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Israel Ramps Up Gaza City Takeover; Israel Approves Controversial West Bank Settlement Plan; U.S., Russia Give Mixed Signals on Putin-Zelenskyy Meeting; Hurricane Erin Moving Up U.S. East Coast at Category 2; Cubans Protest Water Shortages; Video Shows Immigration Agents Violently Arresting Mexican Brothers; Federal Agents Arrest Brothers, Tase One Multiple Times; OpenAI CEO Warns of Artificial Intelligence Bubble. Aired 12-12:45a ET

Aired August 21, 2025 - 00:00   ET

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

[00:00:17]

JOHN VAUSE, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: Has Israel finally killed the two-state solution? Ahead on CNN NEWSROOM.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BEZALEL SMOTRICH, ISRAEL FINANCE MINISTER (through translator): Whoever in the world is trying to recognize a Palestinian state today will receive our answer on the ground.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: And on the ground the Israeli government says plans for a controversial West Bank settlement, on hold for more than 20 years, will now go ahead, making a future Palestinian state not viable.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SERGEY LAVROV, RUSSIAN FOREIGN MINISTER (through translator): Now it has proposed to resolve security issues, collective security without the Russian federation. This will not work.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: Now the Kremlin wants a veto over security guarantees for Ukraine. What appears to be yet another attempt to slow walk a peace deal.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Coastal flooding from massive waves, tropical storm force winds and tidal and storm surge.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: As Hurricane Erin skirts the U.S. East Coast, forecasters say the category two storm is gaining in strength.

ANNOUNCER: Live from Atlanta, this is CNN NEWSROOM with John Vause.

VAUSE: Two glaring examples Wednesday of just how little impact international criticism has on the actions of the Israeli government. Controversial plans for an Israeli settlement in the West Bank, which have been on hold for more than 20 years, have now been approved. The E-1 settlement sparked global anger when first announced because it would divide the West Bank, making a Palestinian state not viable.

On Wednesday, the Israeli government said that was the point. At the same time, operations by the Israeli military began to occupy Gaza City. Explosions in the night sky show the first stage of a major offensive, which Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says will drive Hamas from one of its last strongholds.

Israeli forces are said to be on the outskirts of the city and despite a shortage of troops, Netanyahu has ordered the military to shorten the expected five-month long timeline. An additional 60,000 Israeli reservists are being called up and service of another 20,000 is being extended.

For Palestinians living in what was Gaza's biggest city, the military offensive means packing up whatever they could carry and leaving again. The U.N. says more than 86 percent of Gaza is already under displacement orders or falls within Israeli militarized zones.

More details now from CNN's Oren Liebermann, reporting in from Jerusalem.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

OREN LIEBERMANN, CNN JERUSALEM BUREAU CHIEF (voice-over): The drums of war are pounding Gaza City. A new Israeli military operation has been targeting the largest city in the Northern Strip, one that will require a surge of reserved soldiers to go back to fight again.

Avshalom Zohar Sal is a reservist who documented his time in Gaza in these photographs. He says he spent more than 300 days in Gaza on four different deployments. The last one ended one month ago.

"I'm a little in shock that we're still in this thing," he says. "I'm a little in shock that we're still talking about this war that was supposed to end a long time ago. And I think if you were to ask everyone in my unit, it's hard for everyone."

The doubts, he says, began creeping in one year ago, and they've only grown. This month, Israel's security cabinet approved the occupation of Gaza City, a major escalation that could take five months or more. Zohar Sal says he's not going back.

"I think this decision is a death sentence for the hostages," he says. "The government talked and said all the time that we're talking about two missions for this war, to return the hostages and to defeat Hamas. Now, it's telling us there's only one goal, which I believe is not achievable, to destroy Hamas. But even this won't destroy Hamas."

Amidst some of the largest protests Israel has seen since the beginning of the war, families of the hostages are calling the planned operation a deception, an unforgivable moral and security neglect. A recent study of reserve soldiers suggested approximately 40 percent or slightly or significantly less motivated to serve. The military's top general warned the security cabinet of the burden on manpower, an exhausted army in a war that won't end.

Israel's military relies on reservists to keep fighting, and the military said Wednesday that the takeover of Gaza City will require up to 60,000 more troops.

Dan Halutz is the former Israeli military chief of staff.

DAN HALUTZ, FORMER IDF CHIEF OF STAFF: I believe that some of them will stay home. When something is coming to an end, you feel it, and it comes to an end.

LIEBERMANN: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu promised the intense fighting would be over by now.

BENJAMIN NETANYAHU, ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER: Once we begin the Rafah operation, the intense phase of the fighting is weeks away from completion, not months, weeks away from completion.

LIEBERMANN: That was February 2024. 18 months later, Netanyahu says a new operation is the fastest way to end what has long since become Israel's longest war.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

[00:05:06]

LIEBERMANN (on-camera): The military says the new operation to take over and occupy Gaza City will require 120,000 reserve troops in total, 20,000 of whom they say will have their time in the reserves extended. As part of this operation. And that's in addition to the active duty troops required for this new fight. And there you see the burden on the military after two years of war.

Oren Liebermann, CNN, in Jerusalem.

VAUSE: Britain and the E.U. have been quick to condemn Israel's announcement for construction of a new settlement in the West Bank, which would effectively bury the prospect of a viable Palestinian state. Calls for thousands of new housing units in an area called E-1, east of Jerusalem.

Critics say it would cut the West Bank in half, making a Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital virtually impossible. Far- right Israeli government minister Bezalel Smotrich confirms that that's exactly what the plan is meant to be, saying the Palestinian state is being erased from the table.

Joining me now from Sydney, Australia, journalist Antony Loewenstein. He is the author of "The Palestine Laboratory: How Israel Exports the Technology and Occupation Around the World."

Anthony, thanks for being with us.

ANTONY LOEWENSTEIN, JOURNALIST AND AUTHOR OF "THE PALESTINE LABORATORY": Thank you.

VAUSE: When you go -- when Smotrich announced the go ahead for E-1, he was pretty straightforward, didn't hide the truth, and that is that this is a plan to divide the West Bank and make a future Palestinian state just not work. Now he wants the Israeli prime minister to annex all of the West Bank. Here he is.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SMOTRICH (through translator): On this important day I call from here on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu the time has come to fully apply Israeli sovereignty over Judea and Samaria to forever remove from the table the idea of dividing the land, and to make sure that by September Europe's hypocrite leaders will simply have nothing to recognize.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: The Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon, who's the father of the settlement, said once, you know, talk less, do more. Obviously, talk less is no longer a principle there because Israel seems no longer concerned about what the world thinks. No longer concerned about upholding previous agreements entered into by past governments like the Oslo Accords.

LOEWENSTEIN: But I think what they do care about is their international reputation. Now it might not seem that way but if you look at public opinion polls in the U.S., Europe, the U.K., Australia, what you find is particularly in the last six months, this is a recent Pew poll, that a majority of citizens, the public, fundamentally oppose what Israel is doing in the West Bank and certainly in Gaza. They oppose Netanyahu.

So there is a minority. Evangelicals, very hard line, far-right Jewish Jews. And I'm Jewish myself, but I certainly don't subscribe to those views, who do support Netanyahu, who do support what Israel is doing. But Israel has always craved legitimacy, and they can occupy all of West Bank and destroy Gaza, but ultimately, they don't get that legitimacy, and they actually crave that, because this year, Israel is spending $150 million U.S. more to try to do better PR, essentially.

Not to change the policies on the ground, but to actually try to change public perception. And frankly, it's not working.

VAUSE: Yes, I wonder about that. You know, the craving for, you know, international legitimacy, a country that was born of the U.N. is highly critical of the U.N.. That does seem to have changed, though, to some degree, especially with this far-right element within Netanyahu's coalition. They don't seem to be as sort of concerned about it as much as it has been in the past.

LOEWENSTEIN: That's true to an extent. I mean, at the moment, Netanyahu feels like he has the wind in his sails. Trump is on board. I mean, the American ambassador just this week to Israel, Mike Huckabee, said essentially that Israel can do what it wants in the West Bank. But ultimately, look, the West Bank has been annexed unofficially for years. I've spent a lot of time over there. I've used to be based in Jerusalem.

Anyone who spends five minutes across the West Bank, let alone Gaza, will tell you that settler violence are aided by Israeli soldiers. It's been causing chaos across the West Bank for years. Palestinians cannot build their own homes. They can't expand their own homes. So ultimately, when the U.S. and other countries talk about some kind of shift in public opinion, what in fact they're recognizing, I would argue, and this is the case long before Trump, with Biden and others, that the reality on the ground speaks for itself.

You've mentioned before, Ariel Sharon. Sharon was well aware that facts on the ground are what matter. So when Smotrich now is backing Netanyahu, it's important to say that just finally on this point, this is not simply an extremist, far-right Israeli government. What they are doing now is supported by a sizable proportion of the Israeli Jewish population. That's the sad reality. So if and when Netanyahu falls as leader, which he will eventually, the likely successors on these issues are no different.

This is what people need to understand. This is not just about Netanyahu and his coalition.

VAUSE: Here's part of a statement from the U.K. government opposing this new settlement. "If implemented, it would divide a Palestinian state in two, mark a flagrant breach of international law, critically undermined the two-state solution. The Israeli government must reverse this decision."

[00:10:05]

My experience is words of condemnation from another country have never forced Israel to reverse anything. And even recognizing a Palestinian state at the U.N. General Assembly is sort of a symbolic gesture which is ultimately pointless. So what will, apart from this, you know, global public opinion, but what can individual governments do? What action can they take that will have an impact on what Israel does?

LOEWENSTEIN: Well, a lot. I mean, as you say, the U.K., France, Australia, Canada have pledged to recognize a Palestinian state next month, which is frankly token at best. All these countries, most of Europe, much of the Arab world since October 7th and Israel's genocide in Gaza, none of them have stopped trading with Israel. Many of these countries are still sending weapons parts through the U.S. and Lockheed Martin to produce the F-35 fighter jet that Israel is using over Gaza.

There is a choice that European states and others are making to continue that trade. In fact, many of these states are trying to increase trade. The recent -- a lot of work around "The Palestine Laboratory," around the arms and surveillance industries, and the recent 2024 figures found very clearly that Europe last year was the biggest purchaser of Israeli weapons. The biggest purchaser. So all the rhetoric about they're deeply concerned about the Palestinian Authority and the Palestinian state and apartheid in the West Bank, words are cheap.

Economic pressure can make a difference. And I think a lot of European states and Arab states need to recognize that rather than continuing this phase of rhetoric, but actions on the ground speak for themselves.

VAUSE: There is a choice. That's a very good point to make.

Antony, thanks for being with us. Really appreciate it.

LOEWENSTEIN: Thanks so much for having me.

VAUSE: Well, the Kremlin is now openly contradicting the White House and downplaying the prospects of a meeting between the Russian and Ukrainian presidents. Trump administration officials have said plans for a face-to-face meeting between Vladimir Putin and Vladimir Zelenskyy are underway. Russia's foreign minister, though, is again indicating that Putin has not agreed to a meeting.

Meantime, NATO military leaders met on Wednesday to discuss potential security guarantees for Ukraine once the war is over. But Russia says discussing Ukraine's security without Moscow's participation is a path to nowhere.

Here's CNN's Clare Sebastian with more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CLARE SEBASTIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, it was already clear by the time the dust had settled on those White House talks on Monday that Russia had not, as the White House seemed to suggest, committed to a bilateral meeting between Putin and Zelenskyy as the next step. Now, on Wednesday, the Russian foreign minister, Sergey Lavrov, made that even clearer.

LAVROV (through translator): Following a phone conversation with President Trump, the day before yesterday our president made a proposal not only to continue these conversations but also to think about raising the level of the heads of delegation.

SEBASTIAN: Well, high level officials perhaps but no mention of heads of state. Now you'll remember the Trump team came out of those Alaska talks last Friday, claiming also that Russia had agreed to security guarantees for Ukraine, including Article Five style protections from the United States. And President Trump has since openly embraced the idea of U.S. involvement in security guarantees.

And that, in turn, has supercharged work by Europe to try to come up with a concrete plan. We've had NATO defense chiefs meeting on Wednesday, and the Coalition of the Willing, this grouping of some 30 or so countries willing to contribute to security guarantees, well, they have met twice since Sunday.

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: When it comes to security, they're willing to put people on the ground. We're willing to help them with things, especially, probably if you talk about by air, because there's nobody has the kind of stuff we have. Really, they don't have. But I don't think it's going to be a problem.

SEBASTIAN: Lavrov made it clear on Wednesday that Russia sees things a little differently.

LAVROV (through translator): Now it has proposed to resolve security issues, collective security without the Russian federation. This will not work. We've already explained more than once that Russia does not inflate its interests.

SEBASTIAN: So Russia appears emboldened. Putin's grand welcome in Alaska, the rejection by Trump of Europe and Ukraine's demand for a ceasefire before peace talks, and the crumbling of all U.S. sanctions threats, all wins for the Kremlin just in the past week.

So far from indulging Trump's talk of his own diplomatic successes, the rhetoric we saw today likely a signal to the U.S. president that Russia is looking for still more concessions to stay at the table and play for time.

Clare Sebastian, CNN, London.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

VAUSE: The U.S. East Coast is already feeling the effects of Hurricane Erin as it moves north through the Atlantic Ocean. The strong category two storm is not expected to make landfall in the U.S., but high winds and heavy rain are affecting areas in the south and coast as well. Erin is forecast to turn into the open ocean over the next few days as it picks up speed.

CNN's Dianne Gallagher is in North Carolina monitoring conditions.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DIANNE GALLAGHER, CNN U.S. NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: As Hurricane Erin comes up the East Coast, passing the outer banks, you can see right now the sort of choppy seas.

[00:15:07]

We're looking at some spicy surge, a little bit aggressive. There's still people who are trying to walk just along the shoreline admiring these waves. We're at Jeanette's Pier in Nags Head. That's about 25 feet above the mean water. We are seeing some of the waves at this point kind of kiss the bottom of it occasionally, but so far, again, just rough surf.

The big concern for the outer banks is looking at this potential of up to four feet of storm surge, and also those big waves. Now, some of it comes from just the geographic vulnerabilities of the outer banks. We're looking at about 200 miles of barrier islands that are effectively connected by this one highway. It's called NC-12, and that is the biggest concern of officials at this point. They are worried about the storm surge potentially washing out or just breaking some of NC-12, which will leave people in some of the more southern outer banks' islands stranded for a period of time until they can repair that.

And they're not sure exactly how long that might take. They've already shut down roughly 50 miles of NC-12 at this point, saying the conditions are just a little bit too rough right now. We have seen some DOT cameras that show over wash at this point. The tide, when it came in, spilling over those dunes. We have video from earlier in the day on Wednesday of the Department of Transportation using construction vehicles to try and fortify those dunes to prevent any of that isolation.

Now, there were mandatory evacuations for Ocracoke and Hatteras Island. According to the DOT, more than 2200 people were evacuated safely through the ferry system. At this point, though, as the hurricane passes these outer banks, people just are going to have to stay where they are. The big key in the morning, when it is supposed to be the worst here, is that people do not get into the ocean because of those very dangerous rip currents.

They are worried again about potential for property damage, but they do not want to have to also account for loss of life.

In Nags Head, Dianne Gallagher, CNN.

Back to you.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

VAUSE: Still to come on CNN, why Cubans are on the streets staging a rare protest. And details on the government's unusual response.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[00:21:51]

VAUSE: Protests in Cuba are rare, so it's notable when and why they happen. In Nevada, it was a small gathering relatively, but they represent hundreds of thousands of people facing shortages of drinking water. And the response from the communist government might just surprise you.

Our man in Havana is Patrick Oppmann.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PATRICK OPPMANN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: We're in a part of Havana where residents complain that they've gone for days without access to any water, and actually took to the streets, coming off this avenue next to me on Tuesday night in a rare protest, something you don't usually see that often in Cuba because it can lead to authorities coming out and arresting people in mass. In this case authorities responded by sending trucks of water to get people to go back into their house.

But this is a problem that has been in the making in Cuba for years as there's been so little maintenance to the failing water supply system, to the failing electrical system. And as we see more and more power outages throughout the summer, that means that people get less and less water. The water pumps simply stop working. So while the government says they are trying to fix this problem they acknowledge that there are hundreds of thousands of people that on any given day on this island, a very hot island at the moment, in more ways than one.

They simply do not have access to water. And so while the government on occasion will send out water trucks to neighborhoods that have gone days, sometimes even longer without water in terms of fixing the root problem of the leakages of water that you see all over the city, that the fact that people on any given day will not have regular access to water, there is little expectation that that problem will be fixed anytime soon.

Patrick Oppmann, CNN, Havana.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

VAUSE: In a moment here on CNN, images of an aggressive takedown. ICE agents apparently doing what they do best, arresting two Mexican brothers, tasering them. Ahead, the daughter of one man speaks out about the upsetting images.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[00:28:31]

VAUSE: Welcome back, everyone. I'm John Vause. Let's take a look at today's top stories.

Sixty thousand Israeli reservists are being called up as military operations for the occupation of Gaza City get underway. Another 20,000 reservists will have their service time extended. According to a new survey, morale among the Israeli military is down. Around 40 percent of soldiers slightly or significantly less motivated to serve.

Russia's foreign minister now openly contradicting the White House narrative that plans are underway for a face-to-face meeting between Vladimir Putin and Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Sergey Lavrov says the Russian president supports sending high level officials to talks with Ukraine. But he indicated again on Wednesday that Putin has not agreed to a bilateral meeting with the president of Ukraine.

And the Trump administration is expanding a long standing requirement for immigrants to display good moral character before becoming U.S. citizens. They'll now have to affirmatively establish that they're worthy of naturalization, for example, by paying overdue taxes in full rather than using a payment plan as in the past. Critics say this merely adds a new burden to the overall process.

To the U.S. state of Connecticut now where video has emerged of federal immigration agents violently arresting two undocumented brothers from Mexico.

CNN's Maria Santana has our report. But a warning first, some of the images you're about to see are graphic.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You can't do that. You can't do that.

MARIA SANTANA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): This was the chaotic scene in Norwalk, Connecticut, Friday as federal agents surrounded a red truck and arrested two brothers from Mexico.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What are you looking for? What are you looking for?

SANTANA: Forty-two-year-old Leonel Chavez, who was in the driver's seat, took this video and can be heard pleading for answers.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Get out of the car.

[00:30:00]

LEONEL CHAVEZ: Why?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What's your name?

LEONEL CHAVEZ: Why?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What's your name?

LEONEL CHAVEZ: Leonel.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Get out of the car.

LEONEL CHAVEZ: What are you looking for?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You're under arrest.

SANTANA (voice-over): In a second video taken by a witness, an agent with a taser chases after his brother, Ricardo, after he appears to take off while also being taken into custody.

Ricardo Chavez falls to the ground and is tased several times before the officer gets him up and into handcuffs. Leonel can be heard shouting in the background and is seen in handcuffs against the red truck.

LEONEL CHAVEZ: I want to see the warrant. I want to see the warrant.

SANTANA (voice-over): For the Chavez family, these graphic images are hard to watch.

LEONELA CHAVEZ, FATHER & UNCLE ARRESTED BY FEDERL AGENTS: It made me feel just very angry and very disappointed in my country. And this is how we're treating people. We're treating them like they're nobodies.

SANTANA (voice-over): Twenty-one-year-old Leonela Chavez said her family rushed to the scene after getting a frantic call from her father, Leonel.

LEONEL CHAVEZ: My wife is coming for --

SANTANA (voice-over): When they arrived, all they found was his truck.

LEONELA CHAVEZ: My dad's truck was just left, right in the middle of the road. Windows smashed. Glass on the floor.

SANTANA (voice-over): She says her father has lived in the United States since he was a teenager and is a father of three American-born children who works as a stonemason, owning his own business.

Her uncle came to the U.S. in 2008. Both are undocumented.

LEONELA CHAVEZ: I would just describe him as a hard-working family man. He was paying taxes and, you know, it was a very small company, but he was working on, you know, ways to grow it.

SANTANA (voice-over): Leonela says her father and uncle are now being held in a Massachusetts detention center.

In a statement to CNN, the Department of Homeland Security said that ICE agents were operating in Norwalk last week, but they did not specify whether it was ICE officers who arrested the Chavez brothers.

CNN has not found any criminal record for Ricardo Chavez in Connecticut. Court documents show Leonel Chavez has several misdemeanor convictions, but information on each offense isn't detailed in public records.

Leonela now fears her father could be deported, leaving behind the life he has built for his family.

LEONELA CHAVEZ: He always told me that he wanted me to be someone amazing in life. He wanted me to amount to so much more than he ever could in life, and I always held that so close to my heart.

SANTANA (voice-over): Maria Santana, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

JOHN VAUSE, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: We'll take a short break. We'll be back with more news in a moment. You're watching CNN.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[00:37:32]

VAUSE: Despite all the A.I. hype, talk of a brave new world, the future is now, it seems corporate investment in A.I. has yet to pay off. One survey finding no ROI or return on investment for 95 percent of companies.

Tech CEO Sam Altman believes we're in an A.I. bubble. The head of OpenAI told reporters he believes investors are overly positive about A.I. development, saying, quote, "When bubbles happen, smart people get overexcited about a kernel of truth. Are we in a phase where investors as a whole are overexcited about A.I.?" His answer: yes. More now from CNN's Clare Duffy.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CLARE DUFFY, CNN TECH CORRESPONDENT: I mean, really stark results from this study, especially because we keep hearing, including from leaders of this industry, how every enterprise needs to have --

DUFFY (voice-over): -- an A.I. strategy, needs to be adopting this technology.

And yet, according to this study, only 5 percent of the companies that have rolled out A.I. pilot programs are actually seeing meaningful increases to their revenue.

And certainly, I do think that Sam Altman might have a point, given that we've seen so many A.I. startups raking in these huge valuations, often with only 2 or 3 people, a handful of people running the companies.

Before they even make a profit, they are raking in these huge valuations.

DUFFY: It's likely that not all of those will succeed.

But I also think it's worth noting, in terms of this enterprise adoption, this study finds that often the problem is not the quality of the A.I. model, but rather that companies --

DUFFY (voice-over): -- don't yet really understand how to implement this new technology, how to update their processes to really make the most of A.I.

This is sort of a reality-check moment where we've heard a lot --

DUFFY: -- from Silicon Valley about how A.I. is growing exponentially, advancing exponentially. And yet, I think what you're starting to see from this study and from what companies are saying about their use of these systems, is that this adoption and the development of A.I. is not actually going to be that linear.

Something that I long have just sort of personally thought watching this space, is that we're going to see a lot of companies looking to outsource some of their work to A.I., laying off workers, only to realize that computers can't necessarily do the job in the way that humans do, and maybe having to bring some of those folks back.

So, I won't be surprised if we do see a bit of a boomerang here, as companies try to figure out what to do with this technology.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

VAUSE: Well, the world's largest trade fair for video and computer games powered up on Wednesday in Cologne, Germany.

Gamescom features more than 1,500 exhibitors from 72 countries, including major publishers and smaller independent studios. Organizers say one of the big draws will be handheld gaming like Nintendo's Switch 1, which launched back in June.

[00:40:05]

Microsoft's first ever handheld console is expected to launch later this year.

All of this runs through until Sunday.

So, for a slice of the wild, wild West, head East. Way East. That's to the mountains of Saudi Arabia. There, you'll find Cowboy Town, a popular attraction with Western dancing, live theater, horse shows, archery and a whole lot more.

Thrilling (ph) families from across the kingdom and there, as well as the Arab world, as parts of Saudi Arabia's push to broaden tourism to the kingdom beyond the religious travel, which is already very popular.

Thank you for watching CNN NEWSROOM. I'm John Vause, back with more news at the top of the hour. In the meantime, WORLD SPORT starts after a short break.

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[00:45:42]

(WORLD SPORT)