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Hani Almadhoun is Interviewed about Starvation in Gaza; FEMA Cutting Programs; Trump's Problem with Independents; Rain and Flood Threat for Midwest and Northeast; Brands from China Court U.S. Customers. Aired 8:30-9a ET

Aired July 25, 2025 - 08:30   ET

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

[08:30:00]

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: War with Gaza, 80 percent of them children. That's coming from UNICEF. And at least four children have died from starvation in the past 48 hours. I mean this has been a humanitarian crisis for a long while now. How much worse is the current state of things that you're hearing from your teams on the ground?

HANI ALMADHOUN, CO-FOUNDER, GAZA SOUP KITCHEN: Kate, thank you for having me. Obviously, I do not want to overcomplicate this. There are 6,000 food trucks outside the borders of Gaza right now waiting to be allowed, permitted by the Israeli army to go fight the famine. UNRWA is the agency that's able to do this. It's the backbone of the humanitarian response. And for some political reasons, or for the intention of the weaponizing of aid, those aid trucks are not allowed in.

The stories you've mentioned, the statistics, it's all true. My family is there. My colleagues are there. They're reporting the same things. Food is scarce. When I wear my Gaza Soup Kitchen hat, we have ten locations in Gaza. We are only able to cook at five because there is not enough food.

We see kids with arms like twigs. We see kids with frail bodies, and their eyes are just going deeper and deeper into their skulls. This is the nightmare. And you can see it in our social media. (INAUDIBLE) the Gaza Soup Kitchen. These stories were hearing (INAUDIBLE). And remember, there's at least 700 U.S. rabbis who signed the letter and advocating for food into Gaza. The pope asked for this. The U.N. secretary general. Even sometimes the president alludes to this in his remarks.

We want to end this. We want to bring aid. The aid is one kilometer outside of Gaza. It just needs the Israeli will to say, let's bring food. But the starvation is real.

BOLDUAN: Yes, I mean we've even heard from the State Department acknowledging that not enough is getting in. It seems, you know, an obvious statement to make, but the official State Department is acknowledging that.

Israel has previously blamed Hamas for its decision to halt aid shipments, alleging that the terrorist group was stealing supplies and profiting off of it. Hamas has denied it. What are you hearing about that?

ALMADHOUN: Well, see, you cannot unsee the famine, Kate. And then you only can lie about it and try to photoshop the starvation. And that's what the Israelis are doing right now.

Look, they've been bombing Gaza for 21 months straight, the equivalent of maybe five or six nuclear bombs have been dropped in Gaza, and they're still blaming another party. Israel is in control of everything in Gaza. They control 80 percent of the land. They control all the crossings. To blame other people is just the -- its just unbelievable to me because everybody sees this, you and I and your viewers and the American public do not want to see the images that emerge from Gaza.

We can end this. There is plenty of food and it's just waiting outside the borders. To blame a militant group that's supposedly, in Hebrew, the Israeli are telling their public that they've decimated, is just doesn't match up with the reality on the ground. People are being starved, and only food is expensive when it's scarce. A bag of flour is $1,000, the same bag you buy for $5 here in America. And you can imagine, once you go back to there is more aid, the looting is gone and black market is gone because food is available and bad actors are not going to benefit.

But the reality is, you and I are talking about this and we know that people's lives are at stake, especially children. I could show you pictures and images of many beautiful kids who are just fading away because we're not getting them the basics like flour, when you know flour is a treat, you know there is something wrong.

BOLDUAN: I'd say so.

Hani, thank you very much for your time.

John.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: All right, with us now, Beth Sanner, a CNN national security analyst, former deputy director of national intelligence.

Beth, thanks so much for being with us.

I mean this is the backdrop as these negotiations were taking place before the United States apparently pulled its team and Israel had earlier done the same. There had been some optimism leading up to these talks. What do you think happened?

BETH SANNER, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: It is really hard to know. I don't think it's over. I think that Hamas, unfortunately, is putting its own interests in front of all of these poor, innocent civilians, as it has throughout this war, and -- and its decision to conduct this terrorist attack.

But at the same time, I think that Israel, you know, I have a lot of friends who I would not exactly call doves inside Israel. Former military people who are saying, you know, what we should do is just say, we'll end the war right now in exchange for all the hostages and forget all this other stuff.

[08:35:03]

So, I think that both sides here are not being completely helpful, but I think this is a negotiating tactic by the United States to put more pressure on Hamas because, you know, we're trying to get this done. Meanwhile, people starve.

BERMAN: Yes. I mean, and that's the thing, I want to do come back to that. But -- but -- but, you know, the U.S. special envoy, Steve Witkoff, says they're going to now consider alternative options to bring the hostages home and try to create a more stable environment for the people of Gaza. I mean, how do you create a stable environment for the people of Gaza without some kind of a ceasefire that allows aid in?

SANNER: Well, look, OK, yes, you need the ceasefire to get this to a stable place. But I honestly haven't seen, and, of course, we don't know, but I haven't seen the kind of pressure that Trump put on Netanyahu earlier in this process now in order to get the food aid in. I mean, I haven't seen any pressure on getting the food aid in. And I don't understand why.

So, I think that we could do that right now. And this -- this U.S. backed, you know, kind of ironically named humanitarian Gazan Humanitarian Foundation, which is, you know, it is a complete catastrophic failure, and we're locked into it. Why? We should just say, this isn't working and we need to flood the zone with food because this -- this is going to just keep getting worse.

BERMAN: Yes, and, obviously, there are humanitarian concerns, or should be humanitarian concerns for the well-being of tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands of people. But how does it impact national security, too, when -- when country and peoples around the world start to begin to see more pictures of the situation there, and then also see the United States engaging but not engaging in other ways?

SANNER: Right. I mean, you know, it -- the thing is, is that standing with Israel is important on core principles, right? But standing with Israel when on -- on Tuesday, at the Knesset, at the Israeli parliament, there was a far right gathering there that is arguing for, you know -- "Gaza Riviera from Vision to Reality" was the name of the conference. And they're talking about, this is the opportunity to push all Gazans out. You know, it just -- we -- we need to kind of separate things out. And all of the world is against what is happening right now in Gaza, except us. And at least that's how it looks.

So, we need to kind of change our -- our narrative and be able to say, yes, we have these principles, but at the same time we've got to get aid in there.

BERMAN: Yes. And it doesn't necessarily have to be in opposition to standing beside Israel.

Beth Sanner, we appreciate your time this morning. Thank you very much.

The father of a school shooter heading to trial, accused of helping his daughter access the gun she used in the attack.

And President Trump could be losing support with a key group that helped get him elected.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:42:38]

BOLDUAN: Got new reporting exclusively into CNN right now. FEMA proposing nearly $1 billion in cuts to disaster preparedness and security grants. That's according to internal memos and to FEMA officials familiar with these plans. In these memos, the agency acknowledges, in stark terms, the potential risks of eliminating some of these critical programs. One of the memos from FEMA warns that this would create a, quote, "less secure nation."

Let's learn more about this. CNN's Gabe Cohen has the reporting. He's joining us now.

Tell us more about what you're learning, Gabe.

GABE COHEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: So, Kate, first, remember the big picture here. Right now the Department of Homeland Security and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, they've been overhauling FEMA, trying to shrink the agency's footprint now over the past few months and really start shifting responsibility for disaster preparedness, response and recovery on to states. With that, we've now obtained these memos showing these proposed cuts within FEMA, proposals to end more than half of the agency's emergency management and homeland security grant programs. Nineteen of the 35 programs that FEMA runs totaling nearly $1 billion in emergency management and homeland security granting. This is money that goes out for initiatives like disaster preparedness, for anti-terrorism, for cybersecurity, for staffing and training for local first responders, an early warning system for disasters. It is a ton of stuff within these programs that FEMA and DHS now hope to cut.

And these memos, as you mentioned, Kate, which were approved by Kristi Noem and the new FEMA chief that she had appointed, the memos really acknowledge, in stark terms, the potential risks associated with eliminating each of these programs. For example, cutting the biggest program that's on the list. It is a $550 million security grant for big cities to prepare for major disasters, potentially terror attacks. Well, slashing that, according to this memo, would create "a less secure nation, especially at the border and in some of the nations most targeted cities, including Miami, Washington, D.C., and Dallas." Eliminating another disaster preparedness program, according to the memo, would "leave state and local governments more vulnerable to catastrophic incidents" and ending yet another program that secures public transit from terrorism would "contradict the administration's commitment to a safer and more secure country."

[08:45:14]

Now, to be clear, Kate, I reached out to the Department of Homeland Security with a long list of questions about these proposed cuts. They told me these memos have been "cherry-picked," in their words, although they did acknowledge the department is looking to cut, as they put it, "unaccountable programs."

So, certainly DHS, as you see from that statement, they believe these are bloated grant programs that need to end. But they're going to need the White House and Congress to approve in order to get it done.

BOLDUAN: Gabe Cohen, great reporting, as always. Thank you for bringing it to us.

John.

BERMAN: All right, this morning we are standing by for the president to depart the White House. One would think he will face questions about all the Jeffrey Epstein developments. They have cast a shadow a bit the last few weeks over the administration. But this morning, the president kind of faces a different problem among a key voting group.

CNN's chief data analyst, Harry Enten, is with us this morning.

What group are we talking about, Harry?

HARRY ENTEN, CNN CHIEF DATA ANALYST: We are talking about independents, Mr. Berman. And I will say, this is the biggest warning sign, the biggest danger sign for President Trump in his second term so far. Why is that? Because it does not appear that there is a bottom to which Donald's support can't fall to.

What are we talking about? Trump's net approval rating with independents. You know, there was all this hubbub about Gallup that came out this past week. You see, back in January, it was minus two points. Now it's minus 35 points.

But what's important here is Gallup is largely matching the average. Back in January, in the average, Trump's net approval rating with independents was minus three. Look at where it's fallen to now, minus 29 points. That is a drop of over 25 points with the key part of the electorate. If you're not winning among independents, you're probably not winning overall. And when your net approval ratings is minus 29 points, you are definitely not winning overall when you're that low with independents.

BERMAN: And just the size of the drop, it's -- I mean it's staggering.

ENTEN: It's huge.

BERMAN: OK, so how does this compare historically?

ENTEN: Yes, you know, we were talking about Trump's overall approval rating, that it was the second worst overall. But we look among independents, it is the worst on record at this point. My goodness gracious. Worst net approval ratings ever six months in, among independents. Last time around, Trump broke the all-time record at minus 23 points. He is even lower than that now at minus 29 points. He has broken his own record for the worst on record. As I said at the beginning, there appears to be no fall, and Trump is certainly falling through that floor.

BERMAN: So, during the Biden administration, I think there was a lot of thinking that -- that maybe enough focus wasn't being paid to the effect that inflation had on people's thinking. And it may very well be that inflation is playing a bigger role in opinions than we recognize.

ENTEN: Yes. So, inflation, in my mind, was what cost Joe Biden the presidency more than any other factor. And it brought him down. But, guess what, Donald Trump, at this point, his net approval rating on inflation among independents, it's actually worse than Biden's was a year ago. Biden was way, way underwater at minus 38 points. But look at Trump and the average of polls on inflation. Oh, my goodness gracious, minus 45 points. I never thought I'd see the day, especially this early on in the Trump administration. The issue that in large part got him elected is, at this point, the issue more so than any other that is dragging him down. If this is what we have on midterm day come 2026, I can promise you this, the Republican majority in the House, you can wave adios, amigos, goodbye to it, because Republicans, simply put, can't win with this number.

BERMAN: Harry Enten, thank you very much.

ENTEN: Thank you.

BERMAN: Kate.

BOLDUAN: CNN Heroes is back and in action. This morning we're going to introduce you to Yuri Williams, bringing joy and love to sick children and many others as a real life superhero.

Here's more of his story.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

YURI WILLIAMS, CNN HERO: My name is Yuri Williams. By day I'm a deputy juvenile correction officer, and by night --

That's for you.

I'm trying to uplift as many human beings and animals as possible.

I came up with the idea of dressing up as superheroes. Stormtrooper Kylo Ren, Spider-man, Miles Morales, Deadpool. But my favorite, favorite is probably Mandalorian. I visit the houseless community, veterans, the elderly, children with special needs, disabilities, anybody that's in need of any type of service or help that I can provide, I reach out.

When I'm out visiting the hospital, I bring as many toys as possible. I go get dressed, and then that's when the magic begins.

Good morning, guys, and young lady.

Cake for you.

Sometimes I go out with my sidekick.

RON, YURI'S SIDEKICK: I like that smile on your face.

WILLIAMS: It's making a distraction wearing the costume, but at the same time I'm able to help them because they feel like they can trust me.

Another hug. Oh, my goodness.

It's healing for them.

[08:50:01]

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thank you.

WILLIAMS: You're welcome.

You be good, all right?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK.

WILLIAMS: This all began in 2009 after losing my mother to an eight- year battle with cancer. My mother was a loving individual. She was a probation officer. In the community, everyone respected her.

I fell into a five-year depression period where I almost lost myself. What I did was come up with this nonprofit to honor her and to thank her for being the mother that she was.

A Future Superhero and Friends is based in southern California, but we've been across all 50 states, five and a half times, two more states and its going to be six times.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Cheese.

WILLIAMS: Over the years now I've probably visited over 25,000 plus individuals in need.

Beautiful.

I'm willing to travel anywhere by plane, boat, whatever I need to do to make an impact on somebody's life.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I love you, man.

WILLIAMS: I just want to be able to do this every single day. And I think I would be satisfied.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: And that is Yuri Williams.

To nominate someone you think should be a CNN Hero, go to cnn.com/heroes. Nominations close July 31st. So, get at it.

Coming up still for us, homes swept away in New Mexico as a new round of devastating flash flooding hits that state. We have more reporting on this for you.

We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:55:31]

BERMAN: All right, happening now, we've got new flooding threats. In New Mexico, a trailer got swept away, breaking apart on a tree and just washing away downstream. Time lapse images show how fast the water rose in just minutes. Floodwaters overwhelmed streets in Amarillo, Texas.

CNN meteorologist Allison Chinchar joins us now with the very latest on what we can expect today.

Allison.

ALLISON CHINCHAR, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Yes, that's right. And unfortunately, what we can expect is more flooding in terms of what we've already seen. It's just going to be in slightly different areas. But for some of those different areas, they've already had plenty of flooding over the last few weeks. The video behind me showing Amarillo, Texas, from the heavy rain that they had last night.

But the concern this morning is actually across portions of Kansas, as well as Missouri. Now here's a look at what we're talking about. You can see active flash flood warnings here, indicated by those dark red boxes. That's where we have the biggest concern for that ongoing flooding threat right now. But unfortunately, more showers and thunderstorms are expected across these areas, even as we go through the next several hours. You've already got all of these dots here. Those indicate the heavy rain and the flooding reports. So, you can see a lot of them across those states, but also several other states as well, even including Texas, where we had the heavy rain last night.

Now, the reason why a lot of these areas keep getting the rain over and over again, it's all thanks to this high pressure. Now, what the high pressure is doing is making it very hot right around the high but then notice the flow around it is where you have all of those showers and thunderstorms. And they keep happening in the same spots over and over again.

And that's the big concern. It's not just the amount of rain that these places are getting maybe say in an hour or two, it's the fact that the ground is already saturated from so much rain the last few days, and even in some cases weeks, that even adding an extra inch or two causes more flooding. This is where the greatest concern of flooding is going to be as we finish out the rest of the day today. BERMAN: All right, we'll watch that very closely.

Allison Chinchar, thank you very much.

Kate.

BOLDUAN: And the other headlines we're watching right now, a judge has ordered the father of a Wisconsin school shooter must stand trial on charges that he allowed his daughter access to guns that she used in a deadly attack. The father faces two counts of intentionally giving a dangerous weapon to a minor, and one count of contributing to the delinquency of a minor over this. Fifteen-year-old Natalie Rupnow, she opened fire at a private Christian school in Wisconsin back in December. She killed a teacher and a 14 -year-old student. Six others were injured before she turned the gun on herself.

UnitedHealthcare, the nation's largest insurer, is now under formal investigation by the Justice Department over possible fraud in its Medicare Advantage program. The company says it's cooperating with the federal investigation, has also launched its own internal review. This comes after months of turmoil for one of the -- one of the country's biggest corporations, including, of course, that tragic, horrible murder of the CEO -- of the top executive and the CEO also then resigning and a $277 billion drop in market value.

John.

BERMAN: All right, this morning, despite the ongoing trade war, more chains from China are coming to the United States, eager to cash in on the big market here. The latest entry, Luckin Coffee, a very popular Chinese coffee brand, going head to head with Starbucks.

CNN's Vanessa Yurkevich and Marc Stewart report from two different continents on China's push to court U.S. customers.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

VANESSA YURKEVICH, CNN BUSINESS AND POLITICS CORRESPONDENT: America's latest coffee chain isn't from America.

MARC STEWART, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: It's from where I live. Luckin Coffee is from China.

YURKEVICH: Luckin just opened its first two locations right here in New York City. They are huge in China.

STEWART: Here in China, Luckin overtook Starbucks back in 2019. Right now it has about 22,000 stores across the country. You can understand why it has its eye on the U.S.

YURKEVICH: How did you hear about Luckin?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I actually heard about it from TikTok. Apparently it's China's number one coffee chain. So, we really wanted to try it. It's actually really good. STEWART: Here in China, Luckin is known for its cheap prices. This is a specialty latte with at milk. It only costs about $1.25 U.S. dollars.

Do you think they'll be successful in the United States?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If they are cheaper, as they are in China now, I think they will. Coffee is coffee.

YURKEVICH: All right, we got some cold brews here. Ice drinks started about $4.50 and go up from there.

[09:00:02]

Luckin isn't the only Chinese beverage company to come to the U.S. Heytea, a really popular tea brand in China, has been here in the United