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Prosecutors Filed Charges Against Gunman who Killed Two Israeli Embassy Staff Members in Washington, D.C.; Trump Admin Bars International Students Admitting at Harvard University; Israeli P.M. Accuses Western Leaders of the Wrong Side of History; Kid Cudi Testifies at Diddy Combs' Trial. Aired 3-4a ET

Aired May 23, 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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BRIAN ABEL, CNN U.S. NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT AND ANCHOR: Hello and welcome to our viewers joining us from all around the world and to everyone streaming us on CNN Max, I'm Brian Abel.

Just ahead, new details are emerging about the deadly shooting of two Israeli embassy staffers. What we know about the investigation so far.

The Trump administration takes steps to bar international students from attending Harvard. How the school's academic research could be hit.

Plus, Kim Jong-un vows punishment after North Korea's disastrous launch of a new warship. We have stunning satellite images and a look at the fallout.

Prosecutors have now filed federal murder charges against the man accused of gunning down two staff members from the Israeli embassy in Washington, as investigators piece together the events leading up to the attack. According to court documents, Elias Rodriguez declared a firearm in his checked luggage when he flew from Chicago to Washington, where he was apparently attending a work conference.

Police say he shot Yaron Leshchinsky and Sarah Milgrim after an event outside a Jewish museum on Wednesday. Surveillance footage reportedly shows the gunman walking past the young couple, then turning around and firing at them from behind. Documents describe Milgrim trying to crawl away as Rodriguez followed her and fired again.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JEANINE PIRRO, INTERIM U.S. ATTORNEY FOR WASHINGTON, D.C.: Violence against anyone based on their religion is an act of cowardice. It is not an act of a hero. It is the kind of case that we will vigorously pursue. Anti-Semitism will not be tolerated, especially in the nation's capital.

We're going to continue to investigate this as a hate crime and a crime of terrorism, and we will add additional charges as the evidence warrants.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ABEL: Meanwhile, the FBI is digging into the suspect's background and history of activism. CNN's Whitney Wild has the details.

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WHITNEY WILD, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): As FBI agents in tactical gear search an address linked to the man accused of shooting two people outside the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington, the people who live in this busy North Side Chicago neighborhood are trying to make sense of the tragedy.

JOHN FRY, NEIGHBOR: It shocked me. I heard that the shooter was from Chicago, but have it be my next door neighbor.

WILD (voice-over): From Chicago to Washington, law enforcement has been working around the clock to learn as much as they can about the 31-year-old shooting suspect, Elias Rodriguez. Part of the investigation, according to law enforcement sources, a lengthy letter signed with Rodriguez's name and posted to social media Wednesday night.

The letter advocated for violent retaliation over the war in Gaza, called Israel's actions in Gaza genocide, and expressed fury over the, quote, "atrocities committed by the Israelis against Palestine." The letter referenced armed action as a valid form of protest, calling it the only sane thing to do.

"What more, at this point, can one say about the proportion of mangled and burned and exploded human beings whom were children," the letter said. "We who let this happen will never deserve the Palestinians' forgiveness."

The shooting happened outside the Capital Jewish Museum in D.C. The victims, Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Milgrim, staff members at the Israeli Embassy.

PAM BONDI, U.S. ATTORNEY GENERAL: The hate has got to stop, and it has to stop now. This person will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.

WILD (voice-over): Israeli officials say Lischinsky and Milgrim were dating. Lischinsky planned to propose soon.

BONDI: What we saw last night was disgusting. I saw a young man's body being taken away, who was about to get engaged. He had an entire life in front of him, and that was taken away.

WILD (voice-over): Eyewitnesses told CNN Rodriguez first pretended to be a bystander after the shooting. When police arrived, Rodriguez turned himself in, shouting, free Palestine, a moment caught on video obtained by CNN.

YONI RIVER, WITNESS: He said, I did this for Palestine. He started yelling, free Palestine, Intifada revolution, there's only one solution.

WILD (voice-over): Rodriguez appears to have been an activist for years. This GoFundMe page set up in 2017 raised money for a trip to Washington, D.C., for an event with a group called the People's Congress of Resistance. Rodriguez apparently writing that he wanted to put an end to imperialist war.

He was also interviewed by Scripps News at a protest in 2018 over plans for an Amazon building.

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ELIAS RODRIGUEZ, MEMBER, ANSWER CHICAGO: I feel like if we can keep Amazon out, that is a huge victory, and it demonstrates sort of the power of people coming together and being able to say no to things like gentrification and these corporate subsidies.

WILD (voice-over): In the aftermath of the shooting, Rodriguez's neighbor shared this message.

FRY: I'm worrying during the Vietnam War, you don't stop war with guns and bombs. Stop wars by going to your neighbors, talking to your neighbors.

WILD: Elias Rodriguez is facing charges including murder of a foreign official. Law enforcement in D.C. says this is being investigated as a hate crime, being investigated as an act of terror, and the interim U.S. attorney for Washington, D.C., Jeanine Pirro, says that it is likely that there will be more charges added in the future.

Whitney Wild, CNN, Chicago.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ABEL: Just hours after the attack, the Israeli Prime Minister ordered security at all of Israel's missions around the world to be beefed up. Benjamin Netanyahu said we are witnessing, quote, "wild incitement against the state of Israel." The Israeli embassy in Washington says it's reviewing its own security protocols.

CNN spoke earlier with Brian Levin, the founding director of the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism, to get his reaction to the murders.

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BRIAN LEVIN, FOUNDING DIRECTOR, CENTER FOR THE STUDY OF HATE AND EXTREMISM: I think if the documentation that I'm seeing is accurate, that the person who did this was in a milieu of hostile and aggressive, bigoted content online, both as consuming and spreading it. So this is something that we have a homegrown person. That being said, since 2018 through 2024, the most common type of fatal extremists in the United States, both in general and particularly with respect to anti-Jewish, were white supremacists, far-right, and neo- Nazi. And when we disaggregated with folks from other universities, what we found was the worst months for anti-Jewish hate crime in the 1990s, March '94, corresponded to bloodshed in the Holy Land. Similar, October 2000, that was the decade high. That was when the Intifada was taking place.

And we've seen that time and time again, including the most recent Gaza conflicts. Overall, anti-Jewish hate crime, a record in 2024, up 12 percent, anti-Muslim, not in a record, but up 18 percent, and both had similar double-digit increases of around 50 percent the year prior, 2023.

The federal government just cut yesterday hate crime training grants and projects for police. Also eliminated the domestic terrorism training and projects for police.

Two studies I were on was defunded, it's a complete fabrication. The Civil Rights Division of the Justice Department has been cut by about two-thirds.

The Community Relations Service, part of the 64th Civil Rights Act, called America's peacemakers. They do mediation. They've been virtually eliminated.

So the bottom line is states like ours, California, have to fill in that void. The sad truth of the matter is the federal government, in what they're saying is combating anti-Semitism, is deporting people who are exercising their First Amendment rights, like Ms. Ozturk, who merely wrote an op-ed. One that I disagree with, but one that shouldn't result in some kind of authoritarian deportation.

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ABEL: Harvard University is considered one of America's greatest institutions, with students who fight to get in from almost everywhere in the world. But now the Trump administration says it is no longer allowed to enroll foreign students.

As CNN's Jeff Zeleny reports, this comes as the school's officials refuse to give in to the White House's policy demands.

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JEFF ZELENY, CNN CHIEF U.S. NATIONAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: The Trump administration is dramatically escalating its fight with Harvard University, saying on Thursday that all international students will be banned from continuing their education at Harvard, saying all students must change their enrollment to another university or lose their legal status to be in the United States. Now the back story to all of this.

This comes as the fight with Harvard began earlier this year. Initially the administration blocking some $2 billion or so in funding, federal funding, to Harvard programs.

This comes as the administration is trying to get Harvard to change its curriculum. They say that the university has been dominated by DEI programs, anti-Semitic protests, and the like.

The White House sent a statement saying this, Harvard has turned their once great institution into a hotbed of anti-American, anti-Semitic, pro-terrorist agitators. The White House says enrolling foreign students is a privilege, not a right. Harvard University, of course, pushing back strongly on this, saying the government's action is unlawful.

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Harvard says the retaliatory action threatens serious harm to the Harvard community, our country, and undermines Harvard's academic and research mission.

So the bottom line to this is this will certainly end up in a legal proceeding, added to the list of administration proposals that have been challenged by court. But this is a lot of students we are talking about here.

Some 27 percent of Harvard's entire student body, about 6,700 students, would fall under this. So of course this has a big fallout for those students already here in the U.S. as the school semester nears an end.

Jeff Zeleny, CNN, the White House.

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ABEL: A judge has denied a request to end deportation proceedings for Mahmoud Khalil, a Syrian-born lawful permanent resident of the U.S. Attorneys for the Palestinian activist argued that he was arrested illegally and without a warrant over two months ago.

The Trump administration is trying to deport Khalil, who is a Columbia University graduate after he helped organize pro-Palestinian rallies on campus. His attorneys tell CNN he got to hold his newborn baby for the first time on Thursday at the Louisiana detention center where he is being held.

The Trump administration is accusing Columbia University of failing to protect Jewish students. They claim the school violated federal civil rights law by acting with deliberate indifference towards the harassment of Jewish students on campus.

They say this has been going on since the war broke out in Gaza in 2023, which led to widespread protest. A spokesperson for Columbia says they are, quote, "deeply committed to combating anti-Semitism and vowed to work with the U.S. government to address its concerns."

It is crunch time in talks between the U.S. and Iran. Nuclear negotiations between the two countries are set to take place in Rome a little later today.

Plus, what do people in Iran think about a possible nuclear deal? We'll get the view from Tehran, just ahead.

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ABEL: Iran's foreign minister is on his way to Rome where he'll discuss a potential nuclear deal with U.S. envoys in the coming hours. A source familiar with the matter tells CNN the talks are hitting crunch time as both parties approach a 60-day deadline for a deal set by President Trump back in March.

Iran says it will not relinquish its right to nuclear energy, including uranium enrichment. Despite warnings from the U.S. that Israel is preparing to strike Iranian nuclear weapons, Iran confirmed it would attend the talks, but two Iranian sources told CNN they were skeptical of the Trump administration's intentions.

So, how do people in Iran feel about the nuclear talks with the U.S.? CNN's Fred Pleitgen got some answers in Tehran.

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FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SR. INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Here on the streets and markets in Tehran, of course, the negotiations between the Iranians and the Trump administration is the talk of the town. Of course, those negotiations have been fairly difficult.

The Iranians have threatened to walk away several times because of some of the things that members of President Trump's negotiating team have said, especially that the U.S. would not allow nuclear enrichment inside Iran by the Iranians.

The Iranians say for them that is an absolute red line. They say they've worked hard for their civilian nuclear program, and they have a right to enrich nuclear fuel. The Iranians are, however, saying if verification is necessary, they are willing to make compromises there.

Folks that we've been speaking to here on the streets of Tehran say they do hope that an agreement can be reached.

UNKNOWN: It's going to be a situation, they're going to play Iran into a corner, and they're going to be so much demand that Iran cannot give, and it's going to fail.

UNKNOWN: In Iran, the economic situation is not good for people, and we are in inflation, and I hope, I think, most of the people are hope that maybe possible.

PLEITGEN: Do you think there's a chance of success still?

UNKNOWN: I don't think so, because our decision is clear that we should have a nuclear power, not for using it for weapons or chilling people. We just knew it for power, I don't know, for energy.

PLEITGEN: So as you can see, a pretty complicated situation. What are the Israelis going to do? What's the Trump administration going to do? Can a compromise be reached?

Now, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the supreme leader and final authority on everything here in Iran, he says he's not confident that these negotiations can come to a successful conclusion, and he's urged specifically the American negotiators to try not to talk any nonsense.

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ABEL: Thank you, Fred.

Let's get more analysis from Jonathan Panikoff. He's the director of the Scowcroft Middle East Security Initiative and a former deputy national intelligence officer. He's joining me live now from Rome.

Jonathan, thank you for your time. These talks will be round five when it comes to the biggest piece of the negotiating puzzle, uranium enrichment. Special Envoy Steve Witkoff said before this round that Washington, quote, "cannot allow even 1 percent of an enrichment capability under an agreement."

Now, this seems to be a shift from previous suggestions that Iran could be allowed low-level enrichment. So how does the seemingly moving position impact progress? Is there a path forward for Iran without enrichment or some kind of other solution to get to an agreement?

JONATHAN PANIKOFF, DIRECTOR, SCOWCROFT MIDDLE EAST SECURITY INITIATIVE, AND FORMER DEPUTY NATIONAL INTELLIGENCE OFFICER, NATIONAL INTELLIGENCE COUNCIL: Well, good morning and thanks for having me.

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Look, I think that's going to be the ultimate question. I think the Iranians are not going to move off of this position. They've held it for years.

This was a key demand during JCPOA, the original nuclear deal that President Trump pulled out of, that President Obama had negotiated. I think the question is, is there some sort of middle ground?

In other words, could you have maybe an external consortium of countries provide Iran the enriched uranium, run it through the process in Iran for civilian nuclear energy and take the spent uranium and send it back out to those countries?

Or, perhaps, could you have a country actually go in Iran so that the enrichment is happening in Iran itself, but the Iranians are not doing it?

I'm not sure that's going to be sufficient for either the Iranians, who would see it as a violation of sovereignty, or the U.S., but it's going to be those types of creative solutions that if a deal is going to get done, that's what it's going to take.

ABEL: Jonathan, Witkoff has been somewhat of a lone ranger for the U.S. with various trips. Not this time, though. There's significance to who is in the delegation this time around. Is there any?

PANIKOFF: I think that's right. So, the initial trips, you had Witkoff going largely, as you said by himself, trying to feel out the Iranians in advanced talks.

There's clearly a sense that they're at enough of an advanced stage that he's bringing in Michael Anton, the head of policy planning at the State Department. But Anton is also serving concurrently as the chief technical negotiator. He met separately with the Iranians, without Witkoff recently, for technical talks.

The fact that they're now going together shows that either they both feel like there's enough progress to be made, that it's worth him coming to the talks, and it's worth these talks having a fifth round, or they really are at the end of the rope, and the talks, there's just nowhere else to go. And I think we're going to find out pretty soon here what is the answer.

ABEL: Well, U.S. President Donald Trump, who pulled the U.S. out of the original nuclear agreement, by the way, warned last week while in the Middle East that, quote, something bad's going to happen if Iran doesn't move quickly in negotiations. So what actual deadline do you see with these talks? Could there be a round six or more?

PANIKOFF: I think there could. President Trump originally put a two- month deadline on, and it wasn't clear if it was two months from when he originally sent the letter to the Iranians, or more likely, I think what most of us think, is it was two months from the beginning of the negotiations.

That would put his two-month deadline at mid-June. But, look, I think the reality is if the negotiations are going well, if there's some sort of significant breakthrough now or progress, I cannot imagine President Trump wouldn't be willing to slightly extend that deadline.

But the timeline is short, both on the U.S. side and on the international one. Looming in the background is the snapback provision. We have a number of European countries that are pushing toward that.

That provision would reimpose even more severe sanctions on the Iranians. And that has to be used by the early fall in order for it not to be lost under the original JCPOA terms.

ABEL: Okay, and Jonathan, let's just quickly talk about another factor in all of this. That is Israel. How do you see Netanyahu factoring in, either during this process or at the end of it?

PANIKOFF: Well, I think there's certainly a question of whether or not Netanyahu's recent activities in terms of organizing military planning for strikes on Iran are just a threat gesture to try to pressure the Iranians, or they're actually serious about Netanyahu preparing for a failed agreement and for the Israelis, preferably with the U.S. in their view, to jointly strike the Iranian nuclear facilities.

I don't think it's actually either a choice, I think both of those can be true simultaneously, I think they probably are. But I think Netanyahu is quite serious, I think the Israelis believe that they have this narrow window.

With Hamas and Hezbollah, the longtime Iranian proxies diminished due to Israeli strikes over the last year, they don't want to waste a window of being able to strike Iran's nuclear facilities with less blowback than they would have faced previously. I think they feel like the Iranians are getting closer to a nuclear weapon, and it's just a situation that's untenable for Israel, which views it as an existential threat.

ABEL: And we will see what happens next. Jonathan Panikoff in Rome, thank you for your expertise. We appreciate it.

PANIKOFF: Thank you.

ABEL: Russia and Ukraine are expected to swap up to 1,000 prisoners of war from each side later today. The exchange was negotiated during the nation's first face-to-face talks in three years last week.

Meanwhile, Russian President Vladimir Putin says his military is working to create what he calls a security buffer zone along the border with Ukraine.

[03:25:06]

He spoke after visiting Russia's Kursk region this week, where Ukraine launched a surprise incursion last year. Russia claims it has now pushed Ukrainians out, but Kyiv says it still has a foothold there.

They were raised thousands of kilometers apart, but found love at an Israeli embassy. Ahead, the lives and unfulfilled dreams of the young couple murdered in Washington.

Plus, desperately needed food and humanitarian aid is now in Gaza after nearly three months of Israel's blockade. But the U.N. says it's just a drop in the ocean of what's needed.

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ABEL: Welcome back to "CNN Newsroom." I'm Brian Abel. Let's check today's top stories.

Nuclear talks between the U.S. and Iran are set to resume in Rome today. Iran's foreign minister is attending along with U.S. Special Envoy Steve Witkoff. A source tells CNN the talks are hitting crunch time as they approach a 60-day deadline for a deal set by President Trump in March.

The Trump administration is barring Harvard University from enrolling international students. School officials have been in a dispute with the White House over federal funding, and they have refused to bow to the administration's policy demands.

The man suspected of gunning down two Israeli embassy staff members in Washington is now charged with murder. Police say 31-year-old Elias Rodriguez shouted, free Palestine, as he was detained. The U.S. Justice Department says it's too soon to say whether they'll pursue the death penalty.

The victims' paths led them to pursue careers in diplomacy, but they also found love at the Israeli embassy and were planning a future together. CNN's Tom Foreman reports on their love story that was tragically cut short.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

AYYELET RAZAN, SARAH MILGRIM'S FRIEND: I understand that they were supposed to come to Israel next week to announce their engagement.

UNKNOWN: They're going to get married in Jerusalem in the near future.

TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): To those who knew them well, Sarah Milgrim and Yaron Lischinsky were living a dream. She was in her mid-20s, he was just a bit older. Working together at the Israeli embassy in D.C., like a poster for a Netflix rom-com, one associate said.

Now friends of the two vibrant young souls are grappling with what officials are alleging is one brutal reality.

MILGRIM: They were murdered because they were Jews.

FOREMAN (voice-over): Yaron was born in Germany to a Jewish father and a Christian mother. He served in the Israeli military, and friends say he was soft-spoken, studious, a kind man.

RONEN SHOVAL, YARON LISCINSKY'S FORMER TEACHER: Yaron was a good friend. He was part of the community. We always say that God always takes the good ones, and he was one of the best ones. It makes me very, very sad, but what we're trying to do now is to take his legacy and continue it and spread it good around the world.

FOREMAN (voice-over): Sarah grew up around Kansas City and encountered sharp anti-Semitism in her youth when a white supremacist shot and killed three people at Jewish centers there in 2014, and when Vandals spray-painted her high school with Nazi images.

SARAH MILGRIM, THEN-STUDENT: It's so ignorant that you would bring up a symbol like that that brings so much pain to a lot of people, and it's not okay.

FOREMAN (voice-over): Sarah, a senior when it happened in 2017, told a local T.V. station.

MILGRIM: You know, I worry about going to my synagogue, and I have to worry about safety at school, and that shouldn't be a thing. FOREMAN (voice-over): At the University of Kansas, she rose to leadership in a Jewish student group, where staff members are now recalling her making that stand years ago.

ETHAN HEIFAND, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF HILLEL, UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS: It speaks to who she was as a person, that as a high schooler, when she saw things that were wrong, and when she saw her community being affected by anti-Semitism, that she spoke out.

FOREMAN: So many of the people mourning the loss of these two young people right now told us they're sad not merely for who they were, but for whom they might have become.

Tom Foreman, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ABEL: A limited amount of food is trickling into Gaza for the first time since March 2nd, but U.N. officials say it's nowhere near enough to tackle the humanitarian crisis and feed the desperately hungry population. CNN's Jeremy Diamond reports from Tel Aviv.

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JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN JERUSALEM CORRESPONDENT: Well, more than 11 weeks after Israel began its total siege of the Gaza Strip, humanitarian aid has finally begun to reach Gaza's population once again.

Last night, trucks loaded with humanitarian aid, including flour, baby food, and nutritional supplements, they began to make their way through the Gaza Strip to distribution points. Bakeries in Gaza were baking bread all night long and throughout the day to try and get bread to people who need it the most.

[03:34:54]

This aid was distributed in central and in southern Gaza, but there are still major questions that loom over the new entry of this aid and whether or not it will be capable of stemming what is a true hunger crisis that is still roiling the Gaza Strip.

That's because, first of all, it's not clear whether this aid is going to make it to northern Gaza yet, where there are hundreds of thousands of people who are in dire circumstances, particularly as the Israeli military escalates its offensive in northern Gaza and Israeli troops are beginning to advance in those areas and direct the population to evacuate.

Then, of course, there is the issue of how many trucks is Israel going to allow in and for how long. We have seen so far that Israel appears to be authorizing about 100 trucks of aid per day, which is still short of what humanitarian aid officials say is needed.

Humanitarian aid officials say the aid that has entered so far still represents just a drop in the ocean of the need that exists in Gaza, but certainly this is at least a ray of hope for the people of Gaza, although it's clear that the hunger crisis has yet to be fully solved.

Jeremy Diamond, CNN, Tel Aviv.

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ABEL: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is accusing some Western leaders of being on the wrong side of history. British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said this week that he and the leaders of France and Canada were horrified by Israel's escalation in Gaza, they are calling for a new ceasefire. And Netanyahu says their calls for a Palestinian state are dangerous.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BENJAMIN NETANYAHU, ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER: I could never understand how this simple truth evades the leaders of France, Britain, Canada and others. They're now proposing to establish a Palestinian state and reward these murderers with the ultimate prize. You're on the wrong side of humanity and you're on the wrong side of history.

Now these leaders may think that they're advancing peace, they're not. They're emboldening Hamas to continue fighting forever. And they give them hope to establish a second Palestinian state from which Hamas will again seek to destroy the Jewish state.

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ABEL: Netanyahu called back Israel's negotiating team from ceasefire talks in Qatar. Some Israelis and families of hostages in Gaza protested that decision on Thursday. The Hostages and Missing Families Forum says it is disappointed, but will keep fighting for the safe return of their loved ones.

Germany is permanently deploying a military brigade outside its borders for the first time since World War II.

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This ceremony on Thursday marked Germany's deployment to Lithuania. Germany has had troops there temporarily since 2017.

Germany and other European countries say they are increasing defense spending partly over concerns about possible Russian military moves. Lithuania shares a border with Russia and its ally Belarus.

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz says Baltic States security is also Germany's security. He says Germany's military investments send a signal to allies to do the same.

North Korea's plan to bring its navy into the 21st century took a big step backwards. Things went horribly wrong during the launch of a new warship on Wednesday. Our Will Ripley reports those responsible are now facing Kim Jong-un's wrath.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) WILL RIPLEY, CNN SR. INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): They were supposed to be North Korea's double threat. A pair of brand new 5000-ton destroyers, heavily armed. A massive upgrade from their aging Soviet era fleet, modern warships designed to strike fear and project power far beyond North Korean shores. But only one made it off the dock.

New satellite images reveal the aftermath of a catastrophic launch failure. The second destroyer lies partially capsized in the water. One side submerged, sections of the hull draped in blue tarps.

This was that ship just days earlier before the botched launch left it on its side. Half sunk, dead in the water. Worse still, Marshal Kim Jong-un was watching from shore.

North Korean state media quoting Kim. Calling the warship launch a criminal act that brought shame to the nation. Kim blaming absolute carelessness and irresponsibility of shipbuilders, scientists and military leaders.

RIPLEY: What's going to happen to these people that were directly involved with this?

MAJ. GEN. JAMES "SPIDER" MARKS (RET.), CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Well there's no doubt he will hold everybody responsible for this. And anybody who is tangentially responsible for this. He'll hold them accountable and without being graphic, he'll put a bullet in everybody's head if he has not already.

RIPLEY (voice-over): Retired General James "Spider" Marks served on the Korean peninsula. He believes Kim will punish what he sees as a national betrayal.

Swiftly and brutally. Over more than a decade in power, Kim has built a reputation for exactly that. Ordering the trial and execution of his own uncle.

[03:40:06]

North Korea denies Kim also ordered the assassination of his half- brother. Top ranking officials accused of failure have vanished. South Korean intelligence believes some were executed, others sent to forced labor camps for re-education.

MARKS: This is going to be incredibly painful.

RIPLEY (voice-over): General Marks says the warship disaster also exposes deeper problems inside the North Korean military. Well beyond the Navy.

MARKS: What is the state of those nukes? How are they maintained? What does the inventory look like? Is this the possibility for a mistake?

RIPLEY (voice-over): The South Korean and U.S. militaries say Kim's crown jewel lies crippled. Possibly damaged beyond repair just weeks ahead of a major political summit in North Korea's capital Pyongyang where observers say the reckoning will come.

RIPLEY: We're also learning North Korea's new destroyer, the one that did make it into the water, may lack a functional engine. Satellite imagery suggests the ship has never actually been sailing independently.

Experts believe it may be relying on tugboats for movement. Raising some serious doubts about the ship's real operational capability and undermining North Korea's claim, as if this accident didn't already do that, of advanced naval modernization.

Will Ripley, CNN, Taipei.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ABEL: Still to come, rapper Kid Cudi tells the jury about the damage he believes Sean Diddy Combs caused in his home and his car.

Plus, nearly nine years after Kim Kardashian was robbed in Paris. We'll soon learn the verdict in the trial of the men accused of stealing millions from her.

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[03:45:00)

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ABEL: In the Sean Diddy Combs trial on Thursday, rapper Kid Cudi testified that his home was damaged and his car firebombed. He says it happened after Combs learned about his relationship with Cassie Ventura.

CNN's Kara Scannell has more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KARA SCANNELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Rapper Kid Cudi was on the witness stand Thursday. He said he briefly dated Cassie Ventura in 2011. And he told the jury about three distinct episodes.

He said that when Combs had learned that he was dating, Ventura had called him and he agreed to pick her up. But he said that he learned from a friend who was with Combs that Combs was inside his home.

And so Kid Cudi said he called Combs, asked him what he was doing there, and Combs said he wanted to talk to him. So Kid Cudi testified that he went to his home. When he got there, he said a security camera was dislodged, that his dog was locked into the bathroom, and that some Christmas gifts for his family members were unwrapped, but there was no sign of Combs.

Then he said in January that his car was on fire. He testified he was at someone else's house when his dog sitter notified him that his Porsche convertible was on fire in the driveway. He testified that when he got home, he saw that the roof of the car

had been slashed, there was a Molotov cocktail on the floor. These images were shown to the jury, showing that there was smoke damage in the driver's seat and on the driver's door. Cudi said that he called the police in that instance, and they came and he filed a police report.

Now, he also testified that the following day, he reached out to Combs because Combs had been trying to meet him. They agreed to meet at the Soho House in Beverly Hills. Cudi said when he walked into the room, Combs was standing by the glass window looking out with his arms behind his back.

He said he looked like a Marvel supervillain that drew laughs from the jury and other spectators in the courtroom. Cudi said that he had talked to Combs then about the relationship with Cassie, which had ended at that time for Cudi.

He said that they were shook hands, and he said to Combs, well, what about my car? And Combs said, I don't know what you're talking about. Cudi testified he believed Combs was lying.

Now, the court is dark until Tuesday for the holiday weekend. Next week, prosecutors said they're going to call people that were all involved in this fire bomb of his car, including a woman who called him, as well as people from the Los Angeles Police Department and Fire Department.

Kara Scannell, CNN, New York.

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ABEL: The verdict is expected within hours in the trial of the men accused of robbing Kim Kardashian in Paris nearly nine years ago. The reality T.V. star testified last week that she thought at the time that they were going to kill her. Kardashian was robbed of nearly $10 million in cash and jewelry, including a $4 million engagement ring.

Of the 12 original suspects dubbed the Grandpa Robbers, one has since died, and another was deemed unfit to stand trial due to Alzheimer's disease. Kardashian says she forgives one of the men who wrote her a letter apologizing for the, quote, "emotional damage he inflicted on her." If convicted, some defendants could face up to 30 years in prison.

Investigators, they are trying to figure out what caused a small private jet to crash into a San Diego neighborhood. A fire official says he doesn't believe any of the six people on board survived.

It happened just before 4 a.m. on Thursday. Authorities say the Cessna Citation rained down jet fuel and left behind a debris field half a kilometer long. The plane was on approach to a nearby airport when it hit power lines, then crashed, visibility was less than a kilometer with low clouds at the time.

[03:50:02] Well, massive flooding in Australia turns deadly after leaving thousands without power and trapped. Just ahead, how rescuers are trying to get to them.

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ABEL: A family in upstate New York owes quite a lot to a group of high schoolers on their way home from prom. One of those teens shot this video.

The group was driving past the home in Marcy, New York on Saturday when they saw this fire. At first, they thought it was a bonfire, but soon realized it was a detached garage in the flames. They called 911, then ran to the house to see if anybody was inside.

Two young girls opened the door crying. A family representative says the girls saw the flames just as the teens arrived and were running to get their father. The girls, their father and their dog all got out safely.

Massive flooding in Australia has killed four people and isolated around 50,000 more. Three days of nonstop rain has cut off entire towns, swept away livestock and destroyed homes.

CNN's Lynda Kinkade has the latest.

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LYNDA KINKADE, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): Rescue workers dropped from the sky in Australia. In some flood-drenched areas, it's the best or only way to reach stranded residents after months of heavy rain fell across New South Wales in just a matter of days.

About 50,000 people have been told to prepare to evacuate or be isolated, with rain still falling and dangerous winds expected over the weekend.

Rescuers in some neighborhoods are going house-to-house to evacuate people, but entire towns have been cut off and the floods are too fast moving to reach some places yet.

JIHAD DIB, EMERGENCY SERVICES MINISTER, NEW SOUTH WALES: Some of those rescues we know about, some we discover as we move into particular streets where somebody had been waiting and had not made contact. Be patient with us, you are a priority for us and we will get to you.

KINKADE (voice-over): Official sea conditions could worsen as some rivers have yet to reach their peak.

In Taree, one of the hardest hit towns, one river has already surpassed six meters, the highest level since 1929.

UNKNOWN: You may be able to see the bridge just through those trees there, it's almost touching the bottom of the bridge. This is next door, you can see Kim there, she's waving. Yes, so look there, this is the back. It's just all the river surrounding us right now. Surrounding at 360 degrees.

[03:55:02]

KINKADE (voice-over): About 2500 emergency workers have been deployed to the flood zones, but until the rain stops and the waters recede, officials warn the worst is not over yet.

DAVID WADDELL, ASSISTANT COMMISSIONER, NEW SOUTH WALES POLICE: Please do not enter these flood waters, it is a really dangerous once in a lifetime event.

KINKADE (voice-over): Lynda Kinkade, CNN.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ABEL: So many of us know and love the little clownfish called Nemo who got lost.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ALEXANDER GOULD, AS THE VOICE OF NEMO: Wake up, wake up, come on, first day of school.

ALBERT BROOKS, AS THE VOICE OF MARLIN, NEMO'S FATHER: I don't want to go to school, five more minutes.

GOULD: Not you dad, me.

BROOKS: Okay.

GOULD: Get up, get up, time for school, time for school.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ABEL: Now researchers say they've discovered how the orange and white species are coping with climate change. They can shrink to survive at higher sea temperatures.

And scientists led by British experts monitored 134 clownfish over five months and the fish got shorter as water temperatures rose. One researcher says the findings were a surprise and show that clownfish have a great capacity to respond to environmental stress.

The Cannes Film Festival attracts thousands of fans every year, but few of them are like Nicole Lopes. The 80-year-old has been attending the festival since 1995. She queues for up to eight hours a day hoping to catch a glimpse of the stars and to get them to sign her autograph book.

Over the years, she's met quite a few of them, like Tom Cruise and Denzel Washington. Lopez says that meeting actors is a dream come true.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) NICOLE LOPES, 80-YEAR OLD CANNES FILM FESTIVAL FAN (through translator): Listen to me, for more than 30 years I've always loved the cinema, the actors, and above all, because I need to dream. There we go, it allows me to dream, to escape everyday life, which is more and more difficult for everyone. Let's say, there you go.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ABEL: China has unveiled a pair of boxing robots. They faced off in action at a demonstration at a school ahead of the world's first robot boxing tournament this weekend. You can see them there throwing punches, they can do side kicks, and they can even get up after falling over.

Unitree Robotics, which is the company behind it, says human controllers make the robots move, but two new control modes will be revealed on Sunday. Let's see what those are.

Real steel is real. Thank you for joining us, I'm Brian Abel in Atlanta. "Amanpour" is next, then stay tuned for "Early Start" with Polo Sandoval, starting at 5 a.m. in New York, 10 a.m. in London.

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