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Early Start with Rahel Solomon

Trump To Visit Texas; Ukraine Recovery Conference Underway In Rome; Netanyahu: Israel Ready To Negotiate Permanent End Of War. Aired 5-5:30a ET

Aired July 11, 2025 - 05:00   ET

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

[05:00:25]

MIN JUNG LEE, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning and welcome to our viewers, joining us from the United States and all around the world. I'm MJ Lee. Rahel Solomon is off.

It's Friday, July 11th, 5:00 a.m. here in Washington, D.C.

And straight ahead on EARLY START.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KIM BRUNHUBER, CNN ANCHOR: U.S. President Donald Trump will head to Kerrville, Texas, in the hours ahead to survey the aftermath.

CHIEF DIANA BACCUS, INGRAM FIRE DEPARTMENT: I saw children floating in the water begging for help that we could not reach.

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I signed an order that will end birthright citizenship.

KATELYN POLANTZ, CNN CRIME & JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: This is the latest of many judges who have said that this executive order appears to be unconstitutional.

CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: I just spoke to Mahmoud Khalil in the first interview he's given to CNN since being released from detention.

MAHMOUD KHALIL, ACTIVIST: The moment you enter such facilities, your rights literally stay outside.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(MUSIC)

LEE: It is 5:00 a.m. in Kerrville, Texas. And in the hours ahead, U.S. President Donald Trump is set to visit the region to survey the aftermath of the devastating floods there.

The trip comes as his administration pushes back on criticism that its policies weakened the government defenses against disaster threats. The president, traveling with the first lady, is expected to meet with first responders and some families who were affected by the flood. On Thursday, the death toll rose to 121 people. At least 150 people are reported missing in Kerr County alone, where the Guadalupe River begins.

Governor Greg Abbott has asked that more counties be added to the president's major disaster declaration.

Here's what some first responders had to say about what they've witnessed.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHIEF DIANA BACCUS, INGRAM FIRE DEPARTMENT: I saw children floating in the water begging for help that we could not reach, and that -- that takes it out of you.

TAMMY LANDIN, RETIRED FIREFIGHTER: Later on, it's going to hit everybody I was born and raised here pretty bad.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEE: In the meantime, in a dispatch audio recording shared with CNN, we hear a volunteer firefighter in Texas early on July 4th asking that an alert be sent out to warn residents in the small community of Hunt about the surging floodwaters. It took nearly six hours before some residents got that alert.

Take a listen.

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)

VOLUNTEER FIREFIGHTER: Is there any way we can send a code red out to our Hunt residents, asking them to find higher ground or stay home?

DISPATCH: Ten-four, stand by. We have to get that approved with our supervisor.

(END AUDIO CLIP)

LEE: Gabby Berenbaum is the Washington correspondent for "The Texas Tribune". She joins me from Washington, D.C.

Gabby, set the scene for us ahead of this visit by President Trump. This has been an incredibly tough week for the state.

What are the residents of central Texas looking for the most right now from a presidential visit?

GABBY BIRENBAUM, WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT, TEXAS TRIBUNE: Yeah, and thanks so much for having me. This is a community in deep mourning. You know, the Texas Hill Country, Kerr County, this is an area that's used to flooding. In fact, they've had deadly floods before in their history. But this event is just unprecedented in terms of scale, in terms of the death toll already over 100 and still rising, right? We still have over 100 missing. So, this is a community that I think right now is sort of in grieving

mode. There's still, you know, numerous people to be found, people who are missing still in a search and rescue capacity. But I think, you know, at some point and some people already are pivoting to answers about how this flood turned so deadly.

And so, I think, for the president's visit today, he'll have the opportunity to talk to some first responders, survey the damage. And so, it's tough, you know, with any presidential visit to a disaster scene, balancing the need between wanting to connect with folks and hear from people grieving and not wanting to get in the way.

And so, I think we'll see, you know, how the president's visit goes. It's pretty quick, but it's a community that's still, you know, actively looking for people.

LEE: And, of course, Gabby looming over this visit today are many questions about the federal government's role in disaster relief. How do you think the president has handled all of the scrutiny this week around his administration's cuts to, for example, an agency like NOAA, that's the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, or his desire to shut down FEMA altogether?

BIRENBAUM: Yeah, I mean, both you know, the press secretary and the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees FEMA, have pushed back vigorously against the notion that any changes to those organizations and cuts had anything to do with this disaster. You know, they do have a point. It seems that, you know, there were cuts to the National Weather Service and there were vacancies at their offices, both in Austin and in San Antonio.

However, what we know now from the night of the flood is that, you know, not only were they adequately staffed, they were overstaffed. So, I think the question is more about, you know, how do we improve these communication systems such that NWS followed their protocol, but is that protocol the correct one? You know, are they able to access those touch points in the community to where when they put out an alert, people can quickly get mobilized to get people to safety and to higher ground.

And so, I think these are, you know, reasonable questions to ask. I think the state response, the local response also needs to be scrutinized to figure out exactly where in that chain of communications things broke down, especially in certain parts of Kerr county versus others. Right. In the sorry, in the unincorporated community of Hunt is, of course, one of the main questions.

And so, I think you probably will see some congressional action on this. Youve already seen congressional Democrats sort of call for some hearings, and there are two Texans who are heads of the relevant committees in both the House and the Senate. The Senate Commerce Committee and the House Science Committee.

So I imagine, you know, even if they're not going to focus on the Trump administration and cuts, I imagine we'll see some congressional action on trying to figure out, you know, the best way that the NWS on the front end and FEMA on the back end can deploy when disasters occur.

LEE: And a natural disaster can, of course, strike anywhere in the country. But there has been a notable blue versus red divide when it comes to President Trump's response to various natural disasters. You know, his response, for example, to California Governor Gavin Newsom, who is a Democrat after the state's wildfires earlier this year, quite different from the quite supportive tone that President Trump has taken with Republican elected officials in Texas over the past week.

It is, Gabby, part of a trend of Trump targeting political opponents for their handling of natural disasters.

BIRENBAUM: Yeah, absolutely. You know, when this disaster struck, Senator Cruz and Senator Cornyn from Texas, both Republicans, were on the phone with President Trump. You know, within hours. And, you know, they've said that he promised them anything Texas needs. They're going to get it.

Obviously, that was not the response, as you mentioned, that California and Governor Newsom and mayor bass got to those wildfires. You know, a longtime foes of President Trump. It's reminiscent of his first term when, you know, he and Governor Newsom, I think, had some similar back and forth over previous wildfires in California disaster aid and conditioning, disaster aid, you know, is something he's absolutely talked about.

And I think you can see that with the response to Texas versus California here. And it also, for me, harkens back to the hurricane in North Carolina last year. And just looking at, you know, the politicization of the FEMA effort down there. And I think it's, you know, just another evidence of how politicized things have become that natural disasters are now sort of seen in this red versus blue way.

LEE: Yeah, absolutely. And you wrote for "The Tribune" this week about Texas Senator Ted Cruz. You just mentioned him. He was vacationing in Greece when the Texas floods broke out.

Tell us how the senator handled things there. And we should note, you know, this kind of thing happens sometimes. Of course, elected officials have lives. They have families and pre-planned vacations that can collide with unforeseen events.

But it does speak to how important optics can be for elected officials in moments like these.

BIRENBAUM: Absolutely. Yeah. And I think, you know, it's part of the reason that the president is going to visit today is that these objects absolutely matter. Senator Cruz was already in Greece on the Fourth of July, you know, when he was made aware of the flooding. He came back Sunday morning and, you know, arrived Sunday night.

His staff says that that was the earliest flight they could get him on, and that he was engaged. But, you know, has that history of going to Cancun in the middle of the winter freeze in 2021? This was different, right? He was already in Greece on vacation. It wasn't like he left when it happened. But that was -- that was what we reported. LEE: All right. Gabby Birenbaum in Washington, thank you so much.

BIRENBAUM: Thank you.

LEE: President Trump says he's made a deal with NATO to get weapons to Ukraine. It comes after Secretary of State Marco Rubio met with the Russian foreign minister on Thursday. He said that the U.S. is actively talking to European countries about sharing patriot batteries with Ukraine.

President Trump told NBC, quote, we're sending weapons to NATO, and NATO is paying for those weapons 100 percent. He went on to say, were going to be sending patriots to NATO. And then NATO will distribute that.

[05:10:00]

This comes as Ukraine continues to fend off nonstop Russian attacks. A new U.N. report shows that June saw the highest number of civilians killed or injured in Ukraine in three years.

And all of this is happening amid a Ukraine recovery conference that's underway now in Rome.

Ben Wedeman is there and joins us live with the latest.

Ben, have there been any tangible deliverables that have come out of this conference so far?

BEN WEDEMAN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, what we've seen is that around $10 billion have been pledged at this meeting for Ukraine's recovery. Most of that coming from Europe. And, of course, this is an opportunity for the Europeans to sort of step up, step forward and show that they are major players in the attempt, the effort to shore up Ukraine as this war grinds on.

Yesterday, we heard Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission, point out that Europe as a whole is the largest donor to Ukraine. Of course, the United States is the largest individual country donating to Ukraine.

But really, this is an opportunity at a time when the U.S. policy is so unpredictable for the Europeans to act as sort of a source of stability and reliability when it comes to Ukraine's war effort. Certainly, the United States, since the Trump administration began on the 20th of January of this year, has not been the most reliable partner for Ukraine in its war.

But as you mentioned, there is this deal that's been put on the table. It's not really a deal. It's an arrangement that President Trump is talking about whereby instead of the United States providing Ukraine, for instance, with Patriot missiles, it is selling them to NATO and NATO will then give them or sell them to Ukraine.

So, it's not direct U.S. provision of these weapons to the Ukrainians, but it does represent something that the Ukrainians desperately need, given that over the last few days this week, we have seen unprecedented drone strikes on Ukraine by Russia, for instance, Tuesday, overnight, more than 700 drones were fired at Ukraine. The following night, more than 400.

It seems to be a new pattern by the Russians, where they're trying to overwhelm Ukraine's air defenses with these drones, as well as supersonic missiles. The Patriots obviously would play a role in protecting Ukraine against these Russian attacks -- MJ.

LEE: Ben Wedeman in Rome, thank you for that update.

China says it is trying to verify reports that Ukraine has arrested two Chinese citizens accused of spying. The secret service of Ukraine says a father and son were trying to gather information on Kyiv's Neptune missile system and send it back to China.

Here's what Beijing's foreign ministry spokesperson told reporters on Thursday.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAO NING, CHINESE FOREIGN MINISTRY SPOKESPERSON (through translator): We are still verifying the relevant situation. If Chinese citizens are involved, we will safeguard their legitimate rights and interests in accordance with the law.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEE: A Ukrainian official told Reuters the two men are the first Chinese nationals arrested for espionage since Russia's full-scale invasion in 2022.

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio is meeting with his Chinese counterpart, Wang Yi, at the ASEAN summit in Malaysia. It's the first in-person meeting between the two men, Rubio told reporters on Thursday. He expects them to discuss Russia's war in Ukraine.

It comes after Rubio met with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. The secretary of state says he relayed President Donald Trump's disappointment and frustration over the lack of progress towards ending the conflict in Ukraine. And he said he warned Russia about the possibility of more sanctions.

And meanwhile, the Russian foreign minister is expected to leave ASEAN for a three-day trip to North Korea. According to Russian state media, Sergei Lavrov will visit North Korea as part of a second round of diplomatic talks. The report did not specify the topics that they are going to discuss, but north Korea is playing a growing role in Russia's war on Ukraine.

President Trump is threatening steep new tariffs for Canada. He posted a letter he sent to the prime minister on his truth social website. It says if for any reason you decide to raise your tariffs, then whatever the number you choose to raise them by will be added onto the 35 percent that we charge. That would be a dramatic escalation in the country's ongoing trade war. [05:15:01]

Canada is the third largest exporter of goods to the U.S., and Trump also sent letters to world leaders promising even more tariffs by August 1st.

Investors are hoping to wrap up the week on a strong note. On Wall Street, all three major indices closed higher on Thursday. But right now, as you can see there, they're all in the red negative territory. Here's where you futures stand ahead of the opening bell. The Dow, S&P 500 and Nasdaq, again all in the red, and are expected to open lower.

Israel's prime minister says he wants to discuss a permanent end to the war in Gaza, but not without demands that would allow that would be a hard pill for Hamas to swallow.

Plus, heartbreaking reaction from parents in Gaza whose children were killed while waiting to get medical care.

His arrest by U.S. immigration agents turned Palestinian student activist Mahmoud Khalil into the face of Donald Trump's crackdown on college protests. Now, after three months in detention, he's talking to CNN. That's coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[05:20:37]

LEE: After 20 months of brutal fighting, tens of thousands of people dead and hundreds of thousands more forced to flee their homes, Israel's prime minister says his country is finally ready to talk about a permanent peace in Gaza. His statement came on the final day of his visit to Washington.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BENJAMIN NETANYAHU, ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER (through translator): At the beginning of the ceasefire, we will enter negotiations for a permanent end of the war, meaning a permanent ceasefire. If it can't be achieved in 60 days of talks, we'll achieve it by other means, by using the power of our heroic army.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEE: But Benjamin Netanyahu also made it clear, Israel is not backing away from its original demands that Hamas must be disarmed and removed from political power in Gaza. The militant group has been demanding assurances that its ongoing truce talks with Israel would lead to negotiations about a permanent end to the war.

But Hamas still accuses Netanyahu of placing obstacles that are getting in the way of a ceasefire deal. Despite the prospect of a truce, the daily struggle to survive in Gaza remains a harsh reality. Palestinian authorities say at least 15 people were killed in an Israeli strike outside of a U.S. run medical facility on Thursday.

CNN's Jeremy Diamond has that story. And we must warn you, the images you're about to see are very graphic and difficult to watch.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN JERUSALEM CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Children's screams pierce through the smoke-filled air in central Gaza.

But screams alone cannot prepare you for the scale of the carnage unleashed by this Israeli airstrike. This street is filled with the bodies of dead and injured children, whose bodies are quickly loaded onto donkey carts.

And then there are those barely clinging to life, like this woman splayed on the ground. "They took my daughter," she says. Her daughter's fate has already been sealed.

In her blood-stained white dress, 4-year-old Aya is one of eight children killed in this strike. Aya and her mother were among several families waiting to enter a health clinic run by Project Hope, an American nonprofit whose operations were known to the Israeli military.

In her white dress, Aya is impossible to miss. Minutes later, two men walk by the clinic and then an explosion fills the air.

That smoke is soon replaced by an outpouring of grief.

"Not my sister. No, not my sister," this boy cries.

The Israeli military said it, quote, regrets any harm to uninvolved individuals and is reviewing the incident. It said it was targeting a Hamas militant who infiltrated Israel during the October 7th attacks, but declined to provide his name.

These four children, killed in the targeting of a single militant, do have names -- Amir, Mohammed, Yasmin and Aya, still in her bloodstained dress.

Mohammed, wearing a makeshift plastic diaper, is a testament to the desperate circumstances that brought his family to that clinic, amid shortages of diapers and baby formula.

"Speak to me," Amir's father pleads, hugging his son's lifeless body. His brother Nidal joins him in mourning, but he hasn't just lost a nephew. His 14-year-old daughter, Samah, was also killed.

"What happened is indescribable. It's a massacre. It's genocide. It's a crime against children," Nidal says. "My daughter woke up with a headache and went to get checked at the clinic. Suddenly, we heard the sound and came running to see all the children dead."

Samah's twin sister is inconsolable. "Please wake her up. She is lying. I know her, I swear she's lying."

As one sister mourns another, a father pleads for it all to end. "Samah is gone and the war is still ongoing," Nidal says.

[05:25:00]

"May the war be gone with Samah."

Jeremy Diamond, CNN, Jerusalem.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEE: Angry protesters clashed with U.S. immigration agents carrying out enforcement raids on legal marijuana nurseries in southern California Thursday. Dozens of migrant rights activists showed up at the sites after footage of the raids began spreading on social media. National Guard troops were with ICE officers as they arrived at the state licensed farms.

Local media said about 100 nursery workers were detained before the protests began. The raids come as the Trump administration continues to flip flop on whether farm.