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Trump's Tariffs to Stay in Place After Court Ruling; Israel Accepts U.S. Proposal for 60-Day Ceasefire; Chaos in Aid Distribution in Gaza, U.N. Blamed for Humanitarian Crisis; Trump Threats Gloom Over Harvard Graduation Ceremony; Massive Wildfires, Massive Evacuations in Canada; Glacier Collapse Destroys Town In Southern Switzerland; Sean "Diddy" Combs Trial: Ex-Assistant Testifies, Work Was "Chaotic" And "Toxic". Aired 2-2:45a ET

Aired May 30, 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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KIM BRUNHUBER, CNN HOST: Welcome to all of you watching us around the world, I'm Kim Brunhuber. This is "CNN Newsroom." A legal win for the U.S. President. He can keep his sweeping global tariffs in place. For now, we'll have market and expert reaction.

The Trump administration makes a new push for temporary peace in Gaza. How Israel and Hamas are responding to the latest ceasefire proposal.

And a sudden collapse buries a small Swiss village under a weight of a massive glacier and it's all caught on camera.

The Trump administration has scored a win in the ongoing legal battle over the U.S. president's sweeping tariffs. A federal appeals court is reinstating those tariffs. For now, that comes after the Court of International Trade ruled on Wednesday that President Donald Trump lacked the authority to impose tariffs using emergency powers. U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent defended Mr. Trump on Fox News Thursday. Here he is.

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SCOTT BESSENT, U.S. TREASURY SECRETARY: The president absolutely has the right to set the trade agenda for the U.S. Anything that the courts do to get in the way, both harms the American people in terms of trade and in terms of tariff revenue.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRUNHUBER: In a long posting on True Social, the president slammed the ruling against his tariffs and questioned the authority of the three-judge panel. He said, quote, "Is it purely a hatred of Trump?" He's now calling on the Supreme Court to step in. CNN's Kristen Holmes has more from the White House. 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 level -- 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 block 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.

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.

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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.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

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. What's important about those three judges is that they are a bipartisan panel. Two of them were actually appointed to the bench by Republicans, one 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.

BRUNHUBER: And the tariff gyrations have financial markets around the world struggling to keep up. So let's have a look at the Asia-Pacific region. You can see they're all down there. And here in the U.S. we're watching the futures markets, which look to be opening in the red. I want to bring in Ryan Patel, a senior fellow with the Drucker School

of Management at Claremont Graduate University, and joins us now from Los Angeles. Good to see you again, my friend.

So listen, first, in terms of what we just saw there, the market reaction, is this kind of what you expected as a short-term reaction?

RYAN PATEL, SENIOR FELLOW, DRUCKER SCHOOL OF MANGEMENT, CLAREMONT GRADUATE UNIVERSITY: Yeah, Kim. I mean, I think truthfully, in my eyes, the markets didn't pop, and because they learned to wait. It's not the first move, but it's always the next one that matters. And I think I was -- I want to say I was shocked, but, you know, nothing really happened throughout the day for the U.S. markets.

You'll see the next couple of days because they're reacting to the news as kind of numb because they're waiting to see what this uncertainty of what the actual decision is being made.

[02:05:02]

And, you know, I think it's a wait and see approach, which is kind of a mature move for the market, to be very honest.

BRUNHUBER: Yeah, that's right. And so wait and see. I mean, that seems to be a recurring theme here. If we look sort of at the median term, as this is all litigated in the courts, we saw the U.S. trade representatives say that despite all these legal wrangling, many countries are going to keep negotiating, sort of trying to dispel the fears that this might give countries second thoughts about doing deals. But do you get the sense that that will actually happen, that countries will essentially kind of put up their feet and wait?

PATEL: Not countries. I mean, I think you think of the ruling, if the ruling stands, it's just one tool. What I mean by that, you mentioned it. The administration already said they had got another trade toolbox. It's not empty. They're going to figure out a way to do this. So if you take that into consideration, CEOs know it, country heads know it. So you're -- it's really just noise to getting a deal done, if that's what you're trying to do.

It's really this uncertainty came -- this is still cost businesses that can't shake this. Right. So you can't really wait and see. You're just hoping it -- you know, there's a resolution on either side and if there isn't one, then you better come to the table and get to the answer.

BRUNHUBER: Yeah. All right. So you brought up companies here. I mean, we've seen the whiplash effect of all this on, off, back on again. For companies, though, the problem itself remains constant. It's the lack of certainty. So we've seen companies like Wal-Mart now saying they can't absorb tariff costs anymore. They'll have to pass those on to consumers, but they don't know what the rates will be next month or even next week. So how do businesses operate in this crazy environment?

PATEL: Well, one word, transparency. You have to have it, Kim. Companies like Wal-Mart, Ford, Best Buy, who've all come out, they have to talk to the consumers and tell them what they're doing. The stress test is not just, you know, on the margins of resiliency and really at the end of the day, it's about customer loyalty. Why does that matter? Because it goes into their profits, Kim.

And so leaders are needing to ask themselves, how long can you wait? What can you share and be transparent on what you're going to do? And really, it's a long term play. You can't wait rates to fall or not. And you have to go to under the assumption that this is where they got to make a decision and make it earlier than later. And, you know, it is an interesting time for many of these businesses where it's kind of shocking if you ask them a couple of years ago that they were going to want to raise prices. Nobody wants to do that in a time when the economy is still trying to get back.

BRUNHUBER: Yeah, that's right. I want to pivot slightly in terms specifically of the U.S.-China trade war, which has so many implications around the world. On Wednesday, the U.S. hit China with that sort of double punch on software exports to Chinese tech companies and then the student visas for Chinese students. So how much do you think all of this threatens the fragile trade war truce that they have right now?

PATEL: I think it's funny because even when we had good news a couple of weeks ago, I didn't think it was over. You still -- the U.S. is still taxing 30 percent, 10 percent. It's not the 145 percent. I think it provided a conversation for both sides to come together. But I mean, by no means this is over yet. It's still just more applicable for both sides to come to the table.

So we're not out of this, Kim. I'm telling you, there needs to be a real deal to be had where both sides are going to be happy And we're not there yet.

BRUNHUBER: No, we are not out of this. Exactly right. So, we'll be talking about this for weeks and months to come. You and I really appreciate having you on, my friend. Ryan Patel, thank you so much.

PATEL: Appreciate you, Kim.

BRUNHUBER: All right. An Israeli official and the White House confirmed that Israel is backing a new U.S. plan for a 60-day ceasefire in Gaza. The official says it calls for the release of 10 living and 18 deceased hostages. Hamas says it's willing to turn over all the hostages, but it has some demands. The group wants assurances that the fighting won't 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. That was before Israel relaunched its military operations. CNN's Jeremy Diamond has more on the U.S.-backed plan.

JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN JERUSALEM CORRESPONDENT: Well, listen, this is the latest U.S. proposal for a temporary ceasefire 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 ceasefire, 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.

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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 the middle 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.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RIYAD MANSOUR, PALESTINIAN AMBASSADOR TO UNITED NATIONS: This is unbearable. How could (inaudible). Excuse me, Mr. President, I have grandchildren. I know what they mean to their families. And to see the situation of the Palestinians without us having hearts to do something is beyond the ability of any normal human being to tolerate.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

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. And it is important to know 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.

BRUNHUBER: New video shows U.S. contractors holding back a crowd of hungry Gaza residents at an aid distribution site. Palestinians have been expressing their extreme frustration over efforts to bring food into the enclave since Israel lifted its 11-week blockade.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

YOUSEF HAMMAD, PALESTINIAN (through translation): This is a big lie, a trap and betrayal, and this is only for thieves and merchants. People do not benefit anything. None of the people benefit. The Israelis want this chaos. People who are hungry and poor from a lack of food and drink killed each other for some aid. Have mercy on people. You bring 300 boxes of aid for two million people and you say humanitarian aid? There is no aid or any humanity. This is humiliating and insulting.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRUNHUBER: Israel's ambassador to the U.S. blames the United Nations for the aid distribution chaos. He says people in Gaza need to give the U.S.-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation a chance. Here he is.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

YECHIEL LEITER, ISRAELI AMBASSADOR TO U.S.: The U.N. is the problem, it's not the solution. The U.N. was in cahoots with representatives of Hamas. Yes, it's 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. So what we need to do is circumvent the U.N. who's creating this problem, who's creating this libelous slander. And we need to make sure that the food gets directly to families in Gaza and it's working.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRUNHUBER: Israel has approved the biggest expansion of West Bank settlements since the Oslo Accords were signed more than 30 years ago. According to the defense and finance ministers, 22 new settlements will be established deep inside the West Bank in an area from which Israel had previously withdrawn. Now, this is seen as a de facto annexation of the Palestinian territory. Israel's far right finance minister said outright that the expansion is intended to prevent the establishment of a Palestinian state. The Palestinian Authority is condemning the move as a dangerous escalation, a challenge to international law.

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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 wall 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 experts 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. That's according to Western analysts.

The class of 2025 graduated from Harvard on Thursday. Ahead, how students, faculty and others are defending the school against attacks from Donald Trump.

And dramatic scenes from Switzerland as a village is engulfed by collapsing glacier. All the details next. Stay with us.

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BRUNHUBER: White House pressure to triple the arrests of migrants in the U.S. is said to be straining law enforcement agencies resources. Hundreds of FBI agents and other law enforcement officers have been reassigned to immigration related duties. People familiar with the matter say there are concerns that the changes could hinder other important investigations like terror threats and espionage by China and Russia. There are currently about 1000 immigration arrests a day.

A federal judge in Boston says she will block the White House from ending Harvard's ability to enroll international students. The judge's order will block any changes to the school's enrollment policy by the Trump administration indefinitely. That would extend the temporary ban she imposed last week. The judge made it clear a court order was necessary despite the Trump administration's attempts to defuse the situation by giving Harvard 30 days to respond to its demands.

Now, the judge's ruling comes as the school held its commencement ceremony on Thursday. CNN's Danny Freeman was there.

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DANNY FREEMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): An emphatic show of support at Harvard University for the school's president at graduation.

(CROWD CHEERING)

As the historic ivy league university continues to battle with the Trump administration over federal funding, anti-Semitism and now enrolling international students.

ALAN GARBER, PRESIDENT HARVARD UNIVERSITY: Members of the class of 2025 from down the street, across the country and around the world.

(CROWD CHEERING)

Around the world, just as it should be.

(CROWD CHEERING)

FREEMAN (voice-over): Despite a federal judge halting the effort to ban Harvard from enrolling international students, the administration is now threatening to aggressively revoke visas for Chinese students across the country. While some Chinese students on campus were hesitant to speak to CNN today, a master student from China made a plea for empathy during the commencement ceremony.

UNKNOWN: When I met my 77 classmates from 32 different countries -- (CROWD CHEERING)

The countries I knew only as colorful shapes on a map turned into real people with laughter, dreams.

FREEMAN (voice-over): Though the tumultuous school year is now finally over, fears about the future linger at Harvard. For international students --

LEO GERDEN, HARVARD GRADUATING SENIOR FROM SWEDEN: It's all of these crazy things that people are thinking about in this moment. Can I transfer to another institution? Is it worth doing it in the U.S. because what if Trump goes after that university next?

FREEMAN (voice-over): And fears linger for researchers whose federal funding is still frozen or canceled.

MARC WEISSKOPF, HARVARD T.H. CHAN SCHOOL OF PUBLIC HEALTH: How to protect your brain as you're aging and stay -- keep your quality of life so you're not heading into dementia or not getting cancer or not getting cardiovascular disease. Those advances take time to develop. And so we are putting that off, if not stopping them.

WALTER WILLETT, HARVARD T.H. CHAN SCHOOL OF PUBLIC HEALTH: If we pull the rug out from under our research, we're going to miss a huge opportunity that no amount of money can buy.

FREEMAN (voice-over): But today, Harvard's graduating class set the stage for tomorrow's fight.

THOR REIMANN, 2025 SENIOR ENGLISH ORATOR: Now, look, our university is certainly imperfect, but I am proud to stand today alongside our graduating class, our faculty and our president with the shared conviction that this ongoing project of Veritas is one worth defending.

FREEMAN (on camera): Now, one thing that also struck me while being on campus this week is perhaps the unlikely amount of unity that really has grown at Harvard University after this battle with the Trump administration. Remember, this is a university that's been very divided in recent years. The former president had to resign last year. There's been a lot of back and forth and division over accusations of anti-Semitism and many protests on campus.

But on this issue, you have administrators, faculty members, even students all coming together to defend the university. Danny Freeman, CNN, Cambridge, Massachusetts.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BRUNHUBER: Dangerous wildfires are burning across Canada right now. Two provinces have declared states of emergency and thousands of people are under evacuation orders as the smoke heads towards the U.S. That and more next. Stay with us.

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BRUNHUBER: Massive wildfires burning out of control in western and central Canada are forcing thousands to flee their homes while sending hazardous smoke towards major U.S. cities. There are more than 175 fires burning across Canada and only about 50 are under control. Manitoba and Saskatchewan have declared states of emergency. Much of Canada, from the Northwest Territories and Alberta to Quebec, are at extreme risk of wildfires, which is the highest level.

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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.

The dramatic footage captured by a drone shows the exact moment this village in Switzerland was buried by rubble after a glacier collapsed. Around 90 percent of the community of Blatten was covered by the landslide, although the village had been evacuated earlier this month as Bill Weir explains.

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BILL WEIR, CNN CHIEF CLIMATE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Those pictures from southern Switzerland are so staggering and the energy of that glacier collapse and the avalanche coincided with a 3.1 earthquake in that part of Switzerland. The most violent sort of seismic act tied to this sort of event that they've seen in over a century there. But it could have been a lot worse.

That village of 300 or so people was evacuated about 10 days ago when geologists noticed changes, new stresses, new rock weight on top of that already shrinking glacier. It's too soon to say how much climate change or warming contributed to the actual moment of collapse. Mountains fall apart all the time over eons.

But the Alps, like so many high regions around the world, has been melting as the planet warms. The permafrost that held up a big rock face under that particular glacier, locals say, has been thawing over the years.

And this is a warning to mountain communities really around the world. There are estimated up to 15 million people living below glacier lakes in the Andes, in the Himalayas.

There's 8,000 glaciers just in Pakistan and a lot of those places just an earthen or ice dam holding back meltwater. And if it releases all at once, you can see the resulting catastrophe there as well.

This is Switzerland, one of the richest countries in the world, with scientists who provided early warning that obviously saved lives right there. But there are sort of dripping time bombs like that all over our overheating planet.

Bill Weir, CNN, New York.

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BRUNHUBER: A woman who worked as Sean "Diddy" Combs assistant for years testified at his federal criminal trial on Thursday. Using the pseudonym "Mia" in court, she said the music mogul was violent with her and sexually assaulted her several times. Mia also testified that combs repeatedly assaulted his then girlfriend, Cassie Ventura, and said one time she thought combs was going to kill Ventura. Mia described punishments by combs as unpredictable and terrifying. He's facing sex trafficking and racketeering charges and could face life in prison if convicted on all counts.

The reward for two prison escapees in Louisiana now stands at $50,000. Derrick Groves and Antoine Massey are still on the run after breaking out of the Orleans Justice Center on May 16th. Groves, here on the left, was serving time for double murder. Massey has a lengthy criminal record, including domestic abuse, aggravated assault and vehicle theft. Eight other inmates who escaped, allegedly with the help of prison employees, have now been caught.

South Africa's Cape Town got a surprise visitor this week, an elephant seal. Just ahead, we'll show you what happened when this seal decided to take a look around town.

Stay with.

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BRUNHUBER: At least 70 members of the European parliament are planning to attend this year's pride celebrations in Budapest, despite Hungary's ban on LGBTQ gatherings, Hungarian lawmakers passed the ban earlier this year and granted authorities permission to use facial recognition technology to identify attendees. Organizers have vowed to hold the pride parade at the end of June anyway.

On Tuesday, 20 countries signed a letter urging Hungary to revise its legislation and called on the European commission to take action. If this doesn't happen.

Well, South Africa's Cape town attracts plenty of tourists. But this week the picturesque city found itself dealing with a very unusual visitor. So have a look at what happened when an elephant seal wandered into town. Look at this.

BRUNHUBER: A Chinese paraglider took an unplanned and dangerous trip when a powerful updraft lifted him into the upper atmosphere. Peng Yujiang was carried 8,000 meters above the Earth Tuesday in China's Gansu province, and he had no oxygen with him. Experts recommend people use oxygen when they're around 3,000 meters above sea level. You can see ice covering his face and clothes in this video. Peng describes the experience as terrifying and says he definitely won't fly again for a while.

[02:40:07]

Well, the infamous and anonymous British street artist named Banksy has revealed new artwork. It depicts the shadow of a metal street pole forming the silhouette of a lighthouse. The accompanying text reads: I want to be what you saw in me.

The image was unveiled on Banksy's Instagram account. It's not clear where the work is located. Some of Banksy's art pieces sell for millions of dollars.

All right. I'm Kim Brunhuber. "WORLD SPORT" is next. And I'll be back in about 20 minutes with more CNN NEWSROOM.

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