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Poland Says It Thwarted Russian Plot to Kill U.S. Citizen; Scott Bessent Says U.S. To Apply Measures Never Been Seen on Iran; Alex Murdaugh Returns to Court Ahead of Murder Retrial; U.S. Attorney Says No Meth Found in Van of Man Killed by ICE; Selena Gomez and Her Mental Health Startup Sued for Alleged Fraud; France's Top Court Rejects Under-15 Social Media Ban; NTSB Says Engine Fan Blade Hit Plane Window, Causing Passenger to Be Partially Sucked Outside Aircraft. Aired 1:30-2p ET

Aired August 14, 2026 - 13:30   ET

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

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[13:33:48]

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN CO-ANCHOR OF "CNN NEWS CENTRAL": Poland says it thwarted a Russian plot to kill an American citizen in its capital city of Warsaw. According to Prime Minister Donald Tusk, the plan marks the first time someone on the order of Russia has tried to kill a U.S. citizen inside another NATO country. Tusk says the intended target was an American-Ukrainian who he describes simply as uncomfortable for the Putin regime.

CNN Chief International Security Correspondent, Nick Paton-Walsh is in Ukraine and joins us now from Kyiv. Nick, what more can you share about this?

NICK PATON WALSH, CNN INTERNATIONAL SECURITY EDITOR: Yeah, a very high-profile statement here from Poland. Prime Minister Donald Tusk, no less, laying out this clear allegation that on August the 7th, Polish security services arrested somebody who was recruited by the Russian security services.

They say he's now on detention for three months, who they say was charged with killing an American-Ukrainian in Poland. Someone, as you said, that Tusk said was uncomfortable for the Putin regime. Now, this person has not been identified, but Polish officials have suggested it's somebody of Ukrainian origin who's an American citizen.

This is, frankly, startling and it is indeed unprecedented as far as we know. Look, this is an American on NATO territory, Tusk stressed, the target of a Russian assassination plot.

[13:35:00]

That's important because up until now, we've predominantly seen Russia, actually frequently, over decades, target their own citizens and dissidents while they're abroad or not on Russian territory. Many examples of that. But intelligence officials have warned over past months that that may change and they might start targeting citizens of other countries, perhaps in their own country as well, as part of a broadening campaign of Russian sabotage, and in this case potential murder, designed to be part of Russia's asymmetric threat. It's important too because this is quite clearly Poland emphasizing to the White House, to the American people, that Americans potentially are caught up in this Russian campaign too, that essentially the United States is increasingly part of Europe's entanglement in this war between Ukraine and Russia.

Very little details here, but it does follow a pattern. There was a plot that CNN reported with other media in 2024 where a senior German arms dealer was potentially the subject of another Russian assassination plot. And the pace of this against its own citizens indeed has increased, and there have been sabotage plots across Europe, as I say, often targeting logistics supplying Ukraine things that have been targeted too.

But this is a new level, clearly recognized as such by that by the Polish prime minister, and it comes at a key time, as you know, where Ukraine is desperate for increased United States help, where some key MAGA figures around President Trump, like Laura Loomer, have switched their allegiance to being startlingly pro-Russian, to now being as polarized in the pro-Ukrainian camp. Yet still Donald Trump, despite being beseeched by the Ukrainian president for more Patriot interceptors, more assistance, seems to be resisting going all in on that particular angle, and at times too appears to be having a quite strong bilateral conversation with Moscow as well.

So a remarkable revelation in Poland here, and I think a sign just weeks as it comes after a Russian missile, perhaps by accident, perhaps by design, landed on Polish territory, injuring nobody during a large attack here against Ukraine, that this war is increasingly hitting NATO territory rather than just NATO interests and NATO's general sense of security, Boris.

SANCHEZ: And Nick Paton-Walsh, live for us in Kyiv, thank you so much for that. Brian?

BRIAN ABEL, CNN CO-ANCHOR OF "CNN NEWS CENTRAL": Turning back to the war with Iran now, the Treasury Department is trying to amp up the economic pressure on the regime, using what Secretary Scott Bessent describes as unprecedented measures.

The Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control is now targeting individuals, exchange houses, and companies across several countries, it accuses of helping an Iranian bank clandestinely move hundreds of millions of dollars.

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SCOTT BESSENT, UNITED STATES SECRETARY OF THE TREASURY: Watch this space for more announcements coming next week because we are going to apply measures like have never been seen in the history of economic isolation on a country. It will be a combination of economic isolation like the world has never seen before, and the continued blockade in the Strait of Hormuz that will keep anything from going in or out of the Iranian ports.

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ABEL: All right, Steven Cook joins us now, a Senior Fellow for Middle East Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations, and an expert on U.S.-Middle East policy. Steven, thank you very much for your time.

What could measures never seen before actually be? What options are left at this point?

STEVEN COOK, SENIOR FELLOW FOR MIDDLE EAST STUDIES, COUNCIL ON FOREIGN RELATIONS: It's really hard to tell what Secretary Bessent is talking about here. Iran is one of the most sanctioned countries in the world. There's always places where you can tighten up sanctions, and places where the Iranians have found loopholes.

But it strikes me that the Iranian leadership is not going to capitulate with yet another new round of sanctions on them or companies affiliated with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. The Iranians have withstood tremendous economic pain over many, many years, as well as more recently, very significant bombing attacks by the United States and Israel, yet the leadership has never capitulated.

So it strikes me that the administration is groping and looking for something to do here, and they've put Secretary Bessent out there to do his best impression of President Trump.

ABEL: Let's dig into the strains a little bit of these sanctions in Iran. Iranian government statistics do show economic problems. Inflation for food has soared by nearly 130 percent over the past 12 months. The wages of low-paid workers have grown by less than half of that, and the government has recently warned it may add to the pain by reducing gasoline subsidies, which would trigger a new wave of inflation and potentially lead to higher unemployment.

[13:40:00]

The Iranian people are certainly feeling the economic cost, but does the regime feel that? And maybe more importantly, do they care?

COOK: Yeah, this is the problem with the administration's approach at this point. I mean, they do have a theory of the case, which is that you force the economic collapse of Iran and it will force the collapse of the regime. But it's unclear what economic collapse means.

The statistics that you just articulated would suggest that the economy already is in a free fall, yet the Iranian people have not come back out into the streets to demand regime change. And that's because December and January and throughout this conflict, the Iranian regime has been willing to kill those people who are opposed to the regime. And they've done it in large numbers.

They kept up the arrests. They kept up the killing throughout Operation Epic Fury. People are feeling pain. Members of the leadership of the regime are not. And leadership of the regime is willing to apply as much pain on the Iranian population in order to protect the regime.

ABEL: You know, turning to the U.S. allies in the region, we haven't necessarily seen this outwardly, but has there been any internal sentiment change among any U.S. regional allies who've really taken the brunt of incoming attacks from Iran as this war lingers on?

COOK: Yeah, I think that there are differences of opinion among Washington's partners in the region, particularly in the Gulf. I think that the Saudis and the Qataris and a few Omanis are searching for a negotiated solution. I think that they've come to the conclusion that as a result of this conflict, Iran has been empowered and will have some say in navigation through the Strait of Hormuz.

Others, the Emiratis and the Bahrainis, would like the United States and others to be more aggressive in confronting the Iranian challenge in the Strait of Hormuz. They just don't have the power to drive the politics of that in the region. So there are differences. I think you see a fracturing of the regional order that the United States led for many years.

You have the Saudis drawing closer to the Pakistanis and the Turks. You have the Emiratis drawing closer to the Israelis and the Bahrainis and others. This is a very different Middle East as a result than the one that existed on February 27th.

ABEL: All right, Steven Cook, grateful for your expertise and time. Thank you, sir.

COOK: Thank you.

ABEL: Ahead, the latest twists in the Alex Murdaugh retrial, why his defense team is trying to move the second trial for murder away from his home and to Charleston instead.

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[13:47:15]

SANCHEZ: It's a case that's gripped the nation for years. The Murdaugh family murders have spawned documentaries, books, and influenced T.V. shows. Now there's a new twist. Alex Murdaugh, the disbarred South Carolina lawyer convicted of murdering his wife and son in 2023, returns to court ahead of his double murder retrial. And in a major win for the defense, the judge just ruled to move the location of the new trial out of his home county.

CNN's Dianne Gallagher has been on top of the story since it broke, and she's following the latest from the courthouse in Lexington, South Carolina. Dianne, the venue changed, just one of several rulings the judge made today.

DIANNE GALLAGHER, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Boris, some major decisions coming out of this hearing that are really starting to shape what that new trial, which is set for April, might look like.

Alex Murdaugh, the convicted fraudster and accused killer, appearing in a suit jacket and tie, thanks to a judge's ruling this week, instead of his prison jumpsuit and shackles. Now his own words may come back to haunt him, and that's because Judge Debra McCaslin ruled that his now infamous sworn testimony from the original murder trial can be used with conditions in his new trial.

The judge qualified this ruling saying that usage of the testimony would be subject to, depending on exactly what he's talking about, and that's because they have not determined exactly how much of that information and testimony about the financial crimes he committed will be included in this new trial.

When the South Carolina State Supreme Court overturned his convictions for those murders, it was because they said the clerk of court improperly influenced the jury, but they also noted that simply too much evidence and too much discussion was spent on the financial crimes during the original six-week trial.

So where's the new trial going to happen? Well, not Colleton County and not anywhere in the 14th Circuit, but we don't know the new location because the two sides simply could not agree on the destination. The judge said if that's the case, she's going to decide for them soon.

Now, honestly, Boris, this was one of the weirder moments I've seen in a pretrial hearing. The defense really wants it to be in Charleston, and in order to prove their point, they called one of the defense attorneys, Phil Barber, up as a sworn witness who was, you know, under oath and even cross-examined by the prosecution to basically testify what it's like, the expenses, the logistics, to exist and work in the holy city of Charleston.

So it was a really strange moment and didn't seem to get us anywhere on the final destination for this new trial. Now, the judge did rule today in favor of the defense for independent testing of that unknown male DNA that was found under Maggie Murdaugh's fingernail.

[13:50:00]

She also did several other rulings from the bench that focused on protective orders and also polygraph tests. She said they will be inadmissible, but she did leave the door open a bit for the defense to approach her about maybe a specific case outside of the jury's view for her to consider.

Now, she set the next free trial hearing for November, but we're likely going to be back before then to deal with things that come from that DNA testing and also for anything else that may pop up in these motions, Boris.

SANCHEZ: The saga continues. Dianne Gallagher from South Carolina, thank you so much. Brian?

ABEL: Now to some of the other headlines we are watching this hour. A federal prosecutor confirms meth was not found in the van of a Texas man who was fatally shot by ICE officers. This clarification comes more than a month after the DOJ in an unusual move unsealed a search warrant on Lorenzo Salgado Araujo's van, alleging that officers saw several small bags inside filled with a substance that appeared to be methamphetamine.

His family says Salgado Araujo had no history of drug use and the substance in question was a homemade electrolyte mix that he used to stay hydrated while working.

Also, multiple investors in Selena Gomez's mental health startup Wondermind are suing the pop star, claiming they were misled about the company's success and Gomez's involvement in it. Wondermind launched in 2021 with Gomez listed as Co-Founder and Head of Marketing. The plaintiffs say they invested $1.2 million expecting Gomez to build up the company by leveraging her fame and huge following on social media. Instead, they allege the company crumbled and they were left in the dark about it.

The investors are suing for alleged fraud, breach of contract and other claims. Gomez and her co-defendants have not responded to our request for comment.

And France's top court has rejected a bill banning social media for kids 15 and under. The court saying it infringes on a minor's freedom of expression and communication. Last month, French lawmakers approved the initiative, making France the first country in the European Union to introduce such an age limit. Today's ruling marks a setback for French President, Emmanuel Macron, who strongly supported the ban.

A mid-air mystery solved. We now know how a window was broken on an airliner, leading to a passenger being partially sucked out of the plane. That's next.

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[13:57:19]

ABEL: A new report is revealing more about exactly what happened the day a passenger on a Ryan Air flight was partially sucked out of a plane's window. The National Transportation Safety Board just released never-before-seen details on that frightening mid-flight incident.

CNN's Pete Muntean is joining me now. Pete, we know these findings are preliminary, but what did they find?

PETE MUNTEAN, CNN AVIATION CORRESPONDENT: Well, this is a really interesting case because the National Transportation Safety Board here in the United States typically does not get involved in overseas crash investigations. But the Greek authorities delegated this to the NTSB under international law and the early findings have been pretty significant.

These are the new images just released in this preliminary report and they show the shattered window on the right side of Row 11 of this Ryan Air Boeing 737-800. This 61-year-old man was pulled through the window frame up to his shoulders according to the report and the NTSB says a fan blade from the number two or right-side engine broke free and sliced into the side of the plane. You can see the damage in this engine.

There's a dent in the body of the plane around Row 8 and then the missing window at Row 11. Shrapnel also punctured a hole and the side of the plane also hit the tail. The big question though here is why did the fan blade separate? This is similar to an incident in 2018 on a Southwest Airlines flight when a fan blade slammed into the passenger cabin, killed a passenger that led to mandated blade inspections of this specific engine known as the CFM-56.

The NTSB said in its early findings that those inspections were recently done on this engine, but after this plane made an emergency landing, investigators did find telltale signs of fatigue cracking near the root of that blade. It's at the 11 o'clock position here up and to the right there in this image. Now, investigators want to know what caused that stress and they found parts of birds in the engine, but it does not seem like this fan blade separation was triggered by a bird strike itself.

This incident happened at 16,000 feet where bird strikes are extremely rare, not totally unheard of though. The bird parts, officially called snarge, have been sent to the Smithsonian Institution's Feather Identification Lab here in Washington, D.C. for analysis. The parts of bird in the engine add a really interesting wrinkle to all of this.

It's not the final cause. That will come out from the NTSB in about a year's time, but we will see. They still need to dig into this and figure out exactly what caused this fan blade to separate. Thankfully though, this man survived. All is well that ends well. A successful emergency landing.

ABEL: Incredible new information and yes, certainly frightening for the people on board that flight, but when you look at the damage on the outside, it seems like it could have been much worse.

MUNTEAN: Yeah, and it seems like, at least in one of those images, maybe this fan blade ricocheted off of part of the airplane at Row 8. That's interesting because in that Southwest Airlines incident back in 2018, where they had a rapid decompression and the plane had to be landed immediately by Captain Tammie Jo Shults, that is where the initial strike --