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Israel Begins First Stage of Massive Assaults in Gaza City; Erin Traverses U.S. East Coast; Century-old Church in Sweden Completes Two-Day Relocation. Aired 3-4a ET

Aired August 21, 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]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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.

The first stage of a renewed Israeli military assault on Gaza City is underway involving some 80,000 troops. That's despite international condemnation and a spiraling humanitarian crisis.

The Kremlin in no apparent rush for a sit down between Presidents Vladimir Putin and Volodymyr Zelenskyy as Russia continues its assault on Ukraine.

Plus, Hurricane Erin churns up the U.S. East Coast as a Category 2 storm. We are monitoring its developments.

And finally, are we heading towards a tech crash? New warnings that we may be in an A.I. bubble.

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

CHURCH: It is 10 a.m. in Israel where the latest plans are taking shape for a renewed military offensive in Gaza City and new settlements in the West Bank.

First, explosions in the night sky show the early stages of a massive assault on Gaza City, which Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says is meant to drive Hamas from one of its last strongholds. About 25 kilometers to the south, video shows another apparent explosion with large plumes of grey smoke rising over Khan Younis.

Mr. Netanyahu has ordered the military to shorten the expected five- month timeline for the Gaza City operation and Israel is calling up an additional 60,000 reservists for the campaign and extending the service of another 20,000.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BRIG. GEN. EFFIE DEFRIN, ISRAEL DEFENSE FORCES SPOKESPERSON (through translator): We will deepen the attack on Hamas in Gaza City, a stronghold of governmental and military terror for the terrorist organization. We will intensify the strikes on the terror infrastructure above and below ground and sever the population's dependence on Hamas.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

Meantime, top diplomats from Britain and the European Union are condemning Israeli plans for new West Bank settlements that would effectively, quote, bury the prospect of a Palestinian state. It calls for thousands of new housing units in an area called E1, east of Jerusalem. Critics say it would cut the West Bank in two, making a Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital virtually impossible.

I want to bring in CNN's Paula Hancocks now covering all of this from Abu Dhabi. Good to see you, Paula.

So, with these early stages of a renewed assault on Gaza now underway and as Prime Minister Netanyahu meets today to confirm continued military plans for Gaza, the U.N. is warning of worsening starvation in the enclave. So, what is the latest on the humanitarian crisis in Gaza?

PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, what we're hearing, Rosemary, from the United Nations, for example, is that the cases of child malnutrition in Gaza have tripled in just six months. That is the latest figure that they have given us, showing just how serious the situation is. We heard from the head of UNRWA, the U.N. agency in charge of Palestinian refugees as well, saying that nearly one in three is malnourished just in Gaza City.

So, the U.N., the aid agencies, are calling on Israel once again to lift the severe restrictions allowing aid into the Gaza Strip. Now, we did hear from Kogut as well on Tuesday saying that some 400 trucks were allowed into Israel. This is the agency which is overseeing what is allowed in and what is distributed in Gaza.

It's less than was distributed before the war, but it is an increase on what we have seen over recent months. But aid agencies say it is still just a trickle and there needs to be a significant increase to prevent the catastrophe that is happening at the moment. And, of course, these concerns are accentuated by the fact that we are expecting this imminent operation from Israel and the takeover of Gaza City.

In fact, the military has said that they have already taken much of the outskirts, that they are in the preliminary stages of this operation. And the calls from the United Nations are saying that to move hundreds of thousands of people, potentially up to a million, into an area that is already overcrowded and does not have the infrastructure to sustain human life will be devastating.

[03:05:07]

They pointed out that some 86 percent of the Gaza Strip is already under Israeli evacuation orders or in Israeli militarized zones. And so, more and more people are being squeezed into an ever-shrinking area which will exacerbate a desperate situation. Rosemary?

CHURCH: And, Paula, what more are you learning about Israel's plans to build thousands of housing units in the West Bank and what critics are saying about that and the consequences?

HANCOCKS: Well, Rosemary, this is a very significant development that has happened and on any ordinary day it would be the most prevalent story. But, of course, with the war in Gaza ongoing it doesn't get the attention it needs. This is a plan that the far-right and the settler organizations in Israel have put in place decades ago.

But it has been on hold for decades because of the severe international opposition. What it means is that these settlements, if they are built, would effectively cut the West Bank in half.

It would mean that any future Palestinian state would not be contiguous. It would not be connecting physically.

It also means that the settlement would make it virtually impossible for the Palestinians to have a capital in East Jerusalem, which is what they have consistently said should be happening. It would connect Jerusalem to a settlement just east of Jerusalem, which would, of course, cut the West Bank in half.

Now there has been condemnation, significant condemnation to this announcement. The U.K., the E.U., for example. It hasn't been condemned by the United States, though.

Previous administrations have been against this plan. But this administration has said simply that they want to see stability in the West Bank, which could be seen by the Israeli far right as a tacit approval to move forward.

We've heard from Smotrich, for example, the finance minister. He has said that this is in response to a wave of countries that have stated their intention to recognize a Palestinian state. And he has said that this will make sure that there can never be a Palestinian state by creating these new settlements and more than 3000 units.

Now, it's unclear at this point what the international community can actually do to try and prevent this. They are considered these settlements illegal under international law. But beyond the condemnation, there are questions as to what else they can actually do. Rosemary?

CHURCH: All right. Our thanks to Paula Hancocks bringing us that live report from Abu Dhabi, I appreciate it.

Joining me now from London is Jasmine El-Gamal, foreign affairs analyst and former Middle East adviser at the Pentagon. She's also a host of the podcast, "The View from Here". I appreciate you being with us.

JASMINE EL-GAMAL, MIDDLE EAST ANALYST, FORMER PENTAGON MIDDLE EAST ADVISER, AND HOST, "THE VIEW FROM HERE" PODCAST: Good morning, Rosemary.

CHURCH: Good morning. So we are seeing evidence of the early stages of Israel's renewed military offensive in Gaza City, as Prime Minister Netanyahu hopes to drive Hamas out of what he calls its last stronghold. What is the likely impact of this new assault on the city? And what will it mean for those civilians unable to get out?

EL-GAMAL: Well, thank you for asking that. I mean, the question is that we won't know the full extent of the answer to your questions because the situation is so opaque on the ground and there aren't many journalists left to report it. I mean, as you know, the IDF assassinated Al Jazeera's entire team a few days ago, and they were meant to be reporting on these upcoming offensives, both in Gaza City and anything else that was going on.

With all the other journalists that have been assassinated and the lack of entry access to international journalists, it's really difficult, actually, to find out or figure out exactly the extent of the damage, the extent of the displacement. All we have to go on, really, is what the Israeli military and the Israeli government is putting out. And as we've seen over the last 22 months, oftentimes that turns out to be inaccurate.

So the information picture is quite opaque, Rosemary, but based on everything else that we've seen and everything that we know in terms of the human cost and impact of these kinds of offensive, it's certainly a very grim picture indeed.

CHURCH: And Mr. Netanyahu has ordered the military to shorten the timeline for this new operation, but that still means the service of 20,000 soldiers will be extended for up to four more months, maybe longer, and an additional 60,000 reservists will need to be called up.

[03:10:04]

How is this being received in Israel? Because there would be concerns about the hostages that still remain in Gaza.

EL-GAMAL: Absolutely. I mean, there are a few different things going on here in this dynamic. Let me address the one that you just mentioned, which is calling up all these additional reservists. I mean, obviously there's a lot of strain and there has been a lot of strain on the Israeli military and the reservists, the length of their service, the number of times they're being asked to go back in.

We haven't seen huge numbers of people refusing to serve, but those numbers have been increasing over the last year and a half. I spoke recently to someone, a 19-year-old Israeli man, who has refused and is encouraging others to refuse to participate in what he calls, what he personally calls a genocide in Gaza that he doesn't want to be responsible for.

Now, that is not, of course, huge numbers, but you do see reports also, Rosemary, of IDF soldiers coming back and having huge mental health issues, some of them even committing suicide because of the strain of their service in Gaza. So that's just the strain on the Israeli military itself.

But what a lot of people inside of Israel now are asking, and this is obviously what people outside of Israel have been asking for months now, is what is the purpose of continued fighting in Gaza?

Now, you have Hamas, who has come under Arab pressure, have agreed to the deal that's on the table now. And while the Israeli government says it's thinking about it or it's considerate, what you see on the ground is a completely different picture of further incursions, further military action, all to do something that Prime Minister Netanyahu has stated but has never actually defined, that when he says we're going to continue to do this until Hamas is defeated, he's never really been able to say what that means, and so he can just keep going and going because that objective is so vague.

CHURCH: And Jasmine, what more are you learning about Netanyahu's plans for new settlements in the West Bank, and what impact will that move have on a two-state solution? Does it really end it?

EL-GAMAL: Yes. It's a good question, and I just want to, it's an important point here, because when you asked about Netanyahu's plans, I think, Rosemary, what's really important, and I think to learn as accurately as possible what the plans are for this Israeli government, you need not look at Netanyahu's statements per se, but to the statements of the ministers Ben Gvir and Smotrich, who are the extreme right-wing members of his cabinet, and for a long time people were assuming that they were just fringe voices, but actually what we've learned is that they've been driving Israeli policy for much of the last 22 months, both when it comes to the extent of the fighting in Gaza and the refusal to enter into any ceasefire agreement, as well as the expansion of settlements and violence and settler violence in the West Bank.

And so Minister Smotrich has approved the settlements to be built in the E1 area, which you were just talking about with your correspondent. This effectively renders anything close to a Palestinian, contiguous Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital, moot. And also he's been giving speeches publicly that have been saying, we're never -- we're not going to stop the fighting in Gaza, we want Gaza to be destroyed because it is a city of terror.

And he's not just talking about, he's talking about Gaza as a city. And he has been saying this for months. So I think if we look at the words of these two ministers and match them to the actions that we've been seeing on the ground, you'll start to see the direction which this Israeli government is heading in, which is unfortunately a direction of mass destruction, mass displacement, and really very little interests in a deal or in returning their hostages.

CHURCH: Jasmine El-Gamal, thank you so much for joining us, I appreciate it.

EL-GAMAL: Thanks for having me, Rosemary.

CHURCH: The Kremlin is now openly contradicting the White House and downplaying the prospect of a meeting between the Russian and Ukrainian presidents. Trump administration officials have set plans for a face-to-face meeting between Vladimir Putin and Volodymyr Zelenskyy are underway. But Russia's foreign minister is again indicating that Putin has not agreed to such a meeting.

Meantime, NATO military leaders met on Wednesday to discuss potential security guarantees for Ukraine once the war is over.

[03:15:03]

But Russia says discussing Ukraine's security without Moscow's participation is, quote, "a path to nowhere."

CNN's Clare Sebastian has more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CLARE SEBASTIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, it was already clear by the time the dust had settled on those White House talks on Monday that Russia had not, as the White House seemed to suggest, committed to a bilateral meeting between Putin and Zelenskyy as the next step. Now, on Wednesday, the Russian foreign minister, Sergey Lavrov, made that even clearer.

SERGEY LAVROV, RUSSIAN FOREIGN MINISTER (through translator): Following a phone conversation with President Trump the day before yesterday, our president made a proposal not only to continue these conversations, but also to think about raising the level of the heads of delegation.

SEBASTIAN: Well, high-level officials, perhaps, but no mention of heads of state. Now, you'll remember the Trump team came out of those Alaska talks last Friday, claiming also that Russia had agreed to security guarantees for Ukraine, including Article 5-style protections from the United States.

And President Trump has since openly embraced the idea of U.S. involvement in security guarantees. And that, in turn, has supercharged work by Europe to try to come up with a concrete plan. We've had NATO defense chiefs meeting on Wednesday. And the Coalition of the Willing, this grouping of some 30 or so countries willing to contribute to security guarantees, well, they have met twice since Sunday.

DONALD TRUMP, U.S. PRESIDENT (on the phone): When it comes to security, they're willing to put people on the ground. We're willing to help them with things, especially, probably, if you could talk about by air, because there's nobody has the kind of stuff we have, really, they don't have. But I don't think it's going to be a problem.

SEBASTIAN: Lavrov made it clear on Wednesday that Russia sees things a little differently.

LAVROV (through translator): Now it is proposed to resolve security issues, collective security without the Russian Federation. This will not work. We've already explained more than once that Russia does not inflate its interests. SEBASTIAN: So Russia appears emboldened. Putin's grand welcome in

Alaska, the rejection by Trump of Europe and Ukraine's demand for a ceasefire before peace talks, and the crumbling of all U.S. sanctions threats, all wins for the Kremlin just in the past week. So far from indulging Trump's talk of his own diplomatic successes, the rhetoric we saw today likely a signal to the U.S. President that Russia is looking for still more concessions to stay at the table and play for time.

Clare Sebastian, CNN, London.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CHURCH: The U.S. East Coast is already feeling the effects of Hurricane Erin as it moves north through the Atlantic Ocean. The strong Category 2 storm is not expected to make landfall in the U.S., but strong winds and heavy rain are hitting parts of the southeastern coast.

Erin is forecast to turn into the open ocean over the next few days as it picks up speed. CNN's Dianne Gallagher is in North Carolina keeping an eye on conditions.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DIANNE GALLAGHER, CNN U.S. NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: As Hurricane Erin comes up the east coast, passing the outer banks, you can see right now the sort of choppy seas. We're looking at some spicy surge and a little bit aggressive. There's still people who are trying to walk just along the shoreline, admiring these waves.

We're at Jenette's Pier in Nags Head, that's about 25 feet above the mean water. We are seeing some of the waves at this point kind of kiss the bottom of it occasionally, but so far again just rough surf. The big concern for the Outer Banks is looking at this potential of up to four feet of storm surge and also those big waves.

Now some of it comes from just the geographic vulnerabilities of the outer banks. We're looking at about 200 miles of barrier islands that are effectively connected by this one highway. It's called NC-12, and that is the biggest concern of officials at this point, they are worried about the storm surge potentially washing out or just breaking some of NC-12, which will leave people in some of the more southern outer banks islands stranded for a period of time until they can repair that, and they're not sure exactly how long that might take.

They've already shut down roughly 50 miles of NC-12 at this point, saying the conditions are just a little bit too rough right now. We have seen some DOT cameras that show overwash at this point, the tide when it came in spilling over those dunes. We have video from earlier in the day on Wednesday of the Department of Transportation using construction vehicles to try and fortify those dunes to prevent any of that isolation.

Now there were mandatory evacuations for Ocracoke and Hatteras Island. According to the DOT, more than 2200 people were evacuated safely through the ferry system. At this point though, as the hurricane passes these outer banks, people have to stay where they are.

The big key in the morning, when it is supposed to be the worst here, is that people do not get into the ocean because of those very dangerous rip currents.

[03:20:04]

They are worried again about potential for property damage, but they do not want to have to also account for loss of life.

In Nags Head, Dianne Gallagher, CNN. Back to you.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CHURCH: Still to come, four years after the chaotic U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan, hear why many Afghans who worked with the U.S. during its 20-year war now feel abandoned by Washington.

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CHURCH: Welcome back everyone.

It has been four years since the Taliban retook power in Afghanistan, and many Afghan nationals who worked with U.S. forces remain stranded in the country.

[03:25:10]

Now a Trump administration travel ban has left even fewer opportunities to escape. And as CNN's Isobel Yeung reports, lives are still being lost on the bomb-riddled battlefields of Afghanistan.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ISOBEL YEUNG, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Here in Afghanistan, the remnants of war are everywhere.

YEUNG: These guys are trying to clear this whole field of landmines that have been left by decades of war. Just got to watch where we're stepping because anywhere beyond these red flags is still potentially contaminated and could have unexploded ordnance.

YEUNG (voice-over): Deminers work around the clock.

KHALID SAMIN, DANISH REFUGEE COUNCIL: There were three accidents, civilian accidents, happened in this area in the past.

YEUNG: Oh well. And how often are civilian accidents happening in Afghanistan?

SAMIN: On a monthly basis, we have witnessed more than 110 people, most of them as children, involved in the accident, unfortunately.

YEUNG: So over 100 civilian accidents every month?

SAMIN: Monthly basis, yes. YEUNG: Wow. It must be dangerous work.

SAMIN: Yes. This is the reality of Afghanistan.

YEUNG: This guy here has just found some sign of metal, so they're digging a little further to try and find out whether that's a mine or not. Very hot, dangerous work up here.

YEUNG (voice-over): Every week, the Deminers collect unexploded ordnance and explode them. But invading countries have left more than just bombs in their wake here.

Hundreds of thousands of Afghans worked with the U.S. government during their 20-year war here, as translators, drivers, civil society workers and doctors.

Following America's chaotic withdrawal under the Biden administration in 2021, the U.S. set up a refugee program that would provide a path for Afghans to move to the U.S., a lightning rod for many Republicans.

STEPHEN MILLER, NOW-WHITE HOUSE DEPUTY CHIEF OF STAFF: The United States of America never, ever made a promise, written or unwritten, to the people of Afghanistan that if after 20 years, they were unable to secure their own country, that we would take them to ours.

YEUNG (voice-over): When Trump returned to power this year, he cancelled refugee programs, dismantled the office dedicated to helping Afghans relocate and barred them from entering the U.S. altogether.

YEUNG: We've been speaking to a lot of those individuals across the country, but sadly because of security concerns, most of them we're having to speak to on the phone.

YEUNG (voice-over): On paper, the U.S. says they are still processing cases for people who worked with the U.S. military directly. But many, like this man, are stuck in Afghanistan, living in fear. We've disguised his voice.

UNKNOWN: I know that Taliban is searching for me. I'm hiding, I can't go outside freely. If the find me, I'm confident that they will imprison me, they will torture me, they will kill me.

Donald Trump became U.S. President, he signed Executive Order and all our cases stopped. We stood with the U.S. forces side by side for a long time, but now they banned us. Why? Where is the justice?

YEUNG: So we've been in touch with one woman who has agreed to meet with us. She says that it's very risky, that she risks running into the Taliban, she risks travelling by herself and she's very scared. But she says it's worth it because she really needs to share her story.

YEUNG (voice-over): As a doctor, this woman worked for American charities. With recent U.S. aid cuts, she lost her job. She now feels that her relationship with U.S. organizations has put her and her family's life in danger. YEUNG: You're clearly terrified. You came here, you're shaking.

UNKNOWN: During the way (here), I saw many Taliban and I am very afraid from them.

YEUNG: What is it like as a woman living in Afghanistan right now?

UNKNOWN: The situation is very bad for the Afghan woman. And we don't -- I don't have any job, going to the bazaar, not going to the shopping. We can't, everything.

Just we are in the home and we are afraid from every second of the life we are spending. It's very dangerous.

YEUNG (voice-over): Her communication with the State Department has stopped. The last email she got was in January, just days before Trump returned to the White House.

YEUNG: How did you feel when you saw the news that Trump was cancelling these programs?

UNKNOWN: All the night we are crying. It was very difficult to accept like this.

YEUNG: You felt like this was your lifeline?

UNKNOWN: Yes. It broke our heart.

YEUNG: President Trump has said that he needs to protect the borders, that he needs this America First policy to ensure that it's not dangerous, that no one dangerous enters the U.S.

[03:30:09]

UNKNOWN: No, I'm not agree with this. They broke his promise to Afghan women and Afghan girls.

YEUNG: What does it feel like?

UNKNOWN: We're feeling bad because we trust on it and we're working with them for 20 years and they promised us that we must move from here to America.

YEUNG: What is your message to President Trump?

UNKNOWN: Please start the cases again. And also please support the Afghan girls or women because now it was very difficult for us. It was very dangerous and I'm not feeling safe in here.

YEUNG (voice-over): The U.S. State Department told us they're unable to comment on individual cases or internal operations of refugee processing, and that the President is, quote, "committed to helping those who helped us," but that their "first priority is always the safety and security of the American people."

Isobel Yeung, CNN, Afghanistan. (END VIDEOTAPE)

CHURCH: Security guarantees for Ukraine are in focus as the diplomatic push continues to try to end the war. Coming up, our military analyst weighs in on what options could be on the table.

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[03:35:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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

Israel is calling up another 60,000 reservists for its planned takeover of Gaza City and it's extending the service of another 20,000 troops. A new survey shows morale among the military is down and around 40 percent of soldiers slightly or significantly less motivated to serve.

Hurricane Erin is churning up along the U.S. East Coast at this hour. The Category 2 storm is not forecast to make landfall but it's causing strong winds, heavy rains and flooding. At least six states have restricted swimming on their beaches as the storm passes, Erin is due to swing further out to sea later this week.

Russia's foreign minister is now openly contradicting the White House narrative that plans are underway for a meeting between Vladimir Putin and Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Sergey Lavrov says the Russian president supports sending higher-level officials to talks with Ukraine but indicated again on Wednesday that Putin has not agreed to a bilateral meeting with Ukraine's president.

Well, President Zelenskyy now says he's ready to make some compromise on his demand for a ceasefire before any talks with Vladimir Putin were to take place but he wants to see some security guarantees established first. Those comments come after NATO military leaders met Wednesday to discuss those potential guarantees for Ukraine once the war is over. Russia though says discussing Ukraine's security without Moscow's participation is quote "a path to nowhere."

Cedric Leighton is a CNN military analyst and a retired U.S. Air Force colonel. Thank you so much for joining us.

COL. CEDRIC LEIGHTON (RET.), CNN MILITARY ANALYST: It's so great to be with you Rosemary.

CHURCH: So NATO military officials met virtually on Wednesday to discuss options to guarantee Ukraine's security as part of a peace deal between the war-torn nation and Russia. What all came out of those meetings?

LEIGHTON: Yes, so one of the most important aspects of this Rosemary is the fact that it seems right now as if the U.S. is going to provide minimal support to any type of peacekeeping efforts that could be happening in Ukraine at some point here. So this definitely seems to be a bit of a backtracking from the statements that President Trump made when the European leaders and President Zelenskyy were at the White House the other day and it is also one of those moments where I think what we're seeing is basically infighting within the U.S. administration as to how much support the Ukrainians and by extension the Europeans would actually be getting from the United States because President Trump first mentioned putting U.S. boots on the ground when he was meeting with President Zelenskyy.

That simply walked back the very next day and now on the second day after this we're looking at a situation where the U.S. will perhaps provide aerial support, logistical support, weapon support to some degree but the bulk of the European force is going to be required to go in there and actually provide security for a peacekeeping effort of one type or another or ceasefire monitoring whatever it actually turns out to be.

[03:40:04]

CHURCH: Right, so what is your understanding of how these security guarantees for Ukraine would work given what we do know so far from this NATO meeting and what came out of Monday's Oval Office talks between Presidents Trump and Zelenskyy as well as of course the European leaders?

LEIGHTON: Yes so this is you know I think one of the areas here that we're looking at Rosemary is that the U.S. would provide logistical support, perhaps aerial surveillance support, certainly intelligence support to the Europeans and to the Ukrainians. Now this is different from what they should be doing in order to provide this support but as of now we believe the support is going to be one of more or less a logistical nature, in essence a background type of support as opposed to actually being at the foreground of various events.

So this is very different from what the U.S. used to do for example in the post-World War II era or during the Cold War. So it's in essence a representation of the retrenchment of the U.S. from some parts of, you know, of international engagement.

CHURCH: And Colonel as these various talks take place of course Russia continues to pound Ukraine, what is the latest on where things stand on the battlefield?

LEIGHTON: Yes, so it's a mixed picture. The Russians have made some advances in the east, they continue to move forward in certain areas where they're trying to in essence get the four cities that form this fortress belt in the Donbass region. That fortress belt is one that is in essence the key to the rest of Ukraine.

So if the Russians were to gain that territory, which by the way they fought for since 2014 and they've never been able to successfully control it on a permanent basis, the Ukrainians regained it in 2014 and have kept it ever since. But if they were to gain that territory without fighting for it, without winning it on the battlefield, that would mark a significant change and it would in essence be similar to the situation in 1938 where Czechoslovakia was forced to give up the Sudetenland which contained all of its fortresses and that then allowed for Hitler to take over that country.

So you don't want that kind of a scenario to play out in Ukraine but it could be analogous to that and that's why it's exceptionally important for the Ukrainians to keep that territory, that 30 percent of the Donetsk Oblast in eastern Ukraine, that's going to be a critical factor here.

CHURCH: Colonel Cedric Leighton, thank you so much as always for talking with us, I appreciate it.

LEIGHTON: You bet Rosemary, thanks so much for having me.

CHURCH: Still to come, cameras capture an aggressive takedown as U.S. authorities arrest two Mexican brothers. The daughter of one man speaks out about the upsetting images.

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[03:45:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CHURCH: Welcome back everyone.

The administration is expanding a long-standing requirement for immigrants to display good moral character to become U.S. citizens. They'll now have to affirmatively establish that they are worthy of naturalization, for example by paying overdue taxes in full rather than using a payment plan as in the past, as well as other obligations including child support payments. Critics say this merely adds a new burden to the overall process.

We're now to the U.S. state of Connecticut, where video has emerged of federal immigration agents violently arresting two undocumented brothers from Mexico. CNN's Maria Santana has our report. A warning though, some of the images you're about to see are graphic.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MARIA SANTANA, CNN EN ESPANOL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): This was the chaotic scene in Norwalk, Connecticut, Friday as federal agents surrounded a red truck and arrested two brothers from Mexico.

42-year-old Leonel Chavez, who was in the driver's seat, took this video and can be heard pleading for answers.

In a second video taken by a witness, an agent with a Taser chases after his brother Ricardo after he appears to take off while also being taken into custody.

Ricardo Chavez falls to the ground and is tased several times before the officer gets him up and into handcuffs. Leonel can be heard shouting in the background and is seen in handcuffs against the red truck.

For the Chavez family, these graphic images are hard to watch. LEONELA CHAVEZ, FATHER AND UNCLE ARRESTED BY U.S. FEDERAL AGENTS: It made me feel just very angry and very disappointed in my country and this is how we're treating people. We're treating them like they're nobodies.

SANTANA (voice-over): 21-year-old Leonela Chavez said her family rushed to the scene after getting a frantic call from her father, Leonel.

[03:50:00]

When they arrived, all they found was his truck.

CHAVEZ: My dad's truck was just left right in the middle of the road, window smashed, glass on the floor.

SANTANA (voice-over): She says her father has lived in the United States since he was a teenager and is a father of three American-born children who works as a stonemason owning his own business. Her uncle came to the U.S. in 2008. Both are undocumented.

CHAVEZ: I would just describe him as a hard-working family man. He was paying taxes and you know it was a very small company but he was working on you know ways to grow it.

SANTANA (voice-over): Leonela says her father and uncle are now being held in a Massachusetts detention center. In a statement to CNN, the Department of Homeland Security said that ICE agents were operating in Norwalk last week but they did not specify whether it was ICE officers who arrested the Chavez brothers. CNN has not found any criminal record for Ricardo Chavez in Connecticut, court documents show Leonel Chavez has several misdemeanor convictions but information on each offense isn't detailed in public records.

Leonela now fears her father could be deported, leaving behind the life he has built for his family.

CHAVEZ: He always told me that he wanted me to be someone amazing in life. He wanted me to amount to so much more than he ever could in life and I always held that so close to my heart.

SANTANA (voice-over): Maria Santana, CNN, New York.

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CHURCH: Health officials in California say a resident of the Lake Tahoe area has tested positive for the plague. They believe the patient may have been bitten by an infected flea while camping. This person is recovering at home under the care of medical professionals while authorities investigate.

According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, there are only about seven cases of human plague reported each year in the U.S. The infection spreads to humans through infected flea bites or contact with infected animals. The plague can be knocked out with antibiotics. Just ahead, is artificial intelligence living up to the hype? A stark

warning from tech boss Sam Altman who believes we're currently in an A.I. bubble.

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CHURCH: Welcome back.

A new report finds 95 percent of companies have not seen a return on investment from generative A.I. It comes amid warnings from tech CEO Sam Altman who believes we're currently in an A.I. bubble.

[03:55:07]

The head of OpenAI told tech journalists he believes investors are overly positive about A.I. developments and he said, quote, "When bubbles happen, smart people get overexcited about a kernel of truth. Are we in a phase where investors as a whole are overexcited about A.I.?" He says yes.

More now from CNN's Clare Duffy.

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CLARE DUFFY, CNN TECH WRITER: I mean, really stark results from this study, especially because we keep hearing, including from leaders of this industry, how every enterprise needs to have an A.I. strategy, needs to be adopting this technology.

And yet, according to this study, only 5 percent of the companies that have rolled out A.I. pilot programs are actually seeing meaningful increases to their revenue. And certainly I do think that Sam Altman might have a point given that we've seen so many A.I. startups raking in these huge valuations, often with only two or three people, a handful of people running the companies before they even make a profit, they are raking in these huge valuations, it's likely that not all of those will succeed.

But I also think it's worth noting in terms of this enterprise adoption, this study finds that often the problem is not the quality of the A.I. model, but rather that companies don't yet really understand how to implement this new technology, how to update their processes to really make the most of A.I.

This is sort of a reality check moment where we've heard a lot from Silicon Valley about how A.I. is growing exponentially, advancing exponentially. And yet, I think what you're starting to see from this study and from what companies are saying about their use of these systems is that this adoption and the development of A.I. is not actually going to be that linear.

Something that I long have just sort of personally thought watching this space is that we're going to see a lot of companies looking to outsource some of their work to A.I., laying off workers, only to realize that computers can't necessarily do the job in the way that humans do, and maybe having to bring some of those folks back. So I won't be surprised if we do see a bit of a boomerang here as companies try to figure out what to do with this technology.

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CHURCH: Home at last, even if it's just a few kilometers down the road. We've been following the movement of a 113-year-old church in Sweden this week, and the two-day trip to relocate the historic building has come to an end.

The church was moved to prevent damage amid the expansion of the world's largest underground iron ore mine nearby. Its bell tower will be moved next week, and crews will now focus on its new foundations and stabilizing the wooden structure. The goal is for it to be in use again by late 2026 or early 2027.

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 with Erica Hill coming up at 5 a.m. in New York, 10 a.m. in London, enjoy.

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