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French President Makes Historic Decision Amid Gaza War; Border Battle Escalates Between Thailand and Cambodia; Family Speaks About Son Held by Russia; Epstein Accomplice Meets with Trump's DOJ; Judge Finds Five Canadian Hockey Players Not Guilty; Heavy Rain Causes Flash Flooding In New Mexico; Pro Wrestling's Hulk Hogan Dead At Age 71. Aired 2-2:45a ET
Aired July 25, 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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KIM BRUNHUBER, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome to all of you watching us around the world. I'm Kim Brunhuber. This is "CNN Newsroom."
French President Emmanuel Macron making a historic decision amid the war in Gaza. What France is preparing to do at an upcoming U.N. General Assembly meeting and why the U.S. and Israel are condemning it.
Tensions reaching a boiling point between neighboring Asian countries. We'll the latest on the deadly border battle between Thailand and Cambodia that has already displaced more than 100,000 people.
And the U.S. Department of Justice meeting with the jailed accomplice of accused sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein as calls grow louder for the White House to release the remaining Epstein files.
UNKNOWN (voice-over): Live from Atlanta, this is "CNN Newsroom" with Kim Brunhuber.
BRUNHUBER: International pressure is mounting for Israel to end the war in Gaza. British Prime Minister Keir Starmer says the crisis has reached new depths with the suffering and starvation of Palestinians -- quote -- "unspeakable and indefensible." He will hold an emergency call with the leaders of France and Germany in the coming hours.
President Emmanuel Macron says France will officially recognize a Palestinian state at the U.N. General Assembly in September. He posts on X -- quote -- "The urgent priority today is to end the war in Gaza and bring relief to the civilian population."
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu condemned the move as rewarding terror and creating a launch pad to annihilate Israel.
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio called the decision a slap in the face to the victims of October 7th. In Doha, Qatar, ceasefire talks have ended with the U.S. and Israel withdrawing their negotiators. U.S. Special Envoy Steve Witkoff says Hamas has no desire to agree to a deal. Hamas described those comments as malicious, biased, and dishonest, and part of the ongoing psychological warfare aimed at justifying Israeli aggression.
UNICEF is the latest aid group demanding action to feed the starving people of Gaza. The group reports malnutrition-related deaths among children in Gaza are up 54% since April. UNICEF says more than 100 people have died from malnutrition, 80% of them children.
In an exclusive interview with CNN, the Palestinian authority prime minister suggested Israel must open more border crossings to get aid into Gaza. Here he is.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MOHAMMAD MUSTAFA, PALESTINIAN AUTHORITY PRIME MINISTER: There's no reason to continue this war. We already said to Hamas that for the sake of our people, for the interest of our people, for the national interest, we need to move on, we need to end this war. And I think they are doing -- from what we understand, they are doing the best they can, being as helpful as they can. If they are not doing that, we invite them to come and do this as soon as possible for the sake of our people. But clearly, the problem, the real problem, we believe, is still on the Israeli side.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BRUNHUBER: Israel insists it is getting aid into Gaza, but it blames Hamas for keeping it from starving people.
CNN's international diplomatic editor Nic Robertson visited the Kerem Shalom border crossing on Thursday to see the situation for himself.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR (voice-over): Reporting at Israel's biggest border crossing to Gaza, the silence is the story.
ROBERTSON: This is the Israeli side. In the distance, beyond the concrete there, you can see the sort of yellow tunnel. That's Gaza.
ROBERTSON (voice-over): But just beyond that wall, hundreds of trucks worth of aid for distribution in Gaza piling up, causing an apparent logjam in logistics.
ROBERTSON: And that has been the big point of contention between the Israeli government and the U.N. The Israeli government say that they are passing food aid across this border into Gaza. What the U.N. officials are saying is, yes, but we can't just come and pick it up.
STEPHANE DUJARRIC, U.N. SECRETARY GENERAL'S SPOKESPERSON: The Kerem Shalom is not a McDonald's drive-through where we just pull up and pick -- up what we've ordered. Right? ROBERTSON: This big, empty car park space --
ROBERTSON (voice-over): The U.N. spokesman saying Israel intentionally throttling back aid supplies through onerous controls.
DUJARRIC: There are tremendous bureaucratic impediments.
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There are tremendous security impediments. And, frankly, I think there's a lack of willingness to allow us to do our work.
ROBERTSON (voice-over): Israel staunchly defending its actions. Its president visiting the crossing, blaming Hamas for disrupting aid supplies and forcing stringent security controls.
ISAAC HERZOG, PRESIDENT OF ISRAEL (through translator): We are acting here according to international law. We are providing humanitarian aid according to international law. The ones trying to sabotage this aid are Hamas and its people.
ROBERTSON (voice-over): Their images are shocking the world. International fears are mounting. Worse is yet to come.
ANTONIO GUTERRES, U.N. SECRETARY GENERAL: Starvation is knocking on every door. And now, we are seeing the last gasp of a humanitarian system built on humanitarian principles.
ROBERTSON (voice-over): Across our broadcast this day, an isolated moment of hope.
ROBERTSON: Yeah, there are already trucks. I am going to step out of the way just now so P.J. John Torre (ph) can get some shots of them.
ROBERTSON (voice-over): The only aid convoy we saw heading to Gaza, about a dozen trucks for the heavily criticized US-Israeli-run Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, GHF, not for the U.N.
ROBERTSON: The aid that has been going in here, according to international officials, according to the U.N., according to European leaders, is absolutely insufficient. This handful of trucks we have seen, a drop in the bucket, according to what medical officials inside of Gaza are saying is required. One of the heads, the directors, of one of the main hospitals inside of Gaza today said what Gaza needs right now is 1,500 trucks like these every day for a month to alleviate the problem.
ROBERTSON (voice-over): Nic Robinson, CNN, Kerem Shalom border crossing, Israel
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BRUNHUBER: A second day of border clashes between Thailand and Cambodia is prompting evacuations and raising tensions in Southeast Asia. The Thai military says fighting resumed early Friday morning with an exchange of small arms fire, heavy weaponry, and artillery. The Thai army warned clashes were happening in several areas along the disputed border and the death toll is rising. At least 15 people have been killed and 46 wounded in Thailand, including civilians and soldiers. Across the border, at least one person has been killed and five wounded in Cambodia.
More than 100,000 people have moved to shelters in Thailand, while more than 4,000 people have been displaced in Cambodia. Residents on both sides of the border say they're scared for their safety after hearing explosions and gunfire.
We go live now to Hong Kong and CNN's Kristie Lu Stout. So, Kristie, this conflict continues to escalate. Take us through the latest.
KRISTIE LU STOUT, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Kim, the fighting has continued along the Thai-Cambodian border. The death toll has been rising. Some 100,000 people in Thailand displaced as a result of this fighting. The tension is indeed simmering in the wake of those deadly clashes that took place between these two Southeast Asian neighbors.
On Thursday, Thailand carried out those airstrikes, targeting military installations inside Cambodia, using both F-16 fighter jets as well as drones. That happened after deadly clashes along several areas on their shared border resulted in the deaths of 15 people in Thailand, including 14 civilians. One person has been reported dead in Cambodia.
I want to show you this video that has been circulating widely on social media, showing just the sheer numbers of people who have been displaced as a result of this fighting. Here, you see scores of civilians along the Thai-Cambodian border. They are trying to evacuate. You can see them in the distance there, in that line. Gunfire is heard in the background of this video. Thai border police also seen on site.
Now, we have been seeing reports and following reports of what the Thai military has been using to respond to these clashes and to target Cambodia. They've been using F-16 fighter jets as well as drones.
And in this next video, you're going to see an example of a Thai drone dropping a bomb on a munition cache in Cambodia, right there on your screen. And we're also following reports from Cambodia accusing the Thai military of using cluster bombs, and we're trying to get confirmation on that accusation.
Now, villagers and civilians on both sides of the border are fearing for their lives. We've been collecting accounts from villagers in Thailand as well as in Cambodia, including a 45-year-old mother of four who witnessed one of these clashes, and she shared her story. Listen to this.
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UNKNOWN (through translator): It was about 8 o'clock this morning. Suddenly, I heard a loud noise. My son told me it might be thunder. And I thought, is it thunder or is it loud, more like a gun?
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At that time, I was very scared.
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LU STOUT: Thailand and Cambodia have a long and complicated relationship characterized by both rivalry and cooperation. They share an 800-kilometer-long border, that's roughly 500 miles long, and that has been a source of military friction over the years, clashes, as well as political upheaval. Back to you, Kim.
BRUNHUBER: I appreciate that. Kristie Lu Stout, thanks so much.
LU STOUT: Thank you.
BRUNHUBER: The Ukrainian family is holding out hope for their son who has been held by Russia for more than three years. They're getting word about his possible treatment from released prisoners of war and it's not easy to hear. We'll have that story ahead.
Plus, remembering a legend. How Hulk Hogan shaped pro wrestling and the legacy he leaves behind. We'll have those stories and more next. Stay with us.
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BRUNHUBER: Ukraine's president says he's following through on his pledge to push new anti-corruption legislation. On Thursday, he said he gave the go-ahead to a draft bill that'll strengthen the independence of anti-corruption agencies. Here he is.
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VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY, PRESIDENT OF UKRAINE (Through translator): As I promised, to achieve justice, it's designed for the law enforcement and anti-corruption bodies to get valid guarantees of independence of anti-corruption bodies.
BRUNHUBER (voice-over): President Volodymyr Zelenskyy promised the bill after facing his first major anti-government protest since the war with Russia began. Protesters were angry over a separate bill he signed on Tuesday, which critics say would have hurt the independence of anti-corruption agencies. Zelenskyy said the agencies have been influenced by Russia. But he relented the next day and promised legislation to uphold their independence.
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BRUNHUBER: Russian drones and missiles rained down on Ukraine a day after peace talks failed to get much traction. The targets included the city of Odessa, where reports say one person was killed and at least four others injured on Thursday. The attack damaged the city's downtown, which is a UNESCO heritage site.
Ukraine says its second largest city, Kharkiv, also took a hit, which set cars on fire in a residential neighborhood. Officials say two people were killed and at least 33 others injured.
Russia and Ukraine agreed on future prisoner swaps at their third round of talks in Istanbul on Wednesday, but they made no apparent progress on a possible ceasefire.
Well, now to a Ukrainian military family who are breaking their silence about their son. He's a prisoner of war held by Russia for more than three years. His family believe he faced a harsh treatment in captivity, but they didn't want to speak in public until now. Rafael Romo has the story.
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UNKNOWN (voice-over): We are not afraid to die on our land, in our city.
RAFAEL ROMO, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It was one of the last times they heard his voice before being captured. The Russians kept shelling their last bastion mercilessly.
UNKNOWN (voice-over): We keep fighting every day under heavy airstrikes.
ROMO (voice-over): By mid-May 2022, they had run out of ammunition, surrounded by the enemy, hungry and thirsty after a weeks-long siege.
Fewer than 2,500 Ukrainian soldiers were still holding a steel plant in the city of Mariupol, facing a stark choice, surrender or die.
By the end of May, they had all been captured, and according to a witness, 400 had died there.
ROMO: It has been more than three years, Lyudmyla, since your brother was captured. What would you like to tell us about him?
LYUDMYLA LEYVA GARSIYA, SISTER OF POW HELD BY RUSSIA: He's a brave man. He was one of those soldiers who was trying to defend Mariupol from Russian occupation.
ROMO (voice-over): Sitting with her father and mother, Lyudmyla Leyva Garsiya says just about the only thing they know about her 27-year-old brother, Juan Alberto, is that he's still alive.
ROMO: Do you know where he is and what condition he's in?
GARSIYA: It's really hard to get any information about prisoners of war who are held in Russia. We could get some information from other exchange soldiers.
ROMO (voice-over): Recently released POWs have told the family that Juan Alberto, who was fighting for his native Mariupol, was first sent to Olevnivka, in Ukraine's Russian-occupied Donetsk region, before being transferred to Luhansk, and finally to the Perma Krai Region in Russia.
ROMO: For the first time since the beginning of the war, the POW's family is speaking publicly. They are no longer afraid, they say, to speak about what they consider gross violations of international law by Russia under the Geneva Conventions that say POWs must be treated humanely.
ROMO (voice-over): Conditions are terrible, his father says, based on what a recently released POW told him. The food is terrible. They're forced to stand for 16 hours. They can't move. If they do, they're beaten up. They can't speak to each other.
Russia and Ukraine have agreed to prisoner swaps several times since the beginning of the war, including last September when malnourished but in good spirits POWs returned home, including one who was unable to walk.
They didn't do anything wrong other than defending their country, their families and their homeland, the POW's mother says. That's the most important thing the world has to understand about them.
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The wait for this POW family has been agonizing.
UNKNOWN (voice-over): We want to survive, to save our people, and to continue the fight for our country.
ROMO (voice-over): His father, a Cuban immigrant to Ukraine, says he hopes the captured soldier still remembers what he taught him as a little boy, a phrase the young soldier would repeat when he was under siege in the Mariupol steel plant. Homeland and life.
Rafael Romo, CNN, Atlanta.
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BRUNHUBER: As calls continue for the Trump administration to be more transparent about the Jeffrey Epstein files, Epstein's sex trafficking co-conspirator, Ghislaine Maxwell, is facing a second day of questions from the U.S. Justice Department. Plus, relief, outrage, and lingering questions after a group of Canadian hockey players were cleared of sexual assault charges. We'll have reaction to the verdict coming up. Stay with us.
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BRUNHUBER: Jeffrey Epstein's co-conspirator, Ghislaine Maxwell, faces a second day of questioning by the U.S. deputy attorney general on Friday. Maxwell is serving 20 years for trafficking and grooming underage girls for Epstein. The meeting comes as pressure builds on the Trump administration to deliver on promises of transparency with regard to the Epstein case. Here's Paula Reid.
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PAULA REID, CNN CHIEF LEGAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: The Trump Justice Department's high-profile discussions with Ghislaine Maxwell will continue into a second day Friday.
Attorney for Maxwell said that his client answered all the questions that she was asked truthfully and to the best of her ability, and did not invoke any privileges when she was talking to Justice Department lawyers on Thursday. He did not get into the substance of what was discussed nor did Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche when he tweeted following their meeting.
But the fact that this is headed into a second day is pretty surprising here. There are still a lot of outstanding questions. First is, what is the administration willing to offer her? A pardon? A commutation? All things that President Trump has the power to do for Maxwell.
But there are lot of questions about what exactly she would have to offer, because this is someone who has long had an incentive to cooperate with the government. She's currently serving a 20-year prison sentence, and the time to reveal valuable information would be before you are facing a sentence like that.
But we know the Trump administration is under enormous pressure to make it look like they are moving the ball on this Epstein matter after they've been facing a firestorm following the attorney general's declaration that she would not be releasing any additional material.
So, what we're looking for is any sign that this is more than just political theater and there is potentially something of substance happening between the Justice Department and Maxwell.
But even if she has some sort of material, some sort of information that she wants to share with the government, she does come with credibility issues. She has been charged in the past related to her truthfulness, and she is a convicted sex trafficker. Any effort to strike a deal with her or give her some leniency will result in backlash from victims and victim advocates.
Paula Reid, CNN, Washington.
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BRUNHUBER: In the hours ahead, President Trump will take off for a golf getaway in Scotland and talks with the British prime minister. But there's no indication he'll get away from the Epstein firestorm. A recent poll from Quinnipiac University found 63% of American voters disapprove of how the Trump administration has handled the Epstein files and just 17% approve.
I want to bring in Natasha Lindstaedt, who's a professor of government at the University of Essex, and she's with us from Vienna, Austria. Thank you so much for being here with us again. So, for President Trump, the Epstein crisis is only intensifying. In general, Republican voters still seem to be backing Trump. But I quoted those stats about how the public view his handling of the issue. Any numbers out there that suggest it's actually costing him support?
NATASHA LINDSTAEDT, PROFESSOR OF GOVERNMENT, UNIVERSITY OF ESSEX: So, it definitely is costing him some support. How much? We don't know yet. It's too early to tell because we're still in the early stages of dealing with this Epstein crisis.
And you cited the Quinnipiac poll. We have a few other polls showing that most Americans disapprove. In fact, there's only, according to a recent YouGov poll, 22% of Americans that think he had been handling the crisis well, echoing what was revealed in that Quinnipiac poll. So, people are pretty dissatisfied with the way he's handling things.
Now, has it affected his overall approval rating? Well, there have been a lot of things going on that could have caused a dip in his approval ratings, which have been trending downwards. And somewhere, it's around 40% at the moment.
But what we've seen with Trump, which is really amazing about his approval rating, it doesn't move that much up or down. It tends to be around high 30s to mid-40s, and that's a really big contrast with, say, Bush, Jr. or Bush, Sr., whose approval ratings reached somewhere around 90% at their height and lows of somewhere between 25% and 29%. So, we haven't seen that type of dip yet affect him.
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But I want to point to a recent YouGov poll that shows that amongst those that consider themselves conservative, we're starting to see him dropping in support.
So, this YouGov poll looked at conservatives in May and found that he had 88 percent support. This has now dropped to 81 percent support as of July.
So, while we don't see him hemorrhaging support from Republicans, all of these different things, whether it be the Big, Beautiful Bill, the tariffs, the looming tariffs, and this Epstein scandal seem to be chipping away a little bit at his overall support from the general public, of course. And Republicans more generally.
KIM BRUNHUBER, CNN ANCHOR: Yeah. And part of the problem he has, of course, is despite the fact that he's telling everybody to drop it, Congress isn't letting go of the issue. The Trump administration is under considerable pressure to release more information from members of his own party.
LINDSTAEDT: Right. And we see that Representative Thomas Massie of Kentucky has continued to be a bit of a thorn in his side and saying on Monday that he was going to ensure that more information was released. But what Trump does have and what he can basically benefit from is that Speaker Mike Johnson has been so incredibly loyal to him. You know, he was incredibly helpful in getting the Big, Beautiful Bill passed.
But we see that he was also willing to do an about face on this Epstein scandal issue. He had originally said that he wanted to have transparency, that they were going to release all the information, and then he decided to shutter Congress early, even at the expense of the Republicans own agenda, because there were different things that they wanted to vote on.
But it was all very bizarre. They decided that they were going to close up early. And he did this because there's just too much pressure on him to release information that he thinks would be damaging to Trump himself.
BRUNHUBER: Yeah. Democrats, of course, are really seizing on this issue. Trump, meanwhile, is trying to distract by going after former President Obama forcing a task force to investigate, investigate claims that Obama and his administration used false intelligence to suggest Russia interfered in the 2016 presidential election.
Do you think that will succeed in distracting folks from this issue?
LINDSTAEDT: No, I don't think it will. I'm going to point to a CBS poll that showed that 90 percent of Americans want this information on the Epstein files to be released. I mean, how often do we have 90 percent of Americans agreeing on things? In this era of so much polarization? So, I think the pressure is going to be mounting for him to be -- to be more transparent. And it's not just from Democrats, but it's also from Republicans and those within the MAGA movement are probably sounding the ones that are sounding the alarm the hardest.
I mean, he can try to distract by talking about Hillary Clinton or Obama or Joe Biden or other random people that in different things, he tries to throw out. I mean, I think the other day he had a press conference where he said he was going to reduce pharmaceutical drug costs by 1,000 percent, which isn't mathematically possible.
So, he's throwing all kinds of things in the air, hoping that something will stick. But we see that the public and particularly members of his own movement are really sticking to this, and they want more information to be released, and they're not satisfied by the different ways that he's trying to deflect and distract.
BRUNHUBER: Yeah, it's a good point about the public's unanimity on the issue, the one thing that people can agree on, as you said.
Natasha Lindstaedt, thanks so much. Appreciate it.
LINDSTAEDT: Thanks for having me.
BRUNHUBER: The high stakes ruling in a Canadian sexual assault case is sending shockwaves through the world of ice hockey and far beyond. Five former Canadian junior players who went on to play in the National Hockey League were found not guilty of sexually assaulting a woman in a hotel room in 2018.
A female judge rendered the verdict. She said she didn't find the alleged victims testimony to be credible or reliable. The accuser's attorney said her client is very disappointed by the ruling and feels she was mocked and insulted during cross-examination. It's not clear if there will be an appeal.
All right. CNN NEWSROOM continues after a short break. Please stay with us.
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BRUNHUBER: You see those dramatic pictures, heavy rain triggered new flash flooding in the U.S. state of New Mexico. In this video, you can see a mobile home swept away by the rushing water. More than 50 millimeters of rain fell on the burn scar of the recent South Fork Fire. The nearby river rose three meters in just 15 minutes. The town of Ruidoso has eight flash flood warnings. Just this month.
Firefighters battled to control a massive wildfire in Cyprus on Thursday. Two people were found dead in their car as the fire raged in the villages north of Limassol. A searing heat wave is currently affecting the mediterranean, with multiple wildfires raging in Turkey. Europe has sweltered this year under a series of deadly heat waves.
Pro-wrestling legend Hulk Hogan was known for his powerful, tanned body, larger than life personality and shirt tearing routine. He has now died at the age of 71. He was pronounced dead in hospital after emergency crews responded to his home in Florida on reports of someone having a cardiac arrest. Born Terry Bollea, he was widely recognized as the biggest wrestling star of all time.
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In the '80s and '90s, he helped shape world wrestling entertainment into the -- into the behemoth it is today. Hogan was also known for his politics. A Donald Trump supporter, he even appeared on the last night of last year's Republican National Convention. Police say his death is not considered suspicious, but an investigation is ongoing.
All right. Thanks so much for joining us. I'm Kim Brunhuber.
"WORLD SPORT" is next, and I'll be back in 15 minutes with more CNN NEWSROOM.
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