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Trump Warns Putin on Consequences Ahead of Friday's Alaska Summit; High-Level Mexican Cartel Members Handed Over to the U.S. to Face Justice; Turkish Restaurant Offers a Terraced Table for Two Experience. Aired 3-4a ET
Aired August 14, 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.
President Trump promises very severe consequences if Russia's Vladimir Putin does not agree to end the war in Ukraine at their summit.
Israel's military chief signs off on plans for a new Gaza offensive.
Plus, Mexico sends dozens of cartel members to face justice in the U.S.
And two chairs, one dream, will visit Turkey's tiniest dining experience.
UNKNOWN (voice-over): Live from Atlanta, this is "CNN Newsroom" with Rosemary Church.
CHURCH: I appreciate you joining us.
Ukraine's President is set to arrive at 10 Downing Street for talks with the British Prime Minister in the coming hours. The visit comes a day after Volodymyr Zelenskyy, European leaders and the U.S. held a virtual conference to discuss the upcoming summit between Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin.
The U.S. President issued this warning to his Russian counterpart ahead of their meeting.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REPORTER: Will Russia face any consequences if Vladimir Putin does not agree to stop the war after your meeting on Friday?
DONALD TRUMP, U.S. PRESIDENT: Yes, they will.
REPORTER: What would the consequences be, sanctions, tariffs?
TRUMP: There will be, I don't have to say, there will be very severe consequences.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHURCH: During Wednesday's virtual summit on Ukraine hosted by Germany, two European diplomats tell CNN President Trump appeared to suggest he'd push for an unconditional ceasefire at Friday's meeting with President Putin. Donald Trump says if the meeting goes well, follow-up talks could include President Zelenskyy and happen almost immediately afterwards. Ukraine and European leaders have urged President Trump not to agree to a peace deal with Putin without them.
French President Emmanuel Macron says Trump was very clear that Washington wants to secure a ceasefire and that Ukraine's territory cannot be negotiated without its President. Volodymyr Zelenskyy reaffirmed on Wednesday he will not cede the Russian-occupied Donbass region to Moscow and laid out his terms for a peace deal.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY, UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT (through translator): Everything about Ukraine will be discussed with Ukraine. We have to get prepared for a three-sided format of the conversation. There should be a ceasefire first, then security guarantees, real security guarantees. And by the way, President Trump expressed his support for that.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHURCH: So let's go live now to CNN's Clare Sebastian at 10 Downing Street in London. Good morning to you, Clare. What do we expect from today's talks?
CLARE SEBASTIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: -- meeting exactly what we expect to be a bilateral meeting between the British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and the Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. But it seems likely following on from that critical virtual meeting between leaders and President Trump on Wednesday that they will be sort of debriefing on that and also looking forward.
Because while we heard relatively positive noises coming from the Europeans out of that, the sense really that Trump had understood their red lines, their perspective, namely that a ceasefire needs to be in place before any meaningful peace talks and that no territorial concessions can happen regarding Ukraine without Ukraine. Even though they felt that he broadly understood that, there really is a sense that the job is far from done here because we've heard this week Russia reaffirming its maximalist goals in this conflict.
We know that it's broken through defensive lines in part of the Eastern Front in Ukraine, putting Kyiv in a much more precarious position there. And look, even though President Trump's sort of viewpoint on President Putin has shifted in recent weeks and our sources familiar with intelligence believe that he now sort of understands that Putin has been dragging out this diplomatic process, we still don't know exactly what's going to happen when he gets in that room there. Even though, of course, coming out of the summit on Wednesday, he did
threaten severe consequences. So they'll be looking forward to essentially the day after the Alaska summit. If it goes well, Trump has said that there'll be a third meeting pretty quickly involving Zelenskyy.
So Zelenskyy may want to discuss that with the British prime minister, who has been an instrumental ally in all of this. And if it doesn't go well, then I think the real onus will be on the Europeans.
How do they up the pressure on Vladimir Putin? How do they convince the U.S. to do the same?
[03:04:55]
And I think in the back of their minds will be the concern that if it doesn't go well, Donald Trump could do what he has vaguely threatened to do this week and detach himself from this whole diplomatic process, which would leave the Europeans to deal with this ongoing war, Rosemary, so a critical moment.
CHURCH: Indeed, very critical. Clare Sebastian, joining us from 10 Downing Street in London. Many thanks.
So let's bring in Samuel Greene, professor in Russian politics at King's College London and co-author of the book, "Putin v. the People, The Perilous Politics of a Divided Russia." I appreciate you joining us.
SAMUEL GREENE, PROF. IN RUSSIAN POLITICS, KING'S COLLEGE LONDON: Thank you.
CHURCH: So we don't know many details about this summit, but we do know that Russia's President Putin is getting a one on one meeting with President Trump without having to make any concessions and without having to meet with the leader of the country he invaded. But Trump is warning Putin of severe consequences if he doesn't end the war, while at the same time admitting he can't stop Putin from killing civilians.
So what does Putin likely think about Trump's threat? And of course, this upcoming summit that's being arranged just for him?
GREENE: Yes, well, I mean, look, this summit in a lot of ways is a collection of sort of tactical victories for Putin. First of all, I mean, just about a week and a half ago, Putin was still very much in Trump's doghouse, right? We had ever since the NATO summit for about a month and a half been hearing consistent rhetoric from Trump about his frustration with Putin. That has flipped.
Putin now looks like somebody projecting goodwill, somebody who, again, has Trump's confidence as a leader and is being welcomed in the United States. And that's the second tactical win, right? This is the United States, which under the Biden administration supported the International Criminal Court's warrant for arrest of Vladimir Putin on war crimes, clearly is not going to arrest Putin when he lands in Alaska. And so this makes it very clear that Putin has a seat at the global top table that he's taken seriously and treated as a friend and as a partner by the President of the United States.
And then the third win, again, is that, as you said, it's just going to be him and Trump. Putin's aim in all of this is to make a proposal that will be attractive to Trump and then to get Trump to sell that proposal, if not to use American leverage to actually enforce that proposal on the Ukrainians and on the Europeans more broadly, who, of course, have a much more immediate and material stake in the outcome of this, of this war.
CHURCH: And President Trump has been talking about a possible land swap, but Ukraine's President Zelenskyy reaffirmed Wednesday at the European virtual meeting that he will not agree to giving up any Ukrainian land under his country's control. So what do you think this summit will achieve in the end?
GREENE: Well, I think the idea of a land swap is premature on a couple of levels. First of all, that's the kind of thing you would expect to see not as part of a ceasefire, but as part of a peace deal. And as Zelenskyy and everybody else has made clear, including really the Russians, there needs to be a ceasefire.
First, you need to build confidence, you need to build security, and then you can talk about a lasting peace agreement. But it's also problematic, because what Trump is suggesting is swapping Ukrainian land for other Ukrainian land, right? That's something that even if Ukraine were to countenance giving up some of its sovereign territory, that has to go through a referendum.
That has constitutional consequences. That's not something that even Zelenskyy, as Ukraine's democratic elected president, is entitled to do on his own.
So I really don't think that's likely to be seriously on the table. I think what will be on the table potentially is some kind of a freeze in the fighting, a freeze of the current front lines, with the caveat from Putin's point of view that there are no consequences to renewed Russian aggression.
In other words, there's no European reassurance for us, there's no-fly zone, there's no real deterrence beyond maybe political deterrence and threats of renewed sanctions, which so far Russia doesn't take terribly seriously, in the event that Russia decides to start the fighting again. So in other words, a ceasefire that really leaves Russia very much in control of the escalation of dynamics in the war.
CHURCH: And European leaders are of course concerned that Trump might be manipulated by Putin and influenced by Putin's goals and narrative. How likely is that, do you think?
GREENE: Well, look, I can't get inside Trump's head. He's clearly wedded to this relationship with Putin. Despite Putin's intransigence, that relationship was sufficient to allow this summit to take place again after about a month and a half of consistent frustration. So I don't know how much it is a question of being deceived, but he
does see some common cause. And really he wants an end to this war, not, I think, in an end of itself, but as a way of getting back to sort of a normalized, friendly, as he sees it, relationship, not just between the United States and Russia, really, but personally between himself and Vladimir Putin.
[03:10:05]
He sees that as a profitable political and maybe economic opportunity and he sees the war, frankly, as a nuisance in the way of that.
CHURCH: Samuel Greene, thank you so much for joining us. I appreciate it.
GREENE: Thank you.
CHURCH: The Israeli military has been bombarding Gaza City ahead of its planned takeover. The Palestinian Health Ministry in Gaza says 123 people were killed in a 24-hour period, and more than 400 others wounded. More than 61,700 people have reportedly died in Gaza since the October 7 attacks.
Well meanwhile, there is growing international alarm over Israel's plans to take over Gaza City. The IDF's chief of staff has largely approved a new attack strategy, but there's no word on when the offensive will start as ceasefire talks remain stalled.
CNN's Oren Liebermann reports from Jerusalem.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
OREN LIEBERMANN, CNN JERUSALEM BUREAU CHIEF: Israel's military chief has approved what the military called his main concept for a new attack plan as part of the next phase of Israel's operation in Gaza, which will mark a major escalation after nearly two years of war. It was just days ago that the security cabinet approved the decision to occupy and take over Gaza City in northern Gaza over the objections of Israel's military chief, Lieutenant General Eyal Zamir.
He had warned that such a phase in the military operation would risk the hostages, it would risk soldiers, it would also burden a military that's exhausted after nearly two years of war, as well as worsening Israel's international standing and risking worsening the humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza.
Despite his warnings, the security cabinet led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pushed forward with those plans, saying the first phase is the evacuation of Gaza City, up to a million Palestinians, and then the military part of the operation will begin.
Now, the IDF didn't give any details about what this plan is that the military chief had approved, but the intention is clear. Israel is pushing forward with this plan despite the warnings of the military. As we see this happening, New Zealand's leadership, saying Netanyahu has lost the plot when it comes to the war in Gaza, and saying these plans for Gaza City are, quote, utterly, utterly unacceptable.
So you see another member of the key U.S.-led security alliance, Five Eyes, warning of the consequences here. But realistically, none of this has been able to head off Netanyahu and his plans for the next phase and escalation of the war in Gaza, a takeover of Gaza City. And he said just a few days ago that after that might come the occupation and takeover of the central camps in Gaza, signaling that at least as the situation stands now, an end of the war is not something we will see imminently.
Oren Liebermann, CNN, in Jerusalem.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHURCH: Israel is discussing the possible resettlement of Palestinians from Gaza to South Sudan, according to the Associated Press. It's unclear how far talks might have progressed with South Sudan, a country also struggling with war and starvation. The South Sudanese foreign affairs ministry called the resettlement report baseless.
Israel and the U.S. have encouraged voluntary migration from Gaza. The Israeli prime minister told I-24 News that Israel is talking to several countries about this and Palestinians are not being pushed out, but rather being allowed to leave. But most Palestinians remain deeply opposed to permanent resettlement, as do rights groups and regional allies.
Still to come, how the Trump administration is ramping up pressure on Mexican cartels sending drugs across the U.S. border.
Plus, immigrant deportation flights are skyrocketing in the U.S., but the planes used to carry out those missions are getting harder to track. We'll explain why.
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CHURCH: Welcome back everyone.
For a second time in recent months, major cartel figures locked up in Mexico have been transferred to U.S. custody. It's part of an agreement between the two countries as Mexico faces pressure to curb the flow of drugs across the U.S. border.
CNN's Valeria Leon explains.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
VALERIA LEON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The Mexican government said it decided to hand over 26 high-ranking cartel members to the U.S. because they continued operating their criminal organizations from inside Mexican prisons. This was revealed by Security Secretary Omar Garcia-Harfuch during a press conference in Mexico City. While it's no secret that Mexican prisons can be a school for crime,
the prominence of the criminals sent to the U.S. raises questions about cartel operations in the country.
Also, Mexican authorities confirmed that it was for security reasons they've decided to send these criminals, along with meeting Trump administration demands, marking a new way of security relations between the U.S. and Mexico. These extraditions to the U.S. may alarm drug kingpins in Mexico because they are used to the corruption of the country's prisons. However, there is no indication that any of this has had any real impact on the cartel's business.
Valeria Leon, CNN, Mexico City.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHURCH: A federal judge has ordered U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to immediately improve conditions at a holding facility in New York City. Detainees have complained about dirty conditions, with cell phone video showing about two dozen men crowded into one room with only blankets.
[03:20:06]
This comes as the number of immigrant deportation flights is skyrocketing and also becoming harder to track.
CNN's Rene Marsh has more.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
RENE MARSH, CNN U.S. NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: More than 30 migrants, detainees, handcuffed, walk up those steps and get on board. One, two, three, four more detainees. You can tell that their hands are restrained.
MARSH (voice-over): This is one of about 6000 ICE flights since President Donald Trump took office. We were able to find this plane here in Richmond, Virginia, but most of them are hidden from the public and operating with little transparency. Virtually every ICE flight carrying detainees blocks their tail numbers from flight tracking websites, making it nearly impossible for families and advocates to find their loved ones once they're in ICE custody.
MARSH: This is one of the tail numbers that we think could possibly come here. And right now it's in Youngstown. Oh, look, I think it's taken off because the altitude is increasing.
Yes.
MARSH (voice-over): We studied months of flight paths, got a tail number and made an educated guess about which flight would arrive in Richmond. Then using a crowdsourced database that monitors aircraft radio signals, we track the suspected flight revealing every city and state it stopped in within 24 hours. This is the plane we're tracking, a Boeing 737 operated by Eastern Air
Express with the tail number N668CP. It has up to 148 economy seats, a bathroom in the front and the back, but it's unclear how many people are on board this flight or any other ICE flight.
UNKNOWN: Tyson 51, continue on.
MARSH: Okay, Tyson 51 is this one right now. That's the call sign that they're using for this flight.
MARSH (voice-over): Many ICE flights go by Tyson, the same call sign used to identify Trump's personal plane after he was elected in 2016.
Here's the flight path it took on August 6: Ohio, New York, Pennsylvania, to Louisiana, back to Ohio, then New York, picking up and dropping off detainees at every stop.
MARSH: If it's actually coming to Virginia, it should be here very soon.
It's on approach. It's on approach right now. Its altitude is like literally 50 feet.
UNKNOWN: Okay, I think over there, over there. Go.
MARSH: All right, I think that might be it. This is a plane.
This is a plane that we've been tracking all morning. This is it. And we just saw like more than 30 detainees handcuffed, walk up those steps and get on board.
There's one, two, three, four more detainees. You can tell that their hands are restrained. Another one, another.
Okay, so they're unloading another vehicle here. Multiple detainees walking up to get on board this Eastern Air Express flight.
MARSH (voice-over): The Trump administration has used more than 70 airports across the country for domestic shuffle flights so far, moving ICE detainees between detention centers before deportation. In the past three months, the number of these flights spiked 90 percent compared to the same time period last year, according to an immigrant rights group.
And that trend is expected to continue after the Department of Homeland Security recently earmarked $14.4 billion for ICE flights.
MARSH: We know that the tail number of the flight that we've been tracking today is N668CP. And we want to see if this public tracking site that gets its data and information from the FAA has any record of the flight. Nothing comes up.
MARSH (voice-over): So we were able to track the flight as it made its way back to Alexandria, Louisiana, the busiest hub for ICE deportation flights. At this point in the journey, some of the first detainees on board were possibly on this plane handcuffed for nearly 10 hours. As this ICE flight completes its 24-hour trip, Louisiana is likely the last stop in the U.S. before the people on board are deported.
MARSH: Well, the reality is it was not very simple to track this ICE flight, we weren't even sure we had successfully done it until it was coming in for landing at Richmond's airport. And the point is these flights really have virtually no eyes on them. Families and advocates have no idea where their loved ones are going once they are in ICE custody.
Now, one of the airlines flying the flights for ICE, Avello Airlines, told CNN in an email, quote, "Flights operated on behalf of the United States government are often unidentified at the government's request." So we reached out to the Department of Homeland Security, that's the agency that oversees ICE to get a better understanding as to why these flights are blocking their tail numbers. But the agency did not comment.
Rene Marsh, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
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CHURCH: Still to come, Russia lays out its position ahead of the high- stakes meeting between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin. Our report from Moscow next.
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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.
Israel's military says its chief of staff has approved the main concept for a new attack plan in Gaza. There's no word on when the military expansion into Gaza City will begin, but it could bring Israel closer to fully occupying Gaza for the first time in nearly 20 years.
French President Emmanuel Macron says Trump has assured European leaders that territorial issues related to Ukraine can only be negotiated by Ukraine's president. That came in a virtual summit on Wednesday, ahead of Friday's high-stakes meeting between the U.S. and Russian presidents in Alaska.
And in Alaska, a glacial outburst caused a record-breaking river surge Wednesday. Water rushed into the river from a lake formed by the Mendenhall Glacier. Officials in the capital city, Juneau, say newly installed barriers help protect residents from serious flooding.
Well Russia's foreign ministry says the Kremlin's position on ending the fighting in Ukraine has not changed. And Moscow downplayed Wednesday's talks between the U.S., Ukraine and European leaders.
More details now from CNN's Fred Pleitgen in Moscow.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SR. INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Russia is calling efforts by the U.S.' NATO allies from Europe and also by the Ukrainians insignificant as they try to enter the diplomatic process between the U.S. and Russia. The Russians are also saying that they believe that those nations are essentially trying to sabotage that process between U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian leader Vladimir Putin. Of course, the two are set to meet in Alaska at the end of this week.
Now, as far as the Russians are concerned, they say that, obviously, the conflict in Ukraine will be one of the main topics at that meeting. However, they also say that the two leaders should be dealing with accumulated issues between the U.S. and Russia, one of them, of course, also being possible normalization of relations between those two countries. And as far as the Russians are concerned, of course, sanctions relief as well and possible business deals in the future.
The Russians also saying another very interesting thing, and this comes in the form of a spokesman for Russia's foreign ministry, and he said that Russia's territory is enshrined in its constitution.
Now, that seems to indicate that the Russians might be pouring cold water on one of the things that President Trump has been saying, namely, that he believes that Russia and Ukraine could swap territories that either side holds right now in the conflict of Ukraine. Russia, of course, considers four Ukrainian regions, Zaporizhzhya, Kherson, Donetsk, and Luhansk to be Russian territory in their entirety, in their administrative borders, and it's unclear whether or not Vladimir Putin, the Russian President, is going to budge on that issue.
On the whole, the Russians have been saying that they've made significant gains on the battlefield over the past couple of days, and they believe that Russia's leader will be in a very strong position when he meets with President Trump.
Fred Pleitgen, CNN, Moscow.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHURCH: Steven Pifer is a former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine. He's also an affiliate with the Center for International Security and Cooperation at Stanford University. I appreciate you joining us, Ambassador.
STEVEN PIFER, AFFILIATE, CENTER FOR INTERNATIONAL SECURITY AND COOPERATION, STANFORD UNIVERSITY, AND FORMER U.S. AMBASSADOR TO UKRAINE: Happy to be here.
CHURCH: So President Trump is now warning Russia of severe consequences if President Putin does not end the war in Ukraine after Friday's summit, and he says a second meeting with Putin will likely be more important. But even Trump admits he can't stop Putin from killing civilians, so why will this summit be any different, particularly if the two leaders discuss land swaps, as Trump has suggested?
PIFER: Well, I think that's the big question. Today, President Trump threatens severe consequences, that's what he was saying 10 days ago. Then he invited Putin to come to Alaska.
Over the weekend, he was talking about land swaps, but after talking to the European states, he said, well, no, I'm going to be more restrained. So I think the question is, which Donald Trump shows up on Friday in Anchorage to talk to Vladimir Putin? And we don't know.
CHURCH: And what do you think President Trump means by threatening Russia with severe consequences? What does that mean to you? And does Putin care?
[03:35:01]
PIFER: I think that Putin at this point doesn't really care in large part because Mr. Trump has given Putin at least four deadlines in the last three months and calling on Russia to change action to move to find a way to end the war with Ukraine. And each time the deadlines passed, Russia's done absolutely nothing and there have been no consequences.
So I think that Mr. Putin can be forgiven for thinking that there's probably not much behind this statement. And that's actually unfortunate because if Mr. Trump wanted to, there are some very real things that he could do that would be punitive to Russia, that might get the Russians to begin to change course. But he's done none of those steps in this last one, in the seven months in office.
CHURCH: Like what? What should he be doing?
PIFER: One, he could ask the American Congress to provide additional money to buy weapons for Ukraine. He could go to the Europeans and say it's time now to move and seize the Russian frozen central bank assets and put that into a fund for Ukrainian reconstruction, but also for Ukraine to buy weapons. And what that would signal Putin would be is that Ukraine will have the funding for several years to come to fund its military and make sure it's well armed.
And the thing here is, the only way that you're going to get Vladimir Putin to change course is by making Putin understand that Russia cannot achieve its objectives on the battlefield. And if they continue to try to do so, they're only going to face rising military, economic and political costs.
CHURCH: And given the very clear sidelining of Ukraine's President Zelenskyy and, of course, the optics, as you point out, of Putin having a one-on-one meeting with the U.S. President, it looks like Putin has already won, as you say, this victory with the White House now calling this merely a listening exercise and Trump failing to lay down any firm requirement for Putin to compromise and stop the war before these talks take place. Why do you think Trump has allowed himself to be clearly played here already? PIFER: This, I think, is a real mystery. I mean, he seems to be very
eager for a meeting with Putin. Part of this may be is that that he's being told, well, Steven Witcoff, his main negotiator with the Russians, is handled by a gentleman, a Russian by the name of Kirill Dmitriev, who keeps talking about these huge economic possibilities for trade and investment between the United States and Russia.
If you look over the past 30 years, you're going to see that, in fact, trade results between the United States and Russia have always been pretty meager. And American companies tend to stay away from Russia because they see an investment climate with uncertain tax and regulation rules, with a court system that doesn't render fair judgments.
And so I think there's this belief that there's some kind of an economic bonanza here which really isn't going to be realized. And again, if there was, I think, more attention to expertise, and I think this is one of the questions I have, if you look on the Russian side, Putin is going to come to Anchorage with Sergey Lavrov, who's been foreign minister for over 20 years. And before that, Lavrov spent 10 years in New York as the Russian ambassador to the U.N.
He's also going to have Yuri Ushakov, he's been his foreign affairs adviser since 2012. And before that, Ushakov was the Russian ambassador to Washington for nine years. He's got tons of American expertise and it's not clear to me who Trump is going to have in the room advising him, people with America, you know, on the American side who have real Russian expertise.
CHURCH: Steven Pifer, thank you so much for talking with us. We appreciate it.
PIFER: Thank you.
CHURCH: Still to come, an even bigger true presence in the U.S. capital as the Trump administration ramps up its National Guard patrols in Washington, D.C. Back with that and more in just a moment.
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[03:40:00]
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CHURCH: Welcome back, everyone.
The White House says there's now significantly more National Guard troops patrolling Washington, D.C. It's part of President Trump's crackdown on crime in the city. Guard members are not making arrests and their involvement could change depending on the needs of law enforcement.
CNN's Brian Todd filed this report from outside a deployment site for federal agencies on Wednesday.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: We're at a major staging area for almost every agency involved in this expanded law enforcement operation in D.C. This is the U.S. National Park Police's major facility here in the Anacostia section of Washington, D.C., and a major staging ground for just about every agency that is involved in this deployment.
We have seen National Guard armored Humvees, they're down there. You can see them over there by the entrance and several of them there. They've been deploying all over this city with National Guardsmen in other places in the city as well.
And over here, over my right shoulder will kind of come this way a little bit, you can see a lot of personnel gathered there by the command and control center and by those temporary communications stanchions over there.
And you see all these vehicles, it's been a real beehive of activity here. Just about every agency you can imagine has been deploying agents and officers in and out of this facility for several hours and several days.
[03:45:05]
We have seen National Guardsmen coming and going: FBI agents, DEA agents, Customs and Border Protection, Metropolitan Washington Police, Capitol Hill Police and other agencies, again, agents and officers going in and out of here for several hours that we have been here.
What we can tell you is that according to a White House official, as of Tuesday evening, the operation surpassed 100 total arrests. There were 43 arrests on Tuesday night, and that was double the number of the previous night. Now, of those more than 100 arrests, one was for homicide, 33 were firearms violations, there were seven narcotics related charges and there were several other charges in those more than 100 arrests.
Starting Wednesday night, according to a White House official who spoke to CNN starting Wednesday night there will be a significantly larger National Guard presence all around the city of Washington, and they are starting to activate a 24/7 operational stance for the National Guard here in Washington, according to this White House official who spoke to CNN. The National Guard will not be arresting people.
We are also told that they will not be carrying firearms on their person, they may have them in their vehicles in case they need them. But, of course, every other agency has officers and agents who are armed here.
According to this official, the National Guard's role will be to assist other federal units and create a safe environment for other officers.
Now, President Trump has said on Wednesday that he plans to extend this operation past the temporary 30 day mark. He's going to need an act of Congress to do that, he believes he can get a bill passed to do that. But the President committing to this operation for at least, he says, past the one month mark.
Brian Todd, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHURCH: Spanish officials say they have made a major drug bust off the coast of northwestern Africa. That's where they say three tons of cocaine was seized from a boat near the Canary Islands on Wednesday, five people were arrested.
The Spanish Civil Guard says the vessel was scheduled to deliver the drug to smaller boats that would distribute it further. Investigators from the U.S., U.K. and Portugal also took part in the operation.
A tiny Turkish restaurant might just start a big trend. Just ahead, hear from the founder of the intimate diner that only has seating for two.
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[03:50:00]
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CHURCH: A pop superstar, Taylor Swift, took over the "New Heights" podcast on Wednesday to give new details on her upcoming 12th studio album.
[03:50:00]
Swift's boyfriend, Kansas City Chiefs tight-end Travis Kelce, hosts the show along with his brother, former Philadelphia Eagles center Jason Kelce. CNN's Elizabeth Wagmeister breaks down what the singer revealed about her latest project.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ELIZABETH WAGMEISTER, CNN ENTERTAINMENT CORRESPONDENT: It's the moment that the world was waiting for, and over 1.3 million people tuned in live on YouTube to watch Taylor Swift on her boyfriend, Travis Kelce, and his brother, Jason Kelce's podcast.
Now, the podcast comes as Taylor announced her 12th studio album, "The Life of a Showgirl," and she made some big announcements. She revealed that the album will be released on October 3rd. She also revealed the producers behind the album, and these are two producers who she previously worked with, and they are credited with helping her transition from country music to pop music, which means we are in store for a pop album from Taylor Swift.
Now, this was a big deal for the relationship between these two superstars from the entertainment world and the sports world because it's the first time that we've seen them in conversation. So we got a little glimpse into their relationship and how it all
started. You may remember that Travis had previously said on his podcast that he wanted to shoot his shot to get Taylor. Take a look.
TAYLOR SWIFT, MUSICIAN: I'm just circling back to "New Heights" to say thank you for this. Look at this.
TRAVIS KELCE, TAYLOR SWIFT'S BOYFRIEND: I'm the luckiest man in the world.
JASON KELCE, HOST, "NEW HEIGHTS" PODCAST: How did you know he wasn't crazy? Because that's the other side of that, right? Like a guy goes up there and professes his love for you.
It's either one. It's like this could be the most romantic thing in the world. It's also being --
J. KELCE: Like crazy about somebody.
SWIFT: He is crazy.
T. KELCE: But there's a right crazy.
SWIFT: Yes, he's the good kind of crazy. And I knew that he wasn't crazy the first couple of times that we talked. I was just like, he's truly like he's truly getting to know me in a way that's very natural, very pure, very normal, like also like just the way that he could make me laugh so immediately about normal things.
WAGMEISTER: Now, Taylor also got incredibly emotional as she talked about buying back her music catalog. You remember that earlier this summer, the superstar had made the announcement that she now owns all of the rights to all of her music after a very contentious battle over the ownership of her music.
SWIFT: I get a call from my mom and she's like.
She's like, you got your music and so sorry that this is it's literally been so long since this happened, it's every time I talk about it, she's like, you got your music. And I just like very dramatically hit the floor for real, like honestly, just started bawling my eyes out and I knock on the door.
He's playing video games and I'm trying to say it in a normal way. And I'm just like, Travis.
T. KELCE: Oh, no, what just happened, what just happened?
SWIFT: And he's like he like puts his headset down, he's like, guys, got to go. And I think he thought something was wrong. And you come up and I'm just like, I got my music back and then just start absolutely sheathing.
T. KELCE: Just dead weight, just dead weight, all control.
SWIFT: Had no power in my life to support myself. And yes, this changed my life.
WAGMEISTER: Taylor also revealed that there are going to be 12 songs on her 12th studio album, including a collaboration with fellow pop star and her friend Sabrina Carpenter. As always, it is Taylor's world and we are just living in it.
Back to you.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHURCH: All right, well, now two scenes of massive food waste outside McDonald's in Japan, fans are leaving behind piles of uneaten Happy Meals after swarming the restaurants to snag limited edition Pokemon card sets.
CNN's Hanako Montgomery has the story.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
HANAKO MONTGOMERY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: For a limited time, McDonald's Japan was collaborating with Pokemon and was selling Pokemon cards inside these Happy Meal sets. This collaboration was so popular that hundreds of people were lining up outside McDonald's restaurants just to get their hands on a Happy Meal set.
Now, some of these people were buying multiple sets, taking the cards, but dumping the food, often uneaten. Videos of uneaten Happy Meal sets went viral on Japanese social media and caused a lot of discussion and debate around the issues of food waste and consumer ethics. Also, some of the people buying these Happy Meal sets would resell the Pokemon cards at a much higher price online, sometimes 10 times the cost of an original Happy Meal, which costs about 3.5 U.S. dollars.
McDonald's Japan also responded with a statement saying that it does not, quote, "tolerate the purchase of Happy Meals for resale or the abandonment or disposal of food."
[03:55:04]
Now, this collaboration was so popular that McDonald's actually ran out of cards to sell and they had to end the promotion early.
Hanako Montgomery, CNN, Tokyo.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHURCH: One of the world's most exclusive restaurants is beefing up its menu, literally.
New York's ritzy Eleven Madison Park made news four years ago when it went fully vegan. However, the exclusively plant-based menu is now on the butcher's block. The head chef told the "New York Times" that he believes the vegan offerings at the three Michelin star restaurant have become exclusionary.
All right, table for two. Well, that is all you get at a terraced restaurant in this northwestern Turkish seaside town. The unique and intimate dining experience is just as much an adventure for the founder as it is for the diners.
Max Burnell has our report.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MAX BURNELL, CNN PRODUCER AND EDITOR (voice-over): Can Sabri Dolu is no ordinary restaurateur and 2 Kisilik is certainly no ordinary restaurant.
Can believes this is the world's first two person terrace restaurant in what is admittedly a niche space, his home. Here in the Turkish seaside town of Ivalik, he initially set it up to help pay the rent.
CAN SABRI DOLU, FOUNDER, 2 KISILIK (through translator): I came here with just a bag of instruments and a suitcase. I didn't have anything.
BURNELL (voice-over): What began out of necessity seems to be working because three years after opening, the restaurant is still going strong.
SABRI DOLU (through translator): It's an incredibly beautiful adventure.
BURNELL (voice-over): Today, he's preparing dinner for guests who will be trying out the dining for two terrace experience.
SABRI DOLU (through translator): Now we're preparing a tasting menu. The name of this plate is Ocean and there's a pickled sardine. We season it with some vinegar and olive oil; there is some beetroot in it.
BURNELL (voice-over): Delicious looking dishes that are served in a seductive setting.
SABRI DOLU (through translator): I wish you a pleasant evening. Enjoy your meal.
BURNELL (voice-over): Can accepts that this business model won't make him a rich man, but that, he insists, is not the point. For now, his restaurant for two is helping to satisfy his creative appetite.
SABRI DOLU (through translator): Thanks to this, the two-seater restaurant has now become a well-known brand in Turkey. I believe it's an innovative business and that's a success story.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHURCH: Looks fantastic. Thanks so much for your company, I'm Rosemary Church. Have yourselves a wonderful day.
The news continues next with M.J. Lee at the top of the hour.
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