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Trump Gives Russia Another Two Weeks On Peace Deal; U.S. Naval Fleet Heads For Venezuela Amid Rising Tensions; New Study Finds 25 Of 28 Largest U.S. Cities Are Sinking. Aired 5:30-6a ET
Aired August 26, 2025 - 05:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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[05:31:05]
MJ LEE, CNN ANCHOR: President Trump is threatening very serious consequences if Russia doesn't reach a peace deal with Ukraine in the next two weeks.
Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy met with U.S. envoy Gen. Keith Kellogg to discuss a future security architecture for Kyiv.
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio spoke with Ukrainian and European foreign ministers saying the U.S. would be involved in security guarantees but that Europe should be taking the lead.
President Trump says he's spoken with Vladimir Putin in just the past week.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, (R) PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Every conversation I have with him is a good conversation. And then, unfortunately, a bomb is loaded up into Kyiv or someplace and then I get very angry. But I think we're going to get the war done. It's tough.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEE: CNN's Salma Abdelaziz joins me now from London. Salma, Washington continues to make this diplomatic push as we just saw. Is Putin being swayed at all?
SALMA ABDELAZIZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I think, MJ, that is a question for President Trump himself who, as you heard there, is clearly having doubts.
He said there will be big consequences for Russia if a deal or the semblance of a deal is not reached in two weeks. But here's the thing. It's been a very long two weeks. Ever since the end of April President Trump has issued and reissued this deadline of around two weeks' time when he would make an assessment by -- or about, rather, President Putin.
Here's the thing. In the last few days we've seen this flurry of diplomatic activity. There has been as great deal of noise but there's been very little news. On all those channels that are laid out -- there's about three of them right now -- you mentioned one of them, of course.
Keith Kellogg, the special envoy, meeting with Ukrainian President Zelenskyy ensuring him that the United States would continue to support that country. President Zelenskyy describing that conversation as practical and important. But again, very few actual fruits from that conversation.
Secondly, Marco Rubio, who has been working with European leaders to try to establish those security guarantees -- some sort of backstop if Russia were to attack again after any future settlement. But on those security guarantees Russia has already batted them away saying that essentially it doesn't accept any foreign forces on the ground in Ukraine and doesn't accept any security guarantees that it is not involved in.
And then, of course, the most important channel of communication perhaps -- that between President Trump and President Putin who says he spoke to him again after that all-important Alaska summit. But as you heard there, he says every conversation he has with President Putin is good but then he sees the actions on the ground -- drones being fired, missile attacks. Last week, Ukraine saying the deadliest attack on the country in nearly a month claiming several lives. And again, you see President Trump hesitate.
So weeks into this continuing stop-start attempts at a peace process, we yet are to see anything practical come from all of these different channels of communication. But the U.S. says it will continue to push.
LEE: Salma Abdelaziz, thank you so much for that update.
The arms race for artificial intelligence is heading to the courtroom as Elon Musk files a lawsuit against Apple and the maker of ChatGPT. Those details next on CNN EARLY START.
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[05:39:10]
LEE: Donald Trump is threatening to impose substantial new tariffs on countries that impose digital taxes. He says the taxes, which are imposed by dozens of countries worldwide, are designed to harm or discriminate against American technology.
Supporters say digital taxes address corporate behemoths like Apple, Amazon, or Google, which pay little or no taxes to the countries where they operate.
President Trump warned that anyone who doesn't show what he called respect to America and its tech companies should "consider the consequences."
And in more tariffs news international postal services are suspending shipments to the U.S. as an exemption on tariff duties for small packages that's expected to expire on Friday. This means that anything under $800 will no longer enter the U.S. duty-free, potentially driving up costs for small businesses and online shoppers.
[05:40:05]
Postal services in Europe and Asia are already halting shipments, and experts say this will hurt small businesses.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
VICTOR NEGRESCU, VICE PRESIDENT, EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT: This is really disruptive for small businesses, especially artisans that were shipping small goods to the U.S. What is difficult right now for postal offices in Europe is to really understand how to comply with the new regulation that is going to enter into force. Basically, they need to collect the taxes, and we don't know how to do that. In the same time, the postal services need to transfer those taxes to U.S. authorities, and this has not been defined yet either.
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LEE: Last year U.S. Customs processed more than four million of these shipments every day.
And Elon Musk is taking Apple and OpenAI, the makers of ChatGPT, to court. He is accusing the tech giants of conspiring to block competition from Musk's AI startup Grock. Musk also claims the companies are conspiring to keep Grock and X from reaching the top ranks of Apple's app store.
Clare Duffy has more on this story.
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CLARE DUFFY, CNN BUSINESS WRITER: Yeah. Musk here following through on a threat he made several weeks ago accusing Apple and OpenAI of anticompetitive behavior.
He's going after a partnership that Apple formed with OpenAI to incorporate ChatGPT onto iPhones and other Apple products. And Musk is essentially accusing the company of prioritizing ChatGPT over other AI platforms, including his X and Grock, part of his company X-AI. And in particular, he's going after Apple for what he alleges is not putting X and Grock at the top of the top free apps list on Apple's app store.
Of course, I don't think that this takes into account the fact that other rivals to ChatGPT, like DeepSeek and Perplexity, have indeed risen in the ranks on Apple's top free apps list.
And this is also just the latest in Musk's ongoing legal tussle with OpenAI. He previously sued OpenAI to try to stop its conversion into a for-profit company. OpenAI fired back with its own countersuit accusing Musk of harassment.
And after Musk made this threat against Apple and OpenAI, OpenAI's CEO Sam Altman fired back on X, essentially accusing Musk of being a hypocrite. He said, "This is a remarkable claim given what I have heard alleged that Elon dues to manipulate X to benefit himself and his own companies and harm his competitors and people he doesn't like."
So we're really seeing the AI arms race moving into the courtroom.
Clare Duffy, CNN, New York.
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LEE: With U.S. destroyers patrolling international waters off of Venezuela coast, President Maduro is ramping up his call for volunteers to protect the country. The latest on that just ahead.
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[05:47:20]
LEE: Welcome back. I'm MJ Lee. Here are some of the stories we're watching today.
President Trump has signed an executive order to form specialized units of the National Guard to send out across the country. He plans to put a stop to crime in cities like Chicago, which he called a "killing ground." But the Illinois governor has warned the president not to send troops there.
A federal judge says she will order officials to keep Kilmar Abrego Garcia in the U.S. The judge is weighing a new legal challenge from his lawyers to the Trump administration's plans to deport him to Uganda. He is in ICE custody after turning himself in to face human smuggling charges.
And in a letter shared to social media, President Trump declared that he is firing Federal Reserve governor Lisa Cook. The termination prompted by mortgage fraud allegations is the first of its kind in the central bank's 111-year history. Cook has not been charged with any crime.
The U.S. Coast Guard says it has seized enough drugs to fatally overdose the entire population of Florida. The cutter Hamilton offloaded more than 61,000 pounds of cocaine and 14,000 pounds of marijuana with an estimated street value of $473 million. Authorities seized the drugs in 19 separate incidents in the Caribbean and Eastern Pacific over the past two months, and 34 suspected drug traffickers have been detained.
The Coast Guard says the Hamilton's onboard drone was instrumental in spotting many of the traffickers' boats.
And as tensions with the U.S. continue to rise, thousands of Venezuelans are heeding President Maduro's call to join the country's military. In response, the U.S. is mobilizing its own forces, sending a wave of naval assets towards Venezuela's coastline.
CNN's Patrick Oppmann has the latest. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
PATRICK OPPMANN, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voiceover): As a small armada of U.S. Navy ships heads towards Venezuela -- the most significant escalation of tensions between the two countries in years -- embattled Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro says he is preparing for an invasion. Maduro is activating his national militia and imploring regular citizens to enlist to fight off a potential U.S. attack. And Maduro is not letting a crisis go to waste, whipping up support in a country exhausted by hears of economic decline and political strife.
NICOLAS MADURO, VENEZUELAN PRESIDENT (through translator): I am enlisting because I love my homeland. Join with your family. Join with your community. Enlist and join the ranks. Long live Venezuela.
OPPMANN (voiceover): Thousands signed up over the weekend vowing to keep Maduro in power.
[05:50:00]
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): We defend our people and we, one way or another, are going to defend ourselves.
OPPMANN (voiceover): But even as he claims to have more than four million soldiers, police, and militia members ready to do battle, Maduro may be outgunned.
The Trump administration has sent at least three U.S. Navy destroyers, a submarine, attack aircraft, and 4,000 Marines to stem the flow of drugs to the U.S., which they say Maduro is responsible for.
PAM BONDI, U.S. ATTORNEY GENERAL: The DOJ has seized over $700 million of Maduro-linked assets, including two private jets, nine vehicles, and more. Yet, Maduro's reign of terror continues. He is one of the largest narcotraffickers in the world and a threat to our national security.
OPPMANN (voiceover): Maduro denies any role in drug trafficking, but he is under federal indictment in New York for allegedly running a shadowy cartel of army officers turned drug lords.
This month the Trump administration doubled the price on Maduro's head to $50 million but collecting that reward likely would require U.S. boots on the ground. Venezuela is roughly 1 1/2 times the size of Texas with dense jungles and sprawling slums controlled by heavily armed gangs. Occupying the country would be a massive undertaking and even more complicated if Maduro makes good on his promise to arm citizen militias.
Armed conflict may still be far from certain, but a showdown is brewing off the coast of Venezuela with neither side appearing to back down.
Patrick Oppmann, CNN.
(END VIDEOTAPE) LEE: You probably already know cities like New Orleans and Venice are slowly sinking, but they aren't the only ones. New research reveals which U.S. cities are sinking the most and what's causing it.
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[05:56:20]
LEE: When it comes to natural disasters most Americans think about fires, flooding, or maybe tornadoes. But a surprising new study finds 25 of the 28 largest cities in the U.S. are sinking and that's putting major stress on roads, buildings, and critical infrastructure.
Boris Sanchez takes a look at what's causing this growing problem.
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BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN ANCHOR: Imagine this -- you buy a home and soon get a sinking feeling that something isn't right. This slow and gradual sinking of an area of land is called subsidence and it's putting a strain on the very foundation of infrastructure around the world.
One of the most extreme cases in the United States was in California's San Joaquin Valley where between the 1920s to the 1970s the ground in certain areas dropped up to 30 feet. Here, subsidence was due to the booming growth of agriculture in the valley. The aggressive pumping of groundwater, known as aquifer depletion, removes water from the ground resulting in open pore spaces that cause the sediment to compact and the ground above to sink.
So, say your new home is in this subsidence-affected area. The value of it likely just sank, too. A study from U.C. Riverside estimates the cost could have dropped over $16,000. You add up the lost aggregate housing value across the Central Valley and that is nearly $2 billion.
And subsidence isn't just affecting rural areas. New research finds that 25 of Americans 28 biggest cities are sinking. Of these, the fastest-sinking city in the U.S. right now is Houston, Texas. Houston is dealing with severe depletion of groundwater, like parts of California. But here, oil and gas extraction adds another layer to the problem. Some parts of Houston are sinking by as much as two inches a year. And while other areas are sinking slower, that uneven subsiding puts major stress on roads, buildings, and other parts of the city's critical infrastructure.
The process happens slowly, often invisible to the human eye, but it has the potential to impact infrastructure in nearly 90 percent of America's largest cities. Over time, subsidence is literally reshaping the ground we live on.
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LEE: What was set to be a triumphant return to the court has come to and end for Venus Williams. After two years away, the tennis legend delivered powerful ground strokes and big serves before losing in three sets at the U.S. Open. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
VENUS WILLIAMS, PRO TENNIS PLAYER: When you play unhealthy it's in your mind. It's not just how you feel, you get stuck in your mind too. So, um, it was nice to be freer.
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LEE: A roaring crowd welcomed Williams to Arthur Ashe Stadium on Monday. At 45, she is the oldest player to compete at the U.S. Open since 1982 when Renee Richards played at 47 years old.
And in other sports news Nike has officially announced Caitlin Clark as one of the brand's newest signature athletes. The highly anticipated partnership with the Indiana Fever guard will include a sneaker and apparel line. Here's a preview of her personal logo set to launch next year.
Clark was the number one pick in the 2024 WNBA draft. Now she's just the third active WNBA player to receive a shoe deal with a major brand -- A'ja Wilson and Sabrina Ionescu.
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Nike says the partnership is part of its ongoing effort to get and keep women and girls on the court.
Powerball mania is starting to sweep across the U.S. After 37 drawings with no grand prize winner, the jackpot has soared to $815 million for Wednesday night. And if you're lucky enough to hit it big you can claim a lump sum prize of nearly $368 million or take the whole thing in annualized payments. The odds are obviously not great -- they're not even slim -- but the payout could grow as more people buy tickets.
Only five Powerball jackpots have topped the billion-dollar mark, including one in 2022 for more than $2 billion.
Thank you so much for joining us here on EARLY START. I'm MJ Lee in Washington, D.C. And "CNN THIS MORNING" starts right now.
