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Trump Urges Ukraine To Accept Russia's Offer Of Direct Talks; Newark Mayor Arrested Outside Detention Facility In New Jersey; Dateline: Kohberger's Phone Shows Victims' Friends, Ted Bundy Searches. Aired 3-4p ET

Aired May 11, 2025 - 15:00   ET

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

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: I asked the owner, Ari, about what makes Ann Arbor such a happy place for me, for him, and for so many others?

ARI WEINZWEIG, CO-FOUNDER, ZINGERMAN'S DELICATESSEN: There's very good energy here. I meet a football coach. I meet a world class violinist. I meet a poet that has been doing a book event, you know, and that's like one evening, you know, and, and I think there's a lot of that here.

And so the creativity enhances the creativity and people meet and creates a spirit of generosity. That's wonderful.

GUPTA: It's true. You do meet a lot of interesting people here. Probably the most important person I met was my wife, Rebecca. She used to work at my favorite restaurant in town, Palio, and when we started dating, she would keep this starving, poor surgical resident from going hungry.

I'd come in here and I was like, I was a mafia don sitting here, you would bring me pasta or a glass of wine, more pasta, some bread.

REBECCA OLSON GUPTA, DR. SANJAY GUPTA'S WIFE: You, you did like that when you would come here, because if there had been, like, a mistake and we would have an extra meal or something, I'd be like, oh, can I have it? They're like, okay. And I would give it to you.

GUPTA: To the happiest place in the world.

R. GUPTA: Cheers.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN HOST: Oh, be sure to tune in to an all-new episode of "My Happy Place" with award winning filmmaker and musician Questlove that's airing tonight at 10:00 P.M. Eastern and Pacific only on CNN.

[15:01:20]

FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN HOST: Hello again, everyone. Thank you so much for joining me. I'm Fredricka Whitfield.

Happy Mother's Day.

All right, we've got breaking news out of Ukraine. The Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says he is ready to take up Vladimir Putin's offer to meet for direct talks this week, after Putin rejected a European and Ukrainian demand for a ceasefire at midnight tonight, apparently backed by the White House, that ceasefire deal.

But Zelenskyy also says a ceasefire is a necessary basis for diplomacy. President Trump, just a short time ago urged Ukraine's President Zelenskyy to accept Russia's invitation, saying in a social media post: "Ukraine should agree to this immediately."

Putin's offer for a meeting comes just a day after European leaders went to Kyiv, demanding Russia agree to a 30-day ceasefire.

CNN's chief international security correspondent, Nick Paton Walsh is in Kyiv, CNN's Julia Benbrook is in Washington.

Nick, to you first, is there any expectation that Putin will actually put a ceasefire in place to get these talks started?

NICK PATON WALSH, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Hopes for that, I think, are diminishing. We are two hours away from a ceasefire, which the European leaders, the four biggest militaries in Europe, two nuclear powers, the U.K., France, Germany and Poland stood alongside Ukraine yesterday and demanded a ceasefire that would begin as of midnight tonight, an unconditional ceasefire. That seems unlikely.

It is essentially a request that's been ignored, really, by Putin. He answered it by saying instead that he was willing to meet -- well, he was willing to have Russian and Ukrainian officials meet in their first direct talks of the war in Istanbul on Thursday.

Now, it is unclear at this point, indeed, if those talks will in fact happen. And if this midnight ceasefire doesn't come into effect, well, there have been threats basically by European leaders here in Kyiv yesterday and by Ukraine that "massive sanctions" in the words of the French President Emmanuel Macron, would indeed follow.

What we don't have at this point is a suggestion from the White House that they are necessarily going to implement those consequences for Russia for apparently, until this point, ignoring that ceasefire demand. Instead, that ceasefire demand was met by the suggestion of a meeting in Istanbul.

The Ukrainian President in the last hours has essentially upped the stakes in this diplomatic back and forth and said, look, if you want a meeting in Istanbul on Thursday, I will be there myself to meet Vladimir Putin in person. Now, that is essentially, I think, Ukraine trying to grasp one of the things that U.S. President Donald Trump has floated in the past weeks of diplomacy, and that's meetings between Kyiv and Moscow at the very highest level.

Zelenskyy said in the same social media post where he suggested he'd fly to Turkey, that he still expects a ceasefire at midnight. But his language seemed to soften.

We've seen those European leaders throughout the day continue to demand a ceasefire and indeed, Donald Trump's own envoy to Ukraine, Keith Kellogg, said that he still believed a ceasefire coming before negotiations was American policy.

But indeed, what we heard from Donald Trump in a Truth Social post earlier today, Trump suggested that essentially talking about the Russian narrative here, that President Putin and Russia doesn't want to have a ceasefire, rather wants to meet on Thursday. And he strongly pushed Ukraine towards that meeting, saying it should, "have the meeting now."

He also talked about how Putin was spending too much time celebrating the end of World War II, and how that could even possibly have happened, that Russian victory without American support. Sort of an interesting slalom between all different parts of geopolitics in history in one social media post.

[15:05:11]

But we are into potentially for Ukraine, a disconcerting moment here where a moment of extraordinary European unity yesterday, where all of these European leaders stood on the stage and said there has to be a ceasefire tonight, unconditionally agreed to by Russia, and we have American backing for sanctions against Russia if that ceasefire doesn't happen, we've now slipped from that to Ukraine essentially, it seems, being pressured into this Russian idea of a meeting in Istanbul.

Zelenskyy saying he will go there himself to meet Putin, and the notion of a ceasefire being something people would expect or like, but not something that Trump in his post necessarily said had to happen.

That is, I think, potentially quite damaging to European muscle when it comes to diplomacy here. It does indeed. If you read the Trump post, suggest that that Putin narrative is further most in his thoughts rather than what the Europeans say he signed up to just 24 hours ago and it puts a lot of focus on the next few hours ahead. Is a ceasefire coming? Pretty unlikely.

But most importantly, as to whether Putin is willing to go to Istanbul to meet Zelenskyy. Zelenskyy tried to seize the initiative here, make it sound more like his idea, potentially and potentially show the courage of being there himself personally. And this leads us now into a very complex four days, a high stakes meeting, potentially in Turkey, but also, most importantly, the pulling, really, of some kind of rug from under these European powers. The deadline of midnight tonight seems much less significant than it did just hours ago, and I think that potentially damages Ukraine's position with its European allies in terms of how much U.S. backing they think when it comes to facing down Russia -- Fred.

WHITFIELD: All right, Nick Paton Walsh, thank you so much.

Let's bring in Julia Benbrook now. Julia, is Trump directing his message at Ukraine or Russia?

JULIA BENBROOK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, this social media post from President Donald Trump comes as European leaders and the U.S. have been trying to get Russian President Vladimir Putin to agree to a month-long ceasefire deal, and I think the big question here is, is if that post really undermines those overall efforts.

As Nick pointed out, we saw the European leaders meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Kyiv yesterday. It was a strong showing of support, as well as sending a strong message telling Putin that if he didn't agree to a 30-day ceasefire deal, that there would be massive new sanctions on Russia, and the Europeans delivered that message saying that they had the backing of the White House.

We then saw that late night address from Putin, where he did not directly speak about that ultimatum, but he did speak about those potential direct talks between Ukrainian officials and Russian officials.

I know that in that, we've discussed that Trump urged on that social media post for Ukraine to accept these talks, but I want to pull up a different portion of it now to highlight what else he had to say. He said, "At least they will be able to determine whether or not a deal is possible. And if it is not, European leaders and the U.S. will know where everything stands and can proceed accordingly." He then ended that post in all caps, saying, "Have the meeting now."

So we will see as he urges this meeting to go on without it being clear if that cease fire deal will take effect on Monday, like the European leaders called for, of course, just hours away now -- Fred.

WHITFIELD: All right, Julia Benbrook, Nick Paton Walsh, thanks to both of you.

All right, let's continue this conversation now with Jill Dougherty, CNN contributor, adjunct professor at Georgetown University and the former CNN Moscow Bureau Chief and author of the book, "My Russia."

Jill, great to see you.

So I am wondering your view, Trump posting this, does this undermine the meeting that Europeans had with Ukraine's Zelenskyy in Kyiv?

JILL DOUGHERTY, CNN RUSSIAN AFFAIRS CONTRIBUTOR: I actually do think it does. It is because it is a 180, you know, it is an about face of from what we expected when those European leaders went very dramatically to Kyiv, met with Zelenskyy, and it appeared that everybody was on board to put really strong pressure on Putin. You know, do the ceasefire.

And then all of a sudden -- and we should note, as Nick said, it appeared at that point that President Trump was on board because the European leaders from Kyiv called President Trump and they thought they had an agreement, but there was nothing. I would note there was nothing that I saw that officially confirmed that. So what happens today? President Trump says, you know. Mr. Zelenskyy, go to Istanbul. And that is a proposal by Vladimir Putin, which was meant to kind of switch gears again and get him in the driver's seat and make it difficult for Zelenskyy.

[15:10:14]

This is all very complicated, and it is happening really fast, but I think we have to follow the ball here.

WHITFIELD: So this further empowers Putin.

DOUGHERTY: I would think that it -- well, it is hard to say. I mean, I think President Trump on the side of Putin by saying this meeting, you know, Putin's idea is a good idea, you all ought to go to Istanbul.

But whether ultimately it really helps is kind of hard. But it would appear that President Trump now is putting more pressure on Zelenskyy and less on Putin. And that has been, you know, the back and forth now for a few weeks.

WHITFIELD: So, so even with this new, I guess, you know, wrench thrown into things or a or a new option shall we say, you know, being thrown into things, does that mean consideration of a ceasefire. I mean, you heard one of the spokesperson for the kremlin yesterday who was telling our Fred Pleitgen, you know, well, you know, we will consider it. But then what about that three-day ceasefire?

So it feels like this is now kind of back to the drawing board over deciphering if there is a ceasefire, which one? Is that where we are now?

DOUGHERTY: Yes. I think that quick, you know, three-day, that's over, so we can kind of forget about that. But the -- I think, you know, Putin continues to say I am all for a ceasefire if you do what I want and what he wants is a really, you know, basic thing, which is he wants to get into what he calls the root causes of the conflict.

And that means translate that from Russian, it means no NATO for Ukraine, no weapons for Ukraine from the West, a weaker Ukrainian -- you know, all of the military and all of these things that Putin is demanding.

So it sounds very simple. I just -- you know, I just want the root causes, but the root causes is what all of the negotiations will be about and it includes land, by the way.

So Putin is, you know, each side is trying to make it difficult for the other side and in the middle is President Trump, who wants a deal and is getting very frustrated that people aren't doing what he wants. Putin's not doing it and he also thinks that Zelenskyy is not doing it.

So I think the frustration is coming from Trump, but the maneuvering now is coming from both sides. And that's why its complex.

WHITFIELD: Jill Dougherty, thank you so much.

All right, we are also following major developments in the trade war with China. Just a short time ago, a second day of high-level trade talks between the U.S. and China wrapped up in Switzerland.

The President's top trade negotiators emerged from the meeting in Geneva touting "substantial progress" -- I am quoting them -- and appearing to confirm that a deal between the two countries has been reached.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SCOTT BESSENT, U.S. TREASURY SECRETARY: I am happy to report that we made substantial progress between the United States and China in the very important trade talks.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: CNN's Betsy Klein is joining us right now from the White House.

So, Betsy, today's trade talks just ended. What more are you learning about what details will be revealed and when?

BETSY KLEIN, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE PRODUCER: Well, look, Fredricka, this could have massive implications for the global economy. This all began last month when President Trump announced those sweeping 145 percent tariffs on Chinese goods, injecting massive uncertainty into the market. Subsequently, the President unveiled what is essentially an agreement in principle with the United Kingdom on trade and his economic adviser, Kevin Hassett, said this morning that there are 24 other deals with other countries in the works.

But on China, the talks between the U.S. and China on trade were at a virtual stalemate for the last several weeks, all until this weekend, these two days of intensive trade negotiations between Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, the United States Trade Representative, Jamieson Greer and their Chinese counterparts. They emerged from those talks saying that, "a deal' had been reached.

China, for their part, the Vice Premier said that it was a -- according to state media -- an agreement of an economic and trade consultation mechanism. But I want you to listen to how Greer himself characterized this discussion.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JAMIESON GREER, U.S. TRADE REPRESENTATIVE: It is important to understand how quickly we were able to come to an agreement, which reflects that perhaps the differences were not so large as may be thought. That being said, there was a lot of groundwork that went into these two days.

Well, the President declared a national emergency and imposed tariffs, and we are confident that the deal we struck with our Chinese partners will help us to resolve work toward resolving that national emergency. (END VIDEO CLIP)

[15:15:22]

KLEIN: Greer, along with the White House, characterizing this as a deal that has been reached. But what we still don't know is what tariff rate was agreed to between the U.S. and China. President trump, of course, floating that 80 percent tariff rate last week in a post on social media. But he indicated to our colleague Kristen Holmes that he had authorized Bessent to negotiate a different number, declining to say what that number was.

Bessent said that more details will be shared Monday morning. Something investors, of course, businesses and consumers will be watching very closely. But all of this comes just a day before President Trump is set to embark on his first major international trip of his second term to the Middle East. Clearly eager to head there with a win -- Fredricka.

WHITFIELD: All right, Betsy Klein at the White House, thank you so much.

All right, coming up, three members of Congress involved in a confrontation outside an ICE detention facility now say the White House is trying to intimidate them with threats of arrests.

And later, a mom finds a super-sized shipment of lollipops at her door. We will talk with her and her son, who actually used her phone to place that order.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:21:03]

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN Breaking News.

WHITFIELD: All right, this breaking news out of Israel, where we have learned that the last known living American hostage held in Gaza, Edan Alexander, is going to be released.

CNN's Jeremy Diamond is live for us in Tel Aviv.

Jeremy, what do we know?

JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN JERUSALEM CORRESPONDENT: Yes, this news just breaking moments ago, Fredricka.

Hamas has announced that it will indeed release the American citizen, Edan Alexander. He is an Israeli soldier who was taken captive on October 7th. He has been held by Hamas since then, and now Hamas is announcing that they will release Edan Alexander.

I've also now spoken with a source familiar with this news, who said that this is a "total goodwill gesture on Hamas' part," one that is designed to try and kick start a process of negotiations to end the war in Gaza. Edan alexander, I am told, could be released as early as tomorrow, but he will likely be released either tomorrow or on Tuesday. And in fact, Steve Witkoff, President Trump's Special Envoy for the Middle East, who has been intimately involved in the negotiations that led to the release -- that will lead to the release of Alexander, he is flying to Tel Aviv tomorrow morning and he will be on hand to personally welcome Edan Alexander back home.

This source who I spoke with, who is familiar with these negotiations, also told me that this release of Edan Alexander simply would not have happened without President Trump and his push over the last several days, in particular for a deal to secure Edan Alexander's release or the release of other hostages timed with his visit to the Middle East this week.

Indeed, in just a couple of days, President Trump will be arriving in the Middle East, not scheduled as of now, to travel to Israel, but he will be going to Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Qatar.

Qatar, of course, has been one of the key mediators in these negotiations, and I am told that those discussions intensified in recent days, and Hamas now agreeing to release Edan Alexander. I am also told by this source familiar with these negotiations that the intention now is to go into, "immediate peace deal negotiations" to try and secure the release of the remaining hostages and perhaps even end the war in Gaza.

All of that, of course, will be many steps away. But for the moment, Edan Alexander, the last living American held hostage in Gaza, set to be released in the coming days -- Fred.

WHITFIELD: All right, look forward to that.

Jeremy Diamond, thank you so much.

We will be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:28:05]

WHITFIELD: The Trump administration says they may arrest three Democratic New Jersey lawmakers who were outside a New Jersey detention center. Newark Mayor Ras Baraka was arrested and charged with trespassing. Now, those lawmakers who were there and witnessed the arrest accused the Trump administration of attempting to intimidate them.

CNN's Gloria Pazmino is joining us right now.

Gloria, I spoke to one of the lawmakers yesterday, and then this morning, all three appeared on CNN. Tell us more about what they said.

GLORIA PAZMINO, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Fred. And really, what we are seeing here is a day by day escalation of this conflict following this pretty sort of chaotic and heated interaction that played out outside the Newark detention facility this past Friday, which, as you said, resulted in the arrest of Newark Mayor Ras Baraka.

Now, the three other members of Congress have since accused the Trump administration of trying to create an environment of intimidation. They said that they tried to de-escalate the situation there yesterday as they were trying to gain access to the facility, something that they are allowed to do by law. They didn't want to let the mayor in. The mayor tried to exit. He was on the other side of the gate.

And then at that point, one of the congressmembers is suggesting that somebody placed a call, someone higher up in the Department of Homeland Security to essentially direct that arrest.

Take a listen to two of the Congressmembers that were involved in that altercation on Friday, responding to what happened and to accusations from the Department of Homeland Security saying that one of them had body slammed an immigration officer on Friday. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. ROB MENENDEZ (D-NJ): The mayor was on the public side. Someone there from HSI got a call and what happened next was they reengaged with the mayor. They went on to the public side and that's where they arrested him.

So there were so many instances where this could have all been de- escalated, but it was squarely in HSI ICE's court.

REP. LAMONICA MCIVER (D-NJ): I mean, I honestly do not know how to body slam anyone. There is no video that supports me body slamming anyone.

As congresswoman Bonnie Watson Coleman said, we were simply there to do our job. Therefore, oversight visit and what you're watching in the video, and we don't have all of the bodycam and we hope that all of the bodycam is released.

It was a very tense situation. It unfortunately did not have to be like that. They created that confrontation. They created that chaos and then ultimately went to arrest the mayor of the largest city of New Jersey.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PAZMINO: Now, Fred, I have watched all of that bodycam video and there is, in fact, no video showing this alleged body slamming that took place. It does show a very chaotic scene. It does show a lot of pushing and shoving. It does show the congressmembers getting in between the officers. And it does, as you can see, get pretty heated as they are trying to prevent the officers from arresting Mayor Baraka, who was ultimately taken into custody and held in custody for several hours on Friday until he was ultimately released and charged with trespassing.

Now, we've gone back to the Department of Homeland Security about this claim from Congressman Menendez that he believes someone higher up in DHS placed a call to order his arrest. We have not heard back from them yet, but we did hear from Trump's border czar, Tom Homan, talking about this incident, accusing the congressmembers of just engaging in a political stunt. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

THOMAS HOMAN, U.S. BORDER CZAR: This isn't about constitutional rights, this is about politics. They simply don't want these people removed from this country. They don't want immigration enforcement in this country, and that's what it is all about.

They can try to hide it all they want with these protests around the facility, but we can continue to do what we are doing. That facility has got some of the worst of the worst.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PAZMINO: Now, it is important to mention, Fred, that even after that very heated altercation on Friday, the three congressmembers did gain access to the facility. They were able to tour something that they are supposed to do, are entitled to do, are legally allowed to do as part of their oversight requirement, as part of their job. They said that they toured the facility, felt that things were running as they were supposed to, and ultimately that that was the reason they were there to do their oversight duty and to try and make sure that this facility, which has been in the focus in recent weeks, was running as it is supposed to be -- Fred.

WHITFIELD: All right, Gloria Pazmino, thank you so much.

All right, coming up, new details in the case against the man accused of killing four University of Idaho students in 2022 and what serial killer Ted Bundy has to do with this case.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:37:44]

WHITFIELD: All right, we are learning new details in the case against Bryan Kohberger, the man accused of killing four University of Idaho students in 2022.

Data on Kohberger's phone obtained by NBC's "Dateline" magazine show, allegedly shows searches related to serial killer Ted Bundy and dozens of photos of friends of the women that he is accused of killing.

"Dateline" also discovered Kohberger watched YouTube videos about the murders.

CNN's Julia Vargas Jones is joining me right now with more on this.

Julia, what else is the cell phone data revealing according to "Dateline's" investigation?

JULIA VARGAS JONES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, a lot of details coming out of that "Dateline" investigation, Fred.

One of them is not just he was watching YouTube videos or at least one YouTube video and having those dozens of photos on his phone, but also looking at materials about the case about 60 times, either looking or saving these materials on his phone. And also these searches about Ted Bundy.

You know, he was a student of -- a grad student of Criminology. He searched for a paper one of his professors had written about Ted Bundy, as well as watching a documentary about Ted Bundy.

So we spoke to one of Ted Bundy's attorneys about exactly this question.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JONES: The new information about his -- about Kohberger's search history that includes Ted Bundy and --

JOHN HENRY BROWNE, DEFENSE ATTORNEY FOR SERIAL KILLER, TED BUNDY: None of it helps Mr. Kohberger. First we have the knife sheave, then we have the DNA. Then we have the car driving around. Then we have telephone pings. Now, we have computer searches of Ted. We have computer searches of sociopaths.

You know, that's all circumstantial evidence that's building.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

JONES: "Dateline" also reporting that they obtained records from cell phone towers that would put Kohberger at least 23 times within a hundred meters of the Moscow, Idaho home, Fred. Also, some footage that would show a car that matched the description of his car near that home.

You know, he would have had to drive across state lines from a state that does not have the death penalty, Washington state to Idaho, which does have the death penalty.

I asked the attorney for Ted Bundy about this as well.

[15:40:10 ]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JONES: Doesn't this kind of paint a picture of someone who is trying to be caught?

BROWNE: Well, there is certainly that question. You don't need to go to Moscow and if you stay in Washington and do something wrong and you're a Criminal Justice Major, you know, there is an insanity defense and, you know, there is no death penalty.

So, yes, it is very odd to me. I think -- I think that's really odd.

(END VIDEO CLIP) JONES: But he has the plea -- he has not pled guilty on this. He has entered a plea of not guilty on this case. That could still change. And we are expecting another pretrial hearing this week, Fred, on Thursday, ahead of the trial which should begin in August.

WHITFIELD: All right, Julia Vargas Jones, thank you so much.

And we will be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: All right, when a North Carolina mom couldn't find a play space to accommodate her son with autism, she built her own. Here is todays Start Small, Think Big.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CANDACE HAYES, OWNER, Q'S CORNER: My name is. Candace Hayes. I am the owner of. Q's Corner.

Q's corner is an indoor play facility that caters to individuals with disabilities. The whole goal is to promote inclusion. I know what it is like to have a child on the spectrum, and then three other kids who are not on the spectrum.

I remember going to the trampoline park with my son. They had a nice foam pit and he loved that foam pit, but he would not wait in line. Here come my kid running past 20 kids jumping into the foam pit and then not only did he jump in, but he just wanted to stay in and you can't do that.

People are just not aware that all kids are not the same. We see everything.

We see kids with autism, cerebral palsy. We get individuals that are legally blind. We have equipment just for all types of disabilities. We get people coming from different states, different cities. They travel pretty far to come here because of what we were able to create.

What really helped me was putting myself in other parents' positions. So I thought about, oh, my goodness, well, what if my son had autism and he was in a wheelchair? Where would I take him? Where would we celebrate his birthday?

So our next step is we want to franchise. Hopefully, there is a Q 's Corner coming to a city near you.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: So on this Mother's Day, we'd like to share another story, but this one puts a mother's patience to the test.

How would you like dozens of boxes of candy to mysteriously stack up at your door? No gift cards, no mention of why this is happening. But then you do discover that $4,200.00 are subtracted from your account. Well, that's exactly what happened to Holly LeFevre. She would later discover that her son, Liam, intentionally ordered Dum-Dum Lollipops, but maybe accidentally ordered nearly 70,000 of them from Amazon for home delivery.

Thanks, son.

All right, Holly and Liam LaFavers are here right now with me. I love that you have such a great sense of humor about this very sweet mess. So tell me, Holly, you know, what did your -- you know, your heart must have stopped when you saw all of these boxes of candy just stacking up.

Tell me, take me back to that day.

HOLLY LAFAVERS, SON ORDERED NEARLY 70,000 LOLLIPOPS: It is hard to believe it was a week ago. But a week ago, things have changed so drastically. I was hysterical. I am not going to lie. I was just completely panicked.

As to what I was going to do because I didn't have any money, but then what I was going to do with all of those suckers and how I was going to make everything work.

WHITFIELD: Oh my goodness. And so what did you do? I mean, well, what -- you're opening up the door and you see these things stacking up and the delivery person and you're like are you -- is this a mistake? I mean, what is this?

LAFAVERS: So I originally found out that he had ordered them when I looked at my bank account and then I immediately called Amazon because I was trying to stop the order. And when I wasn't able to stop the order, they told me to just reject it at the door. But no one knocked on the door for me to be able to reject it.

So the next thing I know, Liam went out to ride his scooter and he starts yelling that his suckers were here. So that was just a pit. My stomach just dropped. It was a horrible feeling to be quite honest.

WHITFIELD: Oh my God, and Liam has like dropped in just like those packages kind of dropped in right on your doorstep.

LAFAVERS: Yes.

WHITFIELD: So does Liam want to share with you and everybody else, you know he wants mom to, you know, to do with all of these suckers. I mean, I know he didn't expect 70,000 to come, but now what?

LAFAVERS: What do you want to do with all these of suckers?

You want to donate them? That's a nice thing to do. He says he wants to donate them.

WHITFIELD: Oh, okay. So then, well, that will be nice. I am sure there will be a lot of happy folks out there to get all of these suckers. Now, you've got to try and coordinate how in the world do you do that? Okay, so you're stuck with a good number of them. We have pictures of you actually trying to make some deliveries and maybe give some away. Has that effort been successful? And did you ever get -- oh, there's a sweet kiss on Mommy's Day. That's all right.

That's his way of saying I am sorry, mom. I'm sorry about all this, but here we are. And did you get your --

LAFAVERS: That's what he is doing.

[15:50:16]

WHITFIELD: Okay.

LAFAVERS: Every time we start talking about it, he starts apologizing.

Well, we have been -- so some individuals in my hometown actually offered to buy some of them, from banks to chiropractors to dentist office. And so I've donated it, donated some to those individuals. But then we've also donated some to some places in Lexington locally in school, doctors' offices, some of the therapy centers that he's gone to.

And so we -- I think we just have a couple of boxes left, but they are all accounted for.

WHITFIELD: Oh, well, that's nice. And so what about that $4,200.00 because. Ouch. Did you get it back?

LAFAVERS: I did. Luckily, after one of the local T.V. stations reached out to Amazon asking for their side of the story, Amazon refunded my money.

WHITFIELD: Oh. Very good. Oh, that's really wonderful.

LAFAVERS: Yes/

WHITFIELD: And then I understand that the manufacturers of this candy have also extended maybe a sweet little treat, come to the factory, something like that.

LAFAVERS: They have. They reached out sometime during the middle of the week, and they asked if we would like to come up for a tour of the factory and get to meet the CEO. So we are looking forward to doing that sometime this summer.

I think they also offered Liam a job within the next 10 to 15 years as a sales representative.

WHITFIELD: Oh my goodness. Okay, well hey, I am glad that in the end, it really did bring a smile to your face and continues to do so.

And for Liam as well with lots of kisses. Oh, what you got there?

LAFAVERS: Well, this is what my sisters made for me for Mother's Day today. Wasn't that kind? WHITFIELD: Of course, that is so nice. Oh, well, think of, you know what do you say when you've got -- you know, we know when you've got a lot of lemons, you make lemonade. We will figure out -- what do you say when you've got, you know, a whole lot of lollipops. You make a sweet little bouquet or something like that. We will come up with something for you.

LAFAVERS: Yes. That's what they've done.

WHITFIELD: Oh, great. Well, Holly and Liam LaFavers, thank you so much. Thanks for having a great sense of humor and in the end, I am really happy you got that $4,200.00 back, because that's a humdinger. That hurts.

LAFAVERS: Thank you. Thank you very much.

WHITFIELD: All right --

LAFAVERS: Yes it is.

WHITFIELD: Happy Mother's day.

LAFAVERS: Thank you. Happy Mother's Day to you, too.

WHITFIELD: All right, and we will be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:56:57]

WHITFIELD: The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, or NOAA, announced last week that it will retire its well-known weather and climate disaster database.

CNN meteorologist Allison Chinchar has more on how the move will make it impossible for the public to track the cost of extreme weather and climate events.

ALLISON CHINCHAR, CNN METEOROLOGIST: NOAA has been tracking billion dollar disasters since 1980, and there have been plenty of them, a total of $403 billion disasters since they began tracking.

But they vary across the country. This is why it is so important to have these disasters tracked. Take last year, for example. This is 2020 for all of the natural disasters that took place that cost at least $1 billion worth of damage.

You can see five of them were tropical systems, but we also had tornadoes, severe thunderstorms, snowstorms and even flooding. But here is the thing, it is important to see these maps to notice whether or not there are trends. If more of these disasters are happening in one place or another, or if one region continues to see them.

This is why, look at this, this is just from 2024. If we based all of the natural disasters off of this map alone, you might think, hey, they never happen in the Northeast or the Mid-Atlantic or even out to the West.

But when you go back to look at previous years, you will notice that that completely changes. That's why it is so important to have a lot of these maps for the information they provide.

It is also important to be able to look at year-over-year or even decade-over-decade. We may have had 400 in total, but not every decade is the same.

For example, in the 1980s, they had a total of $33 billion disasters. You go to the 90s, that jumps to 57; a decade later, 67. Last decade, 131. Now we look at this decade, up to 115. That's more than several of these other decades in total, and we only have half of a decade worth of data right now.

So it is important to have a lot of this information so that we can look at not only where disasters have happened in the past, but where they could end up happening in the future and whether or not the frequency rates are going up as well.

WHITFIELD: Allison Chinchar, thank you so much for that.

All right, in this week's episode of "Searching for Spain," Eva Longoria takes viewers to the city of Madrid.

The city has a mixture of old and new, as well as a melting pot of multiple cultures and traditions from around the world. While in Madrid, Eva visits one of Spain's oldest restaurants -- a classic -- sorry, I am trying my Spanish. I shouldn't have done that.

Okay, she tries a classic Spanish tortilla as well as some of the city's famous fusion dishes, and attends the Madrid Pride Parade.

Here is a preview.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Now, this is chicharron. What do you think is that chicharron?

EVA LONGORIA, CNN HOST, "SEARCHING FOR SPAIN": Oh, Lord, you're going to trick me again. Can I taste it first?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I know it.

LONGORIA: Shiitake mushroom.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You are not going to guess it ever.

LONGORIA: Ever.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: In your life.

LONGORIA: Oh, God, don't tell me like bulls' balls or something.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, no, no. LONGORIA: Okay. What?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, it is not. But is something crazy. This is a duck tongue.

LONGORIA: Duck tongue?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes. This is the --

LONGORIA: Maybe I should not have eaten it first. I didn't even know ducks had tongues.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: But you like eating it.

LONGORIA: I did like it because I thought it was a chicharron.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: Yikes. Be sure to tune in a new episode of Eva Longoria "Searching for Spain" airs tonight at 9:00 P.M. Eastern and Pacific, right here on CNN.

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