Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Newsroom

U.N. Official: Limited Gaza Aid Delivery A "Drop In The Ocean"; U.K. & E.U. Strike Deal On Trade, Security And Tourism; Biden Addresses Cancer Diagnosis In Social Media Post; Columbia Student Graduates After Release From U.S. Detention; Mexican Navy Ship's Propeller In Reverse At Time Of Crash; New Witnesses Bolster Cassie Ventura's Abuse Allegations; North Korea Restricts Foreign Tourism Months After Reopening. Aired 1-2a ET

Aired May 20, 2025 - 01:00   ET

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


(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[01:00:24]

M.J. LEE, CNN HOST: Hello and welcome to CNN Newsroom. I'm M.J. Lee live from Washington, D.C.

Ahead this hour, the presidents of the U.S. and Russia coming out of a two hour phone call with the White House and the Kremlin contradicting each other on reaching a ceasefire in Ukraine. Five trucks of aid entering Gaza for the first time in nearly three months, but with the enclave under bombardment and with famine already imminent, U.N. officials are warning it is simply not enough. Plus, from hosting an international marathon to canceling all tourist visas, why North Korea is going back to its hermit kingdom ways.

U.S. President Donald Trump describes himself a master dealmaker. And he said he could end Russia's war in Ukraine on day one of his second term in office. But 119 days in his personal appeals to Russian President Vladimir Putin have yielded no such deal. The U.S. president spoke with Mr. Putin by phone for two hours on Monday. Trump said it went very well, but now he appears to be walking back those claims and indicating he could walk away from the peace process altogether. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I think something's going to happen. It's a very -- got very big egos involved, I tell you, big egos involved. But I think something's going to happen and if it doesn't, I just back away and they're going to have to keep going. Again, this was a European situation. It should have remained a European situation.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEE: The Kremlin says Trump and Putin spoke about a, quote, "prompt resolution" and the possibility of direct contact between Russia and Ukraine, but they did not commit to a location or a time frame to Mr. Putin appears in no hurry. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

VLADIMIR PUTIN, RUSSIAN PRESIDENT (through translator): The U.S. president expressed his position on the secession of hostilities, ceasefire. And from my end, I emphasize that Russia also stands for a peaceful resolution to Ukrainian crisis. We must simply determine the most effective paths toward peace.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEE: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy spoke with Trump before and after that call with Putin. He insists he will not accept unjust peace conditions that Russia has proposed.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY, UKRANIAN PRESIDENT (through translator): Nobody will withdraw our forces from our territories. It is my constitutional duty, the duty of our military to protect the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine. Yes, there are temporarily occupied territories now because of the aggression of such a huge country. But we will accept no ultimatums. We will not give away our land, our territories and our people, our homes.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEE: CNN'S Jeff Zeleny has more on that Trump, Putin phone call.

JEFF ZELENY, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: U.S. President Donald Trump said he firmly believes Russian President Vladimir Putin wants to end the war with Ukraine. That was his assessment following a two hour phone call on Monday.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: I said, when are we going to add this bloodshed? This bloodbath? It's a bloodbath. And I do believe he wants to end it.

If I thought that President Putin did not want to get this over with, I wouldn't -- I wouldn't even be talking about it because I'd just pull out.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ZELENY: But the American president presenting a far rosier outlook of the call than Putin did. Putin simply not backing away from his stance even as one of the most violent days of drone attacks happened again Sunday heading into Monday. So the bottom line to all of this is Putin is still talking about negotiating a settlement to talk about a ceasefire as opposed to actually beginning a ceasefire. But the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy having two calls with Donald Trump on Monday before the Putin call and after the Putin call, Zelenskyy telling reporters he implored the American president do not make decisions about Ukraine without Ukraine. So now the question is, what comes next? Donald Trump last week saying he wanted to meet face to face with Vladimir Putin. That did not seem to be accepted by Putin. There could be broader conversations between Russia, Ukraine and other countries, with Trump suggesting even the Vatican could play host to these talks.

Jeff Zeleny, CNN, the White House.

[01:05:03]

LEE: The Israeli prime minister announced on Monday that Israel is, quote, "Going to take control of the entire Gaza Strip." This comes after the Israeli military launched an extensive ground operation called Gideon's Chariots in the enclave over the weekend. Gaza has already experienced days of heavy airstrikes and at least 136 people have been killed over the last 24 hours. That's according to the Palestinian Health Ministry.

And meanwhile, the leaders of the U.K., France and Canada are threatening Israel with targeted sanctions if it continues its military offensive and blocks aid from entering Gaza. On Monday, aid did enter Gaza for the first time in nearly three months. Israel says it allowed five U.N. trucks carrying aid into the enclave, but humanitarian groups say more than 500 trucks of aid per day are needed. CNN's Jeremy Diamond has more from Jerusalem. We want to warn you, some of the images you're about to see are disturbing.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN JERUSALEM CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The next chapter of Israel's war in Gaza is now underway and it could be the deadliest yet. Over the weekend, the Israeli military launching Operation Gideon's Chariots, striking Gaza with devastating force. Tens of thousands of troops now mobilized for the offensive with a new mission from the top.

BENJAMIN NETANYAHU, ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER (through translator): We have intense, massive fighting going on, intense and immense. There is progress. We are going to take control of the entire Gaza Strip. That's what we are going to do.

DIAMOND (voice-over): Israeli strikes have killed more than 300 people since Friday, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health. The toll on civilians is once again rapidly mounting. Among those killed is Ailul (ph), taken from this world just four months after she was born. Into it, her small body now lies on her father's chest while her family searches for words to make sense of it all.

They were all asleep, mother, father and their four month old daughter, all targeted in their bedroom, Ailul's uncle, Omar says, I don't know what to say anymore. We've spoken a lot. No one is looking after us. Not Arabs, not Muslims, no one.

In Khan Yunis, mattresses and belongings are piled high once again as Israel's new offensive triggers Gaza's latest mass displacement. The Israeli military ordering hundreds of thousands of people to evacuate, declaring the area a dangerous combat zone. In that same city, anger and frustration boiling over, including at Hamas. Hundreds of Palestinians taking to the streets in a rare protest calling for the war to end and for Hamas to get out.

After pushing Gaza to the brink of famine, Israel now agreeing to partially lift its 11 week blockade.

NETANYAHU: We need to provide a temporary bridge, minimal basic aid to prevent starvation. That's the current situation we're in.

DIAMOND (voice-over): The Israeli government says several dozen aid trucks will be allowed into Gaza this week until a new Israeli approved mechanism for aid deliveries becomes operational later this month. Thousands more ready to go. Aid trucks will continue to be blocked.

Amid the destruction of another airstrike in central Gaza, residents are paying close attention to ceasefire negotiations in the Qatari capital. But here, flickers of progress lead only to another body that must be wrenched from the rubble.

We went to sleep with hope that tomorrow will better, and suddenly everything turned upside down, Raid Abu Alek (ph), says. My message is, look at this. Stop this war.

More men eventually join Raid to pull out their neighbor's body and carry him out of the rubble. Signs of hope now seem far away once again.

Jeremy Diamond, CNN, Jerusalem.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LEE: Louise Wateridge, Senior Emergency Officer at UNRWA, joins us live from Amman, Jordan.

Louise, thank you so much for being here. We saw some of those really devastating images from Jeremy's piece. I wanted to give you a chance to take a minute to just describe what the humanitarian crisis looks like right now in Gaza after so many weeks of aid being blocked from entering the Strip.

[01:10:01]

LOUISE WATERIDGE, SENIOR EMERGENCY OFFICER, UNRWA: I mean, we really are just lost for words at this point. The suffering is intolerable. I speak to my colleagues and my friends every day and we're living this parallel universe where, you know, outside of the Gaza Strip, life kind of continues at the pace it does. And meanwhile, our friends are starved. They are constantly in fear of their lives.

You can hear when you're on calls with them, you know, the sound of the background of gunfire, of tank fire, of strikes coming down. It is just relentless. They are being starved. They are not sleeping. They don't often get more than two hours sleep a night because the military operations at the moment are just relentless. They are absolutely relentless. And there's no escape. They are completely trapped. Yesterday in Khan Yunis, there was another forced displacement order affecting tens of thousands of people. Where are they going?

There is absolutely nowhere left to go. There is absolutely nowhere safe. And all of this on the backdrop of 19 months of relentless suffering that's been inflicted upon them. It's just so hard to describe the despair. And we don't actually know what to say to our colleagues anymore.

It's 19 months of this going on and on and on. What do we even say to them? I'm so sorry? I'm sorry this is happening to you. It's completely unforgivable.

LEE: A good reminder that, you know, when you talk about the suffering in Gaza, obviously food is just one of the issues that you're talking about. There's the psychological trauma too. But on that, since we are talking about the five trucks of aid that were allowed to finally enter into Gaza, I mean, the prime minister is talking about a basic amount of food he said. Help us understand the gap between what's been allowed in so far versus how much aid is really needed.

WATERIDGE: Eleven weeks of total siege of the Gaza Strip, five trucks is not enough. It's nowhere near enough. How could it possibly be enough for 2 million people? We understand nutrition supplies are being prioritized. This is because the population is starving.

It's been left to starve. But as I say, this is just one of the problems. When you speak to our colleagues, yes, they're hungry, yes, they need food, but they just want the war to end. They absolutely need the war to end. The mental trauma that they're going through, I talked to my colleague Hussain (ph), the last few days, he's just buried the remainder of his family.

They were all killed in a strike in Jabalia. He spent the last few days pulling children out of the rubble and burying them. They're past wanting food at this point. Of course they're starving, of course they need food, but there's such a bigger picture to this and that the war needs to end, the ceasefire needs to happen. And also thinking of these hostages, it's been 19 months.

The remaining hostages are still in the Gaza Strip. Their family do not know about their whereabouts, do not know about their safety. They absolutely have to come home. It's beyond time for action.

LEE: And Louise, I wanted to ask you about the children who have been living through this war as you were talking, we were watching images of very young children holding buckets, containers, clearly just waiting for any morsel of food they can get. Nineteen months of war for a child is 19 months of lost education, of perhaps losing family members, losing your home, of course, of trauma. What does rehabilitation look like for the youngest Gazans?

WATERIDGE: I mean it has to stop with the bomb stopping. Some of my colleagues, their children when I was in Gaza, they -- the two years old and they start to flinch. They hear the sound of the strikes as they -- as they come in, they hear the sound of the planes and they already know what that means because they've spent their whole life listening to these awful sounds and anticipating that their death or the death of their family is coming.

The war needs to stop. What about their education? What about their future? You know, the United Nations, UNRWA is on the ground still providing learning for these children with the bombs falling around them is nowhere near enough. How can you possibly think of the future for these children with the bombs still falling while they're being starved?

These horrific images coming from Gaza of these children, clearly malnourished, clearly haven't had anything they'd need. It's not something that's happened in the last few weeks or months. This is a prolonged starvation. Most of the children in Gaza, they don't know what chocolate is, they don't know what nutrients is, they don't know what apples, bananas, you know, fruits are. They've been living off flour and food from tin cans.

It's just disgraceful. When I was in Gaza, you see two-year-old, three-year-olds dragging water canisters that are bigger than them, just trying to have water for themselves and their families. That is their routine. Rather than going to school, rather than having backpacks, they're walking through the streets dragging water. It's horrendous.

[01:15:11]

LEE: You really are describing unimaginable trauma for these kids. Louise Wateridge, thank you so much for joining us.

Time for a short break. When we come back, a fresh chapter, nine years after Brexit. We'll have details on the new deal between the U.K. and the E.U.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

URSULA VON DER LEYEN, EUROPEAN COMMISSION PRESIDENT: We're turning a page. We're opening a new chapter in our unique relationship. This is the story of historical and natural partners standing side by side on the global stage.

[01:20:11]

KEIR STARMER, BRITISH PRIME MINISTER: This deal is a win. It delivers what the British public voted for last year. It gives us unprecedented access to the E.U. market, the best of any country outside of the E.U. or EFTA. All while sticking to the red lines in our manifesto.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEE: The British and E.U. leaders, they're praising a reset in relations almost a decade after Brexit. The deal lays down new rules for trade, security, tourism and migration. But not everyone is in favor. CNN's Richard Quest explains.

RICHARD QUEST, CNN BUSINESS EDITOR-AT-LARGE: Depending on who you speak to, this new deal is either a massive breakthrough that ushers in a new era for E.U.-U.K. relations or it was an advocation, a sellout, surrender and roll back the gains from Brexit. The two sides still remain very far apart. But whichever way you look at it, this deal does make some major improvements.

For starters, it gives certainty to fishermen on both sides of the English Channel by extending the fisheries agreements for another 12 years. Then there are the rules about exports from the U.K. of food into the EU. It will become easier, there will be less barriers and that should be a great boost to the British economy.

For tourists, the big deal will be the ability for U.K. tourists to use the automatic machines in European airports. They've been shut out by the various E.U. rules.

Put it all together in this first summit between the United Kingdom and the European Union was a big deal because the well had been so poisoned over so many years and now at least there are signs for the future that they're going to get along just a little bit better.

Richard Quest, CNN, London.

LEE: Dominic Thomas is CNN's European Affairs Commentator and he is joining us now from Los Angeles.

Dominic, great to have you. I wanted to start with maybe a bit of a reality check. You know, Richard Quest there used the words big deal to describe this meeting and this agreement. But do you think that term is maybe too rosy? Brexit was incredibly messy. There were some very hard feelings all around. I just wonder if one agreement really is enough to declare a reset.

DOMINIC THOMAS, CNN EUROPEAN AFFAIRS COMMENTATOR: Well, I think one of the very important things to say right from the word go is we're not talking about a pathway to the United Kingdom rejoining the European Union or to re implementing freedom of movement regulations. That were some of the most complex questions to negotiate and that shaped the Brexit debate.

The fact is that the Brexit debate was always a deeply polarizing argument with folks on the one side arguing a kind of nationalistic protectionist, and even one might say anti-immigration and xenophobic agenda, while others were far more open to the idea of the United Kingdom being part of Europe. And I think here that Keir Starmer has managed to strike a balance by emphasizing the particular areas that are harming in a logistical way and in a kind of logic of Brexit here, the British people. And that involves certain very technical, easy things to solve like travel and so on, all the way down to a re engagement with Europe in terms of the military, trade and so on.

So to that extent, he's been able to move forward on something that actually does help the British people. LEE: And Dominic, you're talking about how extremely polarizing the Brexit debate was. You know, many people had issues with just the fundamental idea of leaving the E.U. And then for plenty of other people, it just had to do with the day to day impact on their lives on things like travel. Give us a couple more examples of the Brexit policies that ended up being the most unpopular.

THOMAS: Well, that's -- yes, that's a great point. And also along with that, many of those arguments around Brexit have not gone away because of course, the sort of one of the engineers and architects of Brexit in the guise of Nigel Farage in the reform U.K. now is in the polls, the leading party in the U.K. Having said that, I think that when it gets down to -- it goes in sort of two extremes.

First of all, the idea, particularly in this rapidly changing world in which the multilateral order is under threat because of Russia, because of the America first policy, being part of something larger than yourself, such as a major and trading entity such as the European Union, makes perfect sense.

[01:25:15]

Let's not forget that the European Union is the U.K.'s major trading partner. And for the European Union, along with the United States and China, it is the U.K. So there are enormous benefits there. And the first impact of Brexit was to negatively impact the capacity to trade because of red tape, because of regulations and so on.

I think that the other aspect of it is, of course, rearticulating defense strategy. But I think even down to the nitty gritty of the ways in which this sort of impacted unnecessarily British people when it came to travel, having a sort of an inequity between how one brings a pet from the U.K. to France and having to pay for that to all the red tape that small businesses were negatively impacted by, this will reopen that market and there will beneficiaries on both sides of the channel here, M.J..

LEE: Yes, we all want to travel easily with our pets. I can certainly understand that. As we discuss this deal, Dominic, the giant elephant in the room is the United States. A major dynamic that underlies this agreement is the desire to be less reliant on an increasingly unpredictable Washington and United States. Talk to us about how the Trump administration, in many ways sort of helped to lay the groundwork for this deal.

THOMAS: Yes, I think you're absolutely right there. What's interesting is that there are many European leaders, I'm not just talking about E.U. leaders, such as Keir Starmer, Emmanuel Macron in France, Merz in Germany, who are very visible, hyper visible today on the international stage, strong supporters of Ukraine and struggling with Russian influence in the region, bolstered by a United States policy that is deliberately aiming to kind of establish asymmetrical relationships. We know that President Trump does not like the multilateral order, whether it's NATO, whether it's the E.U., and he's been seeking to undermine that. What we see here is even though Keir Starmer and Emmanuel Macron are struggling with domestic popularity and policies, it is on the international stage that they have rekindled this energy and this deep realization that working together, particularly around defense, around trade policies and so on, are crucial. And to that extent, it's a living and working example of how the Trump administration pressures on them has actually served as a catalyst for reinvigorating and rethinking this relationship and realizing how important the democratic institutions that shaped Europe and shaped the European Union are worth defending in a collective manner.

LEE: Dominic Thomas, thank you so much for joining us.

THOMAS: Thank you, M.J..

LEE: Joe Biden's cancer diagnosis has some wondering why it wasn't caught sooner. A closer look at that question ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[01:33:33]

LEE: Welcome back. You're watching CNN NEWSROOM. I'm M.J. Lee.

Former U.S. President Joe Biden is addressing his cancer diagnosis for the first time in a post on social media. And he's expressing his thanks for the outpouring of love and support.

Biden's post comes one day after it was revealed that he's been diagnosed with an aggressive form of prostate cancer.

CNN medical correspondent Meg Tirrell has more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MEG TIRRELL, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Prostate cancer is one of the most common cancers in men and many times it can be very, very slow growing.

But the way it's characterized is by something called a Gleason Score. And we learned from President Biden's office that his cancer has a Gleason Score of nine. And typically that describes essentially the way the cells look under a microscope and lower numbers closer to six show that the cells look closer to normal. A higher number closer to ten suggests they look more abnormal and suggest it is a more aggressive form of cancer. And we know from President Biden's office that the cancer has spread to his bones.

They say also that the cancer is sensitive to hormone therapy and that that's a good thing. Doctors we spoke with said that that is typical when you first start to treat prostate cancer, often you do see it respond well to therapy that blocks male hormones.

[01:34:46]

TIRRELL: And a question will be, does that continue to work for the president? They say that will guide really future treatment options, which could include things like chemotherapy as well as radiation therapy.

So we understand that the president is working with his family and doctors to think about treatment options now.

Now a lot of folks might be asking, you know, how did this only get caught after it had already spread to the president's bones? And doctors say that's a complicated question, because if you look at the screening guidelines for prostate cancer in the United States, for men below the age of 70, it's really an individual decision with their doctors whether to screen routinely for prostate cancer based on just how fast the cancer often is growing, if it's caught at that stage and the outcomes that change, whether you're screening or not.

But for men over the age of 70, the recommendation isn't to routinely screen using PSA or Prostate Specific Antigen testing for prostate cancer.

And so while it's unclear if a president would be getting different treatment than the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force guidelines, its typically not recommended for men over the age of 70 to be routinely screened.

But prostate cancer is a very common cancer. One out of eight men in the United States are estimated to have a diagnosis of prostate cancer in their lifetimes.

The National Cancer Institute estimates that more than 300,000 men will be diagnosed with prostate cancer in 2025, and more than 35,000 men will die from the disease.

But a lot of folks are living with prostate cancer. In 2022, the estimate was 3.5 million people living with prostate cancer. Doctors recommend folks really keep on top of their health, talk with their doctors about their own personal risk factors, and make decisions about whether screening works for them based on the guidelines.

And everyone, of course, wishing the Bidens the best in this journey.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LEE: The first flight carrying migrants who self-deported from the U.S. Has landed in Honduras. It's part of an initiative from the Department of Homeland Security offering undocumented immigrants $1,000 to leave the country voluntarily.

38 Hondurans were on board, including at least four children who were born in the U.S. The Department of Homeland Security says the program is a way for families to stay together, and is a significant saving, it says, compared to the $17,000 per case it currently costs to deport undocumented immigrants.

A Columbia University student is celebrating his graduation instead of spending time in a U.S. Detention facility. Mohsen Mahdawi received his diploma in New York on Monday. The philosophy major was arrested last month during an interview

finalizing his U.S. citizenship as the Trump administration cracked down on pro-Palestinian activists. A judge later ordered his release.

Here's what Mahdawi told reporters.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MOHSEN MAHDAWI, COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY GRADUATE: Me coming to this university rather than being in prison clothes, rather than being in a prison, either in Vermont or in Louisiana, I come here to celebrate with who?

With my fellow students, my brothers and sisters, and with my professors and with my community in New York City.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEE: Mahdawi says his fellow students, professors and faculty cheered for the ideas of peace, equality and humanity.

U.S. President Trump has signed into law a bipartisan bill aimed at protecting victims of revenge porn and non-consensual explicit deepfake pictures and video. The technology has been used to target people from celebrities to high school teenagers. And now the Take It Down Act makes it a criminal act to share those images.

CNN's Clare Duffy has more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CLARE DUFFY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The Take It Down Act that President Trump signed into law is going to do two important things to boost protections for victims of revenge porn and A.I.-generated explicit deepfakes.

It is going to criminalize the sharing of non-consensual explicit images online whether they're real or A.I.-Generated, so that victims could go after the people who are sharing these images.

It's also going to require that tech platforms remove these images within 48 hours of being notified that they're there. And that means that victims can try to stop these images from spreading across the Internet.

This, of course, very important as we've seen the use of sexualized deepfakes, where someone will take a photo of someone's face and superimpose it on a nude body, using A.I. growing as a form of harassment.

Everybody from Taylor Swift, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez to high school girls have been targeted by this form of harassment. It's also notable because this is one of the first new pieces of legislation that we've seen that regulates how A.I.-generated content can be used.

It received rare bipartisan support, including from first lady Melania Trump, who was there in the Rose Garden on Monday afternoon alongside President Trump to sign this bill into law.

Clare Duffy, CNN -- New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

[01:39:48]

LEE: Still to come, authorities are sharing new insights into the Mexican navy training ship that collided with the Brooklyn Bridge. We'll have the latest on that investigation.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEE: U.S. transportation investigators are learning new details about that Mexican navy training ship that collided with the Brooklyn Bridge on Saturday. Two people on board were killed and more than 20 others were injured.

[01:44:54]

CNN's Gloria Pazmino has the latest.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MICHAEL GRAHAM, BOARD MEMBER, NTSB: This is the start of a long process.

GLORIA PAZMINO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: A major clue in the process of determining why the Mexican navy ship, the Cuauhtemoc, went the wrong direction and slammed into the bottom of the Brooklyn Bridge.

The ship's propeller was going in reverse, according to a source with knowledge of the investigation. And video appears to show the ship had electricity, but the captain reported a mechanical failure that left the rudder inoperable, making it impossible to steer.

GRAHAM: We are working with our counterparts in the Mexican government to gain access to the ship, and hopefully with some of the crew members to be able to interview them.

PAZMINO: The 300-foot-long vessel, with the assistance of a tugboat, set out from Pier 17 around 8:20 Saturday and should have been heading down the East River, away from the Brooklyn Bridge and out to sea.

As it pulled away from the dock, video shows dozens of crew members manning the yards, a naval tradition in which sailors stand atop the mast of a tall ship as it leaves the harbor. But then, in a matter of mere minutes, the ship's course changes drastically.

BRIAN YOUNG, INVESTIGATOR IN CHARGE, NTSB: And at 8:24 and 45 seconds, the vessel's mast struck the underside of the Brooklyn Bridge.

PAZMINO: The impact sent some of the sailors flying from the mast. Some left dangling from harnesses and holding on to ripped sails. The collision left two crew members dead, a cadet and a sailor killed after sustaining blunt force trauma after falling from the mast. More than a dozen crew members were injured, Two remain in the hospital.

NTSB investigators are working with the Mexican government to get access to the ship.

YOUNG: Once getting aboard the vessel, we'll make a full assessment of any recording devices.

PAZMINO: Investigators are also looking at the rate of acceleration and the role of the tugboat which was directing the Cuauhtemoc out of the harbor that night.

YOUNG: We do have a bit of time where it was maintaining a constant speed of about 2 -- 2.3 knots and then the speed began to increase.

Part of our investigation will be to look into the tugboat's policies and procedures for the operation, helping the vessel get off the pier.

PAZMINO: Today, the ship sat with its mangled sails and broken mast at Pier 36, downtown Manhattan, where people have started building a memorial. 94 members of the crew remain on the ship to help ensure it can be safely moved to a salvage yard.

Without a doubt, a traumatic event for the crew of the Cuauhtemoc. The majority of them have gone back to Mexico, but 94 members of the crew remain on board.

Investigators are still working to interview some of them, including the ship's captain. Now, in the last two days, there's been a memorial that's been building here at the pier where the Cuauhtemoc has been docked since the accident on Saturday. People have been bringing flowers and candles.

They've been stopping here to pay their respects. And you can just see how emotional it has been for the Mexican community.

Now, the crew that remains on the ship has been working to repair and secure one of the broken masts. That's going to be key before the Cuauhtemoc can be moved from this pier to another yard, where it will be fixed before it can set sail again.

Gloria Pazmino, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LEE: And still to come, new witnesses allege they saw music mogul, Sean "Diddy" Combs abuse his former girlfriend. We'll have the latest on that high profile trial.

And yes, you can visit -- wait no, you cannot. North Korea canceling visas not long after letting foreign tourists back inside their country. We'll bring you those details.

[01:48:46]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) LEE: New witnesses testified in federal court on Monday in Sean "Diddy" Combs' racketeering and sex trafficking trial. They said Combs abused his former girlfriend, singer Cassie Ventura, bolstering her claims. Combs has pleaded not guilty to all of the charges.

CNN's Kara Scannell has the details.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KARA SCANNELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Two witnesses testified that they saw Combs strike Ventura. One of those was Ventura's best friend of 17 years, Kerry Morgan.

She testified about an incident in Jamaica where she said they were sitting at a bar and that Ventura excused herself to go to the bathroom, but Combs thought she was taking too long.

The next thing Morgan knew she said she heard a guttural scream, saw Combs dragging Ventura by her hair down the hallway and outside she said she saw Combs throw Ventura to the ground. She said she hit her head on a brick, and she thought Ventura was knocked out.

Morgan also testified that Combs was violent to her. She said he came into Ventura's apartment, he saw Morgan. He approached her from behind and began to choke her. And then he hit her behind the ear with a wooden hanger. Morgan said that she had suffered a concussion and was not friends with Ventura after that.

She also, though, testified that at some point she urged Ventura to leave Combs, but at other times their relationship was good. And she said that at the same time, Combs was also controlling and Ventura couldn't leave because he had control of her music career as well as her finances.

Now another witness took the stand. Combs' former personal assistant David James. He also testified that he had a conversation with Ventura, in which she said that Combs was in control of her finances and that she couldn't leave the lifestyle she described as crazy.

James at one point became emotional on the witness stand when he described his job interview sitting in a meeting with HR person at Bad Boy Records. He began to dab his eyes and paused to catch his -- to catch himself when he testified that the HR person said, "This is Mr. Combs kingdom. We're all here to serve him."

James will be back on the witness stand on Tuesday. One of the next witnesses coming up is Ventura's mom.

Kara Scannell, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LEE: As the Cannes Film Festival continues in France, one movie in particular is igniting the already politically-charged event. "Eddington", starring Joaquin Phoenix and Pedro Pascal, is set in a small town in New Mexico early in the COVID-19 pandemic. It touches on a number of hot button topics including identity

politics and the allure of conspiracy theories.

In a press conference over the weekend, journalists asked the cast about the current state of America.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PEDRO PASCAL, ACTOR: I want very much to live on the right side of history. And I'm an immigrant. My parents are refugees from Chile. I myself was a refugee.

We fled a dictatorship, and I was privileged enough to grow up in the U.S. and after asylum in Denmark. And if it weren't for that, I don't know what would have happened to us.

And so I stand by those protections always.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEE: The Hermit Kingdom may be on some travelers bucket list, but those wanting to visit are having a tougher time now. North Korea was closed for years during the pandemic, then opened its borders again to foreign tourists just a few months ago. But now the doors seem to be closing again.

CNN's Will Ripley explains.

(BEGIUN VIDEOTAPE)

HARRY JAGGARD, YOUTUBER: The Koreans are smiling and waving, heading to work.

WILL RIPLEY, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: British YouTuber Harry Jaggard had never run a marathon, but when North Korea announced a handful of foreign spots for the Pyongyang marathon --

JAGGARD: This is where all the military parades are.

RIPLEY: Harry hit the ground running.

JAGGARD: These are not paid actors. These are real people.

RIPLEY: Joining the first group of Westerners since COVID to visit North Korea's capital.

JAGGARD: Ten percent of the trip were athletes, runners, and then 90 percent were like content creators.

RIPLEY: Do you think the North Koreans knew that most of the people in your group were content creators like you?

JAGGARD: The tour guides definitely weren't expecting it. They said that the tour guides, they said that they'd never seen this many cameras, like pointing at them.

Can we not mingle? Can we not mingle?

They're going to bring one actor.

RIPLEY: North Korea tries to carefully control every aspect of foreign tours.

JAGGARD: One of the rules they told us was just like, you got to ask your tour guide to film. If they tell you not to film, just don't film. And people were like filming in places they shouldn't be filmed like --

[01:54:52]

RIPLEY: They could not control questions like this.

JAGGARD: But do you feel like you know him? Kim Jong Un?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, yes, yes.

JAGGARD: He has a daughter.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think so.

JAGGARD: And she will be the next leader? Maybe?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm not sure.

JAGGARD: Oh, ok. Ok.

RIPLEY: He looked pretty uncomfortable when you asked him that question.

JAGGARD: He was definitely uncomfortable. I found out after that like they don't really talk about the future, like the future leader. They just talk about the present.

RIPLEY: Soon after the marathon, North Korea hit the brakes, abruptly canceling foreign visas for its international trade fair in Pyongyang.

You guys already had flight tickets, hotels booked.

JUSTIN MARTELL, TOUR OPERATOR: We had our visas issued and then abruptly canceled. That wasn't just us. That was actually over 200 Chinese and also Russian visitors as well.

RIPLEY: Did they say why?

MARTELL: They just said that it was in the national interest.

RIPLEY: Tour operator Justin Martell was supposed to lead a 20-person business delegation. He also led tours to Rason, North Korea's special economic zone, earlier this year. Social media influencers quickly snatched up those spots.

MARTELL: Controversy creates clicks, that creates cash. The more sensational your video is, the more views you're going to get, the more followers you're going to get.

RIPLEY: That reopening lasted less than three weeks. All trips suddenly canceled without warning or official explanation.

MARTELL: There are some people in Pyongyang or higher up in the North Korean government who looked at the footage that came out from those YouTubers and thought that it didn't reflect positively.

It's called the Hermit Kingdom for a reason. So all we can do now is hope for the best.

JAGGARD: These are the different haircuts we can get.

RIPLEY: The closures mean for now, none of this.

JAGGARD: Haircut like Kim Jong Un, Kim Jong Un haircut.

RIPLEY: And more of this -- North Korea's carefully controlled state propaganda, a way to project power and military prowess without having to worry about anyone going off script.

Will Ripley, CNN -- Taipei.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LEE: Thank you so much for watching. I'm M.J. Lee.

CNN NEWSROOM continues with Rosemary Church in Atlanta after a short break.

[01:57:09]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)