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00:58 - Source: CNN
Vertical World News 17 videos
See rare glimpse inside secretive Russian drone factory
A secretive Russian drone factory has allowed state media inside its walls as the country escalates its nightly drone attacks on Ukrainian towns and cities. CNN's Chief Global Affairs Correspondent Matthew Chance has more from Moscow.
00:58 - Source: CNN
China cracks down on fake "Lafufu" Labubus
Fake Labubu plush toys, dubbed "Lafufu," have gained popularity due to shortages of the original dolls made by China's Pop Mart.
02:05 - Source: CNN
Child flees Israeli strike on Gaza refugee camp
Video shows a child running away as Israeli munitions struck near a UNRWA school in Bureij Refugee Camp behind her.
00:36 - Source: CNN
Jair Bolsonaro denies coup charges as police raid home
Police in Brazil raided the home of former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro and enforced a ruling from the country's Supreme Court that Bolsonaro wear an electronic ankle tag. Bolsonaro is being accused of plotting to overturn the results of the 2022 presidential election.
01:17 - Source: CNN
Taiwan conducts 10-day military drill
The Taiwanese government is preparing for a war they hope will never happen. For the first time this year, Taiwan combined two major civil defense exercises, with the drills lasting ten days. These drills have included urban combat, mass casualty simulations, emergency supply drops and cyber defense that could be enacted if an invasion was to occur. CNN's Senior International Correspondent, Will Ripley, reports.
01:44 - Source: CNN
Surgeon shows humanitarian crisis in Gaza's hospitals
A surgeon working in southern Gaza says babies are arriving at hospital so malnourished that 'skin and bones doesn't do it justice.' He also describes what appears to be a disturbing pattern in the gunshot wounds of children arriving from food distribution sites. CNN's Nada Bashir reports.
02:55 - Source: CNN
Brazil's Lula tells Christiane Amanpour: Trump 'Was not elected to be emperor of the world'
Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva tells CNN's Christiane Amanpour in an exclusive interview it was 'a surprise' to see President Donald Trump's letter posted to Truth Social, threatening Brazil with a crippling tariff of 50% starting August 1st. Lula says that he initially thought the letter was 'fake news.' Watch the full 'Amanpour' interview on CNN.
01:33 - Source: CNN
Gaza's only Catholic church hit by Israeli strike
Gaza's only Catholic church was struck by an Israeli tank, killing three and injuring many more, church officials said. It became internationally recognized after reports emerged that the late Pope Francis used to call the church daily. CNN's Nada Bashir reports
00:53 - Source: CNN
Prince Harry recreates his mother's historic landmine walk
Following in his mother's footsteps, Prince Harry visited Angola's minefields just as Princess Diana did 28 years ago. The Duke of Sussex was in Angola with The Halo Trust as part of the group's efforts to clear landmines.
00:39 - Source: CNN
Massive fire destroys Tomorrowland's main stage
Tomorrowland's main stage went up in flames just days ahead of the festival's opening in Boom, Belgium.
00:38 - Source: CNN
How Trump's image is changing inside Russia
Once hailed as a pro-Kremlin figure, President Donald Trump's image is changing inside Russia. It comes after Trump vowed further sanctions on the country if a peace agreement with Ukraine is not reached in 50 days. CNN's Chief Global Affairs Correspondent is on the ground in Moscow with the analysis.
01:41 - Source: CNN
Who are the armed groups clashing in Syria?
Dozens were killed in Syria this week after clashes between government loyalists and Druze militias in the southern city of Suwayda, prompting Syrian forces to intervene. That, in turn, triggered renewed Israeli airstrikes.
01:57 - Source: CNN
Syrian anchor takes cover from airstrike live on TV
An airstrike on the Syrian Ministry of Defense was captured live on Syria TV, forcing the anchor to take cover. Israel has been carrying out airstrikes on Syria as part of its commitment to protect the Druze, an Arab minority at the center of clashes with government loyalists.
00:30 - Source: CNN
Video shows machine gun fire near Gaza aid site
A video from social media shows machine gun fire spraying the ground near an aid distribution site in southern Gaza as crowds of Palestinians lie on the ground for safety. Although the source of the gunfire is not seen in the video, multiple eyewitnesses say it shows the Israeli military opening fire on Palestinians as they waited for food on Saturday. In a statement, the IDF said, 'The details of the video are under review.'
01:02 - Source: CNN
Analysis: Moscow's reaction to Trump's 50-day peace deadline
President Donald Trump has vowed further sanctions on Russia if a peace deal is not reached in 50 days. CNN's Chief Global Affairs Correspondent breaks down the Russian reaction and perspective on Monday's announcement from Moscow.
01:13 - Source: CNN
Trump attends FIFA Club World Cup final
CNN's Patrick Snell reports on President Trump's visit to MetLife Stadium for the FIFA Club World Cup Final between Paris Saint-Germain and Chelsea.
00:52 - Source: CNN
Top Russian diplomat is in North Korea. What does this mean?
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov is in North Korea for a three-day visit. CNN's Will Ripley explains why this could be a sign of deepening relations between Moscow and Pyongyang.
01:16 - Source: CNN
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On Friday's episode of The Excerpt podcast: Israel and the United States recalled their delegations from Gaza ceasefire talks for consultations Thursday. Plus, hundreds of people have been killed in recent weeks trying to reach food, mostly in mass shootings by Israeli soldiers posted near Gaza Humanitarian Foundation distribution centers. USA TODAY Senior National Columnist for Health and Wellness Laura Trujillo takes a closer look at President Donald Trump and Jeffrey Epstein's relationship over the years. Two GOP senators call for a special counsel to probe former President Barack Obama over the 2016 Trump-Russia investigation. USA TODAY White House Correspondent Joey Garrison discusses a new executive order that makes it easier for cities and states to remove homeless people from the streets. Hulk Hogan has died at 71. Hit play on the player below to hear the podcast and follow along with the transcript beneath it. This transcript was automatically generated, and then edited for clarity in its current form. There may be some differences between the audio and the text. Podcasts: True crime, in-depth interviews and more USA TODAY podcasts right here Taylor Wilson: Good morning. I'm Taylor Wilson, and today is Friday, July 25th, 2025. This is USA TODAY's The Excerpt. Today controversy over US humanitarian aid deliveries and Gaza as hunger concerns grow. Plus we discuss an executive order making it easier to remove homeless people from the streets. And we remember Hulk Hogan. ♦ Israel and the US recalled their delegations from Gaza ceasefire talks for consultations yesterday with US envoy, Steve Witkoff accusing Hamas of failing to act in good faith in the talks. It marked the latest setback in efforts to secure a deal that would bring a ceasefire to Gaza and secure the release of Israeli hostages held by Hamas. Earlier this week, more than 100 largely aid and rights groups called for governments to take action as hunger spreads in Gaza. More than 800 people have been killed in recent weeks trying to reach food, mostly in mass shootings by Israeli soldiers posted near Gaza Humanitarian Foundation distribution centers. Women going to pick up aid for their families yesterday said US contractors organizing distribution asked them to come to pick up goods and then fired tear gas and pepper spray at them. Asked for comment, a spokesperson for the aid organization, the GHF said a limited amount of pepper spray was used to prevent civilian injury due to overcrowding. GHF, a US and Israeli-backed organization began distributing food packages in Gaza at the end of May. The UN has called the GHF's model unsafe and a breach of humanitarian in impartiality standards, which GHF denies. Executive Director of the World Peace Foundation at Tufts University Alex de Waal outlined some of the criticisms speaking to Reuters. Alex de Waal: The ration that they are providing is less than the humanitarian ration provided by the United Nations. None of the specialized services such as supplementary therapeutic feeding for malnourished children are a part of this package. These are all the reasons why the United Nations and most professional humanitarians are very critical of the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation scheme. Taylor Wilson: You can read more on ♦ Deputy US Attorney General Todd Blanche said he met Jeffrey Epstein's longtime associate, Ghislaine Maxwell, yesterday and will meet her again today. She's serving a twenty-year sentence at a federal prison in Tallahassee after a jury convicted her of sex trafficking in 2021. The meetings come as President Donald Trump and his administration face continued pressure to release additional information about the Justice Department's investigation into Epstein. But what do we know about Trump and Epstein's relationship over the years? I spoke with USA TODAY Senior National Columnist for Health and Wellness Laura Trujillo for more. Laura, thank you so much for joining me on this. Laura Trujillo: Thanks for inviting me. Taylor Wilson: Let's just start here. How did the Trump, Epstein relationship originate? Laura Trujillo: From what we understand they really became friends around 1990. This is when Epstein bought a mansion about two miles from Trump's Mar-a-Lago, which he just bought about five years before. And they both, if you think about this, were really rich guys from New York, both really doing well and two miles isn't that far apart when you're two rich guys with mansions, you end up in the same social circles. We really don't know if they were best friends or something like that. We know they ran with the same group. We know they were at dinner parties together and at different events, but we're really not sure how close they were. Taylor Wilson: You touched on this, Laura, but in terms of where they would actually hang out, we know South Florida is involved here, New York City. Was this really about Mar-a-Lago? Was it about the infamous Epstein Island? Where would they run into each other? Laura Trujillo: It seems to be both New York and Florida, mostly at Mar-a-Lago. And that's a lot of photos that we have from events at Mar-a-Lago, mostly with models, with cheerleaders, parties, that type of thing. And in New York, we don't know at this point if there were trips to Epstein Island that has not shown up yet, but we also don't have all of the files. We know that Trump was on Epstein's plane between Florida and New York, but that doesn't tell us where he went. Taylor Wilson: Laura, I know you touched on this in your piece, how are modeling agencies and beauty pageants really a part of this story and their relationship? Laura Trujillo: Mostly Trump has talked about enjoying spending time with women and young women. He really didn't make a secret of this. Epstein lived a little bit quieter than Trump. I think we know that having heard Trump, he likes to talk about it. He bragged about getting access to young women on some interviews we've heard with Howard Stern. They both were involved with modeling agencies, so Epstein invested in one. We also later learned that Epstein used scouting models as a way to procure underage girls. With Trump, he started an agency in 1999. It had a lot of legacy models, and in fact, Melania was a model there before he met her. And it did have some teen models as well. Trump also, as we know, bought beauty pageants. He owned the Miss Universe Pageant, Miss Teen Pageant, and he seemed to really like to talk about that. And we've got stories of him going into the dressing rooms at these pageants and sort of making a joke about it. But I think sometimes when you hear quotes decades later, they may ring true in a different way. Taylor Wilson: All right, so Laura, what finally led to their falling out? Laura Trujillo: We think, which this is definitely a rich guy thing, they both wanted to buy the same mansion in Palm Beach, and it turned out that Trump outbid Epstein for it. And when he outbid him, it was for $41 million. And then Trump turned around and flipped it for 95 million a few years later to a Russian billionaire. And so that's one of the things people talk about. Another is that other reports say that Epstein and Trump broke up after Ghislaine Maxwell solicited the daughter of a Mar-a-Lago member. And the father complained to Trump, and that's when Trump said he kicked Epstein out of Mar-a-Lago for being a creep, so we don't know exactly what happened, but we know that those were two things that have come up. We do know that Epstein was at Trump's wedding in 2005, but that's really the last time they've been linked. Taylor Wilson: All right, so how has Trump addressed Epstein since taking the Oval Office? Is there any difference this term also versus Trump's first term? Laura Trujillo: I have, in 2019, Trump was saying he wasn't a fan of Epstein. And at that point he also was alleging that Bill Clinton was connected to Epstein's death, so there was a real call at that time from Trump to learn more about the Epstein client list and to find out if there was this wider child abuse conspiracy. Moving forward into this term and this week, we've seen so much about Epstein just swirling around the President with the MAGA movement promising all of these revelations and Trump now seeming to say he's fine with these files being released, but we've got Republicans pushing back and so it's going to be interesting to see what happens. Taylor Wilson: Lots of developments still to come. Laura Trujillo is a senior national columnist covering health and wellness for USA TODAY. Thanks, Laura. Laura Trujillo: Thank you. ♦ Taylor Wilson: Two Republican senators are calling for the Justice Department to appoint a special counsel to investigate whether former President Barack Obama and his staff were involved in an effort to undermine Donald Trump's 2016 presidential campaign. The push by Senators Lindsey Graham and John Cornyn comes after national intelligence director, Tulsi Gabbard, in a press briefing earlier this week, alleged she had evidence the Obama administration promoted a contrived narrative that Russia interfered in the 2016 election to help Trump, arguing that it was not true. Russia did attempt to interfere in the 2016 presidential election in favor of Trump, but according to former special counsel Robert Mueller's 2019 final report and a 2020 bipartisan Senate Intelligence Committee assessment. Trump has long said the investigations into his first White House campaign and its connections with Russia are a hoax. ♦ President Trump yesterday took executive action, making it easier for cities and states to remove homeless people from the streets. I spoke with USA TODAY White House correspondent Joey Garrison to learn more. Thanks for joining me, Joey. Joey Garrison: Hey, thanks for having me on. Taylor Wilson: Joey, what will this executive order do about homelessness? Joey Garrison: President Trump took executive action on Thursday signing an order that really makes it easier for cities and states really encourages them to remove homeless people from the streets and from encampments and move them over to rehabilitation and treatment centers. This is done in a couple of ways. First of all, Trump is directing his attorney general, Pam Bondi, to challenge judicial precedents both at the federal and state levels, try to reverse those precedents and consent decrees that currently limit the ability of local and state governments to remove homeless people from the streets. The order also sets forth, though this part is a little unclear, redirecting federal funds to these centers where Trump wants to move homeless people to. And it's not clear exactly how much money will be allocated for this or from where that money is going to be coming from. And also, he's ordered several federal agencies, including HHS and HUD, to start prioritizing federal grants to states and cities that prohibit homeless encampments, so this is a direct incentive for the federal government to crack down on homelessness camps. And so that's the big things that this sweeping homeless EO from Trump seeks to accomplish. Taylor Wilson: And Joey, what did we hear from the White House about why they feel this is necessary in this moment? Joey Garrison: Trump has long talked about the homeless issue in the country. He makes the comments often about Washington DC when he is driving around in the presidential vehicle he looks out the window and sees these homelessness camps. It's always been something that he's talked about. It falls under this law and order umbrella that Trump has long talked about. And there are numbers to back up, the fact that homelessness is at an all-time high in the country right now, HUD does an annual count of the number of people sleeping on the streets on a single night each year. And last January 2024 they counted over 770,000 on a single night. That was a 18% increase over the previous year. And so there is an issue, of course, with the rise of homelessness in many cities. Taylor Wilson: Wow. Trump's action here follows a major Supreme Court move as well earlier this year on homeless camps, Joey, what did they decide? Can we go back to that for a moment? Joey Garrison: Yeah, that's a huge point, what's going on in the background here. In June, just a month ago, the Supreme Court ruled that individuals can be arrested and fined for sleeping and public spaces. They upheld a homelessness ban in a City of Grant Pass, Oregon that prohibits homeless people from sleeping outdoors. In that city they have fines starting at $250 per individual as well as jail time for repeat offenses. You have this opinion, which was a six three conservative majority ruling that essentially upholds cities and states banning homelessness in their communities. And so with that authority upheld by the Supreme Court, you're seeing this real proactive executive order from Trump for cities and states to really go after homelessness in their cities. Taylor Wilson: Well, Joey, as for this week's executive order, are we hearing any pushback? What do critics say about this latest action out of the White House? Joey Garrison: Not surprisingly, a lot of homelessness advocates are condemning this, and I think there's a lot of questions here. First of all, this idea of removing people from where they live on streets to centers. There's a lot of questions whether these rehabilitation centers, whether there's enough beds to house an entire homelessness population. You look at cities on the West Coast like Los Angeles and San Francisco, which have really large numbers of homeless people. I think a lot of homeless advocates say the best way is to address the housing problem right now in this country. The affordability issue with buying a home has never been greater really than it is right now. They argue that this isn't the right way to try to tackle this problem, that it's really rather inhumane to sweep the streets of people who are living there. Taylor Wilson: Joey Garrison covers the White House for USA TODAY. Thank you, Joey. Joey Garrison: Thanks so much. ♦ Taylor Wilson: Hulk Hogan has died. Hogan, whose legal name is Terry Bollea was influential on the rise of wrestling worldwide and WWE's first major star. As WWE became the dominant wrestling company, his stardom grew and he headlined the first nine editions of WrestleMania with his most iconic moment coming at WrestleMania III in 1987. Defending the World Heavyweight Championship against longtime rival, Andre the Giant Hogan picked him up and delivered the body slam heard around the world, and his popularity spread outside the ring with appearances and TV shows and movies. He wasn't without scandal though, he testified admitting he took steroids. And then in 2015 he was caught on tape making racist comments that severely tarnished his popularity and legacy. WWE distanced itself from Hogan in the fallout, but he eventually returned to making appearances with the company in 2018. He made his last appearance for WWE in January. Hulk Hogan was 71. ♦ Thanks for listening to The Excerpt. We're produced by Shannon Rae Green and Kaely Monahan, and our executive producer is Laura Beatty. You can get the podcast wherever you get your pods, and as always, you can email us at podcasts at I'm Taylor Wilson. I'll be back tomorrow with more of The Excerpt from USA TODAY.
