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International Pressure on Israel to End War Mounts; Trump Leaves for Five-Day Visit to Scotland; U.S. Deputy Attorney General to Meet with Epstein Associate for Second Day; Kremlin Says Putin-Zelenskyy Meeting in August Unlikely; Mass Starvation, Illness and Suffering Spread Across Gaza. Aired 10-11a ET
Aired July 25, 2025 - 10:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[10:00:00]
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: -- of the money, and the sad part is that no other country other than us gives anything.
(CROSSTALK)
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Have you spoken to Michael Whatley about running for that North Carolina Senate seat?
TRUMP: I have. Yes.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: And will he run, do you think?
TRUMP: I think he will.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Teacher shortages, sir. What can they done to get you --
TRUMP: Are you from North Carolina?
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: My father lives there.
TRUMP: He'll be a good candidate.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Sir, what can be done to bring more teachers, more educators into the classrooms to alleviate the teacher shortages across the
country?
TRUMP: We're doing that and we're doing it strongly. What we're doing is moving education back to the states. The states will run education. When
they do it, you're going to have the best education in the world.
We'll have 35 or 40 states where it will be as good as Sweden, Norway, Denmark, you know, the top five or six countries.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: How do you attract the top talent? The top talent, top teacher (INAUDIBLE).
TRUMP: We're going to get them. We already have them. When we bring -- when we go back to the states with education, you're going to see a big
difference.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Mr. President --
(CROSSTALK)
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: -- for Ghislaine Maxwell, is that on the table?
TRUMP: Each of you going. Todd Blanche is a great gentleman. He's a great - - he's a great man.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Do you trust what she's telling him?
TRUMP: He's a great lawyer. He's got a great heart, but he's over there now. I don't know exactly what's happening, but I certainly can't talk
about pardons now.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Can you trust -- can you trust what she's telling him? She's a convicted trafficker who's eager to get out of prison.
TRUMP: Well, you know, he's a professional lawyer. I think he -- he's been through things like this before. But, you know, you should focus on
Clinton. You should focus on the president of Harvard, the former president of Harvard. You should focus on some of the hedge fund guys. I'll give you
a list. These guys lived with Jeffrey Epstein. I sure as hell didn't.
Thank you very much.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Mr. President, (INAUDIBLE).
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Do you think Powell (INAUDIBLE)?
TRUMP: All he wanted to do (INAUDIBLE). We are the hottest country. We had a great country. Now we have the hottest country in the world. All I want
him to do is lower interest rates because that will take care of the houses. The houses a little bit slower than everything else. Everything
we're 100 percent done. But the houses are, this rate is too high. If he lowers it, you're going to see a housing boom on top. We've got the hottest
country in the world.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: (INAUDIBLE)
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Mr. President, are you running away from the Epstein files.
TRUMP: (INAUDIBLE)
BECKY ANDERSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: Well, you have just been listening to Donald Trump speaking to reporters ahead of his departure for
a trip to Scotland. He was peppered with questions on a wide range of issues, not least the Jeffrey Epstein case, tariff trade, the state of the
U.S. economy.
He was also asked about the breakdown in ceasefire and hostage talks. He said Hamas does not want a deal on a ceasefire and hostage release, and
said, quote, "I think they are going to be hunted down. Hamas didn't really want to make a deal. I think they want to die. They're going to have to
finish the job. They're going to have to fight, and they're going to have to clean it up. You're going to have to get rid of it," were his very
specific words.
Well, just last hour, Benjamin Netanyahu informed the world that Israel and the U.S. are considering alternative options to bring hostages home and end
Hamas's rule in Gaza. The Israeli prime minister, speaking the day after a ceasefire talks in Qatar broke up with the U.S. and Israel withdrawing
their teams. On X, U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff said Hamas clearly showed a lack of desire to reach a truce. Hamas responding that Witkoff's
remarks were, quote, "malicious, biased and dishonest."
Well, all of this coming as international pressure mounts on Israel to end the war in Gaza amid what is an appalling humanitarian crisis there.
CNN's Nic Robertson joining us now from Jerusalem.
Prime Minister Netanyahu says that Israel is considering alternative options now to bring hostages home.
[10:05:02]
And you heard the words there of Donald Trump, which seemed to echo the idea that, at least in principle, the U.S. is also considering or will
support other options as opposed to ceasefire talks and a hostage release at this point. What do you make of what we are hearing at this point?
NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: Yes, it's very hard, isn't it, Becky, because it all seems so fluid and often the statements are
not particularly aligning, or they only seem to align. Several hours later. It was only in the past hour that CNN was getting information from Israeli
sources saying that Steve Witkoff's comments last night criticizing Hamas, saying that they weren't really interested in having a deal, saying that
the United States was going to go and Israel were going to go a different route to try to get the hostages released to set a different situation for
the people of Gaza.
That was what was being said last night. And in the past hour, these Israeli officials were saying, look, this was designed as a jolt to Hamas
merely to get them to get back to a more realistic assessment that Hamas's final pitch, if you will, yesterday, that early on, both you and I have
been hearing was being received positively. In fact, later in the day was viewed not positively, and that Witkoff's statements were to jolt Hamas
back to a new reality, to come back to the table in a new way.
And so the concept being created here and behind the scenes, journalists being briefed that the talks sort of weren't dead stop and out. But now you
get, again, this sort of whiplash at President Trump saying, yes, different direction, going to solve it in a different way. And that way he's alluding
to is get tougher on Hamas and eradicate Hamas. That's what he makes it sound like. So, is that the reality is that what Israel and the United
States are talking about? Certainly the IDF is poised for that kind of action. It hasn't withdrawn, is there, and can continue the fight.
And that's what we've heard from some Israeli officials in Prime Minister Netanyahu's cabinet. But -- or is this President Trump and Witkoff and the
Israelis giving Hamas a reality check? Is this merely the businessman at work? The great deal negotiator, how he sees himself heaping pressure on
the other side?
I think we just have to suspend, you know, trying to sort of draw really hard conclusions at the moment, Becky, because another thing that President
Trump talked about there was it's a really hard moment for Hamas because they've only got 20 hostages left. He said, you know, we've done so well
bringing so many of the hostages out, dead hostages as well. But they've only got 20 left. That's their last shield. So he's alluding to there.
You've got to up the stakes against Hamas to get them to shift and budge their position. Too soon to read, you know, clarity into this, I think,
Becky.
ANDERSON: Yes. And I think you're making a very good point. And I hate to say this, but this is a president who talks about the art of the deal.
Steve Witkoff, of course, is a sort of arch negotiator. I know it sounds awful to be talking in those terms, but we know that this is about
negotiation at this point. So I think to your point, we need to be quite careful about what we read into what we are hearing, sort of hour by hour.
Step back for a moment and just, you know, give everyone a bit of sort of time to sort of consider where they are at and not chase, you know, any
single sort of line of inquiry at this point, because of course there is growing pressure, Nic, from within Israel now. Within Israel now, as well
as outside of Israel to end this starvation in Gaza.
And we have been hearing from Israeli officials about attempts, of course, to provide more humanitarian aid. And I know you've got a report on that.
Let's have a look at that.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ROBERTSON (voice-over): Reporting at Israel's biggest border crossing to Gaza, the silence is the story.
This is the Israeli side in the distance, beyond the concrete there you can see the sort of yellow tunnels, that's Gaza.
(Voice-over): But just beyond that wall, hundreds of trucks worth of aid for distribution in Gaza piling up, causing an apparent logjam in
logistics.
And that has been the big point of contention between the Israeli government and the U.N. The Israeli government say that they are passing
food aid across this border into Gaza. What the U.N. officials are saying is, yes, but we can't just come and pick it up.
STEPHANE DUJARRIC, SPOKESPERSON FOR U.N. SECRETARY-GENERAL: Kerem Shalom is not a McDonald's drive-through where we just pull up and pick up -- pick up
what we've ordered, right?
ROBERTSON: This big empty car park space.
[10:10:06]
(Voice-over): The U.N. spokesman saying Israel intentionally throttling back aid supplies through onerous controls.
DUJARRIC: There are tremendous bureaucratic impediments. There are tremendous security impediments. And frankly, I think there's a lack of
willingness to allow us to do our work.
ROBERTSON: Israel is staunchly defending its actions. Its president visiting the crossing, blaming Hamas for disrupting aid supplies, and
forcing stringent security controls.
ISAAC HERZOG, ISRAELI PRESIDENT (through translator): We are acting here according to international law. We are providing humanitarian aid according
to international law. The ones trying to sabotage this aid are Hamas and its people.
ROBERTSON: The images are shocking the world. International fears are mounting. Worse is yet to come.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Starvation is knocking on every door and now we are seeing the last gasp of a humanitarian system built on humanitarian
principles.
ROBERTSON: Across our broadcast this day an isolated moment of hope.
Yes, those are aid trucks. And I'm going to step out of the way just now. Sir P.J. can get some shots of them.
(Voice-over): The only aid convoy we saw heading to Gaza about a dozen trucks for the heavily criticized U.S.-Israeli run Gaza Humanitarian
Foundation, GHF, not for the U.N.
The aid that's been going in here, according to international officials, according to the U.N., according to European leaders, is absolutely
insufficient. This handful of trucks we have seen a drop in the bucket according to what medical officials inside Gaza are saying is required. One
of the heads, the directors of one of the main hospitals inside of Gaza, today said what Gaza needs right now is 1500 trucks like these every day
for a month to alleviate the problem.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ANDERSON: Nic Robertson reporting and our thanks to Nic.
Well, France will soon recognize a Palestinian state and expects other nations to follow suit. This news welcomed by the Palestinian vice
president. A senior French official tells CNN, quote, "The idea is to put a bit of pressure on other countries." Following President Emmanuel Macron's
surprise announcement on Thursday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu condemned the decision, saying, quote, "It rewards terror."
Well, Paris, along with Riyadh in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, have been shepherding allies towards a recognition of a Palestinian state for weeks
and will co-host a meeting on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in September. A meeting that was, of course, supposed to happen
back in June but was postponed when Israel struck Iran.
Well, meanwhile, even as the situation in Gaza itself grows increasingly grim, President Trump does not have a high level official appointed to
focus on the humanitarian crisis. That is a contrast from the Biden administration, which established a special envoy for Middle East
humanitarian issues. The absence of such an envoy in the White House, in the Trump White House has left aid groups concerned about the extent of the
administration's commitment to actually getting extra help for the people of Gaza.
Well, a good friend of this show, Stephen Collinson, writes that Donald Trump, while embroiled in the Epstein saga, is getting a pass on his role
in the encroaching famine in Gaza. Quote, "There is nowhere near as much attention on humanitarian scandal of unbearable dimensions that is
unfolding in Gaza right now in which the United States may be complicit. The Trump administration's lack of pressure on Israel, despite the
wrenching footage coming out of Gaza, is more than raising questions about its highly controversial aid program. It risks looking like it doesn't
really care that much."
We just heard President Trump making wide-ranging comments as he left for a trip to Scotland, comments on the state of home affairs, comments on the
state of affairs abroad. Over the next few days, the president is set to visit two of his golf courses in Scotland and he will meet with the British
Prime Minister Keir Starmer.
CNN's Kevin Liptak joins us now from the White House.
And we discussed earlier the comments that Donald Trump made about Gaza ceasefire, about Hamas. He also, in this wide-ranging sort of discussion
peppered by reporters' questions, addressed a number of key issues, which he is having to deal with at present, not least the Jeffrey Epstein style.
[10:15:10]
What did he say ahead of leaving for Scotland?
KEVIN LIPTAK, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, and I'll just start with one thing that you were talking about earlier, which was the
French President Emmanuel Macron's decision to recognize the Palestinian state. I asked him about that, and he really kind of dismissed it out of
hand, essentially said that nothing Macron says has really any influence. And so just to update you on that, it sounds like you've discussed his Gaza
comments, which were essentially saying that he thought Hamas had pulled away from the negotiating table.
Very pessimistic on the prospects for a ceasefire, and saying that Israel needs to now, quote, "finish the job." So I think not a lot of hope for
people who are looking at the images of starvation and hunger and thinking that that conflict could end soon. Not really any pressure coming from the
U.S., at least in public, on Prime Minister Netanyahu to pull back.
But on this question of Jeffrey Epstein, which is the matter that the president has been kind of engulfed in for the last three weeks, the
question that seemed to be on everyone's mind today was whether or not he would consider a pardon for Ghislaine Maxwell, who is the associate of
Jeffrey Epstein's. She's serving a 20-year prison sentence in Tallahassee, and she's spent the last two days speaking with the deputy attorney
general, Todd Blanche, who is down there trying to get more information, trying to appear as if the administration is taking a proactive approach to
learning more about this Jeffrey Epstein matter.
The reason that a pardon or commutation I think is on everyone's mind is that Ghislaine Maxwell maintains her innocence and wants to get out of
prison, and there is sort of a thought that she's not necessarily going to cooperate with the Justice Department unless there's something on the table
that would sort of ease her sentence. And what the president said is that, one, he hasn't thought about it at all, but two, that he does think that it
is within his power.
And then when the president was asked how he sort of assesses Maxwell's credibility in all of this, given, one, she's looking for some kind of
leniency that could color some of what she's saying, he put sort of his full faith behind Todd Blanche, the deputy attorney general who's talking
to her, who is also, by the way, President Trump's former criminal defense attorney, saying that he's dealt with these kinds of issues before and that
he kind of has confidence that Blanche will be able to determine whether what Maxwell is saying can be believed.
And you also heard the president, of course, kind of deflect the whole matter, saying that as all of these people are asking about his
associations with Maxwell, that they should be asking about Democrats' associations, including his predecessor, Bill Clinton, who is known to have
been a friend of Epstein's, just as Donald Trump was. And so now the president, on his way to Scotland, kind of putting some geographic distance
between himself and all of this. You know, I don't think the entire North Atlantic Ocean is going to cause this situation to die away entirely --
Becky.
ANDERSON: A long weekend in Scotland. It's quite blowy up there. Maybe some of this will blow away. Who knows? Probably not.
Good to have you, sir. Thank you.
Coming up, the Kremlin downplays the chances of a meeting next month between Vladimir Putin and Volodymyr Zelenskyy. More on that is after this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[10:20:27]
ANDERSON: Well, Jeffrey Epstein's co-conspirator Ghislaine Maxwell faces a second meeting with the U.S. Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche today. It
follows their first meeting, which was yesterday, Thursday, during which Maxwell reportedly answered questions, all questions honestly, according to
her attorney.
Maxwell is currently serving 20 years in federal prison for trafficking and grooming underage girls for Epstein. All this as pressure builds on the
Trump administration to release more information on the Epstein case.
Well, joining me now is CNN's Kara Scannell, who has the very latest for us.
So what did we learn about what was said by Ghislaine Maxwell yesterday? What can we expect today? And just remind us who Todd Blanche is, Kara.
KARA SCANNELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Becky. Yes. So this is an unusual meeting between the deputy attorney general, the number two person
in the Justice Department, Todd Blanche, and Ghislaine Maxwell, who has been convicted of sex trafficking for helping recruit, groom and at times,
sexually assault young underage girls with Jeffrey Epstein.
Highly unusual meeting, but one that the Justice Department has called for because Blanche said he wants to know what Maxwell knows about any crimes
committed by anyone else against the victims of Epstein. That is the premise for this meeting. Yesterday we know that they were in the
courthouse behind closed doors for at least six hours where this meeting took place.
Her lawyer said that she answered all questions. Nothing was off limits, and she never once asserted any privilege or refused to answer a question.
No one is saying yet what exactly they were discussing and talking about. But we do know that Blanche's objective was to find out about other people.
Now, Maxwell herself has always maintained her innocence. She was convicted at trial, but she has always maintained that she has done nothing wrong
with this and didn't know about Epstein's crimes. Her lawyer today, before heading in for this second day of court, caught up with reporters and he
said that Maxwell is a scapegoat and that she's telling the truth. And then he said that he asked for everyone to keep an open mind.
One interesting wrinkle here is that Maxwell, you know, as I said, was convicted, is serving a 20-year sentence, but she was also charged with
perjury for her previous denials of any knowledge of Epstein's scheme. So if she's -- lawyers saying she's a scapegoat, it doesn't suggest that she
is changing what her stance is, although we do not know those details yet and we're hoping that after today's meeting, either her lawyer or Todd
Blanche at the Department of Justice will inform us about what she said.
Of course, whether it is going to be enough to kind of tame what has become this kind of political storm that's out of control really remains to be
seen. But a very unusual meeting to have the number two in the Justice Department meet with someone as part of a criminal investigation -- Becky.
ANDERSON: It's good to have you, Kara. Thank you. Good weekend to you.
Well, the Kremlin says it is unlikely that a meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy will
happen by the end of next month. Ukraine says its negotiators proposed an August meeting between the two leaders during the latest brief talks that
took place in Istanbul on Wednesday. They are saying that the presidents need to get together to unblock the slow-moving process.
Well, Moscow knocking back that idea, saying that that can only happen once negotiators have put the essentials of a deal in place.
CNN's chief international security correspondent Nick Paton Walsh, on the ground for us in Kyiv.
Nick, I guess the question at the end of this week as we move into the weekend is, what's changed, if anything?
NICK PATON WALSH, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: I mean, very little. Ultimately, we have known for some time it seems that Moscow
is slow-rolling its way towards anything approaching a diplomatic settlement here. And that's even finally engaged the ire of this Trump
White House. Today, too, though, the Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, suggested the possibility that he might be speaking to Russian
President Vladimir Putin and President Trump to see whether or not he might be able to get them to meet.
Now, that's clearly higher on the Moscow list of goals. They don't want necessarily a meeting with Zelenskyy first if they can possibly persuade
Trump of their positioning, that might improve where they stand. But that seems distant.
[10:25:01]
The talks they had two days ago in Istanbul yielded almost nothing apart from yet another prisoner exchange and the possibility of talks about
Zelenskyy and Putin meeting. Now not backed by Moscow. But it's ultimately the frontline here, which this is all about, Russia clearly feeling it's
making headway. And if you look at some of the independent maps about their positions on the frontline, they have made more than the usual incremental
progress. And that incremental progress is beginning to turn into something potentially substantial, altering their strength along that key eastern
frontline.
President Zelenskyy denied that. Speaking to reporters yesterday, he said the Russians are not advancing, admitted the situation is tough everywhere,
but it is increasingly a moment, I think, where Ukraine is struggling with its manpower. We had a brief outage of the Starlink space based satellite
internet system last night. A matter of hours, but Ukraine and Russia both used that to coordinate their drones and frontline forces.
Ukraine much more dependent upon it because it's so much more dependent upon drones because it lacks the infantry that the Russians have in
abundance. And I think that was a snapshot for many Ukrainians as to how desperately in need they are of Starlink to continue functioning. Another
remembrance possibly of the vulnerability here, and potentially of how complicated the weeks and months ahead.
Look, we've not had a massive air assault in the country for a number of days now. Quiet for the last two nights. And I think just gives you a sense
of how on edge the country is. The fears are that might mean now diplomacy has put aside briefly. We see something in the nights ahead, but diplomacy
more distant, frankly, than ever despite consistent suggestions leaders might meet -- Becky.
ANDERSON: Nick, it's good to have you. Nick is on the ground in Kyiv, in Ukraine.
Well, still to come, as diplomatic efforts to end the war in Gaza stall yet again, people there are starving to death. We're going to speak with an
emergency physician who has been there and understands what's going on.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ANDERSON: Welcome back to CONNECT THE WORLD with me, Becky Anderson. Your headlines this hour.
And there has been a second day of deadly clashes along the disputed border between Thailand and Cambodia. The fighting has displaced more than 135,000
people from their homes while Thailand has activated martial law in several provinces near the frontier. Officials have so far confirmed more than a
dozen deaths, with most of them civilians.
[10:30:00]
President Trump is now headed for Scotland. The five-day trip will be a mix of both official and personal commitments, including visits to his golf
courses there. As he left, Mr. Trump told reporters he may fine-tune a previously announced trade deal with the U.K. when he meets with the
British prime minister.
Jeffrey Epstein's former girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell is meeting the U.S. Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche for a second day. Their first
interview took place on Thursday, as Maxwell's attorney says she answered every question honestly. Maxwell is currently serving 20 years for
trafficking and grooming for Epstein.
Back to this hour's top story, CNN has learned that mediators are continuing discussions on a possible Gaza ceasefire, and they remain
engaged with Israel and Hamas. That is according to a source with knowledge of those talks.
Israel is under mounting international pressure to end the war in Gaza and the humanitarian crisis there. An Israeli official says trucks of aid are
flowing into the enclave. But it blames international groups for slow delivery.
Well, my next guest is a British emergency room doctor who has worked in Gaza twice during this war. And today he joins us from Paris. Doctor James
Smith says without immediate action in the coming hours, malnutrition related mortality in Gaza will continue to increase, likely exponentially,
and quote, "This is nothing less than intentional," Dr. Smith says. And he joins us now from France.
After the country announced that it will officially recognize a Palestinian state, he's been meeting with senior French diplomats as part of a
delegation of British doctors.
And it's good to have you. Who did you meet today and what did you discuss?
DR. JAMES SMITH, EMERGENCY PHYSICIAN, UCL EPIDEMIOLOGY AND PUBLIC HEALTH: So we were meeting with politicians who are proximate to the president, and
we were there to give our testimony, to bear witness to what we have directly seen in Gaza and to convey the stories from our Palestinian
colleagues and from the Palestinian patients that we treated. We showed photos of the horrors, really, of what Israel has meted out against the
Palestinian people, the targeting of health care systems, and the health infrastructure there, including really meticulous, gratuitous violence,
ultrasound machines that had the cables cut one by one such that the machines can never be used again.
And we showed our political colleagues these photos really just to drive home the full extent of what Israel is perpetuating in Gaza.
ANDERSON: Do you support France's announcement to recognize a Palestinian state?
SMITH: I support the recognition of all Palestinian rights, the right of return, the right to life, the right to live in dignity, and of course,
Palestinians have sovereign claims that must be upheld. There are very clear legal, political and moral obligations that all states the world over
must uphold with respect to the rights that should be afforded to the Palestinian people and the protection that we should confer upon them, or
that we should afford them when they are being subjected to any form of violence, and certainly to the violence that is genocide.
ANDERSON: Dr. James Smith, it's not really clear what sort of state France will actually recognize and around which borders, but it has been welcomed.
Both welcomed and it has been condemned as a decision. Saudi Arabia, for example, welcoming the decision while the U.S. Secretary of State Marco
Rubio said, and I quote here, "The United States strongly rejects Emmanuel Macron's plan to recognize a Palestinian state at the U.N. General
Assembly."
"This reckless decision," he said, "only serves Hamas propaganda and sets back peace. It is a slap in the face to victims of October 7th."
I want just your response to that and I see you shaking your head. As someone who has spent time working in Gaza to survive those impacted by
this brutal war.
SMITH: I mean, this is -- it's absurdity, frankly. You know, there are no humanitarian solutions to what's happening in Gaza, to what is being done
to the Palestinian people. There are only political solutions, and it is the progressive and escalating denial of Palestinian rights that has
allowed for the situation that we now see playing out in Gaza.
[10:35:00]
I mean, we're talking now about the basic right to life. If we put to one side for a moment all other rights that the -- that the Palestinian people
are afforded like everyone else, what we're talking about here is the right to life, the right to water, the right to food, the right to health, and
all of these things have been deprived of the Palestinian people.
When we talk about the conditions of life that lead to the destruction in whole or in part of a people, this is what's happening in Gaza right now.
25 percent of children and pregnant women screened by MSF in recent days, malnourished, 20 percent in UNWRA clinics. People are starving to death as
we speak, while food and water and medical aid sits across the border in Egypt. It's depravity beyond comprehension.
ANDERSON: Yes. So you have said that unless immediate action is taken in the coming hours, malnutrition related mortality in Gaza is going to
continue to increase, likely exponentially. From a doctor's perspective, from your clinical perspective, can you just explain why it is you said
that and what you expect will happen next? I mean, explain this if you can through the perspective of a, you know, 4-year-old child, if you will.
SMITH: Sure. The trajectory that we're seeing is, of course, upward. And we -- it appears that we are seeing the early stages of that exponential
curve. It is typically children and other physiologically vulnerable individuals who will succumb to starvation first, and then others follow.
We're seeing children now dying of malnutrition. We're seeing people with underlying medical issues, we're seeing the elderly die from malnutrition.
And those numbers, of course, will only increase. It takes weeks, if not months to starve someone to death. This is something that you inflict on
another human being in the most degrading way to maximize suffering. So what we're seeing here is an intentional and manufactured situation whereby
the Palestinian people have been systematically deprived of food over weeks and months and years.
Couple that, of course, with complete global indifference and apathy, and you have this horrific situation of genocide, famine, repeated cycles of
displacement and ethnic cleansing, all while we watch on and frankly do very little to protect the Palestinian people from their imminent
extermination.
ANDERSON: Right. The view of Dr. James Smith from Paris. We thank you.
We are back after this quick break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[10:40:04]
ANDERSON: For nearly two years we have reported on the civilian catastrophe in Gaza unfolding before our very eyes. A relentless looping reel of death
and despair, perpetual trauma for those living through it and enduring helplessness for those of us watching on. But this week, something shifted,
not on the ground tragically, but in the way the world is maybe finally confronting the erstwhile brutal normalization of Gaza's torment.
So as we close out the show today, I want to take a moment to reflect, for all of us to reflect on what we have witnessed this week in Gaza. Images of
skeletal babies, emaciated young children, some dead, some still alive, barely. Gut-wrenching images that have moved from our social media feeds to
the front pages of the worlds press.
What you're about to see is a series of those images. You may very likely find them disturbing. It is difficult not to be shocked and sickened. But
they shouldn't surprise you. Not if you've been paying attention. Not after Israel blocked aid for over two months. Not after doctors, aid groups,
journalists warned again and again that Palestinians were becoming, quote, "walking corpses."
Make it stop, they screamed. But it didn't stop. It hasn't stopped. And the silence from those who could make a difference is frankly deafening.
Again, if you don't think you can cope with some of these harrowing images, please do turn away now.
This is the reality of starvation and calling it out after the fact doesn't just obscure the truth, it distorts it. What is unfolding in Gaza is a
trial no human should endure. There is nothing complicated about starvation. Nothing nuanced about a child wasting away before our eyes. It
is wrong, and it is inexcusable.
That's it for CONNECT THE WORLD. From the team working with me here and those working with us around the world, it is a very good evening.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(WORLD SPORT)
END
