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Benjamin Netanyahu Under Pressure To End Gaza Siege, New Operation; Israel Allows Limited Aid Into Gaza After 11-Week Blockade; Video Appears To Show Killing Of Surrendering Ukrainian Troops; South African President To Meet With Donald Trump At The White House; South African President to Meet With Trump at White House; Elon Musk to Spend a Lot Less Money on Politics; Study Shows World's Ice Sheets on Track for Runaway Melting; Top Images Chosen for World Food Photography Awards. Aired 2-2:45a ET

Aired May 21, 2025 - 02:00   ET

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


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[02:00:26]

ROSEMARY CHURCH, CNN ANCHOR: Hello and welcome to our viewers joining us from all around the world, and to everyone streaming us on CNN Max. I'm Rosemary Church.

Just ahead, a dire warning as the risk of famine grows in Gaza, the U.N. says very limited amounts of food and medical supplies are being allowed into the enclave after nearly three months of a blockade.

Also, a CNN investigation, exclusive new audio from Ukraine appears to show Russian commanders giving orders to kill Ukrainian soldiers, even after they surrendered.

And the new research from scientists about our planet growing ever warmer and what it could do to the world's coastlines.

ANNOUNCER: Live from Atlanta. This is CNN NEWSROOM with Rosemary Church.

CHURCH: Good to have you with us, and we begin in the Middle East, where explosions and smoke could be seen over Gaza's skyline earlier today.

Well, Israel is ramping up its unrelenting military operation in the enclave despite growing pressure to end its new offensive. The U.K. says it has paused trade negotiations with Israel, while the European Union is reviewing its trade deal with the country.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KAJA KALLAS, E.U.'S FOREIGN POLICY CHIEF: It is clear from today's discussion that there is a strong majority in favor of review of Article 2 of our association agreement with Israel. So, we will launch this exercise, and in the meantime, it is up to Israel to unblock the humanitarian aid. Saving lives must be our top priority. (END VIDEO CLIP)

CHURCH: Article 2 of the E.U.-Israel Association Agreement says, in part, relations between the parties shall be based on respect for human rights and democratic principles. Any pause in trade with Europe would hit Israel hard. The E.U. is Israel's biggest trading partner, accounting for nearly one-third of Israel's total trade last year.

Israel allowed limited humanitarian deliveries to resume this week after a nearly three month long blockade on Gaza. But some world leaders say it's not enough.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KEIR STARMER, BRITISH PRIME MINISTER: The recent announcement that Israel will allow a basic quantity of food into Gaza, a basic quantity, is totally and utterly inadequate.

So we must coordinate our response, because this war has gone on for far too long.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHURCH: On Tuesday, the U.N. said Israel had given permission for dozens of aid trucks to enter Gaza, but aid groups say at least 500 aid trucks are needed daily to address the humanitarian crisis.

CNN's Jeremy Diamond has more now from Tel Aviv.

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JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, the United Nations says 100 aid trucks were approved by Israel for entry into Gaza, but it's still unclear exactly how many of those trucks actually made it in and were able to be distributed to people in need. We know, of course, that this comes after Israel allowed just five aid trucks into the Gaza Strip yesterday, following this decision from the Israeli security cabinet to allow a basic and minimal amount of aid into Gaza to prevent all-out famine from engulfing the Gaza Strip.

The question now really is, how much aid is going to get in, and for how long will Israel continue to allow at least some aid to be brought into the Gaza Strip? Because humanitarian aid officials have made clear that the amount of aid that's gotten in so far represents just a drop in the bucket of the enormous need that currently exists in Gaza, and stemming the hunger crisis that is currently taking over the Gaza Strip will require sustained aid to continue to make it into Gaza, according to the United Nations.

Now, as this is happening, Israel is indeed continuing to escalate this expanded military offensive in the Gaza Strip. Since Thursday, more than 500 people have actually been killed in Gaza by Israeli air and artillery strikes. The ground offensive that has been promised doesn't seem to have materialized in a very significant way, although we do know that tens of thousands of Israeli troops are mobilized in Gaza in order to carry out that offensive. And it's already bringing a lot of pressure, international pressure onto Israel. France, the United Kingdom and Canada, all threatening to take concrete actions against Israel if they do not cease this expanded military offensive, which they call a wholly disproportionate escalation.

[02:05:20]

The United Kingdom has already taken some steps, suspending negotiations with the Israeli government on a new trade agreement, also calling up Israel's ambassador to the United Kingdom to discuss this matter further.

The Israeli Prime Minister rejecting this criticism from countries that are traditionally considered allies of Israel. The real question, though, is what kind of pressure will the United States bring to bear? We know that they are working to try and bring about a new ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas, but so far, no concrete signs of any real progress on that matter.

Jeremy Diamond, CNN, Tel Aviv.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CHURCH: I'm joined now by Tess Ingram, spokesperson for UNICEF. She comes to us live from Amman, Jordan. Appreciate you joining us.

TESS INGRAM, SPOKESPERSON, UNICEF: Thanks for having me.

CHURCH: So, we are seeing Israel's Prime Minister come under increasing pressure from the U.K. and E.U. to end his aid blockade and new offensive in Gaza. How likely is it that these threatened trade sanctions will be enough to force Benjamin Netanyahu to allow more humanitarian aid trucks into Gaza?

INGRAM: They have to be enough, because we are at a point of absolute catastrophe. In this moment we are seeing children dying from malnutrition being live streamed to the world. We're seeing constant, intense and indiscriminate bombardments across Gaza, as your correspondent just said, 500 people since Thursday. That's more than a hundred people being killed, reportedly every day, many of them children. And if they survive, they have lifelong injuries.

So, we really do need the international community to step up in earnest, to do everything that they can, not just to end the blockade and make sure that aid flows freely, but also to address the bombardments, we need a return to a cease fire.

CHURCH: And Tess, what's been the impact so far of Israel's nearly three month long blockade of aid in Gaza, and how would you describe conditions on the ground right now?

INGRAM: The conditions on the ground are almost beyond words for us at this point. And I don't like to say that it's my job to have words, but it's really hard to describe the extent of the impact of this blockade on children. Of course, we're seeing rising levels of malnutrition. The whole Gaza

Strip is at risk of famine. One in five people face starvation out of a population of two million people, children are not getting enough to eat. They are becoming sick. We're seeing diseases rising because there's also not enough safe water for children to drink, and that creates a vicious cycle disease, dehydration and malnutrition, that is going to result in skyrocketing child deaths unless we can get that aid in to address it.

And we need not to just get food in. We also need to be able to get in these nutrition treatments for the severely malnourished children, water, medicine. The handful of trucks that we've managed to get through the crossing to the other side in the last 48 hours, it really is just a drop in a bucket. It's not going to address the escalating needs that we're seeing.

CHURCH: Indeed, of course, the United Nations has been making that very clear that the limited number of aid trucks that Israel has allowed into Gaza this week comes nowhere near the required 500 aid trucks needed on a daily basis.

So, what additional pressure will it take for Israel to allow hundreds of trucks into Gaza, and what difference have the small amount of deliveries that resume this week? What difference have they made to the lives of most Palestinians?

INGRAM: No difference so far, because they're still stuck in the crossing. We actually need to get them out of the crossing and to the people that need them. And that, in itself, is a challenge. We need permission to go in there. There's a process that we have to go through unloading from one truck onto a different truck that's authorized to move into another area. There's a lot of bureaucracy that we're trying to manage at the moment to get that first batch of supplies to the families that desperately need it. And that has to happen urgently, because that aid is no good sitting at a crossing.

But also, we need to keep it moving. As you say, 500 trucks is what we were doing before the war, before this crisis. So, the needs are now well beyond that, and five trucks, half a dozen trucks, isn't going to cut it.

So, we really need the more crossings to open, more aid to come in, and we need the international community to get behind in earnest. Because, as I said before, we're seeing children starving to death live streamed to the world. If this is not a moment for our moral conscience to kick in and for us to say enough, then I don't know what is.

[02:10:06]

CHURCH: We're seeing the. U.K. certainly take action with their trade -- their pause on trade. The E.U. is certainly considering that, you're calling on the wider international community to do more. What do they need to do?

INGRAM: Look, there are so many mechanisms that can be pulled. We've seen, you know, of course, the United Nations Security Council try and take action on these individual governments can pull whatever levers they have. The United Nations has been clear now for 18 months that any party that can, should use their influence, any member state influence the parties to the conflict, not just to allow aid in, not just to meet those basic, basic standards of international humanitarian law that have been ignored for so long, but also to enact a ceasefire. And now is the moment for that to happen.

CHURCH: Tess Ingram, many thanks for joining us. Appreciate it and all you do.

INGRAM: Thank you.

CHURCH: Well, sources tell CNN Israel may be considering a major move that could propel the Middle East into a broader war. CNN's Chief U.S. Security Analyst Jim Sciutto has details.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Myself and my colleagues, Katie Bo Lillis, and Natasha Bertrand have new reporting tonight that the U.S. has obtained new intelligence suggesting that Israel is making preparations to strike Iranian nuclear facilities.

These officials caution it is not clear Israeli leaders have made a final decision, and there is deep disagreement within the U.S. government about the likelihood of such an attack.

However, this new U.S. intelligence assessment is based on both intercepted Israeli communications and on Israeli military activity, and that activity includes the movement of air munitions and the completion of an air exercise.

One person familiar with the U.S. intelligence told us, "The chance of an Israeli strike on an Iranian nuclear facility has gone up significantly in recent months, and the prospect of a Trump negotiated U.S.-Iran deal that does not remove all of Iran's uranium makes the chance of a strike more likely."

An Israeli source told me that if the US were to make what this source described as a bad deal, Israel may very well decide to strike Iran on its own, and that's a key dynamic here, that the U.S. and Israel might be at odds on a potential outcome of President Trump's negotiations with Iran.

And now, as we noted, new U.S. intelligence indicates that Israel is at least making preparations for military action.

Jim Sciutto, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CHURCH: Still to come, disturbing accusations from the battlefield in Ukraine, where Russian troops are accused of killing Ukrainian soldiers even after they had surrendered. Our exclusive report just ahead.

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[02:17:29]

CHURCH: Italy's Prime Minister says, Pope Leo is still eager to host peace talks between Russia and Ukraine. Last week, the Vatican offered to hold the next round of negotiations, but Moscow has given no sign that it's ready for peace. Instead, it's continuing to bombard Ukraine with drone strikes.

The European Union and U.K. are presenting a united front, announcing a new round of sanctions against Russia on Tuesday. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy thanked Europe for its support, but he's also urging the U.S. to remain committed and involved in the peace process and in pressuring Vladimir Putin.

The Trump administration, though, is now walking back its promises of further sanctions on Russia.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARCO RUBIO, U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE: Our belief, the president's belief is he doesn't -- he believes that right now, if you start threatening sanctions, the Russians will stop talking, and there's value in us being able to talk to them and drive them to get to the table.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHURCH: CNN has obtained exclusive drone footage and radio intercepts appearing to show Russian troops executing a group of Ukrainian soldiers, even though they had just surrendered.

CNN's Nick Paton Walsh has the story, but a warning, some of the images in his report are graphic.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): Arta, listen to me. Ask who the commander is. Take the commander and kill everyone else.

NICK PATON WALSH, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT (voice- over): Before even this moment of surrender, the fate of these six Ukrainian troops were sealed. Ukrainian drone images from the southern front last November show the horror that comes after defeat. A Russian hiding in the bushes shoots one Ukrainian in the head. Ukrainian officials gave CNN intercepts of Russian radio orders from their commanders to their troops here.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): Take them to the road.

WALSH (voice-over): We can't verify them independently, but they help paint a chilling picture of what appeared to be executions to order of a plan to kill prisoners given from above.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): Get the -- out. Take the senior one. And get rid of the others.

WALSH (voice-over): The Russian in the bushes seems to fit a mask and then emerge. He's joined by another Russian. They talk. There's no visible threat from their prisoners and one captive Ukrainian seems to gesture at them. But nothing changes, his fate shot in the head calmly.

Another Ukrainian gets up, presumably the commander, and takes off his armor, but the voice on the radio is impatient.

[02:20:06]

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): Did you take them down? That's a question.

WALSH (voice-over): The commander is led away. In total, six times the order to kill was given, according to the intercepts.

WALSH: A forensic study for CNN "The Files" an audio found no reason they weren't authentic, and a western intelligent official described them to us as, "credible." We've geolocated the footage of the killing to this tree line just outside of Novodarivka in Zaporizhzhia region where fierce fighting raged late last year. Ukrainian prosecutors say the executions of surrendering Ukrainian troops by Russians are increasing. They say they opened eight cases in all of 2023 39 for all of last year, and in just the first four months of this year, 20.

YURII BIELOUSOV, OFFICE OF THE PROSECUTOR-GENERAL OF UKRAINE: It's a well- coordinated and well-planned policy and the execution of prison so forth as well as other war crimes which have been committed in Ukraine, well, I think that goes up to the president of Russian Federation who, for example, when it was the example of Kursk area when there were -- when he conducted like a military meeting or something, and when he said that we should treat them as terrorists. And everyone knows how Putin treats people who they call terrorists. So, for -- it's almost synonym for us to execute.

WALSH (voice-over): The U.N. special rapporteur on extrajudicial killing told CNN the executions would not happen in such numbers and frequency without orders, or at the very least, consent from highest military commanders, which in Russia means the presidency.

Another video supplied to CNN by a western intelligence official shows a similar scene also from Zaporizhzhia. Ukrainians are surrounded and surrendering to Russians with red tape on their helmets. But two others join them, white tape on their helmets. They appear to use their radios, and then a white helmet opens fire as the smoke clears a red reloads his weapon and shoots another Ukrainian in the head.

There's no radio intercept here, but a western intelligence official told CNN the order to kill likely came from the white to the red. Killings aimed at hitting Ukrainian morale, but also cynically just at easing Russian logistics.

This affects the morale and psychological state of our guys, he says. We have facts when the Russian military and political leadership directly gave verbal instructions not to take prisoners and to shoot those captured on the spot, because it complicates military logistics from their point of view.

A stark window into Moscow's mindset, surrender means nothing, and mercy is not an option.

Nick Paton Walsh, CNN, Kyiv of Ukraine.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CHURCH: Coming up, the U.S. and South African presidents will soon meet in Washington, but a controversial refugee program for white South Africans is looming over those talks. We'll explain.

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[02:27:58]

CHURCH: Welcome back, everyone. U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio is defending the Trump administration's controversial decision to prioritize White South Africans for refugee resettlement in the U.S. He says it's in the national interest of the U.S. because they're a small subset who are easier to vet than others seeking resettlement.

The South African president is scheduled to meet with President Trump at the White House in the coming hours. CNN's Larry Madowo has more on the controversy.

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LARRY MADOWO, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): White South Africans, many of them farmers, entered the American dream, some too young to know they've also entered an international firestorm.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Welcome. Welcome to the United States of America.

MADOWO (voice over): The U.S. government says it's taking in these refugees fleeing alleged racial discrimination at home.

Thats why they've opened the door for them.

CYRIL RAMAPHOSA, SOUTH AFRICAN PRESIDENT: Yes. And they don't fit that bill. Those people who have fled are not being persecuted. The American government has got the wrong end of the stick here.

MADOWO (voice over): South Africa's president has come to the U.S. to set the record straight and is expected to meet President Donald Trump Wednesday, hoping to reset the two countries relationship. It was his signing of a controversial land seizure law in January that invoked Trump's wrath, allowing the state to take unused farmland without compensation if deemed just, equitable and in the public interest.

South Africa's majority black population still owns just a small percentage of farms. More than 30 years after apartheid officially ended while most are owned by the white minority. There were 36 murders at farms between April and December last year, but only seven of the victims were farmers, according to police data.

But President Trump calls it a, quote, genocide against white farmers.

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: They're being killed and we don't want to see people be killed. It's a genocide that's taking place.

[02:30:58]

MADOWO (voice-over): The accusation partly stemming from this apartheid era song made popular again by far-left opposition leader, Julius Malema.

JULIUS MALEMA, MEMBER OF THE NATIONAL ASSEMBLY OF SOUTH AFRICA: Kill the poor, the farmer.

MADOWO (voice-over): But AfriForum, conservative white Africanist lobby group, won't explicitly say there is a white genocide.

KALLIE KRIEL, CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER: AFRIFORUM: There's a call for genocidal call. People are being killed and people are being tortured. We need to prevent this from going further.

MADOWO (voice-over): AfriForum is described by the U.S.-based Southern Poverty Law Center as a white nationalist group. They have the ear of the U.S. administration, but they're not leaving South Africa.

KRIEL: At AfriForum, we say our future is in Africa because our ancestors came here more than 300 years ago.

MADOWO (voice-over): South African born entrepreneur, Elon Musk, has fanned the accusations against his homeland, frustrating locals.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think they are lying. There's no genocide in here.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Elon Musk is overhyping the situation. There's no such as genocide.

JOHN STEENHUISEN, SOUTH AFRICAN MINISTER OF AGRICULTURE: He must have mischaracterized things as a genocide. There's no mass appropriation of land taking place in South Africa, there's no genocide taking place.

MADOWO (voice-over): Musk reportedly wants approval for his companies to operate in South Africa.

MADOWO: Well, is Elon Musk invited when you have that face-to-face meeting?

CYRIL RAMAPHOSA, PRESIDENT OF SOUTH AFRICA: Well, I don't know. They will determine whether Elon Musk is part of it or not.

MADOWO (voice-over): President Ramaphosa hopes to mend the rift and convince Trump to attend the G20 Summit in Johannesburg in November. Larry Madowo, CNN, Nairobi.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ROSEMARY CHURCH, CNN ANCHOR OF "CNN NEWSROOM": And tech billionaire Elon Musk says he is planning to reduce his political spending and refocus on his companies. Tesla has struggled since Musk allied himself with the Trump administration and is now seen by many as a politically polarizing brand.

Musk shelled out $290 million to get Donald Trump and other favored congressional candidates elected. It's not clear how much he intends to cut back.

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ELON MUSK, SENIOR ADVISOR TO THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: In terms of political spending, I'm going to do a lot less in the future.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And why is that?

MUSK: I think I've done enough.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHURCH: Musk went on to say that if he sees a reason for future political spending, he'll do it. He's also taking a step back from his role in the Trump Administration's Department of Government Efficiency.

Still to come, a new study warns that the world's ice sheets are at risk and pledges to curb global warming. More warming, May warming, we should say, may not be enough to stop runaway melting.

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[02:37:18]

CHURCH: The world's ice sheets are on course for runaway melting, potentially leading to a catastrophic rise in sea levels. That is according to a new study by a group of international scientists. They wanted to find out what level of global warming would be safe enough for the survival of the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets.

The most worrying finding is that even if the world manages to hit a pledged target of 1.5 degrees of warming, it likely won't be enough. Scientists found the current level, 1.2 degrees could still trigger ice sheet retreat and a dramatic rise in sea levels. The world is currently on track for up to 2.9 degrees of warming in the next 75 years, a level which one of the scientists behind the study says will have a major impact.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JONATHAN BAMBER, PROFESSOR, GLACIOLOGY & EARTH OBSERVATION, UNIVERSITY OF BRISTOL: At 2.5 to 2.9 degrees, we are looking at some really, really unpleasant consequences. And if we are talking here about sea level rise, it's quite possible that we're going to see over a meter, that's more than three feet in old money, by 2100, potentially more than a meter. And that does mean that there are many countries around the world that are going to experience really unavoidable and you know, coastal flooding that you really can't stop. You can't prevent.

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CHURCH: Around 230 million people live less than one meter or just over three feet above sea level.

Well, thousands of pictures of food that stand out or tell a story were vying to win this year's World Food Photography Awards. The unique honor celebrates the best in food photography from around the globe. CNN's Lynda Kinkade shows us some of the winners.

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LYNDA KINKADE, CNN ANCHOR: This image of five old ladies sharing Chinese spring rolls and perhaps a little bit of neighborhood gossip is the winner of the World Food Photography Awards sponsored by Bimi, a broccoli brand. The picture was taken in Sichuan Province in China and won the photographer almost $7,000. The contest drew more than 10,000 entries from 70 different countries.

The pictures range from great unscripted moments like the wine photograph of the year showing pinot noir grapes being harvested at night to expertly posed ones like these shots of spaghetti and meatballs that won the Food Stylist Award. The judges said these pictures showcased both the messy and meticulous nature of pasta.

[02:40:00]

There were numerous shots of food being prepared, where the people are as much of a star as the food. The winners even included food before it becomes food, like the Innovation Award winner that looks like an octopus crawling out of a laundry machine, or this undeniably cute image of black piglets that took home the 'Food in the Field' prize. It's titled 'Hogging the Limelight'.

Lynda Kinkade, CNN.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CHURCH: And thanks for joining us. I'm Rosemary Church. "World Sport" is coming up next. Then I'll be back at the top of the hour with more "CNN Newsroom." Do stick around.

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