraine.
The Patriot missile systems are the only devices that can intercept some of those Russian missiles. So they are absolutely essential to Ukraine's defense, a fact that President Trump reiterated on Sunday, saying that Ukraine will need these weapons and describing a new scheme whereby European countries will buy the Patriots from the United States and then transfer them to Ukraine.
It's a setup that will essentially insulate the president from criticism that he's going back on some of his campaign promises to pull back support for Ukraine. He says that these will be paid entirely by the Europeans and that the U.S. will benefit because they manufacture and sell these weapons to their allies in Europe.
The president says he will be discussing this with the NATO secretary general, Mark Rutte, who will be here in Washington this week. This is all appears to be driven by the president's animus, growing animus towards the Russian leader, Vladimir Putin. The president again accusing Putin of duplicity, of saying one thing and then doing another. Listen to more of what the president said.
TRUMP: I am very disappointed with President Putin. I thought he was somebody that meant what he said. And he'll talk so beautifully and then he'll bomb people at night. We don't like that.
LIPTAK: So essentially that's a less profane version of what the president said last week when he accused Putin of peddling BS. He didn't use the word BS. He actually used the curse word of saying things on the phone and then turning around and doing exactly the opposite.
And so the question, of course now is whether President Trump plans to apply new sanctions on Russia. He stopped short Sunday of saying that he would be willing to do that. But we did hear earlier in the day from the Republican and Democratic sponsors of a sanctions bill in the Senate saying that they were prepared to bring that up and they appeared confident that President Trump would eventually get on board. Kevin Liptak, CNN, the White House.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HUNTE: With Gaza ceasefire talks faltering in Doha, there's been no let up to the Israeli airstrikes. We want to warn you, viewers may find this next video disturbing. It shows a chaotic scene in a central part of the enclave. An Israeli airstrike hit a water distribution point. Gaza officials say six children were among the 10 Palestinians killed at that site on Sunday.
[01:05:00]
The Israeli military has acknowledged the strike missed its intended target, which they say was an Islamic Jihad terrorist, and fell dozens of meters away. The IDF says it's reviewing the incident. A doctor at the hospital in Nusrat describes what he witnessed after that strike.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DR. AHMED ABU SAIFAN, EMERGENCY PHYSICIAN, AL-AWDA HOSPITAL (through translator): At 9:00 a.m. were alarmed by the influx of patients after a missile hit a water distribution point. Most of the injured were children and women. We treated 17 patients, including seven children. The patients suffered from various injuries, including splinters and fractures, which were treated initially.
However, we are certainly experiencing a health crisis and a shortage of medical and health resources due to the stifling blockade on the Gaza Strip. In addition, there were eight martyrs, including six children.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HUNTE: CNN's Nada Bashir has more now from London, but first, a warning that viewers may find some of the images in Harris Port disturbing.
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NADA BASHIR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, despite days of proximity talks in Doha around a proposed 60-day ceasefire and hostage release deal, negotiations appear to have stalled yet again, with both sides accusing each other of putting up new obstacles.
On Saturday, an Egyptian source with direct knowledge of those indirect talks told CNN that negotiations were deadlocked as a result of additional demands put forward by Israel, with a senior Hamas official telling CNN that talks had faltered as a result of new conditions introduced by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, including new redeployment maps for the Israeli military in Gaza.
Those reports come after an Israeli source also told CNN last week that the key outstanding issue on the table was at that point the terms around where the Israeli military would redeploy in Gaza once the ceasefire takes effect.
But on Sunday, Netanyahu claimed Israel had accepted the latest proposal put forward by the U.S. and instead accused Hamas of rejecting the deal on the table. The Israeli prime minister is facing growing pressure at home in Israel for a deal to be struck to secure the release of the remaining hostages held captive in Gaza.
And on the ground in Gaza the humanitarian toll continues to rise, with growing international calls for an immediate end to the war as Israel's attacks on civilian areas continue. On Sunday, several children were killed in an Israeli airstrike at a water distribution point in central Gaza, according to health officials in the Strip. Distressing video from the scene showed multiple casualties amid buckets and makeshift water carriers.
The Israeli military later acknowledged the airstrike, claiming it had targeted an Islamic Jihad terrorist, but that the munitions had landed dozens of meters from the target. This attack came shortly after Gaza health Officials reported that 139 bodies were brought to Gaza's hospitals in the space of just 24 hours, with many more victims feared to be buried under the rubble of destroyed buildings. All this as families in Gaza continue to face crippling shortages of humanitarian aid and medical supplies. Nada Bashir, CNN, London.
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HUNTE: We heard earlier from Michael Allen, a former U.S. national Security Council official, about the ceasefire talks now said to be deadlocked. He weighed in on what may be holding up any further progress.
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MICHAEL ALLEN, FORMER U.S. NATIONAL SECURITY COUNCIL SENIOR DIRECTOR: What the real impasse is that Hamas only has the leverage of the hostages. And if they give those hostages up, they feel like Netanyahu will come after them. And what therefore they want out of Netanyahu is for him to forswear further use of force within Gaza. And Netanyahu, that's his red line. He says he must go in and complete the destruction of Hamas.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HUNTE: In the West Bank, a large crowd of Palestinians attended a funeral procession on Sunday for two men killed in clashes in recent days. One of those killed was a 20 year old Palestinian American man beaten to death by Israeli settlers, according to local health officials and an eyewitness. Settler violence against Palestinians has ramped up in the West Bank and Israel has increased military operations in the territory, displacing thousands of Palestinians and raising entire communities as it targets what it says are militants operating in the territory.
President Trump is threatening massive new 30 percent tariffs on products from the European Union and Mexico starting Aug. 1.
Mexico's president says she's confident her country will reach a trade agreement with the U.S. and the E.U. is delaying its trade countermeasures against the US. They were due to take effect on Monday but are now on hold until early August. So there's more time to negotiate a deal. President Trump says his tariff threats are working.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: We're dealing with other countries and certain countries that would rather have a deal than a regular tariff.
[01:10:00]
We're willing -- if they're willing to open up. These are countries that have been shut to us, but we've been open to them. In other words, they wouldn't let us do business there, but they would do business in our country. Not a fair deal.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HUNTE: Let's take a look at the U.S. stock futures to see how markets are reacting to Donald Trump's latest trade moves. We're seeing the Dow, S and P 500 and NASDAQ futures all slipping as tariff concerns mount.
President Trump's immigration crackdown is taking a toll on Hispanic businesses in the United States. Under President Biden, thousands of people from some Latin American and Caribbean countries were allowed to live and work in the U.S. for up to two years. But Donald Trump shut down that program and is forcing those workers to leave. CNN's Ione Molinares explains.
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IONE MOLINARES, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Carlos Castro opened TODOS Supermarket more than three decades ago in Woodbridge, a city in Northern Virginia just outside of Washington. But he doesn't know if celebrating now is a good idea.
CARLOS CASTRO, OWNER TODOS SUPERMARKET (through translator): This year we'll be 35 years old in July, and I want to celebrate in a big way, but I'm also afraid of making too much noise.
MOLINARES (voice-over): : He says he ran out of bakers and butchers several weeks ago. They left when President Donald Trump's administration eliminated the Biden-era humanitarian parole program positions that, according to Castro, require specific skills.
CASTRO (through translator): Great employees. I mean, that's the saddest part. Productive human beings eager to take care of their families to get ahead. They take away their visas and give them a letter with the days they have left to leave the country. And then we as a company have to cover them.
MOLINARES (voice-over): A study by the nongovernmental organization for U.S. which promotes bipartisanship, found that among the 740,000 beneficiaries of the humanitarian parole for Cubans, Venezuelans, Haitians and Nicaraguans, at least 80,000 worked in the commerce and sales sector.
Without qualified personnel, Castro's concern is twofold. The government's pressure on immigrants and the consequences his policies have on his customers personal finances, which could affect the future of his business. In fact, he is already seeing it.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): I think it's more expensive too today than it's always been. I think so, yes. Because today even eggs are more expensive than buying a chicken.
MOLINARES (voice-over): Hispanic businesses are an important source of employment. According to 2021 Census Bureau figures, they are approximately 406,000 Hispanic businesses in the US. They represent approximately 7.1 percent of employers in the country, generating about 573 billion annually and millions of new hires. For Castro things for now are not going to improve.
CASTRO (through translator): You feel proud of being an entrepreneur, of producing, creating jobs, producing wealth, having your team and having them as family. But even so, I feel that being in business, like maybe not anymore.
MOLINARES: Ione Molinares, cnn, Woodbridge, Virginia.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HUNTE: In western Ireland, a dark secret has resurfaced at the site of a so called mother and baby home. We'll have the details ahead on CNN.
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[01:17:54]
HUNTE: A team of Irish and international forensic experts are beginning a two year excavation project at a mass grave site in the Irish town of Chum. That site is believed to contain the remains of hundreds of children who died at a so called mother and baby home in Western Ireland. CNN's Donny O' Sullivan has more.
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DONIE O'SULLIVAN, CNN SENIOR CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): In the middle of this housing estate lies one of Ireland's darkest secrets. There was knowledge that something was here.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes, the course there was here.
O'SULLIVAN: Yes.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It was just hidden between a lot of them.
O'SULLIVAN: Now we're here in the town of Tuam. It's on the west of Ireland and this housing estate was once the site of a so called Mother and Baby Home.
O'SULLIVAN (voice-over): Between the 1920s and 1990s, tens of thousands of Irish women who became pregnant outside of marriage were sent to homes run by nuns.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Every inch of that nun is going to be excavated.
O'SULLIVAN (voice-over): Contraception was illegal in Ireland until the 1980s and abortion was illegal here until 2018.
JOHN RODGERS, TUAM MOTHER AND BABY HOME SURVIVOR: The Church and the state, they had this thing about unmarried mothers being evil. They looked on them as dangerous because they were dangerous to men.
O'SULLIVAN (voice-over): John Rodgers was born in the Mother and Baby Home here in Tuam.
RODGERS: A lock of hair, my mother kept that for 40 years and gave it back to me the day that were reunited.
O'SULLIVAN (voice-over): John was taken away from his mother, Bridie Rogers, when he was only one.
RODGERS: Year old because she swore the day that she took that no church or state would ever be able to claim me as their own. I belong to Bridie Rogers.
CATHERINE CORLESS, LOCAL HISTORIAN: So I think there's somewhere about the bounce. Of course.
O'SULLIVAN (voice-over): Local historian and grandmother Catherine Corless began researching the Tune baby home from her kitchen table.
CORLESS: That is the home itself now.
O'SULLIVAN: That's what I'm --
CORLESS: That's what it looks like.
O'SULLIVAN: That's what housing estate.
[01:20:05]
CORLESS: Yes, yes. That's it.
O'SULLIVAN (voice-over): She made a shocking discovery.
O'SULLIVAN: You discovered 796 babies had died in this home.
CORLESS: Yes.
O'SULLIVAN: There's no records --
CORLESS: Yes.
O'SULLIVAN: -- of them being buried anywhere else.
CORLESS: Anywhere else. Yes.
O'SULLIVAN: But there is this septic tank.
CORLESS: Yes.
O'SULLIVAN: What did you think?
CORLESS: Well, I was horrified. Absolutely horrified. But first of all, I had to absolutely prove it and keep talking and keep saying they're there.
O'SULLIVAN: Catherine kept talking, even though some people in Tuam and in the Irish Catholic Church wanted her to stop. CORLESS: First of all, I felt the resistance. I wasn't expecting that.
I just thought they said they'd look at my research and say, my God. I thought they take it over from me and do something. I mean, between the archbishop, the nuns, the whole lot. But no.
O'SULLIVAN (voice-over): Her discovery shocked Ireland.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The tomb is not just a burial ground. It's a social and cultural sepulcher. It seemed as if in Ireland our women had the amazing capacity to self-impregnate. And for their trouble, we took their babies and we gifted them, or we sold them, or we traffic them or we starve them, Are we neglected them, are we denied them to the point of their disappearance?
O'SULLIVAN: Now forensic archaeologists are beginning the delicate process of exhuming and identifying the baby's remains.
RODGERS: This baby's aerosoptic tank maybe they were my playmates. I'll never know. All I know is that those children, friends of mine, they disappeared.
O'SULLIVAN (voice-over): In homes like this across Ireland, many babies disappeared because they died. Others disappeared sometimes after allegedly being illegally adopted or trafficked to America.
ANNA CORRIGAN, LOST BORTHER AT TUAM: I'm here. I've spent 10 years looking to find you.
O'SULLIVAN (voice-over): Two of Anna Corrigan's brothers were born in the Tuam Home. She believes one of them was sent to America and could still be alive.
CORRIGAN: If somebody is watching this and if you know anything about a William Joseph Dolan who was born in the Tuam Home in 1950 and would have been eight months old when he was moved to either America or Canada. Please reach out.
O'SULLIVAN (voice-over): Her other brother, John, died as a baby and is on Catherine Corless's list of 796 names. His body may be in the septic tank.
CORRIGAN: For the children that are lying up there, they've been crying for a long time. They've been crying to be heard. They didn't have dignity in life. They didn't have dignity in death. And we're hoping now that they will be identified. They will be moved to a dignified barrier.
O'SULLIVAN (voice-over): The Republic of Ireland has been an independent country for a hundred years now after a proud history of fighting British colonial oppression. But for much of the last century, the Irish Catholic Church and the Irish government colluded to create a form of oppression of their own, one that specifically targeted women.
What's happening here in Tuam is a reckoning. O'SULLIVAN: As a younger Irish person, I just find it very hard to
reconcile how people put up with this. I understand it was probably fear.
RODGERS: It was fear. It was fear. I think it was because the church, the Catholic Church had such a grip on people and they were trying to dictate morally and they were trying to introduce, I suppose, a Purian society.
CORRIGAN: They wanted to show we're not like those and no disrespect to anybody watching on their religion, we're not like those Protestants. We're good, wholesome Catholics. Right? And we have comely maidens dancing at the crossroads. And we don't have any of that carry on that goes on in other countries. But we do because we're human beings.
O'SULLIVAN (voice-over): Donie O'Sullivan CNN, Tuam Ireland.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HUNTE: Still to come, Central Texas is ordering mandatory evacuations amid more rain across the region. We'll bring you the latest on rescue and recovery efforts there.
Plus, some mentions of bisexual individuals quietly disappear from the U.S. Park's website on historic LGBTQ monument why it's created outrage from the queer community. Just ahead on CNN.
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[01:29:41]
HUNTE: Welcome back. Just over a week after deadly flash floods swept through Central Texas as parts of the area under mandatory evacuation orders, slow moving thunderstorms continue to threaten the area with heavy rain. Plus a potential for flash floods and rapid river rises.
In Kerrville, storms forced ground searches to temporarily suspend operations. Perchance for more thunderstorms continues into Monday morning, with rivers forecast to continue swelling into flood stage this week.
At least 132 people have been killed in a recent disaster, and 106 of those victims were in Kerr county, according to local officials.
FEMA is facing scrutiny for its response in Central Texas flood sites. Some agency officials are pointing to bureaucratic hurdles that led to obstacles in mounting rescue efforts. But the Department of Homeland Security is challenging those claims.
CNN's Julia Vargas Jones has the latest for us.
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JULIA VARGAS JONES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The rain putting a pause on all those search and rescue operations. We're hearing from those leading those operations that the safety of firefighters and Cajun Navy officers is paramount right now and it's just too dangerous for them to be out on those waters today.
But tomorrow, the hope is that all of those operations will pick back up after that river crests and goes back down.
But I do want to show you one photo that was shared with CNN earlier on Sunday, showing just one vehicle under a pile of debris and gravel. It's not just water that they're battling. There's so much debris, so much mud.
And that just goes to show the difficulty of those searches as they continue to look for those people who are still missing.
This, as now we are hearing questions about FEMA's response in the first 72 hours after this disaster. CNN reporting that due to bureaucratic obstacles, officials inside the agency said that there was just so much red tape they could not deploy those search and rescue teams. They usually they would have been in place ahead of the formal authorization from FEMA just to have a quick response in the area.
Now, DHS Secretary Kristi Noem pushed back on those claims, saying that the response from FEMA was swift. Take a listen.
KRISTI NOEM, U.S HOMELAND SECURITY SECRETARY: You know, those claims have -- are absolutely false. Within just an hour or two after the flooding, we had resources from the Department of Homeland Security there helping those individuals in Texas.
It was a heartbreaking scene, and I think it's been well covered about what the Coast Guard did, how they were deployed immediately and helped rescue so many individuals from those flood waters. And we had border patrol down there with their tactical teams, and FEMA was there just within a few hours as well.
So those claims are false. They're from people who won't put their name behind those claims. And those call centers were fully staffed and responsive.
JONES: The call centers that she is mentioning there have to do with reporting from "The New York Times that contracts that had expired on July 5th, the day after the floods began here in Central Texas were not renewed until five days later, which delayed the answering of so many calls -- thousands of calls to the crisis assistance line that went unanswered.
We're also learning that Kerr County officials here had submitted back in October a report to FEMA that said that this very nature of this event could happen in the next 12 months.
All of that just chilling details as we look forward to Monday, where those officials will be meeting to talk about those responses here in Kerrville, Texas.
Julia Vargas Jones, CNN -- Kerrville, Texas. (END VIDEOTAPE)
HUNTE: The U.S. government has quietly removed most references to bisexual people from the Web site for the Stonewall National Monument in New York. It commemorates the 1969 riots at the Stonewall Inn, sparked by a police raid which prompted violence with LGBTQ crowds.
Earlier this year, the National Park Service removed references to transgender and queer people from the monument's Web site, even though the Stonewall riots famously included transgender activists. The term LGBTQ+ was shortened to just LGB, and now only reads "gay and lesbian" in some sections.
Angelica Christina is a board member and treasurer with the Stonewall Inn Gives Back Initiative, and she's joining us from New York. What were your first thoughts when you heard about this latest round of LGBTQ history being removed from U.S. Web sites?
ANGELICA CHRISTINA, BOARD MEMBER, STONEWALL INN GIVES BACK INITIATIVE: So while I am so disgusted -- beyond disgusted by the Trump administration's continued attacks and attempts to erase the LGBTQ community, trans folks across the nation have long echoed warnings that, much like Angela Davis once said, when they come for us in the morning, they will come for you at night.
[01:34:52]
CHRISTINA: And so that is precisely what we're seeing carried out with this regime that reentered the White House last year. Trans folks and trans history, which is American history, we're the first to be erased by the Trump administration from the Stonewall National Monument's Web site.
Then the Q and now the B has been removed from the Web site as well, although there are rumblings that they've added it back to the Web site, but only in one instance.
Otherwise, all mentions of trans and bisexual and indigenous and queer folks have been erased from the National Stonewall -- at the Stonewall National Monument's Web site. My hope, my prayer for all Americans, LGBTQIA+ Americans, especially those that support Trump's monstrous regime, is that they one day come to truly face the evils that they've been complicit in throughout this entire administration.
HUNTE: Some people will say that they're just Web sites. How does the federal government's removal of trans and bi-visibility through these official platforms impact the actual lived experiences of LGBTQ people in the U.S.?
CHRISTINA: Well, because what we're seeing right now is not just the erasure of letters from a Web site. Those letters are representative of thousands of years of LGBTQIA+ folks that fought for the recognition that is now being sought out to be erased.
And so to remove again, LGBTQIA+ Americans from a government Web site, because LGBTQIA+ history is American history, we are sending a message to people across the globe that LGBTQIA+ people do not exist, that we are meant to be erased. And that is not who we are.
HUNTE: If you had the chance to speak directly to the Trump administration right now, what would you say? What do you want them to know?
CHRISTINA: If you think the LGBTQIA+ community is ever going to back down to your bigotry, to your violence, to your hatred, you are sadly mistaken.
Our community has faced evil like you before, and we will fight back and we will win. Do not ever, for one moment in time, think that you are going to destroy us. We will always exist. We will continue to exist.
Trans lives matter. LGBTQIA+ lives matter. Immigrant lives matter.
HUNTE: I would love to end with some hope. As a trans woman of color in the U.S., what is giving you hope right now? What's helping you to continue fighting?
CHRISTINA: Immediately, what comes to mind is our youth. As I've spoken out for the past several months at rallies, I have met so many trans, non-binary, intersex, two-spirit youth and I'm talking as young as 10, 11, 12 years old.
Having the audacity, having the bravery and the strength at 10, 11, 12 years old to stand on a platform and speak to hundreds of people, to speak to your entire community as a trans youth, as a non-binary youth -- that is what is giving me hope right now.
And it is so beautiful to see them take up space as their authentic selves. And reminds me of when I was a child trying to find space and navigate my gender identity, but not necessarily having the support to do so.
But now that I'm older, I'm able to provide that support for our younger generations.
HUNTE: Angelica Christina, thank you for sharing your thoughts, your opinions, your experiences with us. We appreciate that.
CHRISTINA: And thank you so much. Appreciate it.
HUNTE: Israel continues to bombard Gaza amid ceasefire talks in Doha.
Just ahead, I'll be speaking with an expert on the deepening humanitarian crisis in Gaza.
[01:39:31]
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HUNTE: Palestinians in Gaza are facing a worsening humanitarian crisis as optimism over reaching a new ceasefire deal is quickly fading.
According to figures from the United Nations, over the course of the 80-day aid blockade, about 90,000 Palestinian children have required treatment for malnutrition.
Nearly all hospitals in the enclave have been damaged or destroyed, and an estimated 800 people have been killed at the few remaining aid distribution sites between late May and July 7th.
[01:44:46]
HUNTE: Joining us live is Sam Rose, acting director for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, or UNRWA. Sam comes to us live from Amman, Jordan.
Sam, thanks so much for being with me. Let's get straight into this.
I want to kick off with that really shocking number that we've seen reported this week. 800 people have been killed while trying to access food in Gaza. What can you tell us about the conditions on the ground right now, and what are you hearing from doctors working there?
SAM ROSE, ACTING DIRECTOR, UNITED NATIONS RELIEF AND WORKS AGENCY, UNRWA GAZA: Yes, look, the conditions on the ground are worse than they've -- they've ever, ever been. And there's a certain tragic and horrific and numbing inevitability about this that the longer it goes on, the worse it will get. And just when we think it can't get any worse, it does.
And you know what we've seen over the past 80 days since the establishment of these, these aid hubs close to the border and in Netzarim is just, you know, another horrific and depraved way of killing people.
And if we try and put ourselves in the shoes of the people who are going to these aid sites and getting killed, they're facing impossible choices, as is everyone in Gaza right now.
Either they risk starvation for themselves or their families. Or in an effort to fend off that starvation, they risk death. Now, that is essentially the black and white choice that's facing these people. They know what they're getting themselves into. They know that these sites are not functioning in any way that's fit for human beings to engage with.
But situations are so desperate that they have no choice. And if they are injured, they're then going to hospitals that are facing greater numbers of mass casualty incidents or have done over the past six weeks than in the past 12 months.
That's not me. This is the International Committee for the Red Cross. That's what they said yesterday. At the same time that hospitals are deprived of supplies, deprived of anesthetics, deprived of fuel to keep the key critical, lifesaving infrastructure going inside those hospitals.
So that's the daily reality, the daily grind for people right now in Gaza. It's not even existence. It's beneath existence what people are being forced to put up with.
HUNTE: And we are seeing pictures from on the ground there. It looks truly, truly wild.
UNRWA has reported there are now only a handful of food distribution points, compared to 400 when the U.N. was leading operations. How has that collapsed in access-impacted children and families and the medical conditions across Gaza? How are people surviving this?
ROSE: I mean, that's the question we keep -- we keep answering. They survive because that's all that they can do to just keep going in the hope that tomorrow will bring something better.
This becomes the most fundamental kind of meaning of life for all people now in Gaza. But as you said, and it's not just the U.N., the humanitarian system inside Gaza had a network of about 400 distribution points where people could be received with dignity, with safety. They could be spoken to as human beings.
We had methods for ensuring that the most vulnerable were received first. We had systems that the populations were intimately familiar with. They knew how it worked. They knew where to go to. If there were any kind of problems, if the supplies available didn't meet -- meet their needs and supplies.
We're talking food. We're talking flour. We're talking clothes. We're talking sanitary pads, shampoo, soap, et cetera.
That has been struck off and been replaced with hubs, however many are open on any given day doesn't really matter. But they're minuscule in terms of the numbers that are forcing people to walk several kilometers through active conflict zones where boxes are dropped on the floor. These centers are open sometimes for no more than three or four minutes in the middle of the night. Most people come back empty- handed. Many come back wounded. Many come -- do not come back because they've been killed.
There is no dignity. There is complete humiliation and there is total depravity in terms of the conditions that Palestinians are now being forced to accept if they want to get food for their families.
And let's -- let me also add that one of the issues that was raised by Israel in relation to the inadequacies of the previous system was that aid was getting into the hands of Hamas.
There was never any proof garnished or given for any of that. No international journalists allowed in to verify those claims, but I can't see how the current system, through these hubs prevents any of that in any way.
[01:49:46]
ROSE: Because what's happening is that young men are being paid by contractors to grab whatever they can. Take that aid back to the markets to make money, and then that aid is getting who knows where.
HUNTE: And like I said, we are seeing the desperation on the ground there. Truly, truly sad pictures.
Sam Rose, thank you for now. We appreciate your time.
ROSE: Thanks a lot.
HUNTE: We'll be right back.
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HUNTE: Ok. A thrilling win for tennis star Jannik Sinner. He's the new men's Wimbledon champion. In an epic showdown, Sinner beat two-time reigning champion and rival Carlos Alcaraz in a four-set thriller.
CNN World Sport's Don Riddell has all of the details.
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DON RIDDELL, CNN WORLD SPORT CORRESPONDENT: There is no question that we have a compelling new rivalry in men's tennis. And Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz are head and shoulders above everybody else in the game right now.
On Sunday in London, the Italian world number one, Sinner, won his first Wimbledon title, beating the two-time defending champion Alcaraz in four sets.
Alcaraz arrived on center court in the form of his life. He'd beaten Sinner in the French Open final last month, and he was riding a career-best 24-match winning streak.
Sinner was in unfamiliar territory, but he started well with an early break, only for Alcaraz to break him twice to win the set.
As we've come to expect from these two, the standard of tennis was exceptionally high and Sinner brought his A-game, fighting back to win the next three sets to become the first-ever Italian champion at Wimbledon.
It is the fourth Grand Slam title for him, and he now holds three of the four major titles at the same time.
Afterwards, he explained that this was a harder win emotionally than it had been physically.
JANNIK SINNER, WIMBLEDON MEN'S TENNIS CHAMPION: Yes, I would say mostly emotionally because I had a very tough loss in Paris. So it's -- but at the end of the day, it doesn't really matter how you win or you lose the, especially important tournaments.
You just have to understand what you did wrong. Trying to work on that. That's exactly what we did. We tried to accept the loss and just kept working.
And this is for sure one of the reasons why I hold this trophy here. And we were talking actually before the match, we would never have thought to be in this position.
Back in the days when I was young, this was only -- only a dream. A dream of the dream, because it was so far away where I'm from.
So it's all -- I'm just living my dream. So it's amazing. And yes.
RIDDELL: Well, to emphasize just how dominant Jannik Sinner is, he was just a point away from completing the Grand Slam. He had three championship points against Alcaraz in the French Open final.
But this all goes just to emphasize the magnitude of their rivalry, they have now won the last seven major titles between them. And it seems as though they've raised each other to the point where nobody else on tour is anywhere near their level.
Back to you.
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HUNTE: A race is underway in Europe to launch satellites into space, making them less dependent on the United States. This comes as NASA faces funding cuts due to President Donald Trump's efforts to trim down the federal workforce.
CNN's Lynda Kinkade has the details.
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LYNDA KINKADE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Two small spaceports -- one in Sweden and one in Norway -- are racing to launch the first satellites from mainland Europe into space. Their motivation to -- decrease Europe's dependence on the U.S. according to experts. In 2024 the U.S. had 154 launches of hardware into orbit. Europe had just three.
STEFAN GUSTAFSSON, CHIEF STRATEGIST, SWEDEN SPACE CORPORATION: Europe lacks the defense space infrastructure to a dangerous degree. So we really need to put efforts there.
KINKADE: The continents only successful orbital launch location is in French Guiana in South America.
GUSTAFSSON: Europe and the European Union on its territory has no own rocket launch facilities.
KINKADE: While Europe seeks to expand, NASA is facing cuts. This week, more than 2,000 of NASA's senior staff announced their departure. A part of continued efforts from President Trump to trim down the federal workforce.
On Wednesday Trump announced that Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy will be the interim head of NASA, a position typically chosen from a pool of scientists, engineers, academics, or public servants.
These moves follow the proposed White House budget for 2026, which would cut NASA's funding by 25 percent and slash staff by 5,000.
In June, French President Emmanuel Macron voiced his support for European satellites while speaking at the Paris Air show, stating that space in some way has become a gauge of international power.
But Europe's hopes are not without hurdles. In late March, Andoya Spaceport in Norway conducted its first test launch, a small rocket made by German startup ISAR Aerospace.
While not the desired outcome, the Nordic countries push on.
Lynda Kinkade, CNN.
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HUNTE: That's all I've got for you. Thanks for joining me and the team.
I'm Ben Hunte in Atlanta. Let's do it all again next weekend.
There's more NEWSROOM with Rosemary Church right after this quick break.
See you soon.
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