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Early Start with Rahel Solomon

Houthis Killed And Kidnapped Cargo Ship Crew Following Attack In Red Sea; Trump To Impose 50 Percent Tariff On Copper; Marco Rubio Makes First Visit To Asia As Trump Tariffs Loom; Awkward Moment Donald Trump Praises Liberian President's English; Musk-Owned X's CEO Yaccarino To Step Down In Surprise Move; Kim Jong Un Builds Luxury Beach Resort Trump Once Pitched. Aired 4:30-5a ET

Aired July 10, 2025 - 04:30   ET

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

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MJ LEE, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL ENTERPRISE CORRESPONDENT: -- Houthi rebels of kidnapping crew members from one of the cargo ships they have attacked in the Red Sea this week. They're also accused of killing other crew members and hampering the rescue efforts as well.

A British maritime group says the Liberian flagged vessel called Eternity C sank on Wednesday after being under attack for three days. The Houthis took responsibility, saying the ship was on its way to Israel. They vowed to attack any vessels headed to that country until the war in Gaza ends.

President Trump is threatening more countries with hefty new tariffs. We'll have those details and an awkward moment at the White House will tell you what President Trump said during a meeting with African leaders.

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LEE: The U.S. President announced an array of new tariffs on Wednesday that include a 50 percent levy on copper imports to the US. He says America will once again build a dominant copper industry. The metal is a key component in defense equipment, semiconductors and batteries. Donald Trump is also going after Brazil, threatening a crippling 50 percent tariff in part because of what he calls a witch hunt against Yair Bolsonaro, the right wing former president who has boasted about his closeness to President Trump who is on trial for allegedly trying to stage a coup.

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

And tariff tensions have been looming over a summit of the association of Southeast Asian Nations. Donald Trump's top diplomat, Marco Rubio, is likely facing questions and frustrations during talks with his ASEAN counterparts. He's been meeting with the Malaysian foreign minister, whose country was told on Monday that it would face a 25 percent tariff on its exports to the US. Eight of the 10 Asian countries will be hit with new U.S. tariffs on August 1st if no trade deals are reached and if the deadline holds.

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

And here's where the U.S. Futures stands ahead of today's opening bell. The Dow, S and P and NASDAQ all expected to open lower. And here's a look at the Asia Pacific markets. Nikkei slightly down with the other three Hang Seng, Shanghai and Seoul Kospi all in the green.

There was an awkward moment at the White House on Wednesday. Donald Trump praised the president of Liberia for his, quote, good English, even though English is the official language of Liberia. This happened during a meeting between the U.S. president and the leaders of five African countries. CNN's Larry Madowo has more.

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LARRY MADOWO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: What President Trump led with at this meeting with five African nations showed the true intentions of this White House gathering. The leaders of Mauritania, Senegal, Gabon, Guinea Bissau and Liberia have all one thing in common. They're small economies, but with rich mineral deposits, rare earth minerals, gold, oil, manganese, iron ore. And they're offering these to the United States, to American companies. They're looking for win-win solutions, as President Brice Oligui Nguema of Gabon said.

President Bassirou Diomaye Faye went even further, though. He actually offered a golfing investment opportunity for President Trump and said it would be a few hours flight from Miami, from D.C., you can show off your golfing skills because world leaders have learned that to really do business with President Trump, you have to appeal to him, you have to fawn. And they all did that beautifully.

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

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

MADOWO: An awkward moment there after President Joseph Boakai of Liberia spoke and President Trump appeared to be supporting surprised that he spoke such excellent English. He asked him, what did you learn to speak English so beautifully? And President Boakai smiled and nodded and said it was in Liberia. He didn't point out that English is the official language of Liberia. Another curious moment, President Trump handpicked one of his favorite

reporters, an African reporter, and she asked these leaders if they would nominate President Trump for the Nobel Peace Prize, which she knows has become a recent obsession of President Trump.

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

These countries are not explicit allies of BRICS, and so they're easier entry points for the U.S. into this new commercial diplomacy that President Trump is favoring in relations with Africa. Larry Madowo, CNN, Lagos, Nigeria.

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LEE: A brain drain appears to be taking place inside some of Elon Musk's biggest companies. The CEO of his social media firm, X, Linda Yaccarino, announced her resignation Wednesday after two years on the job. Musk has also seen other top executives leave Tesla and xAI in recent months.

Yaccarino didn't say why she's leaving, but it comes amid controversy involving xAI's chat bot, Grok, launching into antisemitic rant in response to user inquiries. XAI now says it's working to remove Grok's inappropriate posts. The language model's sudden shift to hate speech comes weeks after Musk said he'd update the chat bot because he felt some of its replies were too politically correct. CNN's Hadas Gold has more Safe cities and sensible cities.

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HADAS GOLD, MEDIA CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Elon Musk vowed to retrain his AI system, known as Grok, after growing angry with its answers. He said we're parroting legacy media.

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

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

When CNN asked Grok its sources for some of these posts, it said 4chan, a favorite forum for extremists known for its hateful conduct.

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

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

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

GOLD (voice-over): But extremists were celebrating the changes. The founder of the far-right forum Gab posting incredible things are happening. Musk himself has been accused in the past of trafficking and antisemitism, which he has denied.

MUSK: You know, obviously I'm against antisemitism. I'm against anti, really anything that is, you know, that promotes hate and conflict.

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

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

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

GOLD: XAI publicly post some of the prompts and the back ends for Grok on the coding site GitHub as part of a transparency effort. And users pointed out that there was a particular line that was taken out on Tuesday evening after this controversy erupted. And that line read as the following. It said GROK should not shy away from making claims which are politically incorrect as long as they are well substantiated. But on Tuesday evening, that prompt, that direction for Grok was deleted. Hadas Gold, CNN, New York.

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LEE: And just a quick update for you. We saw French President Emmanuel Macron arriving at 10 Downing Street. He of course is in London to meet with a bunch of U.K. leaders, including of course, Keir Starmer. You see there the two leaders shaking hands. They are all gathered at the Coalition of the Willing, a conference in London. We'll continue to keep an eye out.

A sweeping display of extravagance in one of the world's poorest and most reclusive nations. But for North Korea, this is more than a resort. It's a monument to self-reliance. We'll explain.

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LEE: North Korea recently unveiled a grand seaside resort, taking a page from the Trump playbook and beating the US President to the punch. Donald Trump first pitched the idea to North Korean leader Kim Jong UN years ago. CNN's Will Ripley has our report.

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WILL RIPLEY, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Kim Jong Un's yacht glides ashore on North Korea's eastern coast, the Wonsan Kalma coastal tourist zone. Miles of white sand beaches, water sports, luxury villas, 1,500 hotel rooms.

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Wonsan was known as the ruling Kim family's favorite summer retreat and one of North Korea's most active military testing grounds.

TRUMP: But they have great beaches. You see that whenever they're exploding their cannons into the ocean. And I explained, I said, you know, instead of doing that, you could have the best hotels in the world right there.

RIPLEY (voice-over): President Donald Trump once pitched U.S. investment in Wonsan.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Where the doors of opportunity are ready to be open. Investment from around the world. One moment, one choice.

RIPLEY (voice-over): Today, seven years later, Kim beat Trump to the punch, building it on his own. The resort features grand hotels with luxurious amenities, even international grade summit halls. A soft power backdrop, perhaps setting the stage for diplomacy.

Kim did bring the Russian ambassador for the grand opening. These days, Pyongyang reportedly won't even accept Trump's letters at the United Nations. Kim's wife, Ri Sol Ju, made her first state media appearance in more than a year, often walking several steps behind her husband and their teenage daughter, believed to be Kim Ju Ae.

She often appears alongside her father at official events, fueling speculation she's being groomed as a possible successor. Kim personally inspected the Wonsan project at least six times, including once when I was there reporting for CNN.

RIPLEY: On the ground here in North Korea now, they're building a beachfront resort that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un came here to Wonsan to inspect just yesterday.

How have things improved under Kim Jong Un?

Every day we see changes, he told me, like new construction.

RIPLEY (voice-over): The new resort includes a massive water park and a surf machine generating artificial waves. And this very real wipeout. Even grannies firing pistols on horseback. This retiree says she was moved to tears thinking about how their leader has given them such amazing benefits. Even as much of the country still struggles with food shortages, medical care and electricity.

Now North Korea celebrates a resort. Kim built it without Trump, without aid, without compromise, and with every single one of his nuclear weapons still intact.

RIPLEY: They built it, but who will come? Aside from locals, only Russian tour groups can visit the beach resort. Certainly no Westerners, not even Chinese tourists, at least for now. Fact, it may be quite some time before North Korea even comes close to being able to fill those dozens of brand new hotels designed to accommodate up to 20,000 people. Will Ripley, CNN, Taipei.

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LEE: And we are continuing to keep an eye out on 10 Downing Street where we see outside a number of world leaders gathered together, including French President Emmanuel Macron and U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer. You see them there now. They are gathered again at Coalition of the Willing conference in London. We will continue to keep an eye.

And finally, it's a busy week for the royals. King Charles and Queen Camilla are marking 40 years of artists accompanying official royal visits overseas. A new exhibition showcases dozens of artists who have joined King Charles on 70 tours across 95 countries. CNN's Christina Macfarlane got a sneak peek inside Buckingham Palace.

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CHRISTINA MACFARLANE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: While most of us rely on our phones to take holiday snaps or remind us of the good times, King Charles does things slightly differently.

MACFARLANE (voice-over): For the past 40 years, he has personally commissioned an artist to join him on 70 official visits across 95 countries and regions. The collection is going on display to the public inside Buckingham Palace for the first time starting Thursday. And we've been given an early look, starting with a scene from the royal yacht painted by the King himself alongside artist John Ward.

KATE HEARD, CURATOR, THE KING'S TOUR ARTISTS: It's a view from Britannia looking back out over the sea on that 1985 tour to Italy. And you can see the King's own watercolor there. His Majesty, also an artist himself.

We know that on the earlier tours, His Majesty was able to paint alongside those tour artists. Often as the pace of tours has increased, there's been less chance to do that.

MACFARLANE: So when you talk about the challenges for a touring artist, what do you mean by that exactly?

HEARD: Well, a royal tour moves very fast. It's very carefully choreographed, and it moves at real pace. And an artist needs time to create their work of art.

This is by an artist called Luke Allsbrook, who had 30 minutes to catch the scene.

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He didn't create this wonderful large canvas in that 30 minutes, but he set up his easel. You see, he's chosen that really wide view. This is Washington State. You can see the royal party in the field there. Just going to visit that farmhouse.

MACFARLANE: I've heard the king say that his own works of art for himself serve as a sort of photo album of his own life. Do you think the reason behind doing this is something similar?

HEARD: Well, certainly these works provide a record, but they also provide an interpretation of the tours. Each of them is the artist's response to the place that they've visited.

MACFARLANE: What's your favorite?

HEARD: I have a favorite.

MACFARLANE: You do.

HEARD: I do have a favorite, but I think everybody will have a favorite. So I think that in some ways my favorite isn't important because everybody will take a different favorite away. Everybody will react to a different work of art.

MACFARLANE: For me personally, it's this one. A couple on a beach in a rare moment of calm amidst the chaos of royal life on tour.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LEE: Thank you for joining us. I'm MJ Lee in Washington DC. I'll be back with another hour of Early Start after the break.

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