Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Newsroom

Netanyahu Defense Planned Military Takeover Of Gaza City; European Leaders: Putin, Trump Cannot Decide Europe's Fate; Netanyahu Again Claims No Starvation Crisis In Gaza; "Alligator Alcatraz" Detainees Speak Out About Conditions; U.S.-China Import Tariffs Set To Take Effect Tuesday; Northern Spain Battles Wildfires Amid August Heat Wave; Aired 12-12:45a ET

Aired August 11, 2025 - 00:00   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[00:00:31]

BEN HUNTE, CNN HOST: 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, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is defending his plan to take control of Gaza City, and once again denying there's any starvation in the enclave.

European nations are rushing to understand the terms of Trump's Alaska summit with Putin. And they're pushing the White House to include Ukraine in the talks.

Plus, two major companies have reportedly reached an unprecedented deal with the Trump administration to sell high-tech AI chips to China.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Live from Atlanta, this is "CNN Newsroom" with Ben Hunte.

HUNTE: Welcome. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is defending his country's planned military takeover of Gaza City, even as that plan faces growing anger and strong opposition both at home and abroad.

Netanyahu spoke by phone with Donald Trump about his intention to expand the war. And according to the Prime Minister's office, he thanked the U.S. president for his, quote, steadfast support of Israel.

The Israeli leader also held a news conference with international media telling them the military operation to take over Gaza City is the fastest way to end the war. Netanyahu also claimed there is no starvation crisis in Gaza, even as more malnutrition deaths are reported. UNICEF says the number of malnutrition cases among children alone are staggering.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) BENJAMIN NETANYAHU, ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER: Since the beginning of the war, Israel has led in close to two million tons of aid. I know of no other army that enabled -- has enabled such aid to go to the civilian population in enemy territory.

Now, if we had a starvation policy, no one in Gaza would have survived after two years of war. But our policy has been the exact opposite. We let in, as I said, almost two million tons of aid and sent millions of text messages, millions of phone calls to Gazans to get out of harm's way.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNTE: And earlier, we heard from the Australian Prime Minister who says his country will recognize a Palestinian state at a U.N. General Assembly in September.

And Israeli strike in Gaza City late on Sunday night killed six journalists, including four from Al Jazeera, according to Al-Shifa Hospital. The Israeli military says it targeted and killed Al Jazeera journalist Anas al-Sharif, accusing him of leading a Hamas cell. Al Jazeera said another prominent journalist was also killed in the strike.

Before his death, al-Sharif responded to Israel's accusation, saying, I am a journalist with no political affiliations. Al Jazeera called the killing, quote, a desperate attempt to silence voices ahead of the occupation of Gaza.

U.N. officials are warning in a controversial plan to take over Gaza City would lead to, quote, another calamity in the enclave. Still, Benjamin Netanyahu shows no signs of backing down.

CNN's Oren Liebermann reports from Jerusalem.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

OREN LIEBERMANN, CNN JERUSALEM BUREAU CHIEF: In a press conference in Jerusalem on Sunday afternoon, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu defended his plan that he pushed in the security cabinet late last week to take over and occupy Gaza City.

He insisted this is the quickest and the best way to defeat Hamas. He said Gaza City, which is the focus of this plan that was approved, as well as the central camps in Gaza, are what he called the, quote, last two remaining strongholds of Hamas in Gaza.

And he said this was necessary to defeat Hamas so that there could be plans moving forward in the future for an alternate governance.

But when he was asked by CNN about what that governance would look like or who would take part in that, he declined to answer, only saying that that process was in the works.

He also insisted once again that there was no starvation in Gaza and that it was Hamas that, in fact, he accused of looting the aid, diverting the aid, and creating shortages.

Worth noting he said this on a day in which the Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza said five more people had died of malnutrition in the besieged territory, bringing the total to 217. And that includes 100 children, the ministry says, have died of malnutrition.

Earlier Sunday, it was the families of the hostages still held in Gaza, as well as bereaved families from October 7th, who called for a nationwide strike next Sunday. They said this would, first of all, bring attention to their demands to prioritize the hostages, but it would also force the government to listen.

[00:05:02]

They say within eight hours of that call, some 10,000 private companies have already said they will take part in the strike as a way of making the government listen and prioritizing the hostages. Some Israeli opposition politicians have also said they would take part in the strike.

Organizers see this as a grassroots effort that they very much hope grows over the course of the next week.

Oren Liebermann, CNN, in Jerusalem.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HUNTE: More European leaders are expressing their support for Ukraine. They're insisting that Ukraine must have a seat at the table when President Trump meets with Russian President Vladimir Putin this week.

The E.U. foreign policy chief also says any decision that impacts Europe must involve Europe itself.

Right now, the U.S. has not invited Volodymyr Zelenskyy to the Alaska talks on Friday, which European leaders say cannot lead to any type of just peace.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

FRIEDRICH MERZ, GERMAN CHANCELLOR (through translator): We are preparing intensely for this meeting at a European level together with the American government. And we hope and assume that the government of Ukraine, that President Zelenskyy will be involved in this meeting.

In any case, we cannot accept the territorial issues between Russia and America are discussed or even decided over the heads of Europeans and Ukrainians. I assume that the American government sees it in the same way.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNTE: NATO's chief warns of Vladimir Putin remains, quote, the main threat to the Western alliance, and says, if Putin is serious about peace, he needs to commit to sitting with Zelenskyy. And Ukraine's president says the world cannot let its guard down. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY, UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT (through translator): We clearly understand the threats. All our partners understand the threats just as clearly. Everyone sees that there has been no real step from Russia toward peace, no action on the ground nor in the air that could save lives. That is why sanctions are needed. Pressure is needed. Strength is needed.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNTE: CNN's Nick Paton Walsh brings us the latest from Ukraine.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NICK PATON WALSH, CNN INTERNATIONAL SECURITY EDITOR: Clear pressure from European leaders to ensure, not only the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who could potentially take part of the Friday summit in Alaska between Presidents Trump and Putin, but that indeed Ukraine is in the middle of any deal that could be hatched.

A statement from them suggesting that they would like to see a ceasefire first before a meaningful negotiations begin. A reminder, that's not new. That's something the U.S. and Ukraine first pushed months ago after talks in the Gulf, a game pushed by European leaders and a visit to Kyiv in May.

Trump, at that point, seemed to suggest he back sanctions against Russia. It didn't implement the ceasefire. That wasn't the case and we entered into more diplomacy. But a ceasefire immediately happening seems to be the European plank for meaningful talks to begin.

And their statement too also said that the current line of contact should be the start point for negotiations, essentially freezing the front line. Their retort to suggestions that U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff was presented an idea by Russian President Vladimir Putin that in exchange for a ceasefire for Russia stopping its war and invasion of Ukraine, Ukraine would give Russia the remainder of the Donetsk region that it currently still has under its control without a fight, basically.

There have been lots of different permutations it seems. Some misunderstandings potentially as to exactly what the Russians had proposed. But that appears to be the core of what has had the Europeans most deeply concerned.

And indeed it's toxic to Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to suggest that he might indeed give up parts of Donetsk that are still being fought over and defended by Ukrainians losing their lives.

Ukraine's president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, using the 19 people injured in a Russian strike on a bus station in Zaporizhzhia on Sunday as another example of Russia's brutality, saying how Russia doesn't want peace and his nightly address, emphasizing how Ukraine is constantly talking to American officials. But we're into a complex few days ahead. Certainly, the Europeans want their version of events or potential peace plan to be at the core of what Trump puts to -- Putin in Alaska. But the Russians are proposing this meeting more as a bilateral improvement of Moscow and Washington's relationship.

It's going to be tough to see those two sides reconciled. But ultimately meetings between European and Ukrainian officials and U.S. Vice President JD Vance have tried to bridge that gap, but five days away till Alaska. So much has happened in the last five days, so much can still change again.

Nick Paton Walsh, CNN, Eastern Ukraine.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HUNTE: Joining me now to help us break all of this down is CNN political and national security analyst David Sanger. Thank you so much for being with me. How are you doing?

DAVID SANGER, CNN POLITICAL AND NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: Hey, Ben. Good to see you.

HUNTE: Good to see you too. Thank you for being here. Let's get into this.

The White House says Ukraine might be included in the Alaska talks. How critical is their participation? And what would it mean if Putin and Trump do go ahead without Zelenskyy at the table?

[00:10:08]

SANGER: Well, Ben, you may remember that during the entire Biden administration, the sort of watchword was nothing about Ukraine without Ukraine, no negotiations and so forth.

And that was based on the theory that the days were over when the United States did what it did say at the Yalta Conference in 1945 when Franklin Roosevelt met with Churchill and Stalin and divided up Europe. And the smaller powers that were involved had very little voice about that.

There's been a concern clearly among the Europeans who saw it in the statement that they issued on Sunday that the United States was headed back in that direction, that it was going to be discussing Ukraine's borders, giving away land, what the president referred to as land swaps, and they said quite clearly, there'll be none of that. Ukraine's got to be a full participant.

Now, I'm not sure it would be terribly useful to have Ukraine as the full participant in the first meeting where presumably President Trump needs to see how far he can push Putin on this, but at the end of the day it's for Ukraine to decide whether or not it is in its interest to give up parts of the Donbas and return for peace, for an eventual pathway perhaps to NATO although obviously the Russians opposed that. HUNTE: We have heard a lot about the idea of swapping territories as part of a potential peace deal, which President Trump seems to support. Where does that leave U.S. credibility though? Surely, there are principles of territorial integrity there as they care.

SANGER: You know, we heard a lot about those principles of territorial integrity from President Biden who, you know, said, look, after World War II, we adopted a system in which countries don't run over each other's sovereign borders.

That is not how President Trump has approached this. He has approached this from examining where he thinks the -- the strength is. Remember his line to President Zelenskyy, "You don't have the cards right now."

And he's approached it fundamentally as a real estate deal. Well, why don't you take this and we'll take that. So, the sovereignty element of it does not appear to be high up on his list.

HUNTE: And a few hours ago, we also learned about a call between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Trump.

Do you think that Trump is still fully supportive of Israel's new plan for Gaza?

SANGER: That's a really interesting question because he showed no objections when Prime Minister Netanyahu was in Washington about a month ago, though not -- Netanyahu made it pretty clear at that time that he planned to move back into Gaza if not take it completely under control.

Then a few weeks ago, you heard the president talking about stopping starvation, moving more American aid in. Of course, that's Israel's responsibility if it controls Gaza because if it's the governing power, it's got to make sure that everybody is provided with food and medicine.

But we don't know whether in those phone conversations President Trump has issued any of the objections you've heard from many others, Republicans and Democrats, about the idea of Israel going back into Gaza places that left, oh, 13 years ago, more.

HUNTE: On Sunday, we also saw Netanyahu calling reports of a hunger crisis in Gaza fake. And he accused international media of buying into Hamas propaganda. We're seeing some truly horrific pictures while we're speaking here.

Do you think that --

SANGER: Yes.

HUNTE: -- him saying these things will have any kind of impact on Israel's diplomatic standing?

SANGER: I --I doubt it. I mean, what Israel has -- is confronting right now is that most of the European powers are pretty well abandoned it. The Germans decided the other day not to send arms that they thought could be used in Gaza and Germany has been one of the greatest supporters of Israel for all of the understandable historical reasons.

So, you know, I am sure that Hamas is doing everything it can to influence this account, but we're seeing a lot of independent pictures confirmed by doctors and others there of what certainly looks like starvation and what the president of the United States called starvation the other day.

[00:15:08]

HUNTE: Yes. Well, things seem to be changing all the time, so let's see what happens next. Thank you for now, David Sanger. Appreciate it.

SANGER: Thank you, Ben. Good to see you.

HUNTE: Just ahead, 40 people per cell, five-minute meals and handcuffed trips to the bathroom. What a man says he enjoyed inside the controversial detention facility known as Alligator Alcatraz.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HUNTE: Welcome back. Trump is expected to announce a plan for FBI agents to patrol with police in Washington, D.C. Mr. Trump scheduled a Monday news conference on crime and beautification of Washington. Last week, he ordered an increase in federal law enforcement in the city.

[00:20:16]

A person familiar with the president's plan says more than 100 FBI agents will patrol the city.

But Washington, D.C.'s mayor Muriel Bowser is pushing back against the president's claims of rising crime in the nation's capital.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MURIEL BOWSER, WASHINGTON, D.C. MAYOR: There are very specific things in our law that would allow the president to have more control over our police department. None of those conditions exist in our city right now.

As I mentioned, we are not experiencing a spike in crime. In fact, we're watching our crime numbers go down.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNTE: New details are emerging about the conditions inside the controversial immigration detention center in the Florida Everglades known as Alligator Alcatraz.

CNN's Rafael Romo reports.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RAFAEL ROMO, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): It was meant to be a visit to his brother in the United States to mourn together the recent death of their mother.

But Carlos Gonzalez says it turned out to be a nightmare that started with a traffic stop.

He says he was stopped for driving a car with tinted windows and detained. He says he had in his possession a tourist visa and his Mexican passport and driver's license.

After originally being held at a county jail, Gonzalez says he was eventually transferred to the migrant detention center in the Florida Everglades, dubbed Alligator Alcatraz, where he claims he endured harsh conditions, including lack of toiletries, staying inside tents 24/7 with the lights on even at night, five-minute meals, up to 40 people per cell, going to the bathroom with handcuffed hands and switching from hot and humid conditions inside the tents to cold when they turned the air on.

"I see it as a form of torture to all of us there," Gonzalez said.

In a statement, the Department of Homeland Security said that on July 7th, 2025, Florida Highway Patrol arrested illegal aliens Carlos Martin Gonzalez-Meza Cole and Oscar Alejandro Gonzalez-Mesa during a traffic stop near Orlando, Florida. Carlos was illegally working in the U.S. while here on a tourist visa, and his brother Oscar, overstayed his visa, adding that the vehicle they were in was unregistered and had 212 total violations.

By the time he was stopped, Gonzalez acknowledges he had been in the country four months already because he was trying to get over the painful loss of his mother.

We have heard similar testimonies from relatives of migrants who have been held at Alligator Alcatraz, as well as immigrants' rights groups and elected officials. But White House Border Czar, Tom Homan says detainees are treated with dignity and respect, dismissing claims that treatment at the Everglades detention center is inhumane.

TOM HOMAN, WHITE HOUSE BORDER CZAR: A bunch of crap. I was there. I walked through the detainee facilities. I walked through the medical facilities. I walked through the cafeteria. I had them show me. What did you feed these people today? I saw the lunch what they fed them. They're -- they ate better yesterday than what I am eating today.

ROMO (voice-over): Last week, a man speaking by phone from inside Alligator Alcatraz claimed he was on a hunger strike to protest conditions there, along with at least 11 others as reported by CNN affiliate, Univision.

I'm not eating another plate of food until my rights as detainee are respected," he reportedly said.

His wife calls what he and others are going through psychological torture.

Officials at Homeland Security said the reports of a hunger strike inside the facility are false and called them unsubstantiated and inaccurate allegations.

Back in Mexico, Carlos Gonzalez reflects on the multiple days he was detained. A trip to heal from the loss of a loved one, he said, turned into what he calls an arbitrary detention and a violation of his human rights.

Rafael Romo, CNN.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HUNTE: Still to come, chipmakers strike an unprecedented deal with the Trump administration for clearance to ship their products to China. We'll break down the details in a live report, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[00:25:14]

HUNTE: Welcome back. I'm Ben Hunte.

Let's take a look at today's top stories. Benjamin Netanyahu is defending Israel's planned military takeover of Gaza City amid growing international opposition.

The Israeli Prime Minister spoke about his plans to expand the war with Donald Trump on Sunday and thanked the U.S. president for his steadfast support of Israel.

Historic rainfall caused flash flooding and led to dozens of water rescues in Milwaukee over the weekend. Nearly six inches of rain fell on Milwaukee in just hours on Saturday. The Milwaukee Fire Department performed about 65 water rescues. A state of emergency was declared across Milwaukee County on Sunday.

U.S. President Donald Trump is expected to announce a plan for FBI agents to patrol with police in Washington, D.C. Mr. Trump scheduled a Monday news conference on crime and beautification of Washington. Last week he ordered an increase in federal law enforcement in the city.

[00:30:13]

Less than 24 hours from now, historic import tariffs are set to take effect between the U.S. and China. The clock is ticking down as the countries make a last ditch effort to make a deal.

But some companies aren't counting on a clean resolution. They're making their own moves to soften the blow from the trade war.

Our Kristie Lu Stout is in Hong Kong with more. Thank you so much for being with me, Kristie.

Two major U.S. chipmakers have reportedly agreed to give the U.S. government a share of revenues from certain chips sold in China. How was this deal reached?

KRISTIE LU STOUT, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes. Ben, this is a very unusual and unprecedented deal. You have two American chipmakers, AMD and NVIDIA, agreed to give the U.S. government 15 percent of the revenues of their chip sales to China.

This is according to a report in the FT citing sources, people who are close to the situation. In return, these companies will get export licenses to sell their chips in China. And this includes the NVIDIA H20 AI chip.

Now, in his statement from NVIDIA, that was mentioned in the FT, this is what NVIDIA is saying. Let's bring it up for you, saying this, quote, "While we haven't shipped H20 to China for months, we hope export control rules will let America compete in China and worldwide. America cannot repeat 5G and lose telecommunication leadership.

And as the U.S. government is doing this, paving the way for these American chipmakers, including NVIDIA, and it's H20 to be sold in China, under this very unusual revenue sharing agreement, Chinese state media is saying, no, thank you. We don't want this chip because they deem it unsafe.

In fact, this is what we're hearing from a social media post that is associated to the state broadcaster CCTV. Let's bring it up for you. The source, Yuyuan Tantian, saying this quote, "When a type of chip is neither environmentally friendly nor advanced nor safe as consumers, we certainly have the option not to buy it."

Now, NVIDIA has countered such a charge, saying that their products are safe, saying that there are no backdoors that would allow remote control or remote access.

But instead, China has its eyes on a different prize, on a different sort of chip. It has its eyes on something called the HBM or the High Bandwidth. (TECHNICAL DIFFICULTY)

These officials are asking the U.S. during trade talks to relax controls on this type of chip. The HBM chip is a chip that would allow a Chinese technology company like Huawei to be able to manufacture their own AI chips.

I want to share this bit of interesting analysis from a Taiwan-based analyst. His name is Dan Nystedt. He shared this on social media. He said this quote, "Despite the focus on NVIDIA chips, China is much more worried about HBM controls, because they hurt the ability of Chinese companies to develop their own AI systems."

And all eyes on tomorrow, of course, Ben. August 12th is the deadline for these two superpower countries, U.S. and China, to reach some sort of deal or agreement to extend the trade truce.

And right now, we're learning HBMs, this special type of chip, also on the table, and the issue that needs to be entangled before there's any sort of resolution here.

Back to you.

HUNTE: Yes. And as you said, the clock is now ticking down to the August 12th tariff deadline with China. So, what currently stands in the way of a deal?

LU STOUT: Yes. It is interesting because the longer we wait for a deal, the longer the list of sticking points becomes.

Tomorrow is just around the corner. We have no agreement for a trade deal between the U.S. and China, or for a trade truce extension.

Last week, we were talking about rare earths being the leading sticking point on that list. There was also the issue of fentanyl, the flow of precursor chemicals from China, the issue of TikTok and the fate of future of that social media platform, which is, of course, owned by Beijing's ByteDance and is deeply popular inside the United States. The issue of China's purchase of sanctioned oil from Iran and from Russia. And now, adding to the list, this HBM chip.

A lot is at stake here. Again, the deadline is tomorrow. If there is no deal, if there is no agreement for an extension to the trade truce, we are going to see tariffs just skyrocket back up to those ultra-high levels that will be equivalent to a trade blockade.

Back to you.

HUNTE: OK. Kristie Lu Stout in Hong Kong. Thank you so much for now. Appreciate it.

LU STOUT: Thank you.

HUNTE: Dry summer heat is making fire conditions worse across Europe as Northern Spain tries to contain several fast-moving wildfires. We'll have the latest on those efforts, still ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[00:35:30]

HUNTE: A new August heat wave is fueling more wildfires across Europe. On Sunday, shifting winds steered flames towards Las Medulas. A world heritage site in northern Spain. Several wildfires there have forced at least 1,400 people to evacuate the Castile and Leon region.

And in Scotland, a wildfire burning near Edinburgh is scorching a popular tourist overlook. Smoke could be seen from miles away after the extinct volcano known as Arthur's Seat was badly damaged on Sunday. Police are advising people to avoid the area.

[00:40:03]

Fresh lava flow was spotted on one of Sicily's most active volcanoes, Mount Etna, on Sunday. According to regional experts, a new effusive event opened nearly 3,000 meters above sea level along the volcano's southern slope.

The new activity follows a large eruption back in June when part of Mount Etna's southeast crater collapsed.

That's all I've got for you. Thanks for joining me and the team. I'm Ben Hunte in Atlanta. I'll be back with more news at the top of the hour. "World Sport" is next. See you in a bit.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(WORLD SPORT)