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U.S. Special Envoy Heads to Russia as Trump's Sanctions Threat Looms; Benjamin Netanyahu Meets with Security Official to Urge "Full Conquest" of Gaza; Violence Against Colombia's LGBTQ Plus Community; Eighty Years Since U.S. Dropped Atomic Bomb On Hiroshima, Japan; NASA Fast-Tracks Plan For Nuclear Reactor On Moon. Aired 12-12:45a ET
Aired August 06, 2025 - 00:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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JOHN VAUSE, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: With a diplomatic solution stalled, Israel looks set to double down on a military option in Gaza.
Ahead on CNN NEWSROOM.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BENJAMIN NETANYAHU, ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER (through translator): It is still necessary to complete the defeat of the enemy in Gaza.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: And to do that, Israel's prime minister reportedly wants a full conquest of the Palestinian territory.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: The Kremlin is very unhappy about Washington's threats of secondary sanctions against its main oil and gas customers.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: Those threats come ahead of the U.S. presidential envoy traveling to Moscow with a deadline for a ceasefire in Ukraine just days away.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The most dangerous thing is to forget what happened a long time ago.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: And Hiroshima's fading legacy. 80 years after the first and only use of nuclear weapons during war.
ANNOUNCER: Live from Atlanta, this is CNN Newsroom with John Vause. VAUSE: Donald Trump's foreign envoy, Steve Witkoff, is on a trip to
Moscow, where he's expected to meet with Russian officials, including possibly the Russian president, Vladimir Putin. We're told the Kremlin requested this meeting ahead of the U.S. president's Friday deadline for Russia to reach a peace deal with Ukraine, or face punishing new sanctions.
More details now from CNN's Fred Pleitgen, reporting in from Moscow.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
PLEITGEN (voice-over): Just hours ahead of the arrival of President Donald Trump's envoy, Steve Witkoff, Russian state TV trying to make sense of the visit.
It can be expected that Witkoff will strive to achieve a solution that will suit Donald Trump, this reporter says, because otherwise he risks returning from Moscow with nothing and this would be a blow to the position of the American leader's special envoy.
But with Trump's ultimatum to Moscow for a ceasefire in Ukraine drawing closer, the president piling on more pressure, threatening additional tariffs against India if they don't stop buying Russian oil now.
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: So we settled on 25 percent. But I think I'm going to raise that very substantially over the next 24 hours because they're buying Russian oil. They're fueling the war machine. And if they're going to do that, then I'm not going to be happy.
PLEITGEN: The Kremlin is very unhappy about Washington's threats of secondary sanctions against its main oil and gas customers, threatening to derail the warm relations Moscow felt it had with the U.S. president.
"We hear many statements that are in fact threats, attempts to force countries to cut trade relations with Russia," the Kremlin spokesman says. "We do not consider such statements to be legal. We believe that sovereign countries should have and do have the right to choose their own trading partners."
Outside the U.S. embassy here in Moscow already months ago, the Russians put up this sign in the colors of the Russian flag saying, which means we are together. Now it's unclear whether they mean they stand together with the United States, or whether it means Russians stand united against pressure from the Trump administration.
(Voice-over): Folks around here telling us they hope their trading partners won't buckle under American pressure.
"I don't think that India and China will directly stop and back down," he says. "At least China is a power that claims to be a sovereign state on which no one imposes their will, and I don't think it will easily surrender at the behest of some third country from outside." UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I wouldn't like India and China to have sanctions
against them from the United States. But if Trump -- if Trump wants it, it's his choice.
PLEITGEN: But do you think Russia can withstand American sanctions?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, I'm pretty sure that Russia can withstand.
PLEITGEN: How do you think the relations are between President Trump and President Putin now?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh, I'm -- all I have to say that I hope that their relationship will be great. I hope really.
PLEITGEN: But now difficult at the moment.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think so, yes.
PLEITGEN (voice-over): And solutions seem hard to come by as the Kremlin has already made very clear Vladimir Putin will not back down in the Ukraine conflict.
Fred Pleitgen, CNN, Moscow.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: With Gaza ceasefire talks at an impasse, the Israeli government appears set to order an expanded military operation with the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reportedly in favor of a full conquest of Gaza.
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A decision could come this Thursday after a meeting of Israel's Security Cabinet. On Tuesday, Netanyahu huddled with his closest security advisers for hours. His office confirming military options in Gaza were discussed. The U.N. says these reports, if true, are deeply alarming and warns of catastrophic consequences that could further endanger the lives of hostages.
And it comes as Palestinians in Gaza continue to risk their lives to find food amid a deepening hunger crisis. U.S. President Donald Trump says his focus right now is on the humanitarian crisis, and says the decision to occupy all of Gaza is Israel's.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: We are there now trying to get people fed. As you know, $60 million was given by the United States fairly recently to supply food and a lot of -- a lot of food, frankly, for the people of Gaza that are obviously not doing too well with the food. And I know Israel is going to help us with that in terms of distribution and also money.
We also have the Arab states are going to help us with that in terms of the money and possibly distribution. So that's what I'm focused on. As far as the rest of it, I really, I really can't say. That's going to be pretty much up to Israel.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: We'll have a lot more on the situation in Gaza and Israel's options, which are now on the table, a little later in the show.
Meantime, U.S. House Republicans are keeping the Jeffrey Epstein case in the spotlight with nearly a dozen new subpoenas asking the Justice Department to turn over any files on the late sex offender, sex trafficker, pedophile with victims' names redacted. They also want to hear from six former U.S. attorneys general, former FBI director James Comey, Special Counsel Robert Mueller and Bill and Hillary Clinton.
The move by the House Oversight Committee goes against Speaker Mike Johnson's efforts to delay the release of the Epstein files.
Well, it's now been 80 years since the U.S. dropped the first atomic bomb on Japan. Some warn the world is once again moving dangerously close to nuclear war. We're live in Tokyo in a moment.
Also, Colombia's LGBTQ Plus community fights for government protections amid threats and deadly violence.
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VAUSE: Now to the story in Gaza and Israel's military options now that the ceasefire talks have reached an impasse, and joining us on the line now from New York is Yaakov Katz. He's a columnist with "The Jerusalem Post," author and senior fellow at the Jewish Policy Institute.
Yaakov, thanks for being with us. Just as far as the military options here, you can sort of blame whichever side you want for the collapse of the ceasefire talks. But with that diplomatic option off the table, the Israeli prime minister now seems to be focusing on expanding military operations. This is what he said on Monday. Here he is.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
NETANYAHU (through translator): It is still necessary to complete the defeat of the enemy in Gaza, to release all our hostages, to ensure that Gaza, it will no longer pose a threat to Israel. We are not giving up on any of these tasks.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: So is Netanyahu ready to turn the clock back by 30 years? That's the last time Israel had, you know, full occupation of Gaza. My reaction to this is it must be a negotiating ploy because of the trauma the country went through in 2005 with the disengagement. It seems almost impossible to believe that a reoccupation is on the table.
YAAKOV KATZ, SENIOR COLUMNIST, JERUSALEM POST: Netanyahu definitely it could be a negotiation ploy, John. I think you might be right. This is a way to pressure Hamas, get them to come back to the table, because, as we've seen over what's happened in the last few weeks, both American and Israeli negotiating teams have walked away from Doha because they've said that Hamas is not being sincere.
And Israel doesn't have a lot of options, right? What cards does it really have left to play here? It tried the temporary ceasefire negotiation that would have seen the release of just 10 hostages out of the 20 who are alive, 18 of the bodies out of the 30 that are left in Gaza, a ceasefire for 60 days then they would try to negotiate a remaining long-term truce and an end to the war.
That didn't work. Now Israel says it's willing to do a complete end to the war, and -- but it would want a -- well, it hasn't said sorry, it's willing to do a complete end to the war. What it said is it wants to get back all the hostages. It's willing to talk about what that would look like as an end to the war, but also that Hamas isn't willing to do so.
Israel kind of doesn't have any options. It could end the war, but it wouldn't have the hostages. That's not something that Israelis would digest. On the other hand, it's left with just one option, expand the war, which is hard to believe and understand. Two years into this, what is exactly that mean, expand the war, which has been going on for so long already?
VAUSE: And what does a full conquest, which is apparently what Benjamin Netanyahu is talking about? What does that look like? Especially in light of comments by the IDF earlier this year that it's done pretty much everything it can from a military point of view.
KATZ: No, 100 percent the full conquest, what it would look like essentially is what Israel's already in control of about 75 percent of the Gaza Strip, right? So this would be taking over the remaining 25 percent, basically Gaza City and some of those central refugee camps that Israel hasn't really operated in in a big way. Right? That's mostly the places. Israel, the rest of Gaza, it's gone through, it's destroyed almost all of what's above ground and a lot of what's below ground.
It's a lot of the people of Gaza. Most of them are homes. But Hamas remains and Israeli hostages remain, and Israel is trying to figure out a way. And this has been difficult. And this is why this war has dragged on for far too long for any side here, that any side wanted, John. But Israel is trying to find a way forward that would enable it to get back the hostages, but also, and I don't want to say what's better, what's more important, what it should prioritize.
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But just as important is to allow for Hamas to rebuild and to potentially launch once again another October 7th style attack. Because if Hamas is left, and we know this. If Hamas is left in Gaza, we'll have another October 7th. It might take five years, it might take 10, but it will happen again. VAUSE: You know, when the U.S. president was asked about the
possibility of Israel taking control of Gaza, a full occupation, his reaction seemed almost like a disinterested shrug of the shoulders. So how do you read that?
KATZ: Well, you know, I think that there's support here that still remains with the U.S. president. He is still in support of Israel's basic objective here, which is to defeat Hamas, to remove Hamas from power. And I think that the American people and the -- definitely this administration, the Trump administration, understand that it is in everyone's interest that Hamas be removed from power and is not able to once again throw the Middle East, a region where there are lots of interests for the United States and for the entire world, back into crazy destabilization and disarray. For that to happen, Hamas has to go.
And by the way, I'll add one more point to that, John. For there to be real, everlasting, sustainable peace one day between Israel and the Palestinians, it's in everyone's interest that Hamas not be there. And I think everyone understands that. The question is, how do we make that happen? And this has been difficult. We can't -- we can't ignore the fact that Netanyahu has his own political interests that are at play.
He's really caught within his own coalition between some farther right elements that don't want this war to end and his own interests and understanding that he needs to remain in power because of the trial and political survival. There's a lot of other interests here at play, but at the fundamental basis, I think that Trump is saying, go ahead and do what you need to do. But there will come a point. And I think we know that right as watching him on many other issues, and he's very unpredictable, there will come a point where he'll see something and say, listen, this has got to end and that will be the time when Israel will have to wrap it up.
VAUSE: It does seem hard to believe that Israel, after everything it's been through with Gaza, that they would actually go back in again on a permanent basis. But, you know, who knows with this war, anything could happen. And, you know, almost has.
Yaakov Katz, in New York, thank you for finally joining us. It's good to see you.
KATZ: Thank you, John.
VAUSE: Well, Colombia's LGBTQ Plus community is often the target of gangs and armed groups killed for who they are. Colombia's policies are among the most progressive in the region. But gender based violence there is often deeply rooted in the country's dark history of social cleansing. Sadly, there are few repercussions.
The story we bring you next is part of "As Equals," CNN's series on gender inequality across the world.
Stefano Pozzebon has our report from Colombia. It includes images that may be difficult to watch for some viewers. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CAMILO, GANG MEMBER (through text translation): The thing is they are flamboyant.
STEFANO POZZEBON, CNN CONTRIBUTOR (through text translation): Is being flamboyant reason enough to kill them?
JUAN CARLOS "TITO" BUELVAS, NAWAR'S FRIEND (through text translation): To be LGBT in Carmen de Bolivar is to sign your own death sentence.
ANDRES CANCIMANCE, MEMBER OF COLOMBIAN CONGRESS (through text translation): Trans people are permanently in danger.
POZZEBON (voice-over): In April of this year, a video of the killing of a trans woman named Sara Millerey went viral across Colombia. It is hard to watch.
CNN is showing a part of it because the calculated brutality of the attack has sparked an unprecedented public reckoning in the country. Police says that bystanders were told not to intervene by the attackers.
Locals have told us that this is the place where Sara Millerey was killed, and it's a murder that could not have gone unnoticed. Just in the last few minutes, dozens of people have gone through this bridge. Those who killed her clearly wanted to send a message.
(Voice-over): Two people have been charged, but the crime is still felt around Medellin, a city that has been dealing with organized crime for decades.
We're in Medellin to meet one of the gangs that controlled this area. Everything that moves in their neighborhood is under their watch. The people we're about to see deny any involvement with the killing of Sara Millerey. However, they say they know who did it.
CAMILO (through text translation): That killing is not ours. But the thing is people are homophobic around here. Why? Because (EXPLETIVE DELETED) themselves are flamboyant. When they come here to do their thing, they find trouble. Here we give them two warnings, the third time is not a warning anymore.
POZZEBON (through text translation): Is being flamboyant reason enough to kill them?
CAMILO (through text translation): Once you've been warned, yes.
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POZZEBON (voice-over): Millerey had crossed a line, he claims, and the punishment for that is death.
CAMILO (through text translation): We make the rules here. The era of Pablo Escobar is over, when everyone was going around armed and making a show. No, that's over. We keep our guns away and we only take them out to do the job. If someone must be killed, so be it.
POZZEBON: Well, the case of Sara Millerey has sparked the conversation all across Colombia. Her murder is far from unique. In fact, more than 40 people have been killed in anti-LGBTQ violence just in the last six months.
(Voice-over): In the rural town of Carmen de Bolivar, a trans or gay person has been killed each year for the past three years. Most recently Nawar Jimenez, an activist and sex worker found dead by the side of the road.
VERONICA MARTINEZ, NAWAR'S FRIEND (through text translation): They found her here. In this spot.
POZZEBON (through text translation): You were one of the first ones to see her.
MARTINEZ (through text translation): When I got here, Paula had already seen her. They had not covered her up yet. So we found her. And that's when the police arrived. And it all started, and well, here we are.
POZZEBON: Thank you so much. I'm really sorry for that. Thank you.
MARTINEZ (through text translation): Gracias. Thank you.
POZZEBON (voice-over): Nobody has been charged for Nawar's murder. A security camera stands right above the crime scene. But police says they have not been able to identify the attackers.
Colombian authorities told us the perpetrators will be punished. But for Nawar's friend Tito the risks are always present.
Is it dangerous to be a LGBT person in a place like Carmen de Bolivar?
BUELVAS (through text translation): To be LGBT in Carmen de bolivar and to fight for human rights is to sign your own death sentence. Since I can remember, I've always identified as fag. And I say so as a political statement, claiming back one's rights. It means I'm here, and I'm staying here. You inherit this pace, and I can also inherit it.
POZZEBON (voice-over): Now Tito has been assigned armed bodyguards by the Colombian state for protection.
I mean, to me it's absurd that you have to walk around your own town with bodyguards just because of what you represent. Have you ever thought of leaving?
BUELVAS (through text translation): Yes, I thought of leaving Carmen de Bolivar because it's one of the most dangerous towns in this region. Here people are murdered almost every day. And that means anyone who speaks out, especially LGBT leaders are in danger.
POZZEBON (voice-over): There were also threats in fliers that armed groups used to impose their law, a legacy of Colombia's decades of civil war. This one gives gays, lesbians, trans and HIV positive persons 24 hours to leave town or face the consequences.
CHRISTIAN DE LA ROSA, LOCAL ACTIVIST (through text translation): Sexual dissidence, sexual freedom is something that must be criminalized.
POZZEBON: I mean, just looking at the language, it's frightening. It's really violent language. The terms that they use against the members of the LGBT community, but also the concept of social cleansing. Who are you to impose social cleansing?
DE LA ROSA (through text translation): The armed group joins in, saving morality, and bringing back order. They create social legitimacy within the community because they start taking out what is considered undesirable.
POZZEBON: Christian, do you think Colombian society as a whole agrees with this? Do you think Colombia is transphobic as a country?
DE LA ROSA (through text translation): Transphobia, I think Colombia is not only transphobic, it has multiple forms of structural discrimination.
POZZEBON (voice-over): The recent wave of killings has pushed a wider LGBTQ community to come out in force. Andres Cancimance, a congressman who had met Nawar, is presenting a new law to grant trans people further protection.
CANCIMANCE (through text translation): Trans people are permanently in danger. We need a law that protects their life, their rights and their dignity. That's why it's urgent to pass it in Congress.
POZZEBON (through text translation): Can you explain why in Colombia the situation is so extreme? 46 murders in the last six months.
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CANCIMANCE (through text translation): Because without a doubt, it's a society that threatens life and especially against the lives of trans people.
POZZEBON (voice-over): Only three of 155 criminal investigations into LGBTQ killings last year have reached a verdict. And yet opposition remains. Conservative lawmakers and Christian influencers accused the trans community of exploiting the security crisis to push a woke agenda.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through text translation): On July 20 they are going to file the famous trans law that seeks to use our taxes to enable people to take hormones and change their sex.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through text translation): This law wants to impose transsexuality upon children.
POZZEBON: A claim that is not true.
(Through text translation): You don't consider yourself transphobic? JONATHAN SILVA, CHRISTIAN INFLUENCER (through text translation): Not
at all. A trans person could be sitting here and I could hug them and get coffee with them. But what I am not OK with is that because of this ideology you are censoring other people and their opinions.
POZZEBON (through text translation): But for example, aren't you responsible for this rhetoric, for heating up the confrontation?
SILVA (through text translation): Not necessarily for that special comment, because that's just an opinion.
POZZEBON (through text translation): Yes, but you share opinions with more than 65,000 followers. You're an opinion leader. Doesn't your opinion carry any responsibility?
SILVA (through text translation): That is an opinion, and when you say something backed up by what you believe in, it cannot be censored.
POZZEBON (voice-over): But Nawar's friends in Carmen de Bolivar say that opinions can also kill. At this year's Pride March, her photo joins those of many others murdered this year. Their anthem, defiant in the darkness.
Stefano Pozzebon, CNN, Carmen de Bolivar.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
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JOHN VAUSE, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back, everyone. I'm John Vause.
Let's take a look at today's top stories.
U.S. president seems to have few concerns over a possible Israeli reoccupation of Gaza. With ceasefire talks stalled, the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, reportedly focusing on a military option here and a full conquest of the territory. President Trump says that's a decision for Israel to make, and he's more concerned about the growing humanitarian crisis.
Four country -- four NATO countries have placed a billion dollars for Ukraine to buy U.S.-made weapons. The Ukrainian president has thanked Denmark, Norway, Sweden, and the Netherlands for the financial support, some of which will be used to purchase munitions for the Patriot Missile Defense System.
The Jeffrey Epstein scandal continues to dog the White House with officials now debating the release of transcripts of Justice Department interviews with Ghislaine Maxwell, according to multiple sources.
Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche spoke with the convicted sex trafficker for hours over two days last month amid growing demands for greater transparency in the Epstein case. Eighty years ago today came the first and only use of a nuclear weapon during wartime, when the U.S. dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima in Japan.
Three days later, Nagasaki was the target of another atomic bomb. Japan is now marking this somber anniversary with a ceremony at Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park with dignitaries and the dwindling number of survivors.
Eight decades on, experts and survivors are warning the world is closer to seeing nuclear weapons used once again.
Live now to Tokyo is CNN's Hanako Montgomery. It is hard to believe that it's been 80 years. It is such a long time, but memories do fade over such a period of time. And I guess that's a concern there for those who survived this attack.
HANAKO MONTGOMERY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, John. It's good to see you.
I mean, I think you put it there perfectly for many of the atomic bomb survivors, this is, of course, a hugely important anniversary, but it's also -- it carries a lot more weight for them. And that is because a lot of them are aging. They've said that this could be the last anniversary that they can commemorate, that they can deliver their speech, and really just message of peace.
During today's peace ceremony where we heard from some of those atomic bomb survivors, but we also heard from local politicians and the Japanese Prime Minister who echoed similar messages of peace. Here's part of what he said today during his speech.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SHIGERU ISHIBA, JAPANESE PRIME MINISTER (through translator): The current security environment is becoming increasingly severe. However, it is precisely because of this that we must make every effort to realize a world without nuclear war, and ultimately a world without nuclear weapons.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MONTGOMERY: And the security environment that the Japanese Prime Minister, Ishiba, is referring to here, John, I think really has to do with some of the events that we've seen in 2025 alone. We've seen tensions rise between Israel and Iran, between India and Pakistan. Four powers that have nuclear weapons.
Now, during some of these conflicts, some analysts fear that nuclear weapons could potentially be used, and fortunately, it didn't come to that.
But this anniversary, the 80th anniversary of Hiroshima, does serve as a very stark reminder of what's at stake here should these weapons ever be used again. The total devastation, the heartbreak, and the loss, and the survivors with their messages of peace and their lived experiences hope to carry that message through despite, of course, them getting older and older, John.
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VAUSE: Yes. The devastation caused by these two atomic bombs just in the early stages of development was horrific. It is terrifying to think what could happen today.
Hanako Montgomery there in Tokyo. Thank you.
Still to come on CNN. The U.S. hoping to pull ahead and then use space race. Why officials want to build a nuclear reactor on the moon. That's just ahead.
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VAUSE: The Trump administration announced Tuesday an accelerated timeline to build a nuclear reactor on the moon. A reactor would power a U.S. Moon base and help with exploration efforts beyond the moon. China and Russia have similar plans.
The U.S. also wants to fast track a replacement for the International Space Station, which is set to be retired by 2030.
Well, thank you for watching "CNN Newsroom." I'm John Vause. I'll be back with more news at the top of the hour. Stay with us.
"World Sport" is next after a short break.
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(WORLD SPORT)
