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Connect the World

CNN Analysis Points to Israeli Gunfire in Area Around Gaza Aid Site on Sunday; Travel Ban Bars Nationals from 12 Countries from Entering U.S.; Putin Vows to Respond to Kyiv's Strikes on Air Bases; U.S. Private Sector Job Growth Slows for Second Month; French Semifinal: Swiatek Versus Sabalenka. Aired 9-10a ET

Aired June 05, 2025 - 09:00   ET

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

[09:00:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ELENI GIOKOS, CNN HOST, CONNECT THE WORLD: A live look at the border between Israel and Gaza, and CNN has just learned two of four Gaza

Humanitarian Foundation hubs reopened this Thursday after a one day pause in an attempt to distribute aid. It is 04:00 p.m. in Gaza. It's 05:00 p.m.

here in Abu Dhabi. I'm Eleni Giokos. This is "Connect the World".

Also happening this hour, Washington and the world are reacting to President Trump's new travel ban, reportedly inspired by a recent attack in

the United States. And killed the bill, Elon Musk hits out at what the president calls his big, beautiful bill as Senate Republicans persevere.

I wanted to quickly check in on how the stock markets are looking. The futures in the United States, pretty much void at this point. You've got

the DOW up a quarter of a percent, S&P and NASDAQ also looking good, up two tenths of a percent, a lot of reticence ahead of the non-farm payrolls that

are expected to be released tomorrow.

Importantly, we had a very dismal private sector job report that came out yesterday. In other news, of course, the European Central Bank cut interest

rates by a quarter of a percent, saying that the inflation outlook looks better that impacting investor sentiment today.

All right, now, we've just learned a controversial aid operation reopened two of its sites in Southern Gaza today, after a day long hiatus. The U.S.

and Israel backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation says aid distribution was completed within an hour. Wednesday's pause followed three straight days of

Palestinians coming under deadly gunfire on their way to a food distribution site.

The GHF said it would use the time to focus on logistical work to better handle the massive number of Palestinians seeking food. Also, the

foundation said to give Israeli forces the opportunity to make preparations on the access routes to the centers. The first shooting was on Sunday.

Palestinian Health Ministry and hospital officials say at least 31 people were killed. Israel has said no one was killed at or near the distribution

sites. CNN Jeremy Diamond has a new expert analysis of the sound video and eyewitness accounts of what happened. And here's his exclusive report.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN JERUSALEM CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Palestinians take cover as pulses of automatic gunfire crackle overhead. Others try and crawl

to safety as explosions ring out. For several hours on Sunday, this was the terrifying reality Hungary Gazans faced as they tried to reach an American

backed humanitarian aid site in Southern Gaza.

We are bringing our food, drenched in blood, we are dying to get food, Ameen Khalifa says, amid a hail of gunfire. The aftermath is grisly, bullet

riddled bodies lie scattered on the beach as others emerge carrying sacks of aid these men died trying to get. Health officials and doctors report at

least 31 were killed.

17 eyewitnesses told CNN it was the Israeli military that opened fire on the crowd. A CNN analysis of video from the scene, audio of gunfire and

ballistics evidence all point to the Israeli military. In Gaza, more families made to mourn.

They lure us in just to kill us there, this man says, what's happening is wrong, wrong. Why? Why are they doing this? We go there just to get our

daily bread, and they kill us. In the pre-dawn hours of Sunday, masses of Palestinians began trekking down Al Rasheed Street, hoping to be among the

first to reach the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation site in Tel-al Sultan before limited aid supplies run dry.

But as they reach the Al-Alam roundabout, a hail of gunfire forces people to the ground. Eyewitnesses say much of the gunfire came from tank mounted

machine guns.

DIAMOND: We asked the forensic audio expert to analyze the gunfire in that video, and this analysis shows bursts of gunfire at a rate of 15 rounds per

second. Weapons experts say that's consistent with the FN MAG, a machine gun used by the Israeli military and commonly mounted on Israeli tanks.

Those experts say that rate of fire also appears to rule out weapons used commonly by Hamas. And then you have bullets like this one, which doctors

at Nasser hospital pulled from the bodies of dead and the wounded.

[09:05:00]

Weapons experts also say this bullet is consistent with the FN MAG.

DIAMOND (voice-over): The Israeli military said they did not fire at civilians while they were near or within the aid site. But that statement

is misleading. An Israeli military official acknowledged Israeli troops did fire toward people about one kilometer away from the aid site.

The Al-Alam roundabout where people were killed, is also about one kilometer away from the site. This entire area, with an Israeli military

base right here, is under Israeli control. This post warns the Israeli military would be active in the area at the time of the shooting.

It's from the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, which operates the aid site and closely coordinates with the IDF, alerting Palestinians that using the

passage before 05:00 a.m. is prohibited, but they posted it at 04:00 a.m. as people were already being fired upon.

Eyewitnesses described volleys of Israeli military gunfire. From snipers, tanks and drones, beginning as early as 03:00 a.m. on Sunday, more were

shot at 04:30 a.m. others described being shot as late as 06:30 in the morning. They were shooting directly at us everywhere, this man says, from

the sea, from snipers and from all directions.

Four people were injured and one was immediately killed. I tried to stand up and escape or go back, but I was hit in my left side. I've seen a lot of

soldiers in this war when they want to clear an area or warn you, they shoot around you, but yesterday, they were shooting to kill us.

At Nasser hospital fear and pain are still etched across the face of 13- year-old Yazan Musleh who was wounded by gunfire from a tank his father and brother say, was stationed near the aid site. I saw the tank from a far.

Ihab says he was standing, waving his hands to the tank, and within seconds, gunfire was directed at him, and he was lying on the ground.

Two days later, despite the dangers, tens of thousands of Palestinians continued to stream towards that same aid site, a testament to the hunger

and desperation still gripping so many. And once again, in the early hours of Tuesday, dozens were killed enroute. This time the Israeli military,

acknowledging it fired warning shots and then opened fire, claiming suspects advanced towards troops in a threatening manner.

The military said it was looking into reports of casualties. It need look no further than this boy crying out over his mother's body, begging her to

wake up. Today, she went to get aid. She went to get aid to feed us. He cries, and this is what they do to us. The Americans said, come to the safe

area to get your aid, who should trust them?

As for Ameen Khalifa, the man who documented Sunday's gunfire, his quest for survival ended abruptly on Tuesday, he was killed while trying to reach

that aid site once again. He was 30 years old.

DIAMOND: The Israeli military declined to answer questions related to our findings. But as recently as Tuesday, the Israeli military's top spokesman,

General Effie Defrin, categorically denied that the Israeli military opened fire on Sunday, saying it, quote, simply didn't happen.

But after a week during which more than 60 people were killed while trying to make it to that aid site, according to the Palestinian Ministry of

Health. The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation now says it is having conversations with the Israeli military to, quote, support civilian safety.

Among them, a spokesman tells me that they are asking the Israeli military to quote, enhance force training and refine internal IDF procedures. Jeremy

Diamond, CNN, Jerusalem.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

GIOKOS: Thank you to Jeremy Diamond for that exclusive story. Some breaking news coming into CNN, U.S. President Donald Trump has just spoken on the

phone with Chinese Leader Xi Jinping, and that's according to a person familiar with the matter. The call comes as the U.S. and China tussle over

trade policy and accused both sides are violating that truce agreement.

CNN's Alayna Treene is covering the latest for us from the White House, it was anticipated this call would happen, even though we heard from President

Trump yesterday when he posted on social media that President Xi is tough to negotiate and deal with. This call was important. What do we know?

ALAYNA TREENE, CNN WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Yeah, this is incredibly significant, Eleni. And to be clear, this is news that we are just getting

right now. It is breaking, and so it's still unclear whether or not they the two leaders are still on the phone, or if the call has already wrapped.

But of course, we are waiting to learn more from our sources here at the White House about what specifically was discussed.

[09:10:00]

But of course, trade and kind of the escalating tariff war now that we've seen between the United States and China is definitely the priority, I

know, for those conversations. But look, this is something that President Donald Trump and his team have been wanting to happen for, not only weeks

now, but months.

This is the first known conversation directly between President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping since President Donald Trump took

office. And really in recent weeks, particularly, we've heard now from the president's top back economic advisors.

I know I've been hearing this in repeated conversations behind the scenes that they really did believe a call between the two leaders, one on one,

needed to happen to really unlock this stalemate that the United States has found itself in with China as it relates to this ongoing trade war.

And so, again, incredibly significant, and something that really the White House had struggled to make possible. They had been wanting to talk with

the Chinese President for some time now. Really wanted that call with Donald Trump to take place, but really had seen some hesitance and

reticence, really, from the Chinese side in doing that.

So, a major development that this has happened at all. Of course, though, we want to learn exactly what was discussed, what was the tone and tenor,

how did they come to any sort of agreement on the phone call those details we are still working on getting. I will note as well, though, that while we

have not seen President Donald Trump or heard from him publicly all week and an opportunity to get reporter questions from him.

We are going to have that opportunity later today, when he meets with the Leader of Germany here at the White House. And so, stay tuned for some of

that, Eleni as well.

GIOKOS: Yeah, a lot happening, absolutely but this call absolutely important, as we've seen, an escalation in in rhetoric between the United

States and China. So, Alayna, I want you to stand by, and I want to bring our viewers up to speed on what we were going to ask you about before that

breaking news.

And U.S. President Donald Trump has signed a travel ban that prohibits nationals from 12 countries in the Middle East, Africa and the Caribbean

from entering the United States, citing what he calls national security threats. The ban is set to take effect next week, and you can see a map

there of all the affected countries.

Alayna, so White House officials tell CNN, President Trump made the final call to issue the travel ban after the antisemitic attack in Boulder,

Colorado. The suspect, an Egyptian national has been charged with a federal hate crime and attempted murder. Egypt, however, is not on that banned

list.

Now, do we know how the administration is assessing risk and how they make these decisions on the banned countries list that we now have?

TREENE: Yeah, look, despite what the president said about the attack in Boulder, Colorado, the antisemitic attack, I should say, and how that kind

of spurred this to happen, I can tell you that this is something that this Trump Administration had actually been working on for months now.

I mean, we actually saw in the early days of the president's second term, his team beginning to work out which countries they wanted to include in

this. Because, remember, we saw the President Donald Trump do this during his first term. He had a travel ban on Muslim majority countries, seven of

those.

This actually goes much further than that, I would argue. But we saw them do it before, and I know from my time covering the president throughout his

entire campaign in the years since, and of course, throughout his time in this second term, he has been very committed to wanting to do a similar

type of ban this time around.

And so, we're now seeing that come together. So yes, I do. I've heard this from my officials, and we heard the president himself say this publicly,

that that attack in Boulder did spur this, but it was not the main reason for it. And I think your point, it's very notable to point out that the

suspect in that Boulder attack was an Egyptian national, Egypt, not on the list of these countries.

Some other things, though, I do want to make very clear, because there are some exceptions to this ban. You mentioned the 12 countries where they are

completely restricting people from coming into the United States from you showed that list, but it includes Afghanistan, Haiti, Iran, Libya and

Yemen, among others.

There are also seven countries where they are partially restricting people from those countries from coming here, and that includes countries like

Cuba and Venezuela, among other countries as well. But again, there are exceptions to this. I want to just read for you what the proclamation says.

It essentially says exceptions for lawful permanent residents, existing visa holders, certain visa categories and individuals whose entry serves

U.S. national interests, all of those can be excluded from this. At the same time, though, Eleni, we do know, and we heard the president say this

in a video message that he posted shortly after signing this proclamation that other countries that he deems, or his administration deems as a threat

to U.S. national security could also be added to this.

All to say this is, of course, already creating a lot of backlashes. We've seen different leaders from some of the countries that are impacted, that

includes Venezuela and others kind of lashing out at the United States over this.

[09:15:00]

NGOs also making similar arguments. And one thing that does seem to be clear is that, like that first travel ban during his first administration,

this one is likely to face significant legal challenges in the courts, and so that is something, of course, we'll continue to monitor as this plays

out over the next several weeks.

GIOKOS: All right. Alayna Treene, great to have you with us. Thank you so much. Now America's oldest university is once again in President Donald

Trump's crosshairs as the Trump Administration makes yet another attempt to prevent Harvard from enrolling more foreign students.

The president signed a proclamation on Wednesday that suspends visas of new international students at Harvard. The proclamation is valid for six

months, but it can be extended. Now this comes after a district court ordered the Trump Administration not to make any changes to Harvard's

international student visa program indefinitely.

Harvard called the move another illegal retaliation by the White House and pledged to protect its international students. Republican leaders in the

United States Senate say they're optimistic about progressing President Trump's so called big, beautiful bill after meetings at the White House on

Wednesday.

Lawmakers said they had constructive talks about the bill to fund the president's domestic agenda, which has split Congress and even the

Republican Party on some of those issues. Early on Wednesday, a damning report from the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office projected the

House version of the bill would add $2.4 trillion to the deficit over the next decade and leave nearly 11 million more Americans without health

insurance.

CNN's Lauren Fox is following the story for us from Capitol Hill. Lauren, great to have you on the show. So Republican leaders say they're optimistic

about Trump's so called big, beautiful bill, but the CBOs analysis is fueling opponents claims that the package would worsen the nation's fiscal

outlook and even provide big tax cuts for the wealthy. So, what more can you tell us about the support for this bill?

LAUREN FOX, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, the bad news about the CBO score for Republicans who are trying to look for a way forward in the

United States Senate right now is that it really gets at the crux of the two main issues that opponents of the bill have been voicing for the last

several weeks.

One of those is that this actually drives up the country's debt and deficit rather than reducing it over that 10-year window, and that's something that

fiscal hawks have been arguing means that Republicans should be trying to cut more spending from this legislation, not less.

Meanwhile, the health care coverage losses that you talked about that is an indication for a lot of Republicans from swing states and swing districts

who have been concerned about changes to Medicaid work requirements and other changes to that program, what the impact of those could be, arguing

essentially that they've already gone too far.

So, it's really difficult to square that circle for so many of these members, because on the one hand, people are arguing, well, this shows that

we need to be cutting more, and on the other hand, members are saying, this shows that we've already cut too much.

And that makes this very complicated for Majority Leader John Thune, who is right now trying to find some magic formula that can get across the United

States Senate get passed, sent back to the House and signed by the president, all before the fourth of July recess.

And that is a huge challenge right now. Senate Republicans met for an extended lunch yesterday to have a discussion about what changes they want

to make to the House bill. After that, the Senate Finance Republicans went to the White House to have a conversation about what in particular they

were going to change from the House bill.

Meanwhile, you have the House Speaker really trying to impart on his senate colleagues that any major changes to this bill could really make it much

more difficult for him to pass it out of his own chamber once it gets back to the House. So that just shows you all the challenges that await

lawmakers in the weeks and days ahead.

GIOKOS: Yeah, and look, Elon Musk, in the meantime, has been absolutely critical of this bill, and he was talking about killing the bill. House

Speaker Mike Johnson has conceded that Elon Musk's wide reaching social media presence against the bill has an impact, but insist that it's not

going to derail its trajectory. What are you hearing?

FOX: I think what's going to be really interesting is whether or not Elon Musk's tweets have an impact in a way that actually starts to resonate with

members. So far, a lot of Republican senators I've been talking to over the course of the last 24 hours have said that, you know, Elon Musk is a smart

guy.

They're appreciative of everything he's done when it comes to trying to rein in federal government spending. But on the other hand, he's not a

legislator, and this is their job. This is their opportunity to craft a bill that they believe will help them in their reelections, help the

country.

[09:20:00]

And they're not that interested in Elon Musk weighing in at the 11th hour, especially after House Republicans have already passed this piece of

legislation. Senator Kevin Cramer, a Republican from North Dakota, put it to our colleague Morgan Rimmer, yesterday, saying, essentially, if I wanted

advice on going to the moon, I would ask Elon Musk.

But this is about legislating. This is obviously a different situation, a different skill that a lot of lawmakers feel like they're much better

versed in than Elon Musk. When this starts to have an impact, however, is because of that far reaching social media impact that you talked about, do

constituents start to call into offices? Do they start to get concerned because of Elon Musk's huge social media presence and following.

GIOKOS: All right. Lauren Fox, great to have you with us. Thank you so much. And coming up on CNN, the Kremlin says it will respond to Ukraine's

attacks on its air bases. More details coming up after the short break. Stay with CNN.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

GIOKOS: U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is in Brussels today meeting with his counterparts from NATO allies, and says he's confident they'll

live up to America's demands to step up military spending.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PETE HEGSETH, U.S. DEFENSE SECRETARY: 5 percent is our message, and we will deliver that. President Trump at The Hague at the summit, it's been his

commitment, and I believe our allies will step up.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GIOKOS: The meeting in Brussels comes on the heels of President Trump's 75- minute phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin, in which Putin said he would have to respond to last weekend's Ukrainian attacks on

Russian air bases. CNN's International Diplomatic Editor Nic Robertson is in London for us.

Nic, good to have you with us. After the sophisticated attacks from deep within Russian territory, no surprise that Russia is looking to retaliate.

Do we know what that response may look like?

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: We don't, and of course, I was surprised that President Trump, when he recounted that

conversation with President Putin, didn't say what he said back to President Putin if he cautioned him against that type of attack that could

escalate the war.

But what we're hearing from the Kremlin today, the spokesman Dmitry Peskov, saying this will be essentially at a time and place of our military's

choosing, but there will be a response. So, Russia is on the record about that. What will it look like? Would it be like two weekends ago, when

Russia launched its biggest aerial assault, believe about 360 odd drones and missiles were fired.

Then the following night, 355 drones. Was it the biggest assault by drones into Ukraine. Will it be on that scale? Will it be bigger? And of course,

what would be the targets? And the Kremlin isn't making that clear. But I think you only have to look at what the U.S. Embassy in Kyiv is briefing,

for example, just telling U.S. citizens in Ukraine to sort of be extra alert, if you will, and have plans in place.

[09:25:00]

I think the expectation is this is coming, not clear when, not clear yet how big?

GIOKOS: Yeah. So, we also heard from the U.S. Defense Secretary a moment ago, speaking in Brussels, that 5 percent NATO spending, I think, is a

message that's been sent for quite some time now, and there's a sense that the Europeans understand the importance of this. What are they saying right

now in terms of plans around 5 percent defense spending? And what's the reaction been?

ROBERTSON: Yeah, it's kind of super interesting listening to all the defense ministers going in and giving their sort of versions and

interpretations. And there were two major questions here over the 5 percent, when is the 5 percent to be delivered? That seems a little bit

open ended.

This is what the U.S. Ambassador was saying yesterday. He was defining it as not like the Wales agreement back in 2014, 2013 whenever it was that

took 10 or 11 years for NATO to get up to the 2 percent spend. So not like that. Then what we're hearing from various defense ministers going in today

is indicating this could be 5 percent over the next five years, so deliverable by 2030.

But what was hugely interesting was listening to some of the defense ministers on what should be included in that 5 percent. You know the Dutch

Defense Minister saying, well, Rotterdam is a vital port that would be hugely important to NATO if it needed to rush troops to NATO's eastern

flank, so maybe spending around that should be factored in.

The Canadian Defense Minister talking about his new government and new commitment to spending on security in the sort of high north the Arctic

region, was he implying that that that spend 6 billion, I think he said, should be sort of factored into the 5 percent and then you have the

Lithuanian Defense Ministry said, whoa, this 5 percent we need to spend it on hardware, military hardware, making the armies ready.

Because if NATO, as she said, is tested by Russia, as NATO intelligence estimates are at the moment, in the next five years. This could mean, if

you don't have the armies ready, the rest of what you might be counting in as that 5 percent spend just isn't going to make a -- isn't going to make a

dent.

And the other point she laid here was very interesting, too. She essentially said, you know, the war in Ukraine and NATO, support of it is,

in essence, holding back the potential for a Russia, Russian testing of NATO. She said, if there was a decision taken not to support Ukraine, that

could mean Russia would be ready to test NATO's defenses in two to three years, she said.

And then would all need to be learning the Russian language, which is actually something NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte semi joked about

yesterday, so this is super serious stuff that's going on behind closed doors at NATO headquarters today.

GIOKOS: All right. Nic Robertson, thank you so much. And still to come on CNN, Donald Trump's tariffs creating whiplash and slowing job growth in the

United States. How business and markets are reacting to that just ahead the latest jobs report. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:30:00]

GIOKOS: Welcome back. I'm Eleni Giokos in Abu Dhabi, and you're watching "Connect the World". These are your headlines. A U.S. and Israeli backed

aid group says it reopened two locations in Southern Gaza today. According to the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, distribution was complete in about an

hour.

The group paused operations Wednesday after dozens of Palestinians died while trying to receive aid. U.S. President Donald Trump has signed a new

travel ban that will block people from several countries from traveling to the United States. It will fully restrict entry by nationals from 12

countries, people from seven other countries will be partially restricted.

The White House says the ban fulfills a campaign promise to quote, protect Americans from dangerous foreign actors. President Trump also signed a

proclamation Wednesday ordering that no new visas be granted to international students aiming to study at Harvard. The White House said the

order was made because of quote, concerning foreign ties and radicalism at Harvard.

A judge recently ordered the White House not to revoke Harvard's right to enroll foreign students. Elon Musk continues to slam U.S. President Donald

Trump's so called, big, beautiful bill. On Wednesday, he called for the House version of the bill to be killed and new legislation drafted.

U.S. Senate Republican Leaders are trying to downplay Musk's criticism, saying his remarks have impact, but won't change the trajectory of the

legislation. All right, it is just gone 09:32 a.m. in New York, which means markets have already started trading. I want to check in on those early

numbers DOW, NASDAQ, and S&P flat, but with a slight positive bias as you can see.

Investors are going to be bracing for another jobs report. The non-farm payrolls are out tomorrow. That is going to be a really important barometer

the health of the U.S. economy. Keeping in mind that private sector numbers that were released yesterday for the month of May were dismal.

They only came in at 37,000 jobs, and that was way below the 110,000 that was anticipated. So non-farm payrolls tomorrow, that's going to be moving

markets. And now we've got Matt Egan from New York to give us an update on what to expect, and that's so much is happening today in the White House,

in particular, we're hearing this call between President Xi and President Trump.

So, trade and tariffs are always on the table. You've got jobs out tomorrow. Again, an important barometer in terms of what is happening

domestically in the U.S. What are you seeing?

MATT EGAN, CNN REPORTER: Yeah. Eleni, the expectation is that tomorrow's very important monthly jobs report is going to show a significant slowdown

in hiring. The consensus is for this report to show the U.S. economy added 130,000 jobs in May. This would be a sharp slowdown from 177,000 in April,

but the unemployment rate is seen staying pretty low at 4.2 percent.

I would note, though that if anything, the momentum does feel to be building towards perhaps an even weaker number tomorrow, because, as you

mentioned, we have had a number of indicators, including yesterday's private sector payroll report, that does suggest the jobs market is coming

under some pressure.

Also, just last hour, new numbers out on jobless claims, they unexpectedly went up for the second month, the second week in a row, increased by 8000.

This is now the highest level since late last year, and this is a proxy for layoffs. So, we're going to keep a close eye on that, also continuing

claims they did go down, but they remain at the highest level in about 3.5 years.

So that does suggest that some people who are losing their job are having a hard time finding new ones.

[09:35:00]

Now there was also another indicator out just this morning on job cut announcements. This is from challenger gray in Christmas, and it did show

that job cut announcements, they remain elevated at almost 94,000 in May. The good news is this is a 12 percent drop from April.

But look at this, it's 47 percent higher than last May. And when you look at the trend here, you can see how elevated layoff announcements are. There

were really only two times in the last 20 years where layoff announcements at this point in the calendar were as high as they are right now, and those

are two years you really don't want to be associated with.

This is 2009 during the height of the great recession, and this, of course, is 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic. So, this does not necessarily mean

the economy is going into a recession, right? I think recession fears have come down, but it does speak to the pressure on businesses right now, given

all the uncertainty, right?

We were in this moment where I don't even have confidence where tariffs are going to be at the end of the day, let alone the end of the year. And so,

of course, that does make it really challenging for businesses top to operate right now, Eleni.

GIOKOS: Yeah, it just it's good. Literally, only thing we know is that things change, and they change rapidly. I think it was during Jimmy

Carter's time where the word recession had to be renamed because no one wanted to use the word recession. They called it bananas. So, I'm going to

ask you, are we seeing any fruity emerging in the United States in the fear of being too dystopian?

EGAN: Well, look, I mean, as I mentioned, I do think that some of those recession fears that we really saw emerge late March, early April around

tariffs, they have come down, especially as the market has rebounded. But what's interesting is the Challenger report lays out the list of reasons

why companies are cutting jobs, and the rationale has sort of broadened out, right?

Previously, it was really all about DOGE and those federal spending cuts, and that is still a major factor. But in May, it was actually overtaken by

market and economic conditions. That was the number one reason for job cuts, also companies that are closing and general restructuring.

So again, that does point to some pressure on businesses, and when you look at the industries that have been cutting, some of this is certainly driven

by DOGE, right? You look at nonprofits, they rely on federal government funding. That funding has often been slashed.

Government layoffs are way up too. But then you also have services, right? A lot of service companies have announced job cuts and retail that reflects

a lot of the store closures that we've seen. So, I do think when you look at the factors here and where the job cuts are happening, it does suggest

that some companies are under pressure.

The question is whether or not that's going to be enough pressure to really cause the whole economy to roll over. And hopefully that's not the case. I

do think if we get a weaker than expected number tomorrow that shows an even sharper slowdown in hiring, that is going to amplify these concerns

about the jobs market, Eleni.

GIOKOS: Yeah. Yeah, exactly. Well, Matt Egan, thank you so much. Hopefully we stay away from the R word. Much appreciated for your insights.

EGAN: Thanks Eleni.

GIOKOS: All right, we're going to short break, and still ahead, the women's semis are underway at the French Open. One match puts an unseated French

player and the top ranked American the other semifinal, each player with multiple Grand Slam titles already. Details on that coming up. Stay with

CNN.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:40:00]

GIOKOS: Right. Take a look at this video, we're getting in from Philadelphia a massive fire at the public transit depot. Local media say as

many as two dozen decommissioned busses caught fire. So far, there's no word on any injuries or what might have caused the fire.

Now, there is a full-fledged Cinderella story at this year's French Open, meet the 22-year-old French phenom Lois Boisson, she's the hometown

favorite, unseated player, number 361, in the world, and she'll face a tough opponent, top ranked American and number two seed Coco Gauff.

The underdog will definitely have the crowd on her side that match starting very shortly. How about as a semifinal for that, I want to check in with

Andy Scholes. Andy, what's the word on --

ANDY SCHOLES, CNN SPORTS CORRESPONDENT: Eleni, the semifinals on both sides really couldn't have worked out any better for all of us fans. You got

Aryna Sabalenka right now taking on three-time defending champ, Iga Swiatek, Sabalenka out to an early lead in that match.

And then, of course, we've got Boisson out of nowhere with this incredible Cinderella story. Can it continue? She takes on Coco Gauff in the

semifinals. We'll take a look at how she got to this point, coming up here on "World Sport". But man, what a semifinal we've got on both sides of the

draw. Looking forward to some more great tennis there today at Roland Garros.

GIOKOS: All right, great stuff. I'll see you right after the short break, Andy. And I'll be back at the top of the hour with more news. Stay with

CNN.

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