Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Newsroom

Europe's Leaders Raise Pressure On Trump To Involve Ukraine In Putin Talks; Russian Strikes Injure 12 In Zaporizhzhia; Israeli Strike Kills Multiple Journalists In Gaza, Including Prominent Al Jazeera Reporters; Pressure Mounts On Netanyahu Amid Ongoing Starvation Crisis In Gaza; Trump Sends 120 FBI Agents To DC Amid Crime Crackdown Threat; Legal Battle Over Trump Deploying National Guard To Los Angeles; Legal Battle Over Trump Deploying National Guard To Los Angeles; U.S.-China Import Tariffs Set To Take Effect Tuesday; Nvidia, AMD To Pay U.S. Government 15 Percent Of China Chip Revenue; California And Tech Companies Partner On A.I. Training Program; System Off African Coast Could Become Next Named Storm. Aired 1-2a ET

Aired August 11, 2025 - 01:00   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[01:00:25]

BEN HUNTE, CNN HOST: Hello wherever you are in the world. You are now in the CNN Newsroom with me, Ben Hunte in Atlanta. It is so good to have you with me. Coming up on the show, will Volodymyr Zelenskyy be invited to the summit aimed at ending the war in his country? What European leaders are saying ahead of Friday's meeting between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin.

And Israeli strike kills several journalists in Gaza as Israel's prime minister continues to face international condemnation over plans to take over Gaza City.

And is President Donald Trump ready to announce detailed plans to use federal law enforcement to crack down on crime in Washington?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Live from Atlanta. This is CNN Newsroom with Ben Hunte.

HUNTE: Welcome. Days before President Trump meets with Russian President Vladimir Putin, more European leaders are expressing their support for Ukraine. They're insisting that Ukraine must have a seat at the table. Right now the U.S. has not invited Volodymyr Zelenskyy to the 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 intensively 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 that 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 that Vladimir Putin remains 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 Kevin Liptak brings us the latest on how the Trump administration is preparing for the talks with Vladimir Putin.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KEVIN LIPTAK, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: American officials are now in a four-day dash to finalize some of these details for this big sit down in Alaska on Friday. Both the logistical details for this Vladimir Putin's first visit to the United States in a decade, but also some of the geopolitical details, some of the contours of this discussion that the two men will have about ending the war in Ukraine.

And obviously this comes with a great deal of risk for President Trump, for the Ukrainians, for the Europeans, a lot of uncertainty about what exactly Putin has put on the table in order for the U.S. to agree to this meeting.

And over the weekend, you heard an enormous amount of concern from European officials and Ukrainian officials about how exactly this meeting would proceed. And at least on the part of the White House, they do appear open to hearing out some of those concerns. You saw the vice president, J.D. Vance, in the English countryside on Saturday meeting with European officials to discuss this upcoming meeting.

The Europeans came to him with a certain number of parameters about how they think this meeting should go, starting with the necessity of a ceasefire fire before other issues are discussed and their view that Ukraine must be at the table as its future is discussed.

And so the vice president and the White House saying that there was significant progress made in that meeting. But as of now, it doesn't appear as if Zelenskyy will be there in Alaska when President Trump sits down with Putin. The White House says it remains open to that invitation, but that the

priority right now is getting the Putin-Trump meeting off the ground.

Now, President Trump has spent the weekend hearing from allies about some of these issues. He spoke on Saturday with the Finnish president, Alexander Stubb. On Sunday, the German chancellor, Friedrich Merz, said in an interview that he also planned to speak with President Trump and that it was the hope, an expectation of European leaders that Zelenskyy would be involved in some of these discussions.

[01:05:04]

Now, the U.S. ambassador to NATO, Matthew Whitaker, was speaking to CNN earlier and said that it was, quote, possible that Zelenskyy could be invited to this meeting and that there was time to make that decision, but that the decision hadn't been made just yet.

We also heard from the Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, who actually spent the day on the golf course with President Trump on Saturday, saying that he too hoped that Zelenskyy would eventually be part of these discussions, but that he would leave that decision up to the White House.

Now, before he traveled to England, J.D. Vance did do an interview with Fox News in which he acknowledged that as part of this peace settlement that President Trump is working towards, neither Ukraine nor Russia would be entirely satisfied. Listen to more of what Vance said.

J.D. VANCE, U.S. VICE PRESIDENT: What do I think is ultimately going to come out of this? Look, it's actually very simple. If you take where the current line of contact between Russia and Ukraine is, we're going to try to find some negotiated settlement that the Ukrainians and the Russians can live with, where they can live in relative peace, where the killing stops, it's not going to make anybody super happy.

Both the Russians and the Ukrainians probably at the end of the day are going to be unhappy with it. But, but I don't think you can actually sit down and have this negotiation absent the leadership of Donald J. Trump.

LIPTAK: So clearly a lot riding on this summit for Trump, who, remember, said he would be able to resolve the Ukraine conflict within 24 of taking office now butting up against the seven month mark of his term. The war continues to rage and he is placing an enormous amount of hope on this meeting on Friday that it will be able to get the ball rolling towards getting this conflict resolved.

Of course, President Trump will not be able to force Ukraine to give up its territory. They will eventually need Ukraine and needs Zelenskyy at the negotiating table. That's something that the White House acknowledges. But at least for now, the goal seems to be getting that process started with this major summit set to take place in Alaska on Friday. Kevin Liptak, CNNthe White House.

(END VIDEOTAPE) HUNTE: Russian guided bombs struck targets in Ukraine's Zaporizhzhia region on Sunday, injuring more than a dozen people. Ukraine's Foreign Ministry says the strikes hit residential areas, a bus station and a clinic. President Zelenskyy is again calling for sanctions, pressure and strength from the U.S. and Europe to counter Russia's aggression.

An Israeli strike in Gaza City late on Sunday night killed seven people, including at least four journalists from Al Jazeera, according to Al Shifa Hospital. The Israeli military says it targeted and killed Al Jazeera correspondent 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 he was, quote, a journalist with no political affiliations. Al Jazeera called the killing, quote, a desperate attempt to silent voices ahead of the occupation of Gaza.

Israel's controversial plan to take over Gaza City has sparked growing anger and opposition both at home and abroad. But Benjamin Netanyahu isn't backing down and is defending the decision to expand the war. The Israeli prime minister spoke by phone of Donald Trump about those plans, 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. This all comes as more malnutrition deaths are reported in Gaza, with UNICEF saying the number of malnutrition cases among children alone are staggering. Netanyahu claims there is no starvation crisis in Gaza.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BENJAMIN NETANYAHU, ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER: Since the beginning of the war, Israel has led in close to 2 million tons of aid. I know of no other army that 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 2 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 the U.N. General assembly in September. U.N, Officials are warning that Israel's new war plan would lead to a, quote, another calamity in Gaza. CNN's Oren Liebermann has more 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.

[01:10:00]

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 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.

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: Ilay David, the brother of Israeli hostage Evyatar David, is calling for international pressure on Hamas for the sake of all the hostages. His comments come after the recent release of shocking video of his emaciated brother. And a warning the image you're about to see is disturbing. Here's what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ILAY DAVID, BORTHER OF ISRAELI HOSTAGE EVYATAR DAVID: They are intentionally taking my brother as a human experiment of starvation again just to use him as propaganda. I think all the world should stand on their back feet right now and say Hamas, this is enough. This is enough. You need to bring Evyatar and the other hostages. You need to bring them forward to bring the Mediterranean -- the humanitarian aid that got into Gaza. You have to make sure that they live and that they live with dignity. And the next step will be to demand Hamas go back to the negotiations table to bring back a ceasefire and bring back the hostages.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

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 SECURITIY 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?

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 theory that the days were over when the United States did what it did say at the altar 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. You saw it in the statement that they issued on 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'd 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 in return for peace for an eventual pathway, perhaps to NATO, although obviously the Russians oppose 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, or where does that leave us credibility, though? Surely there are principles of territorial integrity that are at stake here.

[01:15:00]

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 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 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, a place it 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 him saying these things will have any kind of impact on Israel's diplomatic standing?

SANGER: I doubt it. I mean, what Israel has is confronting right now is that most of the European powers have 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.

HUNTE: Yes, well, things seem to be changing all the time, so let's see what happens next. Thank you. For now David Sanger. I appreciate it.

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

HUNTE: Still to come, just hours from now, a court battle is set to begin over President Trump deploying National Guard troops to Los Angeles. While California's governor says the Trump administration violated the law. Just ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[01:22:20] HUNTE: Welcome back. U.S. president Donald Trump is expected to announce a plan for FBI agents to patrol with police in Washington, DC. 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.

A person familiar with the president's plan says more than 100 FBI agents will patrol the city. But Washington DC's mayor, Muriel Bowser is pushing back against the president's claims of rising crime in the nation's capital.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MUREIL BOWSER, WASHINGTON DC 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: Joining us now is retired FBI Special Agent Bobby Chacon. Thank you so much for joining us, Bobby. How are you doing?

BOBBY CHACON, RETIRED FBI SPECIAL AGENT: Sure, Ben. Good, Ben, thank you.

HUNTE: Good to see you. It has been reported that D.C. crime stats show a two-year drop in violence, but the White House has called crime in D.C. out of control right now. So what's actually going on here?

CHACON: Well, it's hard to say because sometimes when you have rises in crime, but they're not reported or they're not, you know, they're not the types of crimes that are getting prosecuted, quality of life crimes that we call that are known as. And so, you know, you could have -- but you could have that.

And so the numbers look like they're going down, but the quality of people's lives seem to be not the same or seem to be decreasing if you have an increasing homeless population and things like that. So you're getting those nuisance crimes, you're getting, you know, minor burglaries and petty thefts and things like that are just not a priority for most big city police departments. You could have a dichotomy between what the numbers show and what the average citizen is experiencing.

HUNTE: Interesting. Can you tell me how unusual is it for a president to send FBI agents and other federal officers to patrol D.C. streets? I mean, has this happened before?

CHACON: Yes, I mean, we've been deployed in other situations where we shouldn't. And this is, I think, a terrible idea. The FBI does have a lot of parallel functions to a police department. We have SWAT teams, we have CSI, as we call them, ERT. We have hostage negotiators.

But what we don't have, and we never had, is a routine patrol function that all police departments have at its core. And FBI agents are not trained to do that. They're not equipped to do that, and they don't have the experience in doing that.

[01:25:03]

And so if the President is talking about putting FBI agents into the street to patrol, that is just not a function we have. We have a lot of functions that the police do, but we don't have that function. And it seems to me that's what's being talked about here.

And look, my father and brother were both NYPD officers. And I think putting FBI agents who are trained investigators into a patrol function is a terrible idea.

HUNTE: Do you think that this is just political drama that's playing out, or is this genuinely laying foundations for a federal takeover of the D.C. police?

CHACON: It's hard to say. With President Trump, it's hard to say what his motivations are. You know, like, I think the worst case scenario, yes, he's looking to take over, but as you just heard, there are certain criteria that should be -- must be met for that to happen.

Short of that, you know, FBI agents shouldn't be deployed in these things. And I'm thinking, hopefully it's just a posturing political type of thing. I hope FBI are not put in harm's way because they're asked to do a function that they're not trained or experienced to do.

HUNTE: The head of the ACLU in D.C. has been quoted as saying that this plan could make the capital a testing ground and that cities across the country should be concerned. Do you see this plan as being limited to D.C. or could this lead to similar situations elsewhere?

CHACON: The reason I can't see it being exercised elsewhere is the FBI has a core mission and we're kind of undermanned as it is in the mission that it wants to carry out, our counterterrorism mission, our gangs initiative and things like that. And so we simply don't have the manpower to go into every city and start taking over police functions. It's just not a tenable thing. The numbers just aren't there.

Now, if he's proposing to do it, say with National Guard troops or something like that's a different story. I can address the FBI and I can tell you they simply don't have the desire or the manpower to get involved in, you know, police work and patrolling cities like this. We're investigators. We're more akin to the detectives in a police department than we are with a patrol officer in a police department.

And they're talking about patrol office. They're talking about, you know, increasing the quality of life and getting rid of some of these street level crimes. That's just not what the FBI. I work gangs. I can go into a gang neighborhood and I could work my partners, always NYPD, gang officers.

And so we can do that, but we can't do the normal routine patrol or crowd control or the normal police functions at the patrol level, which is not -- and I don't think we have the manpower to do that nationwide. I don't know where the manpower would come from, but it couldn't come from the FBI.

HUNTE: Well, we may be hearing more about it in the next few hours. For now, Bobby Chacon, thank you for being with me.

CHACON: Thanks for having me, Ben.

HUNTE: The legal battle over President Trump deploying the National Guard to Los Angeles heads to court on Monday. California Governor Gavin Newsom filed a lawsuit in June saying the deployment violated the 10th Amendment to the Constitution and a 147 year old law. CNN's Julia Vargas Jones has more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JULIA VARGAS JONES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: This case is about far more than just one deployment of the National Guard. It is a crucial moment for testing a president's power over the military in national territory. The White House used a -- rarely used law that allows for federalizing the Guard during a rebellion, invasion, or if regular forces can't enforce the U.S. laws. It's only the second time in history a president has used that statute this way.

California's lawsuit names not only Trump, but also Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and the Defense Department, arguing that president had no legal authority in asking the court to block future deployments without a governor's consent. The state's legal arguments center on basically three claims. One is that sending in the Guard violated the Posse Comitatus Act, which bars the military from acting as civilian police.

The second thing is that it infringed on California's rights under the 10th amendment, basically the amendment that gives states their rights, and that the Defense Department's actions broke administrative law bypassing the governor entirely.

Now Trump's lawyer say that the troops, along with the small number of Marines that were deployed, were limited to guarding federal property and personnel and never engaging in policing, and that the president acted squarely within his powers.

Judge Charles Breyer, who's hearing the case, ruled back in June that the protests didn't quite meet the legal definition of an insurrection and that Trump exceeded his authority. And also that the president's initial memo instructed Secretary Hegseth to coordinate with governors, which he did not do. So he ordered the federal government to return the state's National Guard to the governor.

But that same day, an appeals court paused that order, allowing the deployment to continue for now. Nearly two months after the federalization, 300 National Guard members are still on duty here In Los Angeles, 4,700 of them have demobilized.

[01:30:03]

Now, the trial will take place in San Francisco and is scheduled to go through Wednesday, although that could be extended. However Breyer rules though, that decision could shape how future presidents can use military force on U.S. soil.

Julia Vargas Jones, CNN -- Los Angeles.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HUNTE: Ok, 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. See you in a bit.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HUNTE: Welcome back to CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Ben Hunte.

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 a trade war.

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

[01:34:48]

HUNTE: 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: You know Ben, this deal is not only highly unusual, this is unprecedented. You have two American chipmaking giants, Nvidia and AMD. They have agreed to give the U.S. government 15 percent of their revenues from chip sales in China. This, according to a report by the FT, citing sources that are close to the situation.

In return, AMD and Nvidia will get export licenses so they can sell these chips to the Chinese market and that includes the Nvidia H20. In a statement from Nvidia that was published by the FT, the company is saying this. Let's bring it up for you.

Quote, "While we haven't shipped H20 to China for months, we hope export control rules let America compete in China and worldwide. America cannot repeat 5G and lose telecommunication leadership," unquote.

And just as this is happening, the U.S. government is paving the way for the Nvidia H20 to be sold in China under this very unusual and unprecedented revenue-sharing arrangement, we're hearing from Chinese state media that they don't want the Nvidia H20 chip. In fact, they're calling it, quote, "not safe" for Chinese consumers.

This is what we're hearing from a social media account. It is called Yuyuan Tantian (ph) that is linked to the state broadcaster of China, CCTV, saying this quote, "When a type of chip is neither environmentally-friendly nor advanced nor safe, as consumers, we certainly had the option not to buy," unquote.

Now, Nvidia has countered this, saying look, their products are safe. Nvidia has said that their products do not have backdoors that would allow remote access or remote control.

Now, China instead has its eyes on a very different prize, on a very different chip, not the Nvidia A.I. chip, but on something called HBM or high-bandwidth memory chips. According to reporting from the FT over the weekend citing Chinese officials during trade talks with the United States, are asking for the U.S. to loosen export controls on HBM chips.

These are chips that are critical for Chinese companies like Huawei to be able to manufacture their own A.I. chips.

I want to share some interesting insight from a Taiwan-based analyst who shared this earlier. His name, Dan Nystedt, saying, 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 A.I. systems.

Now, tomorrow is the day then. August 12th is the deadline for the U.S. and China to reach a trade deal or an extension to the existing trade truce. And this type of chip, HBM, apparently is an issue to join the many others that's on the table.

Back to you.

HUNTE: Well, let's keep talking about it, because the clock is now ticking down to the August 12th tariff deadline with China as you said there. So what stands in the way of a deal?

STOUT: You know, it's interesting because every day, every week, there's another sticking point. You know, last week we were talking about rare earths being the top sticking point between U.S. and Chinese trade negotiators getting in the way of a trade deal or an extension of the trade truce.

That, on top of fentanyl and stopping the flow of fentanyl precursor chemicals from China into the United States, the fate and future of TikTok, China's appetite and its purchases of sanctioned oil from Russia, from Iran.

But now HBM, high-bandwidth memory chips now joining this list as well. Another issue for these negotiators on both sides to untangle.

And the clock is winding down. We are less than 24 hours away from the deadline. And what's at stake here is that if there's no deal, if there's no extension, tariffs on both sides are going to shoot back up to those sky high, ultra-high levels that are equivalent to a trade blockade.

Back to you.

HUNTE: Let's see what happens. Kristie Lu Stout --

STOUT: Yes.

HUNTE: -- in Hong Kong, thank you so much for now.

STOUT: Thank you.

HUNTE: Ok. Texas Governor Greg Abbott is upping the ante in the state's congressional redistricting fight. Here's the Republican governor on Fox News on Sunday issuing a warning to Democratic state lawmakers.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. GREG ABBOTT (R-TX): This could literally last years because in Texas, I'm authorized to call a special session every 30 days. It lasts 30 days. And as soon as this one is over, I'm going to call another one, then another one, then another one, then another one.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNTE: Texas' Democratic lawmakers recently left the state trying to prevent Republicans from redrawing congressional districts.

Governor Abbott says Democrats who return will be arrested and taken to the state capitol to carry out their legislative duties.

The standoff has led to a stalemate in the Texas legislature, and some Texans fear it's overshadowing the original reason for the special session to help communities recover from the deadly flooding on the fourth of July and try to prevent it from happening again.

CNN's Leigh Waldman has more.

[01:39:50]

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

LEIGH WALDMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The ongoing redistricting fight happening in Texas has taken over this special session that was initially called in response to the devastating flooding we saw ripped through the Texas Hill Country area on the Fourth of July. It left over 130 people, including children, dead.

That special session was called to introduce legislation to enhance early flood warning systems in place, improve some of the communication issues that we saw present in light of that flooding, and also to provide relief funding for these communities and the people who have been impacted.

So far, only two hearings have surrounded the flooding issue, but there's been a handful of hearings surrounding the redistricting issue that's at hand. It's something that Texans we spoke to are taking issue with.

PAT DIXON, TEXAS RESIDENT: Calling a special session when there's a flood that kills people, that's appropriate. When you hijack a special session to rig the next election, that's inappropriate. RANDY SIMBRO, TEXAS RESIDENT: Whatever it takes, let's go steal an

election and rig the districts in our favor in a way that makes it impossible for other candidates to oppose them. That's what we're seeing here.

WALDMAN: Now, since those Democrats left the state to stop the quorum from reconvening with this special session, we've seen legal action being introduced by some of those GOP officials.

They are including the Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton asking the Texas Supreme Court to remove 13 House Democrats from their seats. He's also asking courts in California and in Illinois to uphold and enforce these civil arrest warrants that we've seen be introduced.

And also asking the Texas Supreme Court to remove the State Representative Gene Wu from his seat. Now, the House Speaker, Dustin Burrows, is reconvening the House for a special session on Monday. He is urging Democrats to come back so they can have a quorum.

In New York -- Leigh Waldman, CNN.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HUNTE: Still to come, advancements in A.I. are sparking fears about employment and jobs of the future. I'll speak with an expert about what that means for all of us.

[01:42:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HUNTE: Welcome back.

The state of California is teaming up with some of the biggest names in tech to train the rising generation in everything A.I. Governor Gavin Newsom inked the deal with Google, Adobe, IBM, and Microsoft last week. Their goal is to train the state's workforce for jobs involving artificial intelligence.

The deal comes amid growing concerns that A.I. will actually replace human workers and growing evidence that A.I. is making it harder for people entering the workforce to find traditional entry-level jobs.

Well, joining me to discuss this is Chris Morrow, managing director at Digitalent, a recruitment agency. He's also a certified A.I. practitioner specializing in A.I. and machine learning hires. That sounds exciting.

Thanks for being with me, Chris. How are you doing?

CHRIS MORROW, MANAGING DIRECTOR, DIGITALENT: Thanks very much for having me, Ben. Very well, thanks.

HUNTE: Good. It's good to see you.

We are hearing so much about A.I. snatching jobs away, but do you think it's also true that it's creating brand new opportunities for graduates entering the workforce?

MORROW: Yes, absolutely. I mean, right now, the context of things is that we are really in the dial-up phase of the A.I. age.

So this is the same early uncertainty that we saw with, you know, the time when the Internet was born, but with the sort of sweeping societal impact of the Industrial Revolution, if you like.

And but the difference is now that it's unfolding in a fraction of the time. A.I. isn't just taking the jobs away from graduates, it's also creating an entire new, you know, set of career paths that really didn't exist a year ago.

The real risk for me isn't the technology as such. It's our education system and our employers not adapting fast enough to prepare some of the, you know, the graduates for the opportunities that the A.I. is going to be creating in the future.

And I think that those who are going to adapt will thrive. And those who wait are going to be -- going to be left behind.

HUNTE: Well, let's talk more about that, because this tech shift seems to have exploded almost overnight. And as you say, there are some colleges and universities maybe aren't doing enough to bring A.I. literacy into their courses. But how can they actually do that without it looking like they're just endorsing cheating?

MORROW: I think it's a level deeper than that, to be honest. So, you know, I think that the cheating aspect is a sort of super -- superficial one. What we're talking about here is preparing our workforce for jobs of the, you know, the future.

A.I. literacy is really the new the new baseline. And A.I. needs to be embedded in every single discipline, every major, across every college, you know, in the Western world. So we're talking about things like law and healthcare and business and design.

If you think about it in 2030, a doctor or a lawyer or an architect without A.I. fluency is going to be at a major disadvantage. So I think that the risk here is really policy and the curriculum that the colleges are going to be teaching, you know, sort of lagging behind. And that will create a sort of talent mismatch in the future.

HUNTE: But there also must be some concerns around the cheating aspect though, right? Surely when I was doing my degree, half of it was coursework, half of it was essays. It was questions after classes. And now all of that could literally be done by A.I.

MORROW: Yes, that's right. I mean, again, going back to the curriculum here and what we really need to be teaching our students is, is how to you know, augment their skills using artificial intelligence.

So that's why the way that you test students, I think has to, has to change and you know, for instance, in colleges, perhaps in the future, we should be asking students to, you know, put together projects that, with the help of A.I. And then test them on that to build up their A.I. fluency.

That's why I think, you know, the rate of change for the technology is faster than anything we've ever seen, you know. And as human beings and we can't rely on a curriculum at a college level that sort of existed, you know, 20, 30 years ago.

We've got to keep rapid -- rapid pace of the changes of technology as much as -- as much as possible.

HUNTE: That does make sense. And how is A.I. changing the hiring process itself? I know people are constantly trying to get past automated recruitment filters now. But if we know all about those filters, then are those filters even effective anymore?

[01:49:54]

MORROW: It's a great question. I mean, yes, things have changed rapidly in the recruitment side of things. I've been a recruiter for 20 years and everyone's using artificial intelligence.

You know, bigger organizations are using A.I. to sort of be the, you know, the new gatekeeper, if you like. And that's not always necessarily the best -- the best thing. But it's also used widely by job seekers to rewrite resumes and everything like that. So, many resumes on the company side are rejected before a human ever, ever sees them.

So that's A.I.-powered screening, and that's not necessarily a good thing, because some of these A.I. models are, you know, perhaps not trained, in the right way. They sort of accentuate bias in a lot of -- a lot of scenarios as well. And they should be really used by people who understand the concepts of responsible, you know, responsible A.I.

So that all of that stuff is really happening now. It's not -- it's not theoretical. We're in it. And the cost is really wasted, talent, delayed careers and a bit of a mental health strain as well.

HUNTE: I learned a lot from that. I appreciate that. Chris Morrow, thank you for being with me.

MORROW: Thanks for having me.

HUNTE: We will be right back.

[01:51:12]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HUNTE: Experts say our next named storm system could already be moving in the Atlantic. They're keeping a close eye on a tropical wave that has just left the African continent.

CNN meteorologist Allison Chinchar has more for us.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ALLISON CHINCHAR, AMS METEOROLOGIST: It's that time of year again in the tropics are really starting to heat back up.

We're keeping an eye on this particular system that just came off the coast of Africa. It's not doing all that much right now, but the real question becomes, what happens when it enters this red-shaded area right through here?

The reason for that is that is a much more favorable environment for further development of this, meaning it could become the next named tropical system likely by the middle portion of the upcoming week.

When you take a look at a lot of the models, they really don't do all that much with it until, say, about Wednesday or Thursday of this week.

But by Saturday you can start to see it begins to finally head towards the Lesser Antilles and continue on its westward track.

From there though, the question becomes where does it go? And at that point, it's just simply too early to tell, but also something to keep a very close eye on, especially because it's going to be going through very warm waters.

All of the sea surface temperatures you see in the yellow and orange- shaded areas means that it is actually above average for this time of year. A lot of these areas still in the low to mid 80s, which is the perfect fuel for these tropical systems.

Now, where it is forming and where it is headed is exactly where we would expect it to be in the month of August. This is typically where you have that development for tropical systems. And also right here along the U.S. East Coast.

Now, if this does in fact get named later on this week, the next name on the list is Erin.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HUNTE: That's all I've got for you. Thanks for joining me and the team.

I'm Ben Hunte in Atlanta. I will see you next weekend.

But don't go anywhere, CNN NEWSROOM continues in just a moment.

See you next weekend.

[01:56:54]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)