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Bessent Announces "Sustained Financial Operation" Against Iran; U.S.-Canada Trade War Reignites As Talks Collapse; Teen Cancer Patient Seeks Hope In New Study. Aired 3-3:30p ET
Aired August 24, 2026 - 15:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
NICK WATT, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: You hear the police officers saying, what you say today will not be used against you. It is now being against him. They say because Keffe D ran his mouth and talked about this. Three- or four-week trial is scheduled. We've had one week. We're starting the second. Back to you, guys.
BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: Nick Watt, thank you for the update from the West Coast.
A new hour of CNN NEWS CENTRAL starts right now.
BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: Economic D-Day, the White House ramping up the pressure on Iran, but stopping short of actually imposing big new penalties. Will it be enough to force Tehran to the negotiating table?
And state of emergency in Nevada as the Hawk Fire threatens neighborhoods in Reno. Tens of thousands of people being urged to evacuate as the wildfire is zero percent contained and the weather could make it worse.
Plus, it is the murder trial that has sparked a nationwide conversation about maternal mental health. Now, a jury is on the verge of deciding the fate of Lindsay Clancy.
We're following these major developing stories and many more all coming in right here to CNN NEWS CENTRAL.
Breaking news, the Trump administration shifting its strategy on Iran, now taking closer aim at Tehran's economic lifelines. Earlier, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent threatening sweeping new sanctions against nations that helped the regime that Iran is now calling out what it feels is a bluff from Bessent. Iran's top negotiator posting, quote, "No one believes their bluster. Economically, the United States is not in a position to further restrict its other countries." CNN's Kevin Liptak is live at the White House for us.
So, Kevin, I know you pressed the secretary about his plans. What did he tell you?
KEVIN LIPTAK, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Yes, and there are still a lot of questions about Operation Economic Outcast, which is this plan that they're spelling out to try and choke off Iran economically from countries around the world. He did lay out a number of different sectors where these sanctions will now be possible on third countries that are still doing business with Iran. It includes technology, gold, aviation, a couple of different areas where countries will be vulnerable now to sanctions.
But what the Treasury Secretary didn't say and wouldn't say is what countries might specifically be targeted. Iran's three biggest trading partners right now are China, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates. He did say that the President was on the phone with the leaders from countries around the world spelling out the plan here. But he wouldn't say who those countries were and who those leaders were. And he also didn't say how long the United States was giving these countries to fall in line before it imposed these sanctions.
Now, he's calling it economic D-Day. In a lot of ways, it's really more of a warning shot. And that's what I asked him about. Here's what I asked.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
LIPTAK: You described this as an economic D-Day, but D-Day wasn't a threat of an invasion and the U.S. didn't give a timeline to Germany. So, why not impose the sanctions today?
SCOTT BESSENT, TREASURY SECRETARY: Well, we -- we are giving everyone the opportunity to remedy bad behavior. Why would I want to blow up the global financial system? We believe that it is important to level set and give people a cure period. But they should know that that will move very quickly and that we are serious.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LIPTAK: Now, the Islamic Republic has survived almost five decades of American sanctions. It remains to be seen whether this time will be enough to cause the regime to collapse or the regime to cave to the President's demands. Brianna.
KEILAR: Kevin Liptak live for us at the White House. Thank you. Boris.
SANCHEZ: So, the Trump administration is also ramping up the economic pressure on Canada with an escalating trade war with one of America's closest allies. This weekend, the President imposing a 50 percent tariff on $20 billion in Canadian goods, a tariff that Canada says it will match dollar for dollar.
Today, President Trump is raising the stakes, promising a new 50 percent tariff on Canadian cars, trucks, parts and steel, starting in January of 2027. A short time later, a top Canadian leader pledged to fight back.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DOUG FORD, PREMIER OF ONTARIO: If President Trump escalates, Canada needs to be ready to do the same. Everything needs to be on the table. We need to use Canada's many points of leverage to create maximum impact, targeting deep red states and making sure that America's economy feels the pain. And make no mistake, Americans are already feeling the pain because President Trump's tariffs are nothing more than attacks on the American people, raising the cost of everything from homes to food and making life more uncertain for the 10s of millions of Americans who depend on trade with Canada to bring home their paycheck.
[15:05:13]
Canada did not start this fight, but we're prepared to win it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SANCHEZ: CNN's Matt Egan joins us now.
So Matt, help us understand what items are involved in this new trade war, how it might impact Americans.
MATT EGAN, CNN SENIOR REPORTER: Well, Boris, the U.S. and Canada have long had one of the closest trading relationships in the world, but all of a sudden that relationship has devolved into an all-out trade war. Now, these new 50 percent U.S. tariffs on imports from Canada, they're impacting a wide range of goods, everything from everyday items like milk, honey and gloves to more seasonal goods like hockey sticks and Christmas ornaments, also some more obscure items like wigs, false beards and fishing rods as well.
And look, alcohol could be impacted because these tariffs are also impacting beer, wine, whiskey and vodka that gets imported from Canada. Now, altogether, these tariffs are impacting about 20 billion dollars of goods that the United States imports from Canada. That's a big number, but it's also a really big trading relationship. So, this only amounts to about five percent of total U.S. imports from Canada.
Now, these are import taxes. So initially, they're going to be paid by businesses in the U.S. that are importing from Canada. But we know that they often pass along at least some of those costs to consumers. Now, some businesses, they may want to eat the tariffs, but fully absorbing these new taxes, that's going to be hard because a lot of these companies are already facing higher costs in terms of energy and transportation driven by the war with Iran.
Now, what stands out to me is what has not been tariffed, because U.S. officials, they have spared a number of key imports from Canada, including electricity, crude oil, potash, which is used to make fertilizer and maple syrup. And so that does seem to be an implicit acknowledgment that putting a 50 percent tariff on those items would just be too costly for U.S. consumers.
Now, Canada, as you mentioned at the top, they're not taking this lying down, right? They are vowing to have a dollar for dollar retaliation. These new retaliatory tariffs from Canada, they're going to take aim at a number of U.S. industries, including dairy, steel, appliances, paper, electronics as well.
Look, Boris, bottom line here, we know that the economy is a major issue for voters heading into the fall, but it's hard to see how this new U.S.-Canada trade war is going to speed up the sluggish job market or drive down the cost of living. I think it's far easier to see how the exact opposite can happen. Back to you.
SANCHEZ: Matt Egan, appreciate that update.
Coming up, a live report from Reno, Nevada, where a wildfire is threatening neighborhoods and forcing thousands to evacuate.
Plus, the last witness is taking the stand in the Lindsay Clancy trial, the Massachusetts mom who admitted to strangling her three kids. Closing arguments in that case could begin soon.
And later, an eight-year-old girl dies from a rare infection that she likely contracted while swimming in a Louisiana lake. We've got the details on that and much more coming up on CNN NEWS CENTRAL.
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[15:12:42]
KEILAR: Nevada fire officials say they are making progress on a fast- moving wildfire that is just north of Reno. Tens of thousands of people have been urged to leave their homes for safer ground. This fire erupted Saturday. It's already burned an area that is the size of Manhattan, and officials say the cause is unknown, but human activity is a factor.
Let's get an update from CNN senior correspondent Josh Campbell, who is on the ground there in Reno. Josh, tell us what's happening there.
JOSH CAMPBELL, CNN SENIOR CORRESPONDENT: Well, extremely high conditions continue, which obviously has firefighters here concerned. You can see over my shoulder part of this Hawk Fire. There is the burn scar from this side of the fire that is very much visible around the major freeway here, around this neighborhood that we've been in.
Now, follow me over here. You can see this neighborhood that we're in, and this road was complete gridlock just a short time ago, but this just shows you how authorities are constantly trying to recalibrate. If they need to keep an area off limits, they will do so.
They do have traffic control here, as well as members of the National Guard that are now on site. They're still blocking people from interview -- entering this residential area off to my right. Again, there remains this concern about the zero containment right now with this specific fire. We're talking about this fire chewing through more than 15,000 acres.
And as firefighters continue their efforts, both on the ground and as well as from the air, including with assets come in -- brought in from neighboring California that are assisting, they're doing just that. But I also want to point out, this is very much a human story, and the human toll that we don't see where cameras go. We were able to go into one of the many makeshift shelters that have been set up around this area.
When you think about the number here, 90,000 people were urged to evacuate. Of that number, 42,000 were in the immediate warning area. And, of course, they had to have a place to go. We were outside one makeshift shelter with Red Cross volunteers that were on site. Brianna, it was simply heartbreaking, just hearing people tell their stories about how they had to quickly evacuate.
One man told me that, look, I came here with just the clothes that I have on me, because we got that urgent warning. There was another elderly woman that was walking her distraught dog outside the shelter.
[15:15:05]
Again, a lot of these people had to flee with their pets, with nowhere else to go. She said that, thankfully, her family, she herself, they're safe. Their dog is safe. They worry, though, about the livestock that are still left behind inside that evacuation area. So, of course, our hearts break for the people that are still in that end -- that zone of uncertainty.
There have been some injuries, six people injured, three firefighters, three residents. Thankfully, no deaths that we've heard about. But again, zero percent containment, a lot of work still to do, and conditions that remain ripe for more fire, Brianna.
KEILAR: Yes, very dry there and -- and warm. Josh Campbell, thank you. Really appreciate the update.
Ahead, the Lindsay Clancy triple murder trial is winding down. Prosecutors are now calling rebuttal witnesses as both sides prepare for closing arguments. Stay with us for that.
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[15:20:32]
SANCHEZ: It's a harsh reality for kids suffering from cancer. Only a fraction of the money devoted to cancer research actually goes to studying pediatric cancers, just 4 percent. One family is writing about the struggle they faced with their 17-year-old who's been battling bone cancer for five years. CNN's Dr. Sanjay Gupta has their story. And a note, this was reported in collaboration with the Global Health Reporting Center with support from the Pulitzer Center.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ALL: Happy birthday to you.
BOY: Make a wish.
SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT (voiceover): Birthdays, boyfriends, and a beautiful voice.
Sabina McMahon is just 17 years old, and in so many ways, she has had a charmed life. Except for one big thing, she's been battling cancer for the past five years.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: So, it is day three of chemo and we have the core four. Hello, Sabina.
SABINA MCMAHON, 17-YEAR-OLD CANCER PATIENT: Hello.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hello, Charlie. Hello, Daddy.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GUPTA (voice over): This summer the family has set up camp at this Airbnb in Columbus, Ohio. It's a desperate attempt to try and save Sabina's life. It's a lot.
It's halfway across the country from their home in Oregon. Sabina and her dad had to ride 2,000 miles by train because the cancer she has made her lungs too fragile to fly.
This all started when Sabina was 12 years old. She was diagnosed with osteosarcoma. That's a type of bone cancer.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SABINA MCMAHON: I remember I went to a basketball camp and I -- my knee buckled. And --
GUPTA (on camera): How worried were you at that point?
SABINA MCMAHON: I didn't think anything of it. Like, I -- I totally thought it was growing pains and then obviously after it buckled, I totally thought it was a basketball injury. Like, your first -- first thought is never, oh, my God, it's cancer.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GUPTA (voice over): Her dad will never forget that first conversation he had with the cancer specialist.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEAN MCMAHON, SABINA'S FATHER: And one of the things he said was like, well, unfortunately for osteosarcoma, the frontline defenses we use, treatments, are like 40 years old. And I was like, come again?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GUPTA (voice over): For more than 40 years, the primary drug regimen to treat Sabina's cancer has not changed. They learned quickly that survival rates have improved dramatically for some types of pediatric cancer like leukemia. For many others though, progress has been stalled.
Now, one hurdle is that individual types of childhood cancer are considered rare. And for drug makers, rare means fewer patients and less potential profit. Sabina's father also learned that it just doesn't seem to be a priority for federal research funding.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) SEAN MCMAHON: So, it's 4 percent of every dollar for cancer research
funding at the federal level goes towards pediatric cancer. When you describe it that way, 22 percent of the population gets 4 percent of the money for cancer care. No one would look at that and be like, oh, that makes sense.
GUPTA: Does this make sense to you?
SABINA MCMAHON: I mean, this might sound harsh, but like if you're 75 years old with a certain type of cancer, you've lived a long life. If you're four years old with a certain type of cancer, that sounds more important.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GUPTA (voice over): Sabina did undergo an operation at age 12 to remove cancerous bone in her leg and replace it with this prosthetic. She then went through chemo and radiation, and her cancer did disappear for more than a year. But this is the type of cancer that comes back, and her doctors weren't shocked when they found that it had spread to her lungs. Over the last three years, she has now had four relapses.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEAN MCMAHON: So, our doctors have been pretty honest with us. They're like, listen, she's facing some pretty long odds of, you know, still being here in a couple of years, you know, or even one year. She knows that. We don't like to talk about it all that much. It's pretty tough to talk about. But, you know, as long as there's a little glimmer of hope and you buy those chunks of six months for maybe a new drug or a new trial comes along, you know, like we tried to start a trial in Cleveland a month ago.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GUPTA (voice over): For the past five years, the McMahons have been doing what just about any family would try and do. They've taken Sabina to doctors all over the country. And this summer, it was time for another cross-country train ride. A spot had opened up in a clinical trial at University Hospitals in Cleveland. This one was for a South Korean drug being tested in patients under 18 for the first time.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SABINA MCMAHON: I'm about to take my first ...
SEAN MCMAHON: (INAUDIBLE) ...
SABINA MCMAHON: ... dose of the trial drug, Vactosertib. I spilled water on myself.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
[15:25:06] GUPTA (voice over): But they never got a chance to see if it worked,
because less than a week later, a routine scan found her lung tumors were growing once again. It's relapse number five.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DR. RYAN ROBERTS, NATIONWIDE CHILDREN'S HOSPITAL: When we saw those scans, it was really clear that if we didn't do something aggressive, that she probably just had a few weeks. It was -- it was moving very rapidly.
GUPTA (voice over): Dr. Ryan Roberts is Sabina's oncologist at Nationwide Children's Hospital in Columbus. The week we came, he was at a conference that connects the few leading experts on osteosarcoma with patients and their families.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: Everything that we're doing at this point is just trying to buy a little more time.
GUPTA: Buying time for what?
ROBERTS: I've seen kids like Sabina who, you know, were able to graduate, were able to have their first girlfriend or boyfriend, were able to learn to drive. You know, what -- what we want and what we try to do is to buy time where they can do the things they want to do, be with the people that they love, and create the memories that are going to linger.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GUPTA (voice over): For these doctors and these patients, this is an important conference. Sabina was named to an advisory board that weighs in on research ideas.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SABINA MCMAHON: And so, it's a whole bunch of kids my age. All of these kids are -- are -- they had osteosarcoma or their lungs did.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GUPTA (voice over): For Sabina, this would be a chance to connect with other people just like her and to have some fun along the way. But when you have osteosarcoma, nothing is easy. A call comes in from the hospital.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She needs to get platelets. I mean, that's what the -- that's what they said.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GUPTA (voice over): It turns out that last stretch of chemotherapy, it left Sabina's white blood cell count low, dangerously low. A nurse has asked that she leave the conference immediately. It's a tough call.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: I think it's worth the risk.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The phone nurse said we needed to go in right now and get a bag of platelets. It would mean we'd have to miss the conference, meeting up with the junior advisory board members, missing the dance. But now, Dr. Roberts, being the rock star he is, said, well, just a minute. He really wants her to have this experience. We can just go in the morning. Such a relief. I'm so relieved. I was like --
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GUPTA (voice over): Everyone's relieved, especially Sabina. Cancer will never make stage fright disappear.
But it does put it in perspective. And for one night at least, a chance to feel like you're not so alone.
Dr. Sanjay Gupta, Columbus, Ohio.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SANCHEZ: Our thanks to Dr. Sanjay Gupta for bringing us that story. Since Sanjay's visit, the family summer has gone well. Chemotherapy shrunk Sabina's tumors by more than 90 percent. She is scheduled for another surgery this week. She was also healthy enough to go back in the studio to finish her first full album as a singer-songwriter. It's called "Forget Me Not," and it is available now.
So up next, did President Trump's National Guard deployment in D.C. actually bring down crime in the city like he claims? What the numbers reveal when we come back.
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