Return to Transcripts main page

CNN News Central

Ultra-Processed Foods May Raise Risk of Colorectal Tumors; Rubio Defends Caribbean Strikes Over Question About Legality; Safety Task Force to Create AI Guardrails; Guardians All-Star Emmanuel Clase Arraigned on Gambling Charges. Aired 2:30-3p ET

Aired November 13, 2025 - 14:30   ET

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

[14:30:00]

DR. TRISHA PASRICHA, GASTROENTEROLOGIST: And so we're trying very desperately to try to figure out why.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: And I want to get your reaction to a new study that suggests eating ultra-processed foods may significantly raise the odds of that.

PASRICHA: Yes, so this is a new study that came from the Nurses Health Study. And what this evidence is showing is that they looked at about 29,000 women and found that those who were eating the highest amounts of ultra-processed foods, they had about a 45 percent increased odds of developing polyps or these growths in their colon that we know can develop into colorectal cancer compared to those who are eating the lowest amounts of ultra-processed foods.

Now, why this is actually really surprising is because these were in women in whom these polyps were found before the age of 50. That's earlier and younger than we would have expected to see.

JESSICA DEAN, CNN HOST: So help us understand, because I think we hear ultra-processed food. We think we know what that means, but what exactly is that? And are we eating more of it now?

PASRICHA: Great question. So, you know, I think the simplest way to think about ultra-processed foods is that ultra-processed foods are any kinds of foods that you and I in our home kitchens, we couldn't make on our own. It needs some sort of industrialized process or a large sort of external factory in order to produce.

Now, that, you know, describes almost everything in a lot of people's pantries. So it can be a little overwhelming to think about the fact that ultra-processed foods are linked to so many diseases. And I think we've had this conversation for a long time about ultra-processed foods.

They're linked to metabolic health, diabetes or heart health. This study, I think, is helping open our eyes more and more to the fact that it's actually linked to cancer as well. Now, when I look at these kinds of studies, I think it's easy -- very easy to be overwhelmed and say, you know what? I can't cut out ultra-processed foods entirely. But what I think people should do is focus on building habits, looking

at the foods that they eat every single day and say, what is one small change that I can make? Because as you mentioned, as a society, we have been eating more and more of these since the 1990s onwards.

And in this study in particular, one of the biggest categories where people were eating the most ultra-processed foods were breakfast foods. They were also in sugar-sweetened beverages. These are smaller categories that we can intervene on in our daily life and say, you know what? This week, I'm going to eat -- I going to drink one less sugary beverage.

And if you can sustain that change over weeks to years to decades, it's actually a much bigger deal, can have a much bigger impact on your health than saying, I'm going to go cold turkey on ultra- processed foods for two months and then drop it because no one can sustain that. So focus on something small that you can make and it can have a pretty outsized impact on your health.

DEAN: Yes, make it something you can do and then maybe you can build on it. Dr. Pasricha, thank you so much for being here. We appreciate it.

And we do have breaking news. Senator John Fetterman's office says he's been hospitalized after a cardiac episode. His spokesperson saying, quote, during an early morning walk, Senator Fetterman sustained a fall near his home in Braddock.

Upon evaluation, it was established he had a ventricular fibrillation flare-up that led to Senator Fetterman feeling lightheaded, falling to the ground, and hitting his face with minor injuries.

KEILAR: The senator also reportedly told his aides to share this quote, "If you thought my face looked bad before, wait until you see it now." So obviously his sense of humor retained there. Fetterman's staff says the senator is opting to stay in the hospital so the doctors can quote, fine tune his medication.

Fetterman underwent surgery in 2022 after experiencing a stroke. We'll continue to follow that story.

And next, another American ally is voicing concerns about the Trump administration's attacks on alleged drug boats in the Caribbean, calling them a violation of international law.

[14:35:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KEILAR: This just in, the Defense Department says that the 20th U.S. military strike on an alleged drug trafficking boat was carried out earlier this week, killing four people. U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio is defending the administration's controversial military strikes. Before leaving the G7 in Canada, Rubio responded to France's foreign minister calling the strikes a violation of international law, as well as reports that the U.K. had stopped sharing certain intelligence with the U.S. because of concerns over the strikes.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARCO RUBIO, SECRETARY OF STATE: I don't think that the European Union gets to determine what international law is. They certainly don't get to determine how the United States defends its national security.

I do find it interesting that all these countries want us to send, you know, and supply, for example, nuclear-capable Tomahawk missiles to defend Europe, but when the United States positions aircraft carriers in our hemisphere where we live, somehow that's a problem.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: Rubio went on to say that European leaders should, quote, maybe be thanking the U.S. for disrupting the flow of drugs to their countries.

Retired U.S. Navy Commander Kirk Lippold is with us now. Sir, what do you think about what the secretary is saying there?

Should the U.S. be concerned about European allies voicing concerns, withholding intelligence amid concerns that these strikes may break international law?

KIRK LIPPOLD, FORMER USS COLE COMMANDER, U.S. NAVY (RET.): Well, Brianna, I think that we should always take our allies' concerns into account when we're formulating our national security policy. But at the end of the day, Secretary Rubio is absolutely correct.

[14:40:00]

The Europeans do not get to determine what international law is, nor do they get to determine what our national security response should be to threats to those interests. And when you look at what the French foreign minister say by making a blunt statement like that, he's absolutely wrong. I think what people forget is that that mindset is what put us on the path to 9-11.

It's what put us on the path where we didn't respond to terrorism for years. And when you look at what these narco-terrorists are doing in killing not only hundreds of thousands of Americans, but Europeans as well, it is absolutely right for the Trump administration to now look at it through a new paradigm and legal lens and say, we no longer can tolerate this threat and these actions against our country.

KEILAR: Why do you see it through a similar lens considering there are concerns that are brought up about the narco-trade that often this is done through fishermen. And at this point in time, obviously there isn't full visibility and sometimes there can't be quite frankly of all of the intel that is used. Why do you see it through the same prism and can you address some of those issues that I brought up?

LIPPOLD: Sure, I think you need to look at what these, you know, these drug terrorists, these narco-terrorists, they have built a multi, multi-billion dollar industry through several countries throughout the Western hemisphere. Whether it's in Mexico and let's face it, the vast majority of drugs coming into the U.S. still comes across our Southern border. Whether it's through the maritime domain where countries like Venezuela and to a lesser degree Columbia still use that method to get drugs into us. We have to look at the fact that even though fishermen may do it, well, that's like saying, gee, Hamas builds hospitals, therefore bus bombings can be tolerated because that's just part of doing business.

We have to eventually look at it and say, if you can sort and work with these narco-terrorist organizations to transport drugs into the United States, you're now in their camp and we will take action accordingly to safeguard our national security interests. It is a step and leaning forward rather than being reactive like we were prior to 9-11, we're now being proactive and setting up a very reasonable defense to ensure that our country gets safe because we tolerated hundreds of thousands of Americans dying because of the drug trade. Why do we do that?

The Trump administration is now taking that very proactive look to say, no, we cannot afford that anymore and we're no longer going to tolerate it any more than we do IEDs from terrorist organizations.

KEILAR: Sources tell CNN that most of these strikes have been carried out with remotely piloted MQ-9 Reaper drones, others conducted by manned aircraft. Can you take us inside what the threat assessment and analysis preparation is like for a strike like one of these?

LIPPOLD: Sure. What the United States does is first and foremost is gather the intelligence. Where are the drugs possibly being produced?

What are the internal transit routes to Venezuela, for example? What are the ports that are being used? How the boats are actually created?

How they're maintained? Where are they operated from? How are they being crewed?

All those are from assets that we have both in the country and perhaps even the CIA aiding and abetting and working with them to get that kind of intelligence. Once we have it, then we begin to figure out where are the major transit routes that they try to use in order to get those drugs out to sea. We then build a package to try and figure out can we deter Venezuela from doing that?

Clearly that has failed. Then we have to figure out if we are in fact going to interdict them, what are the most effective means to do it with minimal damage or if we have to try and contain it to just that one boat rather than having just dropping a 2,000 pound JDAM on it or a joint weapon that would allow us to take it out without any doubt whatsoever.

So you end up doing that entire string of not only building the intelligence but building out how you're going to interdict it. Then you look at it and it runs through a legal process to ensure that what we are doing meets the legal criteria for self-defense and that we in fact have the authority both under U.S. and international law to conduct these strikes. And then the president through the Secretary of War then commits those operational forces to be forward deployed as they are in the Caribbean to actually conduct those operations as required.

KEILAR: And so finally, can I just ask you, what do you make of Admiral Holsey, the head of Southern Command stepping down? Quite uncharacteristic to do so only a year into his tenure and there were certainly tensions as we understand it over these boat strikes.

[14:45:00]

LIPPOLD: I think what you're beginning to see is that we, just like prior to 9-11, you have a number of officers who do not want to understand what it means to truly defend this country by using the military as one of the instruments of national power. You have diplomacy, information warfare, you have military and you've got our economy that we use.

All those are being implemented by the Trump administration with the military being the last resort. The fact that you've got an admiral stepping down, guess what? You have a choice when you're in the military.

You either obey orders, you dissent and obey those orders or you disobey them. He had chose to step down because he obviously either disagrees with it and does not want to have anything to do with it or he just feels that what the Trump administration doing, he doesn't want to live with.

And I think it's rather unfortunate because the military right now is the last resort and that when you have professional officers like him do that, where they step down, they deserve our respect because they differ with what the Trump administration is doing.

By the same token, once he is retired and he chooses to speak out, that's his prerogative. But until then, we obey those orders if they are legal under U.S. and international law and I believe that the forces carrying them out are and that they deserve our legal protection as well.

KEILAR: Yes, in fairness to the admiral, he obviously knows a lot more information than we do but we can't know that. As you said, maybe we'll know one day at some point here and certainly I think we look forward to finding that out. Commander Kirk Lippold, thank you so much for being with us.

LIPPOLD: Thank you, Brianna.

KEILAR: Trapped on the side of a cliff, see the moment a base jumper is rescued while dangling hundreds of feet above ground.

[14:50:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

DEAN: New this hour, two of the biggest companies in tech are joining forces with state attorneys general to form an AI safety task force. That effort involving OpenAI and Microsoft aims to create some guardrails around artificial intelligence as more Americans use that technology for just about everything.

Joining us now is CNN tech reporter, Clare Duffy. Clare, tell us more about the task force and what is it going to try to do?

CLARE DUFFY, CNN TECH REPORTER: Yes, the idea here is to bring together the developers within tech companies who are building AI with state attorneys general who of course are the top law enforcement officers within states to develop and recommend basic safeguards that AI companies should implement into their technology and to continue to track potential risks as this technology continues to develop. And this comes at a time when of course there are escalating concerns about artificial intelligence safety, everything from concerns that the technology could cause delusions, could contribute to users' self- harm. And it's also coming at a time when Congress has done very little to implement oversight over this technology.

There is no overarching federal legislation for artificial intelligence. And so the hope here is to bring together bipartisan state attorneys general. This group has been started by North Carolina Attorney General Jeff Jackson, who is a Democrat, and Utah Attorney General Derrick Brown, who is a Republican, and sort of fill the gap of the lack of federal regulation here to develop some safeguards.

North Carolina Attorney General Jeff Jackson said he doesn't feel hopeful that Congress will move quickly to regulate AI. He told me -- "They did nothing with respect to social media, nothing with respect to internet privacy, not even for kids, and they came very close to moving in the wrong direction on AI by handcuffing states from doing anything real." He said, "Congress has left a vacuum and I think it makes sense for AGs to try to fill it."

And they do expect that other tech companies and other state attorneys general will join this group as they try to create some guardrails for this technology.

DEAN: All right, we will see how this progresses. Clare Duffy, thank you so much --Brianna.

KEILAR: Check this out. That colorful speck on the side of a cliff, that there is the parachute of a trap-based jumper. That jumper was left hanging off the side of this cliff face in Utah, stuck hundreds of feet in the air, and this is the hard-stopping moment that they were hoisted off the rock face by a helicopter.

The witness who recorded this video says she was holding her breath until she finally saw the jumper's arm move and realized that, yes, they were OK. Pretty amazing video to see there.

Still ahead, two Cleveland Guardians pitchers connected to an alleged sports gambling scheme are now in police custody. New details on their case next.

[14:55:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

DEAN: Cleveland Guardians all-star relief pitcher Emmanuel Clase is being arraigned in federal court in New York today. It is the same Brooklyn courtroom where his teammate, Luis Ortiz, appeared Wednesday to face charges of allegedly taking bribes to help gamblers win bets on specific pitches he threw.

CNN Sports anchor Don Riddell is joining us now. Don, a lot of people paying close attention to this. Talk us through today.

DON RIDDELL, CNN SPORTS ANCHOR: Yes, you know, the Major League Baseball season ended at the start of the month, but there has been plenty of intrigue away from the diamond this week with, as you say, two Cleveland Guardians pitchers taken into custody and facing pretty serious criminal charges. Within the last few hours, Emmanuel Clase arrived at JFK Airport in New York, stepping off a flight from his native Dominican Republic to be arrested by the FBI. As you say, he was scheduled to be arraigned this hour.

Earlier this week, his Guardians teammate, Luis Ortiz, was arraigned and released on a half a million dollar bond he pled not guilty. Both men are accused of allegedly taking thousands of dollars in payoffs to help two unnamed gamblers in the Dominican Republic win at least $460,000 on bets placed on the speed and outcome of certain pitches they were throwing in games. An investigation into their activities began in the summer.

They've been on paid leave since July. Prosecutors say that Clase was providing information to the gamblers back in 2023, but he didn't ask for payoffs until this season.

The charges are serious. These men could, in theory, spend decades behind bars if convicted. And their case, as if it wasn't already fascinating enough, will be closely followed as professional and amateur sports become increasingly intertwined with the bookmaking industry. Remember just a fortnight ago, two NBA players and a coach were arrested for their alleged roles in insider trading and sports betting and rigged high stakes poker games.

And in both cases, the NBA and the MLB, the indictments are coming from the same U.S. Attorney's Office in Brooklyn.

DEAN: And it is interesting that you note, Don, as we've been talking about, that these sports leagues are increasingly intertwined with the betting and it's possible we'll see more and more of this.

RIDDELL: Well, I mean, perhaps.

DEAN: Yes, we very well might. All right, Don Riddell, thank you to you. We really appreciate it. And we are ...