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One World with Zain Asher

New Dispatch Audio of Firefighter Requesting Emergency Alert; Ways You Can Help Those Impacted by Texas Flood; Mahmoud Khalil Describes Conditions in I.C.E. Detention Center; Official: 15 People Killed in Strike Outside Health Clinic; Trump Threatens Canada with a 35 Percent Tariff; Justine Bieber's Not "Sorry" for Bringing "Swag" Back. Aired 11a-12p ET

Aired July 11, 2025 - 11:00   ET

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

[11:00:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ZAIN ASHER, CNN HOST, ONE WORLD: President Donald Trump is on his way to visit areas of Texas devastated by last week's deadly flooding. "One World"

starts right now. With calls for accountability growing CNN has obtained new dispatch audio revealing urgent calls for emergency alerts to be sent

hours before the floods.

Plus, after the deadliest month on record for civilians in Ukraine, President Trump says he struck a deal with NATO to get weapons for their

fight against Russia. And employees at the State Department are bracing for mass firings today. We'll have more on that later on in the show.

All right. Coming to you live from New York. I'm Zain Asher, my colleague, Bianna Golodryga, is off today. You are watching "One World". U.S.

President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump, heading to Central Texas this hour to survey damage from those catastrophic floods that took

place a week ago today.

They're going to meet with families of the victims, first responders and local and state officials as the death toll crimes. At least 121 people

have died, dozens are still missing. The president spoke to reporters as he left the White House last hour.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: It's a horrible thing, a horrible thing. Nobody can even believe it such a thing. That much

water, that fast, without a dam break. You'd think a dam would have to break the habit. So, the terrible thing. But we're going to be there with

some of the great families and others the governor everybody going to be there.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ASHER: The trip comes as questions grow about how the response was handled at the local, state and federal levels. White House is pushing back on

criticism that as policies weakened government defenses against disaster threats. Just months ago, officials in the hard-hit Kerr County had warned

of flood risk and a need for alarm systems.

And on the day of the disaster, early on July 4th, as floodwaters surged, local firefighter actually asked an alert be sent out to warn the public.

CNN has actually obtained a dispatch audio recording of that call. It took nearly six hours before some residents got that alert. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Is there any way we can send a CodeRED out to our Hunt residents asking them to find higher ground or stay home?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: 10-4 stand by, we have to get that approved with our supervisor.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ASHER: Well, let's explore this issue further with Donell Harvin and he's Homeland Security Analyst and a Former Washington D.C. Chief of Homeland

Security and Intelligence. He serves as faculty at Georgetown University's Emergency and Disaster Management Master's Program.

Donell, thank you so much for being with us. I just want to get your reaction, first and foremost, to this idea that you had a local firefighter

in Texas essentially ordering or asking, rather than an emergency alert be issued to residents, and it took nearly six hours for some, not all, but

six hours for some residents to get that alert. Your response to that.

DONELL HARVIN, HOMELAND SECURITY ANALYST: Well, that's common that the first responders who are actually out there in the field and see and

experience the conditions as they were unfolding, relay information to their dispatcher. What that audio and the lack of action tells us is there

some type of bureaucracy that happened that prevented that alert from going out.

Meanwhile, there were national weather service alerts that did go out. But what we experienced the United States and probably not uncommon to many

other countries, when you get these types of storm alerts, is what we call alert fatigue. And so, while people reported that they got them, some

people reported they didn't get them, but those who reported that they got them didn't really respond to them.

Had that dispatcher been able to relay that firefighters, kind of a request, I think that would have placed more urgency against that alert,

and people may have responded.

ASHER: Yeah. So, in the recording, the firefighter essentially asks at 04:22 in the morning, this is the morning of July 4th. Obviously, if a

CodeRED alert can be issued, the dispatcher tells him that a supervisor needs to approve that request.

[11:05:00]

So, I mean just in terms of lessons learned, right? Because that's the whole point of this analysis, this forensic analysis, you've got to be able

to learn lessons here to be able to apply it to the next disaster, not if, but when that next disaster happens. So, you have a dispatcher essentially

saying that, look, our supervisor needs to approve that request.

What needs to be changed. You talk about bureaucracy being the hold up, but six hours obviously could have saved lives. What do you think needs to

change?

HARVIN: One clear that firefighter knew that there was a mechanism to get an urgent alert out, because he called it a code red, which means there's a

policy procedure. What lawmakers and investigators will have to do is to see if that policy and procedure was in place. Was it followed by all

layers of government?

Clearly, at 4 o'clock in the morning, you know, you probably had to wake people up, and it's quite difficult to wake them up and get authorization.

So, a streamlined process is clearly what's needed. But I have to tell you, and to the international viewers, there are multiple levels of failures

from the federal government all the way down to the state and the local government that are going to be brought to bear from this disaster.

And so, this is just one thing that we're looking at, but we think that it's obvious that multiple issues occurred at all levels of government that

really need to be analyzed.

ASHER: Yeah, and also just in terms of why, some residents it only took an hour for them to receive that alert, and other residents, it took up to six

hours. Just what would you attribute that discrepancy to, do you think?

HARVIN: Well, it's quite interesting. I've been involved in issuing those alerts, and I've received those alerts as a regular citizen, and it all

depends on whether you're signed up for those alerts. This is a tourist location, so it was reported that many of the individuals that were

camping, particularly near the river, weren't from that region, so they may have not been signed up for the alerts, like a local would have been, or

someone who frequents that area.

And so that's what's going to need to be looked at. Obviously, you know, everyone has the opportunity on their smartphone to opt out of alerts. And

so that all depends on once again, where you're traveling with the opt out of alert. And you know whether the government actually has your contact

information to alert you.

ASHER: It is really difficult, right? Because you pointed out that, look at the end of the day, this happened in the very, very early hours of July

4th. I mean, a lot of people, of course, are still sleeping, and then you have the combined fact that these floodwaters rose just so quickly. I mean,

that's why it's called a flash flood, right?

Because it happened so quickly. But in terms of the budget cuts and the staffing shortages at FEMA that a quarter of the staff had been, you know,

had been sort of removed from their positions. Did that contribute to any of this at all, just in terms of the early response here? Your thoughts on

that?

HARVIN: Well, there's experts like myself and lawmakers who are suggesting that they did contribute to the response or the delay in response. There's

a couple of things that we're looking at that may have contributed. The first thing is that the Secretary of Homeland Security, who is basically in

charge of the FEMA Administrator, was put into place last month a policy that very small contracts.

We're talking about 100,000 U.S. need to go all the way to her desk to sign off on. These disasters are multibillion dollar disasters, and so when

you're getting that type of high-level signs off, it takes a long time, and that's what's been attributed to the delay in urban search and rescue teams

taking over 72 hours just to get the authorization to respond.

In terms of the brain drain, many, many viewers may not know, but you know, we've had something called DOGE in the United States, which is basically

government efficiency activities at the highest level. So really slashing government agencies because of, you know, waste and graft.

So, a lot of individuals, almost a third of FEMA senior leadership, have gone and they really lack senior executive leadership that have responded

to these disasters in the past.

ASHER: Donell Harvin live for us. Thank you so much for sharing your perspective and analysis. We appreciate it. Right, as crews search for some

160 missing in Texas, many people are asking how they can prepare for natural disasters which are becoming more frequent and more intense because

of, of course, manmade climate change.

Just go to CNN's Chief Climate Correspondent, Bill Weir live in Hunt, Texas. I mean, Bill, how do you prepare for something like this? You know,

especially when you, as I was mentioning to our analysts earlier, you know, especially when you considering the fact that these floodwaters rose so

quickly and it happened in the middle of the night on a holiday weekend. There were so many different factors that contributed here to the

staggering loss of life.

BILL WEIR, CNN CHIEF CLIMATE CORRESPONDENT: Exactly. And Zain, I tell you, I see this not just in floods or hurricane zones and wildfire zones in

Maui, where people lack the capacity to imagine such a horrible perfect storm of these events.

[11:10:00]

But storms like this, the only thing worse than this kind of deadly disaster is one in which no lessons are learned. As you said to that guest,

it's a responsibility to learn for everybody else going forward. This is the water line. You can just see bits of people's lives, toys, photo

albums, scattered in there.

And you can see the power of it when it takes down 100-year-old trees like this along the Guadalupe River, and then there's a trailer some vehicles.

But there is mile after mile of this kind of devastation. The water has receded now, and this 160 people who are missing.

There are so many places to search for those poor souls. But in terms of thinking about the future, if I was sending my kids to camp in this valley

going forward, I would teach them to run uphill. You have to sort of almost think, instead of this is flood country, which people here are used to.

It's almost like tsunami country, like in the Pacific Northwest, where, when you get that alarm, when you hear the siren, everybody runs uphill.

The girls at Camp Mystic could have run uphill, but you're trained to evacuate on busses. It reminded me of a Japanese village in Japan after a

tsunami, where it changed the way they evacuate, because that's what happened there.

So, you got to think about that, and then you got to think about the flood plain, how we measure that? Where is that information? FEMA flood maps are

woefully out of date because they don't take into account rain bombs. They don't take into account sea level rise either.

They just study old historical floods well past is no longer prolog on a planet that's this much hotter every two degrees Fahrenheit, or one degree

Celsius of increased temperature, that air holds 7 percent more water. So, while these valleys have been bringing warm air up from the Gulf of Mexico

and turning it into thunderstorms and then dumping that energy back out forever, it holds so much more power and so much more water.

So, the high water, the life and death line in these valleys is changing, and if you destroy FEMA, OK, whose job is it to figure that out for the

next generation? Is it on Kerr County, Texas? You know, to figure out the hydrology on a changing planet, and a lot of leadership at the federal and

state level in places like this don't want to talk about climate change at all.

The federal government is fully out of just shutting down FEMA disaster response, but also all of the climate science that informs insurance rates

and zoning and all these sorts of things. So huge questions at every level of government in the wake of just unspeakable loss.

And for the families in this community just processing through sort of the five stages of grief, you can if you just imagine what it was must have

been like for the girls in the middle of that night, you can understand the outpouring here, Zain.

ASHER: Absolutely. And you know, we talk about learning lessons from this. And you know, obviously there's lessons that need to be learned for Kerr

County and, of course, the Department of Homeland Security and FEMA, et cetera, but we as a planet also need to learn lessons, Bill, because, of

course, as we continue to relentlessly burn fossil fuel.

We know that's going to contribute to rising temperatures, and we know there's going to be more rainfall, and you know, these floods are going to

become much more common. I think what terrifies me is that I just -- I have a feeling that what we saw here last weekend is basically a preview of what

is to come if we don't -- if something doesn't change, if we don't stop what we're doing, on the sort of planetary level, when it comes to burning

fossil fuels. Walk us through that.

WEIR: Absolutely and I think if you could go back in time, the debate they actually had here a decade ago as to whether to put alarm systems in that

are tied to river gages. At the end, there was, there was, well, the system we have now works neighbors call each other and warn them, and it cost too

much.

It was a million dollars, and they couldn't get the grants for get the grants for that. But think of it now in terms of that ounce of prevention,

the tons of pain that would have been saved with that, in terms of the families now here today. And so, taking that forward, there's amazing

technology.

You talk about the upsides of AI with satellite mapping of valleys like this, and the right sort of intelligence and an alert system, and again,

you touched on it with your last -- guests. We live in an age now of alert fatigue and where we turn off the alarms on our phones, because there's so

many of them, we can't do that.

Can't afford to do that, and have to figure out a way to cut through that and big, hyper localized systems. But with the federal government, at least

here in the states, and a lot of the states, and a lot of the states saying, hey, it's on you. It just reinforces the power of community and

neighbors talking to each other and rallying around each other, because those pockets of really tight community now are suffering the least.

ASHER: Yeah, prevention is always better than cure, as they say. Bill Weir, live for us. Thank you so much. Appreciate it. And if you're moved to help

those affected by the flooding in Texas that happened last weekend, we encourage you to go to cnn.com/impact. You can find a lot of resources

where you can donate a lot of charities that are working on the ground, distributing aid, all of that again cnn.com/impact.

[11:15:00]

All right, as Donald Trump headed for Texas, the U.S. President turned his attention to Moscow, saying he'll have quote, a major statement to make on

Russia on Monday. He also says that he made a deal with NATO to get more weapons to Ukraine. Trump told NBC, quote, we're sending weapons to NATO,

and NATO is paying for those weapons 100 percent.

The president went on to say, we're going to be sending patriots to NATO, and then NATO will distribute them. His Special Envoy, Keith Kellogg, is

expected on the ground in Ukraine on Monday for a week-long visit. You can actually see him here greeting the Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy

in Rome this week at the Ukraine recovery conference.

More on that gathering in a moment. It comes during a week of unprecedented Russian drone strikes against Ukraine. At least 10 people were killed and

dozens wounded over the past 24 hours. You're looking at video of a maternity hospital in Kharkiv after it was struck overnight.

The city's mayor says the hospital was evacuated. All of this happening as the Ukraine recovery conference in Rome wraps up. CNN's Ben Wedeman is

there. Ben, just walk us through what came out of, of this gathering?

BEN WEDEMAN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, I think the headline really is that this gathering underscored the desire of key

European countries to play a major role in supporting Ukraine during this war, and also, of course, as the title of the conference was recovery, the

post war recovery of Ukraine.

Now we understand that as many as 10 billion euro. That's more than this, about $12 billion have been pledged for the recovery. But keep in mind that

the cost of rebuilding Ukraine after the war has been estimated at more than $500 billion. We saw also that the participants agreed on a joint

defense technology development program, which will be partially funded by the Ukrainians, partially funded by the European countries.

Now it's important to keep in mind, of course, that for the European countries that Ukraine does represent an important opportunity. This is a

country of 40 million people. It has become a leader, for instance, in drone technology. We've seen that defense production in Ukraine since the

beginning of the full-scale Russian invasion of that country in February 2022 has increased 35 times.

So, I think there's a lot of interest in learning from the experience of the Ukrainians who have been very sort of in the forefront of developing,

for instance, drone technology. So, as I said, this has been an opportunity for the Europeans who are worried about the position of the United States,

which since the beginning of this second Trump Administration has been somewhat unsteady and unpredictable.

And the emphasis now for the European countries is to do what they can to support Ukraine, because they really can't depend on the United States, as

they did in the past, Zain.

ASHER: Yeah, and Ben, just in terms of the U.S. essentially striking a deal with NATO to send weapons to Ukraine via NATO. What has been the reaction,

or the response, rather to that?

WEDEMAN: Well, the reaction has been positive, because, of course, the worry was that Trump was going to abandon Ukraine altogether. So, this

rather unorthodox arrangement whereby the United States will not be providing these patriot anti-missile defense systems directly to Ukraine,

but rather will sell them to NATO with the understanding that these NATO countries, NATO countries, I mean.

They will be allowed by the United States to either sell or provide them free of charge to the Ukrainians. So that certainly does represent a change

of tone from Washington, where, of course, you will recall a few months ago, there was that fiery Oval Office meeting between President Trump and

President Zelenskyy, with J.D. Vance, the U.S. Vice President there.

That really sort of sent alarm bells ringing throughout the European Union, because the worry was that Trump was really going to just simply dump

Ukraine altogether. So there does seem to be, have been a change in the U.S. position, perhaps prompted by the fact that in certainly in recent

days this week, we've seen unprecedented Russian drone attacks on Ukraine as well.

[11:20:00]

So there has been a change, but the worry is long term. Under this administration, no one, no European ally of the United States, is really

going to be completely confident that they can depend on the United States when it comes to the war in Ukraine, Zain.

ASHER: Ben Wedeman, live for us there. Thank you so much. All right. Mahmoud Khalil's Palestinian activism put him in the crosshairs of the

Trump Administration. Now free from ICE detention, he's speaking out, and he's filed a $20 million lawsuit against the government.

That's next. And the reality of life on the ground in Gaza after an Israeli airstrike kills children outside the health center. We'll have that story

as well.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ASHER: Palestinian activist has filed a $20 million lawsuit in damages against the Trump Administration, saying that he was unlawfully arrested

and imprisoned. Mahmoud Khalil, the green card holder, who was married by the way, to a U.S. citizen, was detained in an ICE detention center for

more than three months without any charge and under constant threat of deportation.

The Columbia University graduate was released last month. He spoke to CNN's Christiane Amanpour about his mindset in the face of really dehumanizing

conditions.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: I just spoke to Mahmoud Khalil in the first interview he's given to CNN since being

released from detention. He was arrested in March, as you know, as part of the Trump agenda against elite universities, against freedom of speech,

also its immigration and deportation agenda, all couched in combating antisemitism.

Khalil told me about the conditions of his ICE detention cell in Louisiana, and they were pretty bad. He also told me about what it was like to miss a

key moment in anybody's family life.

MAHMOUD KHALIL, DETAINED BY ICE FOR 104 DAYS: The moment you enter such facilities, such ICE facilities, you would -- your rights literally stay

outside on the inside as you would expect, the food was as close as could be too inedible. I had to switch to vegetarian because the meat was -- I

threw up like after I ate the meat there. It was so cold, we had to ask for more blankets. But no one would answer our requests.

[11:25:00]

AMANPOUR: You miss the birth of your first child, a boy. Everybody was very concerned about your wife, who is an American citizen, there without you.

What was that like? And then, what was it like when you were first able to hold your child for the first time.

KHALIL: Missing the birth of my child, I think that was the most difficult moment in my life, especially because like this could have been avoided. We

put so many requests to be able to attend that moment, and I will not. I don't think I would be able to forgive them for taking that moment away

from me.

AMANPOUR: So, Khalil was never charged. He is concerned about his future, of course, but he keeps talking up for the rights of Palestinians,

especially with the focus of what is happening and has been happening in Gaza. He also insists that amongst the protesters that he was with, there

was a Jewish contingent, of course, based on what he said, their Jewish values, he denied absolutely any charges of antisemitism. You can watch the

full interview online at cnn.com/Amanpour. Back to you guys.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ASHER: Yeah, and as Christiane was just saying there, the interview is going to air on a special edition of Amanpour next hour on CNN. That's at

noon, 12 noon Eastern, 05:00 p.m. in the evening, if you're watching from London. Right, Israel's Prime Minister says his country is ready to talk

about a permanent peace in Gaza.

But Benjamin Netanyahu is also making it clear Israel is not backing away from its original demands, declaring that Hamas must be disarmed and

removed from political power in Gaza.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BENJAMIN NETANYAHU, ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER: At the beginning of the ceasefire, we will enter negotiations for a permanent end of the war,

meaning a permanent ceasefire. If it can't be achieved in 60 days of talks, we'll achieve it by other means, by using the power of our heroic army.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ASHER: Hamas has been demanding assurances in its ongoing truce talks with Israel that it would lead to negotiations about a permanent end to the war.

The militant group is also accusing the Israeli Prime Minister of placing obstacles to prevent a ceasefire deal.

And with no immediate ceasefire in sight, Palestinians in Gaza are describing a horrific Israeli attack that left children among the dead.

Medics are saying that 15 people were killed in Deir Al Balah, 8 of them children, the youngest two years old. CNN's Jeremy Diamond has the story. I

want to warn you that the images you're about to see are really graphic and very difficult to watch.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN JERUSALEM CORRESPONDENT: Children's screams pierce through the smoke-filled air in central Gaza. But screams alone cannot

prepare you for the scale of the carnage unleashed by this Israeli air strike. This street is filled with the bodies of dead and injured children,

whose bodies are quickly loaded onto donkey carts.

And then there are those barely clinging to life, like this woman splayed on the ground. They took my daughter, she says. Her daughter's fate has

already been sealed in her blood-stained white dress. Four-year-old Aya is one of eight children killed in this strike. Aya and her mother were among

several families waiting to enter a health clinic run by Project HOPE, an American nonprofit whose operations were known to the Israeli military.

In her white dress, Aya is impossible to miss. Minutes later, two men walk by the clinic and then an explosion fills the air. That smoke is soon

replaced by an outpouring of grief. Not my sister. No, not my sister, this boy cries. The Israeli military said it, quote, regrets any harm to

uninvolved individuals and is reviewing the incident.

It said it was targeting a Hamas militant who infiltrated Israel during the October 7th attacks, but declined to provide his name. These four children

killed in the targeting of a single militant do have names, Amir, Mohammed, Yasmin and Aya still in her blood-stained dress.

Mohammed wearing a makeshift plastic diaper, is a testament to the desperate circumstances that brought his family to that clinic amid

shortages of diaper and baby formula.

[11:30:00]

Speak to me, Amir's father pleads, hugging his son's lifeless body. His brother Nidal joins him in mourning. But he hasn't just lost a nephew. His

14-year-old daughter Sama, was also killed. What happened is indescribable. It's a massacre, it's genocide. It's a crime against children, Nidal says.

My daughter woke up with a headache and went to get checked at the clinic. Suddenly, we heard the sound and came running to see all the children dead.

Sama's twin sister is inconsolable. Please wake her up. She is lying. I know her. I swear she is lying. As one sister mourns another, a father

pleads for it all to end.

Sama is gone and the war is still ongoing, Nidal says. May the war be gone with Sama. Jeremy Diamond, CNN, Jerusalem.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ASHER: All right, welcome back to "One World". I'm Zain Asher in New York. Here are some of the headlines we are following for you today. Israel's

Prime Minister says his country is ready to negotiate a permanent Gaza ceasefire. Benjamin Netanyahu also says Israel isn't backing away from its

original demands.

Hamas is accusing the Israeli leader of placing obstacles to prevent a ceasefire deal. Donald Trump has sent one of his dreaded tariff letters to

Canada. In it, he threatens to enact a 35 percent tariff on all Canadian exports to the U.S., Canada is easily the largest trading partner the U.S.

has.

Crews are still searching for dozens of people still missing after rain and devastating floods ripped through Central Texas. It's now been one week

since the disaster, at least 121 people have been killed.

[11:35:00]

And all girls camp near the banks of the Guadalupe River has become the epicenter of this very sad tragedy. President Trump and First Lady Melania

Trump are enroute to Texas as I speak. The president is expected to visit areas devastated by floods and meet with first responders.

The Trump Administration has pushed back on criticism that its policies weakened the government defenses against disaster, threats. All right, mass

firings are underway at the State Department today, according to an internal memo, the overhaul will involve more than 1300 people.

The cuts are part of a dramatic downsizing the Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, unveiled this spring. Rubio, who is in Asia right now, has called

the department bloated, but critics say the move will damage America's global leadership and efforts to counter threats abroad.

On Tuesday, the Supreme Court opened the way for the mass firings and reorganization across the federal government by the Trump Administration.

CNN's Jennifer Hansler is following this story from the State Department. Jennifer, what more can you tell us?

JENNIFER HANSLER, CNN STATE DEPARTMENT REPORTER: Well, Zain, as you said, these firings are underway as we speak here at the State Department's

headquarters in Washington, D.C., these are affecting, I'm told 1107 civil service members and 246 foreign service officers.

And critics of the move, and current and former diplomats say that this is going to have an impact at a time when expertise in foreign affairs and

diplomacy is as important as ever, especially given the crises around the globe that the Trump Administration is trying to resolve.

Now this comes as part of a larger overhaul of the State Department. There are some 300 offices and bureaus that are going to be affected by these

changes that are starting today, including ones that had been focused on human rights as well as refugees and population in migration.

Now, critics have come forward and said that this has damaged morale and could also have an impact on their ability to retain and recruit further

people to work at the State Department. I spoke earlier this week with Tom Yazdgerdi, who is the Head of the American Foreign Service Association, and

I want you to listen to what he told me.

He said, quote, there are horrible things that are happening in the world that require a tried-and-true diplomatic workforce that's able to address

that. The ability to maintain a presence in the areas of the world that are incredibly important dealing with issues like Ukraine, like Gaza, like Iran

right now.

Now, these cuts are only affecting people here in the State Department's headquarters in Washington, D.C. We're told these will not, for the time

being, affect places abroad, embassies and consulates abroad, but they are affecting people who had been working there, Foreign Service officers.

These are people who are highly trained, speak multiple languages, and do serve in overseas posts. A senior State Department official said yesterday

that when they made these cuts, they were not looking at individuals. They were looking at functions. And called it, quote, personnel agnostic.

Secretary of State, Marco Rubio was also asked about the overhaul yesterday, and he defended it, saying this was done with good thought

behind it, and they had thought through what they were doing. Take a listen to what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARCO RUBIO, U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE: We went very specifically through and reorganized the State Department. And when you reorganized the State

Department, there were certain bureaus, we wanted to empower the regional bureaus, and there were certain bureaus, these functional bureaus, that

were closed.

Our intent is to move forward the plans that we've notified Congress of weeks ago and that we took months to design.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANSLER: Now, these firings, which are happening via emails going out right now, had been looming over the building for some weeks now, and really took

a hit on morale. Of course, people today are finding out the fates of careers, some have spent years, if not decades, in. So, there is a lot of

sadness and a lot of emotion happening here in D.C., Zain.

ASHER: I'm sure there are. Right, Jennifer Hansler at the State Department. Thank you so much. Christopher Hill joins us live now. He's the five times

U.S. Ambassador and Former Assistant Secretary of State during the Bush Administration. He's also the author of "Outpost", A diplomat at work.

He joins us now. Ambassador, I just want to get your reaction to these mass layoffs mass firings, 1300 people at the State Department being let go.

Your response to that?

AMBASSADOR CHRISTOPHER HILL, 5-TIME U.S. AMBASSADOR AND ASSISTANT SECRETARY OF STATE: Well, first of all, I don't quite buy the idea that this doesn't

affect embassies. It affects embassies very directly. I mean, embassies report to Washington, and at this point, there's basically nobody home,

many positions in Washington have not been filled, and now we're seeing many of the positions are actually being eliminated.

So, we have a real situation where our PR diplomats in the field are not getting up to speed guidance, and as they report on what's going on,

there's no one back there to read. So, I think there are a lot of problems. And I guess the thing that I worry about the most is used to be, you go

into country X, and it was always the American embassy that was really on top of things.

And now I think increasingly, we're seeing the American Embassy not as first, but as second in second place to the Chinese.

[11:40:00]

And I'd like to just mention also this issue about the -- in Washington, you have this functional Bureau issue, where you have bureaus dedicated to

issues, as opposed to bureaus dedicated to geographic regions. Well, the issues bureaus are extremely important.

I mean, there's -- they are where the State Department has its expertise, and they are where the civil servants are. So, another real hit in the

capacities of the State Department, and not to speak of the extraordinarily bad morale situation that this has created.

ASHER: So, the administration, specifically, obviously Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, their argument is, look the State Department. I mean, you

would know, because obviously you worked with the State Department, albeit a while ago, but I'm sure you could give us some color on this.

They're saying, look, the State Department is bloated. You know, there are a lot of jobs that are redundant. There are a lot of jobs that are

duplicates, and all they're doing is simply streamlining the workforce there. What's your take on that as somebody who was Assistant Secretary of

State for many years under George W. Bush?

HILL: You know, I was assistant secretary for some four years. I had to be on the road a lot, doing negotiations in places like North Korea and China

and, of course, dealing with our embassies all over the place. But every day when I was in Washington, I had to rely on these civil servants working

in places like international -- working on these human rights issues, working on the refugee issues, which are enormous.

And so, when you take the expertise out of the State Department, you're going to reduce the capacities of the State Department as to the issue of

being bloated. I mean, show me a bureaucracy, and I can show you something that could be reformed and improved, but this is not reforming and

improving.

This is not work with a scalpel. This is work with a meat cleaver. And really, I think we've created a whole problem. And you have to ask yourself

at some point, what is the purpose of this? Is it -- was it so bloated that it needed this type of approach, and because we're talking thousands of

people?

And finally, you know, I don't like to tell other people how to do their jobs, but if I were Secretary of State, I'd want to be in the building when

these emails were going out. I think it's important to take responsibility for what you're believing to be a major reorganization. You should be there

when this is going on.

ASHER: I mean, just in terms of morale. I mean, you touched on morale, because the morale, I mean, obviously, this clearly affects the people who

are let go, right, the losing your job, whether it's, you know, 120 days of being placed in administrative leave, and then you're sort of, you

permanently lose your job, from some civil servants, it's about 60 days.

You know, they have, I guess, a guaranteed income for a short period of time, and then they're out on their own. That is really disheartening,

especially when you've given years of your life to a particular, you know, to the State Department. But for people who are still within the State

Department, it's also really disheartening as well to see your colleagues being let go. Talk to us about the morale of the people who are left within

the organization.

HILL: Well, the morale is terrible for a number of reasons, some of which you've already cited, but the fact is that many people in the State

Department move on to different positions. They have an expectation that position X will be available, and now there, it's unclear what's going to -

- what this landscape is going to look like.

I mean, we never get the sense that this is it. No more of these changes. We get the impression that this just goes on and on. And I guess the

problem is there's probably more communication with the outside media than there has been internally, people just don't know purpose of this is and

where it's going and how fast it's going.

So, morale is a huge problem. Not to speak of the issues that you raise, which is, you have 120 days of pay, back to severance, and you've got to

scramble around. You might have kids in college. These are people who had an expectation that if they did a good job, they would continue. They'd

have a whole career, and now their careers are being cut short.

ASHER: Yeah, and of course, the people who are left behind are probably going to have to do even more work for equal amount of pay. Right,

Ambassador, Christopher Hill, thank you so much for your time. Appreciate it. Right, up next on "One World", Donald Trump attacks the Head of the

Federal Reserve.

Yet again, why some Trump advisors are accusing Jerome Powell of lying to Congress. Plus, another shot fired in Trump's trade war, the massive tax he

wants put on the United States, biggest trading partner.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[11:45:00]

ASHER: Donald Trump is ramping up pressure on Canada to strike a trade deal. He sent Canada a letter late Thursday in which he threatens to enact

a stiff 35 percent tariff on August 1st, just three weeks from now. Canada is far and away the largest trade partner with the U.S.

More than $750 billion of goods go back and forth between the North American neighbors. Among the issues, Trump cites in his letter is concern

about the addictive drug fentanyl, though it's worth noting that only a tiny fraction of the illegal fentanyl in the United States comes from

Canada.

Meantime, Trump Administration is literally throwing the kitchen sink at Fed Chairman Jerome Powell. The president has demanded that Powell cut

interest rates by three percentage points, even raising the possibility of firing him, a move that would be unprecedented.

And now the White House is actually accusing Powell of breaking the law by failing to comply with government regulations regarding the $2 billion

renovation of the Fed's Washington headquarters administration is accusing Powell of lying to Congress about those renovations.

Analysts say this all appears to be a campaign to force Powell to resign. Let's unpack this story. We've got Vanessa Yurkevich with us now. So,

Vanessa, just walk us through I mean, obviously we have seen Trump time and time again target Jerome Powell, but this time he's really upping the ante.

Walk us through that.

VANESSA YURKEVICH, CNN BUSINESS AND POLITICS CORRESPONDENT: This is a full court press pressure campaign against Jerome Powell, and we heard from the

president just earlier this morning, he was asked twice by our colleagues here at CNN whether or not he would fire Jerome Powell. He said, no, twice,

but he then followed with this. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: -- fire Jerome Powell --

TRUMP: I think he's doing a terrible job. I think we should be -- no, I think we should be three points lower interest rate. He's costing our

country a lot of money. We should be number one, and we're not, and that's because of Jerome Powell.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

YURKEVICH: Now these comments are nothing new. We've been hearing from the president on this exact issue for months now, mounting this pressure

campaign against Jerome Powell and the Federal Reserve to lower interest rates. He's called him too late, too late in doing just that.

But we also have this pressure coming from the Budget Director Russell Vought, who sent a letter to Jerome Powell just yesterday, saying that

essentially that Jerome Powell is not only mismanaging monetary policy, but he's mismanaging these renovations that are happening at the Federal

Reserve in Washington, D.C.

He says that they are over budget by $700 million and they are including sort of unreasonable things that weren't initially disclosed in the plans,

like a VIP dining room, water features and much more.

[11:50:00]

Jerome Powell said to Congress just a couple weeks ago that, that is inaccurate. Listen to his response earlier a few weeks ago. OK, and we

don't have that sought for you. But essentially, he said that all of those features that is described in this letter, the marble, the water features,

the dining room that is not in the plans.

But this letter goes on to say that he is essentially not in compliance with the National Capital Planning Act, and that would be breaking the law.

But, Zain, all of this is to say that there is pressure coming from all sides on Jerome Powell, the president that he will not fire him.

But could there be a situation where it just gets too much for Jerome Powell and he resigns. He has indicated that is that is certainly not going

to happen. And many economists believe that that would not happen, because ultimately, what it would do, would send markets reeling, and that is

something that President Trump does not want to see. Jerome Powell has until May of 2026 left on his term, Zain.

ASHER: Vanessa Yurkevich, thank you so much. All right, Baby, Baby, Baby, guess who is back with a brand-new unexpected album, Justin Bieber. Details

after the break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ASHER: New developments from center court at Wimbledon. Carlos Alcaraz has beaten Taylor Fritz to reach the finals. He beat Fritz in four sets. The

Spaniard is the two-time defending champ and is on a 24-match winning streak at Wimbledon. Alcaraz will play the winner of the match between

Jannik Sinner and Novak Djokovic, which has just begun.

On the women's side, Saturday's final is set American Amanda Anisimova will play Poland's Iga Swiatek for the championship on Saturday. And finally,

this hour, Justin Bieber is bringing back his swag. The pop star surprised his fans by releasing his new album swag at midnight.

Bieber wasn't, sorry, to tease his new music yesterday with billboards like this one popping up across the country. It's been a while since he last

released an album. It was back in 2021 and this is Bieber's seventh studio album.

[11:55:00]

And his first since becoming a father to his son, Jack Blues with his wife Hailey. It features 21 tracks with collaborations from rap artists, Gunna,

Lil B and gospel singer Marvin Winans. And a special programming note, for all of you, Amanpour with her interview with Palestinian activist Mahmoud

Khalil, is next hour. And I'll actually have more "One World" in about an hour from now, instead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

END