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China Displays Military Might at Victory Day Parade; 11 Killed in a Targeted Strike on a Drug-Carrying Vessel; CNN Peeks at Cuban Migrants from the U.S. Deported Back to Their Homeland. Aired 3-4a ET

Aired September 03, 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.

China puts on a grand display of military might while showcasing its growing ties with Russia and North Korea.

President Trump cryptically hints at new developments in bringing peace to Ukraine.

Plus, the U.S. carries out a military strike on a boat it says was carrying drugs in the Caribbean.

And a look at the massive environmental footprint left by the billions of questions people ask A.I. each day.

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

CHURCH: Good to have you with us.

China has wrapped up a massive military parade marking the 80th of the end of World War II. It was designed to send a clear message to allies and adversaries alike that China's military is growing and modernizing. And that the country's rise on the world stage is "unstoppable," according to Chinese leader Xi Jinping.

Xi was joined by several foreign heads of state and stood side by side with Russian President Vladimir Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, marking the first time the three leaders have appeared together in public.

The parade featured thousands of soldiers marching in tight formations and showcased the country's latest military technology, including new intercontinental ballistic missiles, stealth fighters and drones, as well as air and sea defense systems.

After the parade, Vladimir Putin held formal talks with Kim Jong-un, the Russian President, praising North Korea's troops who were fighting in Moscow's war against Ukraine. Western officials estimate that a third of the 12,000 North Korean troops believed to have been deployed so far have been killed or wounded.

I want to bring in CNN's Beijing Bureau Chief Steven Jiang now. Good to see you again, Steven. So what message was China's President trying to convey to the world when he presided over this massive military parade in Beijing Wednesday, with the leaders of Russia and North Korea clearly by his side?

STEVEN JIANG, CNN BEIJING BUREAU CHIEF: Yes, Rosemary, this kind of parade always meant to whip up a lot of patriotism and nationalism at home, especially at a time when the economy is still facing strong headwinds. But also, it's a clear signal to both friends and foes abroad about the discipline and military prowess of China's People's Liberation Army, the world's biggest standing armed force.

Now, the optics of Xi standing alongside Putin and Kim watching this parade, of course, a mistakable message as well about the unity of the three leaders and partners, and also a message of defiance to the West, especially the United States.

And that message very much getting and bothering the U.S. President Donald Trump already as he tweeted after the parade about suggesting that Mr. Xi seemed to be colluding with Kim and Putin to, in his words, conspire against the U.S.

Now, remember, not long ago, Mr. Trump himself was hosting Putin in Alaska, talking sweet about Kim, and of course, almost always praising Xi. So this sudden U-turn by Mr. Trump in a way seems to proving Mr. Xi's point about the U.S. under Trump's leadership has become unreliable, not credible, and also unstable. And in contrast, as he said just two days ago at a gathering of world leaders, China is advocating for a different vision for the world in which the international order is not dominated by the U.S. and its alliances, and even suggesting that much of the chaos and uncertainty the world is facing today has been caused by that U.S.-led world order.

Now, of course, that notion perhaps disputed by many Western leaders, especially given Mr. Xi's close friend and partner Putin's ongoing war in Ukraine.

But what's indisputable, of course, is this is Mr. Xi's third massive military parade since taking power in 2012. And he has now presided over more military parades than any of his predecessors, except the founding fighter Chairman Mao. And he is the most powerful leader in China for decades, amassing, of course, absolute control over every aspect of China, especially when it comes to military.

[03:05:03]

And the message here is also clear in terms of when it comes to this Abner force, it has two missions, guaranteeing the Communist Party's rule and fighting and winning wars if ordered by himself. Rosemary.

CHURCH: All right. Our thanks to Steven Jiang, bringing us that live report from Beijing, I appreciate it. Earlier, I spoke with Malcolm Davis, a senior analyst of defense

strategy and capability at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, and I asked him about the weapons displayed in China's military parade and what they could tell us about China's capabilities compared to the West.

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MALCOLM DAVIS, SR. ANALYST OF DEFENSE STRATEGY AND CAPABILITY, AUSTRALIAN STRATEGIC POLICY INSTITUTE: I think the first thing that stood out was the sheer number of hypersonic weapons that were on display, a range of systems designed to be launched from aircraft, from ships and submarines and from land. And hypersonic weapons are weapons that travel faster than five times the speed of sound, making them virtually impossible to defeat in terms of an incoming threat.

So what that said to me was that China is moving much more rapidly in this critical military technology area than the United States is that gaining an advantage that will give them the ability to make it much more difficult for the U.S. and its allies to be able to project power into the Western Pacific in a crisis, perhaps over Taiwan.

Second area of weapons that stood out for me were the unmanned systems, in particular, the collaborative combat aircraft, the unmanned aircraft that fly alongside piloted fighter aircraft. There were a number of those being demonstrated and shown. Once again, China seems to be more advanced in some respects than the U.S. in this regard.

Also, they demonstrated a large unmanned underwater vehicle that potentially could be nuclear armed, very similar to a Russian system called Poseidon that the Russians have developed.

And finally, I think the nuclear side of things, the number of nuclear weapons and nuclear missile capabilities that were an entire new class of ballistic missiles and air-launched ballistic missiles, submarine- launched ballistic missiles that were shown as a system. I think that it once again demonstrates China is moving much more rapidly to build up its nuclear capabilities.

CHURCH: Interesting. Malcolm, what about the weapons that weren't part of this display of military might, such as the absence of the H-20 bomber? What did that signal to you?

DAVIS: Well, I was surprised because I would have thought that this particular parade on this occasion would have been the ideal time for the Chinese to unveil their H-20, which is their new long-range strategic bomber. From what analysts understand, it looks very similar to the U.S. B-2 stealth bomber. Certainly, the indications are that it is a stealth aircraft, and yet it was not to be seen and I think that maybe that suggests that perhaps it's not as ready as Western analysts were thinking it would be.

But having said that, the Chinese did fly a number of key air combat capabilities, such as the J-20 and the J-35 fifth-generation fighters. Interestingly enough, in addition to the H-20, they didn't show the J- 36, which has been flying since Christmas, which is their sixth- generation aircraft. So, there were a number of omissions to this parade, which I think were interesting, suggesting that maybe the Chinese weren't quite ready to demonstrate their cutting-edge capabilities in those particular areas.

CHURCH: And Malcolm, with the military display of this magnitude, what do you think Beijing's message was to the world? And how might Taiwan be reading all of this?

DAVIS: It's about intimidation. It's about asserting China's reality or China's perception that China's rise is unstoppable, that China will dominate the Indo-Pacific region, and particularly the Western Pacific. And the message to Taiwan is, we're coming for you.

Essentially, China is saying to Taiwan, we will impose unification on Taiwan against the wishes of the Taiwanese people through military force at a time of our choosing. And we're building up the military capabilities to do that. We're building up the military industrial capacity to build those capabilities in volume and at a rapid rate of knots.

And it's also sending a message to the U.S. and its allies that we can essentially invade or blockade Taiwan at a time of our choosing and deny you the ability to access the Western Pacific region or project power. And so really, in spite of the rhetoric suggested by President Xi, that this is all about peace. In actual fact, today was all about war, it was all about China's intention to take Taiwan in the near future.

CHURCH: Malcolm Davis in Canberra, Australia. Many thanks for joining us, I appreciate it.

DAVIS: Thank you.

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CHURCH: Donald Trump is hinting at what he calls some very interesting developments in bringing peace to Ukraine. But the U.S. President also continues to voice his frustration with Russia's Vladimir Putin over the stalled peace efforts.

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DONALD TRUMP, U.S. PRESIDENT (on the phone): We'll see what happens. But I'm very disappointed in President Putin, I can say that, and we'll be doing something to help people live.

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CHURCH: He didn't get into specifics about what the U.S. is planning. But the comments come as Russia continues to bombard cities across Ukraine. Last month, President Trump gave Vladimir Putin an extra two weeks to try to agree to a meeting with Ukraine's president or face potential consequences; that deadline is set to expire on Friday. Meanwhile, during his visit to China, President Putin insisted Russia

is not an aggressor.

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VLADIMIR PUTIN, RUSSIAN PRESIDENT (through translator): Any sane person is perfectly aware that Russia has never had, does not have, and will never have any desire to attack anyone.

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CHURCH: President Trump says the U.S. military has killed at least 11 people in a targeted strike on a vessel allegedly carrying drugs in the Caribbean. He claims the boat came from Venezuela and was linked to Tren de Aragua, a criminal organization the U.S. considers a terrorist group, and one which President Trump has cited in his aggressive immigration crackdown.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio is promising more details on what the U.S. calls a counter-drug mission.

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MARCO RUBIO, U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE: It was a lethal strike. I think the Pentagon will have more details and other things to offer you here in the next few hours.

The drug vessel was carrying drugs? Size? I'll refer you to the Pentagon.

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CHURCH: CNN's Jennifer Hansler has more on this strike from Washington.

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JENNIFER HANSLAER, CNN U.S. STATE DEPARTMENT CORRESPONDENT: The U.S. military on Tuesday conducted a deadly strike against an alleged drug vessel that they say was operated by the cartel Tren de Aragua.

President Donald Trump sent in a post that 11 people were killed in this strike, which he said took place in international waters. Secretary of State Marco Rubio had earlier referred to the lethal strike taking place in the southern Caribbean, and he said the boat had departed from Venezuela.

The military action against the cartels is a significant escalation by the Trump administration and could have severe implications for the region. The Trump administration earlier this year designated a number of cartels, including Tren de Aragua, as foreign terrorist organizations.

In his post on Tuesday, President Trump said, quote, "Please let this serve as notice to anybody even thinking about bringing drugs into the United States of America. Beware." Secretary of State Marco Rubio also said that the counter-drug mission

would continue, and he said the administration was going to wage combat against the cartels. All of this comes as the U.S. has deployed significant military assets to the area around Latin America and the Caribbean, they've also deployed more than 4000 service members.

This deployment was condemned by Nicolas Maduro, the President of Venezuela. He has said that he would meet maximum pressure with maximum pressure, and we will wait to see what his response will be to this strike on Tuesday.

Jennifer Hansler, CNN, the State Department.

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CHURCH: Israel's military is mobilizing tens of thousands of reservists, despite growing tensions with political leaders over the looming operation to seize Gaza City. The latest on that just ahead.

Plus, World War II veterans who served in the Pacific are sharing their stories. We'll bring you their reflections on witnessing Japan's surrender 80 years on. Stay with us.

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CHURCH: Qatar says mediators are now discussing a different model for a Gaza ceasefire agreement. Tuesday's announcement comes as Israel insists it will only discuss a comprehensive deal that would release all of the remaining hostages and end the war on Israel's terms and conditions.

The most recent proposal for a 60-day ceasefire, which was accepted by Hamas last month, would see 10 of the living hostages returned in exchange for a mass release of Palestinian prisoners. That offer is based on a similar proposal presented by the U.S. in July and crafted in coordination with Israel.

Dissent is brewing within the Israeli military ahead of the full scale operation to seize Gaza City. On Tuesday, as thousands of Israeli reservists began reporting for duty to prepare for the takeover, a growing movement known as Soldiers for Hostages announced they will refuse orders to participate in what they call Netanyahu's illegal war.

CNN's Jeremy Diamond has details.

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JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN JERUSALEM CORRESPONDENT: Tens of thousands of Israeli military reservists were mobilized on Tuesday in preparation for Israel's major assault on Gaza City, a city where nearly 1 million people are currently living and now at risk of being displaced. But what is especially extraordinary about this moment is that this

operation is moving forward with the call up of 60,000 reservists, despite the fact that Israel's top general, the military's chief of staff, Eyal Zamir, has effectively expressed opposition to carrying out this operation.

[03:20:08]

And that's because we've learned that in a series of security cabinet meetings, General Zamir has effectively made clear that he doesn't believe this operation will lead to the total defeat of Hamas, which the Israeli Prime Minister has made clear is his goal. And he has also warned that it will lead to the loss of life of Israeli soldiers and also could put at risk the lives of the remaining hostages held in Gaza.

Instead, the chief of staff has been urging this Israeli government to take up the ceasefire proposal and hostage release deal on the table, which Hamas accepted about two weeks ago and which the Israeli government has yet to respond to. Instead, the Israeli government has indicated, the Prime Minister himself has indicated, that a partial deal for the release of some of the hostages is no longer something that he is interested. Instead, he is looking for a total deal that would secure the release of all of the hostages, lead to an end of the war in Gaza, and critically, something that's been a red line for Hamas demilitarizing and disarming in the Gaza Strip.

And so this is quite a significant moment, one that carries enormous risk for Palestinians in Gaza City, where we've already started to see waves of thousands of people beginning to flee the city, hundreds of people who have been killed in the early steps of the Israeli military bombing and shelling Gaza City over the course of just the last few days.

In addition to that, we are also seeing a wave of countries that are preparing to recognize a Palestinian state, partially in response not only to the starvation, the famine that we have seen in parts of Gaza, but also in response to this impending Israeli military assault on Gaza City.

And in response to that, the Israeli government is now weighing potential retaliatory measures for those countries that plan to recognize Palestine as a state. The Prime Minister is set to hold a meeting on Thursday to discuss these proposals to annex parts of the West Bank.

And his options that are now on the table range from a limited takeover of several Jewish settlements to recognizing all of Area C, which is already under Israeli security and administrative control and amounts to 60 percent of the West Bank, that would effectively be a major step to preclude the possibility of a Palestinian state ever actually existing on the ground and that is exactly the goal of many of the right-wing members of this government. It's not clear that the Israeli Prime Minister will actually move forward with annexation, there are other retaliatory steps that he could take, but certainly this is one of the options now on the table. Jeremy Diamond, CNN, Jerusalem.

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CHURCH: And we go live to Jerusalem now, where I'm joined by Gershon Baskin, a former hostage negotiator who now serves as Middle East director at the International Communities Organization. I appreciate you being with us.

GERSHON BASKIN, MIDDLE EAST DIRECTOR, INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITIES ORGANIZATION, AND FORMER HOSTAGE NEGOTIATOR: Thank you.

CHURCH: So we are learning from Qatar that mediators are now discussing a different model for a Gaza ceasefire agreement. And this comes as Israel says it will only discuss a deal that will release all of the remaining hostages and end the war on Israel's terms and conditions. What does this indicate to you?

BASKIN: It indicates nothing, because the Israeli government and Prime Minister Netanyahu are not willing to make any agreement with Hamas. It's not on the table, it's not in the cards. The Israelis don't believe that they should make an agreement with Hamas, the strategy of the current Israeli government is to bring Hamas to total defeat.

They want to see a white flag raised by Hamas in surrender. And the only problem is that that will never happen. Hamas will never surrender to Israel.

And Netanyahu probably knows that. What Netanyahu's aim is, is to evacuate most of the Gaza Strip to push all the Palestinians in Gaza, 2.2 million people into the southwest corner of the Gaza Strip and to wait for it to explode there, so that people will cross over into Egypt and leave Gaza.

The plans of this current Israeli government, and this has to be very clear, because they're saying it, we have to believe them, is to resettle Gaza with Israelis, to make Gaza part of the state of Israel.

CHURCH: And Israel continues with its plans for a full-scale assault on Gaza City, mobilizing tens of thousands of reservists, even as an increasing number of Israeli soldiers are now refusing to participate in what they're calling Netanyahu's illegal war. How significant is this movement against Netanyahu ahead of the seizing of Gaza City?

[03:25:01]

BASKIN: It's unfortunately not significant enough. There were 40,000 soldiers who were called up yesterday, a few hundred of them signed a letter saying that they would not go to the army, they would not continue with Netanyahu's political war. It is not significant enough to stop it, and unfortunately the countries of the world are not doing anything to stop it.

What's important to know is that the escalation has begun. Israel is bombing Gaza all day long, they are attacking the outskirts neighborhoods from the north, from the south, and they are not only going in with forces, but they are bulldozing everything in its way. The goal is to flatten the rest of Gaza. This is what the army of Israel is doing, these are the plans of the Israeli government.

CHURCH: And Israel is also considering the possible annexation of parts of the West Bank in retaliation for the anticipated recognition of a Palestinian state by a growing number of countries at this month's U.N. General Assembly. How likely is it that Israel would annex the West Bank? How far might they go? What would be the likely response from Palestinians and the international community if they do go ahead and do that?

BASKIN: Well, I think, the obvious outcome if they do this is that the recognition of the state of Palestine becomes irrelevant. If Israel is going to control all the land between the river and the sea, then the call from the international community will gradually, I think rapidly, move from supporting a two-state solution to supporting democracy for everyone who lives between the river and the sea.

If Israel is declaring that this is its intention, that it will not allow the Palestinians to have self-determination and a state of their own next to Israel within the territories that Israel conquered in 1967, then the only logical outcome of the entire world, including the Israeli population, has to be democracy. Everyone living under one rule must have the same rights. We can't have two separate populations living under two separate rules really converting Israel into an apartheid state, this is unacceptable.

Now, we have a choice before us. That's to accept the two-state solution, which today is the only solution which brings about the conclusion, the resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, or continue doing what Israel is doing, which is breaching international law, denying the Palestinian people not only their right to self- determination, but their basic human rights.

The International Court of Justice in The Hague already determined that the occupation from 1967 is not temporary. This is permanent, this is what Israel has done. It is illegal, and it must be stopped by the international community.

If we're talking about retaliation for doing things that Israel doesn't like, like recognizing the state of Palestine, retaliation of the international community might be to unrecognize the state of Israel or to demand that Israel guarantee democracy for everyone that it controls.

CHURCH: Gershon Baskin in Jerusalem, many thanks for joining us, I appreciate it.

BASKIN: Thank you.

CHURCH: Still to come, China's Xi Jinping has brought North Korea's reclusive leader back into the international spotlight. We'll look at the state of their relationship, that's just ahead.

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[03:30:00]

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

The final phase of a landmark trial that could reshape Brazil's political landscape began on Tuesday. Former President Jair Bolsonaro is accused of plotting to overturn his defeat in the 2022 election. If found guilty by Brazil's Supreme Court, the right-wing populist leader could go to prison for decades.

President Trump says he is very disappointed in Russia's Vladimir Putin over the stalled Ukraine peace talks. He hinted that the U.S. will be doing something to stop the bloodshed without offering details. He has urged President Putin to agree to a meeting with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelenskyy, something the Russian leader has yet to do.

China has wrapped up an elaborate parade led by President Xi Jinping, showcasing its latest military hardware. The event marks 80 years since the end of World War II in Asia; Russian President Vladimir Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un attended.

CNN's Mike Valerio is following developments from Seoul, he joins us now. Good to see you, Mike. So how is South Korea responding to China's massive display of military might and his strong and very public display of unity with the leaders of Russia and North Korea?

MIKE VALERIO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It's all sinking in, Rosemary. I think that's the best answer to give you at this very early hour after the images are still so fresh in the consciousness of everybody who lives here on the Korean Peninsula.

[03:35:05]

And really, I think it is fair to say that the reality is sinking in that North Korea has never appeared to be as united with Russia and China at the same time than ever before. It perhaps has been very close with China but not Russia or Russia but not China, different points of its history. But to see these three leaders walking down that red carpet, leading from the point of view of the three leaders and certainly Xi Jinping, this new world order that they want to try to persuade more nations to join, that was absolutely the indelible image.

So what Xi Jinping absolutely was trying to do, and there's the red carpet imagery right there, he wanted to try to convey to the world that North Korea's Kim Jong-un is an irreplaceable part of this cadre of leaders that is hoping to reshape the world order according to the rules that it wants to play by. It's saying that the days of the Democratic West and the United States leading this post-World War II order are, from their point of view, over.

But one thing that was so striking, Rosemary, about watching this conversation happening right there, we weren't sure whether or not Kim Jong-un, and we being external observers, weren't really sure what the rapport was like between Xi Jinping of China and Kim Jong-un over the past year. Because as Kim Jong-un became closer with Vladimir Putin of Russia, China and North Korea were commemorating 75 years of diplomatic relations in a quote-unquote "year of friendship." But Vladimir Putin visited the North Korean capital, Xi Jinping did not visit North Korea, Kim Jong-un did not visit China in this very important year of friendship that took up most of 2024.

So as we were going through this year, we were wondering, you know, are relations pretty frosty? But as soon as this invitation came down the pike a couple of days ago, we were asking ourselves, where exactly will Kim Jong-un be? And they are shoulder to shoulder. Certainly, the imagery is unmistakable there that they want to walk side by side down this new path to challenge the West and the United States, Rosemary.

CHURCH: Indeed. Mike Valerio, joining us there with a live report from Seoul. I appreciate it.

Well, Tuesday marked 80 years since Japan officially surrendered to allied forces formally ending World War II in the Pacific. In Washington, D.C., at the World War II Memorial, a parade of heroes honored still living veterans in attendance.

Wreaths were also laid at the Memorial's Freedom Wall. The signing ceremony that sealed Japan's surrender in 1945 took place on the USS Missouri. And this week aboard that very same ship now docked in Hawaii's Pearl Harbor, there was a ceremony commemorating the anniversary.

There were also a few honorary guests at that ceremony, a small group of service members who witnessed Japan's surrender firsthand returned to the ship. CNN's Stephanie Elam has one of their stories.

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ROBERT KENNEDY, SERVED ON USS MISSOURI DURING WORLD WAR II: Robert Kennedy.

STEPHANIE ELAM, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Will you say your birthday for me?

KENNEDY: October 15, 1925. I reached the rank of electronic technicians made second class, which means I had two stripes on my petty officer chevron.

ELAM: You were working with technology at the time that was still very brand new with radars. Can you tell me about what you were doing?

KENNEDY: It was a little bit frightening to be responsible for maintaining something as fairly new as this technology.

ELAM: Were you nervous?

KENNEDY: Oh, I'm sure. I wouldn't want to admit it, but I'm sure there were times when I wondered what was going to happen next. We knew we were playing a significant role in bombarding enemy locations.

ELAM: Do you remember when you found out that Japan was going to surrender?

KENNEDY: They made a significant effort to make sure that every person aboard was brought topside. It was extremely exciting.

ELAM: Did it occur to you that you were in this place that was pivotal to the entire world?

KENNEDY: Probably not immediately, but very quickly I realized that I was part of a significant world event.

ELAM: You look back at your entire time on the Mighty Mo as a positive life experience.

KENNEDY: Oh, yes. I will always be proud of my Navy service, but particularly proud of my Navy service as we participated in the end of the war.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[03:40:06]

Some Cubans who went to the U.S. seeking the American dream are now being deported in chains by the Trump administration. Now, some are dealing with the forced return. That's after the break.

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CHURCH: Tens of thousands of Cubans migrated to the U.S. during the Biden administration. They expected to get preferential immigration status, as many had for generations.

[03:45:08]

Now the Immigration Customs Enforcement Agency is sending some of them home in shackles. CNN was the first international T.V. network allowed to see how they were processed, CNN's Patrick Oppmann has more now from Havana.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PATRICK OPPMANN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The ICE deportation flight lands with 161 Cuban deportees, the largest number ever aboard a single plane. Officials here tell me all returned to their homeland in shackles.

For decades, Cubans arriving in the U.S. were considered refugees fleeing communism and received preferential immigration status. But under President Trump's second term, their political fortunes have shifted radically. Potentially, tens of thousands now face the threat of deportation.

This is the first time the Cuban government has allowed international media to film the arrival of a U.S. flight transporting their deported citizens.

OPPMANN: This enormous plane that has just landed behind me is full of Cuban deportees. For many of them, it will be the first time they touch Cuban soil in years. And despite the fact that U.S.-Cuban relations are at their worst point in decades, these deportation flights have continued.

OPPMANN (voice-over): The deportees are unshackled and disembark the plane, a few at a time, to begin reprocessing.

This man complains to us that he had tight handcuffs on for hours and lost feeling in his arms and legs.

Immediately, we notice a woman coming off the plane who is visibly distraught. We are only able to ask the woman, Yudierqeis Reyes, a few questions before her reprocessing begins. But the story she tells us is chilling.

They left behind my two-year-old daughter. I lost her, she tells me, referring to ICE officials. They told me the girl was American and could not leave the country.

According to Reyes, she was arrested in June during a routine check-in with ICE in Nebraska, where she was living with her U.S.-born daughter. Reyes says she then spent more than three months in detention centers. She was being deported, she said ICE officials told her, for having pleaded no contest to a second-degree assault charge in 2023, for which Reyes was placed on probation and served no jail time.

In a statement to CNN, the Department of Homeland Security called Reyes a, quote, "criminal illegal alien and child abuser, although court records don't show any such conviction."

Reyes faced a child abuse no-injury charge as her infant daughter was in the house during the 2023 assault incident. But a search of Nebraska court records shows that prosecutors dropped the child abuse charge against Reyes as part of her plea deal. The DHS statement goes on to say Reyes' child, who she had custody of, remained with her father, a quote, "U.S. citizen, at his request."

CNN spoke with the girl's father, who said he was a U.S. resident, not a U.S. citizen, and had crossed illegally into the U.S. with Reyes from Mexico, and that he did not want the girl to travel to Cuba as, quote, "life would be too hard for her there."

These haphazard excruciating family separations are likely to become more common if the Trump administration is able to follow through on deporting tens of thousands of Cubans who came to the U.S. on the parole program during the Biden administration. It remains to be seen if Cuba is willing or able to accept all of those deportees as the island reels from worsening shortages of electricity, water, and food and increased U.S. economic sanctions.

Cuban immigration officials say deportees are treated humanely and, in most cases, processed and released within hours.

They're Cuban, this official tells us. They go home, where their family is. They don't have a problem with immigration to be reinserted into society.

Many of these deportees, though, say they sold everything they owned to finance their journey to the U.S., and little remains for them in Cuba. Others, like Yudierqeis Reyes, can't bear to be separated from the family they left behind.

If I don't get her back, I am going, she says. I hope Cuba doesn't ask for me back. No country.

They will have to let me go. Whatever amount of time I have to be locked up, I will be. For some, there is simply nothing more that they can lose.

And even as the Trump administration ramps up deportations from the U.S., many of these Cuban deportees say they will find a way to return.

Patrick Oppmann, CNN, Havana.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

[03:49:59]

CHURCH: Users of ChatGPT are sending the chatbot billions of messages every single day, and the environment is paying the price. Just ahead, a climate expert's tips on using A.I. more sustainably.

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CHURCH: Welcome back, everyone.

Well, people send more than 2.5 billion messages to ChatGPT every single day. As those messages increase, so too does the demand for more energy and resources to power the chatbot. But there are ways to use A.I. more sustainably, as CNN tech reporter Clare Duffy reports.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CLARE DUFFY, CNN TECH REPORTER: This is something I think a lot of people might not realize when they're chatting with meta A.I. or ChatGPT.

A lot of the mainstream A.I. models require significant energy and other natural resources to run. But as I learned, there are some tips and tricks for individuals who are looking to lessen the environmental impact of their A.I. use. Take a listen.

SASHA LUCCIONI, CLIMATE AND A.I. RESEARCHER: The whole pipeline, the whole lifecycle of A.I. requires a lot of energy, and the amounts of energy are truly phenomenal. The hyperscale data centers, like the ones that have a lot of A.I. running on them, can use as much energy as a town, essentially.

DUFFY (voice-over): The data centers answering your A.I. questions are pulling a whole lot of electricity from local grids. And a ton of water to stay cool. And the computers inside are made from rare earth metals that have to be mined out of the ground.

There's limited data out there, but some big A.I. companies have given us at least some indication of the resources their A.I. systems use. In its latest environmental report, Google said the electricity consumed by its data centers grew 27 percent in 2024 compared to the year prior, although it said emissions were falling thanks to investments in clean energy and making its technology more efficient.

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has written that one ChatGPT query uses just about 0.34 watt-hours, about what a high-efficiency lightbulb uses in a couple of minutes. But OpenAI also says that more than 2.5 billion messages are sent to ChatGPT daily. So if you do the math, every day ChatGPT is using enough energy to keep that lightbulb running for more than 9500 years. Google estimates the average text question to its chatbot Gemini uses slightly less, about 0.24 watt-hours.

Part of the challenge is that A.I. systems demand a lot more resources than earlier computing models.

[03:54:59]

LUCCIONI: According to the studies that I ran on open source models, it's 30 times more energy for a generative model compared to an old- school, traditional model for a task like web search. We're still using Google, we're still using Bing. The fact that we're switching out tasks that were traditionally done in a much more efficient way with generative A.I. and then multiplied by the amount of people that uses these tools every day, that's what really worries me because the interfaces are the same, but the backend is so much more energy and resource intensive and we don't see that.

DUFFY: So for consumers out there who are trying to be mindful about the impact of their A.I. usage, how do you go about that?

LUCCIONI: I think that by default a lot of A.I. models are quite verbose, so just being very specific about what I'm looking for is a single number or a single fact can be really useful. If you're having this long conversation and then at the end you say thank you, you're essentially asking it to take all of the context that came before and then just one small token and then it responds, you're welcome. Use specific tools for specific tasks, so use a cookbook or a recipe website, don't use ChatGPT.

ChatGPT uses probably like 10,000 times more energy than a calculator or your phone. Same thing with a book or a simple web search. The good rule of thumb, if a model does a single task, it's going to use a lot less energy.

For a lot of people it's become ChatGPT for just about anything and that's where environmental costs add up. We should be using multiple platforms, multiple tools and I think that's a healthy practice to have as a user.

DUFFY: Now I do think it's important to note that addressing the environmental impact of A.I. is going to require more than just individual action. More than anything it's going to depend on how and where companies decide to build and run their A.I. data centers.

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CHURCH: One of Johannes Vermeer's most famous works of art is on show alongside its twin in a new exhibition. The 1672 painting, "The Guitar Player," is one of only 37 known pieces by the famous Dutch master. It went on display Monday at London's Kenwood House, sitting alongside its doppelganger named Lady with a Guitar.

The new presentation reignites the century-old debate about who painted the latter. The compositions are virtually the same except for the girl's hairstyle. The painting on the right was once assumed to be the original until the one on the left emerged in 1927, appearing authentic and in better condition.

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" with Brian Abel coming up at 5 a.m. in New York, 10 a.m. in London.

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