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Early Start with Rahel Solomon

Trump Wrapping Up Riyadh Visit On Day 2 Of Middle East Trip; Sources: Israel Targets Hamas Leader In Gaza Hospital Strike; Zelenskyy Insists Peace Talks Must Involve Putin Himself; Combs' Ex- Girlfriend Cassie Ventura To Resume Testimony. Aired 5-5:30a ET

Aired May 14, 2025 - 05:00   ET

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

[05:00:27]

RAHEL SOLOMON, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning and welcome to our viewers joining us from the U.S. and all around the world. I'm Rahel Solomon. It is Wednesday, May 14th, 5:00 a.m. exactly here in New York.

And straight ahead on EARLY START.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We are rocking. The United States is the hottest country, with the exception of your country, I have to say, right? I won't -- I'm not going to take that on.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is his pattern of behavior, not only as it relates to her, prosecutors will say, but as it relates to how he treated people in general.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The Menendez brothers have failed to come clean with the full extent of their criminal conduct.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Because it's 50 to life, they're immediately eligible.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(MUSIC)

SOLOMON: Donald Trump is wrapping up his visit to Saudi Arabia on day two of his nearly week-long Middle East tour, the first major international trip of his second term. He will soon be headed to Qatar for the next leg of his trip.

Last hour, the U.S. president addressed leaders from the Gulf Cooperation Council in Riyadh, and he had this to say about the region.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: The Gulf nations are at the forefront of creating a stable, peaceful and prosperous Middle East, and I have to say that I've seen such progress. It's really incredible. I've also seen great unity and friendships. I've spent a little time with you just before this, and I've seen tremendous unity, tremendous friendship, and the whole world is watching the Middle East. And many are watching with envy. You have something very special going on.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SOLOMON: Earlier, President Trump held his first meeting with Syria's new president one day after announcing plans to lift sanctions on Syria in a major change in U.S. foreign policy.

Let's get to CNN's Paula Hancocks, who is following all of these developments from Abu Dhabi.

Paula, we heard the U.S. president speak for about 5 to 10 minutes in the last hour. He touched on the region, but he also touched on a lot of domestic issues. Take us through a little bit of what we heard.

PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Rahel, I think the most significant thing we heard was in regards to Syria really signaling a very major change in U.S. foreign policy. He said that he is exploring normalizing relations with Syria.

Now, this came just after he had met with President al-Sharaa, also crown prince Saudi Arabia was in attendance. We understand the Turkish president was on the phone as well. So, this was the sit down, the informal meeting between the leaders of Syria and the United States, a very significant change to what we have seen over previous decades.

It comes just a day after the president said that he was going to lift sanctions on Syria. This is something that we know the new government has been pushing for. It's something that Saudi Arabia and Qatar have been pushing President Trump for as well.

They have been supporting Syria. Weve seen, for example, Saudi Arabia and Qatar paying off WTO debts of $15 million for Syria. Qatar is paying the salaries of its public sector workers to try and put them back on a road to recovery.

So, the U.S. president, very much on board with this plan now, in fact, we heard from one senior Saudi source with knowledge of this, saying that the meeting was positive on all levels. Now, of course, one country that will not be happy with this is Israel. We know that Israel did not support the lifting of sanctions against Syria. We have seen expanding military and territorial issues when it comes to Israel and Syria. They have been very active militarily, certainly since Bashar al-Assad. His regime fell last year.

So, this is really the significant geopolitical event that happened in Saudi Arabia. There was also many -- many events when it came to the financial side, the economics, the significant deals of investment that we were expecting from Saudi Arabia. They said that they will be investing some $600 billion into the U.S. economy. In fact, $142 billion of it in a defense partnership.

Now, this has been described by President Trump as the largest defense sales agreement in history. [05:05:04]

So, certainly, from the U.S. president's point of view, this has been a successful first leg of his trip. These are the sorts of deals and big figures that he was looking for, and it would have been considered a success as well from Riyadh's point of view, because they did want to push for sanctions to be lifted against Syria. Now he will be heading shortly to Doha, Qatar, where he will most likely have more investment deals that he will be having announced. We know that he will then be going on to the UAE here, and that is a similar situation that we will see.

That was really considered to be that the focus of these three stops for the U.S. president, very much courting investment and very much announcing these significant deals when it comes to defense, AI, cryptocurrency, technology. But, of course, there are the diplomatic and geopolitical matters that are much to be focused on as well.

Syria really is the most significant when it comes to that change in U.S. foreign policy -- Rahel.

SOLOMON: Yeah, certainly. It's about a 90-minute flight from where he is taking off in Riyadh to Doha. So we'll continue to watch those images.

Paula Hancocks live for us there in Abu Dhabi -- Paula, thank you.

And staying in the region, Israeli strikes in northern Gaza killed at least 56 people overnight. That is according to the Palestinian ministry of health, and a warning that the images you are about to see are graphic.

Video obtained by CNN shows body bags lining the corridors and morgue of a local hospital, a nurse at one of the hospitals told CNN that the majority of those killed were women and children from the Jabalya refugee camp. The barrage of missiles began around midnight, less than an hour after Israel issued evacuation orders.

On Tuesday, there was another military Israeli strike, this one on a hospital in southern Gaza. At least six Palestinians were wounded. Dozens more were wounded. Excuse me, six Palestinians were killed. Dozens more were wounded, according to the Palestinian health ministry.

Now, sources tell CNN that the military attack was targeting Hamas leader Mohammed Sinwar.

Our Jeremy Diamond has the latest from Tel Aviv.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN JERUSALEM CORRESPONDENT: Israel, on Tuesday evening, tried to kill Hamas's leader in Gaza. I'm told that Mohammed Sinwar was indeed the target of an Israeli airstrike on the European hospital in the southern Gaza City of Khan Younis. Thats according to a senior Israeli official and two sources familiar with the matter. The Israeli military has yet to officially confirm that Sinwar was

indeed the target of the strike, and they have also yet to confirm whether or not he was actually killed.

According to the Palestinian ministry of health, at least six people were killed, though in this strike and more than 40 others injured, and many more are still believed to be buried under the rubble, with one doctor at the European hospital describing a catastrophic situation there. The strike hit the hospital's courtyard. According to that hospital official.

Now the Israeli military is accusing Hamas of having a command and control center beneath that hospital, where sources say Mohammed Sinwar was believed to be hiding.

Mohammed Sinwar was elevated to the position of de facto leader of Hamas in Gaza following the Israeli military's killing of his brother, the late Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, back in October. But this strike, the timing of it, is incredibly notable. Coming just one day after Hamas, in what's widely been described as a goodwill gesture released the last living American hostage in Gaza, the Israeli soldier Edan Alexander.

And following Edan Alexander's release, which was intended to kind of jumpstart these hostage deal and ceasefire negotiations, U.S. officials have been sounding much more optimistic about the prospects of a deal. But now, Israel has targeted the man who would have to green light this deal inside of the Gaza Strip, raising a series of questions about the feasibility of reaching a deal in the coming days and questions about Israel's commitment to this negotiating process, even as they sent a delegation earlier on Tuesday to Qatar to pursue these negotiations.

And time is very much ticking down. The Israeli prime minister on Tuesday making very clear that he intends to move forward with plans for the Israeli military to vastly expand its military operations in Gaza as soon as next week.

Jeremy Diamond, CNN, Tel Aviv.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SOLOMON: And Israel's prime minister, spoke by phone with Edan Alexander, the Israeli American hostage who was released by Hamas on Monday. Benjamin Netanyahu's office released a video of the phone call. The prime minister said that he was overjoyed to welcome the 21- year-old back to Israel.

[05:10:03]

Also on the call, U.S. Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff, who praised Netanyahu's efforts to secure Alexander's release. Edan Alexander was the last known living American hostage in Gaza. He was freed after days of talks between Hamas and the U.S., bypassing Israel.

And families of hostages in Gaza are continuing to advocate for their loved ones release and are calling on the U.S. to intervene. A small group of relatives of hostages are planning to meet with President Donald Trump in Qatar. Meanwhile, sources tell CNN that a high-level Israeli delegation is meeting with U.S. envoys for ceasefire and hostage talks in Doha, and Hamas is indirectly involved there.

All right. Still to come for us, the push for peace talks in a key condition put forth by the Ukrainian president. We'll take you live to Kyiv.

Plus, the longtime former girlfriend of music mogul Sean "Diddy" Combs is preparing for a second day on the witness stand after sharing shocking details of abuse.

And later, a historic moment for Major League Baseball. The commissioner now lifting a ban on some of the game's greatest players, who had been blacklisted for decades. The reason why and what it means for the hall of fame still to come.

(COMEMRCIAL BREAK)

[05:15:42]

SOLOMON: Welcome back.

The president of Ukraine is challenging Vladimir Putin to follow through on his offer of direct peace talks. Volodymyr Zelenskyy says that he will travel to Turkey on Thursday to speak personally with Russia's president and only with him, not his envoys, over the weekend. President Putin has suggested the first direct talks since his full-scale invasion of Ukraine. But the Kremlin has since refused to confirm whether he or anyone else would attend a meeting in Turkey.

Let's get right to CNN chief international security correspondent Nick Paton Walsh, who joins us live from Kyiv.

And, Nick, you were able to speak to Zelenskyy about these talks.

What did he tell you?

NICK PATON WALSH, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, I mean, just for the avoidance of doubt, for anybody here, we know that Zelenskyy is traveling to Turkey. He said that he will initially go to Ankara, the capital, to meet with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. And then indeed, he said, for the avoidance of enabling Moscow to manipulate the situation, if it turns out that Russian President Vladimir Putin turns up in Istanbul, then both Zelenskyy and Erdogan will fly to Istanbul for that particular meeting.

What we don't know at this point is exactly the nature of the Russian contingent going. There have been suggestions they might be preparing for a foreign minister style level meeting. We know that significant parts of the U.S. security cabinet are going to be attending, Witkoff, Kellogg, Rubio, potentially as well. That's a large U.S. contingent.

Trump's presence appears to be dependent upon the arrival of Putin and a meeting with Zelenskyy. So really, all fingers pointing towards the decision of Vladimir Putin here. But when I asked Zelenskyy yesterday exactly what his kind of baseline minimal goal for that meeting would be.

Here's what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

WALSH: If this meeting does go ahead and does not result in an immediate 30-day ceasefire, will you consider that to have -- to have been a failure?

VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY, UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT: No. Of course, it means that Russia is not ready for diplomacy. It means only one side. It's only about Russia, but has been if they will not, if Putin will not come or if ceasefire will not be supported by Russians, by Putin, exactly by him.

So, it means only one thing that Russia is not ready for any kind of negotiation, no time for playing games on the technical level and et cetera. It's mean -- it means that they are not -- I mean, this supportive all of these things and it's mean only one thing that we need to be more strong, unite and tough on them.

And today I see only one thing. Sanctions, of course. Of course, if I will have connection with the President Trump. Of course, not only sanctions and I will tell him so you see that we need that sanctions have to be powerful, and we need a little bit of time for this, when sanctions will be -- will have influence.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WALSH: Now we have just hearing now the European Union are putting in another package of sanctions. Important to remind this is relatively minor and some of it repeats of old moves. It is not the enormous, massive sanctions that French President Emmanuel Macron and the U.K., Germany and Poland all said would follow if Russia ignored the ceasefire deadline of Monday. That's now passed.

All the emphasis now on the Russian offer to meet in Istanbul, and the nature of that meeting. And indeed, if Trump is willing to back the Europeans in that massive sanctions package, if Putin doesn't attend, or in the view of Zelenskyy there, agreed to a ceasefire.

But just remember the meeting that is being queued up here and how complex that indeed will be. For Zelenskyy, he knows he has to attend to keep Trump happy, and the notion that he's doing all he can for a peaceful solution here. But being stood alongside Vladimir Putin is very difficult indeed domestically for Ukrainian president, given the damage and horrors that Russia's inflicted in its war of choice here, Vladimir Putin, even given the narrative dominating Russian media that they're at war with all of NATO and indeed the United States, too, there is some complexity being seen, perhaps alongside the head of the White House, despite the sea change in relations, that Trump's arrival there has indeed been.

And for Trump, too, there's a make-or-break element to this as well.

[05:20:03]

I'm sure some around him might feel discomfort with that level of proximity with Putin, but ultimately he's granting a bilateral meeting with the kremlin head through the auspices of peace. The big winner, potentially, of this meeting will be Trump, seen as the dealmaker, the meeting fixer. But really, if something can immediately come out of that, that's a significant lift and ask maybe, as you heard there from Zelenskyy, a ceasefire could follow.

But I think even if the meeting happens, it will be the beginning of something potentially, and also a sign too. I think that the kremlin have ultimately been able to set the timetable here. This will have been a meeting, they suggested if Putin attends, it will be his decision to be there. And so, most important, I think, is Trump's level of support for Ukraine and Europe. If indeed the expectations for this meeting aren't realized.

SOLOMON: Yeah, Nick, I mean, I take your point that there are all sorts of sensitive considerations for all parties involved here. I'm curious if the expectation that Putin will attend is a serious one or a credible one moving forward. I mean, what's the sense from what you can gather?

WALSH: Yeah. I mean, look, I wish I knew if Putin would actually attend the feeling, perhaps I think it's fair to say is that if Putin doesn't attend, that is a clear snub to President Trump. He did say a couple of days ago that he hoped the two leaders would be there. And he has treaded softly when it comes to Russia since the Saturday deadline from his European allies for a ceasefire.

He has not been staunchly critical. That may be a bid to try and coax Putin indeed into attending. But I think it's also important to overestimate how much Putin really cares about what Trump thinks. Russia has isolated itself from the outside world, tried to get immune to the sanctions already against it.

The notion of massive secondary sanctions, like had been floated by the White House against those who purchase Russian energy, principally India and China, is an enormously complex task given everything else going on in the world right now between the U.S., China and India.

And so, the exact amount of leverage the White House has is potentially debatable here. The exact amount that Putin really wants to keep Trump in in sort of his orbit. Yes. I think he certainly wants to let the Americans feel that diplomacy can continue to have its role.

But it's important, I think, not to overestimate the relationship between Trump and Putin. Trump seems to want to keep Putin happy. Putin seems less keen on the other way around -- Rahel.

SOLOMON: Okay, we will certainly watch on Thursday. Nick Paton Walsh in Kyiv. Appreciate the reporting. Thank you. All right. Still ahead for us returning to the stand, a key witness in

the trial of music mogul Sean "Diddy" Combs gets ready to resume her explosive testimony.

We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[05:27:17]

SOLOMON: Welcome back.

The former girlfriend of Sean "Diddy" Combs is headed back to the stand for a second day in his racketeering and sex trafficking trial. Cassie Ventura delivered emotional testimony for the prosecution on Tuesday, accusing the music mogul of using violence, drugs and other forms of intimidation to -- excuse me -- coerce her into group sex parties.

CNN's Elizabeth Wagmeister has the details. And a warning that some of them are graphic.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ELIZABETH WAGMEISTER, CNN ENTERTAINMENT CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): From stardom alongside Sean "Diddy" Combs, to star witness in the case against him, 38-year-old singer Cassie Ventura took the stand, saying Combs forced her to participate in drug fueled sex marathons called freak offs, where she'd have sex with male escorts, with Combs directing her. The events involved drug use that led to dehydration, Ventura said, taking a big chunk of her life to recover from.

The jury was shown surveillance video of Combs kicking and dragging Ventura as she tried to flee one alleged freak offs in 2016, with Ventura saying Combs became a different person during those events.

His eyes would go black. The version of him that I was in love with was no longer there, she testified, adding that the abuse was chronic. He would smash me in my head, knock me over, drag me.

The prosecution insisting this was more than domestic abuse.

JOEY JACKSON, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: This is his pattern of behavior not only as it relates to her, prosecutors will say, but as it relates to how he treated people in general. This is part of the sex trafficking. This is how he ran his enterprise.

WAGMEISTER: An enterprise that ran on control over what I was doing every minute of the day, Ventura testified, and allegedly, with the help of others inside Combs professional world. She described Combs as an incessant caller. And if she didn't pick up the phone, Combs's assistant or security personnel would locate her for him.

The criminal indictment alleges Combs's staffers booked hotel rooms for the freak-offs, some in cities around the world, stocking the rooms with supplies, including drugs and baby oil. That alleged involvement is part of why Combs was charged with the federal crime of racketeering conspiracy. He's pleaded not guilty to five charges that also include sex trafficking by force, fraud and coercion, and transportation to engage in prostitution. Since some sex workers cross state lines.

Ventura met Combs when she was 19 and admits she was enamored by him, saying her career was in his hands. But eventually, she tried to escape the abuse after feeling disgusted and humiliated.

During testimony, Ventura dabbed her nose and eyes, but broke down in tears when asked by the prosecutor if she enjoyed anything about the freak-offs. The time spent with him, she said of Combs, who she admits she loved early on.

[05:30:00]