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Russia Launches Attacks to Ukraine Anew as Ukraine Recovery Conference Begins; Trump Sent Out Another Batch of Tariffs, ASEAN Sounds Alarm on Looming Tariffs from the U.S.; University Researcher Unearths Remains of Hiroshima Atomic Bomb Victims. Aired 3-4a ET

Aired July 10, 2025 - 03:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

[03:00:00]

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ROSEMARY CHURCH, CNN ANCHOR: Hello and welcome to our viewers joining us from all around the world and to everyone streaming us on CNN Max. I'm Rosemary Church. Just ahead.

Kyiv is facing another heavy Russian aerial assault. Just as world leaders gather for some critical summits, we will look at what's at stake for Ukraine in those high-level meetings.

Plus, new questions about the emergency response following the catastrophic floods in Texas, why some argue more could have been done to evacuate people before the water started to rise.

And in Japan, one man is returning to an island near Hiroshima to uncover his family's history, what he's learned from the land years after the atomic bomb was dropped.

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

CHURCH: Well, right now, world leaders are gathering for the fourth Ukraine Recovery Conference. It's focused on a whole-of-society approach to helping Ukraine, with governments, international groups, businesses and civil society working together. We expect to hear from host Italy's Prime Minister, as well as the European Commission President and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

It comes as Russia has been carrying out another intense aerial assault on Kyiv. Authorities in the Ukrainian capital say at least two people were killed and more than a dozen wounded by this latest wave of Russian drones and missiles in recent hours.

President Zelenskyy says he discussed weapons supplies, air defenses and joint defense production with the Trump administration's envoy to Ukraine during their meeting on Wednesday. A senior U.S. official says the U.S. has resumed weapons shipments to Ukraine after the Defense Department paused some deliveries last week.

Well, President Trump says he has not gotten into who authorized a pause on weapons shipments to Ukraine last week. CNN previously reported the Defense Secretary, Pete Hegseth, did not inform the White House before he authorized a halt to some U.S. deliveries to Ukraine. That decision led to frustration and confusion among administration officials.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REPORTER: You said that you were not sure who ordered the munitions halted to Ukraine. Have you since been able to figure that out?

DONALD TRUMP, U.S. PRESIDENT: Well, I haven't thought about it because we're looking at Ukraine right now and munitions, but I have no, I have not gone into it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHURCH: Let's bring in Alex Goncharenko, a member of the Ukrainian parliament. Appreciate you joining us.

OLEKSIY GONCHARENKO, MEMBER OF THE UKRAINIAN PARLIAMENT: Good morning.

CHURCH: So Russia launched an intense aerial assault on Ukraine's capital just hours before world leaders gathered in Rome for the Ukraine recovery conference that gets underway next hour. What are you hoping to come out of those meetings?

GONCHARENKO: First of all, what Putin tried to show making this attack against Kyiv.

Kyiv was attacked most of all this night, and that was an awful night in Kyiv. And he did it to humiliate world leaders because it sounds really ridiculous to discuss the recovery of Ukraine when destruction continues, awful destruction continues right now.

And Putin made this signal. I just don't care, I humiliate you. And I think -- I hope that leaders in Rome will give an answer on this. And the answer should be, first of all, military support and more sanctions against Russia, because in other case, we can discuss for years some reconstruction, but nothing will happen because destruction will continue.

So that's what I'm looking forward to today because people are killed. A lot of people are killed. President Trump said Putin continues to kill people, and that's true, and he should be stopped.

CHURCH: Ukraine's President Zelenskyy, as we just reported, discussed weapons supplies, air defenses and joint defense production with the U.S. envoy on the sidelines of the summit. And we're now learning that U.S. weapons shipments to Ukraine have resumed after the Defense Department paused deliveries last week. So what more are you expecting and hoping to come from the United States specifically?

GONCHARENKO: That's great news that the shipments are resumed, but we need more.

[03:05:01] So I heard some information about 10 Patriot missiles, which will be finally sent to Ukraine. So missiles for air defense.

But for your understanding, for example, this night, it was near 700 air drones and missiles which attacked Kyiv. Once again, 700 one night. So 10 anti-missiles for Patriot, that's great, and we're thankful for every one of them, because every one of them can save human lives.

But we need not 10, not a dozen. We need hundreds and better thousands. And Russia is producing their missiles and drones in thousands as we see.

And the world should answer because today it is Kyiv. If it will not be stopped and Russia will continue such pace of production, and the West will not ramp up its military production sooner or later, this will be Warsaw, Berlin, Paris and other European capitals which will be under Russian missiles attack.

CHURCH: And what more can you tell us about the impact of these recent and intense Russian attacks? And what happens if the U.S. doesn't keep supplying more weapons for Ukraine in the weeks and months ahead? How much do you worry about that?

GONCHARENKO: We worry about that very much because this is the biggest concern. United States is our biggest military ally, we're thankful to all countries which support Ukraine.

But the biggest military ally is United States of America. What will happen if there will be not a sufficient U.S. military support? Thousands of people will be killed. Russia will continue to advance.

And the whole world will ask, is the United States really a partner you can rely on? If Ukraine, which voluntarily gave up, it's the third largest nuclear arsenal in the world in 1994, under American and British guarantees, is coming through what we are coming.

So what will happen with any other country in the world? That will be the end of non-proliferation policy. And there will be start of complete chaos in the world when big countries will decide that they can take whatever they want from smaller ones.

CHURCH: Alex Goncharenko, thank you so much for joining us. We appreciate it.

GONCHARENKO: Thank you.

CHURCH: Well, meanwhile, the leaders of France and the U.K. are hosting a meeting of the Coalition of the Willing in London. CNN's international diplomatic editor Nic Robertson joins us now. So Nic, what can you tell us about what's expected to come out of this meeting in London hosted by Keir Starmer and Emmanuel Macron?

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: Yes, this really is a sort of a follow on to what they did earlier in the year, which was when President Zelenskyy had that terrible falling out with President Trump in the Oval Office back in February. They both sort of came to President Zelenskyy's rescue and helped sort of get this Coalition of the Willing off the ground, a coalition to sort of step in and fill the space that it appeared that the United States was going to vacate in terms of weapons supplies and support in terms of a leadership role in getting nations to coalesce and agree weapon shipments and production to Ukraine.

It's interesting that this meeting today comes the same week that President Trump has appeared to go back to or the United States is going back to providing these important aerial defense weapon systems that Ukraine has been desperately calling for over the last month.

So it'll be very interesting to hear how they formulate their opinion on the United States. Is it coming back into the fold of a Coalition of the Willing supporting Ukraine or is there still this big military diplomatic economic vacuum to be filled in an uncertainty or an absence of U.S. formal leadership in this role?

You know, the way it's being, this Starmer-Macron meeting is being set up in the U.K. is really focusing a lot more on bilateral relations on terms of irregular migration across the English Channel from France to the U.K., a huge political issue for Prime Minister Keir Starmer. And there may be some announcements on that earlier in the day, which is really sort of dominating the media message in the U.K. The Ukraine issue is taking lower order, if you will.

And I think that's indicative of that. We're not expecting any major headline announcements, more a continuation, a shoring up, a strengthening, a defining of this role that Macron and Starmer have taken on to fill that vacuum left by the Trump administration.

CHURCH: All right. Our thanks to Nic Robertson bringing us that live report from London, I appreciate it.

[03:10:03]

A bipartisan Russia sanctions bill is gaining support in the U.S. Senate and Republican leader John Thune says it could come to a vote before their August recess.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. JOHN THUNE (R-SD), U.S. SENATE MAJORITY LEADER: We've also made substantial progress on Senator Graham's overwhelmingly bipartisan Russia sanctions legislation to enhance President Trump's leverage at the negotiating table and help end the bloodshed in Ukraine.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHURCH: A bill would put heavy tariffs on imports from countries that purchase Russian uranium, gas and oil. Sponsors of the legislation say it will give President Trump more options for dealing with Russia, including the ability to waive sanctions at a later date. But Thune has suggested he will not advance the bill without the president's approval. The U.S. President has threatened Brazil with a crippling 50 percent

tariff set to kick in next month, not because of a trade deficit. The U.S. actually had a trade surplus with Brazil of nearly $7 billion last year.

Now, Donald Trump is going after Brazil in part because of what he calls a witch hunt against Jair Bolsonaro. The right-wing former president, who has bragged about his closeness to President Trump, is on trial for allegedly trying to stage a coup.

Current Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva is not bowing to the White House pressure. He has vowed to slap a 50 percent tariff on American goods if the Trump administration follows through with the threat.

Meanwhile, President Trump sent out another round of tariff letters to countries on Wednesday, with rates of up to 30 percent on goods they export to the U.S. The latest recipients include the Philippines, Sri Lanka, Moldova, Brunei, Algeria, Libya and Iraq. The new tariffs go into effect on August 1 unless trade deals are reached.

Well tensions over tariffs are looming over a summit of the Association of SouthEast Asian Nations. Donald Trump's top diplomat, Marco Rubio, is expected to face many questions and frustrations during meetings with his ASEAN counterparts. Eight of the 10 countries represented will face U.S. tariffs on August 1 if no trade deals are reached and if the deadline holds, some of the countries just found out about the tariffs this week.

Well, still to come, the search continues for the missing in Central Texas after last weekend's deadly floods, but volunteers say recovery could take much longer than expected.

Plus, more questions emerge about why the mayor of one hard-hit city was not invited to take part in a call about the threatening weather. We'll have a report on that just ahead.

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[03:15:00]

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CHURCH: Volunteer rescue crews in Texas say searching for victims along the Guadalupe River could take days if not weeks. Teams continue to look for the missing with reports of more than 160 people still unaccounted for after deadly flash flooding over the weekend killed at least 120 people.

House Democrat Lloyd Doggard has asked the Trump administration for a thorough investigation into whether cuts to federal weather agencies impacted early warnings about the storm. This comes as four FEMA officials tell CNN life-saving resources to Texas were not approved for deployment until more than three days after the flooding began. We'll have more on that later this hour. The mayor of hard-hit Kerrville, Texas, says he was not invited to

participate in the weather forecast call with state officials ahead of the impending storm.

CNN's Shimon Prokupecz has more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SHIMON PROKUPECZ, CNN SR. CRIME AND JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Questions remain about how much officials were prepared, how much officials anticipated here in Texas in the lead-up to the storms.

What we know is that on July 3, the lieutenant governor here in Texas says that there was a conference call and county judges and city mayors were invited into the call to talk about the potential weather forecasts. But what we learned on Wednesday was that the city mayor was never part of that call, that is what he told us in a press conference.

It's also not entirely clear if the county judge, who is the leading political figure in this county, if he was on that call. And what exactly did the emergency management folks here know about the storm and how much did they anticipate it and how much were they prepared?

Now, the sheriff says he understands that answers are needed and that they're going to get to that at some point. But for now, they are focused on recovering the bodies and dealing with the families.

Shimon Prokupecz, CNN, Texas.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CHURCH: Joining me now is David Givler, a professional engineer at Givler Engineering, and he has extensive experience working with hydraulics and city engineering. Thank you, David, for being with us.

L. DAVID GIVLER, PROFESSIONAL ENGINEER, GIVLER ENGINEERING: Thank you. It's nice to be with you.

CHURCH: And as the desperate search for victims continues, with more than 100 people dead and an estimated 160 still missing, we are learning that a Texas firefighter urgently called for a code red alert to be issued so that people could get to higher ground. But that alert was apparently delayed. What are your thoughts when you hear stories like that?

[03:20:08]

GIVLER: Well, I know that this is a particularly complicated area. Some of the upper watershed of the Guadalupe River has very short response times. And sometimes there's just not a lot of time to think or to make decisions. And I think certainly in some cases, in this particular instance, that was the experience.

CHURCH: And David, CNN has learned that Texas officials rejected funding applications from Kerr County for a flood warning system that would have included sirens not once but twice in 2016 and 2017. And Texas officials are also facing questions about why evacuation orders were not issued earlier than the overnight hours when people were, of course, sleeping.

Given the current system was found to be antiquated and still is, why do you think the state rejected funding for an updated emergency alert system?

GIVLER: Well, I wasn't involved in that process. I can't speak directly to it. But I do know that the area is rural and, you know, predominantly, and that there are large expansive areas that would be hard to cover with an alarm system.

CHURCH: We've heard some of these officials complain that too many warnings and outdoor sirens is crying wolf. But surely in this situation, better to be doing that than what has happened.

GIVLER: I think it could be helpful. But I also think that some means that are already in place are not being fully utilized. And I think that, for example, there's a lot of attention that's given to the danger associated with low water crossings, and a lot of warnings issued to local residents as to the dangers associated with trying to cross when the water is overtopping low water crossings.

But when people have floodplains that are delineated on their properties, when they go to public parks and areas like that, that have hazard areas delineated, I think that lots of times that people forget about those delineations and that people become comfortable, and they forget about the reality of the hazards associated with those areas.

CHURCH: This area is referred to by meteorologists as a flash flood alley. So all the more reason for more people to have weather radios and for some of these alerts to get out. And of course, it is critical to get answers to questions about how the alert and communication systems failed, so that a disaster of this magnitude can be averted in the future.

Do you expect that we will get some of those answers, particularly with so much technology available, but apparently not being utilized in this particular part of Texas?

GIVLER: Yes, I think that Texans are incredibly resourceful and resilient, and they take circumstances like this, and they learn and adapt quickly. They treasure life here, and I expect that we're going to see a lot of action and a lot of creative solutions moving forward.

CHURCH: Well, what sort of solutions do you want to see moving forward in this area?

GIVLER: I want to see more emphasis on the reality of hazards associated with floodplain delineations. I think many times that people look at those delineations as irritations that interfere with development or other types of projects, and people need to understand that just because a certain area is picturesque and would be a lovely place for a building or a home, 99 percent of the time. That other 1 percent of the time, it could be not just hazardous, but life- threatening, and that risk needs to be taken seriously.

CHURCH: So are you saying that some of these areas should not be rebuilt?

GIVLER: Yes, I believe that a lot of people were sleeping in areas that were hazardous, and that over time, people get accustomed to doing that. They see over extended periods of time that a certain area is picturesque. It's nice to be in, it's comfortable, it's a nice place to sleep.

[03:25:01]

But ultimately, it's in a hazardous location, and the probability might be low that you'll encounter a hazard any particular night, but the reality is that when that hazard comes, it's usually worse than people anticipate.

CHURCH: David Givler, thank you so much for talking with us, I appreciate it.

GIVLER: It's my pleasure. Thank you.

A powerful picture illustrates the crisis facing hospitals in Gaza. Four babies share an incubator meant for only one. More on that story in the ongoing talks to reach a temporary ceasefire, that is next.

And an effort to bring dignity to atomic bomb victims placed in mass graves and forgotten.

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[03:30:00]

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

FEMA officials tell CNN their efforts to deploy rescue teams to Texas were hampered by new department protocols. Those crews were not approved until more than three days after the flooding began. At least 120 deaths have been reported since last weekend, and more than 160 people are reported missing.

World leaders are gathering in Rome today for the fourth Ukraine Recovery Conference. It's focused on a whole-of-society approach to helping Ukraine with governments, international groups, businesses and civil society working together. It comes as the leaders of the U.K. and France are hosting a meeting of the Coalition of the Willing near London.

And President Trump says America will once again build a dominant copper industry. He announced a 50 percent tariff on copper imports to the U.S. on Wednesday. Copper is a key component in defense equipment, semiconductors and batteries. Well, there was an awkward moment at the White House on Wednesday. Donald Trump praised the president of Liberia for his, quote, "good English." But English is the official language of Liberia, and this happened during a summit between the U.S. President and the leaders of five African countries.

CNN's Larry Madowo has more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

LARRY MADOWO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: What President Trump led with at this meeting with five African nations showed the true intentions of this White House gathering.

The leaders of Mauritania, Senegal, Gabon, Guinea Bissau and Liberia have all one thing in common. They're small economies, but rich mineral deposits, rare earth minerals, gold, oil, manganese, iron ore. And they're offering these to the United States, to American companies. They're looking for win-win solutions, as President Brice Oligui Nguema of Gabon said.

President Bassirou Diomaye Faye went even further, though. He actually offered a golfing investment opportunity for President Trump and said it would be a few hours flight from Miami or from D.C.

You can show off your golfing skills because world leaders have learned that to really do business with President Trump, you have to appeal to him. You have to fawn. And they all did that beautifully.

TRUMP: Represented today in your continent is represented by Gabon, Guinea Bissau, Liberia, Mauritania and Senegal, all very vibrant places with very valuable land, great minerals, great oil deposits and wonderful people.

JOSEPH BOAKAI, LIBERIAN PRESIDENT: Mr. President, we thank you for this opportunity to be here. Liberia is a longtime friend of the United States, and we believe in your policy of making America great again.

MADOWO: An awkward moment there after President Joseph Boakai of Liberia spoke and President Trump appeared to be surprised that he spoke such excellent English. He asked him, what did you learn to speak English so beautifully?

And President Boakai smiled and nodded and said it was in Liberia. He didn't point out that English is the official language of Liberia.

Another curious moment, President Trump handpicked his one of his favorite reporters, an African reporter. And she asked these leaders if they would nominate President Trump for the Nobel Peace Prize, which she knows has become a recent obsession of President Trump.

They said they would or they would look into it, that they would not be opposed to it. Again, they're trying to be nice to him as their host. They're not trying to antagonize him. One thing that didn't explicitly come up, but is the subtext here is

China, that was the elephant in the room. These countries are not explicit allies of BRICS. And so they're easier entry points for the U.S. into this new commercial diplomacy that President Trump is favoring in relations with Africa.

Larry Madowo, CNN, Lagos, Nigeria.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

[03:35:07]

CHURCH: Key players are indicating they are making headway as they try to bring at least a temporary end to the brutal war in Gaza. Hamas says its working, quote, "diligently and positively to overcome obstacles" at the ceasefire talks in Qatar and confirms a potential deal would include the release of 10 living hostages. U.S. President Donald Trump says Israel and Hamas are very close to a deal for a 60- day ceasefire.

Inside Gaza, this video shows four newborn babies sharing an incubator meant for just one. Hospitals are warning that they are so short of fuel to run their generators and other vital services that it's become a life or death issue for some patients. The U.N. says the fuel crisis in Gaza is at a critical point.

Former South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol is back in custody as part of an investigation into his declaration of martial law. Investigators say a court approved a warrant for his latest arrest on Thursday because of concerns over the destruction of evidence.

Yoon plunged the country into a constitutional crisis when he declared martial law last December. The move was reversed within hours before he was charged with leading an insurrection and removed from office. The former leader was released from custody in March because his original arrest warrant was cancelled for technical reasons.

We're now to an island near Hiroshima in Japan where a university researcher has been painstakingly recovering the remains of atomic bomb victims. Many were put in mass graves after the bomb was dropped nearly 80 years ago.

CNN's Hanako Montgomery has the story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

HANAKO MONTGOMERY, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): On the island of Ninoshima, researcher Rebun Kayo digs and sifts slowly, uncovering fragments of human remains from the war that devastated Japan now 80 years ago.

After the United States dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima on August 6, 1945, some 10,000 victims, dead and dying, were ferried to Minoshima. The small island in Hiroshima Bay became a field hospital and then a mass grave. REBUN KAYO, UNIVERSITY RESEARCHER (through translator): Boats piled

with bodies came to the shore here. Then the soldiers dug a hole and buried them here, one after the other.

MONTGOMERY (voice-over): One day, Kayo plans to bring the bone fragments he collects to a Buddhist temple to be enshrined.

KAYO (through translator): The bones in here, they haven't been treated humanely for 80 years. It'll be 80 years this year. They've been buried in the earth like they're objects.

MONTGOMERY (voice-over): Kayo has been coming here for years, driven by the loss of three members of his own family killed during World War II, whose remains were never recovered. Now he searches through the ground to bring dignity to others and to have a reminder of the effects of nuclear war.

KAYO (through translator): People today who don't know about the war focus only on the recovery of Japan, and they move the conversation forward while forgetting about these people here.

In the end, it becomes like, even if you drop an atomic bomb, you can recover. That's why there will be people who think it's okay to drop the bomb again. There will always be people who try to justify it in a way that suits them.

MONTGOMERY (voice-over): For Kaio, this is not an act of archaeology, but remembrance.

Hanako Montgomery, CNN, Tokyo.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CHURCH: Still ahead on "CNN Newsroom," we will have the latest on the deadly flooding in Texas, clean-up operations and the search for the missing continue and may go on for some time. That story after the break.

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[03:40:00]

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CHURCH: Welcome back, everyone.

The search for survivors continues in Texas days after deadly flooding devastated parts of the state. At least 120 people have been killed in the disaster. More than 160 are still missing in the Kerr County area alone, but officials say no one has been found alive since Friday.

Among the missing, five campers and one counselor from Camp Mystic, which was located on the banks of the Guadalupe River. NASA says it has deployed two aircraft to assist in the recovery operations. The high altitude craft will be helpful in assessing damage and supporting coordination of recovery efforts on the ground. CNN's Isabel Rosales has more details on recovery efforts.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SHERIFF LARRY LEITHA, KERR COUNTY SHERIFF'S OFFICE: Sometimes evacuations is not the safest. Sometimes it's better to shelter in place. The Hill Country is not a one-size-fit-all place.

ISABEL ROSALES, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Local officials defending their team's action flood ravaged Texas before facing heated questions from reporters and promising that answers are coming.

We're in the process of trying to put a timeline, you know, that's going to take a little bit of time.

ROSALES (voice-over): CNN affiliate KSAT now reporting a firefighter in nearby Ingram, Texas, requested the Kerr County Sheriff's Office issue a code red nearly six hours before that emergency alert was issued and sent to residents phones.

[03:45:10]

The sheriff asked about that lapse in time.

LEITHA: I believe those questions need to be answered to the family of the misled ones, to the public, you know, to the people that put me in this office. Please understand that, you know, we don't have no, we're not running, we're not going to hide from everything.

ROSALES (voice-over): Search and rescue teams are in day six of this exhaustive search, focusing now on combing through nearly 60 miles of Riverside and piles of debris looking for victims.

KOURTNEY RAND, VOLUNTEER: We're getting down in places that normally people can't get to by foot, more harder terrain.

ROSALES (voice-over): Dozens of volunteers have joined state and local agencies coming out on foot, boat, ATVs, horses, and even mules who can help carry heavy equipment. These volunteers talked to CNN about what they witnessed when arriving to help.

DUSTIN BERTERO, MISSION MULES: The water damage, how high the water got on trees, the debris piles around like bridges and, you know, parts of homes and stuff like fridges or water heaters.

MICHAEL TORBERER, PRESIDENT, MISSION MULES: That amount of people getting taken like that just tells me that just nobody was ready for it.

ROSALES (voice-over): Drew Yancey owns this R.V. resort park. The July 4th weekend is his busiest of the year, but he managed to safely evacuate all of his guests.

DREW YANCEY, OWNER, GUADALUPE KEYS R.V. RESORT: We lost 10 trailers.

ROSALES: You lost 10 trailers? YANCEY: 10 trailers.

ROSALES: Out of how many?

YANCEY: 12. We pulled two out, that's all we could get. That's all we had time for.

ROSALES (voice-over): At least 160 people remain missing, and authorities say they have a long way to go, maybe even weeks.

ROSALES: And what we're seeing here at Drew's Park is strangers coming together. They just showed up is what Drew told me, lending their time, their hands, having machinery to try to get all of this clear, to try to help these families that have been impacted turn the next page, the next chapter in this horrible moment. All as first responders are scouring the Guadalupe River, trying to find all of these people that are still missing, getting their families some answers.

Isabel Rosales, CNN, Center Point, Texas.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CHURCH: More now on concerns over federal response in Texas.

Multiple officials within FEMA tell CNN they were ready to deploy search and rescue teams and other life-saving resources to Texas over the weekend, but new protocols forced them to wait more than three days after the flooding began.

Those officials point to a new internal policy enacted by Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem requiring her personal approval on any expense above $100,000. Officials say that threshold means executive sign-off is necessary for relatively small expenditures since disaster response costs often soar into the billions.

Here's what Secretary Noem had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KRISTI NOEM, U.S. HOMELAND SECURITY SECRETARY: In fact, some of how we've responded to Texas is exactly how President Trump imagined that this agency would operate. Immediately making decisions, getting them resources and dollars that they need so that they can conduct the response that they need to do on the ground.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHURCH: Further west in the state of New Mexico, officials say everyone is accounted for after deadly floods that killed three people on Tuesday. The area has gone through forest fires and flooding in the past year, and residents have hardly had any time to recover.

Natasha Chen has more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) NATASHA CHEN, CNN U.S. NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): These terrifying images emerged in New Mexico as the Rio Ruidoso swelled from under two feet to over 20 feet in less than one hour. It came on the heels of devastatingly deadly floods in Texas.

This one claimed at least three lives, including two children.

CHIEF STEVEN MINNER, RUIDOSO POLICE: All three victims were reported missing from the same area, which was an R.V. park, and they were all found downriver anywhere from a quarter mile to two miles downriver.

CHEN (voice-over): Emergency crews made dozens of swift water rescues. Businesses like this trading post were destroyed. Kaitlyn Carpenter was on her motorcycle and says she pulled over to take shelter when the intense downpour started.

KAITLYN CARPENTER, WITNESSED FLOODING: It kind of just went from bad to worse. The flood started and then a really big flood just came, like a wall of flood.

CHEN (voice-over): She started filming the devastation, then saw a close friend's house being whisked away by the rushing river.

CARPENTER: She's actually out of town right now, so it was kind of heartbreaking to be filming and then to see my best friend's house that I have memories in.

CHEN (voice-over): The catastrophic flooding occurred in an area scorched by wildfires last summer.

CARPENTER: There's no trees anymore to soak up all the water running off of the mountain.

CHEN (voice-over): Since June of last year, there have been at least 12 separate flash flood emergencies like this one in the area, putting residents in extreme swings from fires to floods.

CARPENTER: It just got worse because there's nothing to soak up any of the water.

[03:50:07]

CHEN (voice-over): Natasha Chen, CNN, Los Angeles.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CHURCH: Elon Musk's A.I.-powered chatbot is making headlines for all the wrong reasons after responding to user inquiries with disturbing anti-Semitic remarks. How the company is reacting to the controversy, after the break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CHURCH: Welcome back everyone.

Wall Street continues to shake off any concerns about Donald Trump's tariff threats. U.S. stocks rose on Wednesday, powered by big tech, with A.I. chip maker Nvidia becoming the first company ever to reach $4 trillion in market value. The Nasdaq closed at a fresh record high.

Let's take a quick look at the Asia-Pacific markets, you can see there, a bit of a mixed bag. But the Hang Seng up 0.61 percent, the Seoul KOSPI up more than 1.5 percent.

Elon Musk's artificial intelligence company X A.I. is working to remove recent anti-Semitic posts made by its chatbot. The language model's sudden shift to hate speech comes weeks after Musk said he would update the chatbot because he felt some of its replies were too politically correct.

CNN's Hadass Gold has more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

HADASS GOLD, CNN MEDIA CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Elon Musk vowed to retrain his A.I. system known as Grok. After growing angry with its answers, he said we're, quote, "parroting legacy media."

ELON MUSK, OWNER OF X: The overarching goal for the X platform is to be the best source of truth.

GOLD (voice-over): Those changes appear to have prompted Grok to use some anti-Semitic tropes. The chatbot going so far as praising Adolf Hitler, claiming Hitler could spot the pattern of anti-white hate and handle it decisively. Grok also claiming Jews, who are just 2 percent of the U.S. population, hold disproportionate roles in places like media, finance, and politics.

Is that control or merit, it questioned. When CNN asked Grok its sources for some of these posts, it's at 4chan, a favorite forum for extremists known for its hateful conduct.

V.S. SUBRAHMANIAN, A.I. EXPERT: Had the right guardrails in place, and had adequate time been left for testing, I think these kinds of problems would have surfaced and would have been fixed. The fact that did not happen is alarming.

GOLD (voice-over): Musk himself has repeatedly said he favors total free speech, even if it's hateful.

MUSK: I think at the end of the day, free speech wins. And that if somebody says something that's false, especially on our platform, you can reply with a correction.

[03:55:06]

GOLD (voice-over): But extremists were celebrating the changes. The founder of the far-right forum Gab posting, incredible things are happening.

Musk himself has been accused in the past of trafficking in anti- Semitism, which he has denied. MUSK: You know obviously, I'm against anti-Semitism, I'm against

anti-- really, anything that is, you know, that promotes hate and conflict.

GOLD (voice-over): After the public outcry, X A.I. deleted some of Grok's posts, issuing this statement. "We're aware of recent posts made by Grok and are actively working to remove the inappropriate ones. Since being made aware of the content, X A.I. has taken action to ban hate speech before Grok posts on X."

OREN SEGAL, AVP FOR COUNTER-EXTREMISM AND INTELLIGENCE, ANTI- DEFAMATION LEAGUE: This is something that has a massive reach globally and serves to normalize the types of hatred and anti-Semitism that we have been warning about. Because those hatreds, we know, animate people to terrible things on the ground.

GOLD (voice-over): Musk himself saying on X, "Grok was too compliant to user prompts, too eager to please and be manipulated, essentially. That is being addressed."

GOLD: X A.I. publicly posts some of the prompts and the backends for Grok on the coding site GitHub as part of a transparency effort. And users pointed out that there was a particular line that was taken out on Tuesday evening after this controversy erupted.

And that line read as the following, said "Grok should not shy away from making claims which are politically incorrect as long as they are well substantiated." But on Tuesday evening, that prompt, that direction for Grok was deleted.

Hadass Gold, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CHURCH: On the campaign trail last year, Elon Musk and Donald Trump seemed like the best of friends. The tech giant endorsed Trump and spent millions of dollars to help get him reelected.

But their relationship recently imploded as Musk left the administration and began bashing the president's domestic policy agenda. Trump retaliated by threatening to cut off government funding to Musk's businesses, while allies called for the South African native to be deported.

Now, in a rare interview with the "New York Post's" "Pod Force One" podcast, White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles is commenting on the end of the bromance.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SUSIE WILES, WHITE HOUSE CHIEF OF STAFF: It was a great thing when it was a great thing. And I had a very, I think, a very troublesome ending.

MIRINDA DEVINE, HOST, "POD FORCE ONE" PODCAST: Why do you think that happened? WILES: I don't know.

DEVINE: Yes.

WILES: I don't understand it. I don't know.

DEVINE: Do you think he got, I don't know, jealous, because he wasn't getting Donald Trump's full attention? Or was it something else?

WILES; No, that doesn't sound like, like Elon. I don't know.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHURCH: Want to thank you for spending part of your day with me. I'm Rosemary Church. "Early Start" with M.J. Lee starts after a short break.

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