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Thousands Of Palestinians Leave Gaza City Fearing Israeli Offensive; Russia Won't Commit To Putin-Zelenskyy Meeting; Hurricane Erin Sparks Major Waves And Evacuations In North Carolina's Outer Banks; Trump Escalates Attacks Against Smithsonian Museums; White House Joins TikTok After Delaying Enforcement Of Sale-Or-Ban Law; NATO Military Leaders to Discuss Security Guarantees; Trump Slashes Funding for Russian War Crimes Watchdog; Released Israeli Hostage Eliya Cohen Speaks to CNN; Lawmakers: Some Files will Go Public after Friday Release; London Residents, Activists Criticize Chinese Embassy Plans; Amanda Knox, Monica Lewinsky Team Up for New Hulu Project. Aired 1-2a ET
Aired August 20, 2025 - 01:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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JOHN VAUSE, CNN ANCHOR: It was all going so well until the Kremlin got involved. Ahead on CNN Newsroom.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We must remember that Putin is rarely to be trusted.
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VAUSE: Will Putin be a no show after the White House announces he will meet with Volodymyr Zelenskyy? The Kremlin now slowing down the clock with talk of thorough and proper preparations.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): Everyone is scared, he says people are waiting for a statement from the Israelis to evacuate the area. It could come any minute.
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VAUSE: Anxiety and fear as Palestinians in Gaza City wait for Israeli occupation. But many ask what's left to occupy.
And bracing for Erin. While the now Category 2 storm will not make landfall, parts of the U.S. East Coast could be battered by hurricane force winds and storm surge.
UNIDENIFIED MALE: Live from Atlanta. This is CNN Newsroom with John Vause. VAUSE: On the one hand, we have the U.S. President saying he's
arranging a meeting between Putin and Zelenskyy, and the White House is now working out details to make it happen, possibly within two weeks. And then there's Moscow.
While Kremlin officials are not ruling out a summit, Vladimir Putin is yet to publicly commit to this one. With the Russian foreign minister talking of the need for thorough preparations before the two leaders actually meet.
And after meeting with Putin and Zelenskyy separately in recent days, Donald Trump says now is the time for Russia and Ukraine to hold bilateral talks. The president has been pushing for direct talks between these two leaders for some time. White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt explains.
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KAROLINE LEAVTT, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: Why he wants these two countries to engage in direct diplomacy. He said that from the very beginning, which is why he's agreeable to the idea of having President Zelenskyy and President Putin get together. And I understand accommodations for that meeting are underway. As soon as we hear more details, we'll be sure to let all of you know.
The president has definitively stated U.S. boots will not be on the ground in Ukraine, but we can certainly help in the coordination and perhaps provide other means of security guarantees to our European allies.
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VAUSE: Ukrainian allies in the so called Coalition of the Willing met virtually Tuesday discussing security guarantees as well as possible new economic sanctions on Russia. And in the hours ahead, security guarantees for Ukraine will be the main focus during a virtual meeting of NATO military leaders.
Despite all the diplomatic talk and push for peace, Russian attacks on Ukrainian cities and towns are not letting up with the largest aerial assault in a month. On the same day Trump and Zelenskyy were meeting at the White House. CNN's Fred Pleitgen is our man in Moscow with more details.
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FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: The Russians remaining coy about whether Vladimir Putin has really agreed to a direct meeting with Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the president of Ukraine. Russia's foreign minister Sergey Lavrov coming out and saying that generally the Russians are not against any sort of format, be it bilateral or trilateral, but that any sort of meeting would have to be well prepared.
Of course, that's very much in line with what the Russians said directly after that Trump-Putin phone call that happened on Monday where they said that in general, the two leaders had said that possibly talks between Russia and Ukraine could move to a higher level of the participants. Not clear, however, whether or not the heads of state were actually men.
Vladimir Putin, of course, in the past has said that he's generally not against meeting Volodymyr Zelenskyy, but that certain conditions would have to be met and that at that point in time, they were still very far from being met.
However, the Russians are also saying that they believe that there was a huge progress that was achieved at the Alaska summit that happened last Friday in Anchorage. They believe that the Trump administration has since then taken what they call a much deeper approach to trying to solve the Ukraine crisis. Certainly the Russians believe that diplomacy right now between Russia and the United States is definitely going their way.
At the same time, you do still have Russian officials who are taunting especially America's European allies after that meeting in Washington on Monday, the former president of this country, Dmitry Medvedev, coming out and saying that the Europeans had failed to get Trump to be on their line -- on their side, saying that they had failed to sway what he calls Daddy Trump. Fred Pleitgen, CNN, Moscow.
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VAUSE: Joining us now is CNN politics senior reporter Stephen Collinson. It's good to see, I think this is what your second time with me on the show. Welcome back.
STEPHEN COLLINSON, CNN POLITICS SENIOR REPORTER: Hey, how you doing?
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VAUSE: I'm doing OK. Now, you wrote a good piece for dot com and you make the case that Monday was a very good day for Trump, but it could also be paving the way ultimately for these peace efforts to collapse. Here's part of what you wrote.
A historic day echoed great political gatherings that ended World War II and built the modern world. This is how the west is supposed to work with an American president leading powerful Europeans who share common goals.
And I want you listen to Donald Trump, though, talking on Fox Tuesday about a peace deal. Here he is.
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DONALD TRUMP, U.S. PRESIDENT: We're going to find out about President Putin in the next couple of weeks, that I can tell you, and we're going to see where it all goes. It's possible that he doesn't want to make a deal.
(END AUDIO CLIP) VAUSE: So the counterpoint here, those European leaders were there in support of Zelenskyy out of fear that Trump was again moving closer to Putin. At the same time, the U.S. President seems to want appease the Russian president as well as the Europeans.
And, you know, when it comes to Putin, you know, he'll face action in 50 days. No, it's going to be 12 days. Let's have a summit now. It's two weeks. Two weeks. Two weeks. You know, so Monday was a great day because it wasn't a disaster that it could have been. Is that the rationale here?
COLLINSON: Yes, I think that's one of the rationales. We've seen what can happen when Trump doesn't act in the way you would expect the leader of the west to act. For instance, in Zelenskyy's first visit to the Oval Office during Trump's second term in February, which was a complete disaster.
And I think that's one of the reasons why I write in the piece that, you know, it was a good day for the west and for Trump. But the problem is he often is susceptible to the last person he talks to. He stopped that meeting with the European leaders to speak to President Putin. That, I think was certainly an early worrying sign.
And my argument is that although it was a good day, the seeds of what could unravel this process were also in evidence. And we've seen that, I think, over the last few hours, Trump stepped back from the idea of deploying American troops on the ground as part of any reassurance force. A lot of people got rather excited about that yesterday, rather surprisingly so, I think.
And there are now growing questions about what the security guarantees would look like. Trump said to Zelenskyy he'd be interested in a three way meeting with Putin and himself and Zelenskyy. Now the president has acceded to what is another Russian demand, which is a two-way meeting that could go very wrong because Putin could walk out of that and simply blame Zelenskyy for stopping progress and tell Trump that there's no chance to have a peace agreement.
So it was a good day. But the real knotty business of making peace takes a long time and it's very complex.
VAUSE: Donald Trump seems to have taken a surprising approach to foreign policy in many ways. He met with the president of Syria. He lifted sanctions on Syria. That was unexpected. Democrats praised his trip to the Middle East in many ways. Also on Monday, he talked about solving six wars. Here he is.
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VAUSE: I've solved six wars in the last six months, little more than six months now, and I'm very proud of it. I thought the easiest one would be this one. It's actually the most difficult.
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VAUSE: What wars is he talking about? Which ones?
COLLINSON: Yes, and it gets even worse than that. He went on Fox News on Tuesday morning and claimed that he'd ended seven wars, which is even more difficult to believe. What he's talking about is the ceasefire deal between India and Pakistan over the fighting earlier this year in Kashmir. He didn't really end the war. It was pretty intense fighting. But that dispute over Kashmir goes on.
He's also talking about an agreement he forged between Armenia and Azerbaijan, who weren't exactly in open war at the time. But that does potentially pave the way to some more serious peace talks if Trump could stay engaged. He's talking about Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. That one looks like it's already unraveling. He even goes back to his first term. He claims to have made peace between Kosovo and Serbia.
And he's even talking about some dispute over a dam in the Nile between Egypt and Ethiopia that was never a war. So there's a great deal of Trump hyperbole here. I think if you talk to foreign policy experts in Washington, some of them will say he has made useful contributions. He has used power in some of these cases. For instance, between Thailand and Cambodia recently when they had a border clash that did bring fighting to an end. But there's no sense in which Trump has stopped seven wars.
VAUSE: Well, the talks over ending the war in Ukraine, they're all predicated on a belief that Putin actually wants the war to be over as well.
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The president of Finland, though, had this warning.
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ALEXANDER STUBB, FINNISH PRESIDENT (through translator): We must remember that Putin is rarely to be trusted. So now it remains to be seen whether he has the courage to come to this type of meeting. Does he have the courage to come to a trilateral meeting, or is he once again playing for time?
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VAUSE: What happens if Putin is in fact stringing the U.S. President along and all this is for naught?
COLLINSON: Unfortunately, I guess it means that the fighting will continue, more people will get killed, and Putin will try and grind this out for months and years to come. That's one reason why a prolonged peace process is in Russia's interests.
I think it may be one reason why Trump is trying to rush this along, although that brings its own dangers, because you're not really doing a lot of the detailed stuff that the really needs peace to last.
I think the Finns are very much worth listening to. They have a very nuanced view of Putin. But I do believe that there is, to your point, very little sign at this moment that Putin wants to stop this war.
VAUSE: Thanks for being with us.
No word publicly yet from Israel on a new ceasefire proposal to end the fight in Gaza put forward by Egypt and Qatar. Officials from Hamas agreed to the plan more than a day ago, but families of the remaining Israeli hostages received a text from a government official saying negotiations are taking place around the clock and they require full confidentiality.
This latest cease fire would end fighting for 60 days. About half of the hostages, both living and dead, would be released.
The White House seems to be taking some credit for the quick agreement by Hamas, pointing to President Trump's statement on social media calling for the militant group to be, quote, confronted and destroyed.
Approval of Israel's military plan for occupation of Gaza City is expected Thursday during a meeting between the prime minister and senior security officials.
For hundreds of thousands of Palestinians living among the ruins of what was Gaza's biggest city, there is now only fear and anxiety as the clock ticks down to another forced relocation. CNA's Paula Hancocks has the story.
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PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Gaza City is more like a tent city these days. Buildings that are still standing are damaged. Some appear dangerously close to collapse. But even this scene of ruin is now changing.
Montasser Abu Al Sadeq is one of many packing up his makeshift home, planning to flee Gaza City with whatever he and his family can carry ahead of a planned Israeli invasion. Everyone is scared, he says. People are waiting for a statement from the Israelis to evacuate the area. It could come any minute.
Israel's security cabinet approved plans earlier this month to expand the war and seize the city. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu claiming it is the best way to end the war. It is a plan that has been met with international condemnation and warnings from the United Nations that it could trigger another calamity in Gaza.
The prospect of yet another forcible move seems almost impossible for some. Rima Al Masri's husband and son were injured during the war. With no money for transport, she does not know how to move them along with her young daughters.
We don't know what to do, she says. Life is destroyed and living is unbearable. As a Mohamed Dabo bakes bread for her family of 10, she says we'll have to adapt again to find the basics like water. If they move us, things will get even harder.
The U.N. says over 86 percent of Gaza is already a under displacement orders or falls within Israeli militarized zones. Any attempt to force hundreds of thousands more into an ever shrinking area would be devastating. Israeli strikes have been intensifying around Gaza City over recent weeks.
19-year-old Mira Abu Amer says the shelling was on the outskirts of town, but sounds closer since Monday. She describes how she calms her young brother.
MIRA ABU AMER, GAZA RESIDENT: Don't be scared, Karim. This won't be the first or last time you hear that sound. It's far away. They won't do anything, so don't worry. Just go to sleep now. But deep down I know those are just empty words to say to a kid his age. He shouldn't have to get used to this.
HANCOCKS (voice-over): A continuing heat wave in the territory is also adding to the misery hindering the daily hunt for food and water. As Gaza City waits for Israel's military to take over, some displaced residents point out there's nothing left to occupy. Paula Hancocks, CNN, Abu Dhabi.
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VAUSE: In a moment here on CNN, North Carolina declares a state of emergency ahead of the first hurricane of the Atlantic season.
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And concerns for the state's vulnerable Outer Banks region.
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VAUSE: Much of the U.S. east coast is seeing dangerous surf conditions from Hurricane Erin and destructive waves and storm surges could reach North Carolina's coast in the day ahead. CNN's Diane Gallagher brings us the very latest from the Outer Banks.
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DIANNE GALLAGHER, CNN U.S. NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, as Hurricane Erin turns up the Atlantic, this is what it looks like about 24 hours before the worst of it is expected here in the Outer Banks of North Carolina.
Now, there is no forecasted hit on the coastline of North Carolina.
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But the impact is expected to be felt in the storm surge, in the waves and the potential for transportation issues with the very narrow roadway that goes through this geographical sort of barrier island that lines the length of the state.
Now, here in Nags Head, we are in high tide. You can see there are still plenty of families out here enjoying the day. But good for us right now staying out of the water. And that's because these very intense rip currents have been reported starting on Monday throughout North Carolina.
There are no swim advisories all the way from here up to New York. At this point, preparing for Hurricane Erin on Monday, more than 90 rescues because of rip currents, fewer on Tuesday in the southern part of the state. They hope because people are heeding those warnings.
Now, the biggest concerns are going to be waves which could get up to 20ft and storm surge, which we could be looking at 4ft of storm surge. And look, the reason why that is so significant is in the Outer Banks of North Carolina is because of the unique way that the geography is here.
Essentially, it is very narrow islands that are connected by a highway and a couple of bridges. We're talking about five and a half kilometers at the widest point of the Outer Banks and really just about 130 meters at the most narrow. They're all connected by one highway which has not fared well in some past hurricanes. Some emergency managers have already told people the emergency and mandatory evacuation zones.
If you don't leave, we may not be able to reach you to help you for more than a week as they repair this highway going through it. Again, they expect the worst of this to be Wednesday night into Thursday morning in the Outer Banks and are asking anybody who is a tourist to either be prepared or get out now. Dianne Gallagher, CNN, back to you.
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VAUSE: When James Smithson, a British scientist, bequeathed a state to the U.S., he wanted the creation of an institute of for the increase and diffusion of knowledge. And so the Smithsonian Institute was founded in 1846.
Fast forward to 2025, and President Trump seems to be at war with the Smithsonian. His latest salvo accusations focusing on the Smithsonian, accusing them of being highlighting the negative parts of American history, including how bad slavery was.
Just days ago, the White House announced an unprecedented review of the museums that will, quote, ensure alignment with the president's directive to celebrate American exceptionalism. Some say this review is simply an attempt to rewrite history.
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ALYSSA FARAH GRIFFIN, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: I traveled to the history of African American -- the African American History Museum with Mike Pence at the time. So shortly after the former, the current president did and he had the same takeaway. And I recalled the president having the same takeaway, which it was something he was honored to attend. He thought that it was in many ways a testament to those overcoming and the terrible circumstances they've come out of.
I remember sitting with then Donald Trump in his first term when he put out a statement about Juneteenth. But then later there's this decision to move away from some of those things and I think it speaks to the moment we're in the second term.
There were some, I'm going to call them normies, people who came from old school government who realized we recognize our history, we acknowledge our past. There's a certain way we speak about those things because it's for the good of the entire country. They were there in the first term.
In the second term, it's a lot of folks who seem to purely driven on ideology and at times that can lead you down some pretty dangerous places. What you're seeing here with the Smithsonian, I mean, I don't even know what this would look like. Generally what's in it is brought together by curators, by scholars, by a board of regents.
But we do know that he's already wanted to include removal of his first and second impeachment from the Smithsonian. So you get to a scary place when you've got ideologues kind of changing facts and history.
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: What kind of a. I mean, it's essentially a whitewashing of history and an elimination of black history and the history of others as well in this country. What is the danger of this, as you say, as a historian?
ANNETTE GORDON-REED, PROFESSOR OF HISTORY, HARVARD LAW SCHOO: Well, the danger is that you get an incomplete picture of what happened in the country if you can't learn from history, if you don't know what actually happened. So it's a way of keeping people ignorant of the past. And that's not what historians try to do the opposite of that, to bring it -- bring what we know to the fore. And that's what Americans want.
These museums are incredibly popular. From every survey, everything that I've seen, people like to go there. They're always full. And Americans want to know the unvarnished truth.
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VAUSE: The campaign to rid cultural institutions of so called woke agendas is similar to President Trump's crackdown on universities across the country earlier this year.
TikTok has been in the crosshairs of the White House for years. But as the threat of a ban in the U.S. Hangs over the appeal, new account started posting on TikTok, the White House.
The official White House TikTok account launched Tuesday. Already tens of thousands of followers, it comes with less than a month before the latest deadline approaches for TikTok's Chinese parent company, ByteDance to sell. The app will face a ban in the US.
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President Trump has repeatedly extended the deadline, which was imposed by a law signed by President Biden. But the original push to ban TikTok began during the Trump administration and the first term back in 2020. Still ahead, an exclusive interview, CNN's Clarissa Ward sits down
with released Israeli hostage Ilya Cohen, who endured more than 500 days in Hamas captivity.
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VAUSE: Welcome back, everyone. I'm John Vause. You're watching CNN NEWSROOM.
NATO military leaders are expected to meet in the hours ahead to discuss future security guarantees for Ukraine. This follows talks by the U.S. Joint Chiefs Chairman and European defense officials Tuesday.
The U.S. President had said Europe should take the lead on guaranteeing Ukraine's security, but promised some American help. On Tuesday, the Trump administration said there will be no American boots on the ground, but did not rule out aerial support.
The White House went on to say the plans for two way talks between the Russian and Ukrainian presidents are now underway, with many options being discussed.
And the U.S. President says the return of almost 20,000 Ukrainian children who were part of a mass abduction by Russia is a priority.
At the same time, though, his administration has slashed funding to a watchdog group which monitors evidence of Russian war crimes.
CNN's Jennifer Hansler has details.
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JENNIFER HANSLER, CNN STATE DEPARTMENT REPORTER: Now, President Trump has stressed the importance of the return of abducted Ukrainian children, as has first lady, Melania Trump. But his own administration cut funding to a key organization that was tracking evidence of this alleged war crime.
Now, back in March, the State Department confirmed that they were cutting funding to the Ukraine Conflict Observatory, which was run through a research lab at Yale.
That group had been created back in 2022, to quote, "capture, analyze and make widely available evidence of Russian perpetrated war crimes and other atrocities in Ukraine. They have been doing important work collecting evidence on all of these alleged war crimes that were taking place throughout the course of the war in Ukraine, including the abduction of these Ukrainian children.
They had compiled evidence about the identities and locations of more than 30,000 Ukrainian children. They had also done extensive reporting on Moscow's efforts not only to forcibly deport and detain these children, but in some cases forcibly adopt them out to Russian families to reeducate them, and sometimes even enlist them in military training.
Now, of course, we should note Russian President Vladimir Putin is wanted by the International Criminal Court on charges of this alleged war crime of the forced deportation of Ukrainian children.
At the time that the State Department confirmed they were cutting funding, then spokesperson Tammy Bruce said, quote, "that it had been cut based on the assessments that we've been making regarding what was defining work within our framework of what was in America's interests.
Now, they temporarily did restore funding to the group a little while after the funding was confirmed to be cut, so that the group could transfer some of its evidence to Europol for their work to try to identify, locate and bring back these children.
However, back in June, a group of bipartisan lawmakers called on the State Department to disburse some $8 million in funding that they had told Congress in late 2024 that they were going to use to support this work. Two congressional aides told me that, to their knowledge, that funding has not yet been disbursed.
The group is still continuing their work based on private donations until January 1st. However, their executive director tells me they don't know what's going to happen with this vital work to track these stolen children after the beginning of next year.
Jennifer Hansler, CNN -- the State Department.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: Pressure continues to grow on the Israeli government to end the war in Gaza. On Tuesday, protesters blocked a major highway in Tel Aviv calling for a deal to bring back the last of the hostages still held by Hamas.
Hamas has agreed on Monday to a new Gaza ceasefire proposal. Israel though, yet to make any public response.
The new proposal adheres closely to the last ceasefire plan discussed before negotiations fell apart. This comes as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is scheduled to talk with security officials Thursday to approve military plans to occupy Gaza City.
Eliya Cohen has endured Hamas captivity for more than 500 days after he was taken hostage from the Nova Music Festival, October 7th, 2023.
[01:34:44]
VAUSE: In his first interview with the international media since his release, Cohen details the harrowing experience to CNN's Clarissa Ward. And a warning: there are graphic images and details in this report.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ELIYA COHEN, FORMER ISRAELI HOSTAGE: I feel guilty. I feel guilty by myself. When I eat, I feel guilty. When I get shower, I feel guilty. When I go to the hospital to check something, I feel guilty because I know what they go through right now.
CLARISSA WARD, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Eliya Cohen has been free for six months, but he's still imprisoned by the knowledge that his fellow hostages are not.
Eliya and his girlfriend, Ziv Abud were at the Nova Music Festival on October 7, 2023. When rockets started raining down, they ran to a shelter only to come under attack by Hamas militants.
COHEN: And they throw the first grenade inside. And the grenade explode and killed the most people in -- at the entrance.
At that moment, I jump on Ziv and I told her, Ziv, I love you. I took dead bodies and I cover me and Ziv to survive. They came inside and they start to shoot. And then I got shoot in my leg.
WARD: What's going through your mind in this moment?
COHEN: I really start to pray to God, to tell him, God, I love you, please keep me alive. And they came inside. And when I opened my eyes, I saw them film us with big smile. And when I came out of the shelter, so I saw so many people with RPG, with grenade, with Kalashnikov, with a lot of tools to kill people.
They were so high for me. I saw them. They laugh, they sing like crazy people.
WARD: Eliya was bundled onto the back of a truck and taken to Gaza. Also, on that truck, Israeli American Hersh Goldberg-Polin. His hand blown off trying to throw a grenade out of the shelter. The pair would later be held together for a short time.
COHEN: We took a lot for three days. After three days, they told him that, Hersh, wake up. You go to your mother, it's happy day. You go to your mother, be happy.
And he gave me his book. He got some book in English. I didn't know to speak English before.
WARD: You didn't know how to speak English before?
COHEN: Yes. I didn't know, not speak English before. He told me, take it from me because I go home. Keep it for you.
So, it really gave me power to continue because I say to myself that Hersh came back home, maybe he will come to my mother and to my father to tell them that I'm alive and I will be ok.
WARD: But Hersh never came back home. He was executed by Hamas along with five other hostages.
COHEN: So for me, it was difficult because I really love him. We were for three days, but it felt like we were friends for 10 years.
WARD: I'd love to get a sense from you of the bond between hostages.
COHEN: The experience there and the connection of us, you know, the situation made us really connected. We really love each other.
WARD: Most of Eliya's captivity was spent deep in tunnels alongside fellow hostages Or Levy, Alon Ohel and Eli Sharabi. He says he went an entire year without brushing his teeth. At one point, surviving on a single can of beans shared between them each day.
COHEN: I can tell you about a lot of situation that they came and really tried to do any torture, to laugh on us like --
WARD: Mind games?
COHEN: Yes, like mind games. You can call it mind games. After something like eight months without mattress, without nothing, we slept on the floor.
They came with big smile. And they tell us, we have big good news for you. We gave you mattress. But we have bad news, we gave you just three. So, check who slept on the floor and -- who will sleep on the floor and who will sleep on the mattress. And we look to each other, you know, nobody want to continue to sleep on the floor after so many days, we tired.
One of the hostages, his name is Alon Ohel, and that's still there. He came and told to the terrorist, give the mattress for them, I will sleep on the floor.
WARD: After 505 days, Eliya was finally released, reunited with his parents and his girlfriend, Ziv, who he had assumed was killed in the shelter.
[01:39:46]
COHEN: And then I met Ziv, and it was like -- it was like dream. For a week, it felt like dream. I look at her and I told her, Ziv, I can't believe you are here because she survived.
WARD: And now, you guys are getting married, is that right?
COHEN: I can tell you that's in the news.
WARD: Since his release, Ziv is always by his side.
COHEN: She want to join us.
WARD: She wants to join us? Ok.
COHEN: Yes.
WARD: Let's put a microphone on you.
I mean, Ziv, did you ever let yourself imagine that moment while you were waiting for Eliya? ZIV ABUD, ELIYA'S GIRLFRIEND: No, not really because I was scared. I never let myself to imagine this moment because I don't want -- I didn't want to fall, you know?
I told to myself, I believe just when I see that Eliya cross the border to Israel with -- you know, with soldier, and this is the moment that I look and told myself, ok, now you can breathe.
WARD: In an interview with Israeli media during the ceasefire, Eliya said that he worried that if the fighting continued, it would be, quote, "a death sentence for the hostages".
In our conversation, he was very careful not to criticize Prime Minister Netanyahu or his plan to occupy the whole of Gaza. But other hostage families have been more outspoken about their fears.
Clarissa Ward, CNN, Jerusalem.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: We'll take a short break. Back in a moment. You're watching CNN.
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VAUSE: Files from the Jeffrey Epstein investigation could be made public on Friday. That is once the House Oversight Committee has redacted the names of victims and other sensitive details.
More now from CNN's Katelyn Polantz.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KATELYN POLANTZ, CNN CRIME AND JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: The House Oversight Committee, they're making demands and they're getting some answers. The big question though is going to be will anything disclose to the House Oversight Committee now in their probe of Jeffrey Epstein be something that hasn't been disclosed before?
We're looking forward to the end of this week. That's when the Justice Department is set to turn over records or begin to turn over records that they have related to the Jeffrey Epstein investigation, his death, essentially everything that the House Oversight Committee has subpoenaed of the Justice Department.
The chair of that committee said yesterday that even though their deadline was today to turn things over, they're going to begin making productions on Friday.
We'll have to see exactly what becomes public from that. And if the House Oversight Committee finds anything that isn't already out there in the public sphere. We have had a trial of Ghislaine Maxwell already that disclosed a lot
of evidence related to Epstein because she was a coconspirator in that sex trafficking of minors. And then also, there's been a lot of litigation and public disclosures.
The House Oversight Committee, they're not stopping just with records requests from the Justice Department. They also want people to come and testify under oath to them.
It was Bill Barr, the former attorney general, who in 2019, when he was in charge of the Justice Department, that's when Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell were indicted.
And when Epstein died in jail, Comer, after Barr's deposition, said that Epstein died by suicide.
That was one of the things Barr testified to under oath. Barr also said that there was no foul play from his perspective as the attorney general and that he had not had any conversations with Trump, who was the president at that time in 2019 about a client list that Epstein may have had and that there was nothing that Barr said that would have incriminated Trump.
Democrats have been critical, however, of this probe. They are saying that the Republicans, James Comer leading this House Oversight Committee subpoenas and depositions, the Democrats are saying that they're not really digging very deep. And this is probably not going to be turning up anything that would be revelatory.
So we're going to keep watching to see exactly what else comes. There's five other former attorneys general that are subpoenaed, as well as the Clintons and two FBI directors.
If the House Oversight Committee gets further into the probe, the big question will still remain. Are we going to see the full Epstein files and perhaps even that transcript of Ghislaine Maxwell just a few weeks ago, speaking for several hours to the deputy attorney general of the Justice Department.
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VAUSE: Call it the long arm of a rising Beijing. China's communist government wants to build a new super embassy in central London. If the British government approves, and a decision is expected within weeks, the sprawling complex would cover more than 600,000 square feet on almost five and a half acres -- all sovereign Chinese soil, all off limits to British authorities, which is why many believe this new embassy would pose a huge risk to the U.K.'s national security.
CNN Salma Abdelaziz explains.
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SALMA ABDELAZIZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hong Kong activist Carmen Lau looks nervously at the building behind us.
CARMEN LAU, SENIOR INTERNATIONAL ADVOCACY ASSOCIATION, HONG KONG DEMOCRACY COUNCIL: My heartbeat right now is actually quite fast.
ABDELAZIZ: We are standing at the gates of what could become China's new embassy in the heart of London. Critics have dubbed it a super- embassy.
[01:49:51]
ABDELAZIZ: If the proposal goes ahead, China will invest millions in what would become the largest embassy in Europe on the sprawling 5.4- acre Royal Mint Court. Beijing bought the historic parcel of land in 2018 for around $312 million.
Lau fears the site will be used to spy on, harass and potentially detain and torture opponents of the Chinese government, including herself. Fears the embassy has dismissed.
Lau fled Hong Kong for London about four years ago, she says, after she faced persecution for speaking out against the Beijing government.
Hong Kong police later issued an arrest warrant for Lau, accusing her of incitement to secession and collusion with foreign element, charges she denies.
Now, she says her sense of safety has been shattered yet again. This is why in February her neighbors received the sheet of paper, a wanted poster promising a reward for information or --
LAU: Or take her to the Chinese embassy.
ABDELAZIZ: Take her to the Chinese embassy?
LAU: Yes.
ABDELAZIZ: And what's the reward?
LAU: It's 1 million Hong Kong dollar.
ABDELAZIZ: And when you think about that embassy being right there and getting posters like this?
LAU: Yes, it's not hard for everyone to imagine if I got taken into this site, what would happen to me. They could do whatever they want.
ABDELAZIZ: This 2022 video speaks to her concerns, it shows a pro- democracy protestor being dragged into a Chinese consulate in the English City of Manchester and beaten up.
Lau's fears of a black site grew after a blueprint of the mega embassy showed several rooms, including the basement area, marked redacted for security reasons.
The current Chinese embassy says it needs more space and called opposition to its plan "despicable slandering" by anti-China elements and unfair.
Chinese officials also noted that the U.K. is seeking to rebuild its own embassy in Beijing. The United States says it is deeply concerned that China will exploit the critical infrastructure of one of its closest allies, that's according to a senior administration official.
British officials have asked Beijing to provide more information on the redacted areas and clarify how it will address the concerns of local residents.
This whole --
MARK NYGATE, ROYAL MINT COURT RESIDENTS ASSOCIATION: All the way along here. All the way along to the end.
ABDELAZIZ: All the way over there.
NYGATE: Yes.
ABDELAZIZ: Like Mark Nygate.
And your flat is just right there?
NYGATE: Yes, yes, yes. And I said, I'm closer to Beijing now.
ABDELAZIZ: His flat is just a few feet away from what could become a housing block for dozens of Chinese embassy staffers and their families.
ABDELAZIZ: Do you feel like you'll have your privacy?
NYGATE: No, not at all. Not at all. Yes. You -- we were told we've had to put our blinds down, if people want their privacy.
ABDELAZIZ: China says it aims to foster friendship and cooperation between Britain and China. The U.K. is expected to make a decision the proposed embassy in the coming weeks.
Salma Abdelaziz, CNN London.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: Still to come, there is life after global public shaming. Just ask Monica Lewinsky and Amanda Knox. Now they're reshaping the narrative of their lives. We'll tell you how.
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[01:54:49]
VAUSE: Well, Amanda Knox and Monica Lewinsky have both endured a great deal of public scrutiny and mockery. Now they're teaming up to reclaim the narrative with a new project to tell Knox's story her way.
CNN's Lisa Respers France has details.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
LISA RESPERS FRANCE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Amanda Knox and Monica Lewinsky aren't just working together. It turns out that the two women are. Friends.
Now that may be surprising to some, but it makes sense when you think about their shared experiences as two women who in their 20s were involved in international scandals, which found them both mocked and maligned.
Now, Hulu has given Knox the opportunity to share her side of the story, and it's happening. In part because of Lewinsky. The pair are co-executive producers on Hulu's limited series, "The Twisted Tale of Amanda Knox", which dramatizes the 2007 case of Knox, who was then a 20-year-old exchange student living in Italy when she was accused of the murder of her 21-year-old roommate, Meredith Kercher.
Knox spent almost four years in prison before her conviction was overturned, and she was vindicated.
She has said that Lewinsky, who became famous after being involved in a sex scandal in the 1990s with then-President Bill Clinton helped her reclaim her voice.
Now, a brand-new generation will get to hear what she has to say via the new series.
Lisa Respers France, CNN -- Atlanta.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: A close call and a miraculous escape for a pair of food influencers who were out filming a review for their blog when this happened.
Wow. There it is again. The car crashed into this Houston restaurant as they were trying out a meal on camera, a v-blog. There it is again.
They suffered minor injuries and posted an update for their followers from hospital, saying they were lucky to be alive.
Maybe (ph) they choked on the food as well. I mean, there you go. I don't know what caused the driver of the SUV to crash.
Five kilometers, two days and a 113-year-old church. The Kiruna Church was delicately lifted from its foundations on Tuesday and then inched its way down a long, winding road. And in a few hours from now will reach its final destination.
The second day of the move is getting underway. The church is being relocated along with 3,000 nearby residents, because the ground where it was built is sinking. That's due to the expansion of the world's largest underground iron ore mine.
Thanks for watching. I'm John Vause.
Rosemary Church is up next.
See you tomorrow.
[01:57:14]
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