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Trump Says Tariff Revenues Will Increase Come August 1; Trump Says U.S. Coca-cola to Make Shift to Cane Sugar; Meta, Amazon Team Up in Effort to Get Ahead in A.I. Race; Fire Ravages Belgium Music Festival's Main Stage; 7.3 Quake Triggers Local Tsunami in Alaska; Smoke and Lava Flow as Iceland Volcano Erupts. Aired 2-3a ET

Aired July 17, 2025 - 02:00   ET

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

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[02:00:28]

KIM BRUNHUBER, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome to all of you watching us around the world. I'm Kim Brunhuber. This is CNN NEWSROOM.

Centuries of grievance held off by a tentative cease fire. We'll take a look at the conflict brewing in southern Syria.

And Ukraine is undergoing a major political shake up, how the country is responding to increased attacks from Russia.

Plus, Republicans in the U.S. Congress are split on just how much to shrink the federal government. Why some say they're not sure about certain spending cuts.

ANNOUNCER: Live from Atlanta. This is CNN NEWSROOM with Kim Brunhuber.

BRUNHUBER: We're watching to see if a cease fire holds between government forces and Druze militias in southern Syria, where tensions dating back centuries are rising to the surface once again in the spate of deadly clashes.

Video from late Wednesday shows Syrian military vehicles leaving the area. But this conflict involves another major player, Israel.

The Israeli military struck a number of targets in the Syrian capital Damascus on Wednesday in support of the Druze, an Arab minority group. Syrian authorities say at least three people were killed and dozens more injured. Syria's new president addressed the nation earlier.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

AHMED AL-SHARAA, SYRIAN PRESIDENT (through translator): Today, as we face this challenge, we find ourselves in the heart of a battle aimed at preserving the unity of our nation. The Israeli entity, known for its repeated attempts to destabilize us and sow division, once again, seeks to turn our land into a battlefield of chaos and to dismantle the fabric of our people.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRUNHUBER: More now, from CNN's Jeremy Diamond reporting from Jerusalem.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Israeli bombs rock the Syrian capital of Damascus, striking the defense ministry in an area near the presidential palace. At least three people were killed and 34 injured in the strikes, according to the country's health ministry.

The defense headquarters suffering a serious blow. But the true cost of these strikes may not yet be known, threatening to derail new U.S. brokered security talks between Israel and Syria.

MARCO RUBIO, SECRETARY OF STATE: We think we're on our way towards a real de-escalation and then hopefully get back on track in helping Syria build a country and -- and arriving at a -- at a situation there in the Middle East that's far more stable.

DIAMOND (voice-over): The attacks came after days of clashes in Syria's southern city of Suwayda, between Bedouin tribes and the Druze community, a religious minority whose members also live in Israel and Lebanon. Dozens of people have been killed in the clashes in recent days. Syrian troops soon entered Suwayda, with the government saying it was looking to stop the violence.

But some Druze leaders saw the approach of government forces as a threat. And so did Israel, which struck approaching Syrian tanks, rocket launchers and trucks carrying weapons, saying it was acting to prevent a massacre against the Druze. But Israel isn't just striking to protect the Druze.

BENJAMIN NETANYAHU, ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER (through translator): We are committed to keeping southwestern Syria a demilitarized zone.

DIAMOND (voice-over): Israeli troops captured this buffer zone between Syria and the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights after the fall of the Assad regime last year. But Israel has also demanded Syrian troops remain out of southern Syria altogether.

In the Israeli-held Golan Heights, the large Syrian Druze community here is deeply impacted by attacks on the Druze in Suwayda.

FAEZ SHKEIR, ISRAELI DRUZE (through translator): My wife is in Syria, my uncles are from Syria and my family is in Syria, in Suwayda. I don't like to see them being killed. They kicked them out of their homes, they robbed and burned their houses. But I can't do anything. It's very hard on me.

DIAMOND (voice-over): That sense of helplessness driving hundreds of Druze to take matters into their own hands, pouring across an Israeli security fence and into the Syrian buffer zone on the road to Suwayda.

Jeremy Diamond, CNN, Jerusalem. (END VIDEOTAPE)

BRUNHUBER: At least 20 people in Gaza were killed in a crowd crush at an aid distribution site run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation. We just have to warn you, some of the images you're about to see are disturbing.

[02:05:02]

So, this is the first time the controversial Israeli and U.S. backed organization has acknowledged deaths at one of its sites. The GHF said 19 people were trampled. One person was stabbed in a surge driven by agitators in the crowds, they say. The Palestinian health ministry said 21 people were killed, 15 of whom died from suffocation after tear gas was fired and six others were shot by Israeli forces. The Israeli military referred CNN to GHF's statement on the incident.

Ukraine's cabinet is undergoing its largest shake up since Russia's full scale invasion began. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is widely expected to name former Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal to be Ukraine's next defense minister. Now, this comes after Russia launched yet another large scale drone assault on several regions. New details now from CNN's Nick Paton Walsh.

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NICK PATON WALSH, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: 400 drones attacked Ukraine last night said their officials, not a record by any stretch of the imagination, but four cities hit particularly hard. The second largest Kharkiv hit with 16 drones in just 14 minutes. The officials there said two people killed in the regions around it. And Ukrainian President Zelenskyy's hometown of Kryvyi Rih hit with what officials there said was the largest attack since the start of the war.

The Capital Kyiv, though, Zelenskyy himself remarked, spared a substantial attack in recent days, and he indeed suggested possibly joking that it was the presence of Trump's Ukraine envoy, General Keith Kellogg, there that potentially meant this capital had a few nights off. He has said to have departed of late, after certainly a different tone in his conversation since the White House appears to have soured on the Kremlin.

But Zelenskyy joking that perhaps they should have kept Kellogg around, given him a Ukrainian passport, suggesting that the lack of Russian attacks during his stay there shows that the United States is causing Russia to be afraid that, they are essentially concerned about hitting senior U.S. officials.

But still overhanging that visit, the speed in which Trump administration now thinks it can get vital Patriot interceptor missiles to the Ukrainians.

Trump suggesting potentially that could be a matter of days. They might already be headed to Ukrainian hands. Germany, perhaps a little more conservative, estimate saying that a decision to supply the batteries that fire the interceptors would be days away and it might take manufacturers potentially months to get them into Ukrainian hands.

But a new urgency there, not quite as heavily reflected in the 50-day deadline for secondary sanctions that Trump proposed potentially against China or India, the main purchases of Russian energy. Will they use that period to pressure Russia into diplomacy? Well, Moscow already brushing off the mere idea of that. Sergey Lavrov, their foreign minister, saying that they've had a 24-hour deadline, a hundred-day deadline. They're increasing the used these deadlines, essentially whizzing past them.

And a debate too, still now in the public about exactly what kind of weapons the Americans may end up permitting the Europeans to buy off them for Ukrainian use reports suggesting that perhaps Trump had discussed longer-range missiles potentially being supplied to the Ukrainians, he dismissed that, and even encouraged Ukraine not to hit Moscow.

But certainly, a change in his thinking, a change in the tone of the relationship with Kyiv. Zelenskyy commenting how any way to change Russia's behavior was strong weapons and strong sanctions. Well, they might get some weapons, but strong sanctions are still 50 days off, and 50 days in which potentially Russia can make significant changes if it launches a full-scale offensive along the frontlines in these summer months.

Nick Paton Walsh, CNN, London.

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BRUNHUBER: Turkey's main opposition leader has been sentenced to one year and eight months in prison. Ekrem Imamoglu was accused of insulting and threatening a public official that's after he slammed the city's chief prosecutor for allegedly targeting the opposition with politically motivated investigations.

Imamoglu was jailed in March, which set off Turkey's biggest protests in more than decade. He denies the charges and is expected to appeal.

The mayor is still a candidate in Turkey's next presidential race, and he's considered the main challenger to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who's been in power for more than two decades.

South Korea's president has ordered a new investigation into deadly crowd crush that killed nearly 160 people over Halloween weekend back in 2022. According to Reuters Lee Jae-myung wants fresh eyes on the case and is appointing a new team of police and prosecutors. The tragedy happened in a popular night life district of Seoul, and sent shockwaves throughout the country and far beyond. Most of the victims were young people. President Lee's decision to launch a new investigation came after meetings with their families.

[02:10:09]

The U.S. Senate is weighing a bill on the Trump administration's proposed spending cuts as a deadline to pass it nears. We'll hear what some senators are saying about the DOGE package, that's coming up after the break.

And the U.S. president says it's highly unlikely he would fire the Fed chief, but then offered key caveat. We'll explain after a quick break, stay with us.

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BRUNHUBER: The U.S. House has voted to advance the so called crypto bill after a Republican policy dispute stalled action for hours. Conservative hardliners were able to get leadership to agree to tie a ban on central banking digital currency to the annual Pentagon policy bill, which they have to pass later this year.

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Meanwhile, Speaker Mike Johnson is insisting that the House will be able to pass the White House's bill to codify the Department of Government Efficiency spending cuts by this Friday's deadline, the Senate is already considering its version of the DOGE bill, known as a rescissions package. It would claw back $9 billion in federal funds already approved by Congress for foreign aid and public broadcasting programs. Here's what some senators had to say about the DOGE cuts.

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SEN. JOHN THUNE (R-SD): A lot of these recommendations now are an implementation of what DOGE found in areas of the budget that they thought we could achieve savings but not undermine the critical mission aspects of a lot of these -- some of the -- what these -- some of these programs do.

SEN. CHUCK SCHUMER (D-NY): You know DOGE comes along with its chainsaw approaches, they just cut, cut, cut. They have no idea what the consequences will be, and they don't give a hoot. They simply want to cut.

SEN. LISA MURKOWSKI (R-AK): My vote is guided by the imperative coming from Alaskans. I have a vote that I am free to cast, with or without the support of the president.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRUNHUBER: Now, the president said on Wednesday that he would love for the Federal Reserve chairman to resign, but declined to reveal whether he would remove him. Donald Trump acknowledged such action could disrupt the markets, while hinting that Jerome Powell could still be fired for fraud. President Trump has long railed against the Fed chair for refusing to cut interest rates.

Well, Sources tell CNN U.S. Federal Prosecutor Maurene Comey has been fired from the New York Southern District Court. Comey was a prosecutor in the case against Jeffrey Epstein, and is the daughter of former FBI Director James Comey. Now the reason for her firing isn't known so far, but it's the latest link to the Epstein investigation currently consuming Washington. A slew of lawmakers, including some of Trump's most ardent supporters are calling for more transparency on the matter.

President Trump called them weaklings falling prey to democratic B.S. He says he wouldn't be opposed to more documents being released to clear up confusion. Here he is.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: One big prosecutor look at it all, would that make you feel good do you think?

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Well, I think it's in the case of Epstein, they've already looked at it, and they are looking at it, and I think all they have to do is put out anything credible.

But you know, that was run by the Biden administration for four years. I can imagine what they put into files, just like they did with the others.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRUNHUBER: Well, echoing those comments is House Speaker Mike Johnson who was also calling for all credible information to be released. He's just one of several Republicans who don't think the subject is ready to be dropped.

All right, joining me now is Benjamin Radd, a political scientist and senior fellow at the UCLA Burkle Center for International Relations. Thank you so much for being here with us.

So, take us through to start here, the latest on the DOGE Trump cuts, cuts to public broadcasting, to foreign aid, things like that. The deadline is looming. Is this going to get done?

BENJAMIN RADD, POLITICAL SCIENTIST: Well, it's going to be tight, and it's definitely not without some resistance. I mean, we're seeing, we're hearing from members of Congress, Democrats in particular, who have been opposed to these cuts, who really also have been identifying that the cost to implement these cuts is greater than the actual amount that would be saved by having them carried through, if that makes any sense, which it's difficult to see how these cuts really serve the purpose that they're meant to do, which is really reduce government spending.

But nevertheless, the problem is, is that there aren't methods and measures in place to efficiently carry out the responsibilities, the tasks that these budget allocations were meant to -- meant to do.

In other words, Congress had intended for these funds to be spent to serve a specific purpose, and now removing them leaves vacuum, essentially, for those essential services, whether it's, you know, for domestic things, like, you know, public broadcasting, or for foreign aid or serving, let's say, diplomats, U.S. diplomats stationed abroad.

So, all of that remains in limbo.

BRUNHUBER: Yes, all right, I want to turn to the Epstein controversy. Donald Trump's base is outraged because not enough has been done to release the investigative files. Trump went and fired the one person who put Epstein and his coconspirators in jail, Maurene Comey, I mean, what do you make of that?

RADD: Well, it's interesting, right? I mean, they haven't given a lot of information on why she was fired. We know that she played a central role in that case, and in fact, she was the one that had suggested or had pushed for the names of those involved, those let's say possibly public or high profile individuals involved, to not be disclosed, all in the name of protecting some of the witnesses and the victims in those proceedings.

[02:20:09]

And so, whether she is a scapegoat or, you know, the fall person for all of this remains to be seen, but it's interesting, and of course, not a coincidence that she or her last name is Comey.

BRUNHUBER: Yes. No kidding. All right, all of this kind of puts congressional Republicans in a tough spot. Their base wants them to push for more transparency. Trump's telling them to drop it.

RADD: And there's not a whole lot of momentum Trump seems to have. I mean, the more he calls for this to be disregarded and discarded. The more you see this sort of core section of the base push back further.

But it's worth noting that, you know, the Trump space, we speak of it often as this sort of broad, vague concept of the base. There are those who are sort of perpetually online, who are part of that sort of podcast ecosystem, the manosphere, all kinds of names ascribed to it. Really, they're the ones that are calling loudest for this. They're the ones who've been invested in the conspiracy theories that Trump himself originated back when he was a candidate before 2016 and then later when he was a candidate before his recent reelection.

And so, we're seeing it most vocal with that segment of his supporters and others are merely just sort of mystified why this remains to be an issue. I mean, if there's nothing to hide, then disclose what's there, and if you're not disclosing, then what's the reason? I think the non- answers really are telling us more.

BRUNHUBER: I want to pick up on the possible political costs of this. Now Trump wants to blame Democrats, but right wing activist Laura Loomer, who's you know, a Trump whisperer, I mean, warned that his handling of the Epstein issue threatens to consume his presidency.

Do you think he will actually pay a political price for all this? After all, we have seen, you know, Fox News kind of fall in line behind Trump.

RADD: We have seen that, but we've seen again in other media spheres, both in podcast and online, in, you know, social media and others. Those who have been pushing back. The question remains whether Donald Trump's sort of Teflon reputation and legacy will endure something like this.

So far, it has not died down. Now, whether or not he allows this to happen by maybe appointing a special prosecutor or someone from the Justice Department or outside, or whether or not he has Pam Bondi take the fall for this remains to be seen, but it seems difficult to see how, at least, he will not pay some political cost.

And I think what you're seeing is members of the House and Senate who are very sensitive to this and who are facing tough reelection prospects in the midterms next year. They're also the ones very concerned about the administration's really lack of coherent response to this.

BRUNHUBER: Yes, right. Last question for you here on Fed Chairman Jerome Powell. Again, Donald Trump seems to be floating the idea of firing him, kind of cooking up a pretext to do so. Do you think he will actually follow through, and if so, what might be the consequences of that?

RADD: No, I think what he's doing is he's putting immense pressure on Powell to fall in line with essentially what Trump wants him to do, and to, you know, reduce rates and to help push the economy through what he is concerned about, or the impacts the tariffs might have and the budget cuts might have on domestic spending, on the consumer sentiment.

And you know, it's not within his authority to fire the Fed chair without cause, and so it would have to come from fabricating -- not fabricating, but really exaggerating, oh, you know, this issue over the fact that the -- that, you know, he was assigned -- the Fed chair was assigned with, you know, remodeling certain government buildings as part of a major upgrade process, and hasn't done so, and that that represents some kind of malfeasance that warrants a firing for cause.

Really difficult to see how that would happen, and you know, the support is not there in Congress, though, the public has been dissatisfied with the chair, but I think a lot of that is a function of Trump really just trashing him on social media.

BRUNHUBER: Yes, all right, well, we'll see what the consequences might be. Benjamin Radd, really appreciate you coming on for us. Thanks so much.

RADD: Thank you.

BRUNHUBER: The Trump administration is facing more legal action over its immigration crackdown with a new classification lawsuit -- a class action lawsuit, rather, trying to stop tensions at court hearings, that's just ahead.

Plus, technology giants join forces to try to become leaders in artificial intelligence. That and more coming up. Please stay with us.

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BRUNHUBER: Welcome back to all you watching us around the world. I'm Kim Brunhuber, this is CNN NEWSROOM.

Civil rights groups are suing the Trump administration in a bid to stop arrests of undocumented migrants at immigration hearings. The class action lawsuit was filed in Washington, D.C. on Wednesday. It asks a federal judge to block the policy changes that underpin the anti-immigration efforts on the grounds that they violate the constitution and federal law.

Meanwhile, a U.S. citizen and Army veteran says he plans to sue the Trump administration for wrongful detention. He was arrested during an immigration raid in Southern California last week at a farm where he works as a security guard. He was held for days and says he missed his daughter's third birthday.

The U.S. president's so called reciprocal tariffs are poised to take effect on August 1st, and he says that's when revenue collections will immediately increase. On Wednesday, Donald Trump said tariffs haven't really kicked in that much.

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The Treasury Department says it has collected $126 billion in import taxes so far this year. Meanwhile, new data shows that despite tariffs, U.S. wholesale inflation was fairly muted last month. The Producer Price Index presented what appears to be a better than expected outcome amid the global trade uncertainty. Now, this comes a day after the Consumer Price Index reported a 2.7 percent increase in inflation in June, a four-month high.

President Trump says Coca-Cola has agreed to make the American version of its trademark soda with cane sugar, just like in Mexico, instead of high fructose corn syrup. Coke switched to the syrup decades ago to save money. Coca-Cola hasn't confirmed the change, but said they "appreciate President Trump's enthusiasm." Now, Trump has a well-known taste for Diet Coke, which is made with an artificial sweetener, even has a button on his desk in the Oval Office to signal someone to deliver one.

Facebook owner Meta is stepping up its efforts to become the leader in artificial intelligence technology. The company is teaming up with Amazon Web Services to get more developers to use Meta's Llama A.I. platform. Clare Duffy explains how that would work.

CLARE DUFFY, CNN TECH REPORTER: Yeah, this is a quieter but still really interesting and important front in the A.I. race. The makers of the big A.I. models like Meta want to become the default platform for developers that want to build new chatbots, new A.I. agents, other A.I. applications, sort of like the way that Apple and Google have been the default platforms for building mobile apps during the mobile web era. So, that is really what this Meta partnership with AWS is targeted at.

The companies are going to be picking 30 U.S. startups that are interested in building applications on top of Meta's A.I. model Llama. They'll be providing six months worth of hands-on support from Meta engineers and AWS engineers, and also $200,000 each worth of cloud computing credits from AWS. That is really valuable because the computing power that it takes to build these kinds of A.I. applications is really expensive, especially if you're a startup that isn't yet turning a profit.

And of course, AWS stands to benefit if these startups continue using its cloud computing technology after the six months. This, of course, all comes as Meta is shelling out significant resources to try to become the leader in the A.I. space. That also includes Mark Zuckerberg personally offering contracts worth tens of millions of dollars to some of the top A.I. researchers to lure them away from competitors. The company has recently hired engineers away from places like OpenAI, Google, Anthropic. And it's also invested $14 billion in the A.I. startup scale that it also involved hiring its CEO and some of its top employees to help put together this new A.I. super intelligence team.

So, Meta really going all out to try to become a leader in this space and this partnership with AWS getting more startups onto its technology certainly is going to help.

Clare Duffy, CNN, New York.

BRUNHUBER: Well, electronic music fans have been gearing up for a major festival in Belgium, but two days before its scheduled kickoff, a huge blaze tour through the main stage. Well, on that story ahead, stay with us.

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BRUNHUBER: You see it there. Fire has gutted the main stage of a major music festival in Belgium two days before it was set to begin. About a thousand staff members were there when the blaze broke out on Wednesday, but officials say no one was injured. This is how one witness described what happened.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MORGAN HERMANS, WITNESS: We just heard like fireworks going off, which was a bit weird because the festival only starts tomorrow. So, we went outside and there was just a big cloud of fireworks and smoke. Yeah, very near us. So that was a bit scary. It's one of the biggest events in the entire year because like also, our town is very small, so to welcome people around the entire world, it's crazy and it's so much fun and so it's a big deal. So, everybody in Boom was a bit terrified for a few seconds.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRUNHUBER: Organizers say the campsite near the venue will open on Thursday as scheduled, but they're still trying to come up with plans for the main event.

An earthquake triggered a small brief and local tsunami in parts of Alaska on Wednesday. The 7.3-magnitude tremor hit about 80 kilometers south of Sand Point in the Aleutian Islands. The National Tsunami Warning Center said it generated a tsunami little more than five centimeters high. The quake forced some people in Seward, Alaska to get to a church on high ground. A tsunami warning for the area and other parts of Alaska has since been canceled.

Volcano erupted in southwestern Iceland on Wednesday, the latest in a series of outbreaks near the nation's capital. Smoke and glowing hot lava spewed from the ground, but flights at Reykjavik Airport weren't affected. Icelandic officials say this was likely a relatively small eruption, the 12th in the area in four years. Experts say the outbursts could recur for decades or even centuries.

All right, thanks so much for joining us. I'm Kim Brunhuber. "World Sport" is next. Then, I'll be back in 15 minutes with more "CNN Newsroom."

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