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The E.U. and the U.S. Agrees on a Trade Deal; Prime Minister Netanyahu Denies Starvation in Gaza, Aid Gets Into Gaza; Thailand and Cambodia Begin Peace Talks; Bystanders Take Down Stabbing Suspect in Michigan; ICE Raids in California Could Take a Toll on the Economy; High Heat, Strong Winds Fuel Wildfires In Southern Europe; Chinese Coffee Chain Luckin Opens First U.S. Locations; Trump Makes Unfounded Accusations About Beyonce & Harris; New York Health Experts Defend Fluoridation Of Drinking Water. Aired 2-3a ET

Aired July 28, 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)

LYNDA KINKADE, CNN HOST: Hello and welcome to our viewers joining us from all around the world. I'm Lynda Kincaid. Just ahead, the U.S. reaches a trade deal with the E.U., but negotiations are still underway with many other countries, including the world's second largest economy.

Aid finally trickles into Gaza with many Palestinians on the brink of starvation. But Israel's Prime Minister is pointing fingers.

And how immigration raids in California could have a real impact on the U.S. food supply.

U.S. President Donald Trump has a busy day ahead in Scotland after reaching a framework for a trade deal with the E.U. on Sunday. He is expected to meet with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer in the coming hours. And although he sealed a trade deal with the U.K. last month, President Trump says this meeting will be a celebration of that agreement.

With the U.S.-E.U. trade deal, President Trump announced includes a 15 percent across-the-board levy on imports from the E.U. and $600 billion of E.U. investments in the U.S. The E.U. will also increase its purchases of U.S. energy and military equipment. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and the U.S. President praised the deal.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: I think it's great that we made a deal today instead of playing games and maybe not making a deal at all. I think it's a -- I'm going to let you say, but I think it's the biggest deal ever made. Thank you very much.

URSULA VON DER LEYEN, EUROPEAN COMMISSION PRESIDENT: Thank you very much.

I think we hit exactly the point we wanted to find. Rebalance, but enable trade on both sides, which means good jobs on both sides of the Atlantic, means prosperity on both sides of the Atlantic, and that was important for us.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KINKADE: Well, CNN's Jeff Zeleny is in Edinburgh with the details.

JEFF ZELENY, CNN CHIEF U.S. NATIONAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: A big economic week ahead for President Trump that really kicked off today here in Scotland with that deal between the United States and the European Union. Now this had been in the works for some time, but it was a bit of a surprise announcement after an hour-long meeting with President Trump and the President of the European Commission sitting down and suddenly announcing that they had a deal.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: I think you were saying this is probably the biggest deal ever reached in any capacity, trade or beyond trade.

VON DER LEYEHM: It is.

TRUMP: It's a giant deal with lots of countries because as you know, Ursula represents a lot of countries, not one country.

VON DER LEYEN: It will bring predictability. That's very important for our businesses on both sides of the Atlantic. It was tough negotiations. I knew it at the beginning and it was indeed very tough, but we came to good conclusions from both sides.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ZELENY: And this deal certainly becomes a prelude for other deals still to come with Mexico, with Canada, most importantly and urgently perhaps with China. U.S. officials and Chinese officials are scheduled to meet in Stockholm on Monday and Tuesday to continue their round of negotiations on their tariff deal.

Now this is all part of President Trump's effort to really change up the global trading order. China has been certainly a sticking point on that. Tariffs that have been put in place really have had little economic effect in China. So that certainly is the next challenge for the Trump administration. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent will be on the ground in Stockholm trying to work through this.

The President, meanwhile, will be holding a meeting on Monday with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer here in Scotland. Gaza, of course, front and center in that, but also putting the finishing touches on the U.K. tariff deal as well. That is a 10 percent across the board tariff deal. Certainly, a better deal some would say than the European Union.

Then the president moves on to his final day here in Scotland. He'll be opening a golf course in honor of his mother in Aberdeen.

KINKADE: Thanks to Jeff Zeleny there. Well, in the hours ahead, envoys from the U.S. and China will hold their third round of trade talks as we wait to see how much longer the truce between the world's two largest economies can hold. The American delegation led by Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, will be meeting in Stockholm with the Chinese Vice Premier and his team. The 90-day pause in the country's trade war will expire on August 12.

[02:04:59]

If the two sides fail to strike a deal or agree to an extension, China is expected to enter the talks with fresh confidence after delivering better than expected growth in the second quarter. And the U.S., of course, has sealed a flurry of recent trade deals. President Trump also appears to have somewhat softened his tone towards China and has spoken enthusiastically about visiting President Xi Jinping in the not too distant future.

Well, let's get a quick look at the Asia Pacific markets right now which looking there, it's at very much mixed. Nikkei down, the Shanghai down, but the Hang Seng and Seoul up at ever so slightly. We'll continue to keep an eye on those markets for you.

Larry Sabato is the Director of the University of Virginia's Center for Politics. He's also the editor of "A Return to Normalcy: The 2020 Election that Almost Broke America." He joins us now. Good to see you, Larry.

LARRY SABATO, DIRECTOR, CENTER FOR POLITICS, UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA: Thank you, Lynda. Nice to see you.

KINKADE: So the E.U. avoided the worst case scenario, 15 percent tariffs instead of the 30 percent that was threatened. But it still puts E.U. exporters at a disadvantage compared to the U.K.'s 10 percent rate. So should this be seen as a victory?

SABATO: I don't think anything we've seen so far on the trade terror front is a victory for anybody. You know, the terror prior to Trump was between 1 and 2 percent, varied pending on what you included in it. These tariffs are going to have a major economic effect. We're just not sure precisely what they will be. But I think the losers mainly will be American consumers.

It is going to cost Americans more to go through their average week and month and year. It will probably increase inflation and at least some economists think that it could weaken the economy to the point of having at least a mild recession. We'll see what happens, but this is an adventure that that Donald Trump may eventually regret.

KINKADE: Yeah. And given that millions of jobs and entire industries depend on what the E.U. calls the world's largest bilateral trade and investment relationship. What do you believe will happen in terms of any sort of lasting stability or are we more likely to see potentially more volatility ahead? SABATO: I think with Trump you always bet on volatility. And of course there's so many moving parts since so many countries, and not just including the major trading partners, but the lesser trading partners, are affected by this and have to negotiate a tariff rate that can change overnight.

You know, Trump constantly is juggling new figures and new demands, and it's very difficult for the world to adjust to him and his temperament. That's never a good thing for stability.

KINKADE: And we're just looking at pictures right now of the E.U. Commission President, Ursula von der Leyen, meeting with the President at his Turnberry Golf Resort. The weekend certainly blurred lines between political diplomacy and personal business promotion. Does this raise ethical concerns or questions about the appropriateness that the fact that he had used, you know, this weekend not only to have these political meetings, but also promote, you know, a new golf course?

SABATO: This is standard operating procedure with Donald Trump. He mixes his private business and interests with his public business and his office, the highest office in the land for the United States. This is not just true of him. It's true for the family, his family and all the businesses connected to it. We have never had a president do this before. Never.

There have been little hints of it here and there, but this has set an entirely new standard and a very bad standard that we hope will last only for this one presidency. But there's no guarantee of that.

KINKADE: Yeah. And of course, these E.U.-U.S. negotiations come just before the latest round of U.S.-China tariff talks. What kind of message do you think this sends Beijing? Is the U.S. signaling flexibility or potentially drawing a harder line?

SABATO: For China. China's in a better position than most are. Their economy is doing better. They feel secure in what they're presenting to the United States, and they're willing to play hardball with Trump in a way that a lot of other countries aren't. We'll find out what happens in Stockholm, and we'll find out what the Treasury secretary on the U.S. side is able to achieve.

But for China, I 4think they're willing to stretch it out. They know they can get by and deals with other countries that they have problems with the United States.

KINKADE: Larry Sabato, it's always great to have you with us. I hope you get some cool weather in the next few days. Thanks for your time.

SABATO: Thank you, Lynda. Thank you.

KINKADE: Well, the World Health Organization is warning that malnutrition rates in Gaza have reached alarming levels as the hunger crisis gripping the enclave continues to get worse.

[02:10:05]

The Israeli Prime Minister denies that Palestinians are facing starvation.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BENJAMIN NETANYAHU, PRIME MINISTER OF ISRAEL: Israel is presented as though we are applying a campaign of starvation in Gaza. What a bold- faced lie. There is no policy of starvation in Gaza and there is no starvation in Gaza.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KINKADE: Well, 74 deaths related to malnutrition have been reported in Gaza so far this year and 63 of those happened this month. That's according to the WHO. Even though Israel is not now allowing more aid to flow, Hamas says there is no point in continuing ceasefire talks while the crisis gets worse.

Well, President Trump is again blaming the militant group for last week's breakdown in negotiations. He says Hamas does not want to give up more hostages because then they will lose its leverage.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: Israel's going to have to make a decision. I know what I do, but I don't think it's appropriate that I say, but Israel's going to have to make a decision.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KINKADE: With more on the dire situation in Gaza, I want to go to CNN's Nic Robertson.

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: It's not really clear if President Trump there is pushing Prime Minister Netanyahu to make a deal or do what the president said a couple of days ago, which is go in and finish it off. But for right now, the aid is beginning to flow a little more freely than it was. Jordanian and Emirati aircraft dropped 25 tons of food and humanitarian supplies, airdropped it into Gaza today.

A hundred trucks were on the move from Egypt with 840 tons of flour, 60 trucks on the move from Jordan, all headed for Gaza for these new humanitarian corridors that the IDF is putting in place and those tactical pauses. Now the IDF says that they're still fighting Gaza, they're still fighting Hamas, that Gaza is still an active conflict zone, but these temporary tactical pauses of six to eight to 10 hours in certain areas are designed to allow the U.N. and other organizations to get those aid trucks in safely and disperse the aid.

And this really looks like something of a climb down by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to allow this greater amount of aid coming in. And he's taking a lot of heat for it politically from ministers in his own government who saying the only thing we should be sending into Gaza right now is bombs. So the Prime Minister does seem to have walked back from a very tough position.

That said, he is saying that it's the U.N. that's been lying about the aid situation, that it's Hamas is responsible for the shortages of food, and that Israel is doing nothing more, nothing different than what it's been doing over the recent months. That these aid corridors, if you will, have always been available to the U.N. That doesn't seem to correlate with what the U.N. understands, but bottom line, it does appear to mean that more aid will get in. For how long, it's not there.

KINKADE: Thanks to Nic Robertson there. Well, Thailand and Cambodia say they're ready to negotiate peace after a border dispute erupted into deadly violence this week. We'll bring you the latest next.

Plus, how bystanders were able to stop a man accused of stabbing nearly a dozen people at a Walmart in Michigan.

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[02:15:00]

KINKADE: Welcome back. Next hour, leaders from Thailand and Cambodia are set to attend peace talks in Malaysia. This is the first major attempt to find a resolution after deadly clashes that erupted last week. The worst cross-border violence there in more than a decade. At least 35 people have been killed and more than 200,000 displaced, most of them civilians. U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio says State Department officials are in Malaysia to assist in the negotiations. And U.S. President Trump renewed his threats to withhold trade deals with Thailand and Cambodia unless they end the fighting.

CNN's Kristie Lu Stout joins us now from Hong Kong. Good to see you, Kristie. So this is an urgent effort to resolve their differences. Can these talks in Malaysia bring peace to the border?

KRISTIE LU STOUT, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, Lynda, we will soon find out when these talks will be kicking off at the top of the hour. You have the leaders of Thailand and Cambodia, soon meeting in Malaysia for mediation talks. The talks will take place in the prime minister's office in Kuala Lumpur at 3:00 p.m. local time. This, as the fighting continues to rage along their shared border, fighting for the fifth day in a row since those deadly clashes broke out on Thursday.

More than 35 people have lost their lives in the fighting. More than 200,000 people have been displaced. Now there have been growing international calls for peace, including from the U.S. President Donald Trump. We did hear from the Cambodian Prime Minister who confirmed he will be at this meeting. He said this is a meeting that is co-organized with the United States, with the participation of China. And he also said this in a Facebook statement. Let's bring it up for you.

This is the Prime Minister of Cambodia, soon to take part in these talks, saying, quote, "The purpose of this meeting is to achieve an immediate ceasefire, which was initiated by President Donald Trump. and agreed to by both prime ministers of Cambodia and Thailand. I'd like to thank the prime minister of Malaysia, Anwar Ibrahim, for his initiative and coordination to organize and host this special meeting." Now the Thai government says that its acting prime minister is in Malaysia, will be attending these talks in the last couple of hours. He spoke to the media about what to expect. And this is what we heard from him saying this, quote, "The first thing to discuss will be an immediate ceasefire. And this needs to be discussed in a bit more detail. The main point today is that we will meet with Hun Manet. This is the Cambodian leader. This elevates the discussion to the leader level."

Look, Thailand has said this before. It wants a bilateral meeting with Cambodia, but we have yet to receive any confirmation from Cambodia or Malaysia, the host of this meeting, whether or not that will happen.

[02:20:05]

But these two Southeast Asian neighbors, Thailand and Cambodia, have had a long and very complicated relationship. They share this 800 kilometer long land border, which has been a source of much military tension and clashes over the years.

The latest flare up in violence can go back to May of this year. That was when a Cambodian soldier was killed. And soon after that, tension just ratcheted up even further after the leak of that controversial phone call between the now suspended Prime Minister of Thailand, Paetongtarn Shinawatra, and Hun Sen, the former but still powerful leader of Cambodia.

And now these two neighboring countries entering day five of fighting, neighbors and residents on both sides of this border fearing for their lives, all eyes on whether this upcoming meeting will be able to broker some peace. Back to you.

KINKADE: All right. Kristie Lu Stout, we will talk again next hour. Good to have you on the story. Thank you.

STOUT: Thank you.

KINKADE: Well, two people were found dead after walking on a walking trail in Arkansas on Saturday. Police say they're treating the case as a double homicide. The victims are a 43-year-old man and a 41-year-old woman. They were hiking with their two young daughters in Devil's Den State Park. Police say the area is remote and rugged with no cell service. Police have not released the causes of the death but say that the victim's daughters are uninjured. Investigators say the suspect is a white man who is wearing gloves and dark clothing.

Nearly a dozen people were injured on Saturday after a man began stabbing people at a Walmart in Michigan. A couple of bystanders jumped in and were able to stop the alleged attacker from hurting anyone else. CNN's Rafael Romo reports.

RAFAEL ROMO, CNN CORRESPONEDNT: Officials say it appears a lone attacker, identified by authorities as Bradford James Gille of Afton, Michigan, chose his victims at random. He has been charged with one count of terrorism and 11 counts of assault with intent to murder. He will be in court this week and it's unclear if he has an attorney. It all started at about 4:45 in the afternoon inside a Walmart store in Traverse City, a small community on the shore of Lake Michigan.

According to Grand Traverse County Sheriff Michael Shea, the 42-year- old suspect entered a Walmart in Garfield Township and suddenly attacked people in the store's checkout area. The sheriff said the attacker stabbed a total of 11 people with a folding knife. Sheriff Shea also said other people shopping at Walmart took it upon themselves to stop the suspect and force him to drop the knife once he got out of the store, as we will see in the following video obtained by CNN.

Among those who successfully subdued the assailant were Matt Kolakowski and his brother-in-law Chris O'Brien, who were in Traverse City for a family vacation. Kolakowski said he first rammed the attacker in the ankle with a shopping cart and then tossed it at him until another man pulled out a gun on the suspect, forcing him to drop the knife. Kolakowski served in the U.S. Marines, he in active duty in Iraq nearly 20 years ago, and he said, the man who pulled out a gun on the suspect also served in the Marines.

Grand Traverse County Sheriff Shea said one of his deputies arrived at the scene within one minute and took the suspect into custody.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MICHAEL SHEA, SHERIFF, GRAND TRAVERSE COUNTY, MICHIGAN: At the time of the deputy's arrival, multiple citizens, including one who was armed with a pistol, were confronting the male suspect in the parking lot and preventing him from harming further people and leaving. The deputy took the suspect into custody without further incident.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMO: After helping subdue the attacker, the Marine veteran then helped take care of the wounded. Realizing he was a Marine veteran, an officer handed Kolakowski a couple of med packs and asked them to help treat those injured applying tourniquets to stabbing victims who were still in shock. Rafael Romo, CNN, Atlanta.

KINKADE: Well, California's massive agriculture industry relies on migrant workers, but many are terrified to go to work due to the ICE raids. We'll talk about the toll that's taking next.

Plus, thousands of residents are fleeing as flames threaten the fourth largest city in Turkey. Still ahead, the latest on the wildfires raging across southern Europe.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[02:25:00]

KINKADE: Welcome back, I'm Lynda Kinkade. The Trump administration is pursuing its hardline anti-migrant policy at all costs. Standoffs like this are common as masked ICE agents conduct raids across the country, detaining people who live and work peacefully in the U.S. The vast majority of undocumented migrants arrested since October have never been charged with a crime. And it's already taking a toll on the U.S. economy. The state of California's $60 billion agriculture industry.

The state produces one-third of all vegetables sold in the U.S. and two-thirds of all nuts in the country are grown there. And raids are taking place during peak harvest season where now undocumented workers are forced to choose between going to work and facing arrest or staying home and missing out on pay.

Sandra Reyes is program manager at TODEC Legal Center. It's a nonprofit organization that provides a lifeline for many immigrants and their families in California. Thanks so much for your time.

SANDRA REYES, PROGRAM MANAGER, TODEC LEGAL CENTER: Well, thank you for inviting us.

KINKADE: So Sandra, can you start by telling us what you are seeing in recent ICE activity? How frequent are these raids, especially where you are?

REYES: Yes, people on the ground are scared. Even those with legal status are worried about their loved ones. The ICE raids create fear in their community. Some stop going to work and avoid public places. And it breaks our economy and makes people feel unsafe, even when they are trying to live and work peacefully.

KINKADE: And we are hearing reports about individuals who are wearing masks. without any identification papers conducting what appears to be arrests. Have you or all your colleagues encountered this and what do you believe is happening in those cases?

REYES: We are providing some resources about know your rights and we have present for people who the rights can support themselves about these masked agents.

[02:30:06]

For now, we don't have something -- some clarification about these are real agents or another type of agents. But it's important to know the rights, to protect yourself about you have the right to remain silent, to have the right to ask about the judicial warrant. And it is help to our community to keep calm.

KINKADE: Sandra, we've heard from people who work in agriculture in California. Some of them have spoken to our colleagues. I just want to play some sound from a woman who calls herself Patricia.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REPORTER: Yes, I am scared, Patricia says. She's heard of American citizens and legal temporary workers getting detained by ICE agents. She says they just come and sometimes even hit you before asking if you have authorization to work or not.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KINKADE: Sandra, can you talk to us more about that fear in the immigrant community? Are you hearing from people who won't even turn up at work right now?

REYES: We have been -- notices fewer farm workers. And as well, we have an extreme weather. So, this is very hard because when the people don't go to work, the economy affects and it also affects the mental health of our communities.

For example, in the Coachella Valley, we have faced serious mental health crisis. Some workers have taken their own lives because they felt hopeless -- hopelessness and could find another way out. So, this is very sad about this situation in our communities.

KINKADE: Yeah, I mean that's horrific. And of course, this is an industry that relies on undocumented immigrants, right? Up to 75 percent of Californias farm workers are estimated to be undocumented migrants, according to the U.S. Department of Labor and various labor advocacy groups. What reaction are you seeing from the industry?

REYES : If we lose the farmworkers, workforce or the industry workforce, we lose the base of the economy, not just in California, in the -- but in all the United States. These workers are essential for our economy. And if they don't go to the work, it affects all of us.

KINKADE: Sandra Reyes, appreciate your time. Thanks so much for joining us and all the very best.

REYES: Thank you.

KINKADE: Well, still to come, hundreds of wildfires have spread across southern Europe. What's fanning the flames of the outbreak, when we return.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[02:35:34]

KINKADE: At least three people are dead and several others seriously injured after a passenger train derailed in southwestern Germany. About 100 people were on board when at least two carriages left the tracks in a wooded area near the French and Swiss borders on Sunday. Germany's national rail operator says the cause of the accident is unclear, and that it would support the authorities in their investigation.

Well, strong winds, dry conditions and unusually high temperatures are fueling a growing outbreak of wildfires across southern Europe.

CNN's Ben Hunte has the latest on firefighting efforts in the region.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BEN HUNTE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): By night, wildfires in Turkey look straight from a horror movie. An onslaught of fiery red flames with an appetite for destruction that's fed by extreme conditions on the ground. The full dangers of the fires are exposed in the daylight. Thousands of people are evacuating the north and northwest of the country because of the massive fires, as thousands of firefighters try to battle back the flames.

Temperatures are surging in the region, often topping 40 degree Celsius or 104 degrees Fahrenheit, which is drying out the ground. That's making it even more difficult for firefighters to contain the blazes. In Greece, volunteers are pitching in to help. Like in this town north of Athens, where the flames have been turbocharged by more than just the heat.

PETROS AVRAMOPOULOS, LOCAL RESIDENT: The wind is terrible. You see what's happening here? The speed. One moment. The fire is here, the next its across. Everything is very fast.

HUNTE: Fires have also been raging in nearby countries like Kosovo and Albania. Thermal drones have been deployed in some places to identify hotspots and help helicopter pilots coordinate their missions. In Bulgaria, it's a team effort on the ground to put out one fire, with firefighters using shovels to smother the burning brush.

But it wasn't enough to save some houses from being consumed by the smoke and flames.

ZVEZDELIN VLAYKOV, EMERGENCY VOLUNTEER: There will be quite a few houses burned down. It's a merciless moment, a tragedy. I haven't seen anything like this. In all my years of fighting fires, I haven't seen anything like this and it will burn for another month.

HUNTE: A month that could look and feel like hell, as firefighters across southern Europe fight wildfires in their peak season.

Ben Hunte, CNN.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KINKADE: Despite the ongoing trade war, Chinese chains are still coming to America, looking to cash in on the lucrative U.S. market. Well, one of the latest brands is Luckin Coffee, which is ready to go head-to-head with Starbucks and other popular U.S. chains.

CNN's Vanessa Yurkevich and Marc Stewart report from two different countries on China's push to court Americans.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

VANESSA YURKEVICH, CNN BUSINESS AND POLITICS CORRESPONDENT: America's latest coffee chain isn't from America.

MARC STEWART, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It's from where I live. Luckin Coffee is from China.

YURKEVICH: Luckin just opened its first two locations right here in New York City. They are huge in China.

STEWART: Here in China, Luckin overtook Starbucks back in 2019. Right now it has about 22,000 stores across the country. You can understand why it has its eye on the U.S.

YURKEVICH: How did you hear about Luckin?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I actually heard about it from TikTok. Apparently, it's China's number one coffee chain. So, we really wanted to try it. It's actually really good.

STEWART: Here in China, Luckin is known for its cheap prices. This is a specialty latte with oat milk. It only costs about $1.25 U.S. dollars.

Do you think they'll be successful in the United States?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If they are cheaper as they are in China now, I think they will -- coffee is coffee.

YURKEVICH: All right. We got some cold brews here. Ice drinks started about 4.50 and go up from there. Luckin isn't the only Chinese beverage company to come to the U.S. Heytea, a really popular tea brand in China, has been here in the United States since 2023.

STEWART: Heytea is very popular among young people here in China. It's very sweet, but there's also a fresh taste to it.

YURKEVICH: The Chinese-owned company Pop Mart did $1.8 billion in sales last year, and about 23 percent of that came from outside of China, primarily because of these guys.

[02:40:01]

STEWART: Even before the Labubu craze, Pop Mart was popular here in China. This is its theme park in Beijing.

While there's a lot of hype about some of these Chinese brands coming to the U.S. here in China, American brands like McDonalds have been part of life here for years.

YURKEVICH: Chinese companies are moving to the United States at the same time that were in a trade war with China. But U.S. consumers don't seem to care. They just want a good cup of coffee or their chance to get their hands on the ever elusive Labubu.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KINKADE: Our thanks to Vanessa Yurkevich and Marc Stewart on the opposite sides of the world.

(VIDEO CLIP PLAYS)

KINKADE: "Fantastic Four: First Steps" rocketed to the top of the U.S. box office over the weekend. It raked in a whopping $118 million. The new superhero flick ousted its competitor "Superman" for the number one spot. The reboot appears to be a major comeback for Marvel. It's the best weekend performance for a Marvel film this year.

Well, thanks for joining us. I'm Lynda Kinkade. For our international viewers, "WORLD SPORT" is up next. And for our viewers here in North America, I'll be back with much more CNN NEWSROOM in just a moment. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[02:45:27]

KINKADE: Welcome back. I'm Lynda Kinkade.

Beyonce, Oprah, Kamala Harris, all of them were mentioned by the U.S. president in a social media post filled with accusations, and all are now targets of online threats fueled by Trump and his supporters.

CNN's chief media analyst Brian Stelter breaks it down for us.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BRIAN STELTER, CNN CHIEF MEDIA ANALYST: An incredible weekend, she closed out her Cowboy Carter Tour with a sold-out performance in Las Vegas, gaining lots of positive headlines, and, of course, many viral videos from the show.

But then there was also this headline about Beyonce, not exactly a positive one, in some ways an absurd one. This is a fact check from CNN's Daniel Dale of a totally made up claim from President Trump about Beyonce. Quote, "Trump calls to prosecute Beyonce based on a nonexistent $11 million payment."

And "nonexistent" is the key word here. The president seemingly telling everyone how he wants his Justice Department to behave, pointing to prominent celebrities, all liberals, and saying they should be prosecuted. The only thing Trump is missing is any actual crime. Theres no evidence of a crime here, but he's calling out Beyonce, Oprah Winfrey and Al Sharpton for their support of his rival. Last year, then vice president Kamala Harris.

This is the continuation of a narrative that Trump has pushed for months. The difference now is that he's actually using the word prosecute. So, let's take a look at the Beyonce case in a little more detail. This is from Daniel Dale's fact check over the weekend.

He says that the Trump claim is that Democrats admit to paying probably illegally, $11 million to singer Beyonce for an endorsement from Harris. Now, the actual little nugget of truth here is that Beyonce's production company was paid $165,000 from the Harris campaign for the work, putting on a rally last fall. So, a small amount of money that was conflated by right wing message boards and memes last fall into a $10 million payment.

That idea of a $10 million payment was made up, and now Trump has inflated it even further to $11 million. Again, that small payment to the production company, that's not unusual. But for Trump's followers, this post is a little bit of a verbal form of his vow to gain retribution against his perceived enemies.

In another example, over the weekend, Trump railed against American tv networks, saying, quote, networks aren't allowed to be political pawns for the Democrat Party. It has become so outrageous that, in my opinion, their licenses could and should be revoked. Now, TV station licensing has always been a nonpartisan apolitical

affair in the United States. Now, even if Trump's loyalists who oversee licensing wanted to revoke licenses from NBC or ABC or CBS, it would take a very long time and it would get tied up in the courts.

But even though Trump isn't getting what he wants in these cases, he's not getting Beyonce behind bars or NBC off the airwaves. It is still concerning to free speech and free press advocates to know that those are the ideas that he is sharing with his followers, potentially softens the ground for more autocratic actions in the future.

Brian Stelter, CNN.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KINKADE: The U.S. aviation authorities are investigating an incident that forced more than 150 passengers to evacuate an American Airlines flight. It was about to depart from Denver to Miami on Saturday, when one of the planes tires apparently had a mechanical issue, sparking a fire. Passengers say they heard a loud bang and saw flames before being evacuated onto the runway. One person had to go to hospital for minor injuries.

Well, U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has pledged to make America healthy again, which includes a campaign against fluoride. Two states, Utah and Florida, have already banned fluoride in public drinking water.

Now, the FDA is gearing up to ban the prescription supplements. Health experts are alarmed, citing studies touting the benefits of that mineral. New York City's water has had fluoride added in it for decades.

Officials there tell CNN's Leigh Waldman the fluoride is safe and here to stay.

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LEIGH WALDMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Every building in New York City, from your favorite pizza shop to the corner store bodega, has water from New York City's watershed running through it.

ROHIT AGGARWALA, COMMISSIONER, NYC DEPARTMENT OF ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION: New York City's water is one of the great assets we've got as a city.

WALDMAN: Often referred to as the champagne of drinking water, New York City's water is carefully monitored by the Department of Environmental Protection.

AGGARWALA: Our job is to make sure that we are adding the precise amount of fluoride within a very narrow band.

[02:50:03]

Too little and it doesn't do its job. Too much. And it could be harmful.

WALDMAN: Every day, more than 1 billion gallons of water is taken from this reservoir, and 18 others to help supply New York City's drinking water. It's the largest unfiltered water supply in the United States. Since 1966, fluoride has been added in.

The city's acting commissioner of health says this addition is important to the health of New Yorkers.

MICHELLE MORSE, ACTING COMMISSIONER, NYC DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH: First and foremost, our priority in the water in New York City and in all the locales across the country is that it be safe and healthy.

WALDMAN: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention named fluoridation of drinking water one of the ten great public health interventions of the 20th century. It's recommended the fluoride concentration is 0.7mg/l of water, about equal to three drops of water in a 55-gallon barrel.

Now, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is advising to remove it altogether.

MORSE: I'd be concerned about kids who live in families where getting into preventative care is very challenging, and there are tremendous barriers to care, unfortunately, in New York City.

WALDMAN: Studies have found water fluoridation reduces tooth decay by about 25 percent in children and adults. HHS and the EPA are reviewing a report from the national toxicology program linking high levels of fluoride more than double the recommended amount to lower IQ in children. But there was insufficient data to determine the impact of lower levels.

MORSE: It's always important to question science to ask hard questions, even for standards that have been established. However, that has been done, and it's been shown over and over again that the amount of fluoride that we put in the water in New York City is safe and healthy.

WALDMAN: Dr. Vicky Evangelidis-Sakelson with Columbia University's Dental College agrees with many in her field that fluoride in water is safe and effective. She thinks politicians should leave science to the experts.

DR. VICKY EVANGELIDIS-SAKELSON, INTERIM CHAIR, COLLEGE OF DENTAL MEDICINE, COLUMBIA LINK: It is a complex problem and they should give money and funding to do the studies. So when we talk, we talk based on data and we don't talk based on feelings.

WALDMAN: In New York, I'm Leigh Waldman.

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KINKADE: Well, portions of the Midwest and Northeastern U.S. are under flood and storm threats. Officials say there's a slight risk of excessive rain in the Midwest and the Northeast, and parts of eastern Missouri that flooded over the weekend could see more flooding Monday. On Sunday, flash floods prompted officials to declare a state of emergency in the city of Elsberry, Missouri.

The National Weather Service says a temporary lull between storms conditions just below the catastrophic criteria. But additional storms are expected to threaten that area.

Well, CNN's Bill Weir visited an area in Georgia that routinely faces a high risk of flooding, and he learned how emergency officials are preparing for the next big weather event. It turns out cell phones are part of the answer.

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BILL WEIR, CNN CHIEF CLIMATE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): On a hot day in the mountains of north Georgia, few places are more inviting than the Chattahoochee River. And tubing the hooch on days like this makes it easy to forget that the same waterway providing so much joy can take life and property in a flash.

And when the Chattahoochee turned deadly 16 years back, it changed both Georgia and Laura Belanger, one of the top hydrologists in the south.

LAURA BELANGER, SR. SERVICE HYDROLOGIST, NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE ATLANTA: So I am in the position I'm in today because of the September 2009 floods. I was young in my career at the time, and there were 10 fatalities in the state of Georgia. That left a lasting impression on me, and wanting to kind of see how we could do better with our hydro services and getting those warnings out, that's what helped be a catalyst for those flash flood warnings to be included in wireless emergency alerts.

WEIR: Today in the tourist town of Helen, Georgia, those wireless alerts and weather radios are the only sources of flash flood warning. Because in a place like this, sirens might confuse people to run for low ground from a tornado instead of high ground from a flash flood.

It's been a long time since the water topped that 10-foot marker. It hit 12 feet back in '67, and while there have been some swift water rescues in recent weeks, most people don't remember really high water.

That's the thing that struck me in Texas there. It reminded me more of covering a tsunami in Japan where children were swept away while they debated what to do because no one could imagine the worst. And when you're watching tubers here, you can't imagine that water turning deadly.

BELANGER: It's hard to get, especially with how shallow it is at the moment, it is hard to digest what a big amount of water coming through here would look like and how it's inundated.

WEIR: And she is especially worried about Enchanted Valley just over the hills. The folks living in these permanent trailers sit smack-dab on the Hiawassee River next to one of the flashiest river gauges in the nation. [02:55:06]

BELANGER: And so those are the places that keep me up at night. Regardless of the amount of readiness or preparation, the fact that there are people and property that close to the river, that's what the concern is.

The biggest question we get is when we see a 100-year flood plain and maybe the water level has risen to this point, and someone says oh, thank goodness we don't have to deal with this for 99 more years -- and it happens. The reality is what that means is that there's a one in 100 chance of occurrence of a given year of that happening again.

WEIR: Right. But that math is changing, right?

BELANGER: But that math changes over time as you --

WEIR: Yeah.

BELANGER: -- see flooding occur more frequently.

WEIR: The kind of flood that happened once every 100 years could now happen every decade, the experts tell us from the First Street Foundation. This is a nonprofit that maps flood risks around the country.

The CNN climate team partnered with them to try to evaluate which communities are most vulnerable to a disaster like we saw in Texas and from Santa Barbara, California to the Catskills of New York, from Nogales, Arizona to Appalachia. We found this combination of topography that creates the flashiest floods, lack of warnings systems, a lot of tourists who may not understand the risks.

You can find all of that at CNN.com. And as the country sets records this summer for flash flood watches and warnings, knowledge could be the difference between life and death. Back to you.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KINKADE: Our thanks to Bill Weir there.

Well, he has just won his fourth Tour De France title. And today, Pogacar has cemented his status as one of cycling's greatest. After an exciting final stage of the three-week-long race, Pogacar safely crossed the finish line on the Champs Elysees in Paris, securing the iconic yellow jersey for the second consecutive year. He finished four minutes and 24 seconds ahead of his rival. Well done.

Well, thanks so much for your company this hour. I'm Lynda Kinkade. I'll be back with much more CNN NEWSROOM in just a moment. Stay with us.

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