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Thousands Rush New Aid Distribution Site In Southern Gaza; Donald Trump Weighs Sanctions As Russia Steps Up Attacks On Ukraine; U.S. Embassies Ordered To Pause Student Visa Appointments; Countries Condemn Plan for Massive Missile Shield System; SpaceX Loses Contact With Starship on Test Flight; King Charles Says Canada is Strong and Free. Aired 2-2:45a ET

Aired May 28, 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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[02:00:33]

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, chaotic scenes in Gaza as an aid distribution site is overwhelmed by crowds. Palestinians facing the threat of starvation are simply trying to survive.

Frustration and fury. Donald Trump says Vladimir Putin is playing with fire.

And the new steps the U.S. is taking that could affect colleges and universities across the country.

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

CHURCH: Appreciate you joining us. Well, today, Wednesday marks 600 days of war in Gaza.

For 600 days, some two million Palestinians in the territory have been trapped in a hellscape shaped by Israeli airstrikes, forced evacuations and extreme hunger. On Tuesday, that desperation was very visible.

A new U.S. backed venture to distribute humanitarian aid erupted in chaos on its very first day, thousands of people rushed into this distribution site in the southern Gaza city of Rafah, tearing down fencing, climbing over barriers, and storming the facilities of the controversial Gaza Humanitarian Foundation.

The group is backed by both the United States and Israel, but it has been widely criticized by the U.N., which warned that the group's methods would create security risks and violate humanitarian principles. A diplomatic officials says Tuesday's chaos was a surprise to no one.

It comes after an 11 week Israeli blockade of all food and humanitarian aid into the war torn enclave, pushing more than two million Palestinians closer to famine.

Israel has since begun allowing a small amount of tightly controlled aid deliveries into Gaza. The U.N. is demanding Israel loosen its restrictions.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

STEPHANE DUJARRIC, SPOKESPERSON FOR THE U.N. SECRETARY GENERAL: We and our humanitarian partners stand ready to deliver its scale, which is something we've been repeated over and over and over again. International law must be respected and humanitarian operations must be enabled without any further delay.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHURCH: CNN's Oren Liebermann walks us through what happened in Rafah.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

OREN LIEBERMANN, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT (voice over): The flood of people came on a rising tide of hunger. Overrunning this aid distribution site within hours.

They want order, but there will be no order because these are desperate people who want to eat and drink, says Wafik Kadaya (ph).

On Tuesday, the new U.S. and Israeli backed aid mechanism began operating, an effort to keep aid away from Hamas while still helping Gazans, but the scene soon descended into chaos.

The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, the GHF that runs the mechanism said its staff fell back to allow what it called a small number of Gazans to take aids safely. But this was not a small crowd.

One million people dream of a piece of bread. It's incredible we had to come from one place to another for a bag of flour, this man says.

Thousands of people who have endured a complete 11 week Israeli blockade on humanitarian aid swamped the facility in Southern Gaza, grabbing boxes of food and carrying them off.

Salem Aburabiyah (ph) says he walked seven or eight kilometers to pick up food. This war has destroyed families. We want our freedom. Look at the people suffering, he says. Women walk four kilometers for a liter of oiler, a kilo of sugar or beans, because none of these countries can stop the war.

These men say their friend was shot by Israeli forces. Israeli military says they fired warning shots outside the compound.

The foundation said it handed out 8,000 boxes of meals with basics like oil, flour and pasta. Each supposed to feed a family for half a week. They say the flow of meals will increase each day with a goal of 1.2 million people fed by the end of the week. Far cry from the first day.

Three distribution sites are crowded in the corner of southern Gaza where an evacuation order was issued Monday. One more in Central Gaza, but none in the north.

[02:05:02]

We don't want aid in the south, this woman says. We want it here. We want to eat while we are on our land.

Here, like in so much of Gaza, food remains a scarce commodity. In this soup kitchen in Gaza City, no one waits for the boiling food to cool before filling their empty containers.

Hunger drives the crowd forward, but not everyone is so lucky. Look, there are people who got the food and we won't get anything, says young Ibrahim Nasser (ph), look at this crowd and I've been waiting since the morning.

Palestinians here plead every day for the world's attention. Finding little comfort in what they say are empty promises of more aid.

Oren Liebermann, CNN, Jerusalem.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CHURCH: Alon Pinkas is Israel's former Consul General in New York, and he joins me now from Tel Aviv. Appreciate you talking with us.

ALON PINKAS, ISRAEL'S FORMER CONSUL GENERAL, NEW YORK: Thank you, Rosemary. Good morning.

CHURCH: So, today marks 600 days of war between Israel and Hamas. And more than two million Palestinians have been caught in the middle of this fighting. They're now starving and desperate as we've just seen, and that's why we saw thousands rush the new food distribution site Wednesday. What was your reaction to that chaotic scene, one that the U.N. had warned would happen?

PINKAS: On the one hand, it's -- you know, it's revolting and tragic and should not have happened. On the other hand, Rosemary, tragically, it's almost as if this was inevitable. For 20 months since the war began, you correctly stated 600 days, to be exact, there was no humanitarian aid mechanism put in place.

First, Israel resisted, then Hamas resisted. Then the topography made it difficult. Then the U.S. thought it would put in barges on the -- entering the Gaza from the sea, that didn't work.

And still, we had four or five months to plan this, and -- you know, and prevent thousands if not tens of thousands of people from being on the brink of an actual starvation and already experiencing severe malnutrition. And so, you know, you would think that there would be some kind of course correction and some kind of adjustments and modifications in the next few days. But somehow, I don't think it's a long-term -- and when I say long-term, I mean weeks, not months or years. this is almost bound to happen again.

CHURCH: I mean that's a problem, isn't it? Because after 11 weeks of a blockade of all humanitarian aid supplies to war torn Gaza, millions of Palestinians are on the verge of famine. So, what did Prime Minister Netanyahu think would happen with this single point of distribution? And how could this have been done better? How could it be done better next time?

PINKAS: I don't think he cares, there's no -- there's no other alternative, reasonable explanation other than he doesn't care. Otherwise, this plan would've been implemented much more carefully and much more effectively.

Look, you know, to remind our viewers, he only agreed to this as a result of American pressure two, three weeks ago.

Until then, even this plan was only in -- you know, in the thinking process stage, not actually implementable or actionable. Now, what they're going to try and do is better plan the way it is distributed in terms of holding back the crowds. But that could lead to violence because you can't stop tens of thousands of people who are hungry and want to feed and provide water for their children.

And so, that would require, Rosemary, the Israeli military to go further in, that would expose them. Then you have Hamas. They're going to start shooting, and before you know it, these scenes are going to repeat themselves would probably, inevitably and tragically even more violence.

And all this -- all this stems from the very simple fact that for the last 20 months, 600 days, there is absolutely no post Gaza plan in place. There were ideas during the Biden administration in late 23 going into and leading to mid 2024 of some kind of an inter-Arab force that would take over from Hamas that would at least take care of the humanitarian aid. Then Israel kicked out the U.N. from Gaza.

So, without a plan, this is all temporary. This is all patchwork.

CHURCH: Right. And now Prime Minister Netanyahu is vowing to take over 75 percent of Gaza as the fighting continues. He's forcing more than two million Palestinians to flee to a tiny strip of land where humanitarian aid will be even more scarce.

[02:10:09]

So, what is your assessment of where this war stands today 600 days in? And what is Netanyahu planning to do in Gaza, do you think?

PINKAS: He only has one plan, Rosemary, and that is to perpetuate the war for his political reasons. That why -- that is why he's also threatening, to broaden and escalate this ongoing conflict into Iran. But back to -- back to Gaza, look, this is -- this is tangible. This is almost palpable. You could see what's going to happen.

If he takes over, Israel takes over 75, 50 percent of the Gaza Strip, not even 75. Then Israel owns the Gaza Strip. If you own the Gaza Strip, then you become the sole responsible entity, legal, practical, moral, political, whatever, for the distribution of these -- of these humanitarian aid for potable water and for medicine.

If that happens, you basically entrench yourself in Gaza and before you know it, you know, from our experience, it's going to be another Lebanon from an American experience. It's going to be a little bit like Vietnam, was in the mid and late '60s.

You know, a quagmire that you're being consciously sucked in and you walk into it blindly with your eyes wide open into this defacto occupation in which if you occupy it, you own it, and that makes you responsible.

So, I think at this point, Mr. Netanyahu just wants the war to go on, which leaves the only key factor, the only game changer, if you will with the U.S.

And that's a good question, I have no answer for it. Will Mr. Trump -- will President Trump force him to stop the war or will he just turn his back and say, you know, I have tariffs and I have Ukraine, and I have Greenland, and I have China to deal with, the hell with both of you. You don't want to do anything. You want to bang your heads against the wall. Be my guest. It's none of my business anymore. And that would be very bad news for Palestinians and Israelis alike.

CHURCH: Alon Pinkas in Tel Aviv. Thank you for sharing your perspective on this. Appreciate it.

PINKAS: Thank you.

CHURCH: Ukraine launched an overnight drone attack on Russia forcing several airports in and around Moscow to close and ground flights. Russia's defense ministry says that more than 100 Ukrainian drones were intercepted by air defense systems. At least 26 of those drones were destroyed on their approach to the Russian capital, that's according to the mayor.

Meantime, Donald Trump appears to be growing increasingly impatient with Vladimir Putin amid escalating attacks on Ukraine. Mr. Trump posted this on his social media platform writing that Mr. Putin is, "Playing with fire."

Sources say President Trump is now considering slapping new sanctions on Russia. This more than a week after the U.S. says, Mr. Putin promised he would send over a so-called memorandum of peace that would lay out requirements for a ceasefire with Ukraine. Moscow says it's working on it.

CNN's Kristen Holmes has more now from the White House.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN U.S. NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: President Donald Trump once again lashing out at Russian President Vladimir Putin saying that he was "Playing with fire."

Now we have learned a little bit of background here as to why exactly the president has shifted his tone with the Russian president. It is in part because of those escalated attacks, particularly that these escalated attacks from Putin on Ukraine happened after the two leaders had the conversation.

But there's another reason as well, sources telling us that in that phone call that Donald Trump held with Vladimir Putin just a week ago that Putin did promise to draft and send what he called a memorandum of peace, which would essentially lay out the Russian requirements for a Ukrainian war ceasefire.

He said that he would send it to both the U.S. and Ukraine incoming days. We have learned that even though that call happened over a week ago, that no parties have received this memorandum, which has added to the frustration of the president and of the Trump administration.

Now, one other thing we learned about that conversation is that Donald Trump instructed Putin to work directly with Ukraine. He said that Europe and the United States would help that they might serve as intermediaries, but that the two countries had to have these conversations themselves.

He also then reiterated that to Zelenskyy and to the Ukrainians after the conversation with Putin. But obviously as we are seeing here, Donald Trump really escalating when it comes to that rhetoric around the Russian president. As one U.S. official said to me, he's trying to turn up the heat on Vladimir Putin.

Kristen Holmes, CNN, the White House.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CHURCH: A new roadblock for foreign students at U.S. universities. Just ahead, why U.S. embassies are pausing new student visa appointments. We'll explain.

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[02:19:37]

CHURCH: Police in Liverpool, England say they believe the suspect in the parade crash that injured dozens of people followed an ambulance onto a closed off street. Medics were responding to a suspected heart attack victim. That's where the driver ran through crowds of people celebrating the Liverpool Football Club's Premier League Championship.

The 53-year-old man has been arrested on suspicion of attempted murder, dangerous driving offenses, and driving while unfit through drugs.

[02:20:09] Police say 11 of the 65 people injured are still in the hospital, but all are stable and recovering well.

The U.S. president appears to be ramping up his fight against higher education. The Trump administration is pausing all new student visa appointments as it calls for foreign students applying to study in the United States to go through a social media vetting process.

CNN's Kylie Atwood has details.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KYLIE ATWOOD, CNN U.S. SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: This was guidance that was signed off on by the Secretary of State and sent to all U.S. embassies and consulates around the world saying that there would now be a halt on all new student Visa application processes. Those appointments that they usually typically put on the calendar increasingly at this moment in time are being halted.

And the reason for that is because the State Department is working on new guidance, new guidance to expand the social media vetting.

Now, we don't know exactly what that process looks like. The State Department spokesperson was asked about it today. Here's what Tammy Bruce said.

TAMMY BRUCE, U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE SPOKESPERSON: We're not going to lay out here with the media the nature of the steps that are taken, the methods that we use. It is a goal as stated by the president and Secretary Rubio, to make sure that people who are here -- are here, and understand what the law is, that they don't have any criminal intent.

ATWOOD: Now, there are a few really critical questions here. The first of which is how long this review to develop this new bolstered social media vetting process is actually going to take. And the critical question surrounding that is because students who have been admitted to schools and are expected to enroll here in the United States in the fall would typically be making those appointments to go in and get their visas around now.

They can't do it much earlier because they have to have been admitted. Put their down payments down, get the documents from the universities that they actually need to apply for the visas.

So, there is a -- there is a question surrounding timing and the effect that this could have on enrollment in the fall.

The other question is how this process could actually impact how long it takes to go through that visa vetting process. We really don't know right now, but the cable did say that there are going to be new processes put into place indicating that that visa processing time could be expanded.

(END VIDEO CLIP) CHURCH: Meanwhile, the White House is directing federal agencies to cancel all remaining contracts with Harvard, which are worth about $100 million.

Now, this comes on top of more than $2.5 billion in recent federal cuts to Harvard after the university rejected Trump administration demands to change its admissions process and some of its curriculum. A former Harvard president sees these moves as a step towards authoritarianism.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LARRY SUMMERS, PRESIDENT EMERITUS, HARVARD UNIVERSITY: There's plenty of policies that Harvard, that reasonable people can debate and plenty that I have sharply criticized, but simply cutting off all funding for cancer research. That's not some gift Harvard got. That's the government deciding it wants to fight cancer, finding the best researchers and giving them the money.

Cutting off people from all over the world who we have a chance to have enormous influence on in the most important years of their lives by having them study in the United States.

And yes, Harvard right now is the tip of the iceberg in terms of what they're attacking. But the Homeland Secretary made clear that Harvard was an example for everyone else.

This is, I hate to say it, and I frankly never thought that I would say it about anything in American government, but this is a step towards tyranny. It's a step towards an authoritarian government. It's the kind of thing that has happened in many other parts of the world. It's the kind of thing that the founding fathers worried about when they drafted the Constitution, and now we've got to count on the courts to stop it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHURCH: Trump has further threatened to cut off an additional $3 billion in federal grant funding and to pull Harvard's tax exempt status.

Still to come, North Korea slams President Trump's plan for a Golden Dome missile shield. But how soon could such a massive undertaking actually happen? We'll take a look.

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[02:29:57]

CHURCH: North Korea is the latest country to condemn President Trump's plan for a massive missile defense system that he's calling the Golden Dome.

North Korean state media calls it very dangerous and threatening. Details are still unclear on the pricey undertaking, which could be big enough to cover the U.S. and potentially Canada. CNN's Will Ripley has our report.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

WILL RIPLEY, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The friendly handshakes feel like a distant memory. North Korea is blasting President Donald Trump's planned Golden Dome space shield, calling it an outer space nuclear war scenario supporting the U.S. strategy for uni-polar domination, a typical product of America First, the height of self-righteousness, arrogance, harsh words, not just from Pyongyang, also China amid its own rapid military buildup. Beijing warns the Golden Dome would violate the principle of peaceful use of outer space, igniting a dangerous space arms race.

MAO NING, CHINESE FOREIGN MINISTRY (through translator): This has a strong offensive nature. It'll exacerbate the militarization of outer space.

RIPLEY (voice-over): From China and North Korea to Russia, and perhaps someday Iran. The list of America's nuclear armed adversaries is growing and so are their missile arsenals.

DONALD TRUMP, (R) PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: I promised the American people that I would build a cutting-edge missile defense shield.

RIPLEY (voice-over): President Trump's Golden Dome would be the most ambitious and expensive space weapons system ever, $175 billion. Israel's Iron Dome defends cities from short-range rockets in a country about the size of New Jersey. Golden Dome would try to shield the entire U.S., shooting down nuclear missiles in orbit before they reach Earth. But experts say the technology to pull it off doesn't exist, at least not yet.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's been described as hitting a bullet with a bullet.

RIPLEY (voice-over): Missile defense company, Lockheed Martin says, we will bring in the best and brightest of American innovation to rapidly develop game-changing tech, like space-based interceptors and hypersonic defenses that will ensure America's Golden Dome stays well ahead of adversary threats.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And destroys the ICBM warhead by force of impact.

RIPLEY (voice-over): Despite hundreds of billions of dollars for research and development going back more than four decades to President Ronald Reagan in 1983 --

RONALD REAGAN, 40TH U.S. PRESIDENT: I know this is a formidable technical task, one that may not be accomplished before the end of this century.

RIPLEY (voice-over): No U.S. Missile defense system has ever been proven effective against a realistic, large-scale, intercontinental ballistic missile attack, especially one involving modern ICBMs with decoys, multiple warheads, or countermeasures.

ANDREW REDDIE, ASSOCIATE RESEARCH PROFESSOR OF PUBLIC POLICY, UC BERKELEY: There is a historical precursor to what we're seeing now, when it is Star Wars during the Reagan administration, and there are echoes of that program in what's being proposed.

RIPLEY (voice-over): President Trump's Golden Dome is a bold promise.

TRUMP: We'll have it done in about three years and we will have the best system ever built.

RIPLEY (voice-over): But critics warn it may also be a perilous pipe dream, escalating tensions with U.S. adversaries not just on Earth, but in space.

RIPLEY: $175 billion is actually a pretty low estimate of what Golden Dome could cost. There's a new estimate from the Congressional Budget Office putting the total cost at more than $800 billion over 20 years. Experts doubt if it's even possible to deploy hundreds of satellites to detect and intercept missiles by the end of President Trump's first term in 2029. What's more likely they say is this space arms race with adversaries, especially China already underway, but likely to accelerate if Golden Dome blasts off.

Will Ripley, CNN, Taipei.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CHURCH: SpaceX's most powerful rocket launched on its ninth uncrewed test flight on Tuesday. But the mission did not go exactly as planned. The Starship spacecraft went farther into its flight path than in previous tests this year, but failed to deploy mock satellites or re- ignite its engines upon re-entry. SpaceX lost contact with Starship. It's believed the spacecraft likely broke apart over the Indian Ocean after losing control upon re-entry to earth.

And we'll be right back.

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[02:39:05]

CHURCH: Welcome back, everyone. In a show of support for Canada's sovereignty, King Charles has wrapped up a trip to Ottawa by delivering a symbolic address to parliament. The British Monarch, who is Canada's head of state, received military honors including a 21-gun salute upon his arrival at the Canadian Senate Building on Tuesday. Later in his address, he sat on the Senate throne and emphasized Canada's self-determination.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KING CHARLES, BRITISH MONARCH, CANADA'S HEAD OF STATE: It is a source of great pride that in the following decades, Canada has continued to set an example to the world in her conduct and values as a force for good. The true north is indeed strong and free. (APPLAUSE)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[02:40:00]

CHURCH: The speech written by the Canadian government was seen by many as a powerful show of support for Canada and a rebuke of President Donald Trump, who has repeatedly discussed annexing Canada as the 51st U.S. state.

I want to thank you so much for joining us this hour. I'm Rosemary Church. "World Sport" is coming up next. Then, I will be back at the top of the hour with more "CNN Newsroom." Do stay with us.

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[02:45:00]

(WORLD SPORT)