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Nationwide Strike Hits Israel As Protesters Demand Hostage Deal; European, NATO Leaders To Join Trump-Zelenskyy Meeting; Tomorrow: Hearing Over Legality Of Alligator Alcatraz. Aired 3-4p ET

Aired August 17, 2025 - 15:00   ET

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

[15:02:39]

FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN HOST: Hello again, everyone. Thank you so much for joining me. I'm Fredricka Whitfield.

And we begin this hour with breaking news: A nationwide strike and widespread protests across Israel happening today. Thousands of protesters blocked major roads, businesses were also closed and there are rallies happening in cities and towns across the country. They are demanding an end to the war in Gaza and a deal for the return of the remaining hostages.

CNN's Oren Liebermann is in Hostages Square in Tel Aviv.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

OREN LIEBERMANN, CNN JERUSALEM BUREAU CHIEF AND CORRESPONDENT: Organizers say some 300,000 protesters have come out to Hostages Square, which is in front of me, a little bit down this road here and all the surrounding streets. Although we can't get a perfect sense of that number. You can see the crowds here around me easily, thousands cramming and blocking the streets here, holding not only Israeli flags, but also the yellow flags of hostages holding signs, wearing shirts that say, "Bring Them Home Now."

This is the culmination of a day that organizers have called for a grassroots, nationwide strike that began early this morning at 6:29 A.M., the exact time that the October 7th attack began. It started this morning with road closures across the country. And from there it spread and grew, leading towards protests, demonstrations, many of them led by hostage families and some of the freed hostages themselves.

One led a march through the streets of Tel Aviv to get to this spot right now. And although you can see some people making their way away from hostages square, which is the focus of all this, others making their way toward Hostages Square for the main event of this evening.

Protesters say this is just the beginning, a demand to end the war without excuses, without any reasons. A comprehensive end to the war to bring home the remaining 50 hostages. That has been the call we have heard from so many of those we've spoken with throughout the day, and you can hear the energy they have brought all the way from early this morning until this very instant going what looks like late into the evening.

Now, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and some of his far right allies have tried to dismiss this, saying it strengthens Hamas and doesn't bring an end to the war any closer. This is something that we've heard categorically rejected from the protesters we have spoken with. They believe they have to call on push and demand from their government to bring and get to a deal, to bring home all of the hostages as soon as possible.

[15:05:07]

They see the new military operation announced by the Security Cabinet just days ago as a threat to the hostages' lives and a threat to the country itself.

Oren Liebermann, CNN, Tel Aviv.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: All right, we are also closely following all the developments ahead of tomorrow's high stakes meeting between President Trump and Ukrainian President Zelenskyy. Joining Zelenskyy in Washington, an entourage of European leaders determined to help craft what they are calling a robust, durable peace.

Today, Zelenskyy appeared with the President of the European Union, who emphasized the need for security guarantees to protect Ukraine.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY, UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT: We have to stop the killings. Putin has many demands, but we do not know all of them. And if there are really as many as we heard, then it will take time to go through them all. So it is necessary to cease fire and work quickly on a final deal.

We will talk about it in Washington.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: And this comes as Trump's top envoy is offering new details about Trump's meeting with Vladimir Putin, claiming the Russian President has agreed to NATO-style protections from the U.S. in a potential Ukraine peace deal.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

STEVE WITKOFF, U.S. SPECIAL ENVOY: They agreed to robust security guarantees that I would describe as game changing. We didn't think that we were anywhere close to agreeing to Article V protection from the United States, in legislative enshrinement within the Russian federation, not to go after any other territory when the peace deal is you know, codified. Legislative enshrinement in the Russian federation not to go after any other European countries and violate their sovereignty.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: CNN's Kevin Liptak is joining us now from the White House.

It is a pretty remarkable statement from the Special Envoy, Steve Witkoff. You have new reporting as well on tomorrow's meeting. What are you learning?

KEVIN LIPTAK, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Well, and you're right that comment from Witkoff is really kind of the most fulsome accounting of what actually transpired in that nearly three-hour meeting between President Trump and President Vladimir Putin on Friday.

Witkoff laying out a number of those details and that measure that he mentioned, this Article V style security guarantee for Ukraine, I think is very critical. Article V refers to the NATO Clause that says an attack against one is an attack against all. Witkoff essentially described this as a workaround that because Putin and Russia have said that Ukraine can never join NATO itself, this would allow the kind of assurance that Ukraine wants that once this war is over and once a peace agreement is reached, that Putin isn't able to regroup and kind of go after the rest of the country in a few years.

Now, there are a lot of questions about this, namely, what the U.S. role would be. President Trump has said pretty explicitly that American troops won't be on the ground there. So how this guarantee works going ahead is still something of an unknown, and something that I think Zelenskyy and the European leaders who are here at The White House tomorrow will want to get more clarity on.

And, you know, this is shaping up to be quite a consequential day here at The White House. You know, in all my years covering it, I don't remember a time when so many top leaders have come to this building, really, at the last minute to meet with a President. And it does tell you, one, the urgency that they're feeling in trying to reach an agreement that would end this war, but also the urgency they feel and not feeling sidelined in how this all comes about.

Now, the last time Zelenskyy was here at The White House was back in February. That was the scene of that kind of explosive moment in the Oval Office when President Trump and the Vice President J.D. Vance were kind of berating him, and eventually he was essentially kicked out of the building. There is a sort of a desire to avoid that, I think this time around, that's part of the reason I think the Europeans will be joining Zelenskyy here.

Now, the way I understand it, that the day will be set up first with a meeting between Trump and Zelenskyy and their delegations before they move on to this larger format session with the other European leaders. The Secretary of State Marco Rubio, was speaking earlier today about some of the ideas that perhaps these Europeans would be there and that would avoid the appearance of discord.

Listen to more of what Rubio said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) MARCO RUBIO, U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE: This is such a stupid media narrative that they are coming here tomorrow because Trump is going to bully Zelenskyy into a bad deal.

We've been working with these people for weeks, for weeks on this stuff. They're coming here tomorrow because they chose to come here tomorrow. We invited them to come.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LIPTAK: Now, both Rubio and Witkoff, who I should mention were the only other American officials in this meeting with Trump and Putin on Friday tried to explain why the President had kind of abandoned this idea of an immediate ceasefire.

[15:10:10]

Remember, he went into the talks saying he would be disappointed if that was not the case. He came out saying that he wanted to move on directly to a peace agreement without first having a ceasefire in place.

Witkoff said it was because there was so much progress made in the talks. Rubio said it was because Russia wouldn't agree to it. Rubio also somewhat more guarded in his optimism about a deal. He said that we are still a long ways off and that we are not at the precipice of a peace agreement -- Fredricka.

WHITFIELD: All right, Kevin Liptak at the White House, thanks so much.

All right, let's dig deeper into all of this. Daniel Fried is a distinguished fellow at the Atlantic Council. He is also a former U.S. Ambassador to Poland. He is joining me right now from Washington.

Mr. Ambassador, great to see you.

DANIEL FRIED, DISTINGUISHED FELLOW, ATLANTIC COUNCIL, FORMER U.S. AMBASSADOR TO POLAND: Good afternoon. Good to be here.

WHITFIELD: So it will be hard for anyone not to remember the last White House meeting with Zelenskyy when Trump and Zelenskyy do meet tomorrow. I want to play another moment from that earlier this year.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

J.D. VANCE (R), VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: Mr. President, Mr. President, with respect, I think it is disrespectful for you to come into the Oval Office and try to litigate this in front of the American media.

Right now, you guys are going around and forcing conscripts to the front lines because you have manpower problems. You should be thanking the President for trying to bring an end to this conflict.

ZELENSKYY: Have you ever been to Ukraine that you say, what problems we have? (END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: I think it makes everybody uncomfortable every time they watch that. So, I mean, did the inclusion perhaps now of leaders from the U.K., France, Italy and Germany remove any kind of residual acrimony? And now potentially include greater hope for Ukraine advocacy?

FRIED: Let's hope so. First, President Zelenskyy and President Trump will meet without the Europeans. So let's hope we get through that in a constructive, serious spirit. I am glad the European leaders are coming here. They need to be part of a solution. They need to contribute to Ukrainian security. So it is good that they will be here.

But I must say, I am not as confident as Steve Witkoff that the Russians have actually made concessions. He talked about Russians accepting security guarantees for Ukraine. If they mean it, that's a big deal. But what actually did the Russians offer? Are they going to be part of these security guarantees? Do they get a veto over the security guarantees? Are they able to block European and U.S. action?

We need to look at the details pretty closely, and The White House should be clear that the Russians often offer things that are shiny on the outside and poison on the inside.

But still, tomorrow has some hope that the U.S. can claw back some of what Putin grabbed from us and grabbed from Ukraine on Friday in Anchorage.

WHITFIELD: Do you think it is odd that we haven't heard those kinds of details about what you know, Putin wanted or what he grimaced about? Or is that part of the process because Zelenskyy wasn't at the table? It wasn't trilateral, that The White House shouldn't reveal that kind of detail.

FRIED: I think the White House has a point not revealing details until the deal is out, but they need to be very careful not to be hoodwinked by Putin or agree to something that looks shiny and isn't. There are two big issues. There is territory and there is security for Ukraine.

Security for Ukraine should be something the Europeans and the U.S. provide, not something that Russia has to agree to. If they are part of it, of a security guarantee, it is no guarantee at all. We ought to be very firm on that point.

The Europeans need to put up the bulk of the forces. The U.S. needs to stand behind them. And although I don't think there will be any U.S. troops on the ground, U.S. air power stationed elsewhere, maybe in Poland, operating over Ukraine could be a very big deal, a game changer.

So security guarantees are possible if the Europeans are ready to put up and the Americans are ready to back up. The other issue is territory. Putin is demanding that the Ukrainians withdraw from all of Donetsk and Luhansk Provinces, territories, the Russians have been unable to grab despite three years of full scale war. What are they offering in return? Are they willing to pull out of, say Zaporizhzhia or Kherson Provinces that they occupy part of? Is this real land swaps as President Trump suggested? The Ukrainians might be interested in that.

But if the Russian position is what we have we hold, what Ukrainians have, they have to give up. That's no deal.

[15:15:10]

We should not act as if we are in a weak position.

Secretary Rubio on the morning talk shows said that sanctions don't work and could harm diplomacy. What? It was just two days ago going to Anchorage that Trump himself said, if we don't get a ceasefire, I will be unhappy and big sanctions could come. Secondly, does this administration really believe that economic pressure doesn't work? This is an administration that loves economic pressure to open the diplomacy. So what was the Secretary talking about?

He is a smart guy. So I don't understand the point. We have perfectly good tools of economic pressure to apply to Russia, quite a few of them.

WHITFIELD: I wonder, as you bring up Rubio, additionally, he talked about concessions, and he said each side will have to make concessions.

Take a listen to what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RUBIO: You can't have a peace agreement. You can't have a peace agreement unless both sides give and get. You can't have a peace agreement unless both sides make concessions. That's a fact. That's true in virtually any negotiation. If not, it is just called surrender, and neither side is going to surrender.

So both sides are going to have to make concessions. So, of course concessions were asked, but what utility would there be of me going on a program and tell we wagged our finger at Putin and told him, you must do this and you must do that. It is going to make -- it is only going to make it harder and less likely that they're going to agree to these things.

So these negotiations, as much as everyone would love it to be a live pay per view event, these discussions only work best when they are conducted privately.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: So do you agree with that, and if so, what kind of concessions would Ukraine feel that it would need to make or it would acquiesce to that would make Russia happy if it is not land?

FRIED: Well, two points. One Secretary Rubio has a point. Secondly, finger wagging is something the U.S. has done against Ukraine. I want to know not just what concessions the Ukrainians are going to be asked to make, but what the Russians are going to give. And so far, we've heard Special Envoy Witkoff say the Russians made concessions, but I haven't heard any.

And in Putin's public remarks on Friday, he was maintaining his old position of no concessions at all.

So the Russians are going to have to give up something. They're going to have to give up some of the occupied territory. President Trump has referred to this occasionally, and the Ukrainians may have to recognize that some of their territories occupied by Russia, but that doesn't have to be a formal legal recognition. They can just accept a ceasefire line or a line of contact for a settlement, without formally recognizing it, just as we did between East and West Germany, and just as we've done for 75 years on the Korean Peninsula.

We shouldn't be so quick to give Putin what he wants, especially when we have, as the President rightly says, good cards.

WHITFIELD: All right, Ambassador Daniel Fried, we will leave it there for now. Thank you so much. Really enlightening. Appreciate it.

FRIED: Glad to help. Thanks for having me.

WHITFIELD: Still to come, the controversial new detention center in Florida, now facing multiple lawsuits. Could they end up shutting down the so-called Alligator Alcatraz?

Plus, we are tracking Hurricane Erin off the Atlantic Coast. Details on its newest forecast track.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:23:33]

WHITFIELD: All right tomorrow, a federal judge in Miami will hold a hearing over the controversial immigration detention facility in the Florida Everglades known as Alligator Alcatraz. Attorneys for detainees claim their clients' Civil Rights are being violated. The hearing comes just days after Florida Governor Ron DeSantis announced the state is preparing a second makeshift detention center in the northern part of the state, dubbed Deportation Depot.

CNN's Rafael Romo is with me now. All right, so let's talk about that hearing tomorrow. What's expected?

RAFAEL ROMO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, it is a very important hearing because it talks about the legality of this place and Civil Rights and Alligator Alcatraz is currently facing two lawsuits, Fred. One was filed by environmental groups who are opposed to such a facility being built in the middle of an ecosystem like the Florida Everglades. The other one was filed by the American Civil Liberties Union, an immigrants' rights advocates.

A federal court in Miami will hold a hearing tomorrow in the ACLU case, which focuses on two allegations, lack of access to legal counsel and violations of due process for migrants detained at the tent facility. The complaint filed last month in the U.S. District Court of Southern Florida in Miami, specifically states that, "Defendants in this case have blocked detainees held at the facility from access to legal counsel. No protocols exist at this facility for providing standard means of confidential attorney-client communication, such as in-person attorney visitation and phone or video calls that are available at any other detention facility, jail or prison."

[15:25:07]

The right to an attorney is guaranteed by the Sixth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution in criminal cases, regardless of the legal status of an individual.

Eunice Cho, the ACLU's lead counsel in in this case, says beyond the harsh conditions detainees face at Alligator Alcatraz, that she says she has never seen at any other detention center. There are fundamental rights that are being violated.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

EUNICE CHO, SENIOR COUNSEL, ACLU NATIONAL PRISON PROJECT: What we are seeing is that Florida state officials are rounding people up and in many different and very disturbing ways, and eventually taking these individuals to Alligator Alcatraz and they are being held, of course, without, you know, honoring many of the very basic constitutional rights to be able to speak to counsel, to be able to petition for release from custody and, you know, Alligator Alcatraz cannot end up being a black hole where people disappear.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMO: The ACLU lawsuit names Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and her entire department as defendants, as well as Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, his Executive Director of Emergency Management, Kevin Guthrie, and other officials.

We also reached out to the state of Florida for comment on this, but there has been no response so far -- Fred.

WHITFIELD: All right, let us know if you hear anything. Rafael Romo, thanks so much.

All right, still to come, Hurricane Erin is expected to reach Category 5 strength again. We will show you the danger it poses along the East Coast even though it is tracking far offshore.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:30:58]

WHITFIELD: All right, beachgoers in New Hampshire are singing the praises of their state's beach patrol after 144 people were rescued from the ocean at Hampton Beach in just the last week. The New Hampshire State Beach Patrol says the uptick in rescues was due to flash rip currents produced by Tropical Storm Dexter.

Lifeguards say the best thing you can do if you are caught in a rip current is to remain calm and keep your head above water. Important advice for beachgoers along the East Coast this week as Hurricane Erin creates dangerous conditions across the Atlantic.

The powerful storm changed at an astonishing rate this week, intensifying from a Category 1 storm Friday morning all the way to a powerful Category 5 just 24 hours later, making Erin one of the fastest strengthening Atlantic hurricanes on record.

Hurricane Erin has weakened to a Category 3 with sustained winds topping 125 miles per hour, but is expected to regain strength. The system could double or even triple in size as it continues churning north and west, according to the National Hurricane Center.

It is tracking to stay far off the eastern shoreline, but will increase the chance of rip currents for East Coast beaches.

The U.S. Postal Service said this weekend it will issue a commemorative stamp honoring former President Jimmy Carter. The Postal Service plans to release the Forever Stamp in Atlanta on October 1st, which would have been his birthday.

Following the announcement, Executive Director of the Friends of Jimmy Carter said: "Together we have had the distinct privilege of a front row seat to his life and legacy and today's reveal gives the world an opportunity to share his legacy with others on a daily basis." Former President Carter died in December at the age of 100.

All right, still to come, a data breach settlement could mean AT&T owes you some big bucks. How to find out if you qualify, next.

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[15:37:50]

WHITFIELD: All right, millions of AT&T customers can file claims worth up to $7,500.00 in cash as part of a massive settlement related to data breaches last year. The telecommunications giant agreed to a class action settlement of $177 million. The company was hit with data breaches until 2019, and once they were announced last year, lawsuits were filed.

Current and former customers who are eligible will get an e-mail notice and have until November 18th to file a claim. Claims must include documentation of losses that are fairly traceable to the incidents. The settlement website says customers hit by both breaches will need to record losses unique to each, though there is no guarantee of a substantial payout.

All right, until now, businesses have been largely absorbing Trump's tariffs, but new wholesale numbers out for July showed that may quickly change. This week, Arizona Iced Tea announces skyrocketing aluminum costs may force the company to raise the price of its iconic tallboy cans of tea. For three decades, the price has stayed at $0.99 a can. No more!

Wholesale food prices are also up with agricultural products seeing a roughly 12 percent jump since June and fresh and dry vegetables, and eye popping 38 percent jump.

Joining me right now, Professor of Economics and Public Policy at the University of Michigan, Justin Wolfers.

Professor, great to see you.

JUSTIN WOLFERS, PROFESSOR OF ECONOMICS AND PUBLIC POLICY AT THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN: Good to see you, mate.

WHITFIELD: So what's your reaction to numbers like that? Because everyone is feeling it in one way or another on their grocery bills.

WOLFERS: Yes, very unhappy, but not at all surprised.

As you said, the biggest thing that happened in the PPI is that vegetable prices went up and you can think about a bunch of things going on there, not least being the cutback in immigration and the cut down on a lot of non-legal immigrant work or undocumented immigrant workers.

The other thing to realize is we are paying, for instance, a 17 percent tariff on our tomatoes from Mexico. What happens is American tomato farmers, even if you go and buy American, they understand the competition price just went up, so they've jacked up their prices as well.

[15:40:18]

This, I think, is just the start of what we are going to see over the next few months.

WHITFIELD: Oh, okay. So as we are seeing these higher prices, it sounds like you think this is just the tip of the iceberg. So what might potentially be experienced in the next couple of months?

WOLFERS: Yes, so the number that you highlighted in your intro there was what is called the Producer Price Index. It is the price paid by producers. That's the store you and I go and shop at. So what we've learned is their costs are going up at a rate that is a little too high.

They could try and smooth their way through that and just cut back on their margins a little bit, but they're not going to do that for long and they've got further boosts in their costs coming as they're going to have to stomach oncoming tariffs.

And so think about this as being the first act of a of a two or three- part play and the next act is, is they sit down and decide whether and how much they're going to pass on those costs to the prices that you and I pay instead.

WHITFIELD: All right, and then, despite the increases in all of those prices, retail sales were actually up in July. Why is this?

WOLFERS: Honestly, it is very hard to tell. One story you could tell is that maybe people are feeling optimistic about the future, but if you go and look at things like consumer confidence surveys, it turns out folks are feeling pretty miserable about the future.

One possibility is that folks were still trying to front run the tariffs. They knew that there was going to be a big hike in tariffs in early August. The retail sales numbers you're describing are from July. And so if you were thinking, boy, my washing machine looks like it is on her last legs, maybe you would have gone out and bought one a little earlier than you otherwise needed to, to avoid paying a 15, 20, or even 30 percent tariff on it.

WHITFIELD: All right, and now let's turn to Wall Street. The Dow was just short of closing at its first record high of the year. I mean this is all getting so confusing. So what does this indicate about the state of the U.S. economy?

WOLFERS: Yes, so a few comments here. The first is to remember, of course, the stock market is not the economy. When I buy a can of Coke that's reflected in the stock market. When I use Facebook, that's reflected in the stock market. But when I go to my local dry cleaner, it is not. And the U.S. economy right now is a tale of two economies. There is the A.I.-fueled boom that is really keeping a lot of interest and a lot of excitement going about in our very Big Tech companies.

All of those companies are listed on the stock exchange, and they are a major part of the Dow Jones. Realize, though, that my local dry cleaner is not. And so the rest of the economy is a little more humdrum. And if you looked at broader indices or indices that left out, A.I., you see, markets are a little less excited about our future.

And the other thing is that markets are still utterly fixated on what's going on in Washington. Every time Trump announces that he is attacking Jay Powell and the Fed, or that he is raising tariffs, markets fall. Every time he backs off from that, markets rise again. And he still remains the biggest focus of conversation on Wall Street.

WHITFIELD: All right, Professor Justin Wolfers, thanks so much.

WOLFERS: A pleasure, mate.

WHITFIELD: All right, still to come, the Trump administration's new orders for policing the streets of D.C. could have a major ripple effect on teens getting ready to go back to school.

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[15:48:21]

WHITFIELD: All right, the Republican governors of West Virginia, South Carolina and Ohio announced that they will send hundreds of National Guard troops to Washington, D.C., a major escalation of President Trump's efforts to crack down on crime in the nation's capital. West Virginia is sending up to 400 members, South Carolina about 200 and 150 coming from Ohio. The GOP governors say the extra troops will assist President Trump's mission by helping to protect federal property and boosting patrols.

President Trump's deployment of federal law enforcement in D.C. comes ahead of children in the nation's capital, heading back to school. CNN's Camila DeChalus is live from D.C.

What are you hearing from residents?

CAMILA DECHALUS, CNN REPORTER: Well, several D.C. residents and youth activists told me that their biggest concern is that young Black and Latino teens are going to be impacted the most by the larger police presence in the city, and while some residents who have lived in D.C. all their life have told me that they acknowledge that youth violence is a very big issue, they think that Trump's actions are doing more harm than good.

Take a listen to what some D.C. residents had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ERIC BLAINE, D.C. RESIDENT: Just doing nothing at all. It is not -- it is just doing absolutely nothing. It is theater. It is political theater. And the only people that fall for it are people that don't live here.

SUSAN LEARMOTH, D.C. RESIDENT: I am here to protest. The idea of having someone that isn't even familiar with D.C. in charge of the police here is terrifying to me.

KATIE GARCIA, D.C. RESIDENT: never lived in a city where there is military outside my door.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DECHALUS: Now, Fred, during my conversations with several D.C. residents, some parents with children in the D.C. Public School System told me that they do think that Trump's latest moves of deploying more federal law enforcement to the city is actually a step in the right direction to combat youth violence. Take a listen to what one parent told me in our conversation.

[15:50:13]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DECHALUS: Do you have any reservations or concerns sending your kids to school with the fact that the DEA and the National Troops are all deployed into the city?

KIM HALL, D.C. RESIDENT: No. To me, actually, it makes the street a bit more safer.

(END VIDEO CLIP) DECHALUS: Now, the Trump administration on their end says that their main objective in sending more troops to the city is to make D.C. safe again and they say that they really want to combat youth crime. But when you take a look at the data of youth arrests for violent offenses from 2018 to 2024, it paints a bit of a more complicated picture. You see that there was a little bit of a decline from 2019 to 2020, and then there was a bit of an uptick after 2022 to 2024.

But youth activists in the area say that more funding from the federal government should really be going towards resources and programs that really target and help inner city youth, not to increasing law enforcement presence in the city.

WHITFIELD: Camila DeChalus, thanks so much.

All right, in a moment, many parents are entering a new phase of life in the next few weeks, becoming empty nesters. Our own Don Riddell joins us next to talk about how hard it has been for him, because it is about to happen in a couple of weeks, but there he is when they were born and now fast forward, they are about to fly the coop.

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[15:56:15]

WHITFIELD: The Prince and Princess of Wales will move into a new home in Windsor later this year. The eight-bedroom Forest Lodge is not too far from their current home, according to British media. The move follows a difficult period for the family, including cancer diagnoses for Kate and King Charles, as well as the death of Queen Elizabeth in 2022.

All right, for some parents, sending their kids off to college is on par with the most wonderful time of the year. For others, the empty nest phenomenon is all too real, including our very own CNN sports anchor, Don Riddell, who shared an emotional journey as he and his wife are now in the midst of sending their twin sons off to college this month.

In fact, it already happened, and you're seeing the pictures of when they were born. You may recall seeing them on the air in fact, when they were born. But Don Riddell writes: "My kids seem to recognize the void their departure will create. Our sons have asked more than once if we'll be okay when they are gone. Such a level of emotional maturity signals to me that they'll be just fine on their own."

But how about Mama and Dada? How are they going to be doing? CNN's Don Riddell is with me now.

So they're now off into what you had called the uncertain phase, you know, of life. They're gone. They're in college. I mean, how has it been feeling? I mean, has it been like, oh, great, let's go check out all the restaurants in town. Oh, let me reintroduce myself to you. Or has it been kind of melancholy and somber?

DON RIDDELL, CNN WORLD SPORT HOST: It's only been a few days, so I don't really know yet. I mean, you know, were still very, very excited for the kids. And like I would say, this phase of life for all kids who are leaving home is much more certain than the phase of life for the parents who have been left behind. Because, you know, when we have kids, they talk about it being a life changing event. I would argue your kids leaving home is also a life changing event, and you have to prepare for it.

WHITFIELD: Of course.

RIDDELL: You have to plan for it. You have to be ready.

My wife and I have been thinking about it for years because we only had twins, so we knew that they were going to leave on the same day and that was going to be it. And then what? Because for 17, 18, 19 years as parents --

WHITFIELD: It's been all about them, too.

RIDDELL: We were raising them, so it is all about them.

WHITFIELD: Yes!

RIDDELL: And all of a sudden it is not, and they're just fine, I think in many cases as they take off. But the parents then have to figure it out.

WHITFIELD: So then how have you been planning? And how is that planning different now than, you know, you're on the precipice of kids who are leaving and then, you know, you're like, wow, here we are. All of that planning, thank goodness we did it or really, was it -- you couldn't have planned for what you're feeling right now?

RIDDELL: I mean, you experience just such a huge range of emotions. I think the planning is really, what are you going to do with your lives now? And you just can't expect that it is going to be exactly the same as it was the day before they left, because you've got your house to yourself, you know. What are you going to talk about? I mean, I remember some friends of mine in London said years ago they had five kids, so over a period of 25 years, that was all they knew.

And when the last one left, they said one turned to the other and said, so how are you? For the first time in a quarter of a century, you know.

WHITFIELD: Yes, that's important.

RIDDELL: But that's kind of how it feels. So I feel like you have to kind of start again, reinvent yourselves. I wrote that my kids are claiming their independence, but in some ways, the parents are, too. And it is an exciting phase of life, but there is no doubt that it is a change and it is quite -- it is sad and it is --

WHITFIELD: It is daunting and it is big. I mean, look, my now 20-year- old son, when he went off to college, you know, certainly it was both, oh I am very excited, but then at the same time I realized, oh I am feeling very sad, he is gone, but I've got still twins at home, you know, and it is a few years to go before they go off into the wild blue yonder. So I can't imagine what that next phase is going to be like, but I do like that your kids have said, yes, this is a period of independence for you too.

RIDDELL: Right.

WHITFIELD: So what have you been hearing from people who have been reading this who are like, oh yes, I recognize that feeling, or others who are like, okay, this is going to help me cope!

RIDDELL: Well, first of all, I mean, the line about my sons asking if we were going to be okay, that feels like a generational change, because when I went off to university, I don't think I gave two thoughts about how my mum and dad felt about it. So I do feel as though perhaps this generation, both in terms of the parents and the kids, I feel like we are just closer to our kids in general.

With regards to reaction from the piece, I heard from people I went to university with all that time ago, who we haven't necessarily been in touch with, but they wrote to me and said, yes, we didn't even think about our parents at all. We just went off and had fun.

WHITFIELD: Right.

RIDDELL: I've heard from parents who are years away from this, but they are clearly already starting to think about it. So I think --

WHITFIELD: This is instructive.

RIDDELL: They resonated. There are people of exactly my age who kind of recognize that they were going through this, too, and they found it helpful. And I also heard from people who are maybe in their 20s and who have left home and who read the piece and now can see what their parents are going through, perhaps in a way that they hadn't even thought about it themselves. So I think it was really interesting that it kind of connected with so many different people at different stages of their own lives.

WHITFIELD: How many times have you gone into their rooms since they've left? I mean, hopefully you're not doing what you wrote Gordon Ramsay did. I won't even --

RIDDELL: Yes, I haven't done that.

WHITFIELD: Okay, whew!

RIDDELL: I actually tidied their rooms up. That was the first thing I did. Partly because their rooms are their rooms, and they were a mess a lot of the time. And so you couldn't even begin to imagine how you would try and clean them up and organize them. So that was one of the first things I did.

And I think it was partly as a distraction, but also maybe there was a part of me that was thinking, I want it to be nice for them when they come back.

WHITFIELD: Yes. Oh, that's so nice. Proud Papa.

All right. Well, congratulations. You know, it really is a great accomplishment and achievement for you and your wife. Right? You have helped your sons all this time in this journey. And now they feel confident enough to go on to the next stage to allow you all now to go on to the next stage.

RIDDELL: The point, you want them to leave. Right?

WHITFIELD: Absolutely. You want that independence for them and now for you all to.

Don Riddell really a pleasure reading your opinion page and then getting a chance to talk to you here on the sofa, too.

RIDDELL: Thank you.

WHITFIELD: Yes. This has been like therapy for both of us, right? Even though I am not there yet, but I am like, oh, it is going to be okay.

RIDDELL: It will be fine. It will be fine.

WHITFIELD: All right, Don Riddell. Thanks so much.

All right, of course, you can read more on cnn.com.

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