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Trump Threatens Economic Pressure on Iran; Woman Planning to Explode the New York State Capitol Foiled by Authorities. Aired 3-4a ET

Aired August 21, 2026 - 03:00   ET

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

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WILL RIPLEY, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT AND ANCHOR: Hello, and welcome to our viewers joining us from all around the world. I'm Will Ripley, live in Hong Kong, and this is "CNN Newsroom."

President Trump threatening to inflict more economic pain on Iran. How Tehran is responding to the new warnings.

Plus, Ukraine is getting pummeled by Russia. President Zelenskyy is facing a new challenge, a call for wartime elections. We're live in Kyiv.

And a plot to bomb a federal building in New York, stopped by the FBI. We are breaking down the case this hour.

We begin with the U.S. war with Iran, and the U.S. Vice President, J.D. Vance, saying economic pressure is the most effective tool against Tehran, but he cautioned it's a delicate dance. The Vice President says economic pressure is the best way to prevent Iran from rebuilding its nuclear capacity. Vance's comments come as President Trump threatens to wage an economic war of attrition with Iran, and Iran's foreign ministry condemned Mr. Trump's threat of an elevated economic campaign as, quote, "unlawful."

The IRGC warned it could deploy more destructive weapons if the fighting restarts, and the Trump administration is now imposing new sanctions on Hezbollah in Lebanon, and re-designating the group as an Iranian proxy. The move is meant to signal that Hezbollah is acting on behalf of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. It comes as the White House works to broker peace talks between Israel and Lebanon.

Let's go live now to CNN's Leila Gharaghozlou in Abu Dhabi. Leila, it's good to see you again this hour. So how is Tehran responding to this? Is this pressure, you think, moving Iran closer to negotiations or farther away?

LEILA GHARAGOZLOU, CNN PRODUCER: You know, this pressure is most likely moving Iran further away from negotiations. Iran is very unlikely to capitulate to any sort of economic pressure, and we've seen that not just in the present day, but historically, right? Iran is one of the most sanctioned countries in the world, and

particularly 2006 forward, Iran has had some of the strictest, strongest sanctions on it of any country basically ever. So they really understand how to withstand economic pressure, and as we spoke about last hour, this has been a key part of their strategy, is to build a resistance economy, an economy that cannot just withstand pressure from the outside world, but is self-sustaining and independent.

So they're very unlikely to capitulate to economic pressure. On top of that, it's very unclear what President Trump would even put pressure on, right?

They already have an economic blockade on the port, and Iran is already sanctioned to the gills. I mean, everything from the petrochemical industry to the national airliners has been sanctioned, and it's never curbed the government's behavior in any particular way.

Now, some experts that I've spoken to have said that they could put pressure on Iran's trading partners like Russia or China, but it's very unlikely and unclear if President Trump has that kind of leverage over either of those two nations to be able to pressure them to stop trading with Iran.

So it's kind of a murky situation, but what we do know from the Iranians is that they are feeling the pain of these economic pressure points, but they're not willing to change what they're doing. And they have enough bandwidth to, at the very least, push this out to November, those midterm elections, and potentially pass that pain back on to the Trump administration via the midterm elections.

So we're going to have to wait and see what happens with that. I think what's really important to understand, though, is that this economic pressure, while not curbing the government's behavior, is very much impacting ordinary people, civilians.

I've spoken to quite a lot of small businesses in Iran and ordinary people who are very much feeling that pain. Iran's economy was already in dire straits before this war.

As you remember, in January there were those very deadly protests. Those initially started in December as economic protests. So Iranians had already been feeling that pain and pressure, now, it's just gotten worse.

So we're going to have to see how this plays out for both the Iranian government and the U.S.

RIPLEY: And how are the everyday folks you're speaking with in Iran, how are they coping with the prospect of this continuing to drag on for many more months?

GHARAGOZLOU: You know, a lot of the people I've spoken to have been very despondent.

[03:05:01] There is this general sense of melancholy in a lot of ways, where it's now the norm, which wasn't something that Iranians had experienced before. Up until the June 2025 war, Iranians hadn't experienced war since the Iran-Iraq war.

Now it feels like a norm, but they are concerned. There's a very real fear and concern over what's going to happen. There's an uncertainty over whether the war will restart or when will it end.

And on top of that, as I said, people can't afford basic goods, medication. People are skipping chemotherapy appointments because they cannot afford it anymore. So it's a very serious situation in Iran and the people are feeling quite a lot of anxiety, pain, and fear.

RIPLEY: And the regular folks are the ones who always get hit the hardest in this type of thing, Leila, as you know all too well. I really appreciate your insights. Live from Abu Dhabi, we'll be checking back with you in the coming hours.

But we're going to leave it there for now. Thank you, Leila.

Moving on now to the region, but a little bit wider, the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier, now heading home after that nearly nine- month deployment that kept getting extended by the war with Iran. And of course, we've been following these reports of sailors worsening mental health and deteriorating conditions aboard the ship, really raising concerns among U.S. lawmakers and military families as well.

CNN previously reported a sailor went overboard from the Lincoln this month as conditions on the ship prompted lawmakers to really start demanding answers. And President Trump earlier this week dismissed concerns about the sailors aboard the Lincoln.

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DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: And an admiral came up to see me over the weekend. And it was at a big group, and he happened to be an admiral retired.

He said, I've been on ships that are out there much longer than that, sir. And I know people on the Lincoln. They say it's beautifully maintained and beautifully taken care of.

And other people went out and they found out to be true. It was fake news reporting from CNN.

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RIPLEY: The military says the USS George Washington is now in the Middle East to relieve the troubled Lincoln. The move leaves the U.S. without an aircraft carrier in this region, the Pacific.

Ukrainian intelligence says Russia will ask for more reinforcements from North Korea to help its ongoing invasion. Officials say President Vladimir Putin may ask for up to 50,000 troops when he meets North Korean leader Kim Jong-un in September. Thousands of North Koreans have already been fighting for Moscow since

2024. Ukraine says some of the recently deployed forces include about 400 drone operators. Their drones would be used to survey and attack targets in Ukraine.

Meanwhile, air raid alerts sounded in Kyiv throughout the day on Thursday following a massive wave of strikes the night before. Ukraine says at least 17 people died in those attacks, and dozens were wounded.

And for more on all of this, we're joined from Kyiv by Oleksiy Sorokin. He's the deputy chief editor of the Kyiv Independent.

So, hopefully, the situation in Kyiv is already bad with these latest Russian strikes. And now, what's your reaction, Oleksiy, to the prospect of more North Korean involvement and potentially North Korean ballistic missiles raining down on your city?

OLEKSIY SOROKIN, DEPUTY CHIEF EDITOR, KYIV INDEPENDENT: Well, we're discussing a really bad situation getting even worse, right?

We know that Russia currently has the upper hand because Ukraine is lacking air defense systems and missiles for them. And more missiles from North Korea means more people in Kyiv will die.

Same with troops from North Korea. We remember that a few years back, they were fighting on the front lines and helping Russia advance.

Well, back then, it was in Kursk region of Russia. And right now, we have intelligence that North Korean troops can be sent specifically to Ukraine to help Russia capture more territory in the east.

RIPLEY: Can Ukraine realistically hold a free and fair election while it's under Russian attack, you think?

SOROKIN: No. Obviously, this political crisis is self-inflicted currently in Ukraine. There is absolutely no capabilities that Ukraine has to hold elections. There's millions of people currently displaced.

There's over 20 percent of the territory of Ukraine currently occupied, there's also around a million, slightly less than a million, of people on the front lines who also can't vote. People who are in the military are not allowed, according to law, to campaign and to seek office. We also have the martial law that prohibits any elections.

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Plus, the Central Election Commission doesn't have up-to-date lists of voters because many fled, many have been killed, voting booths were destroyed. So, there's technically no capabilities for Ukraine to hold elections. And I think this is really bad that currently, this topic is being widely discussed in Ukraine because of personal ambitions of some politicians.

RIPLEY: Do you think there's any Russian interference playing into this, perhaps secretly?

SOROKIN: Well, no. I know it's really easy to blame Russia for everything, but unfortunately, the current crisis is self-inflicted and the president committed a government reshuffle for absolutely no reason.

It turned into a political crisis with protests on the streets because a popular defense minister was ousted and then the popular defense minister, because he wasn't able to get his job back, went all in and became the main opposition figure for the President. So, it's unfortunately all self-inflicted, and it's probably going to get worse going forward.

RIPLEY: So, is this opportunistic politicians, or if you're taking the pulse of the Ukrainian people, is there a genuine political challenge that Zelenskyy's facing now? Is he weaker today than at any point since the full-scale invasion began?

SOROKIN: I think he's definitely weaker, first of all, because there's active opposition, and second of all, because there's an ongoing corruption crisis. For the past year, people around the President have been caught red-handed stealing money from the state, and there's multiple anti-corruption investigations ongoing in the country.

So, definitely Zelenskyy is feeling the pressure, but even those who support Mr. Fedorov, who called for elections, say that they don't support elections per se during wartime, because they understand that it's impossible. So, I think here Mr. Fedorov rushed a bit and jumped the gun, and he's not going to get support specifically for pressuring the state to hold elections.

RIPLEY: Oleksiy Sorokin in Kyiv, we'll leave it there for now. I really appreciate you joining us. Thanks for sharing your perspective from the embattled and beautiful city of Kyiv, we'll be checking back in with you and following that situation very closely.

But we're going to pivot now here on "CNN Newsroom" to talk about this brazen bombing in Monaco. A man who narrowly survived, now speaking exclusively to CNN about the attack that badly injured him and his family, and he tells us who he thinks may be behind it.

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RIPLEY: This is "CNN Newsroom." We're live in Hong Kong, and two organizers of what used to be this city's annual vigil to remember the Tiananmen Square massacre in Beijing have been found guilty of inciting subversion.

The verdict is part of a years-long crackdown by Hong Kong authorities, all in the name of national security. On June 4th, 1989, China's leadership sent troops and tanks to break up pro-democracy demonstrations in the heart of Beijing. Judges ruled the pair had engaged in activities intended to overthrow the Chinese Communist Party.

Beijing and the Hong Kong government say the national security laws enacted in 2020 were needed to return the city to order and stability. The two organizers face up to 10 years in prison.

Monaco's reputation as a secure haven for the super-rich was shattered by a bombing attack in June. The attack targeted a Ukrainian-born millionaire, seriously injuring him, his partner, and their child.

In an exclusive interview with CNN, Vadym Yermolaiev speaks about surviving the attack and who he believes is responsible. He sat down with CNN chief global affairs correspondent Matthew Chance.

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MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN CHIEF GLOBAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It's a glamorous playground for the super-rich. One of the world's tiniest nations, Monaco promotes itself as a haven of wealth and tranquility on the picturesque shores of the Mediterranean.

But one evening in June, as a Ukrainian-born businessman walked home with his family, that carefully manicured image of security and calm was shattered. Plunging the principality into violence and chaos.

CHANCE: Well, this is the exact place where the explosion took place. You can still see the impact of the shrapnel. The stucco plasterwork here around the door has all fallen off.

And, you know, if I lift up the tarp here, you can see the marble steps and the brickwork is all shattered. We've also made contact with the target of the attack, and despite his grave injuries, he's agreed to speak out.

VADYM YERMOLAIEV, BUSINESSMAN (through translator): When the explosion went off, I saw my partner Anna lying on the steps with badly injured legs. My son was waving his bloodied arms, and I had burns across my whole body and was missing pieces of flesh.

I'm not a confrontational person. I've always tried to avoid any sharp conflicts, so I don't understand the reason why this happened.

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CHANCE: There's a suggestion in Ukraine, and there are reports in Ukraine, that this assassination attempt was linked to your involvement, alleged involvement in organized crime. How do you answer?

YERMOLAIEV (through translator): I personally have never in my life had anything to do with that. The Monaco police also asked me if my family could be involved, which was almost funny, as everything I own is already registered to my wife and children.

CHANCE (voice-over): But clearly someone wanted to send a message. This is the face of the bomber. A 39-year-old single mother from Ukraine, Anastasia Berezovska. She even recorded herself planting the device in what investigators

say was part of a complex international plot they're still trying to unravel.

CHANCE: Well, these narrow, twisting streets snaking through tiny Monaco are some of the most heavily surveilled anywhere in the world. There are more than 1400 surveillance cameras basically watching everything anybody does and a police officer for every 60 residents of the Principality. The bombing appears to have been carefully planned to bypass all of that tight security.

CHANCE (voice-over): And Monaco's police department is now under intense pressure to understand what went wrong.

Multiple theories are being explored, the police chief admitted, though he refused to elaborate or discuss the glaring connections with Ukraine and its security services.

But in a Kyiv court, those connections have become impossible to ignore. Two men, a serving officer with Ukrainian military intelligence and a former security agent, now stand accused of executing Anastasia Berezovska and burying the Monaco bomber in a shallow grave after she fled home.

For the Ukrainian authorities, fighting a bitter war with Russia, it's a potentially embarrassing link that risks straining relations with its European backers. Ukrainian military intelligence say the suspects are just criminals. But fueling speculation, Vadym Yermolaiev is sanctioned by Ukraine for doing business with its Russian enemies, though he's ruling out any link to his bombing.

YERMOLAIEV (through translator): I can't imagine it had anything to do with the Ukrainian sanctions against me, because that would mean our state is potentially engaged in extrajudicial executions, and I just can't believe that.

CHANCE: After the bombing, you accused the Ukrainian security services of being behind it. Is that still your view?

YERMOLAIEV (through translator): That's not just my view, all the facts point to it but I think this was a contracted hit. Someone privately hired military intelligence specialists who know how to do this, and they took it on for money.

CHANCE (voice-over): In both Monaco and Kyiv, investigations are now in full swing to uncover the facts, including the possible role of Ukrainian guns for hire or rogue agents, making one of the world's most glamorous enclaves feel a lot less secure.

Matthew Chance, CNN, Monaco.

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RIPLEY: U.S. investigators say they've foiled a plot to bomb the New York State Capitol in Albany. Officials say 35-year-old Jessica Bowie conducted surveillance of the building after pledging allegiance to ISIS. She was arrested after receiving an inert bomb from undercover agents posing as ISIS facilitators.

CNN's Shimon Prokupecz explains how investigators discovered her intentions.

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SHIMON PROKUPECZ, CNN SENIOR CRIME AND JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: This was essentially a sting operation, right? They introduced informants, people who were cooperating with the FBI, into her life after it appears they found her through social media posts.

She'd been posting about ISIS. She's been posting about other things that she wanted to do. And that seems to be how the FBI came across her.

And then using these informants, they were able to build a relationship with her. These informants built this relationship with her. And some of the things that she talked about and the harm that she wanted to do, here's just a taste of some of what she was telling them. This was all recorded by the FBI.

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She said at one point that quote on the attack, "maybe we time it where we know there's a meeting with the senators to try and get a good enough explosive in there to kill the senators, and ideally to destroy as much of the building as possible."

And then she also talked about just the impact that she allegedly wanted to have here. She said quote, "I don't want to take this kind of risk and then have it kill what, two or three people." Just the extent of the damage that she allegedly wanted to sort of hope that by building this bomb.

She was talking to these informants about how to build the bomb. And then at one point the FBI has her on tape going to a Home Depot where she is buying allegedly some of these items. This is what sadly, you know, one of the things that is so striking about this is that she is 35 years old.

For someone to have been radicalized, the FBI says, at such a late point is certainly striking. She was in court, she was detained, and the case will go forward.

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RIPLEY: Shimon Prokupecz reporting there.

Next on "CNN Newsroom," Ethiopia's gold rush. That country's new push to become a leading gold producer.

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(COMMERCIAL BREAK) SANDOVAL: Welcome back to "CNN Newsroom," live from Hong Kong. I'm Will Ripley. Let's take a look at today's top stories.

U.S. Vice President J.D. Vance says economic pressure is the most effective tool in the war against Iran. But he noted it's a quote, delicate dance. He cautioned that Tehran could respond by trying to apply its own economic pressure against the U.S. Vance's comments come as President Trump threatens to wage an economic war of attrition on Iran amidst stalled peace talks.

The USS Abraham Lincoln is heading home after a nearly nine-month deployment at sea. U.S. Central Command says the USS George Washington has arrived in the Middle East to relieve the Lincoln. The Iran war extended the deployment, sparking concerns after reports of deteriorating living conditions and worsening mental health among the crew.

Romania says it has stopped a suspected Russian attack on its offshore gas project in the Black Sea. The country says its F-16 fighter jets struck a naval drone believed to have been launched by Moscow on Thursday. The European Commission later warned about the growing threat of hybrid warfare.

Ethiopia is set to launch its first large-scale commercial gold operation after centuries of producing gold through small-scale artisanal mining. CNN's Victoria Rubidiri has more on the country's hopes to become a leading gold producer.

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VICTORIA RUBADIRI, "CONNECTING AFRICA" HOST (voice-over): High above the rolling green hills of Western Ethiopia, a new industry is emerging. Deep inside these peaks lies billions in untapped gold deposits. On the ground, thousands of construction workers and explorers are working away to launch Ethiopia's first large-scale gold mine, according to its owners, Canada's Allied Gold Corporation.

BROX WORKU, GENERAL MANAGER, KURMUK GOLD MINE: We are at the Kurmuk processing plant area, where we bring in all the ore from two pieces.

RUBADIRI (voice-over): Lead geologist Mehiret Abebe is overseeing a team that's hunting for gold. Each drilled rock sample is carefully probed and given a unique identification number. The samples are either stored in a library or pulverized and tested to see how much gold they contain.

MEHIRET ABEBE, SENIOR GEOLOGIST, KURMUK GOLD MINE: As you can see, the color is a bit khaki, a different color, and you have all those shiny minerals in it. And you have a lot of what we call quartz. So if you have the quartz and those shiny minerals and this color, usually it means there's gold.

RUBADIRI (voice-over): What also makes this mine different is that instead of exporting deposits abroad to extract the gold, a plant is being built on-site to process it. MERED AMARE, DEPUTY GENERAL MANAGER, KURMUK GOLD MINE: On a yearly basis, we'll produce 290,000 ounces, which is equivalent to nine tons of gold. So with the current gold price, the revenue we'll get is nearly 1.2 billion USD.

RUBADIRI (voice-over): Gold is said to be a major revenue generator for the country. Last year, it overtook coffee for the first time as the largest export earner. In the fourth and final quarter of Ethiopia's 2024-2025 fiscal year, coffee exports amounted to over 1.1 billion USD, while gold exports were almost 1.3 billion USD.

ABEBE: I promise you there's like 30, 40, 50 more years to come because this area has not been studied at this scale before and we're doing that job and we kind of understand where to go and what to look for next.

RUBADIRI (voice-over): From exploration to production, in just a few weeks, this site will come online, a symbol of Ethiopia's industrial ambitions.

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RIPLEY: Welcome back to "CNN Newsroom." Let's take a look at your business headlines this hour.

People in Buenos Aires, Argentina took to the streets on Thursday, they were expressing their anger over the economy and rising levels of household debt.

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One organizer said 20 million people in Argentina need credit just to pay their monthly bills. Argentina has been battered by high inflation, which their President blames in part on the conflict in the Middle East.

U.S. retailers are reporting how much they got back from the government in tariff refunds. Walmart, the nation's largest retailer, got the largest refund, nearly $3 billion. As it announced its quarterly earnings, Walmart told its investors it will pass the refund back to consumers through lower prices. The company expects that will help increase consumer spending.

In a rare public appearance, U.S. First Lady Melania Trump announced a new initiative supporting foster youth through a partnership with IndyCar and Fox Corporation. $2 million in scholarships will be available for youth transitioning out of the foster care system. This is part of the First Lady's latest endeavor called Fostering the Future.

He was once the symbol of China's economic rise and formerly one of China's richest men. But now the founder of the Evergrande real estate empire has been sentenced to life in prison for fraud and misuse of funds. CNN's Anna Stewart picks up the story.

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ANNA STEWART, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Evergrande is the poster child for China's property crisis, and this sentencing draws a final line under the company and its founder.

Hui Ka Yan had already pled guilty and now he has been sentenced to life in prison according to state media, stripped of political rights and ordered to forfeit all personal assets. It's quite a fall for someone who Forbes once named as the richest man in Asia.

The company he founded and its subsidiary are collectively fined more than $2 billion. It's unlikely this fine will be paid though given the existing liabilities. Evergrande has been in liquidation since 2024 and has defaulted on most of its $300 billion debt load.

This verdict makes clear where Beijing lays the blame for Evergrande's collapse. It's the result of criminal actions by the company and its founder.

There was a Chinese real estate bubble built with huge amounts of debt and money taken from buyers for homes that didn't yet exist. In 2020, Beijing cut developers off from credit. Evergrande and scores of other developers couldn't refinance and defaulted.

Last year, new home sales in China dipped to their lowest value since 2014. So this verdict may close one chapter but the crisis itself is still running.

Anna Stewart, CNN, London.

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RIPLEY: Thanks for watching "CNN Newsroom" live from Hong Kong, I'm Will Ripley. World Sport is next on CNN, and we will have more "CNN Newsroom" at the top of the hour from London with my colleague Salma Abdelaziz.

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