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Israel Accepts U.S. Proposal For Gaza Truce Deal; Ukraine Pushing Russia To Spell Out Its Ceasefire Proposal; Ukraine Hopes Drone Wall Will Counter Attacks; Federal Appeals Court Temporarily Reinstates Trump Tariffs; Harvard Celebrates Graduation In The Shadow Of Trump Fight; Capital Jewish Museum Reopens Following Deadly Shooting; Interview With Israeli Ambassador To The U.S. Yechiel Leiter; Trial Of Football Star's Medical Team Declared Invalid; Virtual Currency Thefts Driving Real-Life Violence; Couple Perfect Technique For Shaping Trees Into Furniture. Aired 1-2a ET
Aired May 30, 2025 - 01:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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BEN HUNTE, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, wherever you are in the world. Now in the CNN Newsroom. I'm Ben Hunt in Atlanta and it is so good to have you with me. Coming up on the show, a ceasefire plan between Israel and Hamas is on the table. What each side has to say about the U.S. proposal.
On, off and back on again. The White House is digging in to get its way with tariffs.
And a standing ovation for Harvard's president on graduation day as the university continues to battle the Trump administration.
Welcome. Israel and Hamas are hashing out the details on a new U.S. backed ceasefire and hostage release plan. An Israeli official says it calls for the release of 10 living and 18 deceased hostages and a 60- day truce. Hamas says it's willing to turn over all of the hostages, but it does have some demands.
The group wants assurances that the fighting will not resume after the 60-day truce. It also wants all humanitarian assistance carried out through U.N. channels. And it's demanding the IDF pull back to positions they held on March 2nd before Israel relaunched its military operations. CNN's Jeremy Diamond has more on the U.S. backed plan.
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JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN JERUSALEM CORRESPONDENT: Well, listen, this is the latest U.S. proposal for a temporary cease fire between Israel and Hamas, one that could lead to an end to the war if the negotiations between the two sides are successful. But for the time being, what this latest proposal involves would be the release of 10 living hostages, 18 deceased hostages in exchange for a 60-day ceasefire. This would also presumably include the release of Palestinian prisoners as well as the flow of humanitarian aid into Gaza. And during that 60 day cease fire, they would be negotiating an end to
the war, which Steve Witkoff, President Trump's special envoy for the region, told me earlier this week he would personally preside over.
That's a gambit to try and give Hamas the assurances it has been seeking that Israel will actually negotiate a permanent ceasefire, which it failed to do during that last temporary ceasefire earlier this year.
We are now into the first week of the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation being operational in the Gaza Strip. This is that controversial U.S. and Israeli backed mechanism for getting aid into Gaza in a way that it will prevent Hamas from getting its hands on the aid, which is an allegation Israel has made but which humanitarian aid organizations have said they've seen no evidence to substantiate.
We've already seen 11 people killed near these distribution sites, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health. We know that there has been Israeli gunfire in the area. The Israelis have said that it was aimed at dispersing the crowds, but clearly we have seen video of individuals who were struck by some of that gunfire.
And what's also clear is that the humanitarian situation in Gaza simply has not been alleviated as of yet. And that's why we are seeing such scenes of desperation at the moment, not only around these distribution sites, but it is especially acute in the northern part of the Gaza Strip, where this new Gaza Humanitarian Foundation is not yet operational and where the Israeli authorities have really provided almost no safe routes for the United nations to drive its trucks to the northern part of the Gaza Strip.
And in amid all of this, we are seeing the desperation of Palestinians as we reach a grim milestone of more than 54,000 who have been killed in this war. And all of this has led the Palestinian ambassador to the United nations to break down this week in this emotional moment. Watch.
RIYAD MANSOUR, PALESTINIAN AMBASSADOR TO U.N.: Excuse me, Mr. President, I have grandchildren. I know what they mean to their families. To see the situation of the Palestinians without us having hearts to do something is beyond the ability of any normal human being tolerate.
DIAMOND: And all of this comes as we have reached more than 600 days of this war, 600 days as well, of the captivity of the Israeli hostages in Gaza.
[01:05:00]
And it is important to note that those former hostages, like Keith Siegel, an Israeli-American who I interviewed earlier this week, they want to see the war end. They believe that a diplomatic deal is the only way to get the hostages out of Gaza alive. And they are calling on the Israeli government and on Hamas to reach this deal in order for the hostages to come out and for the war to end.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HUNTE: Ukraine's President, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, is accusing Russia of another deception for not sharing its vision of peace with Kyiv. Ukraine says Moscow has not sent its draft ceasefire proposal yet ahead of the next round of talks expected on Monday.
Kyiv says it has shared its own plan with the Kremlin. The two sides agreed to exchange their proposals at their talks on Istanbul this month. Russia says it will spell out its ceasefire plan at the next meeting. But Ukraine says the delay only means Moscow is up to no good.
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HEORHII TYKHYI, SPOKESPERSON, UKRAINIAN FOREIGN MINISTRY: They are scared to share it because they filled the document or whatever there is with ultimatums, again, some demands and something that is probably a type of ultimatum. And they understand that this document is needed not to advance the peace process, but to stall the peace process.
This is the only explanation how I can explain why they are not sharing the document before them. We shared our document. We don't have any problems with that. We are not an obstacle to peace. We are not an obstacle to advance the peace process. It's the Russian side that is constantly putting forward demands, conditions, places. We will share this, we will not share that. We will share this only there, only in this place, only on that day. Our position is very simple. We need to see this document.
If Russians have nothing to hide, if they this is a document that is workable, then there should be no problem in sharing this document with us. This would allow us to prepare for the meeting of delegations, to have a meaningful meeting that can lead to a result, not just a meeting for the sake of meeting.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HUNTE: Meanwhile, the U.S. is threatening to step back from its peace effort if Russia keeps attacking Ukraine. A U.S. diplomat made the statement at the U.N. Security Council on Thursday after relentless strikes by Moscow in recent days. He also said the current U.S. initiative is the best option Moscow will ever get.
Ukraine is reportedly relying on state of the art technology to hold back expected Russian attacks this summer. Experts say Kyiv is scrambling to build what some call a drone war designed to compensate for Russia's advantage in manpower.
The idea is to use continuous swarms of drones to defend the most vulnerable parts of the front line. But analysts say Ukraine still needs to improve its drone technology and possibly use AI for the concept to fully work.
Russia is expected to step up its attacks despite losing about 100 troops for each square kilometer it gains, according to Western experts. A military veteran turned poster child for Russia's war in Ukraine is
the victim of an apparent assassination at home. As CNN's Matthew Chance reports, he's hardly the first prominent figure associated with the conflict to suffer from that fate.
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MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN CHIEF GLOBAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Excel for Russia on the battlefield in Ukraine, the Kremlin might call you a hero. It could also mark you out as a target for assassination by the other side. These are the final moments of the latest Russian war hero killed in a mysterious explosion. 34 year old Zaur Gurtsiev had only recently been made deputy mayor of Stavropol in southern Russia.
But the former soldier distinguished himself here in Mariupol, where he led a Russian airborne unit in one of the most brutal sieges of the Ukraine war.
The Kremlin even made a promotional video about him called Time of Heroes, highlighting his exploits and family. A model veteran to be given priority in Putin's new Russia being forged in the Ukraine war.
ZAUR GURTSIEV, RUSSIAN DEPUTY MAYOR AND PROMINENT VETERAN (through translator): I could bring my experience to public administration as a person who has gone from a cadet to a commander, from a person to whom ready made decisions are communicated to a person who makes those very decisions.
CHANCE (voice-over): But becoming a face of Russia's war potentially paints a target on your back. Russia enduring a spate of assassinations of pro-Kremlin bloggers, propagandists and military figures. All reminders that in the brutal calculus of what Russia calls its special military operation, there are only rewards at the price of considerable risk. Matthew Chance, CNN, London.
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HUNTE: A new court ruling is adding to the uncertainty around President Donald Trump's tariffs. A federal appeals court is reinstating them for now. It comes after the Court of International Trade ruled on Wednesday that the U.S. President lacked the authority to impose suicide, sweeping tariffs using emergency powers. In a very long, Truth Social post, Mr. Trump slammed that decision and called on a Supreme Court to step in. CNN's Kristen Holmes reports.
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KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Donald Trump's administration has said that they are not only willing to, but prepared to take this all the way up to the Supreme Court to seek emergency action should those tariffs be blocked.
Now, of course, as we know, this lower court, this appeals court, has restored Donald Trump's tariff ability to levy these tariffs at this time, but they are prepared to move forward with next steps. But of course, the big question is what exactly is next?
This is a huge bloc and this is only a temporary reprieve. So are they looking at different options to try and work around this ruling? Should these tariffs be blocked by the courts? I talked to a number of various administration officials who insisted they were saying that there were three to four ways that they could go around the legalities to still implement these tariffs.
Yet we still don't have any idea of what exactly those options look like. They say there's a Plan B, but they won't say what the Plan B is. Now, in the meantime, they have been attacking judges, saying that this is rogue justices saying that this is judicial bias, particularly, of course, the judges who ruled against the tariffs recently. This is what Karoline Leavitt said in the briefing.
KAROLINE LEAVITT, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: There is a troubling and dangerous trend of unelected judges inserting themselves into the presidential decision making process. America cannot function if President Trump or any other president for that matter, has their sensitive diplomatic or trade negotiations railroaded by activist judges.
HOLMES: Now, one important piece of context here is that this decision was made by a panel of three judges on the U.S. International Trade Court. It's important about those three judges is that they are a bipartisan panel. Two of them were actually appointed to the benchmark by Republicans won by a Democrat.
But of the two Republicans, one was appointed to the bench by Donald Trump himself. So it's hard to square away this idea of judicial activism and political bias when one of the judges themselves was appointed to the bench by Trump. Kristen Holmes, CNN, the White House.
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HUNTE: The class of 2025 graduated from Harvard on Thursday. Ahead, how the school's legal battle with Donald Trump took center stage during the ceremony.
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HUNTE: Welcome back. The U.S. State Department says plans to revoke visas for Chinese students in the U.S. are driven by national security concerns. But three Trump administration officials tell CNN the move is a reaction to China not living up to extreme commitments it made in trade talks this month.
China is calling it politically motivated and discriminatory. Meanwhile, U.S. embassies and consulates have paused new appointments for student and exchange visas, but a State Department spokesperson says those could become available sooner rather than later. A federal judge in Boston says she will block the White House from
ending Harvard's ability to enroll international students. This comes as the school held its commencement ceremony on Thursday. CNN's Leigh Waldman has more for us.
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LEIGH WALDMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): A major win for Harvard University as the judge overseeing the international student case says she will order the Department of Homeland Security and State Department to not make any changes to Harvard's student visa program indefinitely.
ALAN GARBER, PRESIDENT, HARVARD UNIVERSITY: Members of the class of 2025 from down the street, across the country and around the world, around the world just as It should be.
WALDMAN (voice-over): That ruling coming as the nation's oldest University holds its 374th commencement.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We leave a much different campus than the one we entered.
WALDMAN (voice-over): Prior to the judge's ruling, fears were swirling for the future of Harvard's current and future international students.
ABDULLAH SHAHID SIAL, CO-PRESIDENT, HARVARD UNDERGRADUATE ASSOCIATION: Many people are looking at perhaps a gap here or any other alternatives, which again, none of them sound as good as continuing their education within the university they put in so much effort to get into.
WALDMAN (voice-over): President Donald Trump Wednesday telling the Ivy League to behave.
DONALD TRUMP, U.S. PRESIDENT: Harvard is treating our country with great disrespect and all they're doing is getting in deeper and deeper.
WALDMAN (voice-over): In addition to the foreign student fight, the university is also challenging the White House and court over the freeze of $2.2 billion in federal money after it refused to take steps like eliminating diversity, equity, inclusion programs and admission changes. I'm Leigh Waldman reporting.
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HUNTE: Israel has accepted a new proposal for a ceasefire with Hamas. Israel's ambassador to the U.S. speaks to CNN about that and much more in a wide ranging interview. That's coming up next.
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HUNTE: Welcome back. You're watching CNN Newsroom. I'm Ben Hunte. [01:25:00]
The Capital Jewish Museum in Washington, D.C. reopened to visitors on Thursday, one week after a gunman shot and killed two Israeli Embassy employees. Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Milgrim had been attending an event at the museum and were about to get engaged. As John Doran (ph) reports, they were honored during an emotional ceremony before the reopening.
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JOHN DORAN (ph), JOURNALIST (voice-over): Hopeful hymns accompanied messages of grief and healing.
CHRIS WOLF, BOARD PRESIDENT, CAPITAL JEWISH MUSEUML The memory of Yaron and Sarah will not be a cause for retreat, but rather a powerful inspiration to redouble our efforts. Their dedication to peace will fuel our resolve.
DORAN (ph) (voice-over): The Capitol Jewish Museum is open eight days after Lischinsky and Milgrim were gunned down outside while attending an event here.
MURIEL BOWSER, WASHINGTON D.C. MAYOR: While I am saddened by the circumstances, outraged actually, that bring us together today, I am grateful to look around and see the values of our city represented here and the resiliency that we heard described. And getting open.
GARY FREED, MUSEUM VISITOR: I felt like I needed to be here today to just see how it felt and pay my respects.
DORAN (voice-over): Gary Freed from Alpharetta, Georgia, was one of the museum's first visitors Thursday.
FREED: We need to have a sort of a solidarity amongst us towards what's going on with the antisemitism. This is a really tragic situation. And it hits home.
DORAN (voice-over): To visitors and DC's Jewish leaders.
SUE STOLOV, PRESIDENT, AMERICAN JEWISH COMMITTEE WASHINGTON: That an attack could happen like this in our nation's capital is truly a wake- up call.
DORAN (ph) (voice-over): The Jewish community's guard is up. They're determined to press on in the memory of two young lives lost.
DR. BEATRICE GURWITZ, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, CAPITAL JEWISH MUSEUM: Last week's antisemitic attack cannot be our last chapter. So we reopened today and we dedicate ourselves to honor Yaron and Sarah and their commitment to repairing the world and building bridges.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HUNTE: Israel's ambassador to the U.S. spoke of CNN about the deadly shooting at the museum. He also discussed the war in Gaza and nuclear negotiations in a wide ranging interview with our Jim Sciutto.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JIM SCIUTTO, CHIEF NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: It's been a week since just the shocking murder of those two young Israeli embassy staffers here in Washington. I wonder, just quite simply, how are embassy staff and how are the families of the victims recovering?
YECHIEL LEITER, ISRAELI AMBASSADOR TO THE U.S.: Well, thank you, Jim. We're all in mourning, obviously. 150 members of the Israeli Embassy in Washington. We're very close to both Sarah and Yaron. We worked on the same floor together. We saw them every day. These were beautiful young kids about to be engaged.
I flew out on Sunday to be with Sarah's family out in Kansas City. This was not a, you know, a Dorothy trip in the Wizard of Oz kind of experience. It was a very harsh experience, very difficult. But I was there to embrace Bob and Nancy. I know what it means to lose a child. I lost my son in the war in Gaza.
So I was able to convey heart to heart consolation to the parents of Sarah. And yesterday in a phone call to Yaron, whose parents live just outside of Jerusalem.
SCIUTTO: Well, please pass on CNN's thoughts to their families in particular. And I was aware that you'd lost your son.
LEITER: I appreciate that. I appreciate that. Thank you, Jim.
SCIUTTO: My thoughts go to you as well. If we can -- a number of events in the news I do want to get through. Let's begin with the ongoing military offensive by Israel in Gaza. As I said just before, Israeli officials are saying the intent Is to occupy 75 percent. Can you clarify is the intent of Israel to permanently reoccupy Gaza, and if not permanently, how long?
LEITER: The intent of Israel is, as the government decided on October 8, the day after the massacre, to destroy Hamas, to free our hostages and to ensure that Gaza will never again be a Hamas stand, be an area from which malicious, malevolent forces could attack our civilians. And we're going to persist until those three objectives are complete.
We hope right now that we're in the midst of another hostage negotiation. Through the good services of President Trump's special envoy, Steve Witkoff, he's achieved a number of ceasefires and hostage releases until now. We're hopeful that he'll achieve one now as well. We still have 20 live hostages in the hands of Hamas in their dungeons underground. So we're focused on that and we're focused on ensuring the safety of our people.
SCIUTTO: I've spoken to the relatives of hostages still held in Gaza and they have questioned the Israeli prime minister's priorities with the war there, that he has not placed the safety, the return of the hostages high enough.
[01:30:08] And as you're aware, the former Israeli prime minister, Ehud Olmert, wrote this week in Haaretz newspaper the following.
"I believe the government of Israel is now the enemy from within. It has declared war on the state and its inhabitants. No external foe we fought against over the past 77 years has caused greater damage to Israel than what the Itamar Ben Gvir, Netanyahu and Bezalel Smotrich led government has inflicted on us."
I wonder what your response is to that kind of criticism from inside Israel itself?
LEITER: Well, you've got criticism within the United States on an administration from one side or the other. One opposition criticizes the present administration and the previous administration. And I wouldn't put too much stock into a small and relatively irrelevant commentary in the newspaper.
The fact of the matter is that our government is democratically- chosen. We have a democratically-elected prime minister who's actually been elected over the past 15 years, I'd say 5 or 6 times. So its representative of the people.
Let me just say this regarding the hostage families, I understand them. I understand -- to the very base of my heart I understand them, but they are focused on one aspect of this war, and that's getting their hostages out.
There are other aspects to the war that we also have to take into account. And that's ensuring that the state of Israel doesn't become hostage to another Hamastan (ph) at our border. We were hostage on October 7th, and we had 1,200 of our people slaughtered. That's not a situation we're going to go back to.
We're not going to allow jihadis to reconstitute themselves on our borders anywhere, whether it's in Gaza or whether it's in the Golan Heights or whether it's in Judea, Samaria. We're not going to allow jihadis to sit on our border, armed to the teeth and then threaten to murder us once again.
Even Hamas at this point continues to say that if we do not defeat them and they reconstitute themselves, they'll repeat October 7th. We can't allow that to happen. We're not going --
(CROSSTALKING)
SCIUTTO: The thing is -- the thing is, though, that Olmert is not just a small minority in Israel. A recent poll aired on Saturday by Channel 12 in Israel showed that 55 percent of the Israeli public believes that Netanyahu's main goal is to remain in power.
They question not the -- whether to prioritize safety or, for instance, humanitarian crisis in Gaza. But they question whether Netanyahu is in this to protect himself more, or the state of Israel. That's my question there. What's your response to that criticism? LEITER: Well, criticism is simply -- simply wrong. I think there are
people in the opposition who, and it's legitimate, by the way. I mean, were a -- were a very robust democracy. We have people representing all sides of the issue, and it's perfectly legitimate for the opposition to oppose the government.
But the fact of the matter is, again and again, if you're talking about surveys and polls, 70 percent of the population is insistent that the war be prosecuted to the end and Hamas be destroyed.
So I wouldn't, you know, jump to conclusions from a particular poll and a particular station, a particular time. You have to see it over time. Every time we call up our reserves, for example, they've been called up again and again and again over this past year and a half.
All our young people who are leaving their businesses, their law firms, their medical centers, and they're coming to report and fight against this enemy. It's always 100 percent in the call up.
So we have, you know, former officials making statements. You have that here. You have that around the world. It's not really all that relevant to pay attention to.
The people are committed to seeing that October 7th will never happen again, and that the people responsible for it will be brought to justice, will be removed from the perimeter of Israel. Hamas has to be defeated, and that's what we're about to do.
SCIUTTO: I want to get on to U.S.-Iran talks because I know Israel is watching them closely. But before I do, I do want to touch on the humanitarian situation in Gaza. As you know, there is a new aid distribution program which the U.S. is involved in, Israel is involved in, but has received a good amount of criticism from the U.N. and other aid groups.
I want to show a scene of the distribution center as it began in recent days you had people -- hungry people, civilians storming the site. They're just trying to feed their families. And some of the scenes were even -- well, here you go. What you're seeing now there on the screen.
Should people have to fight like that just to feed themselves? Is that an image of a successful aid distribution process?
[01:34:46]
LEITER: Well, first of all, I'm not sure that what you see, what you're screening right now are people fighting. I didn't see people fighting with each other. I see --
SCIUTTO: Rushing, desperately -- desperately jumping the fence, et cetera.
LEITER: -- well, well, this is a program -- well, give it a chance. This is a program that just got underway. What I did see for a year and a half -- what we all saw for anybody paying attention was food being distributed through the good services of Hamas, of a terror organization who actually hijacked the trucks that were outfitted by money raised here in the United States by NGOs.
People gave their 501-c3 tax exempt donations to NGOs to support what they didn't understand was eventually (ph) Hamas.
Hamas took over the semi-trailers of humanitarian aid. They sold it to the people they wanted to favor and use that money to reconstitute their domination of the Gaza Strip.
We cannot allow the people shooting at our soldiers to be supported by NGOs. The U.N. is the problem. It's not the solution. The U.N. was in cahoots with representatives of Hamas.
Yes, yes, it's hard to hard to stomach, isn't it? But the U.N. is the problem, not the solution. And what the humanitarian fund which has been established, the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation is doing, is circumventing what the U.N. established.
Look, you know, you, you, you cast doubt. But just last week, a U.N. representative maliciously, libelously said that in two days, in 48 hours, 14,000 babies will starve to death. Everybody heard that. The 48 hours passed. Nobody starved to death. And yet there's no retraction. Not from the media and not from the U.N.
So what we need to do is circumvent the U.N. who's creating this problem, who's hos creating this libelous slander? And we need to make sure that the food gets directly to families in Gaza. And it's working.
SCIUTTO: Well, I should note that we've spoken on this program to a number of aid agencies, the U.N. included, but not just the U.N., who have said they've seen evidence of malnutrition in enormous numbers in Gaza.
LEITER: Where is -- where's the evidence? Where's the evidence? That's a lie.
(CROSSTALKING)
SCIUTTO: They've done -- they've done --
LEITER: There's no evidence to that. There is evidence to Hamas taking over the food and selling it to the people that they're interested in. That's where the evidence is.
SCIUTTO: Well, we spoke -- we spoke to a group called Aneira, who's been on the ground for a great amount of time, and they did. I mean, they did tests, right? I'm talking about --
LEITER: Participating in Hamas --
SCIUTTO: -- urine tests where they developed, where they saw signs of malnutrition in 40 percent of the samples. I'm quoting back folks on the ground who've done this kind of -- kind of testing.
But listen, let's set that aside if we can, for a moment, because I do want to get to the Iran-U.S. talks.
President Trump, as you know, is speaking of progress in nuclear talks with Iran. I wonder what will Israel do if the U.S. signs a deal with Iran that it finds unacceptable or unsafe for Israel's national security interests?
LEITER: Well, it's a hypothetical that I don't believe for one moment could actually. materialize. We've been speaking very intensely with the Trump administration from the moment President Trump came into office.
President Trump has been very clear in the letter that he sent to the leader of Iran. They have a limited amount of time to agree to what he called full dismantlement. There cannot be any road to enrichment because enrichment means a nuclear bomb.
And if these lunatics in Tehran get a nuclear bomb, they're going to use it. For us, this is existential. They call Israel the one-bomb country, ok.
So there's -- under no circumstance can Iran have a pathway to a nuclear bomb. And we're convinced, absolutely, the American administration is 100 percent in lockstep with us on that.
Now, if that can be achieved through the negotiation process that Steve Witkoff is leading, if anybody can do it, it would be Mr. Witkoff. we certainly hope he's successful in achieving the elimination of this nuclear bomb program through negotiations.
If not, obviously -- I mean, the president has said it. There's an alternative.
SCIUTTO: We reported last week that the U.S. assesses that Israel is making military preparations to strike Iranian nuclear facilities, at least preparations for a potential attack.
I wonder, do you believe Israel would strike Iran, potentially over U.S. objections, if again, it deemed that a deal was not conducive to Israels safety?
LEITER: The -- you know, the narrative of, you know, militaristic Israel always preparing for military operation. It's a narrative that everybody loves, you know, big, bad Israel. But wherever we can avoid military confrontation, military operations will do so.
[01:39:45]
LEITER: We live in the hope right now that the United States will succeed in reaching an agreement with Iran in which their nuclear enrichment program will be dismantled. I do not foresee the possibility of a situation where the U.S. and Israel are going to be in confrontation over what to do with Iran.
We're in full agreement. Iran has to be removed from the nuclear stage. They cannot have any pathway to nuclear -- to a nuclear bomb. And if they have enrichment, that's the pathway. So there's no enrichment and full dismantlement.
SCIUTTO: Final question before we go, and I do appreciate your time because you've allowed me to ask you many questions on many topics.
Are you hopeful that an agreement will be reached, perhaps in the coming days between the U.S., Israel and Hamas that would allow the return, at least of some of the remaining living hostages in Gaza?
LEITER: Well, here's an interesting thing which connects us to one of your previous questions, Jim. The proposal on the table is not very different than what Envoy Witkoff presented about a month ago.
The only difference is that Hamas continues to be diminished. Their leader, Mohammed Sinwar, has been eliminated. And now their political base of distribution of these -- these social issues, the humanitarian funding has been taken away from them.
So their power on the street has been completely diminished. And when you take military and political power away from a terrorist organization, they begin to crumble.
So if they're going to agree now, it's going to be because we have successfully diminished their military and political power.
SCIUTTO: Ambassador Yechiel Leiter, again, let me thank you for joining us and for giving us the time.
LEITER: Thank you, Jim.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BEN HUNTE, CNN HOST: New fallout from the death of football star Diego Maradona. Ahead, why a court ruled on Thursday that his medical team's homicide trial was invalid.
[01:41:44]
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HUNTE: Welcome back.
The homicide trial of Diego Maradona's medical team was declared invalid by an Argentine court. Maradona, widely considered one of the greatest football players of all time, died in 2020.
CNN's Cecilia Dominguez has more.
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CECILIA DOMINGUEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: We're here working at the court in San Isidro Province of Buenos Aires, where Maradona's doctors' trial was taking place until today when two judges decided to nullify this trial and ordered a new one.
This happened after the third judge, Julieta Makintach was removed for allegedly having authorized producers to film a documentary inside the courtroom where the hearings were taking place. She was also accused of not being impartial.
To investigate this, the trial was suspended for seven days, then she was removed from her position. And today we learned that this trial is over.
We had the chance to speak to some of the lawyers, and they think that a new trial could begin by the end of this year.
Diego Maradona died on November 25th, 2020 during the pandemic, while at home hospitalization, days after undergoing brain surgery.
Seven health professionals are accused of homicide with negligence, and this process was trying to determine whether this medical team was responsible for Diego Maradona's death. They face up to 25 years in prison if they are found guilty.
Cecilia Dominguez, CNN -- Buenos Aires.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HUNTE: Virtual currency is driving some very real and violent crimes. As CNN's security correspondent Josh Campbell reports, billions of dollars are at stake, and all a thief needs is an investor's password.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JOSH CAMPBELL, CNN SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: A daring escape captured on this video, obtained exclusively by CNN. The alleged victim, an unidentified Italian cryptocurrency trader who prosecutors say was held hostage for several weeks in Manhattan.
Two men are now charged with kidnapping and assault, among other counts.
In Paris, four masked men attempting to kidnap the daughter and grandson of a French cryptocurrency executive.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Get off.
CAMPBELL: Coming after two other kidnappings in France that involved hand-and-finger mutilations as part of demands for ransom.
And last year, a judge in Florida sentenced a man to 47 years in prison for stealing more than $3.5 million in virtual currency after he and coconspirators targeted victims in violent home invasions.
ARI REDBORD, GLOBAL HEAD OF POLICY, TRM LABS: They're just criminal gangs who are looking to go where the money is to steal large amounts.
CAMPBELL: Law enforcement is now ramping up efforts to combat these emerging threats, called wrench attacks, that target victims with physical violence or threats and coerce them to reveal crypto passwords.
REDBORD: Bad actors can move funds faster and in larger amounts than ever before. And that's why they're moving quickly in these types of cases to try to get that -- those passwords and move the funds.
ADAM HEALY, CEO, STATION70: This is only getting worse.
CAMPBELL: While criminals face the risk of being caught, they potentially stand to reap millions. And experts say physical threats of violence require much less sophistication.
HEALY: Being able to break a human is actually not as hard as oftentimes as breaking a safe or breaking some smart contract, or breaking some encryption.
[01:49:48]
CAMPBELL: This month, federal prosecutors announced charges against 12 people for stealing more than $263 million in virtual currency by hacking into cryptocurrency databases and defrauding victims through bogus schemes.
According to the indictment, the men used the money for nightclub services, exotic cars, jewelry, luxury goods and renting private jets and mansions.
The FBI is seeing an explosion in cyber-related complaints from victims, pointing to a new record for losses reported in 2024. The reported losses from cryptocurrency fraud alone more than $9 billion.
Security experts say the actual number of violent threats related to cryptocurrency is likely severely underreported. And in an age where companies have spent billions to lock down their computer networks from intrusion, now the physical safety of cryptocurrency users can't be ignored.
HEALY: You can have executive protection. Your board can get engaged. But at the end of the day, you're your own first responder. You need to have situational awareness. You need to be aware of your surroundings.
CAMPBELL: Now, an important update on that New York case that we just brought you. We're learning from multiple law enforcement sources that an NYPD detective who was assigned to the security detail of Mayor Eric Adams was working off duty at a private security job and allegedly delivered the victim to his tormentors.
It remains a big question for investigators right now whether that detective actually knew what was about to transpire. We're told that remains under investigation.
Now, I've spoken with people in the crypto industry who point out that the odds of a violent incident like this happening is very low when you think of the millions and millions of crypto owners around the world.
But this is very much the evolution of crime. You know, three decades ago there was a surge in bank robberies because that's where the money is. Today, these crypto markets are becoming very lucrative targets for these thieves. Josh Campbell, CNN -- Los Angeles.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HUNTE: After the break, we meet an English couple growing unique works of art right out of the ground. But they don't come cheap.
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HUNTE: Massive wildfires burning out of control in western and central Canada are forcing thousands to flee their homes while sending hazardous smoke toward major U.S. cities.
There are more than 175 fires burning across Canada, and only about 50 are under control. Much of Canada from the northwest territories and Alberta to Quebec are extreme risk of wildfires, the highest-level. Smoke is expected to reach the upper Midwest and Great Lakes areas of the U.S. and linger through the weekend, leading to dangerous air quality in some places around Green Bay, Milwaukee, Chicago and Detroit.
A couple in England have perfected the art of growing trees in the shape of furniture. However, the limited pieces can take over a decade to form, and they also cost a pretty penny. They're only available through an art gallery.
Let's see some more.
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GAVIN MUNRO, FULL GROWN: So this one's ready for harvest. That's it. One, two, three. Oh, it's a beast, isn't it?
So it looks like it might be one that we can sit on.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's pretty good, though.
MUNRO: In order to grow a chair correctly, there's, like, a thousand steps to get right in sequence. This has spent the last 13 years right here.
[01:54:44]
MUNRO: We are 20 years into looking to create a manufacturing process. The aim is to really collaborate with nature. Instead of growing trees, cutting them down, making them into smaller bits, we're actually shaping the trees, graft them together and make them into one solid piece.
It's kind of like bonsai meets 3D printing. Why wouldn't you grow a chair? But they always turn out a little bit different each time.
So it's really nice to see the grain and these gorgeous wrinkles where we'd shape the branch without damaging the tree. This is two branches. You can see here where this graft has completely taken. We're not the first people to do this by any stretch. The ancient
Chinese grew root chairs. Native Americans have been bending trees to make signposts. And there was a banker in America called John Krubsack, who took 20 trees and shaped them into the chair that grew.
We've changed quite a lot. Originally, it was like a vineyard where there'd be chairs in a row and lamps in a row. But it seems to make sense to be in something more like a kind of little mini copse, to harvest them by cutting them off at the base, the tree stays alive. New shoots will grow. Hopefully we can create a better life for these trees as they're growing.
But it's a long burner working with trees.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The only way To value them is to value them as artworks. A fully practical, usable Chair is around about 75,000 pounds. And in order to sustain their vision and their practice, you have to achieve those prices so that they can carry on with this wonderful project.
MUNRO: In this kind of very fast paced world, there's no faking or substitute for something that's taken 10 -- 12 years to grow. That's a beautiful thing, I feel.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HUNTE: Ok. That's all we've got for you. Thanks for joining me and the team.
I'm Ben Hunte in Atlanta. It's been very real. Let's do it all again tomorrow at the same time.
But do not go anywhere. CNN NEWSROOM continues after this short break. See you tomorrow.
[01:57:11]
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