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President Trump Announces New Tariff Deals To Global Trade; Asia Pacific Market Falls On New U.S. Tariff Rates; President Trump Sends Witkoff And Huckabee To Gaza For Inspection; Gazans Risking Life For Food; Russia Claims Capture Of Ukraine Towns. Kyiv Denies Loss; Severe Turbulence Hits Delta Flight; Mediterranean Beaches Affected By Erosion; Erosion Affecting Mediterranean Beaches, Communities; Learning To Windsurf In The Heart Of A Major City. Aired 2-2:45a ET
Aired August 01, 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]
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KIM BRUNHUBER, CNN HOST: Welcome to all of you watching us around the world. I'm Kim Brunhuber. This is "CNN Newsroom." President Trump is pushing his tariff deadline to next week as he unveils who will pay what under his new plan.
Washington's Middle East envoy about to see for himself a controversial Gaza aid distribution site as Hamas lays out its conditions to resume ceasefire talks. And Russia claims it has captured a key city a claim Ukraine denies.
The global trade war is intensifying as the Trump administration unveils historic new policies. Many of the countries that didn't make trade deals with the U.S. are finding out what kind of tariffs they'll soon face. The White House had insisted the self-imposed August 1st deadline was firm. No extensions, no grace periods. But we're now told the tariffs won't be implemented for another week because U.S. Customs and Border Protection needs more time to deal with the upheaval.
Countries with a trade surplus will face a universal 10 percent tariff rate, and about 40 countries, which the U.S. has a trade deficit, will pay 15 percent.
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HOWARD LUTNICK, COMMERCE SECRETARY: The president is smashing open all the world's markets. So that's growth, right? Finally, our ranchers, our fishermen, our farmers, our entrepreneurs and our businesses can finally sell into Europe, into South Korea, all these countries finally open. So that's huge growth. Then we've got this huge revenue stream, right, from the tariffs. So that's going to knock down our deficits. That's really good.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BRUNHUBER: Meanwhile, the U.S. President has bumped up Canada's tariffs to 35 percent. That applies to goods not covered under a prior trade agreement. Meaning many items can still cross into the U.S. without import taxes. And many Mexican products won't face duties either for that same reason. Donald Trump also announced Thursday that he'll pause higher tariffs on Mexico for another 90 days, keeping them at 25 percent. Now China and the U.S. have yet to strike a trade deal, but do have a trade truce in place for now. CNN's Marc Stewart is live in Beijing. So Marc, the trading day is well underway in Asia. What are you seeing?
MARC STEWART, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Kim, what we are seeing, what we are hearing, what we are experiencing is a lot of anxiety as these potential tariffs, well these tariffs now, really do have the potential of upending the way the world does business. This is going to have an impact not only on individual nations but collectively it's going to create a lot of anxiety and lot of unknowns.
We are getting some more reaction. Let me share with you what we are hearing now from the Canadian Prime Minister. We got some remarks just in the last few hours from Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney where he says Canada will be its own best customer saying we can give ourselves more than any foreign government can ever take away by building with Canadian resources and workers to basically solidify the future to benefit all Canadians.
So, this is a long-time American ally that now has a significantly strained relationship with the United States. As far as here in Asia, the anxiety is certainly being shown in the markets. We are seeing declines across the board. Among the biggest losses today is in South Korea, where its benchmark index, the KOSPI, has been seeing declines at times of around 3 percent. This is after an agreement was reached with the United States yesterday. But the day after, it's not necessarily being digested with welcome arms.
These trade policies, these tariff policies, certainly could have an impact on consumers around the world, but also companies in their long-term decision-making. Listen to what one analyst told CNN.
[02:05:00]
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CAROLINE FREUND, DEAN, UC SAN DIEGO SCHOOL OF GLOBAL POLICY & STRATEGY: My biggest fear actually is the investment that's not happening because companies don't know how much their inputs are going to cost. Companies don't know how much it's going to cost to sell things in the U.S. or elsewhere. So there's just kind of a lot of sitting on their hands, which is going to slow down growth around the world.
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STEWART: And it's that concern that is one reason why global markets may be struggling today. Trading begins in Europe in just a few hours. Markets in the U.S. open up in seven and half hours. Looking at the pre-market future action, we are seeing declines, including the S&P 500, which is so important for all of our retirement accounts. So, Kim, perhaps not unexpected, but this is a new reality that is setting in for many nations around the world.
BRUNHUBER: Absolutely. Marc, appreciate that. Marc Stewart in the Chinese capital. Thank you so much. I want to bring in Bill Lee, chief economist at the Milken Institute and former managing director at Citigroup and he joins us now from Los Angeles. Thank you so much for being here with us. So, how did President Trump managed to get so many countries to agree to deals that seem impossible just months ago?
WILLIAM LEE, CHIEF ECONOMIST, MILKEN INSTITUTE: I think President Trump has taken on the kind of strategic bargaining that President Kennedy did during the Cuban Missile Crisis. A lot of brinksmanship, credible threats, but also a respectful kind of treatment of people where you say to countries, you either partner with us, come in, invest in the United States, and you'll have lower taxes, fewer regulations, and smaller government.
But if you choose to be a competitor, then you'll face a tariff barrier to keep out unfair competition and as a price of entry into the world's largest marketplace. So that has been his overriding theme ever since he was elected. And I think a lot of countries now are realizing that if you partner, you get 10, 15 percent low tariff rates or zero tariff rates as the U.K. has gotten on aircraft and other things. But if you choose to compete and produce abroad and ship it into the United States, as China has decided to do, you'll get to face some pretty hefty time barriers.
BRUNHUBER: Yeah, I have to say it's not often that Donald Trump is compared to Kennedy. Now, we saw this sort of push-pull, the urgency of these deadlines and then that sort of flexibility to push them on. We remember that nickname, right? Tacos Trump always chickens out, and yet again, he seems to be pushing it another week. But generally, mean, this strategy seems to have paid off, right?
LEE: Very much so, and I think the strategic movement of deadlines and but, every time he's moved the deadline, he's insisted on verifiable changes in investment flows, purchases of U.S. goods, and opening up of markets. I think the trick behind bargaining, I think many countries have discovered, in particular the E.U., is that if you really play along with the rules, which is to say invest the U.S., buy energy products, buy American products, open up your markets, you're going find a very welcoming audience here.
And those countries that have not done that, Switzerland being one of them, they were not part of the E.U. bargain and they have not promised to buy a lot more U.S. products, they find themselves with higher tariff rates. And I think this is the way that I think you should analyze tariffs, less so the textbook examples of tariffs are the invention of the devil. They distort resources and make the world worse off.
Instead, he's using tariffs as an incentive for countries to invest in the U.S. There's a theorem in economics that says if you don't have lot of movements of goods across borders, but if you can create a lot of factor flows like capital and labor, that can substitute and all the benefits from trade can be gotten by moving capital and labor. And I think that's what Donald Trump is doing. BRUNHUBER: Right, all right. So you're very bullish on this and
talking about all the benefits, especially for the U.S., but there are sort of two parts to this question. One, the big question everyone is asking here in the U.S., are we actually going to be paying more for goods because the tariffs or the foreign companies eating the costs like Trump promised. And then the other part of this, the effect on the global economy. Already we saw global markets struggling right now and certainly many fears about the implications and a possible economic slowdown.
LEE: That's a great question. I think the question of who is paying for the tariff is yet to be answered. We saw from the first Trump set of tariffs that the CPI in the U.S. barely moved within the three, four-year period, say about a quarter point. If you look at where financial markets are guessing inflation is going to go over next five years, the average break-even inflation rate has risen in the last two weeks by about a quarter point.
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So the average rise in inflation is estimated to be about a quarter point spread over five years. So I think the best estimates right now by financial markets, because these are billions of dollars being put on the line, people betting one way the other, is that inflation will not be a big issue. Now, in terms of who is paying, because the U.S. is a large country, we are the largest market for many of our imported products, and if we decide to buy less of it, the prices are going to go down.
And so we have a lot of market power, in other words. And I think one of the unknowns would be who bears? Is it the American consumer, the American importer, or the foreign exporter? And that's yet to be decided. And depending on products, it'll be split very differently across the board.
BRUNHUBER: Yeah, still early days as the world works to figure out all the implications of this. Really appreciate your take on it, Billy, in Los Angeles. Thanks so much.
LEE: Thanks for having me.
BRUNHUBER: President Trump's special envoy and the U.S. ambassador to Israel will travel to Gaza in the coming hours. Steve Witkoff and Mike Huckabee scheduled to inspect aid distribution sites and report back to the White House with a plan for further U.S. involvement. Witkoff met Thursday with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, one week after the U.S. and Israel pulled back from ceasefire talks. They blame Hamas for negotiating in bad faith.
Hamas says it will rejoin the talks once the humanitarian crisis in Gaza ends. A senior member of the group says the talks are meaningless as long as Israel's policy of starvation and extermination continues. Now, all this comes amid reports that Israeli forces fired warning shots within inches of a crowd waiting for a U.N. aid convoy in Gaza. CNN's Salma Abdelaziz has more on the perilous effort to get food in a war zone. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SALMA ABDELAZIZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): You're watching an aid convoy as it enters the Gaza Strip.
It's kids. It's children.
Israeli troops firing warning shots just inches away, according to the U.N.
UNKNOWN: No, no, no. Don't do this, don't do this. No, no, no.
ABDELAZIZ (voice-over): This aid convoy was held at an Israeli checkpoint for nearly two and a half hours. So by the time it is allowed to pass, thousands of people are ready to descend. Each face here is etched with fear and desperation. Nothing makes it to the United Nations warehouses.
On the other side of the enclave lies another aid entry point, Zikim. Gazans call it a place of death. For most, there is an arduous journey to get here and then a long wait, often crouched and afraid that death may strike. Suddenly, people start running towards danger. Food has arrived.
Our cameraman hangs back for his safety. As people return, so do the accounts of horror at the crossing. This injured man says he's lucky he made it out alive. You go out to get a bag of flour for your family, he says, but you're the one that returns in a body bag.
Amid global outrage, Israel says it is implementing tactical military pauses for 10 hours a day in limited parts of Gaza to allow more aid into the strip. But even during these so-called pauses, fathers are risking their lives to feed their children. Three hours under fire and tanks beside us just to get this bag, he says. We want the aid delivered to our children safely, peacefully. Please end this siege on us and on our children.
On this day, at least 60 people were killed trying to get food aid according to Palestinian health officials. But the dangers don't end here. Criminal gangs may try to rob them on the way home. Some have armed themselves with household objects just in case. If they make it back, their families will eat tonight. A luxury here where a third of people go one or more days without food. Everyone here is afraid, even the aid workers.
CNN spoke to a local clansman who sent us this video. He says it shows his men providing security to an NGO. Loaded trucks speed down the road as the clansmen fire dozens of warning shots. This is seemingly the only way to ensure the cargo reaches its destination intact.
Law and order has broken down here. That's why Israel says it is now allowing air drops. But the U.N. warns these are inefficient, costly and dangerous. You can see why here, the goods land amid gunfire. Only the strong or armed will grab a box. I got nothing, this woman says. The man behind her adds, the criminals take it and sell it on the black market. This is not a solution. [02:15:04]
These chaotic, limited and deadly sites are now the only way most can get food. Children are left fighting over scraps. Many will go to bed with empty bellies tonight. Salma Abdelaziz, CNN, London.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BRUNHUBER: Kyiv and Moscow are waging a war of words over a key town in eastern Ukraine. Still ahead, Russia posts a video to prove the town has fallen, but Ukraine says nobody should buy it.
And when lightning strikes, most people know to get out of the pool and stay away from trees. The new research shows the risk posed by lightning bolts can stretch much farther than you may think. More details on those stories and more coming up. Stay with us.
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[02:20:00]
BRUNHUBER: U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff will be heading to Russia in the coming days. President Donald Trump made the announcement on Thursday, just days ahead of his new deadline for Moscow to make peace with Ukraine. If it doesn't, the Kremlin could face new tariffs and secondary sanctions by late next week. But Trump also said he's not sure those penalties would make any difference to Russian leader Vladimir Putin.
Ukraine is denying that Russia has overrun the town of Chasiv Yar. The Kremlin claims it has captured the key town west of Bakhmut after fighting for almost a year and a half. The capture could open the door for more Russian advances. As Nick Paton Walsh reports, other towns in eastern Ukraine are also under pressure.
NICK PATON WALSH, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: The eastern front line changing fast. Now Russia's summer offensive is beginning to see some kind of strategic progress. To the southernmost part of the eastern front line, Pokrovsk, that is really at risk of Ukrainian forces finding themselves cut off from resupply inside. That could be a matter of days away and it will be a very difficult decision for Kyiv. Do they keep people under siege or pull out the scarce manpower they now have?
To the north, Kostiantynivka, a similar problem there, Russia advancing fast on two separate areas outside and another risk of encirclement. Russia claiming to the north that it's taken Chasiv Yar. Ukraine disputing that, but that potentially gives them the high ground over the other places they wish to take like Kramatorsk which was today hit by a massive daylight airstrike demolishing a five-story building there. One dead, at least many injured.
To Kramatorsk somewhere, Moscow definitely wants. And to the north as well, Kupiansk, near Kharkiv potentially encircled as well. Look, things are moving very fast it seems along the eastern front line. We've seen months of incremental change but that now appears to be being converted into a strategic gain for Moscow along those front lines. They may slow down in the past, they've not been able to keep the pace up but ultimately it looks like these summer months are putting Moscow closer to its ultimate goals.
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BRUNHUBER: Federal authorities are investigating this Delta flight after extreme turbulence threw passengers, crew, and anything not bolted down into the air. While some passengers spoke to CNN, we'll hear from them next. Please stay with us.
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[02:25:00]
BRUNHUBER: Now to a frightening moment in the skies over the U.S. Passengers on board a Delta flight say they were thrown out of their seats in the most extreme turbulence they've ever experienced. Now, Delta says all the injured crew members and the passengers willing to share their hospitalization status have since been discharged. Two people who were on the flight spoke to CNN about the terrifying moment in the air. Listen to this.
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ADAM NASH, PASSENGER ON DELTA FLIGHT THAT EXPERIENCED SEVERE TURBULENCE: The turbulence was just harrowing. It was just amazing how quickly that could happen and without any warning whatsoever.
LEEANN CLEMENT-NASH, PASSENGER ON DELTA FLIGHT THAT EXPERIENCED SEVERE TURBULENCE: Yes, that was very frightening for us. There was a lot of screaming, a lot of yelling, but it was very sudden. And if you didn't have your seatbelt on, you were probably hitting the ceiling and falling to the floor more than once, as were the carts.
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BRUNHUBER: Now, Adam Nash, the man who we just heard from there, was among the 25 people rushed to hospital. The extreme turbulence injured his ribs when his laptop slammed into his chest. He also saw other passengers hurt and bleeding.
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NASH: There was a gentleman sitting two seats to the left of me. He had sustained a big gash in the top of his head and he was bleeding rather profusely.
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BRUNHUBER: The flight was on its way from Salt Lake City to Amsterdam when the turbulence forced pilots to make an emergency landing in Minneapolis. Thunderstorms were forecast along the plane's route. Federal officials are investigating the incident.
New research is offering fresh insight into the dangers of lightning. A study in the Bulletin of American Meteorological Society found bolts can travel quite far from the storm where they originate. Most lightning travels less than 16 kilometers, but scientists found one bolt in East Texas that crossed 828 kilometers in just seconds. It's called megaflash lightning, and new technology is giving scientists the chance to learn much more about it. The study's authors say the research shows lightning can pose dangers that reach much farther and faster than previously thought.
Some Mediterranean beaches are slowly disappearing. That's because climate change is causing coastal erosion. CNN's Allison Chinchar explains.
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ALLISON CHINCHAR, CNN METEOROLOGIST (voice-over): Summer is in full swing on Mediterranean coasts, but at many of the beaches, something feels smaller. The culprit? Is coastal erosion, as climate change drive sea levels to rise. Scientists say shorelines are retreating.
[02:29:58]
And it's threatening far more than summer fun. In Tunisia, more than 35 percent of the country's beaches are eroding, according to a 2021 World Bank report, affecting tourism, fishing, agriculture and infrastructure.
This fisherman and beachfront restaurant owner relies on the short yet vital tourism season, and every year he watches the shore. He depends on slowly wash away.
MOHAMED AYADI SOUISSI, FISHERMAN AND BEACHFRONT RESTAURANT OWNER: All of this used to be filled with sand, the sea ate it away. Look at these rocks. It's clear the stone wasn't here before. But the sea has worn it down. The sea pushed further in.
CHINCHAR: The low-lying archipelago of Kerkennah, off the coast of Tunisia, has seen particularly harsh erosion from the global phenomenon.
SAMIR LAKBAILI, KERKENNAH RESIDENT AND GEOGRAPHER: Over the last 30 years, we've observed significant erosion of beaches in Kerkennah due to natural climatic factors, mainly rising sea levels caused by increasing temperatures, and human factors such as concentrating many buildings right on the coast, which has blocked the shoreline's natural evolution.
CHINCHAR: On the other end of the mediterranean, in Alexandria, Egypt, yet another devastating reality for many, foundations are cracking and buildings are crumbling as water infiltrates sandy substrate, eroding buildings from the bottom up.
A study published in the journal "Earth's Future" found that coastal building collapses in Alexandria have increased tenfold over the last 20 years, and identified more than 7,000 at risk of collapse.
EMAN MABROUK, ALEXANDRIA RESIDENT: I used to live in another apartment before in a building, and it eventually got slanted. I mean, after two years, we were all living like this, leaning, all of us.
CHINCHAR: Sea levels in the Mediterranean rise faster than many other bodies of water, partly because its shallow sea basin is warming faster.
These images show how sea levels have changed over 22 years, with the water now reaching up to 20 meters farther inland than before.
ESSAM HEGGY, WATER SCIENTIST, USC VITERBI SCHOOL OF ENGINEERING: For many people that see the climatic changes as something that's going to happen in the future, we don't need to worry about it. It's actually happening right now, right here.
CHINCHAR: The solutions, breakwaters, sand replacement and demolition remain slow to catch up to the rising tide, but scientists say the time to act is already slipping away.
Allison Chinchar, CNN.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BRUNHUBER: Learning to windsurf in the heart of a major city. Still ahead, CNN's Mike Valerio rides the waves running through the middle of Seoul.
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[02:37:28]
BRUNHUBER: With K-pop and Korean TV shows sweeping the world's soul as a global cultural hotspot, the latest trend in the South Korean capital is windsurfing.
CNN's Mike Valerio gets a lesson in the middle of a major city.
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MIKE VALERIO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Were learning to windsurf, not in Hawaii, not in Tahiti, but here in the middle of the city in Seoul, South Korea.
(voice-over): When lunch hour hits, people in the heart of this megalopolis absolutely shred. Wind foilers and windsurfers on Seoul's Han River, right in the shadow of one of the world's tallest buildings.
Among them is former South Korean national windsurfing champion Jeon Jong-Keun. Jeon tells us he was one of the windsurfers who sailed in the opening ceremony of the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul, and 37 years later, his windsurfing school is right across the river from the Olympic stadium.
JEON JONG-KEUN, FORMER SOUTH KOREAN NATIONAL WINDSURFING CHAMPION: Teaching people step by step who know nothing about windsurfing and watching them learn, gives me a feeling of achievement.
VALERIO: I'm one of those students starting from scratch.
Is it like riding a bike? Like you get used to it on the water?
First, the basics on land. How to grip the boom. Changing hand positions and then -- it's off to the river to sail with this crowd.
There was a lot of falling at first.
Come on.
But you get back up. Go through the motions.
And in no time --
There we go -- yeah! Woo!
Much harder than it looks. That was crazy.
An incredible afternoon, windsurfing through the Seoul cityscape.
You're doing it!
Mike Valerio, CNN, Seoul.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BRUNHUBER: Well, discarded tree roots may seem like simple lawn or garden refuse, but for one Nigerian artist, they're a medium for telling the story of a culture. Emmanuel Ekokotu uses the roots to create intricate sculptures reflecting traditional Nigerian motifs.
[02:40:03]
He says he never cuts down trees and said he collects material from the sides of roads, which often garners him some strange looks.
Ekokotu's goal is to preserve Nigeria's cultural identity through art. He says he wants his pieces to rhyme people, quote, we all have our roots because were all from somewhere.
I'm Kim Brunhuber. "WORLD SPORT" is next. Then, I'll be back at the top of the hour with more news.
(WORLD SPORT)
