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Outrage Sparks on the Death of Five Al Jazeera Journalists; Trump to Takeover D.C.'s Police Department; Taylor Swift Teases her 12th Album; AOL Will Soon Shut Down Dial-Up Internet Service. Aired 3- 4a ET

Aired August 12, 2025 - 03:00   ET

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

[03:00:00]

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ROSEMARY CHURCH, CNN ANCHOR: Hello and welcome to our viewers joining us from all around the world and to everyone streaming us on CNN Max. I'm Rosemary Church. Just ahead.

There'll be some swapping, there'll be some changes in land. Donald Trump lowers the stakes ahead of his meeting with Vladimir Putin. We will take you to the heart of Donetsk, where the fate of Ukrainians living there could be at stake.

Crucial voices in Gaza silenced. International condemnation is growing over the deliberate killing of journalists at a critical juncture in the war.

Citing a crime emergency. The U.S. President says he's taking over the police in the nation's capital and it might not end there.

Plus, looking for answers to curb the global addiction to plastic.

UNKNOWN (voice-over): Live from Atlanta, this is "CNN Newsroom" with Rosemary Church.

CHURCH: Thanks for joining us.

Well, we are just three days away from the potentially critical summit between U.S. President Donald Trump and Russia's Vladimir Putin in Alaska. President Trump says he wants to see what Putin has in mind for Ukraine, but he's already casting doubt on what, if anything, this meeting could accomplish, saying, quote, "it's not up to me to make a deal."

Trump also claims he'll know in the first two minutes if a deal can be made. This is what he says that deal could include.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, U.S. PRESIDENT: There'll be some swapping, there'll be some changes in land, and the word that they will use is, you know, they make changes. We're going to change the lines, the battle lines. Russia's occupied a big portion of Ukraine. They've occupied some very

prime territory. We're going to try and get some of that territory back for Ukraine.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHURCH: German Chancellor Friedrich Merz says he will host a virtual meeting with European leaders on Wednesday to discuss options to put pressure on Russia to end the war.

Donald Trump is expected to attend that meeting. So is Ukraine's President, who's still not invited to the talks in Alaska. Volodymyr Zelenskyy is warning the U.S. that Putin has no plans for peace.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY, UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT (through translator): He is definitely not preparing for a ceasefire or an end to the war. Putin is determined only to present a meeting with America as his personal victory and then continue acting exactly as before.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHURCH: Donald Trump's casual comments about possible land swaps are striking fear in those living in eastern Ukraine, with the prospect of their cities and towns being traded away to the man who started this war in the first place.

CNN's Nick Paton Walsh speaks to some of the Ukrainians who could lose everything after already losing so much.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NICK PATON WALSH, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): When President Trump talks about what parts of Ukraine to, quote, "swap with Russia," this is ground zero, real towns where bomb shelters loom over beaches.

MYKHAILO, SLOVIANSK RESIDENT: I feel like I just float away from this reality.

PATON WALSH (voice-over): Here in Donetsk region, diplomacy has turned dark and surreal and threatens local journalist Mykhailo's medicinal swim.

PATON WALSH: What do you think about the idea of Trump and Putin meeting so far away in Alaska and deciding the fate of a place like this?

MYKHAILO: We all, people I know, will have to leave. But, frankly speaking, I don't think it's going to happen.

What Trump did wrong, he just pulled him out of the bog. The Putin was just drowning in the bog.

And he took him out and said, Vladimir, I want to talk to you, I like you. He didn't care that every day Ukrainians died.

PATON WALSH (voice-over): Beaches, births and deaths, they all persist in ravaged Sloviansk. They've dug defenses around it to stop a Russian military advance, but never imagined high-level diplomacy might just give their town and future away.

Taisiya gave birth to Azul yesterday. The calm of her maternity ward bed now riddled with complications she never saw coming.

TAISIYA, NEW MOTHER (translated): That would be very bad. I saw the news, but we have no influence over it. It's not going to be our decision.

[03:05:01]

People will just give away their homes.

PATON WALSH (voice-over): Staying here has been, for many, an act of defiance and bravery. But for Sviatoslav and Natalia, it did not spare them pain.

This is their daughter, Sofia, with her husband Nikita and the grandson, Lev. They moved to Kyiv for safety. But 11 days ago, a horrific dawn Russian airstrike killed them and 28 others in Kyiv, their three bodies found together in the rubble.

NATALIA HAPONOVA, SOFIA'S MOTHER (translated): They left from the war and it was quiet there. And you see how it is in Sloviansk. But the war caught them there.

SVIATOSLAV HAPONOVA, SOFIA'S FATHER (translated): To come to terms with that as a person is impossible.

Impossible to come to terms with the loss of children.

PATON WALSH (voice-over): They had been due to visit days later, bringing news that Sofia was three months pregnant.

PATON WALSH: Do you remember the last time you spoke?

N. HAPONOVA (translated): Yes, it was 8:30 p.m. She was talking to Lev. She really wanted to come to Sloviansk to tell everyone the good news. But they didn't come, they arrived in a different way altogether.

PATON WALSH (voice-over): They came together to be buried on the town's outskirts, where the war permits no calm for grief. A Ukrainian jet roars overhead.

At the nearest train station, Kramatorsk, as many are coming as are going. Serhiy was allowed two days off from his tank unit to see Tatiana, his wife. Sirens greet the Kyiv train.

SERHIY, SOLDIER (translated): Four years of war, how do you think it is? It would have been better if she had not come. Calm down. TATIANA, SERHIY'S WIFE (translated): I just want my husband to come home, I don't care about those territories. I just want him to stay alive and come home.

PATON WALSH: Soldiers worried if they'll see their loved ones again, families torn apart by this war. Imagine scenes like this to the thousand in the event of what seems to so many people here to be the surreal idea that a deal on Friday on the other side of the earth, almost as far away as you could possibly imagine in Alaska, between an American President and a Russian President without a Ukrainian there, could potentially give this bustling town over to the Russians after them fighting for it for so many years and failing to take it.

So many lives lost here and those traumas borne out on this platform every time a train comes in.

PATON WALSH (voice-over): Nick Paton Walsh, CNN, Kramatorsk, Ukraine.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CHURCH: Global outrage is growing over the killing of five journalists in Gaza by an Israeli airstrike. Large crowds gathered in Gaza City on Monday for the funeral of Al Jazeera correspondent Anas Al-Sharif and four other journalists killed in the strike. Palestinians in the West Bank also protested their deaths.

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The IDF accused al-Sharif of leading a Hamas cell, an allegation Al- Sharif and al-Jazeera had denied. And an al-Jazeera news chief says Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is seeking to, quote, "eliminate any eyewitnesses to the plan to take over Gaza City."

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SALAH NEGM, DIRECTOR OF NEWS, AL JAZEERA ENGLISH: Every journalist in Gaza is writing his own obituary because if you are in Gaza, you are not safe anywhere. Whether you are a journalist or a normal citizen, 60,000 people died.

Every morning you have something like between 50 and 100 people killed by Israel bullets or drones or whatever. So, yes, they live in danger all the time.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHURCH: CNN's Nada Bashir has more on the funerals of the journalists killed and reaction to their deaths.

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NADA BASHIR, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): On Monday, mourners gathered in Gaza, carrying the bodies of Palestinian journalists killed in a targeted Israeli strike late Sunday night. Among them, journalists from the international news network al-Jazeera, including prominent Palestinian journalist Anas Al-Sharif. [03:10:01]

Al-Sharif had become a much-respected household name in the Arabic- speaking world and beyond, delivering live news coverage around the clock from across the Gaza Strip, risking his life on a daily basis to continue his work, documenting the daily horrors inflicted on the people of Gaza.

Al-Sharif was in a tent with other journalists marked with a press sign near the entrance of the now-destroyed al-Shifa Hospital when he was killed by an Israeli strike, according to the hospital's director. Al-Jazeera also confirmed the deaths of their staffers Mohamed Qreiqeh, Ibrahim Al Thaher, Mohamed Noufal and Moamen Aliwa.

The news outlet issued a statement describing the attack as a desperate attempt to silence voices ahead of the occupation of Gaza. The Israeli military had previously accused al-Sharif of leading a Hamas cell. The military claimed Al-Sharif joined Hamas in 2013 and accused him of leading a Hamas cell that advanced rocket attacks against Israel.

The IDF said they had unequivocal proof of Al-Sharif's link to Hamas, posting an undated photo, apparently showing him with slain Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, and publicizing images of documents that include personnel lists, terrorist training courses, phone directories and salary payments. CNN cannot independently verify the documents.

Previously, Al-Sharif had vehemently denied the allegation that he was affiliated with Hamas. In a statement shared on social media, the reporter said, "I am a journalist with no political affiliations. My only mission is to report the truth from the ground - as it is, without bias."

The U.N. Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Expression had also previously denounced the quote, "unfounded accusations by the Israeli military," describing Israel's claims as a blatant attempt to endanger his life and silence his reporting on the genocide in Gaza. The U.N. official also cited growing evidence that journalists in Gaza have been targeted and killed by the Israeli army on the basis of unsubstantiated claims that they were Hamas terrorists.

According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, at least 186 journalists have been killed since the beginning of the war in Gaza. In the minutes before he was killed, al-Sharif, who was also a father, separated from his two children for months while reporting, shared this message on social media, "If this madness does not end, Gaza will be reduced to ruins, its people's voices silenced, their faces erased - and history will remember you as silent witnesses to a genocide you chose not to stop."

Nada Bashir, CNN, London.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CHURCH: I'm joined live now from Tel Aviv by Gideon Levy, columnist for "Haaretz" newspaper and former adviser to Shimon Peres. Appreciate you being with us.

GIDEON LEVY, COLUMNIST, "HAARETZ" NEWSPAPER, AND FORMER ADVISER TO SHIMON PERES: Thank you for having me.

CHURCH: So five journalists were killed in a targeted Israeli airstrike late Sunday night, resulting in widespread outrage and condemnation across the globe. The Israeli government justifying the killings by saying al-Jazeera correspondent Anas al-Sharif was a Hamas operative, despite providing no evidence to support such a claim. What's your response to this?

LEVY: Anas Al-Sharif was a courageous journalist who really endangered his life on a daily basis, and was one of the last journalists with boots on the ground in Gaza to inform the world what Israel is committing there.

Israel claims that he was a head of a cell of Hamas. There are no evidences, as you just said, and let me have deep doubts that that's the truth. But in any case, let's say he was a head of a cell.

Why to slaughter five journalists? And this makes it so suspicious.

Because I don't buy the Israeli explanations. Israel has a record of mass killing of journalists in Gaza for the last two years, it's almost 200 journalists killed more than any other war.

So this ridiculous story of heading a cell is really insulting intelligence. And Israel is killing journalists, and we have to face it.

It was this time targeted, Israel is proud of this, Israel does not covering up, Israel does not say it was by mistake. No, it was deliberate. And the consequence, every person of conscience can take his own consequences out of such act.

CHURCH: So, Gideon, what are the ramifications of a government killing journalists, the only remaining witnesses to this war in Gaza, apart from the civilians themselves, of course? And what should the international community be doing about this in the way of holding Israel accountable?

[03:15:09]

LEVY: What is the justification to destroy 33 out of 36 hospitals in Gaza, to kill so many medical teams, dozens and hundreds even, of medical teams? What is the logic of this?

The logic is to make Gaza an unlivable place and to try to minimize the possibility of the world to know about it. Therefore, Gaza is closed for journalists, for any journalist, for 22 months. Therefore, Israel is killing so easily journalists, brave journalists, really journalists of conscience.

We have to adore those journalists. I'm watching Al Jazeera and I see the work they do day and night now in terrible conditions, starving by themselves many times. But in any case, you ask about the international community, you know, I think the international community knows exactly what to do with a state which violates international law in such a dramatic way over such a long period.

But I don't see the international community recruiting itself into real actions and not only condemnations and recognition of Palestine.

CHURCH: And Israel is expanding its war in Gaza with the intent to take over full control of the enclave. What will that mean for Gaza and indeed the region?

LEVY: It means exactly what Israel means to do, namely to make an ethnic cleansing in Gaza. Israel does not hide it.

There will be no other possibility because the plan of Israel, which is not yet clear if it is achievable at all, but the plan is to push all the population into the south, to make Gaza unlivable, which was almost achieved by now, and then to let the people choose between living in a concentration camp for the rest of their lives or going out of the Gaza Strip.

This is called in any international language ethnic cleansing. This is called in any international language or defined in any international language as crimes against humanity.

CHURCH: And Gideon, you have said that you want to live in a just state. And so you're speaking out. Why are other journalists within the Israeli media remaining silent on this issue?

LEVY: Because most of the journalists feel much more comfortable in the comfort zone in which they are reflecting the official view. They don't bother the readers and the viewers because they don't want to know. The Israelis don't want to hear anything else except of the official statements and the official narrative.

So they are hiding Gaza and they don't see any problem in it. That's the biggest betrayal of Israeli journalists, hiding what's going on in Gaza, because political views can be all kinds of. But betraying your professional duty to tell the full truth, this is really an unbelievable betrayal.

Israelis don't see Gaza because the journalists chose not to show Gaza. Nobody directed it to them. Nobody told them it's not Russia here covering the war in Ukraine.

It's a free country in which a free press chooses to censor itself and not to show Gaza. I can't think about a more professional betrayal than this.

CHURCH: Gideon Levy in Tel Aviv, thank you so much for joining us. I appreciate it.

LEVY: Thank you for having me.

CHURCH: Still to come, Donald Trump orders a crackdown on crime. But is his description of a lawless cesspool in the nation's capital accurate? We'll take a closer look. And plastics are everywhere in bodies of water and in our own bodies

as well. We'll look at efforts to lay down some limits on plastic pollution. Back with that and more in just a moment.

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[03:20:00]

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CHURCH: Welcome back, everyone.

A U.N. summit on curbing plastic pollution will resume today. For the past week, delegates from some 180 countries have been debating a legally binding treaty, talks have pitted supporters of a deal against oil-producing economies. Negotiators have until Thursday to hammer out some kind of agreement, but it's unclear whether it'll have any teeth.

Now, this type of pollution has gotten so bad, plastics can be found throughout the human body and are killing a range of wildlife. Switzerland's top environment official is echoing the push for a legally binding treaty.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KATRIN SCHNEEBERGER, DIRECTOR, FEDERAL OFFICE FOR THE ENVIRONMENT, SWITZERLAND: Today, we stand at a critical crossroads. Plastic waste is choking our lakes, harming wildlife and threatening human health. This is more than just an environmental issue, it is a global challenge that demands urgent and collective action.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHURCH: According to the U.N. Environment Program, the world uses some 430 million tons of plastic each year, and that usage is expected to triple by 2060. The equivalent of 2000 garbage trucks full of plastic are dumped into bodies of water each day, and plastic can take thousands to tens of thousands of years to degrade.

[03:25:04]

I want to bring in Holly Kaufman now from San Francisco. She is the Director of the Plastics and Climate Project. I appreciate you joining us.

HOLLY KAUFMAN, DIRECTOR, THE PLASTICS AND CLIMATE PROJECT: Thank you so much for having me.

CHURCH: Of course. So as this U.N. Plastic Summit continues, attended by delegates from nearly 180 countries, how likely is it that they'll end up agreeing on a legally binding treaty to curb plastic pollution?

KAUFMAN: Well, we don't actually know yet. I was a negotiator on the U.N. Climate Treaty, and always at about this point in the negotiations, things would get bogged down, but you never really quite know what the outcome will be. With ministers from most of the countries arriving now, we're hoping that puts more pressure on the negotiations so that they can come to an ambitious conclusion.

CHURCH: And Holly, how bad is plastic pollution across the globe, and what other action needs to be taken to stop plastic pollution, or at least control it in some better way?

KAUFMAN: Well, I think it's first important to make a distinction between plastic pollution and plastic waste. Plastic waste is what tends to get all of the attention, and that's the visible chunks of plastic that we can see littering our environment.

That in itself is a bad enough problem, but it's the microplastics that last forever because plastic is constantly shedding. It's constantly breaking down, but it's a synthetic material made out of fossil fuels and nature cannot absorb it.

So even when it becomes microscopic, it lasts forever. And we are seeing that it is having tremendous human health, environmental health impacts, including climate change impacts.

CHURCH: Right, and of course, every year, up to 23 million tons of plastic waste leaks into aquatic ecosystems, polluting lakes, rivers and seas with so much plastic being dumped every single day. Why isn't more of it being recycled or plastic substitutes being used instead?

KAUFMAN: Well, very good question. So to just continue with what I was saying before, there's a difference between waste and pollution, and pollution, all those little microplastics and the chemicals in them last through the entire plastic's life cycle, which is a life cycle that never ends. And recycling is actually just another form of plastic production.

Companies knew, in fact, an internal document from DuPont was just revealed the other day from the 1970s that said, we know that plastic recycling is not feasible. Plastics were never designed to be recycled and most plastics can't be recycled. Even for the ones that can be, there aren't always recycling facilities.

And plastics cannot be recycled indefinitely the way metals and glass can, it can be recycled at most three or four times and usually is only recycled once. And the whole time it's shedding microplastics with the chemicals in them. So recycling really is just a means of delaying the time until a piece of plastic becomes waste.

CHURCH: Right, very interesting point. And how bad could this get if no significant action is taken right now? And who's standing in the way of making changes in the use of plastics?

KAUFMAN: Well, those are two questions. So how bad? It's already very bad.

We see the pictures of visible plastics everywhere and we don't really see those invisible micro and nanoplastics that are causing tremendous human health forms throughout all ages, including in utero.

We are also know that plastics are a major component of climate change. The greenhouse gases from plastics are about -- if the plastics industry were a country, it would be about the fifth largest emitter of greenhouse gases. And we know that those emissions are being undercounted because we don't count them through the whole life cycle.

And there are also impacts to climate sinks and other aspects. So the impacts are tremendous. The costs -- the economic costs are about $1.5 trillion a year owing to the problems with plastics as reported by the Lancet in a report last week.

And what is getting in the way of doing something about it?

[03:30:01]

It is the countries, including my own, who are fossil fuel producers, who would rather deal with the symptoms of the disease rather than the root of the disease. They want to deal with plastic waste without turning off the tap and taking advantage of the economic opportunities of developing alternatives.

CHURCH: Holly Kaufman, thank you so much for joining us. I appreciate it.

KAUFMAN: Thank you so much.

CHURCH: Donald Trump says crime in Washington, D.C. is out of control and he is taking unprecedented action to clean up the streets. The U.S. President is placing the D.C. Metropolitan Police under federal control and deploying about 800 members of the National Guard to the nation's capital.

But the latest police figures don't support the president's rationale. They show violent crime down 35 percent compared to 2023 and another 26 percent versus last year. The President hinted that Washington may be just the first step.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: We have other cities also that are bad, very bad. You look at Chicago, how bad it is. You look at Los Angeles, how bad it is.

We have other cities that are very bad, New York has a problem. And then you have, of course, Baltimore and Oakland. We don't even mention that anymore, they're so far gone.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHURCH: More now from CNN's Brian Todd in Washington.

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BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: President Trump's dramatic announcement on Monday that he is federalizing the D.C. Metropolitan Police Force and deploying hundreds of National Guard troops on the ground here in Washington, applauded by his allies, met with real concern by Mayor Muriel Bowser and some city leaders, as well as some residents. The President announcing that some 800 National Guardsmen will be deployed in the city in the coming days. They will not be carrying rifles. Those rifles will be in their vehicles, but they will be there in support, logistical and other support of the law enforcement agencies that will be bolstered by a federal presence on the streets of Washington, including the FBI, the DEA and other agencies that will be out in greater force in the streets of Washington.

Now, the mayor and the D.C. police chief, according to sources who spoke to CNN, were not aware that the president was going to make that announcement until the announcement was already made on Monday morning. But the mayor, Muriel Bowser, did indicate during a news conference on Monday that the police force of Washington and all of its 3100 officers are still under the command of Chief Pamela Smith, that they still work under her. She is still running the police department, but the mayor and the police chief, of course, did express a willingness to work with the federal agencies and the mayor saying that in some ways it could be a positive thing.

Donald Trump, in his news conference on Monday, said, quote, "our capital city has been overrun by violent gangs, bloodthirsty criminals, roving mobs of wild youth, drugged out maniacs and homeless people."

But Mayor Bowser and police officials point out that violent crime in this city is in fact at a 30-year low. The mayor saying that President Trump's view of crime in this city is shaped by his pre-COVID notions of crime in this area.

Specifically, she said his COVID-era notions of crime in this area. She did acknowledge that there was a spike in crime right after the pandemic, but she says they have worked long and hard since then to bring crime levels, especially violent crime levels, to 30-year lows.

Mayor Bowser still was kind of reserved in her criticism of this, would not come out to slam President Trump directly over this move. But she did say that she is, quote, "she will work every day to make sure that this is not a complete disaster." That's about the closest she got to a direct jab at the President.

What would be a complete disaster in the mayor's view? Well, she said, if we have communities, if we, quote, "lose communities who now don't want to call the police, that could be a disaster." So the mayor expressing real concern about how this will play out in the communities.

President Trump and his allies very optimistic that this show of force and the arrests, the additional arrests that will be made will reduce crime even further. This, of course, all stemmed from the violent attack on a former DOGE member, 19-year-old Edward Korostein, who was attacked by a group of young people who surrounded his car a week ago Sunday and beat him up in an attempt at carjacking.

Since that time, President Trump has promised to do this. He said he would federalize the police force. He even promised to federalize the entire city, but he can't do that unless a new law is passed in the district.

Brian Todd, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CHURCH: Still to come as President Trump and President Putin prepare to meet in Alaska later this week, we take a look at how the game of hockey could help thwart geopolitical tensions between the U.S. and Russia. Back with that and more in just a moment.

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[03:35:00]

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[03:40:04]

CHURCH: Welcome back to "CNN Newsroom." I'm Rosemary Church. I want to check today's top stories for you.

The U.S. and China have agreed to hold off on raising tariffs for another 90 days. The decision came just hours before a Tuesday deadline where each country's respective import fees were set to surge. Although they have come to a temporary truce, several sticking points remain preventing a final deal from going through.

Donald Trump is deploying hundreds of National Guard troops to Washington D.C. to fight what he calls out-of-control crime. The U.S. President is also placing D.C. Metro police under federal control. The unprecedented moves come despite falling crime rates in the city.

Donald Trump is tamping down expectations ahead of his meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday. The U.S. President is saying, quote, it's not up to me to make a deal and cautioning that he may walk away from talks altogether. Meanwhile, all E.U. members except for Hungary have issued a joint statement saying Ukraine must be included in any negotiations.

Sports have been used to ease tensions between nations, bringing people together despite playing against one another. And as the U.S. and Russia gear up for the upcoming summit between the two countries' presidents in Alaska, hockey fans on both sides hope the sport can help build a bridge towards peace in Ukraine and better relations between Washington and Moscow.

CNN's Fred Pleitgen has details.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SR. INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It's game on at the Ovi Hockey Cup outside Moscow, headlined by Washington capital superstar Alexander Ovechkin and many other Russian NHL players. The match aims to boost youth hockey, but the great eight tells me he hopes hockey can also help thaw U.S.-Russia relations. ALEXANDER OVECHKIN, RUSSIAN HOCKEY PLAYER, WASHINGTON CAPITALS: Yes,

both countries love hockey, so I hope it's going to connect well and we'll see.

PLEITGEN (voice-over): Last season, Ovechkin became the NHL's all-time leading goal scorer, drawing praise from both U.S. President Donald Trump and Russia's leader Vladimir Putin. The Russians even floating a possible friendly match with American and Russian players to help jumpstart relations.

PLEITGEN: Do you think hockey can help bring America and Russia closer together?

EVEGENI MALKIN, RUSSIAN HOCKEY PLAYER, PITTSBURGH PENGUINS: People love hockey here and people love hockey in the U.S. I hope it's a big meeting, I think, next week between Trump and Putin and I hope they have a good meeting and everything is done.

PLEITGEN (voice-over): But there's a long way to go. With Trump and Putin set to meet in Alaska on Friday, the fighting in Ukraine remains as brutal as ever.

Russia saying its forces are making gains, reluctant to agree to an immediate ceasefire President Trump wants. It's also now clear that Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy will not have a seat at the table. President Trump saying he'll judge whether a peace agreement is possible.

TRUMP: At the end of that meeting, probably in the first two minutes, I'll know exactly whether or not a deal can be made. Because that's what I do, I make deals.

PLEITGEN (voice-over): But with Trump's threat of punishing sanctions looming, many Russians hope the two leaders reach an agreement and diplomacy will prevail. Like it did during and after the Cold War, when the first Russian players around defenseman Viacheslav Fetisov won the NHL's Stanley Cup and brought it to Moscow's Red Square.

VIACHESLAV FETISOV, FORMER RUSSIAN HOCKEY PLAYER: I was first who came to National Hockey League, it was 1989, it still was Cold War. Still it was the hate between the people. But as soon as you start playing, you start to understand each other, you start to become friends.

PLEITGEN (voice-over): Now the stakes are high once again, as President Trump gets ready to face off with Russia's leader in the Arctic North.

Fred Pleitgen, CNN, Mityushin, Russia.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CHURCH: Coming up on "CNN Newsroom," summer heat and strong winds are kicking up wildfires across parts of Europe. We will bring you the latest weather forecast for hotspots around the continent.

Plus, Colombians are mourning the death of a prominent senator and presidential hopeful who was shot in the head two months ago in a brazen attack at a campaign rally.

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[03:45:00]

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CHURCH: Politicians and loved ones gathered in Colombia Monday to pay their respects to the late senator and presidential hopeful Miguel Uribe Turbay. A member of the right-wing opposition, Turbay had been hospitalized since early June after he was shot in the head at a campaign rally in the country's capital.

Stefano Pozzebon has the latest now from Bogota.

[03:49:46]

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

STEFANO POZZEDBON, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: The Colombian President Gustavo Petro has joined a stream of condolences to the family of Senator Miguel Uribe Turbay who died on Monday morning here in Bogota after spending more than two months fighting for his life at a central hospital in the Colombian capital after being shot during a political rally at the beginning of June.

Turbay's death was announced by his wife Maria Claudia Tarazona and sent the nation frankly into shock.

UNKNOWN (through translator): It's truly unfortunate, a great loss for Colombia because we have lost a brilliant man, the best the country had at this moment as a presidential candidate.

About his wife we can only ask God to give her and her family peace and we send them a heartfelt embrace. Dr. Miguel Uribe was my boss when he was secretary of government and he was a wonderful human being. He didn't deserve this.

POZZEBON: Turbay was 39 years old and his death is one of the darkest chapters in Colombian recent political history. Of course this happens in a context where in the last few years Colombia has tried to shake off the legacy of decades of political violence especially since the historic peace agreement with the left-wing guerillas of the FARC in 2016.

Well this death perhaps is a sign that Colombia remains a very difficult country for political leaders, for community leaders, for environmental leaders and that this nation is yet to completely turn the page. Turbay was one of the leading candidates in the right-wing coalition looking to challenge the left to reclaim the Colombian presidency at next year's presidential election. His political party the Democratic Center is yet to name a full candidate who could take on his baton and run in next year's elections.

For CNN this is Stefano Pozzebon, Bogota.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CHURCH: Parts of Europe continue to suffer beneath a stifling August heat wave as dry terrain and strong winds help drive wildfires across the continent. This is video from Spain of a wildfire burning about 15 miles from Madrid. Winds exceeding 70 kilometers per hour fueled the flames, one highway in the area had to be closed.

Portugal has deployed nearly 700 firefighters to battle ablaze in the northeast of the country. So far this year Portugal has witnessed at least 52,000 hectares burn; that's according to the European forest fire information system.

Meanwhile a wildfire in northwestern Turkey has forced hundreds of people to flee their homes. The country's interior ministry released this footage of coast guard boats rescuing residents as flames graze multiple city centers. Officials say 187 people were evacuated by sea, another 161 by land.

Up next the uproar over TS-12. Details on the latest surprise announcement from global pop superstar Taylor Swift.

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[03:55:00]

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CHURCH: The show must go on and who knows that better than Taylor Swift.

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TAYLOR SWIFT, SINGER: This is my brand new album "The Life of a Showgirl."

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CHURCH: You heard right Taylor Swift has announced her upcoming 12th studio album "The Life of a Showgirl." The pop superstar made it official just hours ago with a countdown clock on her website ticking down to 12:12 a.m. Eastern time. The website actually crashed with Swifties everywhere eagerly awaiting the news, the pre pre-order of the album is now available, no word yet on the release date.

Well new details now on a mysterious meteorite that streaked across the skies over the southeastern U.S. in June. This is the moment the rare fireball was spotted over Georgia before it crashed through the roof of a home in the city of McDonough. Researchers now say the McDonough meteorite as it's been called is four and a half billion years old, that's older than earth itself and they believe it came from a main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter.

And before we go, here's a throwback for those who remember the early days of the World Wide Web.

(AUDIO PLAYING) After about three decades of use, dial-up internet is finally heading into the digital dustbin. AOL says it's discontinuing its phone-based service at the end of next month even though it seems like the whole world now relies on high-speed internet, AOL formerly America Online never stopped offering the service by connecting users to the web with the humble landline. About 160,000 people here in the U.S. still rely on dial-up internet.

I want to thank you so much for your company, I'm Rosemary Church. Have yourselves a wonderful day. "Amanpour" is next, then stay tuned for "Early Start," that's coming up at 5 a.m. in New York, 10 a.m. in London.

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