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The Lead with Jake Tapper
Israel, Hezbollah Renew Ceasefire After Conflict Nearly Derailed U.S.-Iran Talks; Trump Unveils New Presidential Airplane Gifted By Qatar; Source: New Acting Intel Chief Eyes Firing Hundreds Of Workers; NYT: 160 Troops Sickened After Flu Shot Made Optional; Company Hopes To Bring A.I. To Hollywood With Artist Support; Japan Confronts A Growing Upskirting Crisis Among Minors. Aired 5-6p ET
Aired June 19, 2026 - 17:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
SEN. MARK KELLY (D-AZ): -- with three miles away.
JAKE TAPPER, CNN HOST: And were you -- you were running to save your brother and your mom?
KELLY: Yes. To get help.
TAPPER: Because he might hurt them?
KELLY: Yes. I mean, he was so violent.
TAPPER: He was violent? Yes.
KELLY: Yes, he was a -- he was a violent guy.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PAMELA BROWN, CNN ANCHOR: "A Look at Fatherhood" air Sunday at 9:00 a.m. and again at noon right here on CNN. And you can watch more of The Arena tomorrow. The Arena Saturday airs at noon and again at 4:00 p.m. Eastern.
Thank you to my panel. Thank you all for joining us. Happy early Father's Day. "The Lead" starts right now.
[17:00:36]
PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN CHIEF DOMESTIC CORRESPONDENT: Let's hope this blue paint doesn't start peeling. The Lead starts right now. President Trump unveiling the new presidential airplane today and gone is the color scheme designed by Jackie Kennedy. The new Air Force One, a luxury jet donated by the government of Qatar, painted red, white and blue and expected to enter service soon. What we're learning about how the military made sure this foreign plane was safe for the president.
Plus, it's the first day on the job for Trump's controversial pick for acting director of national intelligence. But CNN is actually learning Bill Pulte showed up at his new job a day early yesterday asking for a list of every employee in the office with plans to fire hundreds of them. We'll get reaction from a former top official in that office. And Team USA looking to advance to the next round of the World Cup, leading their match with just a minutes to go. One of the team's star players sitting out because of an injury. So what does that mean for their chances moving forward? We're live outside the stadium in Seattle ahead.
Welcome to The Lead. I'm Phil Mattingly in for Jake Tapper. All of those stories coming up this hour, but we start in our World Lead, the first round of negotiations between the United States and Iran was nearly derailed today, but appears to be back on track for now. Israel and Hezbollah have agreed to renew a ceasefire after fighting in Lebanon. Israeli strikes there killed at least 47 people today, according to Lebanon.
That's the second deadliest day there since the war began. Hezbollah also killed four Israeli soldiers overnight. Now, the memorandum of understanding signed by the U.S. and Iran stated that fighting on all fronts of the war would end. So today's conflict caused Iran to postpone talks that were supposed to happen in Switzerland.
Today in a phone interview with NBC, President Trump said he urged Israel to support a ceasefire with Hezbollah, but declined to say whether he had spoken directly with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Now, for context here, Netanyahu faces pressure from far right politicians who say he hasn't gone far enough in Lebanon. But Israel's ambassador to the U.S. posted on X this afternoon, quote, "Israel remains firmly committed to an immediate ceasefire." Now Tehran said it's working with mediators on reorganizing the talks with the U.S. and of course the clock started ticking yesterday on a 60-day period to reach a final peace deal.
In the meantime, as laid out in the agreement, Iran has started to open the Strait of Hormuz. At least 25 commercial ships crossed through it yesterday, the highest single day count since April. Moments ago, President Trump seemed to indicate the strait definitely on his mind.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: 60 Days after make a deal. Otherwise we will do things that won't make them happy. But I don't think it's going to get to that. I think it's going to be very good.
Remember, if we do that, then all of a sudden you're not going to have the oil flowing out of the strait too quickly because people that own billion dollar ships don't love missiles flying over them.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MATTINGLY: We start things off with CNN's Nic Robertson in Zurich, Switzerland.
Nic, the ceasefire, the developments over the course of the last 24 hours, what's your sense of what that means for the early and I think very important stages of these talks? NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: Lebanon was always going to be an issue, whether it is Hezbollah starting a fight with the IDF on any given day or the IDF going after Hezbollah leaders. Both sides have the ability to upend the talks here and of course the Hezbollah proxies of Iran. So Iran could tell them to up the ante, to pressure Israel to strike and then Iran can say we're back out of the talks. We don't know the sequence of what happened here.
What we do know is that overnight the Iranians said that they weren't coming. In the early morning they said they were expecting the United States to be putting pressure on -- to be putting pressure on the -- on the Israelis to stop the attacks. Hezbollah also agreed to go into that ceasefire. And now we're hearing from the Iranians, they're working with the mediators, with diplomats to get back into the talks.
Nobody's talking though about a timeline for the talks. But if it does happen, really down to day 58, that was two days ago, it was day 60. So the clock is ticking. The issues are still outstanding and we got a sense of some of them again today, the issue of the highly enriched uranium, how that gets -- how that gets diluted, that's what the Iranians appear to have agreed to and also about the inspection program that would oversee that.
[17:05:07]
We heard from the Iranian spokesman of the Foreign Ministry today saying that International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors who were part of the MoU, the memorandum of understanding, they will not be allowed to go to those sites that were targeted during the airstrikes. So issues already bleeding out before the sides get in to the talks before they begin. But we were at the site today, the hotel on the top of the mountain here in Switzerland, beautiful, peaceful Burgenstock Hotel. If they can get in there, you do get the sense that these sites can be isolated, the U.S. and Iran can be isolated from their domestic pressures to a degree. And that can begin the path forward.
Today, absolutely indicative of everything that can go wrong, how quickly it can be put right and how quickly it can go wrong again.
MATTINGLY: Yes, it is going to be a volatile next 58 days. Nic Robertson will be covering all of them from Zurich tonight. Thanks so much.
Let's discuss now with Axios Global Affairs Correspondent Barak Ravid and David Sanger, the New York Times White House and National Security Correspondent. Like the two dudes who talk to President Trump, I think more than his staff at this point in time, depending on the day.
Barak, I want to start with the great interview your colleague Marc Caputo did. Before the Israel Lebanon fighting nearly derailed this talks he asked President Trump about his influence over all of this. Watch.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MARC CAPUTO, SENIOR WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Are you going to be able to control Israel from attacking Lebanon?
TRUMP: Yes, I will be. I mean --
CAPUTO: How?
TRUMP: -- I wonder. They have a lot of respect for me and they do as I say.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MATTINGLY: Barak, the president sounded like he had some positive things to say about the prime minister as he was unveiling the new version of Air Force One. But it's been kind of a rough couple of days to say the least. What is your sense of the current state of the relationship between President Trump and Prime Minister Netanyahu?
BARAK RAVID, CNN POLITICAL & GLOBAL AFFAIRS ANALYST: Well, I think Prime Minister Netanyahu is very unhappy with the MoU that was signed in the U.S. and Iran. But on the other hand, he is trying to restrain himself. Mainly he's less successful in restraining his other coalition partners or members of his own party. But Netanyahu I heard from a senior Israeli official during meetings with his advisors over the last 48 hours, one of the things that he reiterated again and again that he doesn't want to get into a confrontation with President Trump right now and he doesn't want to be blamed for any problem in the U.S.-Iran negotiations. And I think that yesterday Netanyahu was ready to move towards a ceasefire in Lebanon to try and stabilize this ceasefire.
We saw President Trump announcing yesterday that he wants Israel and Hezbollah to hold their fire. Then we saw Lebanese speaker of parliament saying that Hezbollah is committed. And then we saw the Israeli ambassador to the U.S. saying that Israel is committed. But then what happened is that Hezbollah attacked an Israeli tank in southern Lebanon and killed four Israeli soldiers. And from there it was very quick for a pretty significant escalation with Israel attacking dozens of targets all over Lebanon.
So I think this just shows you how this U.S.-Iran deal has become dependent on a whole different war between Israel and Hezbollah. And this is why it's become so fragile.
MATTINGLY: Yes. An extraordinarily fraught set of dynamics that they're playing with right now heading into a really, really intense 58 days.
David Sanger, first off, great to see you in person as always felt.
DAVID SANGER, CNN POLITICAL & NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: Good to see you.
MATTINGLY: You spoke with President Trump earlier this week.
SANGER: Yep.
MATTINGLY: He laid out what he thought he would get from the Iranians during these talks or in a final deal. What were the biggest things? And I think, is he on target in your kind of read of where things are right now to achieve those things?
SANGER: So I think the problem the administration is facing right now is that in their public presentation of this deal and in their descriptions to Congress, in their briefings to us in almost everything except Vice President Vance's recent comments, they have conflated what they have now in this short 14 paragraph agreement, which is really just a table of contents of what they'll be negotiating and what they think they're going to get. So the president said to me, for example, the strait will be open forever, toll free. Well, it's not what the agreement says, not what the 14 says. Sixty days after that, Oman and Iran will go figure out how they're going to go manage this thing.
[17:10:04]
So the president is basing this on conversations he or his aides have been having with the Iranians where he thinks he'll get a deal on this. Same thing about how long Iran might suspend doing nuclear enrichment. President said 20 years. We think the Iranians are offering up maybe 12. President seems confident he's getting it.
So this is why I would not mark your calendar for 60 days. It took 18 months, Phil, for the Obama administration to negotiate their last agreement. And that's because the Iranians are going to argue over every paragraph, every word.
MATTINGLY: Which was really problematic for the New York Times, based on your expense account, would be my guess as covering that.
Barak, to that point, and we've talked about this a lot over the course of the last couple of weeks, like this is hard and I know that sounds simplistic. But what they're trying to do here takes time, takes technical expertise, takes a lot of negotiating. And the history here shows that it is a process that is more likely to fail than not. Obviously, getting a ceasefire back into place after what happened last night, a positive step forward. What's your sense right now of the optimism from the U.S. side?
RAVID: So, first, I totally agree with David. For the Iranians, 60 days, it's only to agree on whether they're going to have tea or coffee. That -- you know, that's part of their negotiation tactics to delay and play for time. And I don't think it's going to be any different this time. Even though some U.S. officials claim that they already have some gentlemen's agreement with the Iranians.
Well, the Iranian -- there are no gentlemen agreements with the Iranians. But I think we still need to see that we passed this hurdle of the situation in Lebanon. I heard from a source in one of the mediating countries that Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi has told the mediators that the issue of Lebanon is make or break for the Iranians. And until they don't see that they indeed get what they want in Lebanon, they're just not going to send their delegation to Switzerland. And I think that for the Iranians, when they say ceasefire, they just mean that Israel is not taking any military action in Lebanon.
And for the Israelis, when they say a ceasefire, they mean that they're not taking any military action outside of the buffer zone that they are occupying in Lebanon. This is not the same thing. And this is why I think we still have a way to go until this stabilizes.
MATTINGLY: David, when you spoke to the president, he obviously has long been concerned about any final deal being remotely comparable to the JCPOA. He railed against it. He tore it up. He pulled the --
SANGER: Yes.
MATTINGLY: -- U.S. out of it. Why is this still such an issue for him?
SANGER: Well, it lives big in his mind. He made this a key element of his 2016 campaign. He gave a speech in 2018 when he pulled out of the deal that described all the things that were wrong with it. One of them, Phil, was it didn't cover the missile threat from Iran. That's a perfectly legitimate argument.
It was made by Democrats and Republicans who opposed the deal. Obama administration just couldn't get it. What did he do yesterday? He said, well, missiles -- you know, the Saudis have them, they need them. Some wouldn't be right for us to tell them they couldn't have missiles.
Well, it was just a few months ago, it was just a month ago that his own secretary of state was arguing that the ballistic missile arsenal in Iran protected its nuclear program. So they're going to have to go figure this one out.
MATTINGLY: I think often about the secretary of state, national security advisor, I think Secretary Rubio has like 13 other jobs laying out four very specific, very short points about --
SANGER: Yes.
MATTINGLY: -- what this war was all about.
SANGER: Read this list.
MATTINGLY: Yes. And that list match that up with the MoU. I think it'd be very telling about where things are.
David Sanger, Barak Ravid, to the best. Thank you, guys. Appreciate it.
Well, Team USA is officially -- I have my laptop. I was watching the stream. I turned it off. Now I can update everyone and myself. Officially advancing to the next round of the World Cup after beating Australia in a match that ended just moments ago. Andy Scholes is live outside the stadium.
Andy, what do we need to know?
ANDY SCHOLES, CNN SPORTS ANCHOR: Well, I'll tell you what, Phil, as you can see, all the fans are leaving the stadium right now after another impressive performance from Team USA. We're now on to the knockout stages and the party is now on here in the streets of Seattle.
[17:14:44]
We'll tell you all about the game after a quick break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
MATTINGLY: That breaking news in our sports lead, a big win for Team USA dominating the Australian Socceroos 2-nil in a game that ended just moments ago. Joining us live outside Seattle Stadium, navigating the euphoria is seen in sports anchor Andy Scholes.
Andy, Christian Pulisic, you will say his star player did not take the field today. But apparently we're just awesome at this point.
SCHOLES: Yes. I don't know, Phil. Yes, I don't -- this is just incredible. It was no Pulisic, no problem for Team USA. And they were just dominant once again in this game against Australia.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: USA.
SCHOLES: I mean, as you see, other fan --
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We did it. We win.
SCHOLES: I knew this was going to happen. The fans are going to take this live shot over, over and over again. So just bear with me. But I mean, Phil, another amazing performance.
And for the first time ever since the World Cup went to three group stage games, the U.S. has won their first two. We are now already through to the knockout rounds. Depending on what happens in the Turkey-Paraguay game later, we could already won the group by the end of the night. It's just incredible.
And we didn't have Christian Pulisic for this game. Big question was how would the U.S. respond? Well, it didn't miss a beat really. Folarin Balogun, awesome once again. He didn't score in this game like he did scoring twice against Paraguay.
But he did create the opportunity. They got the own goal in the 11th minute. Then Alex Freeman, the son of former Packers wide receiver Antonio Freeman, had his big moment in this game. He scored on a header. U.S. up two nothing. And as you can see, it is just a party now on the streets here in Seattle.
[17:20:09]
Hey, sir, sir, how impressed are you with this squad right now?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, they're the best. They're the best. They're going to win it.
SCHOLES: We're going to go win it all?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're going to win it all.
SCHOLES: All right. Thank you, sir. Have a -- have a good day.
Well, see, Phil, the fans here, you know, we went from thinking we were never, ever going to win a World Cup to now all the fans here think we're going to go all the way. So it's been quite the impressive turnaround in just a matter of a couple of weeks.
MATTINGLY: Man, we love exceptionalism. Real quick, there is a third game. It's a matchup with Turkey next Thursday.
SCHOLES: Yes.
MATTINGLY: What should fans be thinking about heading into that?
SCHOLES: Well, I mean, Phil, like I said, if Turkey loses or draws their game later against Paraguay, next week's game's not really going to matter at all. We'll have already have won the group. So you're going to see a lot of the younger guys, a lot of the guys that haven't been getting a lot of minutes probably get to play a lot. And that would give Christian Pulisic really the opportunity to rest, once again give him another full week, get him healthy for that round of 32, the knockout stages when it -- when, you know, it's do or die. But I tell you what, I've never seen soccer fever like this before, Phil.
All of these fans are just going crazy. All of them, they've been accosting me this whole time while we were waiting to do this live shot. But I love it. I love it. I love the energy and, you know, I can't wait for what's in the future for Team USA here in the World Cup because like I -- like we've been saying, hope is eternal now. All these fans think we're going all the way.
MATTINGLY: Yes, I believe that we will win now, like feels real for the first time in a long time. Andy Scholes live in Seattle. The best. Thanks so much, my friend.
So does Team USA have what it takes to win the game's ultimate prize? Be sure to tune in to a new CNN "FlashDoc Chasing Soccer Glory" this Sunday at 8:00 p.m. Eastern on CNN or watch on the CNN app.
Well, Bill Pulte is officially on the job as Trump's acting DNI chief. What CNN is learning tonight about his plans to potentially fire hundreds of employees in the office before a full time leader comes in? Stay with us.
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[17:26:29]
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: A normal president wouldn't do this. A normal president wants to stay away from aircraft. There will never be one like this. This is very unique. This is considered the world's most luxurious plane. When it was built, it was built at a level that will probably never be seen again.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MATTINGLY: In our Politics Lead, that was President Trump just moments ago at Joint Base Andrews giving Americans a first look at the new presidential airplane, a $400 million luxury plane that was given to the U.S. by Qatar last year. With us is former Deputy Director of National Intelligence and CNN National Security Analyst Beth Sanner.
Beth, the Air Force secretary said they, quote, "meticulously evaluated every requirement to accelerate delivery while maintaining the high standards expected of the presidential mission." Lawmakers had raised some bipartisan concerns about Trump using this plane. Do you have confidence that the proper security measures have been taken?
BETH SANNER, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: Well, I -- you know, look, one has to trust the Air Force to do their jobs here, but they were under a lot of pressure to get this done, right? There's a reason this plane has been delivered this week, right? It is -- it is part of the whole rolling out in advance of July 4th around the president's birthday, delivering on time. And I think that, you know, so sometimes shortcuts can be made. And there are some concerns.
But the Air Force also is not going to fly this plane, not fly President Trump in this plane until they do some operational testing. And so I don't think that even though they rolled it out today, they are being careful.
MATTINGLY: OK. So I really want to talk to you about this. I'm very glad you're here. Today's Bill Pulte's first day officially as the acting DNI. Sources actually told CNN Pulte showed up for the job a day early, asking for a list of every employee so he could decide whether or not to fire them. Sources telling CNN Pulte is looking to cut hundreds of jobs.
In a statement today, the ranking Democrat of the House Intelligence Committee posted, quote, "I am particularly concerned by reporting that he may undertake sweeping firing of intelligence professionals following on major cuts already undertaken last year." I think the last point is the one that I'm most interested in, because there have already been significant reductions in DNI. There have been very clear efforts to cut back its role on some level. Do you share the concern about what may happen in the days ahead?
SANNER: Yes, absolutely. ODNI has already seen a 50 percent, according to a number of press reports during Gabbard's tenure. So in this administration, they've already lost half their workforce. She was aiming for 40 percent, but there was a lot of people who decided that they had enough and they retired as well. So, you know, that is a lot already.
Now we're going to see more firings on top of that. I also, you know, think that this is a complete misunderstanding of who works at a place like this. The whole idea that this is, you know, a, you know, a nest of deep state people, that these are political people, is completely wrongheaded. And, you know, policy agencies are allowed to hire people who are political. They're called Schedule C. The intelligence community has nothing like that.
And so the people who come in can bring a handful of people. But also, you know, ODNI, when I was there, was a very mixed population.
[17:30:00]
And there were people who supported Trump, and there were people who, you know, supported the Democrats. And people generally did not talk about it at work, so you didn't know who was who, but you'd hear things, you know.
So I think it's just kind of confusing to people. It's like, what are you rooting out anyway? I've also seen in press reports, Phil, that he's going after Gabbard people, people that worked closely with Gabbard, which means political -- not political people, but career people who are just trying to do their jobs, and they're going to be fired. Wow, that is amazing. Talk about Den of Vipers.
MATTINGLY: Can I just ask you, one of the questions I've had, because security clearance was an issue, zero intelligence ever in his resume at this point. We've all seen what he's done, turning the housing regulator for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac into an attack dog for the President on some level. What can he actually do as the acting director of DNI, for good or for bad? Like, how much power does he have here?
SANNER: So he can do, I think, I put this into two buckets. One is he can destroy a lot by firing people who are actually doing important work for the intelligence community. For example, focusing on the National Counterterrorism Center, as has been reported, at a time when our terrorist threat in the United States is extremely elevated, given our war and what's going on. Just because we have an MOU doesn't mean that ends. We have other adversaries.
The other bucket is the things he could do that he could control. So the President's Daily Brief and the National Intelligence Counselor are the only two analytic organizations in the intelligence community where it's the entire community's point of view. And their production, their intelligence reports, these go to everywhere in the government. The DNI could, if he wanted to, have final say in what goes out and what doesn't go out. And then the big picture is that, you know, the damage that can be done to the way things work.
Yes, you can fire a lot of people. Yes, you can politicize the election. You can claim that there's foreign influence where there isn't any. You can cherry pick reports to make up a narrative, to make up a story about what's happening. That's not true. Because, you know, yes, you have one report. I can find a report that says, you know, my mother's from Mars. So, you know, I think that there could be quite a bit of damage here.
MATTINGLY: I want to see that report on some level. But now you understand why lawmakers on both sides of the aisle are very concerned at this moment still. Beth Sanner, always appreciate you, my friend. Thanks so much.
SANNER: Thanks, Phil.
[17:33:01]
MATTINGLY: A new report details a major flu outbreak at a Texas Air Force base just a few months after Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth removed the flu vaccine requirement for troops. That's next.
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MATTINGLY: A growing flu outbreak is raising questions about military readiness and vaccine policy. "The New York Times" reports nearly 160 troops have fallen ill at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio, Texas, less than two months after Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth ended the military's longstanding flu vaccine requirement. The outbreak prompted the Air Force to temporarily reinstate mandatory flu shots for new recruits at the base as officials work to contain the spread.
Joining me now is New York Times Pentagon reporter Greg Jaffe. Greg, this, as everyone can imagine, has sparked a lot of commentary from a lot of people around this story. But what you've reported and how you reported, I think, is really important for people to understand. Just to kind of start in that space, what have you learned as you've reported the story out?
GREG JAFFE, REPORTER, THE NEW YORK TIMES: So about three -- over the last three weeks, there was a major flu outbreak at Lackland Air Force Base. It's not surprising that it would start there. Its basic training is located there. So the troops are living in open bays on bunk beds. They're eating together. And so they're in lots of contact. And so what we found, as you noted, about 160 people got the flu. There appears to be one death. They're still examining whether that was related to the flu. And about 40 percent of the recruits were taking the vaccine since it became voluntary. Before, that had been about 100 percent. So you can really see the change there in just the last couple months.
MATTINGLY: Given the military's focus on readiness, the necessity of readiness, how worried are Pentagon officials, lawmakers, other policymakers about this outbreak right now?
JAFFE: So I should say, you know, even before the outbreak, folks were worried. I think Roger Wicker, Republican senator, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, and Mike Rounds, another Republican senator before it came out, both of them said, hey, this does not seem like a good idea to us. Since then, I do think that there's a lot of concern. And you can see it in the fact that the Air Force has reinstated the vaccine.
You know, it's a particular problem at places like basic training when you have a lot of people coming together from all over the world who are packed together in very tight quarters with each other 24 hours a day in stressful environments where they're not getting a lot of sleep. MATTINGLY: The military still requires vaccines like measles for polio. I think one thing I was thinking of is this is not normally a flu season. Doctors may not normally be recommending a flu vaccine at this point in the year, but does the administration plan to revisit the broader vaccine policy at all?
[17:40:11]
JAFFE: So, so far, I have not heard that they are, and I guess we'll see what happens. It does seem like there's some concern on the Hill. There was concern even before this outbreak, so I wouldn't be surprised if lawmakers on the Hill tried to intervene in some way, as they have in some other policies where they disagreed with Secretary Hegseth.
MATTINGLY: Yes, it's an important point. They have vehicles to do so. We'll see if they actually end up pursuing it in a bipartisan way. You also have some new reporting on Secretary Hegseth, who is also under fire for blocking senior promotions. One of the cases you look at is that of Rear Admiral Stephen D. Barnett. Hegseth denied his advancement despite Navy leadership backing him. What does it suggest about how top military appointments are being handled right now?
JAFFE: So it does feel like, well, it doesn't feel like there is a very much of a secret vetting process, and the idea is to find people who have said things about diversity that I think Secretary Hegseth finds offensive. You know, he said, diversity is our strength is the dumbest thing ever said about the United States military. And so folks who have voiced support for diversity are being weeded out. And so there's a major effort anytime -- anyone is nominated for a position where there are teams that go through everything this person has said previously. And even if it was in line with previous policy, if it trips some of Secretary Hegseth's red lines, they're pulling those nominations.
MATTINGLY: The opacity of that process remains astounding to me, given the fact it is having very, very real world impact. Greg Jaffe, great reporting on all counts as always. Thanks so much.
JAFFE: Yes, thanks for having me.
MATTINGLY: Up next, it's the latest installment of our series "A.I.: Friend or Foe." See how one company hopes to bring A.I. to Hollywood without losing artists.
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[17:46:36]
MATTINGLY: Now, our series, "A.I.: Friend or Foe," where we examine the pros and cons of this emerging technology. Many in the entertainment community are terrified about what artificial intelligence might mean for jobs and their art. Arcana Labs pledges to keep human creators at the center of it all and argues it's an opportunity for more filmmaking, not less. Jake Tapper sat down with Arcana Labs top official to discuss what could be the future of filmmaker.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JAKE TAPPER, CNN ANCHOR: Joining me now is Arcana Labs co-founder and CEO, Jonathan Yunger. And Jonathan, we should disclose that you and I work together on "The Outpost," the adaptation of my book into film. So I've known you for a while. When you say artist-driven A.I., what does that mean?
JONATHAN YUNGER, CO-FOUNDER & CEO, ARCANA LABS: Artist-driven A.I. means human first. So there's a big misconception about A.I. And I think that when the acronym showed up, everyone, especially in Hollywood, just kind of dug their heads into the sand and said, no, no, no. And historically, with new tech, we generally get scared or we, you know, go operate from fear. Artist-driven A.I. says it's like humans to the power of A.I. So everything starts with human development, human written screenplays, human creativity, and A.I. tools to be used, as I said, just as a tool set.
There's no magic button that you press and all of a sudden, poof, you have a movie. It still takes hundreds, thousands of hours of work, as creativity does. But the positive thing that I think these tools are doing is that it's allowing budding filmmakers, young artists to have to lower the barrier to entry. And also, to be honest, our industry, we've had trouble for the last seven years.
The independent movie business, which is the movie, the business that I've been in for nearly 20 years, revenues have been dropping. And we've had to find ways to lower costs, but raise production value. And the only way to really do that, in my opinion, is with these kinds of tools, but driven by artists, by storytellers.
TAPPER: Right. But we have seen, you know, there's that A.I. actress out there. I forget who that is. And there is this fear of, well, we've also seen from --
YUNGER: Tilly Norwood.
TAPPER: Tilly Norwood. We also saw that on the rooftop, Brad Pitt fighting Tom Cruise, completely bogus. So there is legitimate fear that some of this will replace actors altogether, and some of it will be people stealing actors' likenesses. Now, I know that's not what you do, but that is a fear of the technology.
YUNGER: Absolutely. It is. First of all, at Arcana, my platform is basically all the A.I. tools in one. It's an ecosystem. And we created a sandbox that were approved by some of the major studios and streamers to be used, because we have, with our security, you can't do likenesses unless you have permission. If you're doing a pickup or something like that, you can't just -- and your data doesn't mix out into the world when you're using it inside of the enterprise environment.
Now, likenesses and all of those things happening, of course, those are legitimate fears. But deepfakes and things like that have been happening for a long, long time. And that's why I think what is tech- proof in the future, that is in the future, where the puck is going is I.P. and distribution. Everything circles back to I.P .and distribution.
TAPPER: Intellectual property.
[17:50:00]
YUNGER: Yes, intellectual property. So if an artist, if an A.I. artist makes the coolest Transformers movie ever, wonderful. How is he going to distribute it? Yes, intellectual property. So if an artist, if an AI artist makes the coolest Transformers movie ever, wonderful. How is he going to distribute it? And who's going to see it? It'll never happen.
TAPPER: Yes. Well, not in this country, but maybe abroad.
YUNGER: We're very against A.I. actors, by the way. I have no interest in that. And that's why Arcana, we actually made the first fully-gen A.I. movie last year that got a SAG contract called "Echo Hunter."
TAPPER: I want to roll a clip showing Arcana's transformation. I think this clip is called "Revolutionary." Can you walk me through how your tool elevated the visuals here?
YUNGER: Oh, "Revolutionary"? Yes. That is from a company called Primary Source. They're a production company that does historical stuff, docuseries, podcasts, everything about history. And this is a docuseries that was made about George Washington. And the information in the docuseries is incredible.
And the way in was really awesome. The issue was these young filmmakers and this young company, they didn't have the budget to do the proper reenactments that you would need for something like this, period, big sets, costumes, Revolutionary War. And they shot a couple of actors basically on a black box. They went out to try to get distribution. And the response that they got was, this belongs on, you know, on a community T.V. or something like that.
And that's not what it was. So they came to us. And what we did was we helped them rebuild scenes of Washington and Barbados, the Revolutionary War. Dinner scenes and things at Mount Vernon. All still a lot of the actors in there, except for Washington, are some of them are real actors. And some of them, they were built with A.I., as, you know, but showing. But they didn't have the budgets for these large sets anyway.
TAPPER: So it's a question of -- it's not a question of replacing actors. It's a question of whether or not this movie exists or not.
YUNGER: Correct.
TAPPER: Yes.
YUNGER: Yes. And it's a wonderful docuseries. I mean, I think it shows Washington, which is like this enigma that we all see, is Washington the man. And it should be distributed. And they're on the one yard line now about getting real distribution because of what Arcana did for them.
TAPPER: All right. Jonathan Yunger, this is fascinating stuff. We'll have you back to keep talking about this technology and what it means. Appreciate it.
YUNGER: Thank you so much.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
MATTINGLY: Well, up next, a CNN investigation into a disturbing trend in Japan, where a growing number of children and teens are committing a crime called upskirting. What's behind this trend and how police are trying to crack down?
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[17:56:42]
MATTINGLY: In our World Lead, police in Japan are confronting a disturbing trend in upskirting cases taking place in schools, which is the act of taking a photo underneath someone's clothing without consent. Even more troubling, there's an alarming rise in minors as perpetrators. CNN's Hanako Montgomery reports.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
HANAKO MONTGOMERY, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): On Japanese social media, videos like these are posted daily. Ordinary citizens chasing strangers caught perversely filming others without consent. A crime also known as upskirting. In Japan, upskirting is one of the most common sex crimes police make arrests for.
MONTGOMERY: Most cases happen in public spaces like on escalators or on train platforms. But now the crime is increasingly happening inside schools.
MONTGOMERY (voice-over): And a growing number of perpetrators are children themselves.
SUMIRE NAGAMORI, DIGITAL SAFETY ACTIVIST (through translator): Before they can tell between right and wrong, they have devices in their hands that allow them to commit abusive acts.
MONTGOMERY (voice-over): Police data shows reported cases of voyeurism committed by minors increased nearly six-fold in 2024 compared to the year before. Authorities say that the rise is the result of a tougher crackdown and new national laws. But with smartphones everywhere, it's also a crime that's easier than ever to commit and repeat.
But I wanted to understand why more young people are carrying out these acts. So we spent months investigating until we found someone willing to talk.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): After getting away with it once and feeling that rush afterwards, I wanted to feel it again. MONTGOMERY (voice-over): Kimura (ph) was 15 when he first watched upskirting pornography, adult actors who turned the crime into a sexual fantasy. But soon, he says, the reenactments weren't arousing enough. Two years later, at 17, he upskirted his first victim. He filmed about 30 more girls over a year.
MONTGOMERY: Do you feel guilty at all about the fact that you can go on with your life, go to school, have a normal life, and these victims will always remember that they were targeted by you?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): I really feel sorry. I feel like I have to make sure I never forget what I did.
MONTGOMERY (voice-over): He's since undergone mandatory programs for crime prevention and re-education. Kimura (ph) only stopped when police caught him trespassing, stealing a woman's underwear from a clothesline.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): If I hadn't got caught at the time, I might have raped someone within a year or two.
MONTGOMERY (voice-over): For perpetrators, upskirting is a fleeting thrill, easy to commit, often unnoticed. But for the millions it violates, the images can leave a permanent digital scar, one that haunts them for years.
Hanako Montgomery, CNN, Tokyo.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
[17:59:55]
MATTINGLY: Thanks to Hanako Montgomery. And we should note, CNN reached out to Discord and Telegram for a statement on our findings. Telegram said its moderation systems remove millions of pieces of harmful content each month, including non-consensual pornography. It also highlighted its, "significant efforts against child sexual abuse material," including the removal of more than 260,000 related groups and channels in 2026 alone. Discord did not respond.
