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Outrage in Israel; Catholic Woodstock; Presidential Fitness Test. Aired 3-4a ET
Aired August 03, 2025 - 03:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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BEN HUNTE, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, wherever you are in the world. You are now in the CNN Newsroom with me, Ben Hunte, in Atlanta, and it is so good to have you with me.
Coming up on the show, disturbing new video of a hostage is causing outrage and protest in Israel. Hear the reaction of his family and Israeli leaders.
Young people from all across the globe are flocking to the Vatican for what some are calling Catholic Woodstock. We bring you a live report from Rome.
And we are talking to an expert about the pros and cons of President Trump's latest initiative to make America healthy again.
Welcome. Protesters in Israel are furious following the release of new video showing hostages in Gaza.
Tens of thousands of people attended an emergency protest in Tel Aviv on Saturday, urging the U.S. and Israel to bring all hostages home. They were angry over images from a video Hamas released showing hostage, Eyatar David. His appearance came as a shock. We are deliberately not showing the full video, but his family approved this image of seeing there being released,
David's brother is asking for help getting him home, and he's appealing directly to U.S. President Donald Trump.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ILAY DAVID, EYATAR DAVID'S BROTHER: Hamas is using Eyatar in one of the most horrific and calculated campaigns of cruelty imaginable, a live hunger experiment.
We are begging the government of Israel, the people of Israel, every nation of this world, and especially President Trump, the president of the United States. You have the power. You must do everything in your power by any means necessary to save Eyatar and Guy (ph) and the rest of the captives.
OFIR BRASLAVSKI, FATHER OF HOSTAGE ROM BRASLAVSKI: My child is dying. I've seen it with my own eyes, and the prime minister saw it too. And he knows his situation and the situation of the rest of the hostages, and yet he chooses again and again not to save him.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HUNTE: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met with hostage families on Saturday and expressed huge shock at the images. He released a statement saying, the cruelty of Hamas has no boundary. While the state of Israel is allowing the entry of humanitarian aid to the residents of Gaza, the terrorists of Hamas are deliberately starving our hostages and document them in a cynical and evil manner.
U.S. Envoy Steve Witkoff met with a group of hostage family members on Saturday. They say he told them there's a plan to end the war and bring all hostages back home. Israel ceasefire talks with Hamas deadlocked last week, and their future isn't clear.
As Barbie Latza Nadeau reports, Witkoff reportedly said he'll use a different strategy if the talks resume.
BARBIE LATAZA NADEAU, CNN REPORTER: U.S. Special Envoy Steve Witkoff said ceasefire negotiations between Israel and Hamas should be quote, all or nothing with all 50 remaining hostages at Gaza returned in one go. Witkoff made the comments during a three-hour meeting with hostage families in Tel Aviv on Saturday. He told them that the United States' first priority is getting the hostages back to Israel, holding Hamas responsible and doing what's right for the Gazan people. The Hostages and Missing Families Forum said, at least 20 of the remaining hostages are believed to be alive.
Witkoff spent about five hours in Gaza on Friday, visiting a controversial aid site run by the U.S.-Israel-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation. A number of Palestinians have been injured and even killed waiting for aid at similar sites.
Barbie Latza Nadeau, CNN, Rome.
HUNTE: After media reports that the U.S. Middle East envoy said Hamas would consider disarming, Hamas says, that's not true. Hama says it won't disarm unless there is a sovereign Palestinian state and Jerusalem as its capital. The Israel ceasefire talks with the group deadlocked last week.
The Israeli military says another 98 packages were dropped into Gaza on Saturday.
[03:05:02]
Israel began allowing airdrops last week after international outrage grew over the rising number of deaths from starvation. But a number of aid groups say airdrops are expensive, impractical, and potentially dangerous. And as you can see from this video, they lead to very chaotic scenes on the ground, gosh.
There are problems at the U.S.-backed aid distribution sites too. The U.N. says nearly 1,400 people have been killed trying to reach them. Meanwhile, a group called HEAL Palestine is working to evacuate children from Gaza to the United States. The group's executive director says they're arriving with serious health problems.
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STEVE SOSEBEE, CO-FOUNDER AND EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, HEAL PALESTINE: The conditions that the kids are coming to the United States then is quite dire. Not only are these children suffering from severe injuries, many of them with amputations and severe burns, but the kids are coming with different levels of malnutrition and food deficiencies. We had our team in Jordan nutritionists, pediatricians, and general medical doctors, just meeting them and trying to assess them so when they do come in the next day or two, we're going to be able to provide them the best care possible, not only get them started on their healing journey, getting them the medical care they need, but also ensure that we. Provide them the adequate nutrition.
And our organization works in a way that isn't just providing medical care. It's also doing education, mental health services, social support. We work on a grassroots level. Our communities come forward. They take care of the kids, they house them. So, we're very proud of that. But the condition the kids have come in, many of them are living on one meal a day and even less.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HUNTE: Protesters in Australia are calling for more aid to be delivered to Gaza. Tens of thousands of people marched across Sydney's Harbor Bridge today. A U.N.-backed food agency said this week that the worst case scenario of famine is unfolding in Gaza. The enclave's health ministry says hundreds of thousands of children are going hungry with 70,000 showing signs of malnutrition. And protesters say all of this has to stop.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Protest, the idea of a protest is to cause disruption, and that's why closing the Harbor Bridge, that's why they did it to cause disruption. But it's not -- we shouldn't be focusing on the closing of the Harbor Bridge. We're focusing on why people are protesting. People are protesting because you can't starve a million children. You can't starve a million children. And then the little food you give them, you shoot them when you give them that food. That's what this is about. That's what this protest is about.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HUNTE: For more analysis on all of this, we're joined from Jerusalem by Yaakov Katz, a senior columnist at the Jerusalem Post. He also offered the book, Shadow Strike, Inside Israel's Secret Mission to Eliminate Syrian Nuclear Power. Thank you so much for being with me. How are you doing?
YAAKOV KATZ, SENIOR COLUMNIST, JERUSALEM POST: Okay. Thank you, Ben.
HUNTE: Good to have you here. Hamas released a shocking video of hostage Evyatar David. He's visibly malnourished, in urgent need of help. The timing overlaps with Steve Witkoff's high-profile visit to the region. Do you believe that this was a calculated move by Hamas and what message were they trying to send maybe to Israel and to the U.S.?
KATZ: Well, I think, Ben, it's definitely a calculated move because you would think that Hamas would want to improve its branding or do some P.R. Why release a video showing how it's starving Israeli hostages, someone who it's been holding onto almost for two years now? Why show that to the world? And I think that the reason is because we have to remember this is a murderous, barbaric, terrorist organization. It doesn't care what the world thinks about it. What it cares about is how to achieve its objectives. And its objective right now is to try and survive this war and to remain the governing entity inside the Gaza Strip.
And the way to do that is, on the one hand, the starvation campaign that it has been launching successfully, accusing Israel of starving and mass hunger inside the Gaza Strip that has been putting massive political and diplomatic international pressure on the Israeli government. That's one thing. But the other side is to pierce the heart of every single Israeli to show pictures and images, that video of Evyatar, who's being forced, emaciated, malnourished images of what we thought here in the Jewish state of Israel we would never see again since the dark days of the Holocaust, to see people looking like that, being forced to dig his own grave by Hamas, that's meant to get Israel to just end the war, even if it means not achieving its goal of defeating Hamas.
HUNTE: We did see Wikoff meet with hostage families in Tel Aviv, and he said, we have a plan to end the war and bring everyone home. Do you think that that message brings any real comfort now? Is it being seen as U.S. optics of any substance?
KATZ: Well, I think it does give some optimism to particularly the families, but to the Israeli public, in general, Ben. The reason being the Israeli people are a bit disappointed, to say the least, with the current government led by Benjamin Netanyahu. They feel that this government has missed the opportunity to make that deal and to bring the hostages home.
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Unfortunately, what we've seen since last, this past March, when the previous ceasefire broke down, then Israel stopped allowing aid, and then it began in May with the aid, with what we just heard in your report, the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, and now just last week increasing the aid dramatically. But what we see is that it's not leading to a hostage deal.
Comes Steve Witkoff, President Trump's special Envoy, and says, I hope I can help make a deal. That gives some optimism because Israelis are not certain and don't have the confidence in the government. They hope that Trump can provide and deliver that deal that's needed to bring their loved ones home. HUNTE: You kind of mentioned it there, but many Israelis do feel that their own government has failed them. Has the latest U.S. diplomatic push, including Witkoff's visit intensified pressure on Netanyahu, especially around the stored hostage talks?
KATZ: Well, you know, the pressure is there, and particularly, it's not yet coming, I would say, from Witkoff and Trump, but most of it, we see it. There's what's being described here, at least by a lot of pundits and some politicians in the opposition as a diplomatic tsunami, a wave of condemnations that we're seeing mostly from countries in Europe, but also Canada, Australia, countries that are now saying, we're going to recognize Palestinian statehood and an independent Palestinian state, even though this war is continuing.
Israel's warning that that type of recognition to the Palestinians at a time that hostages are still being held, at a time that Hamas, a terrorist group, is still inside the Gaza Strip, is a reward to terrorism and encourages and emboldens future attacks in the future.
So, Israel is facing this political or diplomatic wave from around the world. But so far, with the U.S., it seems that there's close coordination. The Americans are saying that they're standing with Israel in its desire and ambition and its mission to defeat Hamas, eliminate, but also at the same time make a deal that will end the war and bring all the hostages home.
Is that possible though, Ben. It's hard to know. This is -- it takes two to tango. And Hamas so far has not shown that it's willing to make that deal.
HUNTE: Okay, we'll leave it there for now. Yaakov Katz, thank you for now. I appreciate it.
KATZ: Thank you.
HUNTE: The U.N.'s nuclear watchdog says its staff heard explosions near the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in Ukraine. The plant has been occupied by Russian forces since the early days of Russia's full scale invasion. Staff with the International Atomic Energy Agency reported smoke and explosions from an auxiliary installation near the facility on Saturday.
Earlier in the day, the plant Russian administrators claimed that Ukrainian forces shelled it, killing a civilian, but CNN cannot verify those claims.
Meanwhile, a video posted on social media shows an explosion near an oil facility in Southeastern Russia. You're just seeing it there. The governor of the Samara Region said an enemy drone had struck an industrial location there. Ukraine's military also says it struck oil facilities inside Russia, including a major refinery, a military airfield for drones and an electronics factory.
Protesters across the U.S. took part in a rage against the regime demonstrations on Saturday. A group marched to city hall in L.A. holding up American flags and signs denouncing the Trump administration. Organizers have planned several similar protests since President Trump took office slamming his crackdown on immigration and cuts to federal agencies.
The U.S. Special Counsel's Office is launching an investigation into former Special Counsel Jack Smith. It's centered on potential violations of the Hatch Act, which bars some political activities by government workers. Smith led criminal probes into President Trump's handling of classified documents and alleged efforts to overturn the 2020 election, but resigned earlier this year after dropping both cases.
Mr. Trump has sought retribution against his perceived political enemies and those who investigated him. Just this week, a Trump ally claimed Smith used his role to influence the 2024 election in favor of Democrats, which could violate a separate DOJ rule beyond the Hatch Act.
The terminology in all of these cases can be confusing. CNN's Senior Legal Analyst Elie Honig explains the difference between a special counsel who is appointed to investigate and prosecute a case and the Office of Special Counsel. Have a listen.
ELIE HONIG, CNN SENIOR LEGAL ANALYST: It's important to understand there are two completely separate types of special counsel in our government. The first type of special counsel is the one that we are all probably most familiar with. That's when the attorney general taps an outside prosecutor to come in and investigate the president or some other high ranking official. We've seen a bunch of these in recent years. Robert Mueller, Robert Hur investigating Joe Biden, and Jack Smith himself. So, let's call that prosecutorial special counsel.
Completely separate and apart from that, there's what we'll call bureaucratic special counsel coming out of this office of special counsel.
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They're not prosecutors. They can't charge someone criminally. What they do is investigate whistleblower complaints for ethical issues for ethical issues, for conflicts of interest. So, what's happened here is the latter, a bureaucratic special counsel is now investigating Jack Smith. So, this is not a criminal probe. This is a probe into ethics and conflicts of interest. Not good news for Jack Smith, but it's also not as if he is now under criminal investigation.
HUNTE: U.S. Senators are heading home without reaching a deal to confirm a handful of President Trump's nominees. They went into recess on Saturday hours after Mr. Trump told the Senate Democratic leader to go to hell. Sources tell CNN Chuck Schumer asked the White House to release some federal funds and avoid further cuts to funding. But the president called Schumer's demands, quote, egregious and unprecedented.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. CHUCK SCHUMER (D-NY): So, let me say it again, sooner or later, Donald Trump, Mr. Art of the Deal, or so he claims, is going to have to learn that he has to work with Democrats if he wants to get deals, good deals that help the American people. (END VIDEO CLIP)
HUNTE: Well, Schumer added that he was getting close to a deal with the Senate Republican leader and the White House before President Trump interfered.
Pope Leo is celebrating a mass in Rome. He is with hundreds of thousands of young people who have been taken part in the Vatican's Jubilee of youth. We're going to join the celebrations live after this break. See you later (ph).
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HUNTE: Welcome back. 2025 was declared a year of Jubilee by Pope Francis before he died. Now, his successor, Pope Leo, is leading the celebrations. The past week has seen hundreds of thousands of young Catholic pilgrims gather in Rome for a jubilee of youth. Many have spent the night at this venue awaiting the culmination of the week. That happens now with Pope Leo celebrating this mass.
CNN Vatican Correspondent Christopher Lamb joins us live from Rome now. Christopher, thanks so much for being with me. This does seem like a pretty huge moment. How does it feel being on the ground and how has Pope Leo been received by the young people so far?
CHRISTOPHER LAMB, CNN VATICAN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Ben, it's been a really vibrant and celebratory atmosphere out here for this gathering of young people from across the world. I've been struck by how many different countries are represented. We got 146 different countries, have pilgrims here representing them. I've seen people from Korea, from Ecuador, and, of course, many from the United States here to see the first American pope, Pope Leo, behind me celebrating mass.
I think Pope Leo has been received very warmly. I think people appreciate that he is, first of all, quite a youthful pope. He's 69, doesn't sound very young, but by papal standards at (INAUDIBLE) he carried the cross all the way up to the main altar. He showed his sort of youthfulness by doing that. And at the same time, as well as he's embraced the crowds with enthusiasm. He's also had moments or he's led moments of quiet contemplation.
And so there's been a mix of this festival-style atmosphere here with also those moments of calm, of quiet, which I think is important to Pope Leo, reflective of his own personality. He's different to Pope Francis. He's got his own style. Pope Francis was a kind of rock star with young people. Leo has also received a rock star's welcome, but he's finding his feet in the new role.
As you can hear behind me, there's the choirs singing and in the middle of this mass, which hundreds of thousands, in fact, the Vatican estimating a million people have gathered here in Rome for this event. They've slept out overnight, having taken part in a prayer vigil yesterday with the pope.
This is the culmination of these week-long events for young people in Rome as part of the Catholic Church's Jubilee year. Ben?
HUNTE: I love that. It sounds so beautiful. Enjoy. I'm sure we'll be speaking to you again within the next few hours. Thank you, Christopher Lamb.
Next, monsoon rains have created flash flooding in some parts of India. A major market area was flooded in city of Patna on Saturday, and a massive landslide hit on Friday, a blocked road. Much of India's farmland isn't irrigated, and the monsoons are critical for grand crops. The rainy season from June to September brings nearly 70 percent of all water needed for farms and reservoirs.
Two people are dead in Chile as authorities race to rescue workers trapped in one of the world's largest copper mines. The state-run mining company said on Saturday, the body of one of five trapped workers had been found. They were trapped on Thursday when an earthquake caused a collapse inside the mine.
CNN's Cristopher Ulloa is there in Chile with more.
CRISTOPHER ULLOA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Chilean authorities are still racing up to rescue four miners that remain trapped in El Teniente, one of the largest copper mines in the world. As you can see in the images of Lucas Owayo (ph), there are dozens of people that are gathering around here in the main entrance of El Teniente mine, lining up candles as a sign of hope. They're also hugging each other. They're praying. They're showing also their respect. They say they're very affected by this news, but they still have the hope to find these four miners still alive.
Codelco, the state-run firm that operates the mine, says an earthquake of 4.3 magnitude caused the accident in the mine on Thursday, where also nine people result injured.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ABELARDO CESPEDES, CHILEAN MINER: The impact was so strong that it was shocking for us. There's always noise from the mountain, things like that, but never as loud as what happened that day, And no one knew anything.
I mean, we were evacuated because, as I said, the noise was very loud. We were evacuated. And when we arrived at the facilities, where the office and cafeteria are, that's when we realized where it had happened, but we had no idea how shocking it was that people were involved, that coworkers were involved.
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ULLOA: Those are the words Abelardo Cespedes, one of the miners that was at that day, the day of the accident in El Teniente. We are going to still remain here at the main entrance. And just like the people say, they still had the hope to find their friends, their colleagues, the miners alike.
For CNN, Cris Ulloa, Rancagua, Chile.
HUNTE: One of Donald Trump's executive orders is causing stressful flashbacks for many Americans. We'll ask an expert about whether the presidential fitness test is the best way to teach U.S. children about personal health.
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HUNTE: Welcome back. I'm Ben Hunte. Let's take a look at today's top stories.
Protesters in Israel are calling on the U.S. and their own governments to bring all hostages in Gaza back home. They held a massive rally in Tel Aviv on Saturday after Hamas released a new hostage video. It showed an emaciated and sickly appearing 24-year-old Evyatar David.
The International Atomic Energy Agency says its staff members heard explosions and saw smoke near the Zaporzhzhia region nuclear power plant In Ukraine. The plant is under Russian occupation. Russian administrators claim Ukrainian forces shelled the facility, but CNN could not verify those claims.
The so-called Dragon Bravo fire at the Grand Canyon has intensified enough to create its own weather. Fire clouds have been spotted above the flames in the landmark in Northern Arizona. The clouds can possibly become fire thunderstorm clouds if the wildfire grows hot or chaotic enough.
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The fire is the largest burning in the Continental United States.
Last week, the U.S. president announced he would reintroduce what many elementary school children in past decades have considered a rite of passage or one of public humiliation, the presidential fitness test. The set of physical challenges was created in 1966, but abandoned in 2012 by former President Barack Obama in favor of another program to promote individual health.
Donald Trump's executive order says he's bringing back the test to address the widespread epidemic of declining health and physical fitness. But for many Americans, especially those with long memories, it is not as simple as that.
Steve Magness is an expert on physical and mental performance. He's also the author of Do Hard Things, Wwhy We Get Resilience Wrong and the Surprising Science of Real Toughness. Thank you so much for being with me. How are you doing?
STEVE MAGNESS, AUTHOR, DO HARD THINGS: I'm doing great. Thanks for having me. HUNTE: Let's get into this topic You've posted online about all of this with a big mix of both personal trauma but also support. Can you explain to a British person and an international audience why there are such intense feelings and emotional reactions to this presidential fitness test?
MAGNESS: Well, it's one of those formative experience of like your elementary school life. You get stuck in a P.E. classroom and in front of all of your peers, you have to run a mile or do pushups or do pull- ups or, you know, do a shuttle run and everyone else is judging you. So, if you're really good at it, it can be a positive experience. But if you're, you know, the slow kid or not quite strong enough, it can kind of be a little bit traumatic and leave you feeling like, oh my gosh, I just got embarrassed because I'm a ten-year-old looking foolish in front of everybody else.
HUNTE: Wow. This sounds like Matilda or Ms. Trunch. Was that Bruce, Bruce, Bruce? Do you think it is a good thing for the test to come back, or is it a case of older politicians romanticizing something that actually caused a lot of stress?
MAGNESS: I think it's a little bit of both. I think there's value in doing hard physical activities. In my own experience, it what's led me down my path to running and then writing about mental and physical performance because I was good at it. But at the same time, I have to -- I think we have to acknowledge just like some kids might not like math or science or history in class. We've got to provide avenues where we can make it into something that is like for growth and development and not just that big scary thing that, oh my gosh, I suck at this, I'm never going to exercise again.
HUNTE: There is a version of this that's being used today still called the fitness gram, right, and it's in lots of different schools, but lots of students have posted online saying it feels more like public shame for them rather than health education. Where do you think the line is between healthy challenges and harmful pressures for children?
MAGNESS: I mean, I think what it is we have to look at, are we being the old school football coach who is just demanding, or are we being teachers? And I think this is us on staff and P.E. teachers saying, what is the point of it? It's not to make a kid run until they puke. It's to give them an idea of this is what exercise is. How do we develop this for life? So, I think a lot of it is framing it. And I think sometimes we get this wrong as we see it like as a do-or-die competition. And we have to remember that these are 8, 9, 10, 11-year- old kids, and we have to frame it as this isn't life or death. This is just let's expose you to a diversity of challenges, some that you're going to excel at, some that you're not going to be very good at, but that's okay. That's part of life. And what really matters is can we learn and grow from this?
HUNTE: You have said that this shouldn't really be about the test, and it's more about the ways that we teach physical education. What is going wrong with P.E. in America and what do you think needs to change? MAGNESS: It's an afterthought. I mean, first off, if you look at when this test was implemented, we had P.E. five days a week in almost every elementary school and junior high. Now, that's often cut down to three days a week. We deemphasize it. And instead of, you know, a coach or a P.E. teacher teaching about sports and fitness and health, we often see it as almost kind of like babysitting. In America, you often go by a elementary school or junior high and they're just walking laps, or a ball is thrown out into the field and they say, hey, we're going to babysit you for the next 45 minutes.
We really need to teach physical literacy and expose kids to a wide variety of activities, exercises in sports so that hopefully they find something that say, hey, this is exciting, I'm down for this, like I can carry this on into the next phase of my life.
[03:35:08]
HUNTE: How can parents or family members watching this help to make fitness something that their kids want to engage with?
MAGNESS: I think one of the best things is to demonstrate it yourself. Are you out there running or jogging or going for a walk or going to the park as a family. Kids look for role models. And if mom and dad and their brothers and sisters are moving and seeing into something that is important, kids will understand that.
And I think the other part of it is we can't force kids to do something often. What we have to do is we have to expose them to a diversity of things and say, hey, when that passion hits, I'm going to support you. Just like when I was a young person taking this test, I hated the pull-ups. I hated the flexibility test. But you know what? My sweet spot was the mile. And once I did that, I was like this is something I can get down with. Like I'm going to go do this. Forget training with weights, or lifting weights or getting strong. This is my thing. We've got to provide those avenues for.
HUNTE: I love that. I feel very inspired. This is great. My team was talking about fast food just before this, but no more. No more. We're back in the game.
Thank you Steve Magness. I appreciate it.
MAGNESS: Thank you.
HUNTE: President Trump's new tariffs are expected to drive up prices on a host of consumer products. But as children head back to school, some parents are trying to beat the price hikes on school supplies.
CNN's Julia Vargas Jones has more for us.
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JULIA VARGAS JONES, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): The steepest tariff hikes in modern history taking place just weeks before millions of children across the country go back to school, pushing families to move fast before prices go up. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The tariffs are definitely a little scary. We're trying to get ahead of time because we don't know what's going to happen.
JONES: This year, two thirds of American families started shopping for the school year in July, the highest number on record, fearing prices will soon rise due to tariffs, according to a new survey from the National Retail Federation.
KATHERINE CULLEN, V.P. OF INDUSTRY AND CONSUMER INSIGHTS, NATIONAL RETAIL FEDERATION: As consumers start to feel that the tariffs might be a little more real, might be coming into effect a little more quickly, they decided to kind of shift their attitude towards buying now with the idea that things may be cheaper at this moment than they will be down the road.
JONES: An economist at the Yale Budget Lab estimate that in the short-term, prices on electronics, including computers, could rise by 18 percent, in clothing, one of the U.S.'s top imports, by 37 percent. Goods from China, India, Malaysia, Taiwan and Vietnam are all affected.
Bracing for even higher prices, Americans are also pulling back on spending budgeting for about $858 per family on clothes, school supplies and electronics this year, down 2 percent from last year.
With shoppers spending less, big box stores are fighting for every dollar. Target is advertising 30 percent off of school supplies and promising to not raise prices on 20 of their most popular items.
Another retail giant, Walmart, says 14 of their most popular school supplies cost less than last year. And online, Amazon saw a 175 percent spike in back-to-school sales during July's Prime Day event. But once their pre-tariff inventory runs out, higher prices will inevitably catch up to the consumer.
Julia Vargas Jones, CNN. Los Angeles.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HUNTE: Democrats in the U.S. are not the only people demanding to learn more about the file related to the late sex offender, Jeffrey Epstein. Just ahead, members of the media who support President Trump weigh in on what should happen next.
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[03:40:00]
HUNTE: Welcome back. Democrats in the U.S. Senate tried three times on Saturday to pass a bill forcing the Trump administration to release the Jeffrey Epstein files. They used the Senate's unanimous consent procedure, which means a bill is adopted if no one objects. Democrats brought up the bill three separate times, and each time, Republican Senator John Barrasso objected, killing it. President Trump has said he wants to, quote, release everything in Epstein files, and he's leaving the door open to pardon Ghislaine Maxwell, the woman convicted of grooming and sexually abusing underage girls with Epstein.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, U.S. PRESIDENT: We'd like to release everything, but we don't want people to get hurt, that shouldn't be hurt.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Ghislaine Maxwell serving 20 years in prison for sex trafficking. Is clemency on the table for her in exchange for testimony?
TRUMP: I'm allowed to do it, but nobody's asked me to do it. I know nothing about it. I don't know anything about the case. But I know I have the right to do it. I have the right to give pardons. I've given pardons to people before.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.
TRUMP: But nobody's even asked me to do it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HUNTE: Well, Democrats in the U.S. aren't the only people who want to learn more about the president's relationship with Jeffrey Epstein. Many Trump supporters are also demanding answers.
CNN's Senior Correspondent Donie O'Sullivan discussed this with members of MAGA media.
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BRIAN GLENN, CHIEF WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT, REAL AMERICA'S VOICE: Those that say they'll no longer support President Trump because he didn't release every single thing we've ever known about Jeffrey Epstein. Just because they say they're done, they're not done.
DONIE O'SULLIVAN, CNN SENIOR CORRESPONDENT (voice over): The Epstein saga has rocked the MAGA base for weeks.
MIKE BENZ, TRUMP SUPPORTER: February 2015, Trump stands at CPAC.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Bill Clinton.
TRUMP: Nice guy. Got a lot of problems coming up, in my opinion, with the famous island with Jeffrey Epstein.
BENZ: like you trained us to go after this issue.
REPORTER: Does the president believe that justice has been served in the Epstein case?
O'SULLIVAN: President Trump can't get away from questions about Epstein. REPORTER: Ghislaine Maxwell says she'll only testify if you pardon her or she gets immunity.
O'SULLIVAN: But at the White House, few of those questions are coming from Trump supporting media outlets.
GLENN: If you look at the, you know, 20 of the top 47 promises President Trump made, he delivered on all those campaign promises.
O'SULLIVAN: Brian Glenn is White House correspondent for MAGA media outlet, Real America's Voice.
GLENN: People say, Brian, why don't you ask questions about Epstein? I'm like, because everyone else is asking the question of Epstein.
STEVE BANNON, HOST, THE WAR ROOM: We need to get to the bottom of Epstein because Epstein is the key that picks the lock.
O'SULLIVAN: Some in MAGA were initially unhappy with Trump's handling of the Epstein case. But after The Wall Street Journal broke this story, and Trump denied it and sued the paper for defamation, many in the MAGA base rallied to his defense.
BANNON: This is a centerpiece of the deep state trying to destroy Trump, going to destroy Trump and going to destroy the MAGA movement.
[03:45:03]
MATTHEW BOYLE, WASHINGTON BUREAU CHIEF, BREITBART NEWS: In the wake of the Wall Street Journal attack on the president, I think the administration has already taken several of the steps that that are going to be good steps in the right direction. But the idea that like Donald Trump is covering up the whole Jeffrey Epstein thing, like that doesn't make sense, right?
O'SULLIVAN: Matthew Boyle is Washington bureau chief for Breitbart, an outlet that supports Trump, but has asked questions about Epstein.
You mentioned The Wall Street Journal story as an attack. I mean, was that an attack or was it just The Wall Street Journal reporting a good scoop?
BOYLE: Well, the president says that he never wrote that thing, and I have no reason to believe that he did, right? Like at this point, I don't know --
O'SULLIVAN: But their reporting shows --
BOYLE: Well, their reporting says that he did, right? Like they say that. But, I mean, we've seen other media outlets get stories wrong about President Trump.
O'SULLIVAN: Potentially trying to distract from Epstein, the Trump administration has started baselessly accusing Barack Obama of treason, even posting a fake A.I. video of the former president being arrested. Trump posted the video of Obama getting arrested.
GLENN: Well, you know, we all know that President Trump has an insane sense of humor, you know? He likes to troll, and we all know that. He's the master at that. Could that, in a way, mislead the base thinking that that's going to happen, I think there's a chance that could happen, because people will see that and go, oh, it's going to happen, it's going to happen next week. When it doesn't, they get a little disappointed.
O'SULLIVAN: But while some in MAGA might be happy for now on how the administration is handling Epstein --
REP. MARJORIE TAYLOR GREENE (R-GA): You guys can watch Brian's pre- show.
O'SULLIVAN: -- Brian and his girlfriend, the congresswoman, Marjorie Taylor Greene, warned that the Trump base still wants answers.
Marjorie Taylor Greene, who's your partner, said, if you tell the base of people who support you of deep state, treasonous crimes, election interference, blackmail, and rich, powerful, elite, evil cabals, then you must take down every enemy of the people. If not, the base will turn and there's no going back.
GLENN: Pretty hard work. So, maybe people in the administration saw that tweet. Maybe they understand that they have to be as transparent and do what's best for the American people.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HUNTE: Art enthusiasts and lovers of historical dramas, you're going to want to stick around. After the break, we'll bring you Richard Quest's trip to the Gilded Age and New York's Frick Collection. That's coming up.
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HUNTE: Welcome back. If you fancy yourself an art lover, feast your eyes on an American tycoon's personal collection. Henry Clay Frick was an industrialist whose mansion now stands as both an art gallery and a relic of the gilded age.
Our Richard Quest visited the Frick Collection in New York City. Take a look.
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RICHARD QUEST, CNN EDITOR-AT-LARGE (voice over): Titans of industry, tycoons, robber barons, whatever we call them, this is how America's richest lived at the turn of the 20th century. They're state mansions stand as a monument to a period now known as the Gilded Age.
And even for an era known for its opulence, Henry Clay Frick's New York mansion is in a league of its own. Frick made his fortune the old fashioned American way, industry with coke, iron, and steel. And he spent much of that fortune building one of the finest private art collections in history.
AXEL RUGER, DIRECTOR, THE FRICK COLLECTION: Mr. Frick had a very specific taste. He was really going for quality. He was very, very selective in what he acquired. And he was really prepared to pay also serious money for the works.
QUEST: For Rembrandt over there, that's of Amir. How about a Goya or a Ho Mine (ph)? Priceless works adorn every wall. And each day, thousands of visitors flock to this Fifth Avenue mansion to view them and almost certainly try to imagine what life was like for a Gilded Age tycoon.
RUGER: There's a certain kind of almost aspirational quality also to it. You dream yourself a little bit when you come to this house, to this museum, what it would be like to live here.
QUEST: Henry Frick lived here for only five years. He always envisaged the building would be open to the public after his death. More than two decades later, that wish was fulfilled. The Frick Collection opened its doors in 1935. Today, many of these rooms remain unchanged.
RUGER: His daughter actually reports that late in the evening, she would come into the, you know, big west gallery and there was his father just sitting there by himself marveling, you know, at the collection.
QUEST: And so history repeats itself. The Gilded Age has recaptured the public's imagination in the 2020s, set a light by HBO's Gilded Age.
We could rehearse a new production of Vayeda (ph) in here and still have plenty of room to spare.
QUEST: After a five-year quarter of a billion dollar renovation, the Frick and its new director ready to meet this moment.
RUGER: I think it, in everyone's mind, was first to open it and reopen it. And, you know, that is the primary focus at the moment. I arrived here, we were still closed. And a few weeks later, we had 3,000 people every day through the door.
QUEST: The Frick Collection stands in a unique position along New York's Museum Mile with the Guggenheim, the Met and others. Because whilst they are larger institutions with changing exhibitions and collections, the Frick stands as a testament, a monument, if you will, to a moment in time in American history, the Gilded Age,
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[03:55:04]
HUNTE: The U.S. space agency has an ambitious target, the Moon. Before astronauts step on the lunar surface, NASA wants to figure out how to handle time in space, as CNN's Boris Sanchez explains.
BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN ANCHOR AND CORRESPONDENT: NASA is aiming to return astronauts to the Moon as soon as 2026 for the first time in five decades. But returning to the Moon raises a surprisingly tricky question. How do you keep track of time in space?
On the Moon, time passes slightly differently than it does back home on Earth. This is because of what scientists Albert Einstein called general relativity, or the theory that gravity affects space and time. For perspective, let's put this in Earth terms.
General relativity tells us that gravity slows time down. This means that seconds tick by imperceptibly faster at the top of a mountain than they do in low valleys. And when we leave Earth's gravity, the difference can get even greater. On the Moon, what we think of as a standard 24 hour Earth day is 56 microseconds shorter than it is on Earth. And while this tiny number might not seem like much. It could compound and possibly lead to significant errors over time.
Precision timekeeping isn't just about understanding how time works on the Moon. It's essential for establishing the systems that make lunar missions possible. This is why NASA and its international partners are on a quest to create a new, quote, timescale or system of time measurement on the Moon. And if scientists can pull it off on the Moon, it could be a pivotal next step in sending humanity even deeper into the solar system.
QUEST: I love that.
And that's all I've got for you. Thanks for joining me and the team. I'm Ben Hunte in Atlanta. I'll see you tomorrow on CNN International to finish up the weekend.
CNN Newsroom continues in just a moment. Kim, over to you.
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