Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Newsroom

Israeli PM Defends Syrian Airstrikes, Won't Rule Out More; Trump Authorizes Release of Epstein Documents as Fury Grows; Congress Approves Defunding of U.S. Public Broadcasting; Trump Diagnosed with Chronic Venous Insufficiency; U.K. and Germany Sign Major Treaty Strengthening Ties; Chinese Universities Rise in Ranks; King Charles Opens Wing At Center For Islamic Study; Santa Claus' Hometown In Finland Baking Under Heat Wave. Aired 2-2:45a ET

Aired July 18, 2025 - 02:00   ET

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

[02:00:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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

A fragile ceasefire appears to be holding in Southern Syria. But in Damascus, Israel isn't ruling out more airstrikes.

Meanwhile, Israeli officials say they regret a deadly strike on Gaza's only Catholic church.

And another twist in the Jeffrey Epstein case. U.S. President Donald Trump orders his Justice Department to release grand jury testimony related to the investigation.

UNKNOWN (voice-over): Live from Atlanta, this is "CNN Newsroom with Kim Brunhuber."

BRUNHUBER: The shaky ceasefire in Syria appears to be holding, but the Syrian president says militant groups keep violating it, and Israel won't rule out further strikes.

The Israeli prime minister called the truce significant, but said Israel will continue to act as necessary, claiming its attacks on parts of Damascus were in defense of the Druze Arab minority and a direct result of Syria's refusal to demilitarize the Suwayda area of the capital where the Druze live. At least 10 countries in the region have condemned what they call the repeated Israeli attacks.

Meanwhile, Syrian troops have since pulled out of Suwayda. They went in after fighting broke out between the Druze and Bedouin communities. Syrian state media report many Bedouin families have been forcibly displaced from the area. The Syrian president has called on all parties to exercise calm and restraint.

CNN's Jeremy Diamond picks up the story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN JERUSALEM CORRESPONDENT: Well, a ceasefire has taken effect in Syria as the Israeli military has stopped bombarding the Syrian capital.

And we've also seen Syrian military forces withdrawing from the southern city of Suwayda. That city of Suwayda, which is a stronghold of this Druze minority that lives in Syria, Israel, and Lebanon, was the source of violence in recent days as clashes broke out between the Druze minority and Bedouin tribes in the area, with Syrian government forces also getting involved.

The United States then intervened to try and broker this ceasefire and seems to be at least partly responsible for it taking hold. The Syrian president, for his part, said that his government is not afraid of war, but that it is putting Syria's people -- quote -- "above chaos and destruction." He accused Israel of trying to destabilize Syria and sow division, and he vowed that his government will protect the rights of the Druze.

Now, the Israeli prime minister, for his part, took credit for the withdrawal of Syrian forces from Suwayda, which came just hours really after the Israeli military began striking the Syrian capital of Damascus, including hitting the Syrian defense ministry itself in central Damascus.

The prime minister saying that this ceasefire was achieved through Israel's intensified military operations, touting Israel's strength, which he said was aimed in two parts. First of all, at Israel's own domestic security interests, meaning protecting Israeli national security by preventing Syrian troops from being in that area of southern Syria, and secondly, aimed at protecting that Druze minority in Suwayda.

This is a very tenuous ceasefire, however. We've already seen previous ceasefires break down very quickly. And already, we are seeing reports of attacks on Bedouins in Suwayda as well as reports of Bedouins being forced to flee the city. A very, very tenuous situation.

And, of course, in the background of all this are these nascent talks between Israel and Syria aimed at establishing some kind of a security arrangement. The United States, that seems to have been their primary objective here in brokering the ceasefire to try and get those talks back on track.

Jeremy Diamond, CNN, Tel Aviv.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BRUNHUBER: Israel's prime minister is blaming stray ammunition for a fatal strike on Gaza's only Catholic church. Officials say three people were killed when the Holy Family Church was hit by Israeli fire on Thursday. Several others were injured. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says Israel deeply regrets what happened and it's investigating the incident.

As Nada Bashir reports, Catholic officials say the church took a direct hit.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NADA BASHIR, CNN REPORTER: Well, and yet another civilian tragedy in Gaza after Gaza's only Catholic church was damaged in a strike on Thursday morning, according to the Latin patriarchate of Jerusalem, who said the Holy Family Church was hit directly by a tank.

[02:05:07]

The parish priest is also said to have been injured in the attack. Now, the Israeli military has said it is aware of reports regarding damage caused to the church in Gaza City as well as casualties at the scene, adding that the circumstances of the incident are under review.

In the Vatican telegram, the Pope said he was deeply saddened, renewing his call for an immediate ceasefire and expressing his profound hope for dialogue, reconciliation, and enduring peace in the region. The church is known internationally for its close connection with the late Pope Francis, who would call the parish almost daily from the beginning of the war in Gaza.

Nada Bashir, CNN, London.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BRUNHUBER: The U.S. president has fired off a furious response to a new report on the Jeffrey Epstein saga. He's now ordering the Justice Department to release any and all relevant grand jury testimony on the Epstein investigation. The attorney general says that could happen in the coming day.

This comes just hours after "The Wall Street Journal" reported on what it called a body letter from Donald Trump to Epstein for the late pedophile's 50th birthday. According to the journal, the letter is framed by the outline of a naked woman.

The newspaper wrote -- quote -- "The letter concludes: 'Happy birthday -- and may every day be another wonderful secret.'"

President Trump quickly denied writing the letter or drawing the picture. He told the journal, this is not me, this is a fake thing, it's a fake Wall Street Journal story, I never wrote a picture in my life, I

don't draw pictures of women, it's not my language, it's not my words.

He went on to post on Truth Social -- quote -- "The Wall Street Journal, and Rupert Murdoch, personally, were warned directly that the supposed letter they printed was a fake and, if they print it, they will be sued. Mr. Murdoch stated that he would take care of it but, obviously, did not have the power to do so."

Questions about Donald Trump's relationship with the disgraced financier flared up again last week when the Justice Department announced there was no Epstein client list and that it didn't plan to release any more documents in the investigation in an effort to shut down lingering conspiracy theories about Epstein's death in prison in 2019.

The Epstein case also caused an upset on Capitol Hill, delaying a vote on President Trump's federal cuts package. U.S. House Republicans eventually passed the bill. It was delayed Thursday amid calls from a number of Republicans for more transparency on Epstein.

The package is expected to cancel $9 billion in funding to foreign aid and public broadcasting. The final tally was 216-213, with Republicans Mike Turner and Brian Fitzpatrick voting against it. The U.S. House Rules Committee also advanced a non-binding resolution that calls for the release of Epstein-related materials.

The passage of the DOGE cuts bill means some public broadcasting stations that rely heavily on federal funding may be forced to shut down. President Trump has harshly accused public T.V. and radio newscasts of being biased against him, and he has sought to defund them for a long time now.

CNN's Brian Stelter has more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BRIAN STELTER, CNN CHIEF MEDIA ANALYST, AUTHOR, SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT FOR VANITY FAIR: Hey, there. Yeah, this is really the end of the publicly- funded media era in the United States. It is an era that stretches back more than 50 years.

When Congress first set up the Corporation for Public Broadcasting in 1967, lawmakers back then said that it was important to have non- commercial media, children's programming, educational programming, documentaries, local news coverage.

The idea was to fund local radio and T.V. stations and create an alternative to the corporate-owned networks like ABC and CBS and NBC that were dominant at the time.

Congress was willing to allocate this money every year since, even though some past Republican presidents suggested or tried to defund or decrease the amount of funding for these stations.

President Trump, though, took a much more assertive approach than those past Republican presidents did. He has railed against NPR and PBS, alleging profound liberal bias at both networks, and he made it a priority to try to cut off the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

So, the overnight House vote, moving the resistance package along, now moving it to his desk for his signature, is a big victory for Trump as well as for congressional Republicans who say no taxpayer dollars should be flowing to NPR or PBS.

However, public media executives say this is a real blow not just for the stations, but for the United States writ large. They say that the services provided by public media cannot easily be replicated elsewhere. They're talking about things like emergency alerts and local programming that's produced by some of these smaller stations. There are more than 1,500 stations that currently receive federal subsidies, and they vary widely in scale and scope. Some of these bigger stations in metro areas will be able to lean on viewers and listeners for donations.

[02:10:00]

However, smaller stations in rural areas and hard-to-reach areas, they may suffer the most. And advocates for public media have said some of those stations will have to go off the airwaves altogether as a result of this defunding.

It's hard to say what the other exact impacts will be because the funding will dry up over time, but we know some stations have said they will have to lay off staffers and cut back on programming in a variety of ways.

Overall, this defunding will make the public media system weaker, meaning that fewer new shows will be developed. Maybe the next "Reading Rainbow" or the next "Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood" won't be developed for television at all. Of course, in this streaming era, there are arguably more options than ever.

And Republicans in the House and Senate say there's simply no need to fund NPR and PBS anymore. They have succeeded, putting an end to more than 50 years of publicly-funded media in the U.S.

Brian Stelter, CNN.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BRUNHUBER: The White House says President Trump has been diagnosed with chronic venous insufficiency. Now, Secretary Karoline Leavitt says the president has recently noticed mild swelling in his lower legs and underwent an examination.

We have more now from CNN's chief medical correspondent, Dr. Sanjay Gupta.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, so we're talking about chronic venous insufficiency, venous, referring to the veins. We know arteries carry blood away from the heart, veins return blood back to the heart. When there's a problem with the veins, as the president's diagnosis suggests, that means that blood cannot return as easily, and people often develop swelling, swelling around the ankles, and that's what has gotten a lot of attention lately.

Now, I will point out, back in April, the president had a physical exam, and there was no mention of venous insufficiency, no mention of swelling at that time.

So now fast forward three months, we know there is a significant problem, and that is really what prompted this exam, this swelling that has occurred over the past few months. They looked at his blood. No evidence that there was any problem that should be causing this. They looked for blood clots, which can sometimes block the veins, making it harder for blood to return through the veins. No evidence of blood clots. They looked at his heart to make sure the heart had good function and that it was pumping blood well through the body. That appears to be the case. And they did an ultrasound of the legs, and that's how they diagnosed this, again, this chronic venous insufficiency.

So that is the diagnosis. The goal of treatment really is to try and decrease that swelling and move that blood back up through the body, sometimes simply elevating the legs at night, so sleeping with a couple pillows underneath your ankles and your feet. That can sometimes be helpful. Using things like compression socks, that can be helpful as well. And, obviously, encouraging the person, in this case the president, to walk around as much as possible. Sitting, that tends to be something that can make this venous insufficiency worse.

So, non-life-threatening, pretty common problem, especially as you get older, and also probably has nothing to do with what we've seen with his hands. People have noticed bruising on his hands, really, you know, going back several months, even to February.

The doctors commented on this as well and said, basically, this looks like it is primarily irritation to his hand, maybe due to lots of handshaking, on top of the fact that he takes aspirin as a blood thinner. Those things in combination could cause that bruising that we see in his hands. They try to cover that up with makeup, but you can see that bruising on his hand there in those images.

Again, common problems, non-life-threatening but, guys, that's a little bit of a sense of what the president is dealing with.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BRUNHUBER: All right, still ahead, Donald Trump gave Moscow 50 days to reach a ceasefire with Ukraine or face sanctions. We'll tell you Moscow's response next.

And as Russia's war on Ukraine looms over Europe, the leaders of the U.K. and Germany are hailing what they say is a historic treaty between their countries. Details after the break. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[02:15:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BRUNHUBER: Russia and Ukraine carried out another exchange as part of an agreement brokered during peace talks in Turkey. A senior aide to Russian President Vladimir Putin says Russia delivered the bodies of 1,000 Ukrainians back to Ukraine. In return, Ukraine delivered the bodies of 19 Russian troops.

Meanwhile, Moscow says it does not accept what it calls threats from Donald Trump. On Monday, the U.S. president gave Russia a 50-day ultimatum for a peace deal or face sanctions.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARIA ZAKHAROVA, RUSSIAN FOREIGN MINISTRY SPOKESPERSON (Through translator): Let me remind you, once again, that the language of ultimatums, blackmail, and threats is unacceptable to us. We will take all necessary steps to ensure security and protect the interests of our country. In such conditions, the urgency of the tasks is achieving the goals of the special military operation.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRUNHUBER: Moscow launched deadly salvos across Ukraine overnight into Thursday, according to local authorities, killing at least six people. At least 48 people were wounded over the past 24 hours, according to Ukrainian officials.

The leaders of the U.K. and Germany are touting a wide-ranging treaty between their two countries amid a backdrop of Russia's war on Ukraine. The treaty impacts a number of key issues, including defense and immigration.

We get more details now from CNN's Fred Pleitgen in Berlin.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: This agreement is being hailed as historic by British Prime Minister Keir Starmer as well as German Chancellor Friedrich Merz. Keir Starmer saying that it is the first of its kind between these two nations.

[02:20:01]

Now, the agreement covers 27 pages and there's a lot of important things in it. First and foremost, cooperation between Germany and the United Kingdom on immigration, the economy, transport, energy, but then also, and this is very important, on defense as well.

Now, all this comes, of course, as the war in Ukraine continues to rage on, causing a lot of uncertainty here in Europe. But then also as a lot of European NATO partners are uncertain with the Trump administration whether or not the United States would still fully stand up for European nations if there was a larger conflict here on the continent.

Now, Keir Starmer called Germany, one of the United Kingdom's closest allies, as he met with Friedrich Merz. Here's what he said.

KEIR STARMER, BRITISH PRIME MINISTER: I see it very much as evidence of the closeness of our relationship as it stands today, the strength of our boundaries, the strength of our joint approach, but also very much as a statement of intent, a statement of our ambition to work ever more closely together, closest of allies, and whether that's on defense, security, trade, the economy, energy, covers so much in this treaty. And so, this is a really historic signing of a historic agreement, and it's very, very good to welcome you here in order to do so.

PLEITGEN: As far as defense is concerned, we did read a little bit of that agreement, and the U.K. and Germany say that they want to work together to create longer-range weapons, deep-strike capabilities as they put them, capable of reaching up to 2,000 kilometers, then also cooperation on drones, and as they put it, on strengthening NATO's eastern flank.

All of this, of course, coming as we are seeing European countries increasingly standing up for the continent's security, especially if we look at the United Kingdom, France, Germany, but also Poland as well, coming together as the United States and its commitment to European security seem to be hanging up in the air.

Fred Pleitgen, CNN, Berlin.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BRUNHUBER: President Trump's crackdown on American universities might be giving China's higher education system a big boost. We'll have that story and much more coming up next. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[02:25:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BRUNHUBER: U.S. Senate Democrats are ringing the alarm after President Donald Trump's nonstop attacks on American universities. They're warning that the Trump administration's policies targeting international students and slashing research funding is -- quote -- "ceding global leadership to China." That's according to a new report released by Democrats on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. They also cite examples, including President Trump's sweeping tariffs and the dismantling of USAID.

Chinese universities are now rapidly climbing global rankings, accelerating America's loss of top talent to its primary geopolitical rival.

I want to bring in Senthil Nathan, managing director and co-founder of Edu Alliance. He joins us now from Abu Dhabi. Thank you so much for being here with us.

So, we've seen the Trump administration heightening visa screenings and threatening to revoke Chinese student visas. When universities lose a significant number of international graduate students, what happens in the classroom and in the research labs? What are professors and administrators telling you about the immediate effects?

SENTHIL NATHAN, MANAGING DIRECTOR AND CO-FOUNDER, EDU ALLIANCE LTD.: Good morning, Kim. It's an excellent question. What happens is, first of all, in the universities, the meritocracy goes down. Typically, international graduate students, they form the top 10 to 20% of any graduate class. And when you start losing them, it has many-fold impact.

First of all, in the classrooms, whether it's teaching, learning, research, the level of competition goes down. It actually does not help the local American students as well. Secondly, the professors work on major grants, research, basic research, applied research, and the international graduate students really form a major part of those grant work.

BRUNHUBER: Hmm.

NATHAN: Typically, in the STEM area, the international students form almost 40% of the graduate student workforce.

BRUNHUBER: Wow.

NATHAN: So, there's many-fold impact on the -- especially the top universities.

BRUNHUBER: Yeah. And then beyond the classroom, I mean, we hear a lot about America's innovation economy. So, what role do these international students play in starting companies and creating jobs, for instance, here in the U.S.?

NATHAN: Yeah. Right after graduation, you know, the pathway, first five years of an international graduate to get a green card or whatever, it takes five to six years, at least. During that time, they really work hard. They either do startups or join a major company like Google, Amazon, all kinds of tech companies. They contribute a lot for less than the market price. Same thing with the startups. They would bootstrap, do whatever it takes to succeed.

[02:30:00]

So, that's the culture. Normally, they will collaborate with an American colleague student, so that they understand the market.

And so, it's -- the Google startup is a case in point. It was a Russian graduate student and an American student set up at Stanford and started the company together.

So that happens at many, many levels in biomedical realm, and A.I.

KIM BRUNHUBER, CNN ANCHOR: So, I -- if I can jump in, I mean, China seems to be the beneficiary here, at least that's what Democrats are alleging. As I mentioned earlier, they're saying that the U.S. is ceding global leadership to China. And we've seen in recent years, Chinese universities have jumped dramatically in global rankings.

So, from your perspective as a -- as a higher education consultant, what specific advantages are Chinese universities gaining by what's happening now here in the U.S.?

NATHAN: Yeah, it's a twofold one. Top Chinese students no longer want to or can come to the U.S. That's a huge talent pool. That stays back.

And I understand a number of them helped in the A.I. revolution. It's not only China. The same thing is happening in India. Another major player in technology.

And right where I am in the United Arab Emirates, when I came to this country 35 years ago, there were just two universities. There are 100 universities today in the 35 years. Many of them are in the top 200, and they are pushing the envelope. Even where I'm sitting in Abu Dhabi, they are one of the top three countries in the world in artificial intelligence and related technologies.

BRUNHUBER: So we've been talking about sort of the hard factors, you know, benefits the economy and so on and so forth. But there are soft factors, too here. You've talked about the long-term benefits of international students, that students who go back home and become these champions of American values may become public officials in their countries.

So how does this brain drain potentially damage America's global influence in that sort of more soft power?

NATHAN: Yeah, this is a wonderful question. In the 1940s, Institute of International Education, IIE understood this. Even the world war in Japan, if you go through the history, it was started by a student, former Japanese student, who was not treated well in the U.S. and flips on the other side. Someone like myself who studied, who did PhD in the '80s, I still have all my connections, my natural tendency is to support U.S. universities, U.S. companies, U.S. partners.

And that goes without saying, whichever country you go back to, Saudi Arabia, China, India, you will see that they champion U.S. style or U.S. based companies and organizations.

BRUNHUBER: We shall see what the both the short term and the long- term effects of these Trump administration policies on universities will have. Really appreciate getting your expertise.

Senthil Nathan, thank you so much.

NATHAN: Thank you.

BRUNHUBER: All right. We'll be right back. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[02:38:00]

BRUNHUBER: Britain's King Charles has opened a new wing named in his honor, at a Major Center for Islamic Study in the U.K. In addition to cutting the ribbon on the site, the king also launched an education program at the Oxford Center for Islamic Studies, which is celebrating its 40th anniversary. His majesty has a longstanding relationship with the institution, serving as patron since 1993.

Well, it looks like Santa Claus may have to put his sled in storage for now. There's no snow in the official hometown of Father Christmas in Finland. The area is actually experiencing a heat wave.

CNN's Allison Chinchar reports. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ALLISON CHINCHAR, CNN METEOROLOGIST (voice-over): Santa's helpers are trading snow for swelter in Finland as temperatures in the northern town of Rovaniemi, the official hometown of Santa Claus on the Arctic Circle, are reaching over 30 degrees Celsius, or 86 degrees Fahrenheit.

And the Finns are soaking up the rare hot weather.

TOLVO KOIVU, ROVANIEMI RESIDENT AND DJ: It's pretty good. I like it. It's hot. I don't think it's this hot too often here.

CHINCHAR: Summer temperatures typically fall around 20 degrees Celsius or 68 degrees Fahrenheit in northern Finland, but this warmer weather is only becoming more common. And even rivaling parts of mainland Europe.

KOIVU: I was on vacation for a few weeks, going down through Europe with the interrail, with a few of my buddies and it was very hot. And we thought that when we would come back to Finland, it would be cooler like normally. But no, it's actually the same weather as down south.

CHINCHAR: It might be time for Santa to retire his sleigh and pull out a floatie instead.

Allison Chinchar, CNN.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

[02:40:01]

BRUNHUBER: I'm Kim Brunhuber. "WORLD SPORT" is next. Then, I'll be back at the top of the hour with more news.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[02:45:00]

(WORLD SPORT)