Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Newsroom

Trump Attends a Roundtable Meeting to Close His Three-Day Middle East Tour; Russia-Ukraine Peace Talks Begins Without Any Leaders Attending; Prosecutors to Continue Aired 3-4a ET

Aired May 16, 2025 - 03:00   ET

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

[03:00:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KIM BRUNHUBER, CNN ANCHOR: Hello and welcome to all of you watching us around the world. I'm Kim Brunhuber, in Atlanta.

BECKY ANDERSON, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Becky Anderson in Abu Dhabi, where U.S. President Donald Trump is wrapping up his tour of the Gulf region, the President touting big deals that the U.S. has signed with the UAE.

BRUNHUBER: Also, Ukraine and Russia are set to begin their peace talks in Istanbul, but without the top leaders from either side attending.

And the prosecution's star witness faces a grilling in the trial of music mogul Sean Diddy Combs.

UNKNOWN (voice-over): Live from Atlanta, this is "CNN Newsroom" with Kim Brunhuber.

BRUNHUBER: And we'll have those stories and more in a few minutes here on CNN, but first let's go to Becky Anderson in Abu Dhabi.

ANDERSON: Kim, thank you.

U.S. President Donald Trump, then, is on the final day of his Middle East tour, wrapping up the first official trip of his second term. He is expected to announce and attend a roundtable discussion with business leaders here in Abu Dhabi.

Well, later he is scheduled to tour the Abrahamic Family House, which is an interfaith complex featuring a mosque, a synagogue, and a church. And then he will head back to Washington with hundreds of billions of dollars in deals for investments in the U.S. economy, and after potentially reshaping U.S. foreign policy in this region.

President Trump arrived in Abu Dhabi on Thursday, the third and final stop of what has been this whirlwind four-day trip through Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the UAE.

Like the earlier stops, the UAE gave him a warm welcome, less pomp and ceremony, more understated with those Emirati kids as part of the line-up, a nod to the importance this future-facing country puts on its younger generation. The UAE made the rare move to close the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque in Abu Dhabi to give President Trump a private tour of the site, and the President said that the gesture was a great tribute.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, U.S. President: It is so beautiful, very proud of my friends. This is an incredible culture that I can say very proud of my friends.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ANDERSON: Well, he again talked about the prospect of the U.S. taking over Gaza after the war. Earlier in Qatar, he expressed hope for a nuclear deal with Iran.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: It's very simple. It's not like I have to give you 30 pages worth of details. There's only one sentence, they can't have a nuclear weapon.

And I think we're getting close to maybe doing a deal.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ANDERSON: Well, the U.S. and the UAE then signing a partnership to build a massive AI data center complex in Abu Dhabi to advance this country's ambitious capabilities in advanced tech. The deal marks the largest data center deployment outside of the U.S., eventually spanning 10 square miles with 5 gigawatts of capacity, enough to power a major city.

Alright, let's get you to the Qasr Al Watan, that is the Presidential palace, and Donald Trump walking in. Let's just watch these pictures for a minute.

(LIVE VIDEO FEED)

(LIVE VIDEO FEED ENDS)

ANDERSON: Well, this is Qasr Al Watan, a working Presidential palace in Abu Dhabi. It's a magnificent structure featuring a facade of white granite, a dome with a 37-meter diameter construction on the palace, started some time ago.

It was opened in 2017. It was used purely for official purposes back then, but in 2019, it was opened to the public and it is used to celebrate the heritage of the UAE.

[03:05:01]

The President speaking there to the head of Mubadala, which is one of the sovereign wealth funds here. That is, he's just speaking to Khaldun al-Mubarak and speaking there to Yusuf al-Atabib, who is the UAE ambassador to the United States. A man both these men and the U.S. President will know well.

Mubadala, as I say, one of the sovereign wealth funds here and responsible for the announcement last night of this huge A.I. data park, this cluster in the UAE, which will make it, it's a five- gigawatt project, will make it the largest data sort of center and cluster outside of the United States.

So you can see a very jovial sort of relationship between all of these men, the U.S. President there with the UAE President Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed al-Nayyan.

And now we've got the U.S. President walking into what is a U.S.-UAE business summit. And we've seen Donald Trump both in Saudi and in Doha flanked, it has to be said, in both those places by an enormous amount of U.S. tech CEOs, not seeing any sign of them here.

Dr. Sultan Al-Jabba there in shot as well, who is the minister for advanced tech. He's also the head of the national oil company here, ADNOC. All right, let's come off these pictures and get to our guest.

And in fact, I think that's Sheikh Khaled. In fact, the Crown Prince is with the U.S. President there. So the U.S. President being led into the building by the crown prince, the son of the UAE President here, Sheikh Khaled bin Mohammed, and you see him there.

All right. Jasmin El-Gamal is a Middle East analyst and former Middle East advisor to the Pentagon. She joins me now from London.

I'm going to sit on some of these pictures, Jasmin, as we speak as U.S. President now involved in, you know, very specifically a business and investment conference in the UAE. And what is this final stop on this whirlwind Middle East tour? Let's talk about what we've seen today and what the key takeaways are from your perspective.

So let's start in Saudi Arabia. The U.S. will sell $142 billion in weapons to Saudi, which the White House has touted as the largest such cooperation deal ever struck. Let's talk about what we -- what you make of that announcement and how it fits into the kind of wider atmosphere of this trip.

JASMINE EL-GAMAL, FORMER PENTAGON MIDDLE EAST ADVISER, AND MIDDLE EAST ANALYST: Absolutely. Thank you so much for having me, Becky. It's good to be with you.

And you're right. I mean, it has been a whirlwind tour indeed. We've seen such pomp and circumstance and such dramatic developments over the last few days, mostly positive.

I do want to mention at some point some of the negative or not so positive things that have come out of the trip. But to start with, the deals that Donald Trump has made and signed with Saudi Arabia, with Qatar and now with the UAE focusing on A.I., focusing on tech, focusing on defense.

You know, these deals are really breathing new life into the U.S.-Gulf relationship, the U.S.-Middle East relationship at large, really elevating the region from the last time President Trump visited Saudi Arabia, when the discussion was much more around things like extremism, trying to talk to the Muslim world, inaugurating this global center for countering extremism. The region was still very much viewed through this lens that was really more problematic than anything.

And now you see that completely changing. That's the most significant overall takeaway that I took from President Trump's trip is just how much these Gulf countries and other countries as a result around the region are now being dealt with and talked to like partners -- like partners for something positive. It even extends to the new Syrian President, President Ahmad al-Sharaa, in terms of lifting the sanctions on Syria, giving Syrians an opportunity to turn a new page and start a new chapter.

The way that Donald Trump has been talking, not just about the deals and the economic benefit that the U.S. is getting from this trip, but also the partnership, the tone about the partnership I think is really significant.

There is a dark cloud, of course, hanging over all of this, which is Gaza, which is the remaining hostages in Israel.

[03:09:58]

There were quite a few people, certainly people in Gaza and hostage families, really hoping against hope that they would hear a major deal announced to end the war and to release the rest of the hostages. We didn't really see that come to fruition.

And the situation in Gaza continues to get worse and worse, being absolutely pummeled over these last few days by Israel. But in terms of the relationship between the U.S. and the Middle East, I would very much say that we're looking at a new dawn here.

ANDERSON: Yes, I mean, we know that investment for the U.S. President and partnerships, it has to be said, because these are blank checks and this is about investments, cooperation and partnerships between the U.S. and these Gulf nations are central to this sort of strategy of deepening ties with Washington. And we know that that is important because over the past few years, there's been a pretty fractious relationship between some of these Gulf nations and Washington, a sense from this part of the world.

And of course, I'm in Abu Dhabi, a sense from this part of the world that the U.S. has sort of taken its eye off the region as far as security commitments are concerned.

Let's just talk very specifically to those security commitments and these defense deals, for example. That is very much sort of your background there coming, as you do, from the Pentagon. And what do you make of what we are seeing outside of this sort of AI and advanced tech stuff before we talk about the kind of wider stories here, including Syria? EL-GAMAL: Well, the defense, the defense part is really important to

the Gulf countries, as you know, Becky, I mean, this is something that the Gulf countries, if we go just way back to the Obama administration, when the Obama administration first inked a deal with Iran, the JCPOA, it left the Gulf countries feeling quite exposed and quite insecure. They weren't very happy, I remember at the time with the Obama administration and the way that was done.

And I think that really has shaped the outlook and the steps that the Gulf countries have taken since then. So since then, we've seen them over the last several years start to think a little bit differently about their defense and security.

We've seen over the last several months and years a shift in the way they view, for example, Iran. We've seen the detente between Iran and Saudi Arabia. We've seen the region really band together and try to begin to solve its own problems and continue all the while asking the U.S. and making the U.S., making the case to the U.S. for these defense partnerships and agreements.

Like you said, not as an act of charity, but as a way for the Gulf and the Middle East to step up and become a partner in its own security. And of course, these defense deals that have been inked benefit the U.S. defense industry and benefit the U.S. economy as well. And that's something that Donald Trump has been highlighting over the trip.

But it really is about this year's long, throughout administrations, shift that the Gulf countries have made to try to be a bit more proactive when it comes to their own security, while at the same time seeking deeper ties and reassurances from the U.S.

Now, the Biden administration had much to Saudi Arabia's chagrin sometimes consistently tied any sort of defense deal or defense treaty with Saudi Arabia and the U.S. with normalization with Israel. And that's something that we're now seeing delinked finally, that Saudi Arabia and the U.S. are able to talk as partners, talk about their mutually beneficial issues without necessarily bringing that normalization aspect into it, which I do think is quite a positive development in terms of moving forward with the region.

ANDERSON: Very briefly, we've got a minute left. What do you make of the announcement that the U.S. will lift sanctions on Syria?

EL-GAMAL: Look, I think it's a really positive thing. I think we have to remember that these sanctions were placed on the Assad regime as punitive sanctions. These are Assad-era sanctions.

They were very harmful to the Syrian people, as is the case most of the time with these kinds of sanctions. So the fact that they're lifting it, I think, Becky, is important to realize or to acknowledge that it's not a nod to Ahmad al-Sharaa himself necessarily, but a way for the Syrian people to have the opportunity to start new and to start rebuilding their lives. That's how Syrians are seeing it.

You saw the celebrations in the street when they heard the announcement. They're very, very excited, very thankful, and they look forward to starting that new chapter. So I think it was a very positive step, one of the most positive, in my opinion, that came out of this trip.

[03:15:03]

ANDERSON: Yes, Jasmine, it's really good to have you. Your insight and analysis is so important. What is that? I think, we can genuinely say a pivotal moment for U.S.-Gulf relations.

And indeed, if what we are seeing is the turning of a page for U.S.- Middle East policy, and that's certainly what it looks like, then this has been a historic trip. Jasmine, thank you.

Let's get you back to Kim.

EL-GAMAL: Thank you so much.

BRUNHUBER: All right, a fascinating and wide ranging discussion there. I appreciate that, Becky.

Well, for the first time in years, Russia and Ukraine are about to negotiate face-to-face over a possible ceasefire. But some say the upcoming meeting is already a dead end. We'll explain coming up, stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[03:20:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BRUNHUBER: Top leaders will be no-shows when Russia and Ukraine begin their first face-to-face talks in over three years, in just a few hours. But it's believed there's little chance they'll make any significant headway.

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio landed in Istanbul a short time ago, where he'll observe the talks. A low-level Russian delegation is also there, but without President Vladimir Putin, who decided not to attend.

The Ukrainian President said he won't show up for talks unless his Russian counterpart does. But Volodymyr Zelenskyy is still sending a higher-level delegation than the Kremlin. Here he is.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY, UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT (through translator): I decided to send our delegation to Istanbul, but not all of them. The head of state security service and the chief of staff won't be there. The delegation will be led by the defense minister.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRUNHUBER: Meanwhile, U.S. President Donald Trump now says the peace process will get traction only when he meets with Russian leader Vladimir Putin.

Salma Abdelaziz is monitoring the upcoming talks live from London. So, Salma, take us through why the expectations for these talks now are so low.

SALMA ABDELAZIZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, after days of confusion and chaos, after so many mixed messages, we finally have a clear answer, Kim. Today, at 12:30 local time in Istanbul, these two warring parties will meet face-to-face for the first time in nearly three years. And it's essentially the start of the conflict.

Now, we hear that from a Turkish official, again, set to take place at 12:30 local time. But how did we get here? We have to remember that this all started with European partners proposing or actually issuing an ultimatum to President Putin himself: agree to a 30-day unconditional ceasefire, or face greater sanctions.

President Putin responded by refusing to bow down and instead proposing a direct meeting that he ultimately refused to actually attend himself, instead sending this lower-level delegation.

Now, you might think that this would incur the wrath of President Trump, who has been quick to bite back at anyone he perceives as not committed to that peace process that he so desperately wants to jumpstart. But instead, he is offering what any diplomat will tell you is a prize, a meeting with the American President himself. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: Nothing's going to happen until Putin and I get together, OK? And obviously, he wasn't going to go. He was going to go, but he thought I was going to go. He wasn't going if I wasn't there.

And I don't believe anything's going to happen, whether you like it or not, until he and I get together. But we're going to have to get it solved because too many people are dying. I don't believe anything is going to happen.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ABDELAZIZ: So you also hear there that American officials have very little hope of progress when it comes to this direct meeting taking place today. Instead, they've already shifted that focus to the potential of a bilateral meeting.

Still, President Zelenskyy, of course, wanted to show his commitment to peace and, of course, appease President Trump. He has sent a higher level delegation than the one that Russia has sent, which includes the country's defense minister. And President Zelenskyy said that this is out of respect for President Trump.

Now, unclear what's on the agenda today, but already the secretary of state, Marco Rubio, says that when President Trump returns to the White House, they will begin working to operationalize that possibility of a bilateral meeting between President Putin and President Trump.

And in all of this, of course, Kim, that ultimatum, that 30-day ceasefire, well, it's fallen to the wayside today, this morning. Both sides, Russia and Ukraine, accusing each other of firing drones and missiles.

BRUNHUBER: Well, I appreciate the update, Salma Abdelaziz. Thanks so much.

I want to head over to Odessa, Ukraine, where we're joined by Hanna Shelest. She's the director of security programs and global outreach at Ukrainian Prism, a non-governmental think tank.

Thanks so much for being here with us. So, Vladimir Putin has sidestepped that proposed 30-day ceasefire. There's now relatively low expectations for these talks, which don't seem likely to produce much.

It seems Putin's basically calling the shots here. Is that how you see it?

HANNA SHELEST, DIRECTOR OF SECURITY PROGRAMS AND GLOBAL OUTREACH, UKRAINIAN PRISM: No, the situation is even more complicated because for us, this delegation is quite a well-known and it is just not true that low-profile delegation was his main aim. Because Mr. Medinsky, who is in charge of this delegation, he was in charge of March 2022 delegation when Russia demanded surrender from Ukraine.

Plus, he's very well known as the fake historian, the guy who is publishing the books about the new Russian history, who is speaking about the extra chromosome for the Russian people.

[03:25:04]

And all that, quite scientific, let's say, statements about history, identity and everything. So that was both the signal that the Russian President doesn't care about the Ukrainian delegation, that he needed to call for these direct talks, only hoping that Ukraine would disagree.

And you can blame Kyiv in this way and President Zelenskyy. But at the same time, he needed to make this continuation with that initial talks of March 2022, because that was the points for surrender.

And he would like to show that nothing changed for him for these three years, which is definitely not true, because the situation changed significantly.

BRUNHUBER: So interesting perspective there. Donald Trump has said nothing will get done without him and Putin meeting. So basically, today's talks, I mean, what's the point? Could there still be some constructive progress made or the fact that the figure that is being sent there now, as you said, kind of tells the whole tale?

SHELEST: First of all, nobody prevented for two Presidents to meet since January. So there were reasons why President Putin and President Trump have not met yet. So I have really big doubts that the personal meeting would change something.

The today meeting is quite an interesting. First of all, it's definitely sent a signal to a lot of partners that it's not Ukraine who is not open for the negotiations. And that is quite a difficult game from the Russian side.

On the one hand, they are really playing with Washington, showing that, yes, please don't put the sanctions. Let's just hesitate with the any type of the settlement.

And it would be just talks about talks, long dragging in these negotiations not to apply sanctions against the Russian Federation. But at the same time, these disrespect also sent quite a bad signal to a lot of partners within Greeks, for example, like Brazil or China, who asked our Russian President to be at these negotiations.

So that would be very interesting to hear the statement in the end of this day, because we have two sets of the negotiations. And this wording would be, especially in the Russian language, how they will name what happens over there would be really interesting to follow, to understand the mood in Moscow.

BRUNHUBER: Yes. So that's an interesting question to follow the mood in Moscow. What about the mood in Ukraine? I mean, how are people feeling about this? Are they let down? Was there any hope at one point that something might come from these talks or were people pretty realistic from the get go?

SHELEST: You know, waking up after four air raids this night, I can say that people woke up in the good and optimistic mood. And I would say that the last year, the general mood in Ukraine, that's the only guarantor for our peace is our armed forces.

It's not because Ukrainians are militarized or something, but we just saw that, first of all, our partners always being more in charge of their national interest or how they saw this national interest. It depends on the country.

And then that the Russian Federation would push with the military goes as long as possible. That's absolutely the same tactics in 2015.

If you remember the famous Minsk negotiations, 16 hours Minsk for leaders of the states. What Russia did those days, they intensified the military activities. So now it is like just deja vu for the Ukrainian people.

BRUNHUBER: Yes. So speaking of intensifying their activities, I mean, we know now Russian troops are massing on the front lines. How prepared is Ukraine to weather this latest assault, given its huge manpower shortage?

SHELEST: Yes, but at the same time, Russia lost 400,000 people and killed and wounded for the last year just to capture less than one percent of the Ukrainian territory.

So here are the questions of these huge assaults. We hear this news once per week at the different directions of the front line. But the situation is not that black and white, first of all, because Ukrainian armed forces being able to recapture a lot of the territories, the front line is very active, and Russia is losing too much for the 21st century war.

Not speaking about the news like this night, for example, when Ukrainian air different types of the forces, because it was a combined attack against Crimea and the whole morning there are news from there about the explosions at the munition depots at the military airfields and others.

So it's not that Russia is advancing and Ukraine is just defensing. And at the same time, the situation is definitely intensified because the weather allows now to intensify the military actions at the battlefield.

BRUNHUBER: Yes, we'll have to leave it there. But really great to get the perspective that you shared with us there. Hannah Shelest, thank you so much.

[03:30:09]

SHELEST: Thank you.

BRUNHUBER: Lawyers for Sean Diddy Combs are trying to show that his former girlfriend was OK with his sex parties. More details on the cross examination.

And the fate of President Trump's controversial citizenship policy is up to the Supreme Court. The court's locked into deliberations over whether the process of enforcing the policy violates the Constitution. All that and more coming up, please stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[03:35:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BRUNHUBER: Welcome back to all of you watching us around the world, I'm Kim Brunhuber. This is "CNN Newsroom." Let's check today's top stories.

U.S. President Donald Trump is wrapping up his tour of the Middle East, his first international trip of a second term. He met with business leaders a short time ago. Later, he'll head back to Washington with billions of dollars in deals for investments in the U.S. economy, after potentially reshaping American foreign policy in the region.

Now little is expected from the first direct talks between Russia and Ukraine in more than three years. Their negotiating teams are set to meet in Istanbul without Presidents Vladimir Putin and Volodymyr Zelenskyy. U.S. President Donald Trump now says the process won't get anywhere until he meets with Putin. And in the hours ahead, defense attorneys will continue their cross-

examination of the criminal trial. The judge has said Cassie Ventura's testimony needs to be finished before the weekend.

She faced tough interrogation on Thursday about whether she was a willing participant in the music mogul's drug-fueled sex parties, known as freak offs. CNN's Elizabeth Wagmeister has details from New York.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CASSIE VENTURA, SINGER AND ACTRESS: Each character and each actor that came into the project brought their own thing to the table.

ELIZABETH WAGMEISTER, CNN ENTERTAINMENT CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): A 21-year-old Cassie Ventura, in 2008, promoting the film "Step Up 2."

VENTURA: Oh, my gosh, it was an overwhelming experience, but exciting all at the same time.

WAGMEISTER (voice-over): During day one of cross-examination, she was asked about her budding relationship and emails with Sean Combs from that same year. When Combs said, "I love you, I miss you, can't wait to hold you," Ventura responded, "I'm a very lucky woman, I miss you so much, I'd fly wherever you needed me."

The defense building its case that Ventura was a willing participant and enjoyed the so-called freak offs, or long, drug-fueled sex sessions involving male escorts, she says were orchestrated by Combs.

In 2009, when Combs messaged asking if she wanted to freak off, Ventura replied, "I'm always ready to freak off, lol, I just want it to be uncontrollable," Ventura said, referring to sex with the escort. "I can't wait, that's why I want to see," Combs responded.

Later that year, when Combs emailed, "I want to be nasty for you," Ventura replied, "in order for me to be more open with the things we do in bed, I need to feel safe, like home. This is my husband and this is the only man that will ever have this aggressive sexual side of me."

When asked by the defense if this showed open communication between the two, Ventura said, "I would say."

But the prosecution says this video from 2016 showing Combs assaulting Ventura as she says she tried to flee a freak-off proves the relationship devolved into abuse and control.

Still, a year after that assault, the defense noted Ventura sent this to Combs in 2017, "I love our freak-offs when we both want it." Ventura saying on the stand that the text was just words at that point, echoing her previous testimony of feeling trapped and afraid of Combs' rages.

The defense also argued that jealousy played a role in the volatile relationship, with Ventura writing, "I'm nervous that I'm just becoming the girlfriend that you get your fantasies off of, and that's it."

SEAN DIDDY COMBS, RAPPER: I just miss Kim, y'all, you know what I'm saying?

WAGMEISTER (voice-over): Combs' time with the late Kim Porter, the mother of four of his children, and other women also came up. Ventura testifying she has some jealousy of Ms. Porter because Combs would spend holidays with her even though they had split up.

Their fights over infidelity were a little scary, she said. In 2011, she dated rapper Kid Cudi while on a break from Combs. "I thought it would be way too dangerous to tell him about that," she said. But Combs lunged at her, she says, after finding Kid Cudi's name in her phone during a freak-off, which still went on during breaks in their relationship because it was a job, Ventura said.

WAGMEISTER: Now, there was actually a heated moment in court when the judge reprimanded the defense essentially for taking too long with their cross-examination.

[03:40:06]

The judge said that there was a prearrangement of sorts, that Cassie Ventura would be done with her testimony by end of this week. The reason? Well, she's pregnant, and she's very pregnant.

Cassie Ventura can literally go into labor any day now, so the judge said that by end of day Friday, cross-examination and redirect from the prosecution has to be wrapped up.

Now, Combs' defense said she is the most critical witness, and this is a very important case. Their client, of course, is facing life in prison if convicted. Back to you.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BRUNHUBER: The U.S. Supreme Court is considering lifting a series of nationwide judicial orders blocking President Trump from enforcing his birthright citizenship policy. The President signed an executive order denying citizenship to anyone born in the United States to parents who were here either unlawfully or temporarily. That triggered protests and legal challenges, with federal judges blocking enforcement of the policy.

On Thursday, Supreme Court justices suggested those lower courts may have overstepped their authority. The top court's judges wrestled with the practical implications of allowing the policy because it appears to conflict with the 14th Amendment.

It states that, quote, "all persons born or naturalized in the United States and subject to the jurisdiction thereof are citizens of the United States and of the state wherein they reside." The case, however, didn't deal directly with the 14th Amendment itself, but with the process to enforce it. It may take until next month for the Supreme Court to rule on this case. In 2024, the International Energy Agency found a staggering 80 percent

of new electricity generation worldwide came from clean energy sources. Over the last year, Africa alone increased its renewable energy capacity by nearly 7 percent.

Our "Connecting Africa" correspondent, Victoria Rubadiri, looks at one of the continent's largest operating solar plants located in Egypt.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

VICTORIA RUBADIRI, "CONNECTING AFRICA" CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): With an abundance of radiant sunlight and gusty winds, Egypt is tapping into clean energy sources.

SAMIR NACEF, CEO, AMEA POWER EGYPT: In the past few years, I have seen a boom in renewable energy project investment here in Egypt.

RUBADIRI (voice-over): The Abydos solar power plant is an expansive green energy project led by AMEA Power, a company that is building solar plants like this across the continent. The company says it installed a million solar panel modules throughout the 10-square- kilometer site. The plant has the capacity to generate 560 megawatts of power, which is enough to electrify more than 500,000 households.

NACEF: Having a solar plant of this magnitude helps the country in terms of displacing the gas. Instead of using gas, instead of using fossil fuels, and as well reducing the carbon emissions, the creation of an ecosystem in terms of engineers, technicians.

RUBADIRI (voice-over): Electricity from the Abydos plant feeds into Egypt's larger initiative to boost clean energy consumption. The country is aiming to generate 42 percent of its electricity from renewable energy sources within the next decade.

As of 2019, that number stands at only 12 percent. One challenge investors say they face is a lack of existing infrastructure.

VITO SALUTO, ABYDOS SOLAR POWER COMPANY: Still there are limitations on grid access, the transmission line, any auxiliary facilities. This brings to delay the development of the projects, as well as increase the cost.

RUBADIRI (voice-over): But companies like AMEA Power are overcoming these hurdles to expand their reach.

NACEF: We are just about to start the commercial operation for a 500 megawatt wind farm. And I should mention as well that Abydos 1, there is an extension of battery storage facility on site.

What we are doing here in Egypt, of course, benefits other projects in other countries where we are developing projects or have developed projects. So there are experiences and lessons learned from here in Egypt that we can replicate elsewhere.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[03:45:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BRUNHUBER: Gaza's health ministry says intensified attacks from Israel have killed more than 100 people in the past day. In Jabalia, at least 13 were reportedly killed in a strike on a clinic where a large number of people had gathered.

Now CNN has reached out to Israel for a comment on the matter. It comes as its military is planning to capture more land in the enclave and push thousands of people to a smaller area in the south.

Meanwhile, a controversial U.S.-backed organization says it will soon start delivering aid to Gaza more than two months into Israel's blockade. But critics fear the initiative would be conditional on Israel's military aims and won't be enough to meet the needs of civilians.

CNN's Jeremy Diamond reports.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN JERUSALEM CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Amid the crush of bodies clamoring for food, children are being put to an unthinkable test.

[03:50:07]

Who will manage to fill their family pot, and who will have to wait another day to eat?

This is how Gaza's children are being forced to live as Israel continues to block the entry of food.

A total siege that is now in its 11th week. A boy burnt by the small prize of lentil soup he has managed to win. A girl scooping what remains with her bare hands.

But before it all, a search for food. For them and their families, with no guarantee of success.

I wake up every day, then we go find a kitchen. If we don't find food, then we go to another kitchen, and another kitchen, Mohamed explains. If we don't find anything, we go all day without food.

Nearly all of Gaza's population now experiencing crisis levels of food insecurity or worse, with 56 percent at the emergency or catastrophic level, meaning very high rates of acute malnutrition and large gaps in food consumption. Unless aid gets in, more than three quarters of the population are projected to fall to those emergency levels.

TOM FLETCHER, U.N. UNDER-SECRETARY GENERAL FOR HUMANITARIAN AFFAIRS: Every single one of the 2.1 million Palestinians in the Gaza Strip face the risk of famine. One in five face starvation. DIAMOND (voice-over): As this man-made crisis worsens, Israel and the

United States approving a new tightly-controlled mechanism to get aid into some parts of Gaza.

The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation says it plans to launch its operations within two weeks. Until then, it called on Israel to allow aid in through existing mechanisms. Israel has yet to publicly agree.

A person involved in the planning said Israel has agreed to allow some aid into Gaza in the coming days, but Israel has yet to say so publicly.

The U.N. says it won't participate, saying the new plan will make things worse, facilitating forced displacement and putting civilians at risk.

In Gaza, people are running out of time, as charity kitchens like this one run out of food.

Fourteen pots were not enough, the manager of this kitchen says. Those who didn't get food will not eat anything today and will come back tomorrow and might not get anything again.

Cases of acute malnutrition are spiking, and people are being pushed to the brink, like Rayda Ahmed, who fainted yesterday from a lack of food.

I swear I can't walk anymore. There is nothing to eat, she says.

As for the children who stand waiting for a chance to be fed, too many are now learning what it means to go hungry.

Jeremy Diamond, CNN, Jerusalem.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BRUNHUBER: We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[03:55:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

In men's tennis, where Yannick Sinner has reached the semifinals through the Italian opened for the first time. The men's world number one put in a ruthless display to route seventh-ranked Casper Ruud 6-0, 6-1 in Rome on Thursday. The Italian dropped only seven points in the opening set, ending the match in 63 minutes. Sinner will next play American Tommy Paul in the semifinal.

The Magna Carta is one of the most important documents in history, regarded as the earliest declaration of human rights dating back to the 1300s, which is why a recent discovery made by a British historian is such a surprise. King's College professor David Carpenter was searching for a copy of the document in the archives of Harvard University's law school and realized he'd stumbled upon one of seven known originals under King Edward I. Here he is.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DAVID CARPENTER, PROFESSOR, KING'S COLLEGE LONDON: I worked through the Harvard text, word for word, back-breaking, eye-breaking work, comparing it to the authorized version. Jolly nerve-wracking, actually, because I kept thinking, oh, God, it's going to fail me.

But actually, no, it didn't. It was fine colors, and its text is virtually identical to that found in these six other originals. And that persuaded me more than anything else that this was absolutely genuine and authentic.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRUNHUBER: Among other things, the great charter enshrined the principle the King wasn't above the law. Harvard bought it for just $27, 80 years ago.

And finally, the literary world is celebrating the Queen of English Literature. Author Jane Austen was born in 1775. In celebration of the 250th anniversary of her birth, a gallery in London is putting first editions of all of her novels on display.

Now, the exhibit includes Emma and Northanger Abbey, plus a set of six Austen books owned by 20th century author Virginia Woolf. The display can be seen starting today as part of an exhibit called "Firsts," London's rare book fair at Saatchi Gallery.

All right, thanks so much for joining me. I'm Kim Brunhuber, in Atlanta. Stay with us, "Early Start" with Erica Hill in New York and Becky Anderson in Abu Dhabi, coming up right after the break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)