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Netanyahu, Trump Discuss Israel's Plans To Expand Gaza War; Europe Rallies Behind Ukraine Before Trump-Putin Summit; Texas Dems Remain Out Of State To Keep Vote From Happening; 90-Day Trade Truce Between China & U.S. Expires On Tuesday; Trump, Putin To Meet Friday In Alaska On Ukraine War; Federal Judges Say Trump Admin. Trying To Run Over The Courts; Baseball History Made As A Woman Umpires Regular Season Games; Fire Burning On Edinburgh's Dormant Volcano, Arthur's Seat; Gifford Megafire Burns 100K Plus Acres Near Santa Barbara. Aired 8-9p ET

Aired August 10, 2025 - 20:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[20:00:52]

JESSICA DEAN, CNN HOST: You're in the CNN Newsroom. Hi everyone, I'm Jessica Dean here in New York.

And new tonight, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaking today with President Donald Trump. The Prime Minister's office saying the two leaders spoke about the ongoing war in Gaza, including Israel's new plan to occupy Gaza City. That represents a major escalation by Israel at a time when there has been a lot of pressure, both at home and abroad, to end that conflict.

CNN Senior White House Reporter Kevin Liptak is joining us now with more on this from the White House. Kevin, what more are you hearing from the White House perspective on all of this?

KEVIN LIPTAK, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Yes, and it's interesting, because this is the first conversation that we know of between Trump and Netanyahu since Netanyahu and his Cabinet came out with this decision to occupy parts of Gaza. And, you know, in the past, President Trump has not been shy about voicing his disagreements with Netanyahu on the telephone.

But at least in this case, we really have gotten no indication from the president or other administration officials that they will stand in the way as Netanyahu pursues this new objective. You know, when President Trump was asked about this last week, he said that it was pretty much up to Israel essentially offering a tacit green light to go ahead with this plan, but also putting some distance between himself and what Netanyahu is planning here.

And so what you haven't heard from Trump or anyone else at the White House is any sort of objection to this, even though you're hearing outcry from a number of top U.S. allies in Britain, in Germany, in France, all saying that they're opposed to this move. Essentially, this is putting a wedge between the U.S. and those allies, at least when it comes to this issue of Israel.

And it was interesting, JD Vance was asked about this when he was meeting with the British foreign secretary at the end of last week, and he said that while there are disagreements between the U.S. and its allies about how Israel should go about things, that they have a common objective there, which is to rid Gaza of Hamas and for this war to end. And that, at the end of the day, is what President Trump is really going for here, is to try and find a way to end this war.

You know, he's been frustrated that his attempts so far to broker a ceasefire have fallen short. This is one of two wars that the president came into office saying that they would be very easy to resolve. The other one, of course, is Ukraine, and we will see the president on Friday meeting with Vladimir Putin in Alaska to try and get that conflict to an end, Jessica.

DEAN: All right. Kevin Liptak with the latest reporting at the White House. Thanks so much for that.

And joining us now is CNN Senior Political and Global Affairs Commentator Rahm Emanuel. And he's also the former U.S. ambassador to Japan and former White House chief of staff for President Barack Obama. It is great to have you here with us on a Sunday night as we get ready for what is going to be a consequential week one way or the other.

I want to start first with the news that we just went over, Prime Minister Netanyahu speaking with President Trump today. I'm curious if you think President Trump and his administration should fully back this plan to expand the war in Gaza.

RAHM EMANUEL, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL: No, I don't. Look, there's a plan -- there's a parallel here, Jessica. Prime Minister Netanyahu was warned a long time ago, 18 months ago. You have to have a day after plan for the end of the war. And what's happening now exposes the fact that he has refused to take the political strategic decisions because of his own domestic politics for a day after plan.

In the same way, in a way of illustrating this point, and this is a consistent part of his pattern and in my view the failure around his prime ministership, when he did what he did in both northern -- the southern part of Lebanon, Syria, Iran, there was no strategic plan to take advantage of the political opportunity that the IDF, the Israeli Defense Force, created.

And this is a character trait and a strategic trait. And it's all because of his domestic politics. And I think that's why the leadership of the Israeli Defense Force, the country itself, and also the families of the hostages have all united against what the prime minister is doing. And if he had a different Cabinet, he wouldn't be doing this. It's that simple.

DEAN: Yes. And so, to your point, the big question around this is what happens the day after. There hasn't been an answer to that. So what does President Trump and the U.S. government, what's their role right now? [20:05:07]

EMANUEL: And the irony is, in all this, if somebody's been around this issue for a good part of my adult life, going back on to the Oslo Accords, for the first time you have Europe and major Arab leaders and Gulf leaders saying Hamas has to put down their arms and they have to stop governing Gaza Strip. That is a major strategic advantage from a group of countries willing to come and assist in the fight against ISIS. That is victory standing right there.

And what's happened to the prime minister is, in many ways, you have kind of two hostages here. The unfortunate of the hostages that are in Gaza in the tunnels, and the Israeli public that's also hostage to a prime minister's coalition government, that if he had a different government, he would not make these decisions. It's that simple.

And so you literally have the country being held hostage. It is isolated from the world. It's isolated strategically from the region, which has been painstakingly through different governments built on. And this is a, in my view, an expression of the lack of strategic thinking by the prime minister, even when major, major elements of the Israeli Defense Force and national security apparatus all see the fault in this.

Hamas has been defeated militarily and is succeeding politically. Israel has succeeded militarily but is failing politically. They're mirror opposites of each other.

DEAN: And as our colleague Kevin Liptak just pointed out, look, the president came into office promising to end two wars. That one and then, of course, the war, Russia's war on Ukraine. We know that the president's going to sit down with Vladimir Putin Friday in Alaska.

Putin last on American soil in 2015 when he met with President Obama. Do you think this was the right move on Trump's part to sit down with Putin?

EMANUEL: Yes, and, I mean, the short answer is yes and no. I think what I would do is say, let's do a level set here. Russia, under President Putin, has lost Finland that has joined NATO. They've lost Syria, their only Mediterranean port, and didn't even have the intel in that effort.

They've proven to be feckless when it came to Tehran and helping Iran. They -- in the recent agreement between Azerbaijan and Armenia, and President Trump deserves credit for that, they've lost that caucus area in the sense of their sphere of influence.

Third, or finally rather, in the area of Ukraine, a country a tenth of the size of Russia, it's three and a half years, they have not succeeded. So strategically, they are a diminished power. Militarily, they are a diminished power. And economically, the country is a diminished power.

And so I think President Putin clearly needs this meeting more than President Trump. And my worry is he's going to play President Trump, who's desirous. And I think President Trump could go in there with wind at his back and say, if you're not going to do this, here are the sanctions coming.

My concern is President Putin has already gotten not only the advantage of the meeting, but more importantly, President Trump is more desirous of a positive outcome than President Putin. And one of the things I used to say when I worked with President Clinton and I worked with President Obama, if you want to get to a yes, the other side's got to believe that you can live with a no.

And so while I don't know all the details, the clear thing here, President Putin needs this deal because they are strategically, militarily and economically a weaker power than they were three and a half years ago.

DEAN: And back here at home, we have this redistricting war brewing. We're going to try to get through --

EMANUEL: Do it (ph).

DEAN: -- there's a lot going on here. We're going to try to get through it all. I want to know what you think --

EMANUEL: Well, this, it was a big week.

DEAN: Yes, it was a big week. We're not over promising.

EMANUEL: Yes.

DEAN: Do you think it is the right strategic move for Democrats to try and fight back the way they're fighting back with what's going on in Texas, for Gavin Newsom to do what he's doing in California? You think that's the right strategic move?

EMANUEL: Yes. But I think -- here's what I would add to what the Democrats are saying. Look, the president wants to talk about redistricting. We want to talk about reducing the price of goods and food and energy. He doesn't want to talk about that because those prices are going up.

So he wants you to talk about redistricting. We want to talk about reducing the price of goods. And I would add a message component. Second, and I would think this is, I think, really, really important component of this. The president's so confident in the One Big Beautiful Bill, and how great it is for you that you're going to lose your health care and the rich are going to get a tax cut.

Why are you trying to rig the system before the election? If you're so confident in what you're doing on immigration, why are you trying to rig the system? Why don't you run on your agenda? And the reason they're going after Texas, the reason they're going after Ohio and all the other states to redistrict, because they're trying to rig the system because they know how unpopular the president's agenda is and how unpopular policies are.

So while I think the Democrats have no other choice, I would add a -- rather than it looks just as politics and fighting, they want to redistrict congressional districts. We want to reduce the cost of goods.

[20:10:08]

They want -- they do -- they have an agenda that you do not like, and they want to rig the system to ensure, because it's very unpopular. They don't want to talk about it, and they're scared, and they're running scared, and they look like they're scared because they don't want to give you a choice to have a vote on it.

DEAN: Right, because --

EMANUEL: If you were confident --

DEAN: Yes, go ahead.

EMANUEL: Well, if the White House was confident of the agenda and how popular everything that they've done, everything he has done on immigration, to the One Big Beautiful Bill, to fighting with universities, is extremely unpopular. If he was popular, if he was confident, you wouldn't try to rig the system. And I think that's really the story here.

They're not trying to redistricting because what happened to, you know, four years ago, they were satisfied with or unsatisfied with. They're trying to redistrict the system because they're scared of the voters, because the agenda has turned out to be a failure.

Inflation is up. Jobs are down. America's economy is grinding to a halt. We're kicking out people who are working. We're kicking people out, separating families. And we're attacking each other rather than preparing and creating defense for the United States and building its power. And they know it's unpopular.

And I think they're running scared. And that's really what's going on. So, in the short, Governor Newsom's doing exactly the right thing. I would add a strategic and communication political component to it.

DEAN: Right, because it would seem to me that if Americans look up and see Democrats and Republicans doing all of this without that messaging around, it -- people can kind of throw their hands up and say, well, I guess everybody's doing it. Yes.

EMANUEL: That's -- that -- you know, look, as you probably -- if this doesn't come as breaking news on a Sunday night, politicians and politics get a cynical response from the public. Look, if this was -- everything was going so great, let it vote on it. What they're really trying to do is rig the system.

Now, and I would also say, we could either talk about redistricting across the country or we can talk about reducing prices and cost of living. We're for reducing the cost of living. Let's focus on that. That's what the American people elected us and sent us to not only Washington but our state capitals to do. Why are our state capitals not dealing with electricity prices? Why are they not dealing with the affordability of homes? Because they're all spending time on politics, not on you.

DEAN: Yes.

All right, Rahm Emanuel, great to have you on this Sunday. We really appreciate it.

EMANUEL: Thanks, (technical difficulty), Sunday.

DEAN: All right. You, too.

Still to come, can the world's two biggest economic superpowers make up? President Trump has threatened higher tariffs on items from China, but his commerce secretary is signaling there could be an opportunity to work out a deal. We're just days away from a deadline. We are live from Beijing with how China could respond.

Plus, Major League Baseball celebrating its first woman umpire. We're going to talk to an Olympic softball gold medalist about the historic weekend on the field. You're in the CNN Newsroom.

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[20:17:44]

DEAN: This week, there were signs the Trump administration would be willing to give China a lot more time to work out a trade deal before making its products more expensive with new tariffs. A failure to get a deal between the world's two powerhouse economies could have disastrous consequences.

Here's Commerce Secretary Lutnick when he was asked this week if the U.S. will give China a three months -- three-month extension on this trade truce.

(BEGIN VIDEOCLIP)

HOWARD LUTNICK, SECRETARY OF COMMERCE: I do. I think we're going to leave that to the trade team and to the president to make those decisions. But it feels like likely that they're going to come to an agreement and extend that for another 90 days. But I'll leave it to that team.

(END VIDEOCLIP)

DEAN: CNN's Marc Stewart is joining us now from Beijing. Mark, Trump's deadline coming up on Tuesday. What is the latest from Beijing on how they're seeing this approaching deadline and these negotiations?

MARC STEWART, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Right, Jessica. And along those lines, as one observer told me recently, this is a fragile ceasefire. And unlike the United States where we have President Trump and members of his Cabinet dropping hints along the way, almost a play-by-play as to where things stand, that is just not in China's nature to perhaps update things in real time.

If anything, if China comments on something, it's usually at the end of the process, not during. And if there are remarks, it has to be something that's pretty important, pretty significant. So as far as an extension, that's likely something that's going to come from Washington.

But what I can tell you from my standpoint, from my seat here in Beijing, China is really trying to portray itself as a strong force in all of this through Chinese state media, which is the government's messenger service, talking a lot about innovation, talking about advancement in robotics.

In fact, Jessica, there was recently an editorial talking about how China is persevering despite these tariffs, despite this trade war. So that's the view from Beijing. It's going to be interesting to see if and exactly how Washington reacts to this current apparent stalemate that both of these nations are dealing with.

[20:20:00]

DEAN: All right. Marc Stewart, thank you so much for joining us from Beijing. We really, really appreciate that reporting. I know it's early where you are, so thanks for getting up for us.

And joining us now is Wall Street Journal China Correspondent Lingling Wei. She was based in Beijing from 2011 until China expelled journal reporters in 2020. She also co-wrote the book, "Superpower Showdown: How the Battle Between Trump and Xi Threatens a New Cold War."

Lingling, thanks so much for being here with us on this Sunday evening. The White House just hit products from India with a 50 percent tariff as a punishment for buying Russian oil. But the White House so far being a bit more lenient with China compared to other countries. How would you assess this?

LINGLING WEI, CHIEF CHINA CORRESPONDENT, THE WALL STREET JOURNAL: Sure. Thank you very much, Jessica. Glad to be here.

You asked about the big August 12th tariff death line on China. It looks like it's not going to happen. After the latest talks in Stockholm, both sides have actually agreed in principle to kick the can down the road, possibly as late as November, as you just, you know, heard from Commerce Secretary Lutnick.

This means that the tariff ceasefire is likely here to stay for several more months at least. When you look at the bigger picture, the reason for the extension is really obvious. President Trump wants to set up a trip to China this fall. He thinks he can sit down with President Xi Jinping, man to man, and hammer out a final agreement himself.

In the unlikely event that the death line is not getting extended, U.S. tariffs on China could climb by an additional 34 percent, putting the total tariff rate at over 80 percent on most Chinese goods. This would obviously trigger immediate retaliation from Beijing, escalating the trade war to a new level, leading to higher prices for American consumers and businesses and amount to a bigger blow to China's already struggling economy. But based on our reporting, the death line will be extended perhaps to as late as November.

DEAN: And so knowing that, China also has two advantages here. They -- there's the cheap everyday products that Americans rely on at stores like Walmart that they know the prices for. And there are also these rare earth magnets that are critical to a lot of industries. So how strong does that make China's hand in these talks?

WEI: China believes they have the upper hand precisely for the reasons you talked about. The rare earth, their stronghold on rare earth magnets are Beijing's Trump card. They have demonstrated resolve and willingness to use that card.

We have seen just a short few months ago so many U.S. automakers, defense producers. They have to scale back production because China slow walked approvals for exports of those magnets. So they are not going to give up that Trump card easily. They are playing hardball, you know, because they also feel like the U.S. needs a deal more than they do.

DEAN: And so what does that mean for the U.S. then?

WEI: The U.S., so the Chinese are going to ask more concessions from the Trump administration, especially when it comes to export controls. Jessica, as you must have seen over the past week or so, the Trump administration already did a U-turn on export controls on the so- called H20 trips from Nvidia.

Previously, they banned Nvidia from selling those trips to China over national security reasons. But most recently, they reversed that ban after intense lobbying from Nvidia and other industry players. And now we're seeing the Chinese getting those very coveted trips.

And it doesn't end there. They're going to ask for more. They're going to ask for access for more high-end U.S. technology because they still need U.S. high tech U.S. products in order to advance China's own technological ambitions.

DEAN: I also think it's interesting your book, "Superpower Showdown," describes the relationship between the U.S. and China as a story of a romance gone bad, which is quite a way to describe it. Can you just quickly elaborate a little bit on that before we let you go?

WEI: Sure. I mean, if you remember, you know, back in the late 80s and 90s, you know, all the way back to 2008, you know, those years ago, U.S. and China were really involved in this, you know, bromance, right?

[20:25:22]

You know, the U.S. -- series of U.S. administrations adopted this engagement policy with China thinking, you know, once you do more business with the Chinese, China would become more and more like the United States. So they -- both countries have, over the years, have formed this kind of interdependence over each other. U.S. companies spent hundreds of billions of dollars building up supply trains in China. So --

DEAN: Yes.

WEI: -- you know, the economic linkage has become very, very strong. And, you know, the Chinese officials would tell you it's like a marriage, almost like a couple. And nowadays, you know, we're moving toward a breakup.

DEAN: Yes.

WEI: So, it's a romance call (ph) comeback.

DEAN: Well, it's a fascinating relationship, that's for sure.

All right, Lingling, thanks so much. We really appreciate it.

WEI: Yes.

DEAN: And still ahead, a home run for women everywhere as Major League Baseball's first woman empire -- umpire takes to the field. We talked to the -- to ESPN's first female MLB commentator about the historic weekend.

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[20:30:36]

DEAN: As President Donald Trump prepares for his high stakes sit down with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday, European leaders are pushing for Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to be included in those talks. Germany's chancellor saying it's unacceptable for talks to be, quote, "decided over the heads of Europeans and Ukrainians."

And one European diplomat telling CNN they fear becoming, quote, "a footnote in history." Zelenskyy has already just rejected Russia's purported -- reported proposal to take over two key areas in Ukraine.

I do want to bring in contributor and former CNN Moscow Bureau Chief, Jill Dougherty. Jill, thank you so much for being here with us. You're a perfect person to talk to as we get as we get closer to this. You've lived in Russia extensively. You have covered Putin. Take us inside his mind as he's preparing for this meeting with President Trump.

JILL DOUGHERTY, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: Yes. It's really interesting to think about that, isn't it? I would say, you know, based on the experience that I've had, President Putin prepares. So, I remember distinctly the first interview that we ever did or I was part of with Western correspondents, there are about eight of us, nine of us in the Kremlin library, and I sat right next to Putin.

And I can tell you that even at that point, this is early Putin going back, like, 25 years. He knew every topic and was, you know, just like a machine answering everything. So he will know his brief. And don't forget, you know, he's been in office for 25 years, so he knows these subjects inside and out.

In fact, I think he thinks he knows them better than anyone else because he has written a gigantic treatise about Ukraine. So this, he'll be prepared. And then the other part of it is the psychological preparation. I think that's really almost more interesting because, you know, the KGB, just as the CIA, prepares these psychological profiles of the international leaders.

And so, Putin being a former KGB officer, obviously knows that. I'm sure he's read it a million times, and he's met with President Trump. So he knows what he's like. But as a former KGB officer, he used to -- his job was to recruit people.

So he will use every trick in the book psychologically to get to Trump, to make the points. You know, Russia is reliable. Ukraine is not. All everything that he can do, he will use to influence President Trump.

DEAN: And, certainly, I think that's what, some of the allies and probably Zelenskyy too are nervous about.

DOUGHERTY: Yes. Oh, definitely. Because, you know, it is a complicated subject. And, President Trump, although right now he's involved in all of this, he is pretty new to the nuances of this. I mean, this is a very complex fight.

And the Russians will be using everything they can to be maximalist in what they want. So I think it's -- it is a moment that he has to be very, very careful. I would say there are two things if I were advising him, which I'm not, but I would say one would be to try to figure out, is Putin serious?

And I know he said at one point, I don't think he's serious. I do think he's serious. But it really has to be this is the moment where President Trump has to feel that Putin is serious. And then also, does he trust Putin to even be serious? Because Putin, of course, is going to say, I am serious about peace, we want it, etcetera, but and then he will go in with his demands, which are really, again, maximalist.

DEAN: Yes. And knowing all of that, then there are these two ideas, the kind of two schools of thought that I've heard over the last couple of days. One being it's a triumph that Trump is getting them to sit down, that getting Putin to sit down with him. He has to come to America to do so. He has to come to Trump.

The other side being, Putin gets to come to America and doesn't have to guarantee anything, give anything up. He hasn't really been able to travel because of the ICC warrant. Where -- knowing everything you just laid out, where would you land on that?

DOUGHERTY: I'm on the second. I would say that, you know, Putin gets exactly what he wants. He is on the world stage and equal to the U.S. president. That is what he craves.

[20:35:04] And he wants to get that relationship back between him and Trump and between Russia and the United States. And then what did he give up? I see nothing that he has given up, and he is coming, as we've been mentioning over the past few days, to Alaska, which used to belong to Russia.

So there's a lot of symbolism. You know, there are nationalists in Russia right now who think they ought to have it back. So this -- there are a lot of aspects to this, but I think Putin got exactly what he wants. And President Trump, I think, also wants a summit with the pageantry. It won't be as big as, you know, a state visit, but it is a very big deal in a new sense.

So President Trump gets a lot out of this looking like the peacekeeper.

DEAN: All right. Jill Dougherty, always good to see you. Thanks so much.

DOUGHERTY: Sure.

DEAN: The Trump administration at war with the federal judiciary. Why experts say the White House feud with the justice system could soon become a constitutional crisis.

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[20:40:30]

DEAN: The Trump administration has been entangled in several legal battles from the beginning of his first term. There have been tensions between the president and federal judges, and the administration is now seen as being at war with the federal judiciary.

Katelyn Polantz has more on this.

KATELYN POLANTZ, CNN CRIME AND JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: This presidency of Donald Trump and the Trump administration, they are picking a fight over and over again with many federal judges across the county. And guess what? It's going pretty badly for the judiciary or for at least some federal judges that are trying to hold Justice Department attorneys, Trump administration officials accountable.

Here's an example. Recently, there was a situation where Judge James Boasberg, he's the chief judge of the federal court in D.C. He took issue with representations the Justice Department and the Trump administration were making in court in a very high stakes and fast moving immigration situation.

He found reason that he believed that he was being misled intentionally by the administration. He wanted to hold people in criminal contempt or at least look at that. But other courts, the appeals court above him, it put everything on hold so that Boasberg didn't have any power to move forward.

And then just on Friday, the appeals court said, no. There's not going to be a criminal contempt proceeding here. That was a two to one vote in the federal appeals court in D.C. One judge on that court, a Trump appointee himself, wrote that they were going to put an end to the standoff now because it would diffuse the tension between the judiciary and the Trump administration.

I was been speaking though to several former federal judges as well as sitting federal judges on the bench now, and they're telling me things like the Trump administration, they believe, are trying to intimidate, threaten, and just run over the courts in ways that they have never seen. That was one retired federal judge.

Another former judge told me at the end of the day, the courts just don't have that many options to hold the Trump administration accountable if they don't follow court orders. This is a situation where I then asked, are we in a constitutional crisis? And the judges said, that's not the case yet because the Supreme Court is signing off on many of the things that the Trump administration wants to do at this point in time and not letting a standoff happen between the judiciary and the executive branch, though Steve Vladeck, a CNN legal analyst, he is also a constitutional law expert and a Supreme Court expert.

I talked to him about a constitutional crisis, and he said that "Right now, the problem is that too many people are waiting for a crossing the Rubicon moment when what we've seen to date is the Trump administration finding lots of other ways to try to sneak into Rome." Things are bubbling up. There are many other situations still out there in court.

There's another case just on Friday that we heard about where a Trump appointed judge in Rhode Island wanted the Trump administration to explain themselves about why they haven't paid out millions of dollars for housing programs, in that state in Rhode Island related to low income senior citizen housing.

The judge is giving the Trump administration an opportunity. But, again, this is just another example of how slow these things move if the courts believe that the Trump administration isn't following court orders. And at the end of the day, there might just not be much there for judges to do.

Back to you.

DEAN: All right. Katelyn Polantz, thank you.

Major League Baseball's first woman umpire takes the field. We're going to talk to ESPN's first female MLB analyst about this on the other side.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[20:48:32]

DEAN: This weekend, an historic major league debut, Jen Pawol becoming the first woman to umpire regular season major league baseball games. She worked the bases this Saturday and the Braves-Marlins doubleheader. And today, she called balls and strikes behind the home plate in the final game of the series.

ESPN Baseball and Softball Analyst Jessica Mendoza is joining us now. She's an Olympic gold and silver medalist in softball and was ESPN's first woman MLB analyst. So, Jessica, you know about breaking barriers yourself. You've done this before. How big of a moment is this for women in baseball?

JESSICA MENDOZA, ESPN BASEBALL AND SOFTBALL ANALYST: Jessica, this is so huge. And, honestly, it's been a long time coming. We've seen a lot of women in the umpiring realm. I mean, shoot, in so many different things within Major League Baseball, but have yet to break those barriers. They've only come on as of recently.

And when you look at professional men's sports, I mean, the NBA broke this barrier in 1997. So we think about how long we've been waiting for this. Such a huge moment. I think about all the little girls, Jessica, that are watching Jen Pawol do her thing, and that now they're going to want to do the same.

DEAN: Yes. And so how did it go this weekend?

MENDOZA: It was awesome to see her out there. I mean, there was a motion -- the very first pitch. You know, they ended up saving the ball like they would with a player on their first home run. All of those moments, they saved the ball for her. They marked it. You could see she was kind of trying to fight off the emotion.

And remember, they're bringing her up just for this weekend. This is something where she's substituting in. Hopefully, this will be something more full time, but it is a groundbreaking.

[20:50:06]

I was in tears watching. I mean, I'm watching this Braves-Marlins game, and you could feel the energy in the stadium, the game that was being called. All the focus was on her.

DEAN: That is so cool. She is one of eight women currently umpiring in the minor leagues. She has been there almost 10 seasons and at the highest level, the AAA since 2023. Take people through, maybe who aren't familiar with the baseball world, what a long road this has been for her, especially compared to other umpires.

MENDOZA: Yes. Exactly. You know, this is something that she had to really set her heart into, back in 2016 when she decided to make this jump. You have to give 10 years into the minor leagues. And just to kind of wrap your mind around that, that might sound like an awesome thing. It's really tough.

I mean, you're traveling to towns, bus rides. Like, it is, I mean, even as minor league players how rough that is for a whole decade, you are dedicating yourself to being an umpire, and you're talking about harsh fans, only one of eight women.

She's the only female most of the time on the field. You're talking coaches, trainers, players. She's the only woman there. So you think about the harassment, the yelling, all the different thing that she's going through, not just for one year, five years, but for 10 years to be able to make this moment happen and make it to the big leagues.

DEAN: It is incredible. Do you think we'll see her back in the major league soon?

MENDOZA: We better. Because my biggest thing I love this moment, Jess, but I'm telling you and we see this for a lot of women. I don't want it to be just a promotional thing. We're talking about it, right? This is so huge.

But girl has earned it. Like, she has earned the right to not just be there for this weekend. We need to see her there to stay, and that would be next year. So her year being up would be 2026 to be able to be a full time Major League Baseball umpire.

The girl has earned it. I'm so proud for Jen Pawol to be here this weekend, but we want to see her stay. This weekend, just watching her umpire, the way she calls, falls and strikes, first baseline, third baseline, we've seen her do it all, now I want to see her here permanently.

DEAN: Yes. All right. And so it sounds like next year would be the year for that. OK. So we've also just more broadly seen a spike in interest and support for women in sports. I'm thinking about the WNBA, Caitlin Clark, but also other incredible players in the WNBA, and just so many, fans really excited about what's going on there.

The new athletes unlimited softball league just finished its first season. The MLB is invested in that league. How would you kind of categorize this moment of women in sports?

MENDOZA: This is exactly everything that you've said. I mean, yes, the -- we saw with women's college basketball last year leading into the WNBA. The numbers, just the conversation. Athletes unlimited has been massive. The fact that we're talking 30 years of softball and the first time Major League Baseball has said, OK, we are going to back this thing.

And now look at the results. The numbers have been off the charts. I just want to see this continue to go, and the way that we've seen it's been amazing. But even with the women's professional hockey league, soccer, I mean, I could go on and on.

You've seen it, Jessica. You've been covering it. But I want to also see more women in the men's professional sports. So as much as we have women now, we're talking about them athletically. I love what Jen Pawol's doing.

She -- I love what Becky Hammon did when she was coaching in the NBA. Now we see her coaching the Aces. So seeing that cross pollination of, like, women going into men's sports, the way that we see men and women's sports is our next leap.

DEAN: All right. Jessica Mendoza, thanks so much. Good to see you.

MENDOZA: Thanks, Jessica.

DEAN: And we'll be right back.

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DEAN: Flames and smoke pouring off the top of a long dormant volcano in Edinburgh, Scotland. The volcano, Arthur's Seat, is near King Charles' official residence there in Edinburgh. Officials say the fire has been burning for several hours, and no hikers are allowed on the volcano for now until they can get that fire under control. Scotland is having an extremely dry year so far, and several areas across Europe are dealing with dry conditions and wildfires at the moment.

Massive floods in Texas have revealed a prehistoric surprise. While cleaning debris in Travis County, crews stumbled upon dinosaur tracks preserved in a riverbed. A paleontologist telling CNN the footprints likely belong to a 35-foot tall carnivore that roamed the Texas Plains some 100,000,000 years ago.

Each print measures about 20 inches across. That's roughly the size of a large pizza. Researchers hope the newly exposed river banks will reveal even more tracks from these ancient giants. There's some big footprints.

Tonight on The Whole Story with Anderson Cooper, CNN's David Culver has a rare look into a South American country once very popular for tourists, but now many are avoiding it because of extreme violence. It is an extraordinary report on how the drug cartels work and what the government is doing to fight it, and here's a preview.

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DEAN: Unfortunately, we do not have sound on that piece, but I will tell you that an all new episode of The Whole Story with Anderson Cooper, "Ecuador: The Narco Superhighway," one whole hour, one whole story, does air next only here on CNN.

Well, California could use some well, otherwise, a 100 degree heat wave actually in California, and bone dry conditions have fueled California's largest wildfire of the year. The Gifford Fire has now burned an area bigger than the size of Atlanta by torching more than a 100,000 acres. It's now what's considered a megafire.

That fire is still only 32 percent contained with flames threatening Santa Barbara and nearby communities. Meanwhile, the smaller Canyon Fire that's been threatening areas around Los Angeles is now more than 62 percent contained, and evacuation orders have been lifted.

Thanks so much for joining me this evening. I'm Jessica Dean. I'm going to see you right back here next weekend. Have a great night.