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Limited Aid Allowed in Gaza as Fears of Famine Continues in Gaza; Baby Boy Treated With a First Personalized Gene-Editing Drug; Pope Leo Delivers His First-Ever General Audience. Aired 3-3:45a ET

Aired May 21, 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]

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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 a very limited amount of food and medical supplies are being allowed into the enclave after nearly three months of a blockade.

Cutting-edge medicine. How the race to invent a treatment for this baby with a rare genetic disorder is making history.

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

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

CHURCH: I appreciate you joining us.

And we begin in the Middle East where explosions and smoke could be seen over Gaza's skyline early today. Israel is ramping up its 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. 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. The U.N. is warning that Gaza's entire population, more than two million people, face the risk of famine with one in five people in the enclave facing starvation. For some, food scarcity is not only a daily reality but a battle to survive.

CNN's Abeer Salman has the story of one 12-year-old girl.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JANA AL-SKEIFI, GAZA RESIDENT (translated): My dad has no one else, I'm the one who carries the water. We wait for hours just to fill up, and oftentimes, we only fill half a bucket. I want to be strong so my father doesn't suffer.

ABEER SALMAN, CNN PRODUCER (voice-over): This is the story of one 12- year-old girl, Jana Al-skeifi and her family. But it's also the story of so many others in Gaza today.

Where days are punctuated by the never-ending search for water and food. And where the death of one pushes a family to endure unimaginable hardships.

J. AL-SKEIFI (translated): (My brother) heard a woman begging for help, her children were terrified. He learned down to point a way out and was shot by a sniper.

It entered into his chest and came out --

MOHAMMED AL-SKEIFI, LOST SON IN GAZA (translated): The bullet entered in his chest and it came out of his back here. We took off the coat and buried him. He was our only son, his death broke us.

SALMAN (voice-over): After her brother was killed, it was Jana who stepped up, becoming her family's guardian and caretaker.

J. AL-SKEIFI (translated): My father is old and has heart disease, my mother has cancer. [03:05:00]

If my father tries to carry his bucket, he'll fall. I have to carry all this and my dad does his best to help.

SALMAN (voice-over): It's a burden made worse by Israel's punishing 11-week blockade of food and aid on the Gaza Strip. Israel says the blockade was designed to bring about the release of all of the hostages and pressure Hamas. So far, neither has happened.

Instead, despite aid now trickling in, the U.N. says 20 percent of the population faces starvation, calling it, quote, "atrocious and beyond humane."

J. AL-SKEIFI (translated): I used to play with my niece all the time.

AYA AL-SKEIFI, GAZA RESIDENT (translated): She was malnourished, and couldn't be treated here. They told us to be evacuated. This is when she was dying, God bless her.

I didn't even want to travel abroad. I just wanted someone to bring her milk. I stopped eating, drinking, moving, I couldn't even go to the bathroom because I was afraid she would slip away.

At five in the morning, I realized she had passed. It felt like someone took my heart away, or stabbed me with a knife. I couldn't process the feeling.

SALMAN (voice-over): A baby born and perished, surrounded by starvation. Her three brief months of life sustained by a child.

Before the war, Gaza survived on food deliveries from hundreds of trucks a day. Now, with the Israeli military pledging to take over the entire Gaza Strip, whatever makes it through will almost certainly not be enough.

Abeer Salman, CNN, Jerusalem.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CHURCH: Earlier, I spoke with UNICEF spokesperson Tess Ingram, and I asked her whether economic pressure on Israel would be enough to compel Benjamin Netanyahu to allow more aid to enter Gaza.

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TESS INGRAM, UNICEF SPOKESPERSON: 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 100 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 ceasefire.

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.

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CHURCH: 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 the details.

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JIM SCIUTTO, CNN CHIEF U.S. SECURITY ANALYST: 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.

[03:10:01]

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, quote, "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 U.S. 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: Russian President Vladimir Putin has made his first visit to the Kursk region since claiming it's been recaptured from Ukrainian forces. That is according to state media, which released video of Putin meeting with local leaders and visiting the Kursk nuclear power plant. It's unclear when the video was taken.

Ukrainian troops launched a surprise incursion into Kursk last August, capturing and holding the territory for months. Despite Putin's claims, Ukraine says it continues to hold ground in that region.

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.

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CHURCH: Romania's far-right presidential candidate is asking the country's top court to annul his rival's victory. Nicusor Dan won the presidency with nearly 54 percent of the vote in the runoff election. George Simeon initially conceded the race, but is now alleging there was foreign interference and manipulation in Sunday's vote.

CNN's Max Foster spoke with President-elect Dan in his first international interview since the election and asked him about his victory.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NICUSOR DAN, ROMANIAN PRESIDENT-ELECT: Of course, I'm very pleased of the result. It's not mine, it's the result of the society. There have been a very, very strong mobilization of pro-occidental Romanian.

They want to keep the European direction, they want to keep the commitment that Romania have inside NATO. I think that Europe must take his own security in his hands and Romania must be part of it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHURCH: Dan is the current mayor of Romania's capital, Bucharest. Domestically, he has vowed to crack down on corruption.

It's a first for modern medicine. Doctors appear to have healed a baby born with a rare and deadly genetic disease, using a customized gene- editing therapy. That story, just ahead.

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CHURCH: A key U.S. House committee is meeting right now to find some way to push through a bill providing for President Donald Trump's legislative agenda.

We're looking at live pictures here as they continue on into the night. It comes after the President met with Republican lawmakers for more than an hour on Tuesday in an effort to urge them forward. But infighting within the party over key sticking points could spell disaster.

CNN's Jeff Zeleny has the details.

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JEFF ZELENY, CNN CHIEF U.S. NATIONAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: President Trump making a visit to Capitol Hill to personally persuade House Republicans to drop their differences and come together to pass the budget and tax bill.

But on first blush, he had a difficult time really smoothing over some of those divisions. The President insisted there was unity, although it looked like anything but.

DONALD TRUMP, U.S. PRESIDENT: I think we have unbelievable unity. I think we're going to get everything we want. And I think we're going to have a great victory.

I think it was a really great -- that was a meeting of love. Let me tell you, that was love. There was no shouting, I think it was a meeting of love. ZELENY: A meeting of love, perhaps, but a meeting that likely did not

have enough votes for the bill to pass.

[03:20:01]

House Speaker Mike Johnson is trying to get this done by Memorial Day. Of course, that is very much an open question. But the bigger picture to all of this is this is the heart of the President's legislative agenda.

The White House, of course, has spent countless hours signing hundreds of executive orders. That is not what presidential legacies are built on. They're built on legislation.

So at the end of the day here, the White House needs this bill to pass, largely because the tax cuts from the first Trump administration expire at the end of this year. So this, without a question, is the biggest challenge facing the President so far and the White House.

Jeff Zeleny, CNN, the White House.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CHURCH: A baby in the U.S. is bringing hope to the many people born with genetic diseases after successfully undergoing a customized, first-of-its-kind gene editing treatment.

Little K.J. was born last August in Pennsylvania with a rare and life- threatening disorder. His body could not rid itself of ammonia, which can cause brain damage, liver failure and even death. Many babies with his mutation die just days after being born.

But doctors were able to give K.J. tailored infusions full of tiny gene editors that appear to have repaired the defect. However, doctors remain cautious as these are still early days.

Dr. Sadik Kassim is the chief technology officer at Danaher Genomic Medicines and he joins me now from Boston. Welcome, doctor. Thanks for talking with us.

SADIK KASSIM, CHIEF TECHNOLOGY OFFICER, DANAHER GENOMIC MEDICINES: Pleasure to be here, Rosemary. Thank you.

CHURCH: So baby K.J. has made medical history. He's now 9.5 months old. But back in February, he received the world's first personalized gene editing treatment for a rare condition.

Now, you're not the treating physician, but what's the science behind this remarkable breakthrough and how significant is it?

KASSIM: Yes, well, so all humans are made up of DNA and DNA is like the code book of life. And there are over three billion letters that define many of our features like our eye color, our hair color.

And one mistake in that three billion letter code can lead to disease. And in the case of baby K.J., one typo or one mistake in that three billion letter code led to a potentially fatal disease called the urea cycle disorder. And so the clock was ticking.

The physicians at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, Dr. Kiran Musunuru and Dr. Rebecca Arntz-Nicholas, were able to quickly identify that one typo in the three billion letter code and quickly mobilized, tapped on a few different shoulders to collectively mobilize between Danaher, between the Innovative Genomics Institute, Aldebaran, IDT, Acuitis. They were able to mobilize an ecosystem of academia industry to develop the world's first custom gene-editing therapy. And it's been called the fastest drug ever developed.

And between August and February, the team mobilized, created this medicine, and baby K.J. was treated on February 25th. And by all signs, based on the published reports that came out last week, it seems to be doing well and growing and thriving for someone of his age.

CHURCH: Yes, it is extraordinary. So, Doctor, what were the biggest challenges involved in making this happen for baby K.J.?

KASSIM: Well, this has never been done, so the roadmap had not been defined. And so, you know, this is unprecedented in terms of the collaboration that was mobilized across industry, government, and academia. And additionally, just the clock was ticking.

So doing all of this at unprecedented speed while not cutting any corners and making sure that safety was optimal, I think those were the key challenges. But the story isn't necessarily about K.J. -- baby K.J. alone, because what this specific collaboration has defined is a roadmap that can potentially be used to treat many other rare genetic disorders.

CHURCH: And what is the overall goal when it comes to using this technique of personalized gene editing therapies? How many people could this reach?

KASSIM: Well, you know, around the world, there's about 400 million people that are affected with these rare genetic disorders. Collectively, it's been estimated that just within the United States, the economic impact of not treating folks with rare genetic disorders is on the order of a trillion dollars.

[03:25:05]

And so I think now that we have this roadmap, the question becomes, how can we deploy it to maximize access and benefit for the population that really needs it, whether it's in the United States or globally, and the future will be defined by collaborations between governments, between industry, between academia, to figure out how we can build this infrastructure and use it to treat and provide access to those that need these treatments.

CHURCH: And when you're using this gene editing, presumably K.J.'s children will not have any exposure to the problems with the genes that he had?

KASSIM: Well, so that's an important question. This particular form of gene editing is affecting what we call somatic cells, meaning not the germline cells.

So the gene edit will not pass on to K.J.'s future children. They're only going to directly impact him. And right now, there's a moratorium or a ban on genetically editing egg and sperm cells because for the time being, there's an ethical issue.

So within the case of baby K.J., it's really defining or correcting the gene within his particularly affected cells, but it's not going to be passed on to his children. And that limits the potential overall risk and maximizes the safety of this type of a treatment.

CHURCH: Dr. Sadik Kassim, thank you so much for joining us. I appreciate it.

KASSIM: My pleasure. Thank you, Rosemary.

CHURCH: Still to come, Pope Leo is about to address the Catholic faithful as he holds his first general audience. We will have a live report just ahead.

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CHURCH: Welcome back to "CNN Newsroom." I'm Rosemary Church. I want to check today's top stories for you.

Israel is facing mounting pressure to end the aid blockade in Gaza and its new offensive. On Tuesday, the U.K. announced it's pausing trade negotiations with Israel. And the European Union, Israel's biggest trading partner, said it will review its trade agreement with the country.

Sources tell CNN the U.S. has new intelligence suggesting Israel is making preparations to strike Iranian nuclear facilities. Officials say no final decision has been made, but a strike would be a major escalation and it would break with the U.S., which is pursuing a nuclear deal with Tehran.

Pope Leo is reconfirming his desire to host peace talks between Russia and Ukraine. He met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Sunday after his inaugural mass. Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has also spoken with the new Pope, saying he hopes to help build a, quote, "just and lasting peace in Ukraine."

Well next hour, Pope Leo will hold his first general audience. The public event is held most Wednesdays, usually in St. Peter's Square, and is a chance for the Catholic faithful to pray with the Pope face- to-face.

CNN's Vatican correspondent Christopher Lamb joins me now live from London. Good morning to you, Christopher. So what can we expect today?

CHRISTOPHER LAMB, CNN VATICAN CORRESPONDENT: Well, good morning, Rosemary. This will be for Pope Leo the start of what is going to be a weekly appointment on Wednesday between him and ordinary believers. So this morning we're expecting Pope Leo to once again get up on the Popemobile, circle St. Peter's Square and then address those who are gathered in the square, offer a reflection which will be translated into different languages.

And then at the end, if he continues in the same way as his predecessor, Pope Francis, he may well make some remarks about global events, perhaps talk about Russia and Ukraine's conflict, and of course, his desire to be a peacemaker in that, and also situations in Gaza or Myanmar.

So we're expecting this to be a chance for the Pope to engage directly with Catholic believers. It's an important appointment on his weekly calendar, the Wednesday general audience, where he gets that connection with people who are in Rome and who want to see him.

And it was something that Pope Francis took very seriously and was very important to him.

[03:35:00]

And of course, it's very important for Pope Leo as he begins his ministry as Pope, it's less than two weeks since his election, that he develops a connection with the ordinary Catholic faithful. I think that's going to be a very important part of his ministry.

So today, Wednesday, is the start of that. And it will be obviously a weekly appointment for him going forward. Rosemary.

CHURCH: Alright, our thanks to Christopher Lamb. They're joining us live from London with that report. I appreciate it.

Well, attorneys for Vietnamese and Burmese migrants are accusing the Trump administration of violating a court order by deporting them to South Sudan. At least a dozen migrants were sent to South Sudan this week.

Their attorneys say some of the migrants did not receive proper notice of the opportunity to contest their deportation to a third country, that's in violation of a previous order issued earlier this year. The Department of Homeland Security has not publicly confirmed the deportations, the U.S. currently has a do-not-travel advisory for South Sudan amid the ongoing conflict there.

Well, still to come, severe storms, tornadoes and damaging winds ravage parts of the Southeast U.S. We'll have details for you after a short break. Stay with us.

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UNKNOWN: Oh, my gosh. That's a freaking tornado. You see that?

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CHURCH: That's a confirmed tornado moving through Huntsville, Alabama. And similar scenes played out across parts of the Southeast U.S. on Tuesday.

Near Madison, Alabama, an ominous wall of clouds and extensive damage reported from what's believed to be a tornado. Millions of people in the eastern half of the U.S. are still under threat of storms. Nonstop severe weather has killed at least 28 people in recent days.

The world's ice sheets are on course for runaway melting, potentially leading to a catastrophic rise in sea levels. That's 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.

I want to thank you so much for your company, I'm Rosemary Church. Enjoy the rest of your day. "Marketplace Europe" is coming up next.

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