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Early Start with Rahel Solomon
IDF: Bodies Of Two Hostages Recovered From Gaza; Trump Signs Ban On Travel To U.S. From Several Countries; Trump: Call With Putin Will Not Lead To Immediate Peace; Videos, Expert Analysis And Witnesses Reveal New Details Of Deadly Gaza Aid Incident; Putin Discusses Ukraine Conflict With Pope Leo. Aired 5-5:30a ET
Aired June 05, 2025 - 05:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[05:00:26]
RAHEL SOLOMON, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning and welcome to our viewers, joining us from the U.S. and all around the world. I'm Rahel Solomon. It is Thursday, June 5th, 5:00 a.m. here in New York.
And straight ahead on EARLY START.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We will not allow people to enter our country who wish to do us harm. We don't want them.
REP. ELI CRANE (R-AZ): Why wasn't he talking about this before the bill? Because those of us that were actually trying to make cuts, we could have used his support.
REP. MIKE JOHNSON (R-LA), SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE: He's not delighted that Elon did a 180 on that. But look, I don't know what happened in 24 hours.
SEN. JOHN THUNE (R-SD), MAJORITY LEADER: We are all in this together. This is a team effort. Failure is not an option.
PETE HEGSETH, DEFENSE SECRETARY: Every country has to contribute at that level of 5 percent. It's that hard power that actually deters. And it can't just be U.S. capabilities.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(MUSIC)
SOLOMON: And we'll get to those stories in just a moment.
But first, we want to begin with breaking news out of the Middle East. Israel says it has recovered the bodies of two Israeli American hostages from Gaza, 72-year-old Gadi Haggai and his wife, 70-year-old Judi Weinstein Haggai, who also held Canadian citizenship. They were killed during the October 7th terror attacks. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, reporting that the bodies were
recovered in a special operation by Shin Bet and the IDF in Khan Younis. A spokesperson for kibbutz Nir Oz said that their bodies had been returned to Israel and would be laid to rest, that now leaves 56 hostages remaining, 20 are thought to be alive.
The Haggai family issuing a statement saying in part: We want to thank the IDF and security forces who carried out this complex rescue operation and to everyone who supported, struggled, prayed and fought for us and for all of the entire people of Israel.
And other news this morning, President Trump has signed a new travel ban that will block people from several countries from traveling to the U.S. It will restrict entry by nationals from 12 countries, including Afghanistan, Myanmar, Chad, Eritrea, Iran and Yemen. And people from seven other countries, including Cuba, Laos, Sierra Leone and Venezuela will be partially restricted.
The White House says that the president's ban fulfills a campaign promise to, quote, protect Americans from dangerous foreign actors.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: The recent terror attack in Boulder, Colorado, has underscored the extreme dangers posed to our country by the entry of foreign nationals who are not properly vetted, as well as those who come here as temporary visitors and overstay their visas. We don't want them. The list is subject to revision based on whether material improvements are made, and likewise, new countries can be added as threats emerge around the world.
But we will not allow people to enter our country who wish to do us harm.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SOLOMON: The administration cites a number of reasons that countries were chosen for the ban, including a large-scale terrorist presence, failure to cooperate on visa security, and ability to verify travelers' identities, and a persistently high rate of visa overstays.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. MARKWAYNE MULLIN (R-OK): We've been briefed on this prior to this happening. There are some real travel concerns because of some activities that's going place. I don't think the Boulder incident had anything to do with this moving forward, because this conversation has been going on for weeks. And the president takes keeping the American people safe extremely important to him. He talks about it all the time.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SOLOMON: The ban is set to take effect this Monday.
Our Kaitlan Collins has more details. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN CHIEF WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: We had been hearing this was going to happen. This is the proclamation that we just got from the White House with President Trump saying essentially that part of why this is happening is they were looking at the vetting processes that these countries have in order for -- for people to come in and enter the United States. They don't believe that they are sufficient enough, so he is signing this proclamation banning entry into the United States from 12 countries fully.
He's restricting it from several others and basically cites those vetting processes as part of the reason here. And also saying that it is underscored and emphasized by what happened in Boulder, Colorado, and that attack by the Egyptian national suspect on Sunday there.
And the president and several points, as I was just reading through this, saying that certain countries have people who are more likely to overstay their visas if they come from a certain country to the United States. Often, we know we see that people come to apply for asylum. So, the president is taking this step, restricting this travel.
[05:05:00]
It remains to be seen what the impact of this looks like, as we're hearing from the White House. And one line that I should point out from this proclamation is it says it does include exceptions for lawful permanent residence, existing visa holders, certain visa categories, and individuals whose entry serves U.S. national interests.
So there do appear to be some carveouts here. It remains to be seen what that actually looks like, though, because of course, everyone will hear this. And remember the travel ban from President Trump's first term that he enacted within days of taking office and caused quite a bit of chaos at airports and ports of entry.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SOLOMON: Our thanks to Kaitlan Collins there.
U.S. federal judge has ordered the government not to deport the family of the suspect in Sunday's Colorado attack. Immigration agents took the family of Mohamed Soliman into custody on Tuesday, and the White House said that they would be deported imminently. Well, the judge has ordered that they not be removed from the U.S. or even Colorado unless or until the order is vacated.
The FBI says that Soliman is the lone suspect in the attack that resulted in people at a Jewish community event being set on fire. At least 15 people were injured. None of Soliman's family have been charged in the attack.
The Trump administrations newly imposed 50 percent tariffs on steel and aluminum imports not sitting well with the U.S. neighbors, the Canadian prime minister says that his government is preparing reprisals if negotiations fail to remove the tariffs. Mark Carney also saying that Canada would take some time to respond, but not much. And the Mexican president said on Wednesday that there is no legal basis for the tariff increase.
Claudia Sheinbaum also promising to announce countermeasures next week if the import taxes are still in place. She said it's not a matter of revenge, but protection.
Now, despite all the tariff uncertainty, most of the global markets appear to be headed for a second straight day of gains. Let's take a look at where the Asia-Pacific markets closed. Only the Nikkei closing in negative territory. But Hang Seng, Shanghai and Seoul Kospi, Seoul Kospi especially up 1.5 percent again following South Korea's presidential election results.
And taking a look at where U.S. futures stand as we await the all- important May jobs report being released Friday morning ahead of the opening bell. Right now, at about 5:06, the Dow, S&P and Nasdaq up just barely in positive territory. The Dow up about let's call it 2/10 of a percent. But the S&P and the Nasdaq up basically flat.
All right. NATO's defense ministers are meeting this hour in Brussels. The talks are expected to focus on defense spending amid Russia's war in Ukraine. The U.S. defense secretary is calling for all member countries to commit to spending 5 percent of their GDP on defense. That is a significant increase from previous goals in the 2 percent range.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HEGSETH: The reason I'm here is to make sure every country in NATO understands every shoulder has to be to the plow. Every country has to contribute at that level of 5 percent to -- as a recognition of the nature of the threat.
It can't be about the flags that we love. It has to be about the formations that we have. It's that hard power that actually deters. And it can't just be U.S. capabilities.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SOLOMON: President Trump or excuse me, NATO secretary general, also told reporters that deciding on the capability targets will be an important building block to determine the blocs defense spending.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MARK RUTTE, NATO SECRETARY GENERAL: To prepare for war, spend more, and when you are really prepared for war, you will not -- you will not be attacked.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SOLOMON: President Trump says that he had a good conversation with Vladimir Putin about the war in Ukraine, but that it would not lead to an immediate end in the fighting. The call comes as peace talks remain stalled. U.S. president saying that Putin vowed to retaliate against Kyiv for its drone attacks on Russian airfields over the weekend.
A member of Ukraine's parliament slamming Trump's statement after the call with the Russian leader as, quote, disgraceful, and accused the U.S. president of failing to put pressure on Moscow to end the war.
Meantime, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is warning world leaders not to show weakness toward Putin, writing: If the world reacts weakly to Putin's threats, he interprets it as a readiness to turn a blind eye to his actions when he does not feel strength and pressure, but instead sends his weakness, he always commits new crimes.
More now on the call between Trump and Putin from CNN's Nic Robertson in London.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: The language that he used relaying what President Putin said to him, which was, quote, I have to respond, that's what he says Putin said to him. I have to respond, really invites the possibility of a rebuttal or a comment to try another method. So, yes, that was very noticeably absent there.
But I think we also heard more from the Kremlin about what happened in that phone call and the Kremlin's view on the state of peace talks with Ukraine. The Kremlin is saying, you know, to Volodymyr Zelenskyy's request for a leaders' meeting between Putin and Zelenskyy and Trump could be present and other leaders could be there.
[05:10:00]
They're saying, not now.
And the reason they're saying that the talks, these talks aren't working and that the leaders meeting shouldn't happen is because they're accusing Ukraine of terrorism and citing these two attacks over the weekend on rail infrastructure inside of Russia, where civilians died, and that, it seems, would have been very much part of Putin's conversation with Trump as well.
Of course, watchers in Kyiv and in Europe would understand that Russia, in a way, is the pot calling the kettle black because Russia, by day and by night continues to bomb Ukrainian citizens, you know, through cities across the country. So, if that was the narrative, President Trump was left with, there's a glaring absence in what he's relayed about it because absent, as you say, was a rebuttal.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SOLOMON: Our thanks to Nic Robertson.
Coming up, what a new CNN analysis of video, audio and ballistics evidence reveals about a deadly shooting over the weekend that, according to the Palestinian health ministry and hospital officials, left at least 31 people dead near a food distribution site in Gaza. Plus, Russia's president speaks with the pope for the first time since
Moscow invaded Ukraine. We'll tell you how that conversation went down, when we come back
National parks and natural beauty, it's a combination that has TikTok users in a bit of a tizzy. We'll find out what it's all about when we speak to one of the influencers behind the trend.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[05:15:54]
SOLOMON: Welcome back.
The U.S. has vetoed a United Nations Security Council resolution demanding a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas. The measure also called for the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages still held in Gaza. The other 14 countries on the Security Council voted in favor of the resolution.
Israel's foreign minister thanked the Trump administration for its support. The U.S. says that it's unacceptable that the measure failed to condemn Hamas or call for the group to disarm or leave Gaza.
A controversial aid operation in southern Gaza is expected to resume after a 24-hour hiatus. The pause followed three straight days of Palestinians coming under deadly gunfire on their way to a food distribution site. The U.S. and Israel-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation said that it would take Wednesday 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, quote, make preparations on the access routes to the centers.
The first shooting was on Sunday. Palestinian health ministry and hospital officials say that at least 31 people were killed.
CNN's Jeremy Diamond has new expert analysis of the sound, video and eyewitness accounts of what happened. First, a warning that what you're about to see is graphic.
Here's this 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 hungry Gazans faced as they tried to reach an American-backed humanitarian aid site in Southern Gaza, I can up.
We are bringing our food drenched in blood. We are dying to get food, Amin Khalifa (ph) says, amid a hail of gunfire. The aftermath is grizzly. 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.
Seventeen 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.
We asked a 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 F.N. 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 the dead and the wounded. Weapons experts also say this bullet is consistent with the F.N. MAG.
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.
[05:20:05]
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 5:00 A.M. is prohibited. But they posted it at 4:00 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 3:00 A.M. on Sunday. More were shot at 4:30 A.M. Others described being shot as late as 6:30 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 Yazid Musleh (ph), who was wounded by gunfire from a tank his father and brother say was stationed near the aid site.
I saw the tank from afar, 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 en route. 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 Amin 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.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
DIAMOND (on camera): 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.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[05:28:06]
SOLOMON: Welcome back.
Less than a month after becoming pontiff, Pope Leo XIV is set to tackle one of the most sensitive issues in the church today. He is expected to meet for the first time with Vatican's commission in charge of protecting minors.
Let's get more now from our Vatican correspondent Christopher Lamb, who joins us this morning from London.
Christopher, good morning.
What's the top issue for Pope Leo when it comes to tackling abuse in the church?
CHRISTOPHER LAMB, CNN VATICAN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Rahel, clearly, tackling abuse is really very, very important for Pope Leo, given this is a scandal that has damaged the credibility of the church in such a profound way and also has caused devastation to countless number of victims. It is incumbent on Pope Leo to try and take early steps to try and ensure that abuse is tackled, that its reported properly, that those who cover up abuse are held accountable.
And I imagine that the pope and his early meetings with his commission for abuse and others is going to emphasize the importance of dealing with the crisis. He is obviously the first American pope. He will have a keen sensitivity to how damaging the abuse scandals and crisis has been. And as a bishop in Peru, he has dealt with the abuse scandals and had to take tough action.
So, I imagine he's going to try and set out in his early meetings with the abuse commission, set out a path for them to take. I think it's obviously very important that victims feel listened to by the church. And I imagine that's something he'll want to emphasize -- Rahel.
SOLOMON: Yeah, certainly.
Christopher, we also know that Pope Leo had a call with Russian President Vladimir Putin where he urged Russia to take steps to end the war. What more do we know about their conversation?
LAMB: Well, the conversation took place yesterday, Wednesday afternoon, and we're told by the Vatican that in the conversation between Pope Leo and President Putin.
