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Nuclear Talks Expected To Begin In Geneva On Tuesday; Cubans Face Economic And Humanitarian Crisis Amid U.S. Oil Blockade; British Princesses Swept Up In Parents' Jeffrey Epstein Scandals; Arizona Lawmakers Blasts Online Influencers Over Nancy Guthrie Coverage; Marco Rubio Says U.S. And Hungary Are Entering Golden Era of Relations; Israel Moves to Designate Parts of West Bank as State Land; A.I.- generated Video of Pitt & Cruise Fighting Causes Uproar in Hollywood; Oscar Winning Actor Robert Duvall Dies at 95; Day 10 of the Winter Games Delivers Records and Rivalry; Japan Wins Gold in Pairs With Free Skate World Record Score; British Pair Take Gold in First-ever Mixed Team Skeleton; Humanoid Robots Perform Synchronized Kung Fu; Lunar New Year Celebrations Kick Off Around the World; Miniature Street Food Cart in Indonesia Goes Viral. Aired 2-3a ET
Aired February 17, 2026 - 02:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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[02:00:35]
POLO SANDOVAL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey everybody, it's wonderful to be back with you on both side of all live in New York here, and here's what's coming your way here on CNN NEWSROOM.
President Trump makes an important announcement about the upcoming Iran nuclear talks in Geneva. We'll tell you more.
And Cuba's fuel crisis, it is turning into a waste crisis as U.S. sanctions create even more misery on the island. We'll ask an expert if Cubans can expect any relief anytime soon.
And an A.I. generated video pitting Tom Cruise against Brad Pitt. It is causing alarm in Hollywood. We'll watch it and also look to an expert about any possible implications.
ANNOUNCER: Live from New York. This is CNN NEWSROOM with Polo Sandoval.
SANDOVAL: We want to begin with U.S. and Iranian negotiators as they are preparing to hold nuclear talks in Geneva in just a matter of hours. Iran's foreign minister is expected to attend as well as U.S. Special Envoy Steve Witkoff and President Donald Trump's son in law, Jared Kushner. President Trump says that he's going to play an indirect role in these talks.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I'll be involved in those talks indirectly, and they'll be very important, and we'll see what can happen. Specifically, Iran is a very tough negotiator. They're good negotiators, or bad to negotiators, I would say they're bad negotiators, because we could add a deal instead of sending the B- 2s in to knock out their nuclear potential, and we had to send the B- 2s. I hope -- I hope they're going to be more reasonable, they want to make a deal.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SANDOVAL: The U.S. military has already been building up its air and naval assets in the Middle East ahead of these talks. A second aircraft carrier strike group, it is already on its way to the region. Multiple sources say that it's a direct attempt to intimidate Tehran and to give the Trump administration options to strike inside of that country if nuclear negotiations fail.
And Iran is also projecting its own military message, state media releasing this new propaganda video showing military drills in the Strait of Hormuz. CNN's Kylie Atwood has more on what we could expect from these upcoming talks.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KYLIE ATWOOD, CNN U.S. SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Ahead of U.S.-Iran talks in Geneva on Tuesday. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said over the weekend that it's difficult to do a deal with the Iranians for anyone however, the Trump administration is open to a deal that is evident in the fact that these two top negotiators are heading to meet with the Iranians, but he also did not play up the possibility of a breakthrough here, given how challenging it is to negotiate with the Iranians.
And when you speak to sources going into Tuesday's meeting, it's not clear that the two sides are ready to dig into the details. The Iranians still saying that they have a right to uranium enrichment. President Trump saying late last week that he believes that Iran should not have any enrichment. The U.S. also wants to discuss Iran's ballistic missile program. The Iranians have said that that is a topic that is off the table.
So, what they actually dig into in terms of substance is not clear going into these talks, the Iranian foreign minister tweeted ahead of these talks that he is going to be coming with new ideas, but he also said that Iran is not going to be coerced into submission given the threats that exist right now. The subtext there, of course, is the U.S. military is carrying out a massive buildup in the Middle East, with both naval and air assets heading to the region, a second aircraft carrier expected to also arrive in the region in the coming weeks.
So, it's very clear that the Trump administration is preparing options for potential strikes inside of Iran if there isn't a diplomatic breakthrough. It's unclear exactly when that would happen, what those targets would look like, but the U.S. military is carrying out these preparations in the possibility that the Trump administration goes for that option, with President Trump threatening military action against Iran pretty consistently over the last few weeks. Kylie Atwood, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SANDOVAL: President Trump says that the U.S. and Cuba, they are talking as the island deals with the impact of a crippling oil blockage. The nation's oil supply, it has fallen off dramatically since the U.S. threatened tariffs to any country that sends oil to Cuba.
[02:05:03]
Well, now, fuel rationing has left many gas stations with nothing to sell and rotting food and trash, they are piling up across Havana because there is simply not enough fuel for the garbage trucks to keep up with their route.
And then there is the impact on air travel to and from the island. Last week, Cuban officials they warned international airlines and jet fuel would not be available for at least the next few weeks. Trump called the ongoing crisis a humanitarian threat.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: Cuba is right now a failed nation. They don't even have jet fuel to get for airplanes to take off, they're clogging up their runway. We're talking to Cuba right now, and Marco Rubio talking to Cuba right now, and they should absolutely make a deal, because it's a humanity - it's really a humanitarian threat. And we have a lot of great Cuban Americans, and they're going to be very happy when they're going to be able to go back and say hello to their relatives and do things that they should have been allowed to do for a long time.
I'm very interested in the people that are here that were treated so badly by Castro and the Cuban authorities. They have been treated horribly. Som we'll see how it all turns out. But Cuba and us, we are talking.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SANDOVAL: Joining us now is William LeoGrande. He's a government professor at the School of Public Affairs at American University in Washington. Welcome to the program, William.
WILLIAM LEOGRANDE, GOVERNMENT PROFESSOR, AMERICAN UNIVERSITY: Well, thanks for having me on.
SANDOVAL: So, economic decline, worsening, inflation, those tourism numbers that continue to drop, these are all really just issues and challenges that the Cuban people right now are facing. I wonder if you can give us a sense of the humanitarian and economic crises that Cuban civilians are currently facing at the moment because of recent actions from the U.S.
LEOGRANDE: Well, the Cuban economy was not in good shape, even before these recent actions, there are blackouts pretty much every day in every part of the country. Food is scarce, and these new actions by the United States the end of Venezuelan oil shipments, and now the Trump administration's threat to put tariffs on anyone who sends oil to Cuba are just going to plunge the Cuban economy deeper into depression.
SANDOVAL: Yes. And as you were speaking, we're showing some footage from about a year ago, already showing civilians there in Cuba dealing with these rolling blackouts. Obviously, that has only worsened recently.
Is the Cuban government doing anything domestically to try to preserve the few resources, those oil resources that it does have?
LEOGRANDE: They are, they just announced a few days ago, an austerity plan in which they are essentially only opening government offices and businesses for four days a week. The university students are studying remotely now, rather than in class, they are shutting down some of their tourist operations because the number of tourists has fallen so dramatically. Gasoline now is only for sale in U.S. dollars.
So, the situation is, is really, really difficult, and if you're a Cuban trying to live on a salary in pesos, if you don't have access to any kind of hard currency, U.S. dollars, for instance, you're in a very, very desperate situation right now, and it's only likely to get worse.
SANDOVAL: Right. And you know, the lingering question is, what could bring some relief? I'm curious what you think of President Trump, what he says when he calls for the Cuban government to make a deal. We know he's previously called for the return of some confiscated property back to Cuban exiles. And then, of course, the Secretary of State Marco Rubio, the son of Cuban migrants, has really doubled down on his wish for regime change.
So, what could the Trump administration be after when it says that it wants a deal with Cuba?
LEOGRANDE: Well, they haven't really said publicly what exactly would count as a deal that they would take.
The president seems to be primarily interested in some economic concessions for U.S. businesses, and probably also some movement on property claims that American companies and Cuban Americans have from property that was nationalized after the revolution in 1959. You know he keeps saying every time he says, we want to deal, we're talking with the Cubans, but I want to do right by the Cuban Americans who've come here, I think he's referring to those property claims.
Marco Rubio, on the other hand, I think is more interested in regime change, as he told the Congress not too long ago, and that would mean a change in the nature of the Cuban political system.
[02:10:02]
I think it's one thing to get the Cuban government to talk about some economic opening with the United States. It's a very different thing to think that they're going to commit political suicide by changing their political structure to please the United States.
SANDOVAL: And as you said earlier, that it is bound to get worse. So, if a deal is not achieved, and President Trump essentially does not back down, in your eyes, what's a worst case scenario for the Cuban people? If the situation continues to get worse,
LEOGRANDE: Well, without oil and without electricity, because most of their electricity comes from thermo electric plants that are burning oil, the economy is simply going to grind to a halt. It's already fallen about 15 percent since the COVID pandemic. It could easily fall another 15 or even more in terms of its gross domestic product, and that's going to put Cuba on the verge of economic collapse and possibly social unrest.
It's not something that is going to serve the interest of the United States, because historically, when the Cuban economy has really gotten into difficulty, Cubans have migrated. You've had migration crises, and there have been four of them already, historically, since the revolution in 1959 and we could expect another one.
SANDOVAL: We'll certainly see if any countries test President Trump's threat that if they provide any oil, that they could face some economic consequences. So, that's yet to play out, but so grateful for your expertise, as always. William LeoGrande, thank you so much.
LEOGRANDE: My pleasure.
SANDOVAL: President Trump, he is looking for results ahead of the next round of talks between the U.S., Russia and Ukraine.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: Big talks. It's going to be very easy. I mean, it's look so far Ukraine better come to the table fast. That's all I'm telling you.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SANDOVAL: That was the president as flew -- as he flew back to the nation's capital on Monday night. Negotiators, they are set to meet on Tuesday, as well as on Wednesday in Geneva, following talks in Abu Dhabi last month.
Next week, marking the four year anniversary of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Army Secretary Dan Driscoll will be joining the U.S. delegation in Switzerland, which includes special envoy Steve Witkoff and the president's son in law, Jared Kushner.
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio met with Ukraine's president over the weekend, and he talked about the Trump administration's goals on Monday, following a meeting with Hungary's Prime Minister in Budapest.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MARCO RUBIO, U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE: The United States' interest is to see the war end, and we want to do what we can to make it and we're the only nation on earth that apparently, can get both sides to the table to talk. I'm not here to insult anybody, but the United Nations hasn't been able to do it with to do it.
We think it's a war that's incredibly damaging. We think it's a war that's incredibly destructive. We think it's a war that never should have happened and should end as soon as possible.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SANDOVAL: In Russia, mourners are remembering opposition leader Alexei Navalny on the second anniversary of his death in prison. Navalny's mother and wife attended a graveside memorial service in Moscow on Monday, mourners there also turning out at the Russian Embassy in Berlin. The anniversary coming as five European countries said in a joint statement that Navalny was killed by a lethal toxin found in poison dart frogs. The Kremlin called the claims biased and unfounded.
Ahead here on CNN NEWSROOM, several -- princesses Beatrice as well as Eugenie, daughters of the disgraced former Prince Andrew and his ex- wife, they are caught up in their parents' Epstein scandals. We'll have the details on the way.
Also, how Nancy Guthrie's disappearance has attracted a slew of online sleuths.
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SANDOVAL: Powerful titans of industry, even members of royalty, they are facing repercussions after the latest release of the Epstein files. Now billionaire Tom Pritzker stepping down as Executive Chairman of Hyatt Hotels over his ties to Jeffrey Epstein. Pritzker has been executive chairman of that company since 2004. He also announced on Monday that he will not be standing for reelection with the company's board. He says that he regrets his association with Epstein and his girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell.
And for years, there have been allegations surrounding former Prince Andrew and his ties to Jeffrey Epstein. Well, newly released files are revealing that Andrew's ex-wife, Sarah Ferguson, also had a long- standing friendship with the convicted sex offender. Now, the couple's daughters are being swept up into the scandal. Here's CNN's Max Foster with more.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MAX FOSTER, CNN LONDON CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie of Britain's Royal Family thrust into the spotlight after being named hundreds of times in the latest tranche of Epstein files.
The saga involving the late sex offender had already engulfed both their parents, the former Prince Andrew, and his ex-wife, Sarah Ferguson. Now, new details have emerged about Epstein's friendship with the princess's mother, who seems to have brought her daughters into his orbit, even after he was convicted for sex offenses.
A series of e-mails released by the department of justice indicate that Ferguson, Eugenie, and Beatrice, all visited Epstein in Miami in 2009, just five days after he was released from jail. He served 13 months for soliciting prostitution from a minor.
[02:20:08]
"Do you need a ride?" Epstein asks, before they lunch? "No, thank you." The former Duchess replies, adding, it will be myself, Beatrice, and Eugenie, at a time when they were 20 and 19 years old.
In a subsequent e-mail, Ferguson tells Epstein, "Cannot wait to see you." A separate thread between Epstein and his personal assistant days earlier also appears to indicate that he paid about $14,000 for the trio's flights to the U.S. And here is another email chain nearly two years later, in 2011 between Epstein, Ferguson, and her then- spokesperson.
In it, the former Duchess says that Beatrice advised her on how to handle a British journalist to whom she had given a statement about Epstein. Just last year, Ferguson's spokesperson said she had cut off relations with Epstein, "as soon as she was aware of the extent of the allegations."
But all these DOJ files suggest otherwise. As for Andrew Mountbatten- Windsor, Beatrice and Eugenie's father, he remains under pressure from his ties to Epstein. The disgraced former prince has previously denied any wrongdoing, including after he reached an outer court settlement with a woman who said she was trafficked to him as a teen.
Beatrice and Eugenie have kept a low profile through all of this, and there is no suggestion of wrongdoing simply because they have been named in the Epstein files.
FOSTER: We have reached out to Ferguson's representatives for comment on these exchanges seen in the Epstein documents, and CNN has sought to contact the princesses for comment, but we haven't heard back from them.
Max Foster, CNN, London.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SANDOVAL: Let's turn now to Arizona and an update on the tireless search for the missing 84-year-old mother of NBC "Today" Show Host Savannah Guthrie.
On Monday, the Pima County Sheriff's Office officially cleared all of Nancy Guthrie's family members as possible suspects in her disappearance, and he did this after a wave of baseless claims online that suggested that her family was somehow involved.
The announcement comes more than two weeks after Nancy was believed to have been abducted, and after all this time, nearly 17 days, there are still no suspects named in her invest -- in this investigation.
The FBI says that it is now waiting on final DNA test results from a glove that was recovered about two miles away from the Guthrie home. The agency says that the glove appears to match those worn by the person who was seen on doorbell camera footage approaching Guthrie's home on February 1st. Nancy was reported missing just hours after this video was captured. President Trump is now threatening those responsible with the most severe federal penalties if Guthrie is not returned safely.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CHRIS NANOS, PIMA COUNTY SHERIFF: I plead with you to be careful of what it is we put out there. You could actually be doing some damage to the case, but you can do some damage to that individual too. This is -- social media is kind of a -- kind of an ugly world sometimes.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SANDOVAL: That was the Pima County Sheriff there, we -- that was actually just two weeks ago, warning people against putting out any unverified information that might jeopardize the investigation.
But in this social media era, there are droves of citizen sleuths and influencers there trying to crack Nancy Guthrie's case on their own.
CNN's Chief Media Analyst Brian Stelter, took a closer look at the online intrigue.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ALMA HERNANDEZ (D-AZ), STATE REPRESENTATIVE: What we're seeing in our community and our city right now is just not normal.
BRIAN STELTER, CNN CHIEF MEDIA ANALYST (voice-over): That's Arizona state lawmaker Alma Hernandez, fed up with the misinformation being peddled online and on the ground.
HERNANDEZ: We have individuals who are calling themselves journalists, who are YouTubers and, quite frankly, just really random individuals who are out there with their cameras and live streaming.
But I think at the end of the day, what we need to be talking about is the fact that these individuals are actually, like I said, causing more harm than good.
STELTER (voice-over): In one instance, a delivery driver tried to deliver a pizza at Nancy Guthrie's door. According to local reports, someone ordered the pizza for an unidentified blogger at the scene.
The Sheriff's Department incredulously called it out, saying we can't believe we have to say this. Do not order food delivery to a crime scene address.
JOHN DEPETRO, HOST OF "RHODE PATROL LIVE": It's the fear of missing out.
STELTER (voice-over): John DePetro is a streamer from Rhode Island who flew to Tucson to cover the case. DEPETRO: The type of content I do, it's not for someone that just wants to watch the news and get a quick recap. It's for the people that can't get enough of it.
STELTER (voice-over): DePetro says he uses his own sources and aggregates from others that he trusts.
DEPETRO: There's certain key people that I depend on I use as a source, John Miller is one. There's few people that are as knowledgeable as he is.
[02:25:06]
STELTER (voice-over): But DePetro admits that others online are not as disciplined.
DEPETRO: It gets tiresome, because they just totally go on rumor.
ANDY SIGNORE, YOUTUBER: But yes, there's always a bad streamer once in a while, or somebody who does something maybe not correct, but I think the audience is wising up to the smart ones.
Here we go. We got, oh, wow, look at this.
STELTER (voice-over): Andy Signore is another YouTuber who's been doing this for years.
SIGNORE: A million subscribers on YouTube, and we're on Instagram and mostly other ones as well.
There's that view, sunsets coming.
STELTER (voice-over): Signore flew all the way from Tampa to cover the case.
SIGNORE: My parents live in Tucson, and so it hit home a little harder for me, just because I was like, this is tragic and scary, and I wanted to make sure that there was enough people really spotlighting the case, because I'm worried some of the authorities haven't been as on top of it as maybe they should have been.
STELTER (voice-over): Signorr says he first covered the Gabby Petito mystery about five years ago, and that story showed him just how curious the true crime audience can be.
SIGNORE: That's what's I think, really impressive about our streamers is the audiences are so invested. They want to be there. 24/7, they want to help.
STELTER (voice-over): But while Signore and DePetro have remained responsible in their coverage, other streamers and influencers have not.
HERNANDEZ: I don't think anyone enjoys in our community seeing that an individual who they got a tip saying that they are a suspect is now all over social media and everyone you know, calling them the kidnapper, right?
STELTER (voice-over): She points to last Friday's SWAT activity at a nearby home as a prime example. The operation ended with no arrests. But while claims online spread so rapidly that the sheriff's department had to issue a rare post to refute them as, "Not accurate."
Brian Stelter, CNN, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SANDOVAL: Still ahead here on CNN NEWSROOM, a so called golden era of relations. America's top diplomat raises ties between the U.S. and Hungary as Prime Minister Viktor Orban prepares for a tough election, the details on the way.
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[02:31:29]
SANDOVAL: U.S. Secretary of State, Marco Rubio says that the U.S. and Hungary, that they are entering what he described as the golden era of relations. His comments coming during a visit to Budapest, where he also made clear that President Trump was committed to Hungary's success. CNN's Melissa Bell with more on Rubio's remarks and his trip to Europe.
MELISSA BELL, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: This was a sort of whistle-stop tour of two European capitals, Bratislava and Budapest, that came, of course, hot off the heels of Marco Rubio's speech in Munich. Initially, there had been some relief amongst the European audience there that it was less aggressive, its tone less hostile than it had been that of J.D. Vance, the Vice President, at the same conference last year.
But, in fact, what we've seen over the next couple of days is Europeans really pick over the substance of that speech to discover that it was really still pretty radical in what it had to say, suggesting that this sort of golden era of Western expansion had ended with the end of World War II, and everything had sort of gotten worse since then, suggesting that Europe needed to wake up and follow the lead of the United States in order to get better from where it was -- the position that it is in now, speaking again of the civilizational decline that has become a sort of theme of MAGA when they come to Europe to speak to European leaders.
Perhaps no surprise, then, that it was to the Bratislava of Robert Fico that he headed, and then, of course, the Budapest to meet Viktor Orban. Viktor Orban, of course, facing an important electoral test on April 12th, arguably the toughest he's faced so far. He'll be facing Peter Magyar, who the polls suggest could well beat him.
So what the secretary of state had to say alongside Viktor Orban was extremely important, and what he pointed out was not just that there was this ideological alliance between countries like Hungary and the United States, as there is, of course, between Slovakia and the United States now, but also that there was a very personal relationship, strong personal relationship between the Hungarian prime minister and the American president, and then that translated directly into the kind of business that Hungary had been getting over the course of the last year. No fewer than 17 investments from American companies since January of 2025, pointed out Marco Rubio.
So, that kind of proximity was good for the prime minister. It was good for Hungarians. And it was likely to continue should Hungarians vote the right way on April 12th. So quite a remarkable speech in itself.
SANDOVAL: Thanks to Melissa Bell for that report. Meanwhile in Israel, it's now facing massive pushback for its latest move to extend control of the occupied West Bank. Israeli lawmakers, they have approved a process to officially designate parts of the West Bank as state land. Palestinians calling it a de facto annexation of occupied Palestinian territories. And the U.N. Secretary General calls the move a "flagrant violation of international law."
Here is CNN's Jeremy Diamond with more.
JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN JERUSALEM CORRESPONDENT: Well, the Israeli government has approved the creation of a new mechanism to register large swaths of land in the West Bank to the Israeli state. Essentially, this is a decision that will make it easier for the Israeli government to take ownership of land in the West Bank, potentially strip Palestinians of their land in some of those very same areas, and also make it easier for the expansion of Israeli settlements in those areas of the West Bank to take place.
[02:35:00]
This is a decision that impacts Area C of the West Bank, where the Israeli government currently has security and civilian control based off of those Oslo Accords. But it's still an area that's home to up to 300,000 estimated Palestinians living in that area. And this decision is expected to make it a lot harder for Palestinians to be able to prove that their property in the West Bank is actually their own based on this new Israeli land registry mechanism.
This decision is being decried by the Palestinian presidency as the "de facto annexation of Palestinian territory." And Peace Now, an anti-occupation group which tracks Israeli settlement activity in the West Bank, is calling this a massive land grab by the Israeli government.
The Israeli Foreign Ministry, for its part, has tried to downplay the controversy of this latest decision, saying that this is an administrative measure, which they say would "bring order to land registration." But really, you just have to listen to those Israeli ministers involved in this decision to understand just what the goal actually is here.
And you listen, for example, to the Finance Minister, Bezalel Smotrich, who is very much behind this decision. He's a far-right minister in this Israeli government, and he says that this is an effort to continue the "settlement and governance revolution in the West Bank," an area that he refers to by its biblical terminology of Judea and Samaria.
Yariv Levin, the Justice Minister, says that Israel is, "Committed to strengthening its hold over all parts of our land," and in that he is obviously including this part of the West Bank. And so, ultimately, this really falls in line with a series of moves by this far-right Israeli government, the most right-wing Israeli government in its history, to allow for the expansion of Israeli settlements in the West Bank and, in the words of many ministers in this government, to prevent the creation of a future Palestinian state in the West Bank.
Jeremy Diamond, CNN, Jerusalem.
SANDOVAL: Still on the way, they are two of the biggest actors in Hollywood, but right now, Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt, they're making headlines for a joint project that they never actually took part in. Why an A.I. video of the pair has got Hollywood sounding alarm bells.
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[02:42:17]
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
LT. COL. BILL KILGORE, PLAYED BY ROBERT DUVALL, APOCALYPSE NOW: I love the smell of napalm in the morning. Smells like victory.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SANDOVAL: What a line. That unforgettable line that was delivered by Oscar-winning actor Robert Duvall, who died on Sunday at his home in Virginia. He made his film debut as Boo Radley in the 1962 classic "To Kill a Mockingbird." It was a small but pivotal role that launched his screen career.
Over the next six decades, Duvall became one of Hollywood's most respected character actors. His roles in "The Godfather" and "Apocalypse Now," they were among the defining performances of 1970s American cinema. Robert Duvall was 95-years-old.
Switching gears now, the company behind TikTok vowing to tone down its powerful new A.I. video tool. And this after a 15-second A.I.-created video depicting Hollywood superstars, Brad Pitt and Tom Cruise seeming to duke it out on top of a skyscraper, which is causing some uproar. We want to show you a few seconds of it. See if you can tell that this is A.I.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SANDOVAL: That clip, it was created with just a two-sentence prompt using ByteDance's brand new video creation tool. The head of the Motion Picture Association quickly calling on ByteDance to stop its "infringing activity" saying, Seedance 2.0 engaged in the unauthorized use of copyrighted works on a massive scale. In response, ByteDance said that it respects intellectual property rights and have heard the concerns regarding Seedance 2.0. The company writes, "We are taking steps to strengthen current safeguards as we work to prevent the unauthorized use of intellectual property and likeness by users."
I want to bring in now Chris Mattmann, who is an international A.I. expert and also the inaugural Chief A.I. Officer at UCLA. Matt, welcome back to CNN.
CHRIS MATTMANN, INAUGURAL CHIEF A.I. OFFICER, UCLA: Hey, thanks so much for having me.
SANDOVAL: It's great to have you with us. You heard that the parent company says that it is taking steps apparently to, as they put it, to strengthen safeguards. In your opinion and your assessment of this new A.I. model, Matt, what should those steps be?
[02:45:00]
MATTMANN: Well, I think actually, there's a number of steps that could be taken. I mean, first, number one, the challenge that we have right now is a lot of the source data for these large language models, including Seedance and things like that, you can't find out what they're actually trained on unless these companies actually get sued and it gets revealed through discovery in court. That's one, is standards for provenance, basically declaring what these models, the datasets that they use, and what they were actually trained on. That's number one.
Probably number two, I would say that the next thing that we need to do is to have technologies that allow for watermarking and remuneration for artists and creators, so that when these actual models are trained and they generate what used to be called A.I. slop, but like you and your audience could tell now isn't A.I. slop anymore. It's indiscernible from actual movies, so that people can actually be remunerated, the creators of this content along the way.
SANDOVAL: Do you think that the industry should have reason to worry? We heard from the Actors Union, SAG-AFTRA, that said that this new app essentially undercuts the ability of human talent to earn a livelihood.
MATTMANN: You know, without provenance and without sort of the ability to kind of know where this data is actually being crawled from, and it's pretty obvious at this point that the data is being collected and crawled from movies, things on YouTube, things that are made available. You know, people used to record cassette tapes in the car, right, and cut little mixtapes back when I was a kid and things like that.
Nowadays, they have advanced capabilities to basically record movies, put them on YouTube and things like that. It's clear that these models are trained on endless amounts of that information. Without the ability, again, to have these provenance tools, to have technologies that actually renumerate the authors and the creators, we're going to continue to see these types of things, especially when these can generate different endings to movies, different endings to shows like "Stranger Things" and these types of things. And so, they're going to continue to get shared on social media.
SANDOVAL: Yeah, "Game of Thrones" as well. I mean, it is just absolutely remarkable when you see some of the products that this has already put out. And you see the camera movements, for example, as well, it is just incredibly realistic. It really is a virtual production operation and studio that's wrapped up in a single app. I mean, what makes it so revolutionary when you look at the technology behind this?
MATTMANN: I think the things that make it revolutionary are, you know, all of the different variations and features that it can do. First, different camera angles. You know, that Brad Pitt-Tom Cruise one, zooms out, zooms in, does things that previously you need choreography, directing, scripting, all the way to do. These large language models agglomerate different perspectives, views, lighting, explosions, special effects, things that cost movie makers eight to nine figures to do.
So just the mere fact that with, like you mentioned, a two-sentence prompt, you can get all of these variations and all these things that it takes studios a lot to generate, that's what's got people really opening their eyes wide.
(LAUGH)
SANDOVAL: Yeah, material that took perhaps weeks to put together, as you said, really just with a couple of sentences put together now. Really appreciate this absolutely fascinating conversation, Chris Mattmann. Thank you so much for coming back to CNN. Appreciate your time and expertise.
MATTMANN: Thanks for having me.
SANDOVAL: Let's start ahead here on "CNN Newsroom." We are galloping into the Year of The Horse. CNN in Beijing, where tons of people are kicking off Lunar New Year festivities.
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[02:51:07]
SANDOVAL: Historic breakthroughs and classic rivalries, they are taking center stage at the Milan-Cortina Winter Games. Japan claimed its first-ever Olympic title in pairs figure skating. And this as Riku Miura and Ryuichi Kihara stormed back from fifth place in the short program to win gold for their near-flawless free skate.
In women's hockey, Team USA shut out Sweden 5-0 in their semifinal, while Canada edged out Switzerland 2-1. The longstanding rivals will be facing off in their seventh gold medal showdown on Thursday.
And in bobsleigh, Team USA's Elana Meyers Taylor captured her first Olympic gold in the women's monobob at age 41. She trailed for three heats before delivering a blistering final run.
And two British skeleton racers, they slid into Olympic history as the first to take the gold medal in the mixed team event. Matt Weston and Tabitha Stoecker, they finished 0.17 seconds ahead of the silver medalists at the event's debut run. Our Coy Wire caught up with them after their experience. Listen to this.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
COY WIRE, CNN SPORTS ANCHOR: The mixed team event, this was brand new. How does it feel in this inaugural event at the Winter Olympics to have your name etched in the history books forever, first?
TABITHA STOECKER, 2026 OLYMPIC GOLD MEDALIST, SKELETON MIXED: It's such an incredible feeling. Like, it's a historic moment and to be the first winners of this new event, that's just incredible.
WIRE: And Matt, you just became the first British man to ever win skeleton and first two-time gold medal Winter Olympian. Has the weight of this history hit you yet?
MATT WESTON, 2026 OLYMPIC GOLD MEDALIST, SKELETON: Definitely not. Definitely not. The only thing -- the only weight that's hit me is, to be honest, the weight of these.
(LAUGH)
WESTON: Like, my neck is genuinely getting a bit sore from carrying these around. They're about -- they're quite heavy. They're like half a kilo each.
WIRE: Oh my God. Yeah.
WESTON: Yeah. So they're quite heavy. But I mean, that's not a bad problem to have.
WIRE: No.
WESTON But no, it definitely hasn't sunk in, the history that we've been able to make here in the last few days. No.
WIRE: So, skeleton is this sport where you're literally throwing yourself down a tube of ice at 80 miles an hour. It's so fast. So, that takes a special breed of person. What does that say about your personalities that you do this sport?
STOECKER: I think we love the adrenaline, clearly. But also, I think, like, you have to trust yourself so much and be so present. And I think it takes a certain kind of mind to be able to quieten out all of the noise and be so present with you and your side, and make those really important decisions going down the track.
WIRE: Now, when you do this new mixed team event, you're not racing just for yourself. Like, you have to race with a teammate.
WESTON: Yeah. WIRE: So, like, how much does trust come into this and how do you build that trust, if so?
WESTON: Trust is massive in it. I kind of, I trust that any of my teammates would have gone down and put their best performance and that's kind of all you can ask from someone. I think Tabby put down an amazing run and put me in good stead to go out and secure the gold.
But it was, yeah, you kind of have to have trust in your teammate and because we're such good friends off the ice as well, that also helps that.
WIRE: All right, we're going to go a little rapid fire just like skeleton. All gas, no brakes, no overthinking.
WESTON: OK.
WIRE: Tea or coffee?
WESTON: Coffee.
STOECKER: Coffee.
WESTON: Coffee.
WIRE: Favorite pump-up song?
WESTON: Probably Whitney Houston or something like that.
(LAUGH)
WESTON: Yeah. Really gets me going.
STOECKER: I don't know.
(LAUGH)
STOECKER: I don't really listen to music when warming up.
WIRE: Who's more competitive between the two of you?
STOECKER: Matt.
WESTON: Yeah.
WIRE: OK.
WESTON: Probably me, yeah.
(LAUGH)
WIRE: Who's more likely to miss the team shuttle?
WESTON: Tabby.
STOECKER: What? WESTON: Tabby.
(LAUGH)
WIRE: Who takes longer to get ready?
WESTON: Tabby.
(LAUGH)
STOECKER: Me.
WESTON: Yeah.
WIRE: You're supposed to be fast in your sport, Tabby. If you weren't doing skeleton, what sport would you dominate?
WESTON: Oh, good question.
[02:55:00]
Probably something high adrenaline. I used to play rugby when I was younger, so probably I'd love to play that. Yeah.
STOECKER: I want to try sprinting.
(LAUGH)
STOECKER: I've not done that before.
WIRE: All right. Tabby, you start. Describe your teammate in one word.
(LAUGH)
WESTON: Tabby? Indescribable.
(LAUGH)
WIRE: Yeah.
STOECKER: I don't have words.
WESTON: Probably two words, Olympic champion. There we go. There we go, yeah.
STOECKER: Two-time Olympic champion. That's what I should have said to you.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SANDOVAL: All right. Thanks Coy Wire for that. As Lunar New Year celebrations begin, Beijing, it is celebrating by showing off its humanoid robots performing kung fu. I couldn't get enough of this video earlier today. These robots wielding swords and nunchucks in perfect fight sequences, and even flipping across the stage, as you see there.
The performance aired on China's most-watched show, and it's such a big deal that some compare it to the Super Bowl, minus a robot Bad Bunny, of course. The whole event, it is part of the country's push to lead in humanoid robotics, showing off the latest talent and tech startups.
And more than a billion people around the world, they are ringing in the Year of the Horse. Lunar New Year, it is considered the most important holiday for many Chinese and other Asian communities. CNN's Mike Valerio is in Beijing, visiting the city's most popular temple fair as festivities kick off there.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MIKE VALERIO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: So when you look at this main axis of Ditan Park here in Beijing, the beautiful red lanterns, so much of the city clears out with families going to see their old hometown, seeing relatives that are spread throughout China. So much of Beijing clears out, except for temple fairs like this, where myriad tourists and the families who remain in Beijing, they all come together for these incredible snacks, to share red packets, of course, and toys and games, just such a shared experience and community here in Ditan Park.
Mike Valerio, CNN, Beijing.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SANDOVAL: And a man in Indonesia is taking advantage of big opportunities with his tiny creations. A 44-year-old father has gone viral on TikTok for his tiny food cart. Customers, they line up to get small servings of his traditional Indonesian and Chinese fusion dishes.
They're even made on a tiny stove. The regular portion of his most popular dish sells for around $0.60, but the bite-sized version, that costs $0.06. The man hoping to make his cart a new source of income for his family, but at those prices, he remains uncertain about the long-term viability of his business.
And that's my time with you today. Thank you so much for joining us. I'm Polo Sandoval in New York. The news continues with my colleague, Rosemary Church, in just a few moments right here on CNN.
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