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One World with Zain Asher
Combs Convicted of Two Prostitution Charges; Trump Urging GOP Unity Ahead of House Vote on Policy Bill; Combs Guilty on Prostitution Charges, Acquitted of More Serious Charges; Europe Counts the Cost of Scorching Heat Wave; Paramount Settles Trump's "60 Minutes" Lawsuit; Sales Drop 13.5 Percent Amid Musk's Political Moves. Aired 11a-12p ET
Aired July 02, 2025 - 11:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[11:00:00]
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ZAIN ASHER, CNN HOST, ONE WORLD: Welcome to "One World". I'm Zain Asher. We are following breaking news this hour. Just a short time ago, we learned
the verdicts in the Sean Diddy Combs sex trafficking trial jurors found him guilty of two counts of transportation to engage in prostitution, but
acquitted him of the more serious charges in terms of racketeering and sex trafficking.
I want to bring in Former State and Federal Prosecutor David Weinstein. David, I want to get your reaction to this verdict, because we saw what
happened yesterday, where the jurors essentially came out and said that they had had an agreement, essentially on four counts, but they were stuck
on this one particular count of racketeering.
And a lot of legal experts say that when a fast verdict is reached, it's usually not a good sign for the prosecution. Just give us your take on what
we heard this morning.
DAVID WEINSTEIN, FORMER STATE & FEDERAL PROSECUTOR: I disagree on that. I think the longer that a jury is out delivering, the more likely it's going
to be an acquittal. And so, the fact that they came back this quickly, I'm not surprised.
I also don't find it surprising that after the instruction they got last night to go back in, seriously deliberate, go back in and come to a
conclusion that when they came back this morning, they reached a verdict on the count one, and now we know what the verdict was on counts 2, 3, 4, and
5.
And so, a bit of a mixed bag for the defendant and for the government. I think they were hung up on whether or not this was a criminal enterprise as
to count one. They had to have found that it wasn't. And so that's why there's an acquittal there.
A little surprise as to the sex trafficking count for Ms. Ventura, I think her testimony was strong, but clearly some of the jury -- jurors didn't
believe that. In fact, all of them didn't believe that, and they were able to persuade everyone as to that. As to Jane, they didn't believe her
testimony either that she'd been sex trafficked.
But they did find him guilty of transportating people who they believed were prostitutes, which would take into a consent argument that they
consented to this, but they were, in fact, treated as prostitutes across state lines, and found him guilty on those two counts.
And when I say it's a mixed bag, not a life sentence that he would have been facing under count one, but he's looking at 10 years under the
statute, maximum for each of these counts, different victims, and the judge will use the advisory sentencing guidelines to calculate an advisory
sentencing guideline for this.
Even with his status as a first offender because of the way these guidelines operate, he's looking at about 18 years total, which the judge
could impose by stacking these sentences, putting them consecutive to each other, so he's not getting out anytime soon. He's looking still at some
significant time, and this whole approach of the defense is taking about getting him out on bail pending his appeal. I think that's unrealistic.
ASHER: Yeah. Is that something that it looks as though the defense was asking for this idea that he could be released pending sentencing? As you
point out, I mean, it's -- you know 18 years possibly, as you touch on, it's not nothing. It's certainly not life. So, it is a win of sorts, but it
is absolutely a mixed bag.
When it comes to the sentencing, though, what are some of the factors that the judge is going to be taking into consideration you mentioned,
obviously, first time offender. There is also the sort of risk to community, risk to self, aspect, the likelihood of recidivism, this idea
that he could repeat the crimes again. These are all factors that the judge is going to be taking into consideration, right?
WEINSTEIN: Right. We're going to hear a lot of talk in the coming weeks and months about something called the 35-53 factors. These are what the judge
considers, and amongst those factors are the life and history of each individual defendant and then what the punishment is supposed to be
signifying?
Is it going to deter his future conduct? Is it going to deter future conduct of others? What of other people who have been convicted of this
crime been sentenced to the judge? We'll look at that as well. He'll hear about Sean Combs' history and his life, what happened to him during his
upbringing, some mitigating circumstances.
But the judge is also going to hear from the victims here and what their testimony is and how this impacted them? And what type of sentence they
think is appropriate. That's not going to be the driving factor, but they have a say. They will be able to come to court and tell the judge this.
ASHER: I just been told by my producers that we have new sound from Douglas Wigdor. He is Cassie Ventura's attorney. Let's roll it, and then I'll
discuss with you on the other side.
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(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DOUG WIGDOR, CASSIE VENTURA'S ATTORNEY: We're pleased that he -- that he's finally been held responsible for two federal crimes, something that he's
never faced in his life. He still faces substantial jail time. Of course, we would have liked to have seen a conviction on the sex crimes in RICO.
But we understand beyond reasonable doubt is a high standard, and we're just pleased that that he still faces substantial jail time.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ASHER: So, Cassie Ventura's attorney there essentially reiterating what you're saying, this idea that it is a mixed bag, that they're happy that he
has been found guilty on two federal crimes, but they would have liked to see convictions on RICO racketeering and also the sex trafficking charges.
I mean, just walk us through and remind us about Cassie Ventura's testimony for those of us who haven't been following this trial particularly closely.
I mean, obviously her attorneys would have wanted at least to see him found guilty of sex trafficking. She was heavily pregnant when she took the
stand, and worth noting that we wouldn't have even gotten to this point of the trial if it wasn't for her initial lawsuits.
Remind us what she said and why perhaps, you know, jurors still chose to acquit him on sex trafficking specifically.
WEINSTEIN: Well, you have to look at the whole of her testimony. She certainly admitted to participating in certain events that took place, and
they were lurid in detail by her own account. But there were also text messages and conversations that she had that related to what had happened
during that time.
The question for these jurors was, did she, at some point in time having consented to this, withdrew her consent, and then, was it because of force
and coercion and fear and what came to follow that she committed the same acts again, or was it overridden by the fact that she had been a voluntary
participant?
The defense was arguing hard about this voluntary participation, and again, that certainly seems to have helped with the jury coming back not guilty on
both the racketeering count and then the sex trafficking counts, but not an element of the transportation.
If you voluntarily consent to something and they found that you were, in fact, being viewed as a prostitute in some way, shape or form, and you were
transported across state lines. That's enough to get the conviction on counts three and on counts five.
And it would appear, again, I wasn't in the jury room, but that's where they settled on. It could have also been a compromise verdict. Jurors are
allowed to do that. They're in the back. They decide, look, I'm not finding him guilty of the most severe count that racketeering or of the sex
trafficking, and I'm kind of on the fence about the prostitution count.
But we can either stay here for the rest of the week, or we can reach a compromise on that. So, you know what? Let's come back on the prostitution
count, because that takes consent into account, not guilty on the others, and we'll walk away from this, and the prosecution will get a victory.
The defense will get a victory. They don't know what the sentence is going to be. And in fact, that could have happened. I'm not suggesting it did,
but that's a possible scenario that developed.
ASHER: David Weinstein, thank you so much for breaking this down for us. We'll have much more on this Diddy verdict later on in the show with our
reporter Elizabeth Wagmeister, who's outside the courtroom. David, appreciate your perspective. Thank you.
All right, the fate of Donald Trump's domestic policy agenda hangs in the balance as Republican lawmakers in the House race to vote on his massive
tax cuts and spending bill. And then get it to the president's desk by his self-imposed July 4th deadline.
House Speaker Mike Johnson says a final vote could happen as early as today. The bill cleared a key procedural hurdle overnight, but its passage
isn't guaranteed, with dozens of Republican holdouts signaling major objections in the deeply divided House, where they have a -- razor thin
majority.
The measure approved by the Senate on Tuesday would slash trillions of dollars in taxes, while dramatically cutting funding for Medicaid, food
assistance and clean energy programs too. It would also boost military spending and immigration enforcement, even though some Republican Senators
apparently had reservations, they voted yes anyway. Lisa Murkowski described her decision to support the measure as quote, agonizing.
CNN's Kevin Liptak joins us live now from the White House. So, this is the next hurdle the House, as I mentioned, it, passed very narrowly in the
Senate just yesterday. And J.D. Vance had to intervene for that tie breaking vote by the Vice President in terms of what happens today, because
-- you know there are quite a few House Republicans that have issues with this bill as well. What do we like you to see here Kevin?
KEVIN LIPTAK, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Yeah, and we've already seen them actually arriving here to the White House. They are in meetings with
President Trump, who is trying to twist their arms, trying to get them to come along with this bill. He's meeting with them in sort of different
groups. The first group we saw arriving here were centrists. They have some concerns about the changes that this bill makes to the social safety net,
including on Medicaid.
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The president, I think, trying to convince them that the bill, in total, does more good than harm. We've also seen some of the conservatives
arriving here. We saw, for example, Lauren Boebert, a member of the Ultra- conservative House Freedom Caucus, they have a whole completely different set of concerns.
They're worried that the bill actually costs too much and that it will explode the deficit. Remember, the Congressional Budget Office says that
this would raise the deficit by $3.3 trillion over the course of 10 years, that doesn't even include the amount it will take to service the debt.
And so, you see these two opposite sides of contention within the House Republican Caucus, and it will really be now on President Trump to try and
bridge some of the gap there. And the gamble I think that the White House is making is that the president's arm twisting the pressure tactics will
ultimately bring these Republicans on board.
They look to the Senate as essentially a road map. Because, remember, there had been Republican Senators who had been voicing concern all along as the
Senate was considering it only to eventually vote yes when it came to a vote on the Senate floor.
And you know, history is kind of on the White House's side here. There are not a lot of examples of House Republicans denying President Trump what he
wants. Ultimately, this is a party that is really in President Trump's stranglehold in a lot of different ways, and there's no necessarily reason
to believe that they won't go along with him on this signature piece of legislation.
But that doesn't mean that there aren't some challenges ahead for the president. The word that the White House officials are using to describe
what he's doing here is education, trying to educate these members about how exactly this bill would work. I think in reality, he might be educating
them to the political reality if they don't come along with it.
He has openly threatened some of these Republicans with primary challenges if they don't come along and support this bill. And so, it will sort of be
a parade of lawmakers through the White House today, as the president sort of twists arms, tries and gets these Republicans on board.
The White House says that that deadline of Friday is still operable, which is quite an ambitious goal. I think the real fear is that if it is not
passed by then, that they could lose momentum, that changes start going into this bill, that eventually it would have to go back to the Senate to
vote on those changes.
They very much want to avoid another sort of drawn out, prolonged process, which is why they're trying to enforce this July 4th deadline. The
president yesterday said that he thought getting this through the House would actually be easier than getting it through the Senate. So certainly,
very confident from the president.
ASHER: All right Kevin Liptak, live for us there. Thank you so much. And it is a race, as Kevin mentioned, to the self-imposed July 4th finish line, as
Republican lawmakers scramble to vote on U.S. President Donald Trump sweeping policy bill. House Speaker Mike Johnson is eager to give Trump a
major legislative win, but he still has to win over some skeptical members of his own party.
The Senate narrowly passed the measure on Tuesday, at the heart of it all, an extension of Trump's 2017 tax cuts, which would be paid for by deep cuts
to Medicaid and food stamp programs. The bill also includes a major increase in military spending and immigration enforcement.
Molly Ball is a Senior Political Correspondent for "The Wall Street Journal". She knows live now from Arlington, Virginia. Molly, thank you so
much for being with us. So, as Kevin was just talking about, there, there are quite a few GOP holdouts in the House who are actually meeting with the
president today.
I mean, the president's tactics in the past have obviously been coercive, this idea of threatening them with primary challenges. What is he going to
say in the White House today to get those GOP holdouts in the House on board?
MOLLY BALL, SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT, THE WALL STREET JOURNAL: I think he's going to be focused on selling the bill. You know, we've heard
in his public comments recently, he's been very focused on what happens if they don't pass the bill, the idea that this would be a massive tax hike on
everyone if they don't get this done.
You know, the president's political operation has also been trying to come up with ways to sell the bill to the public. The president, one of the
president's pollsters putting out some information yesterday, advising Republicans on how they can message some of these provisions in order to
make it more popular.
We've seen a lot of public polling that shows that this bill is quite unpopular, but also that a lot of Americans don't have a very firm sense of
what it is and what it does. So, there's room, I think, for both parties to sort of fill in that gap by trying to make the best case for or against it
in the -- in the public mind before the next election comes around.
So certainly, Republicans are nervous like this bill passed the House once by one vote. Passed the Senate this week by one vote. There is really no
margin for error.
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And at this point, the leaders of the House are quite nervous about it, because there is a lot of opposition cropping up. But this bill has been
carried along to this point by the sense of momentum, the sense that they can't let the president down, and the sense that failure is a worse outcome
than success.
So, in the big picture, that those are the dynamics that their account that the White House is counting on. But of course, we don't know exactly what
the president is saying in those meetings, and a lot is going to depend on that.
ASHER: And just in terms of what is in the bill that Democrats can actually be on board with walk us through that, because obviously, Democrats have
been really focusing their messaging on this idea that the Trump, the President, only favors the rich, and he doesn't necessarily care about
working class, ordinary Americans. What is in this bill that Democrats can actually support?
BALL: I don't think there's anything in this bill that Democrats like this. You know, we've had -- we've seen unified Democratic opposition to this
bill. Republicans are using the procedure -- the special procedure in the Senate that allows them to, if they keep Republicans on board, allows them
to pass this bill without any Democratic support.
So, we really have not seen any Democrats talking about any kind of upside for this bill. They've been talking about it, as Kevin mentioned, as sort
of a tax cut for the wealthy, paid for on the backs of programs for the poor, and therefore a betrayal of some of Trump's own voters and a betrayal
of some of the promises that Trump made during the campaign, that he would not cut Medicaid.
Now, Republicans say that that's not what's happening, that they're cutting waste, fraud and abuse and changing the eligibility requirements. But
again, that could be a tough sell to the public, given that we've already seen the bill appears to be quite unpopular, and no Democrats have been
convinced to go to go along with it.
ASHER: Tough sell for ordinary Americans. It does appear to be quite unpopular, especially with just this idea, as you point out, of just
raising the standard and the eligible eligibility requirements for access to Medicaid and other social programs. So how will it affect Republicans
come the midterm, only a year and a half away?
BALL: I think that's what we're all wondering. In many ways, this feels like a flashback to the 2018 campaign cycle. At that time, you know Trump
was in his first term and facing his first midterm and at that time, the main issues that the Democrats looked to push in the midterms were taxes
and health care.
You had the Republicans unsuccessfully trying to repeal Obamacare and then passing the original version of this very same tax cut, the 2017 Trump tax
cuts that are expiring next year, which is why the Republicans have to pass this bill to keep those tax cuts on the books.
So, it's very much the same message, and in 2018 it led to a Democratic wave. That's not to say that that's inevitable this time around, but you
see also with some of the Republicans who've decided not to run for office again.
Senator Thom Tillis, who was railing against the bill on the Senate floor after announcing that he would not support it. He was previously considered
one of the most vulnerable members of the Senate who's up for election next year.
And Don Bacon, a centrist member of the of the House, a Republican from Nebraska, representing a district that Kamala Harris won in last year's
election, also deciding to throw in the towel. So, when you see retirements like those, it's usually an indication that people -- that Republicans,
feel like the political winds are potentially shifting against them.
But I would never want to try to predict what's going to happen in an election a year and a half from now. There's obviously a long way to go.
ASHER: Of course, and so many different factors involved. Molly Ball live for us there. Appreciate it. Thank you. All right, there has been fresh
momentum in recent days behind efforts to get a Gaza ceasefire. We are live in the region for an update for you. Plus, while the U.S. has paused
sending some weapons to Ukraine, and how Moscow is reacting just ahead.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[11:20:00]
ASHER: All right. Back to our breaking news out of New York. Lawyers for Sean Diddy Combs are asking a judge to release him from custody after a
jury found him guilty of two counts of transportation to engage in prostitution, but acquitted him of some of the more serious charges.
Let's go live now to Leigh Waldman, who is outside the New York Courthouse. So, Leigh, this is what Diddy and his lawyers are essentially asking for.
They want him to be a free man by the end of today, which is quite a remarkable sort of turn of events, if that was to be granted. But their
argument is that because he has been acquitted or found not guilty of the more serious charges, then that is, they believe that that is reasonable
walk us through that.
LEIGH WALDMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, exactly. So, they would like him to be released today and just remember, he was locked up before this court
trial even started back in September, he was arrested here in New York City, and there's a crowd of supporters outside who are chanting, let Combs
go.
So obviously he has support outside, but you mentioned his lawyers are asking for a million-dollar bail to be set, and they're talking about the
fact that he has been acquitted of the most serious charges. He is grateful for the to the jury for doing that and asking them to release him today so
he can go home to his Miami home.
That's where he would like to go. He's saying the attorneys in this case were saying that his kids could also be listed on that bond so they could
be kind of held accountable for their father, but they're asking that he be let go. It's something that the prosecution in this case, the government is
strictly opposed to.
They don't want him released prior to this whole trial starting. They said that he was a flight risk. They're asking that he be kept in jail until the
sentencing happens. We don't know exactly when that will happen. And they said that they are going to pursue that he be incarcerated as a part of his
sentencing.
And just to remind everyone, this transportation to engage in prostitution charge that he was convicted of by the 12-person jury today, it still
carries a maximum sentence of 10 years that can either be served consecutively or concurrently, so if it's served back-to-back, he could
face up to 20 years in prison.
So, we're waiting for both of those parties, the government side and also the defense side, to issue their paperwork to the judge by a 01:00 p.m.
deadline today, and sometime after that is when we'll learn if the judge decides to release Combs from custody.
ASHER: And Leigh just walk us through, what has it been like covering this trial? Because obviously we -- you know we're witnessing essentially the
dramatic downfall of one of the largest names in entertainment, somebody who has been famous since at least, at least the mid-90s.
And of course, it all started with that really painful and difficult to watch video from that hotel in California where we saw Sean Diddy Combs,
essentially viciously beating, I honestly have never seen anything like it, viciously beating his then girlfriend back in 2016 and then obviously, we
had the trial.
We had Cassie Ventura's testimony. We had other witnesses who went under different pseudonyms. There's been so many twists and turns. What has this
been like to cover for you Leigh?
WALDMAN: It's been shocking. You know, some of what's come out over the course of this trial, the prosecution called 34 witnesses, and their
testimony, especially ex-girlfriend, Cassie Ventura at times, has been so emotional, hearing details of what she says that she endured throughout the
course of their over a decade long relationship.
[11:25:00]
And also hearing that echo many times by the woman testifying under the alias Jane. You know, some of our CNN colleagues here have said that this
is a modern time OJ case where he was acquitted of the most serious charges but found guilty of some of these lesser charges that he's been facing.
So, seeing the outside reaction, the crowd that this draws every single day. You can see media here, but also people on TikTok streamers out here
every single day trying to engage in this trial. It's been shocking, lots of twists and turns, like you had mentioned.
You talked about that video that came out in 2016 of Cassie Ventura being kicked and dragged by Combs on that her lawyer came out, spoke briefly, but
also issued a statement from their team who represents Cassie Ventura, and I want to read you some of that now.
He said, although the jury did not find Combs guilty of sex trafficking, Cassie beyond a reasonable doubt, she paved the way for the jury to find
him guilty of transportation to engage in prostitution. So, they're saying because she came forward, because she used her voice, after facing
traumatic events throughout the course of over 10 years, she paved the way to have a conviction today, so they're considering that a win for her.
ASHER: All right, Leigh Waldman, live for us. Thank you so much. All right, we are getting word from an Israeli official that Israel has just accepted
the latest proposal for a ceasefire with Hamas. The official says the updated deal provides stronger U.S. assurances about reaching a settlement
to end the war in Gaza.
On Tuesday, as President Donald Trump posted that Israel had quote agreed to the necessary conditions to finalize a deal for a 60-day ceasefire,
Hamas is saying that they are reviewing the latest proposal. It previously demanded that any deal has to include a permanent end to the conflict, a
condition that Israel has been willing to -- unwilling, excuse me to accept.
CNN's Jeremy Diamond is in Tel Aviv for us. So, Jeremy, there have been so many stops and starts in terms of ceasefire negotiations and the likelihood
of a ceasefire deal. Hamas has had this sort of red line for quite some time, this idea that they want the war to end permanently. They don't just
want a sort of temporary ceasefire.
Just walk us through where we are in the negotiations and whether this time, we likely will see some kind of a ceasefire deal reached, even if it
is just temporary.
JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN JERUSALEM CORRESPONDENT: Well, let's start with what happened last night. President Trump posting that Israel has agreed to the
conditions necessary to reach this 60-day ceasefire, putting the ball firmly in Hamas' court. But the question is, of course, what is different
about this latest ceasefire proposal versus the proposal that Steve Witkoff had presented just, you know, a few weeks ago, really?
And what I've learned now from talking to an Israeli official is that there are stronger assurances from the United States and from the Qatari and
Egyptian mediators in this ceasefire proposal about reaching a permanent end to the war in Gaza, meaning Israel hasn't agreed to end the war yet.
But the United States, Qatar and Egypt are staking their credibility even further on the idea that they will facilitate and ultimately drive towards
a negotiated settlement to end this war, either during that 60-day ceasefire period, or perhaps even beyond.
And that, of course, is critical to trying to bridge the gap with Hamas, which in its latest statement, continues to insist on an end to the war,
the withdrawal of all Israeli troops. That that is the kind of agreement that they are going for. And so, the question will be now, are these latest
assurances strong enough to bridge that gap?
In addition to that, I'm also told that Israel has now allowed, as part of this latest ceasefire proposal, to allow a surge of humanitarian aid
through the traditional United Nations run humanitarian aid channels, and not through the U.S. and Israeli backed controversial Gaza Humanitarian
Foundation that will also be critical to securing Hamas' agreement here.
Ron Dermer, the Israeli Minister of Strategic Affairs, Prime Minister Netanyahu's arguably his closest advisor. He was in Washington yesterday.
He's the one who delivered the agreement of Israel to this proposal. And now we've heard that Hamas has indeed received this latest proposal.
They are conducting what they call national consultations, and we will see what their response actually is. The Israeli Prime Minister, for his part,
he's got a meeting tomorrow with his political security cabinet and a meeting with his full cabinet on Saturday night just before he heads to the
United States.
And he is, of course, dealing with significant opposition from those two key far right lawmakers who we always talk about Bezalel Smotrich and
Itamar Ben Gvir, who have repeatedly said they want to see the war in Gaza intensify. And not see a ceasefire happen. So, Netanyahu will also be
dealing with that before he heads off to the United States.
[11:30:00]
ASHER: Jeremy Diamond live for us there. Thank you so much. Right, turning now to Russia's war in Ukraine, a senior White House official says the U.S.
is pausing some weapons shipments to Ukraine following a review of military spending and U.S. support to foreign countries.
Ukraine officials say they have not been officially notified of any changes in munitions shipments. Adding any delay in aid would only encourage Russia
to continue the war. The Kremlin, as you might imagine, is of course, welcoming this move. Let's bring in Clare Sebastian.
So, Clare, Zelenskyy, Ukraine, as we would expect, warning that you know, if you delay or you stop, or you halt, shipments of weapons or munitions to
Ukraine, all that does is just serve Russia a win. Walk us through that.
CLARE SEBASTIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, Zain, that we don't know the extent of this as of yet. That White House official telling CNN that some
shipments are being paused under this decision, which we understand had been in the works for months, part of a review of U.S. military spending
going on at the Pentagon.
So given that, I think Ukraine is certainly seeking clarification today, we know that the defense ministry has asked for a phone call with its U.S.
counterparts. The foreign ministry summoned a senior U.S. diplomat to talk about this and to impress upon him the damage that it could do.
But of course, as of now, we don't know the extent. But I think given that, of course, Ukraine has done everything possible to secure USA, going
forward, offering to pay for it, signing that mineral deal, of course, signing on to the U.S. proposed ceasefire. This is certainly painful.
And I think it comes, of course, at an extremely fragile time, we see Russia inching forward in its ground offensive in the east, we see the air
war escalating dramatically. And I think that in particular, these escalating air attacks is why Ukraine is so worried about this. Take a
listen to Mykhailo Podolyak. He's an advisor to Zelenskyy's office.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MYKHAILO PODOLYAK, UKRAINE'S PRESIDENTIAL OFFICE ADVISER: Just it would look very strange. It would look inhumane to stop delivering missiles,
anti-missiles, I should say, especially for patriot systems, which are clearly protecting the civilian population of Ukraine on a massive scale.
No one, not even in the United States, is in any doubt that Russia, profiting from the situation in the Middle East, has, unfortunately, over
the last three months, increased its drone and missile attacks on the centers of Ukraine's big cities, with the intention of killing as many
civilians as possible.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SEBASTIAN: So, it should have been the person on the right of the screen actually speaking there. That's Mykhailo Podolyak, but you got the sense of
what he was saying there, that this is an extremely fragile time. Russia has been taking advantage. They think of the terminal in the Middle East to
ramp up these air attacks.
And I think the concern, in particular when we saw President Trump last week at NATO hinting that the U.S. might be able to find some more patriot
missiles, is that this may now undermine that patriots are the most powerful air defense weapons that Ukraine has capable of taking down
Russian ballistic missiles.
And of course, all of this is playing right into Moscow's hands, as you know today, not only potentially making Ukraine more vulnerable, but
essentially handing them one of their key demands in their uncompromising peace memorandum that western military aid has to stop for there to be a
peace deal.
One headline that I saw today in a Moscow daily newspaper called this an unprecedented window of opportunity. So, I think this does create, you
know, turn a fragile moment for Ukraine into something even more precarious, Zain.
ASHER: Clare Sebastian live for us. Thank you. All right, still to come, Europe's heat wave is turning deadly. We'll have the latest on the
scorching conditions and find out when the high temperatures are expected to ease. Plus, how Donald Trump won a settlement in a lawsuit that experts
say was frivolous.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[11:35:00]
ASHER: Right. Welcome back to "One World". I'm Zain Asher. Here are some international headlines we are watching today. A jury has found Sean Diddy
Combs guilty of two counts of transportation to engage in prostitution, but he was acquitted on three more serious charges, including one of
racketeering conspiracy that carried a potential sentence of life imprisonment.
Combs attorney is asking the judge to release combs from custody, while the prosecution has said he should be sent to prison. Happening right now, the
U.S. House is taking up President Trump's mega bill. Leadership is hoping to get a floor vote by Thursday. At the very latest, the Rules Committee
voted to advance the measure overnight after the Senate passed the bill 51 to 50 on Tuesday.
Israel has just accepted the latest proposal for a ceasefire with Hamas. That's according to an Israeli official. Hamas is said to be considering
the proposal. President Trump says it calls for a 60-day truce. And the Pentagon has paused some arms shipments to Ukraine. The decision comes
after a review of military support to foreign countries.
According to a senior White House official, the White House says that the pause reflects the decision, quote, to put America's interests first.
Right, a heat wave in Europe is taking a toll in terms of lives lost. In France, the government says two people died from extreme heat, and at least
300 needed treatment from emergency services.
Another two deaths were reported in northeast Spain as firefighters tackled intense, fast-moving wildfires. Melissa Bell is in Paris, with more on the
impact of sweltering temperatures.
MELISSA BELL, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: All across Europe, scenes like these repeating themselves. People seeking whatever relief they
can from the scorching heat. It is yet another very hot day across huge parts of Europe. The big peak of this heat wave appears to have been on
Tuesday when records were reached in Spain.
One town recording 114 degrees Fahrenheit, 115 in one town in Portugal, here in Paris, one of the hottest days on record. And the point about these
heat waves beyond the toll, we know that two people have died here in France as a result of the heat yesterday, two deaths reported in Spain as
well due to a wildfire there beyond the immediate human toll.
The fact that these heat waves are having so happening so early, there are fears of more wildfires spreading over the course of the summer. And of
course, the main point here is that Europe is not adapting fast enough to the climate change that is happening faster here than anywhere else on
Earth.
The climate is getting hotter in Europe, twice as fast as it is anyone else, which has, of course, huge implications, not just for tourism. The
Eiffel Tower closed now for the second day in a row. The point is, these heat waves are happening summer after summer here in Europe.
Temperatures the continent had not been used to when these cities were built and they need to be re equipped. Of course, that can't happen quickly
enough in many European cities, with the death tolls that we're seeing and the difficulty that there is for cities to adapt for what we expect will be
another scorching summer here in Europe. Melissa Bell, CNN, Parris.
[11:40:00]
ASHER: Right still to come here, a media giant agrees to pay millions of dollars settle a lawsuit with Donald Trump. Why Paramount gave up the fight
when we come back.
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ASHER: All right. Entertainment giant Paramount is paying $16 million settle a lawsuit brought by Donald Trump. Trump sued the company in the
2024 election cycle, claiming election interference. He said that when "60 Minutes", which airs on Paramount, CBS network, ran an interview with
Kamala Harris, it edited the interview to make her look good and essentially to harm him.
While legal experts said that Trump had almost no legal grounds for the complaint, Paramount evidently decided it was good business to settle it
anyway. It says $16 million payment will go to Trump's future presidential library. A major reason for the settlement, maybe Paramount's plans for a
merger.
Let's bring in CNN's Chief Media Analyst, Brian Stelter, for more on that. I mean, yeah, so legal experts send you saying that there were no grounds
in terms of election interference, even though that Trump had claimed that the interview was edited in parts in order to benefit Kamala Harris and to
harm him. Walk us through why Paramount decided to settle this.
BRIAN STELTER, CNN CHIEF MEDIA ANALYST: Right. That's right. He claimed election interference. He filed a lawsuit in a Texas court using a consumer
protection law to say that CBS had defrauded customers, but there was never any evidence to back up those sensational charges.
This was always a legally dubious suit, but it did have the intended effect of pressuring Paramount to go and meet him at the settlement table. And
this is not the first settlement we've seen between the president and a major media company. You might remember that back in December when Trump
was still the president elect, Disney's ABC settled a defamation suit Trump had brought against ABC to the exact same tune of $16 million.
So now we're starting to see a trend forming where major media companies are willing to settle with Trump. And the money in both cases is going to
Trump's future presidential library. Now it is notable. Paramount is not expressing any regret. It's not issuing a statement of apology, because,
frankly, it has nothing to apologize for.
This lawsuit was all about one answer to one question from Kamala Harris in that "60 Minutes" interview, and CBS didn't do anything wrong. But the
parent company was motivated to settle because of that merger. You mentioned, there is a pending merger between Paramount global and Skydance
media, and in order for the merger to be approved, the Trump Administration has to bless the deal.
[11:45:00]
That merger has been held up for months, and the question now is whether Trump's government will let the merger go through because of this
settlement deal. And here's the thing, Paramount says the settlement deal is unrelated to the merger, but pretty much everybody in Washington
believes there is a connection.
Just a few minutes ago, Senator Elizabeth Warren called for a full investigation into what she suggests is a bribe. She suggests Paramount is
basically paying Trump off to win merger approval, but because Warren is a Democratic Senator, she has very little power to actually compel an
investigation, and I don't see any Republicans calling for any action like that.
ASHER: Brian Stelter live for us there. Thank you so much. Right, still to come here on "One World". How much have Elon Musk politics hurt his car
company? We'll give you the latest sales figures from Tesla when we come back.
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ASHER: Elon Musk's foray into politics is costing his company and its shareholders a lot of money. A short time ago, Musk's electric car company
Tesla reported a steep 13 percent drop in sales for the second quarter of the year. Wall Street was already bracing for some horrific figures, and
after the report came out, Tesla stock actually rose.
Musk has pulled off the rare feat of being unpopular with both liberals and conservatives. Thanks, is on again, off again friendship with Donald Trump.
Let's bring in CNN's Hadas Gold with more on this. Hadas just break down the numbers for us, global car sales, Tesla obviously falling in the second
quarter, but this is part of a trend of declining sales that started last year. Walk us through the numbers.
HADAS GOLD, CNN JERUSALEM CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, this is actually the largest year over year drop in sales for Tesla in company history. So, they
delivered 384,122 cars from April through June. That's down about 60,000 cars from the same time before, but it is up 14 percent from the first
quarter total.
And as you noted, Wall Street expected this. In fact, some of the whispers around Wall Street and on social media was that actually it would be worse.
And I think that's why you're seeing the shares up a little bit, because there was an expectation this would somehow almost be worse, somehow be a
bottom.
And one of the reasons, there are several reasons why this is happening. First of all, is that Elon Musk and Tesla have been focusing so much of
their energy and time on autonomous driving, on these sorts of future projects. We saw robotaxi launched in Austin. Elon Musk has talked about
how AI and robotics and robotaxi, they really feel as though that is the future of Tesla, less so on pumping out new models of these cars.
[11:50:00]
We're obviously, of course, seeing increased competition from places like China. And then, of course, is the politics, which you just cannot ignore
what is happening with Elon Musk in politics, as you noted, somehow managing to alienate both Democrats as soon as he hitched on with the Trump
Administration and also Republicans especially recently.
We know, of course, that investors have wanted Elon Musk to fully focus on Tesla, on his companies, because they believe that is how the companies
will do best. Obviously, what we've seen from Elon Musk in the last few days especially leads us to believe that is not going to be the case.
Especially he says he's going to support primary challengers in the next midterm election and potentially even start an entirely new American
political party that he's calling the American party. I am sure a lot of Tesla investors are just sitting there saying, oh no, please not this.
ASHER: Please don't. Please don't. Please focus on what you do best. All right, Hadas Gold live for us there. Thank you so much. For some more
perspective on this, let's bring in Sean OKane. He's a Senior Reporter for TechCrunch who follows the technology of transportation.
Sean, thank you so much for being with us, as Hadas was saying, part of the reason why Tesla's global car sales have been slumping is because Elon Musk
really believes the future of Tesla doesn't sort of just lie with pumping out new models of Tesla vehicles, but actually with autonomous vehicles,
with self-driving cars, with robotaxis and that sort of thing. Walk us through how that ideology may have impacted sales in the second quarter.
SEAN OKANE, SENIOR TRANSPORTATION REPORTER FOR TECHCRUNCH: I mean, it's been pretty clear for a while for people who watch Tesla that Elon doesn't
seem very interested in being a car company or a car salesman anymore, which is why it's, you know, especially fascinating that last week, he let
go of his top sales executive, a guy named Omead Afshar, who is basically been his right hand man for the last five or six years, maybe even further
than that.
And now Elon sort of taking the reins and having the sales team directly report to him. So yeah, he's been so focused on robotics and autonomy. The
company even warned at the beginning of last year, hey, we're between, you know, quote, two major growth waves, and that, that next growth wave is
going to be driven by autonomous vehicles, mass produced.
And we're just not there yet. We're seeing some limited trials with just, you know, a few invitees in Austin. We don't know how fast any of that is
going to scale, and Tesla is still yet to prove that that technology will work 100 percent of the time and will be safe 100 percent of the time at
scale.
ASHER: And just in terms of a separate issue. In addition to sort of focusing on autonomous vehicles, part of it is the fact that Tesla is
getting a lot of competition from Chinese electric vehicle companies that are sort of more affordable and newer. Walk us through that aspect of it
too.
OKANE: Yeah. I mean, there's clearly a lot of competition coming from China. It's not coming to the U.S., but it's coming to a lot of other
markets that Tesla is in, especially Europe, which is why it's had so much trouble keeping its sales up over there. It's had a lot of trouble in
China.
China's put some tariffs on U.S. imports, which has hurt what was already a pretty vulnerable vehicles in the Model S and Model X. And Tesla has
waffled on its plans to make more affordable vehicles over the last few years. I mean, Musk preferred going down the road of doing the cyber truck,
and especially the higher end of the cyber truck.
Remember, that was supposed to cost $40,000 when it was originally announced in 2019, we haven't seen any price close to that since it's been
on sale. And instead, internally, Musk kills the project to make a vehicle that cost $25,000. There were people inside the company who were really
trying to convince him of this, and they backed off that plan.
And instead, the company has been spent basically the last year promising these vague promises about making more, quote, unquote, more affordable
models, but without really saying what those will be. All we do know from a lot of reporting is that that's not this $25,000 car that was sort of on
and off a bunch inside the company.
And we were told by Tesla in regulatory filings and on earnings calls going back a couple quarters now that those new more affordable vehicles would be
in production by the end of the first half year. We're here in the second half, and we have no idea what's happening with those models.
ASHER: And obviously you can't escape the politics of all of this, just because, you know he is extremely unpopular, as Hadas was talking about
with both Republicans and Democrats. And also, when you think about this big, beautiful bill, the loss of EV credits is not great news for Tesla's
business, especially just in terms of its future.
OKANE: It's going to be a challenge. I think there's probably no way that, if this bill does get signed into law, whatever form that takes, I think is
going to probably remove that federal credit. It's a matter of kind of when, rather than if. And that won't be good for Tesla.
But it also won't be good for the other companies that sell EVs here in the U.S., who are already having trouble keeping a lot of those numbers up here
in the first half of the year with all of the trade war mess that they have to navigate. I do think that there's a possibility that, if that's what
happens, and we see that credit phase out the end of this year or early next year.
[11:55:00]
That you know, it could hurt Tesla sales overall, but I could see a situation where they actually don't lose much market share, because it's
going to have a bigger impact, I think, on a lot of the other companies that sell EVs at typically higher prices, or that don't seem to have that
sort of connection with customers that Tesla still seems to have, despite everything that's been going on.
ASHER: Yeah. I mean, it's interesting. You've got so many sorts of headwinds for Tesla, just in terms of loss of EV credits. You've got the
competition, obviously, from Chinese electric vehicle makers that are newer and much more affordable. And then you've got the fact that Elon Musk seems
very distracted with U.S. politics.
He said that he would stay out of it. He, you know, he sorts of made up with Donald Trump, and then they are back to fighting again.
OKANE: Yes.
ASHER: And then he's talking about starting a new political party as well. And investors are like, no, please stay focused on your business, on Tesla,
on your companies. All right, Sean, we appreciate it. Thank you so much.
OKANE: Thank you.
ASHER: All right, stay with CNN, my colleague and friend Bianna is going to be joining me for the second hour of "One World" after this short break.
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