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Early Start with Rahel Solomon
Donald Trump's State Visit To The U.K.; Trump Files $15 Billion Defamation Lawsuit Against The New York Times; Israel begins ground offensive in Gaza City; U.S. And China Reach TikTok Deal Framework; Musk Buys 1 Billion Tesla Shares, Erasing 2025 Losses. Aired 4:30-5a ET
Aired September 16, 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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KEVIN LIPTAK, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Of course, it's not all ceremony. President Trump will meet with Keir Starmer at his country residence Chequers on Thursday. They're planning to announce a new agreement on nuclear civilian power. They're going to talk about new investments in tech.
And of course, there are some differences between these two men when it comes to Ukraine, the Europeans trying to convince President Trump to apply new sanctions on Russia. So all of that a point of discussion between the two men on Thursday.
Of course, for Keir Starmer, who is somewhat beleaguered politically, it will also be a delicate balance with the president. And major protests are expected in Britain while the president is there. And in fact, he's spending virtually no time in the capital of London, which is where these protests will be centered.
Almost all of his time will be spent at Windsor or at the country residents up at Chequers. And so certainly I think for President Trump, the lasting images from this trip will be of the pomp and the grandeur, all sort of epitomizing the special relationship between the U.S. and the United Kingdom. Kevin Liptak, CNN, the White House.
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BRIAN ABEL, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: President Trump has filed a $15 billion defamation and libel suit against the New York Times, four of its reporters and book publisher Penguin Random House. He accuses The Times of making false statements about him, his family and his businesses.
And he says Penguin maliciously published a book called "Lucky Loser: How Donald Trump Squandered His Father's Fortune and Created the Illusion of Success." CNN has reached out to the New York Times for comments.
Much more ahead on our breaking news. Israel begins its ground offensive to occupy Gaza City. Stay with us.
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ABEL: We are following breaking news this hour to Israeli officials telling CNN the IDF has launched its ground incursion into Gaza City. We have been hearing explosions and seeing smoke from camera positions in southern Israel throughout the morning. Some of those images right here.
Hospital officials telling CNN Israeli strikes have killed at least 41 people in overnight strikes. The Israeli military has accelerated its attacks on high rise buildings in Gaza City over the past week, claiming Hamas is using them to monitor the movements of Israeli troops.
The incursion was said to proceed only after the Israeli military forced the evacuation of the densely populated urban area. But only a fraction of the population has left so far.
More than 10 percent of Gaza's population have been killed or injured since the war began. That's according to a former Israeli military chief who oversaw the first 17 months of the conflict. And that number is expected to rise now that Israel has launched its ground operation in Gaza City. CNN's Jeremy Diamond has more on the lead up today's incursion and a warning. Some of the images you are about to see are disturbing.
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JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN JERUSALEM CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Gaza City trembles with each new blast. Lately, its residents have faced one strike after another. The reality on the ground is even more terrifying. Bloodied and shaken, the injured are rushed out amid swirls of smoke and ash.
Wounded children carried once again into hospitals ill equipped to handle the rising tide of casualties that accompanies Israel's intensifying bombardment of Gaza city. More than 140 were killed here over the weekend, according to local hospitals.
A wave of attacks that shook many here into fleeing the city. Sleepy children bundled into their parents, arms, essential belongings lugged by those forced to move once again.
At daybreak, their numbers multiply, a mass exodus on a scale not seen in Gaza in many months. More than 100,000 people were displaced this weekend alone, according to Israeli military estimates. I'm coming from death, indiscriminate bombardments, martyrs in the streets, Mohammed says. It is a miracle we survived.
Old and young press south towards an uncertain future. Those who can afford it pay to ride on top of trucks and trailers. For many here, this is not a first. They have been forced to pile their entire lives on top of cars and makeshift carts before. They have already lost so much, and they are exhausted.
This man says 25 of his relatives have already been killed. I left only for these children, but I wish a rocket would hit me and I die and find comfort because this is not life, he says, his frustration rising.
The hundreds of thousands who still remain in Gaza City will face much more destruction and loss as Israel prepares to send ground forces into the city in the coming days.
[04:40:04]
Ahmed is inconsolable as he walks amid the rubble of another Israeli strike. A military evacuation order allowed him to escape with his life, but little else. The house is gone. Where will we stay? He cries. But he won't find any answers here. And so many others are asking themselves the same question. Jeremy Diamond, CNN, Jerusalem.
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ABEL: And our thanks to Jeremy for that report. And of course, we now know that the ground operation to occupy Gaza city has begun. CNN's Paula Hancocks joins me now live. And Paula, there are stark words from UNICEF about the plight of children in Gaza as well as those images that we just saw there.
And you couple that with a new U.N. report, an independent commission finding that Israel is committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza.
PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Brian, this is an independent U.N. inquiry which has concluded on reasonable grounds that Israel is committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza. Now it is a 72-page report. It had been commissioned by the Human Rights Council and it also found that there was incitement to genocide, naming three individuals in Israel, the current president, the current prime minister and also the former Defense minister Yoav Gallant.
Now the reports also found that statements made by Israeli authorities are direct evidence of genocidal intents. Now it is the first time that we have a report like this from a U.N. affiliated group or at least a U.N. commissioned report that has found that there is genocides being committed.
Now they say four of the five counts the Israelis have been found that they have committed genocide on there are five counts under the Genocide convention. If any one of them is agreed to by a certain entity that is considered genocide by that entity. But they believe four out of five have been committed.
Now we have heard a response from Israel. They have rejected the report. They have called it a fake report. There was a statement by the Israeli Foreign Ministry also saying that they believe the authors of the report are proxies for Hamas, saying that the report relies entirely on Hamas falsehoods laundered and repeated by others. Now the Human Rights Council which has commissioned this report has
long been accused by Israel of having anti-Israel bias. Now this is not the first report that we are hearing accusing Israel of genocide. In fact, we heard just in July of this year two Israeli human rights groups that said they believed that their country was committing genocide.
We also heard at the beginning of this month, on 1st September, the International Association of Genocide Scholars saying that they believed of five of the five counts that Israel was committing genocide. Now Israel has rejected all of these accusations in the past, saying that it is biased, that it is based on information that is given by Hamas.
We also heard a U.N. Special committee in November of last year that said that they believed Israel's warfare methods were consistent with genocide.
So this is something that is significant. It is something we will be hearing far more about and we are certainly hearing more countries around the world veering towards this distinction. But this is a U.N. Inquiry, an independent body commissioned by the Human Rights Council, that it has decided that Israel is committing genocide.
They say that its life expectancy in the first year of the war dropped from 75.5 years to 40.5 years. They also say when they were looking at that first 12 months of the year, that 46 percent of those that had been killed were women and children.
But they also said that once in March of this year, once the cease fire, that three month cease fire collapsed and the war resumed once again, they say in that first week, almost 60 percent of those killed were women and children. Brian.
ABEL: An alarming report. Paula Hancocks for us in Abu Dhabi. Paula, thank you.
[04:45:00]
Ahead, details on a possible deal to save TikTok in the U.S. and why it could lead to a meeting between the Chinese and American presidents.
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ABEL: Negotiators from China and the U.S. say they've reached a framework deal that would allow TikTok to keep operating in the United States.
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The Chinese social media giant was facing a Wednesday deadline to sell at least part of its U.S. business to an American backed owner. Little information has actually been made public about the pending agreement or who the possible buyer is, but President Trump and Xi Jinping are poised to seal the deal during a call on Friday. That could pave the way for a face to face meeting in Asia next month.
And Tesla CEO Elon Musk opened his wallet on Monday to buy an additional $1 billion worth of Tesla stock. The move has virtually erased all of Tesla's losses so far this year. At one point shares were down 42 percent from the end of last year, but on Monday they closed up nearly 4 percent.
It's seen as a vote of confidence from Musk, who has refocused on his company's after exiting his advisor role to President Donald Trump. The rise in Tesla stock on Monday alone added more than five and a half billion dollars to his net worth.
There's just a few hours left to bid on pieces of television history. Bottoms is hosting an auction featuring props and costumes used in the hit period drama Downton Abbey. Downton Abbey, the grand finale hit theaters last week and CNN's Richard Quest takes a look at what's on the auction block.
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HARVEYR CAMMELL, HEAD AUCTIONEER, BONHAMS: Families like ours must keep moving to --
RICHARD QUEST, CNN BUSINESS EDITOR-AT-LARGE (voice-over): As the world prepares to say goodbye to the Grantham family and their beloved Downton Abbey, a select few will get the chance to take home a piece of the series forever.
CAMMELL: Going back last 20 years.
QUEST (voice-over): This auction of Bonham's in London includes 266 pieces.
QUEST: Does it work?
CAMMELL: It does work. We drove it in here.
QUEST (voice-over): From the Grantham families 1925 Sunbeam Saloon.
CAMMELL: You can speak on your mobile connector through Tom the chauffeur. So enjoy your ride.
QUEST (voice-over): To the house telephone that was installed in season one.
QUEST: Hello, this is Downton Abbey Castle, the butler speaking.
QUEST (voice-over): And dresses. Lots and lots of period dresses worn by everyone from the Dowager Countess, the late Dame Maggie Smith, of course, to Lady Mary, played by Michelle Dockery and Jessica Brown Finlay. There's of course, Lady Sybil.
CAMMELL: You've got this unforgettable harem pants that Lady Sybil wore and no one would forget that scene when she comes into the drawing room and everyone's rather shocked when she's wearing it.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Good evening everyone.
QUEST: What is it about Downton that appeals to us so much?
CAMMELL: I think it's the story. It's a beautiful story. It's a story of a family and we live with that family for a generation and we watch the drama unfold, the. The lives, deaths, births, marriages unfold. It's also the glamour, it's the fashion and the clothes, it's that spark.
QUEST: The sort of thing I would love to buy the toast rack from Downton, just to have that.
CAMMELL: Again, it's within reach.
QUEST: Yeah.
CAMMELL: Just a very low estimate.
QUEST: So why am I interested in a toaster from Downton? A toast rack?
CAMMELL: I'm delighted to hear you are, Richard. And, and it's the fact that you're drawn, you love the series, you're you. Perhaps you've seen it in that particular scene that you loved. Or it could be that you just want something, a token piece, a keepsake from the series and it'll be a talking point in your life for the rest of your days.
QUEST: Its pathetic ness as that. I want to be able to say, to know that toast rack came from Downton Abbey.
CAMMELL: I think it's pathetic at all. I think it's the stuff of life. It's the stories and it's stories upon stories and it's the -- it's what makes the world go round.
QUEST (voice-over): Bidders have until the 16th of September to make their offers. Carnival Films, the producer of Downton Abbey, will donate the proceeds of the auction to the U.K. charity Together for Short Lives, which supports children with life threatening conditions and their families.
CAMMELL: Currently at 16, 000 on the bidding.
QUEST (voice-over): One of the star lots of this auction. The bell wall from the servants hall.
QUEST: So these are all the bedrooms?
CAMMELL: Yes.
QUEST: All the suites. And these are all the dining room, the Warner room, the library, the small library, the saloon, the front door, the back door, the study, the drawing room. Oh, this is wonderful.
CAMMELL: There are four great designers who created this series, the last one being Anna Robbins who's also working on the films. And it's that mix, it's the design from the Edwardian period through to the Roaring Twenties, those wonderful flapper dresses. It's the level of detail that went into it and that's the craft. But that's the part also people have come and flocked to see here at Bonhams.
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QUEST (voice-over): Bonham estimates the entire auction will bring in more than a quarter of a million dollars, but the hope is that might even double or triple when the final bids are made.
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ABEL: All right. To an exciting Monday Night Football double header that did not disappoint. First to Houston, where the Texans face the Buccaneers. Tampa Bay quarterback Baker Mayfield throwing two touchdowns, including that one right there. A dime to Ryan Miller.
But it was a two yard run by Rashad White with just nine seconds left that put the Buccaneers over the top. The final score, Tampa 20, Houston 19.
And in Las Vegas, the Raiders hosting the Chargers. Justin Herbert with two touchdown passes, including the six 60 yard bomb to Quinton Johnston. Final score there. LA 20, Las Vegas 9.
Thank you so much for joining us. I'm Brian Abel in Washington. The news continues after a quick break.
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