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Norway's Long-Reigning King Harald V Dies; Trump Renames Lake America as the Latest Move in the U.S.-Canada Trade War. Aired 3-3:45a ET

Aired August 28, 2026 - 03:00   ET

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

[03:00:00]

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UNKNOWN (voice-over): This is CNN Breaking News.

BEN HUNTE, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, wherever you are in the world, you are now in the "CNN Newsroom" with me, Ben Hunte in Atlanta, and it is good to have you with me.

We are getting straight into this with breaking news. We can report that Norway's monarch, that is King Harald, has died at the age of 89.

We are following this breaking news of course here at CNN for you, and we are bringing in CNN's Max Foster live in Hampshire for us. Max, what can you tell us, what is the latest and what are you hearing? If you are there?

Yes, Max, if you can hear me, what is the latest that you are hearing? What are the reactions that people are giving you?

MAX FOSTER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, so we knew that he was very poorly, he was in hospital because the royal family cancelled all of their engagements yesterday, gathered at the hospital, so the Queen, but also the Crown Prince, and then we just had the announcement really in the last few minutes, a very simple announcement that he passed away peacefully at 6:35 local time at the National Hospital in Oslo.

So, Crown Prince Haakon, as was, is now King Haakon of Norway. He was 35 years on the throne, Ben, he was a popular king. Quite revered by his country, I would say, very well respected.

There has been a lot of scandal around the family relating to the Crown Princess in recent times. She will now automatically become Queen, she had associations with Jeffrey Epstein, which she later apologized for, and her son has been involved in a court case as well. But this is a big moment, I think, for Norway, for obvious reasons.

35 years, their head of state has now passed. He's been very poorly in recent times, as I say, and lots of health challenges. And his daughter-in-law, Mette-Marit, will become a focus of attention now, inevitably, because she is now Queen of Norway, she had this association with Jeffrey Epstein.

But we wait to hear more details from the palace and what the arrangements will be.

HUNTE: Okay, Max, thank you for that.

Please do bring us the latest as you do get it. We'll speak to you again later, I'm sure. Thank you for now.

Let's move on to Nepal, where authorities are urging people along the border with China to seek higher ground.

Nepali police say a dam on the Chinese side of the border has burst, threatening to unleash new flooding downstream just days after a catastrophic flash flood hit the region. A Chinese state media reporter has described large amounts of dust in the air near the barrier lake that is bursting. Experts on site say it's an indication of movement in the mountain.

Authorities in China have been warning that a dam created during Wednesday's landslide could unleash further destruction and endanger search and rescue efforts. China and Nepal have paused rescue operations because of the new threats. Wednesday's disaster killed at least 469 people and more than 1300 are missing, including hundreds of foreign nationals.

New analysis has found Wednesday's wave of water, mud and earth travelled nearly 14 miles in just six minutes, slamming into towns at speeds of up to 120 miles an hour, washing away buildings, roads and bridges too. U.S. President Trump says America is ready to send help.

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DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: We've called Nepal and we've offered any help that they need. You know, I have a very good relationship with Nepal and that was a brutal, that was mud and water as a mixture. Nobody's ever seen anything quite like that.

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HUNTE: CNN's Mike Valerio is tracking developments for us and joins us from Beijing. It is good to see you again, sir. What can you tell us about how Nepali police are urging residents to get to safety? What do you know?

MIKE VALERIO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Benny, we're trying to gauge the impact of this debris dam breach, so we don't have any visuals on what exactly the area looks like, but it is concerning enough for Nepali police to tell humanitarian groups and residents to move to higher ground. So, from the Chinese side, we do have a reporter from Chinese state media Xinhua, who was looking at this debris dam, right?

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We have a river that was blocked by landslide debris and it starts filling up with this river water, up and up, until the water began to overtake the banks and has started to seep through the unstable landmass and debris, triggering Chinese authorities, as you were saying in the introduction to the story, to say, you know what, conditions are dangerous enough that we have to stop our search and rescue efforts because we're not sure if this dam is going to break.

At some point within the past hour, Benny, since the last time I talked to you, this dam has started to have water not only overtaking the banks, but a breach has happened and that Xinhua, state media reporter, said that he observed large amounts of dust in the air, large amounts of dust in the air around this lake, meaning that the ground was shifting. It wasn't fog, it wasn't rain, it was the landmass shifting so severely that dust was starting to come up into the air. And he's quoted as saying, they warned us to retreat immediately to somewhere safe.

It began to overflow, rescue teams could not proceed to the hard-hit land port that was about 10 kilometers away from this debris dam from the lake that had formed. You know, some of the enduring images of this disaster are that port in Guilong, the land connection, the trade route between Nepal and China, and that seven-story building being overtaken with that black, you know, huge wave of water and earth that just swarmed everything within the camera angle of that CCTV footage.

So Chinese authorities were trying to get closer to it to see what, if anything, they could find, salvage, anybody they could rescue, but things have been so unstable and dangerous they haven't been able to get to that area. So our reporting target over the next hour and through the early evening here in Asia is to figure out how exactly this dam breach has changed the equation of how rescuers can proceed.

Right now they have suspended their efforts, at least on the Chinese side, and again, Nepali police telling people to move, and it seems as though humanitarian groups are doing just that. So watch this space more soon, Benny.

HUNTE: Okay. Mike Valerio, we'll leave that there for now. Thank you so much, live for us in Beijing. I appreciate it.

We're going to go onwards now. Yes.

So earlier we did actually speak to a gentleman working for the International Federation of the Red Cross, and we asked him about conditions that people are facing in the worst hit communities right now.

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DAVID FISHER, HEAD OF NEPAL DELEGATION, INTERNATIONAL FEDERATION OF THE RED CROSS: They are continuing their emergency work. So many people have lost their homes, have lost everything that they own in the world. Many people have taken refuge in schools and government buildings.

So Nepal Red Cross has been organizing hot food for them, safe water, blankets, mattresses. We're sending out trucks every day in small amounts. But we're, of course, very concerned about this new risk of an additional flood.

And part of what the teams are doing are disseminating these warning messages along with the authorities. The authorities have been working very hard to restore road access to Vassala, which is critical. These people have been reached, of course, by the Nepal Armed Forces only by helicopter, with very limited relief supplies.

We have very little sort of clear notion about the extent of the damage and the needs there. But it's a balance because the work in this line area may be putting people at risk.

HUNTE: The scale of this disaster has grown dramatically. What have you learned about the resources that are still required to deal with the impact of this?

FISHER: Well, it's clear that it's going to take quite a long time to heal from this massive disaster. The emergency relief phase is going to last for quite some time, particularly since there are so many people that we have not even yet been able to reach.

Initial assessments are only now starting in Novakot, which is to the south of the district that was first hit by the flood. But this has wiped out not only homes but businesses. It has destroyed a major artery of commerce between China and Nepal, many people will have lost any means of livelihood, they will need not just help for the next day but for their full recovery.

So the Federation on its side has just launched a global appeal looking for solidarity to support the immediate life-saving needs and, of course, the long-term recovery of the affected population.

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HUNTE: Qatar is pushing for a resumption of diplomacy as talks between the U.S. and Iran remain stuck in the mud. Qatar says its Prime Minister held talks in Tehran on Thursday and called for a return to the negotiating table. He spoke hours after the White House said there are no ongoing negotiations with Iran.

President Donald Trump remains vague about his economic threat against the countries that do business with Tehran. He refused to say on Thursday if he discussed the issue with foreign leaders or if he plans to sanction banks in China as Iran's biggest trading partner.

For more, we are joined by Fawaz Gerges, a professor of international relations at the London School of Economics and Political Science. He is the author of "The Great Betrayal, The Struggle for Freedom and Democracy in the Middle East."

And thank you for joining me, sir. I really appreciate your time. Thank you for being with us.

Today does mark six months since the war began. Has either side actually achieved what it set out to achieve at the beginning of this? FAWAZ GERGES, PROFESSOR OF INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS, LONDON SCHOOL OF

ECONOMICS, AND AUTHOR, "THE GREAT BETRAYAL": Well, I mean, let's take stock then of what the war has achieved.

Initially, President Trump made it very clear the strategic goal of the U.S.-Israeli war was to regime change, to topple the Iranian regime and to force Iran to accept President Trump's conditions. The war started on the 28th of February. Here we are, six months late.

The President made it very clear that it was an excursion. It's about a couple of weeks. In fact, I would not be surprised if the war itself does not really last years as opposed to another six months.

There is a stance-off between the United States and Iran, not only that the war itself has failed to achieve its major goals, but now Iran is in charge, in control of the Strait of Hormuz, one of the most important strategic waterways in the world.

And you have really economic pain worldwide, in particular in developing countries where millions of people, I mean 100 million people have fallen into food insecurity, not to mention inflation in the United States, not to mention thousands of people have been killed in Iran and neighboring countries and American soldiers, and of course devastating disruptions in Iran itself, in particular military and civilian infrastructure.

HUNTE: As you mentioned there, six months of war has come at an enormous cost. You talked a bit about some of those consequences for Iran, but what could still be to come?

GERGES: Well, I mean, the consequences are already with us. We know that now Iran is making it very clear that it will not basically open the Strait of Hormuz unless the United States lifts the sanctions against the U.S. economy. What Iran sees in this particular moment as a moment of opportunity in order to, you know, once and for all, to really get the United States to lift the sanctions against the economy, which the sanctions have crippled the Iranian economy.

Also, some of the consequences, I mean, I think this was and is a major strategic miscalculation on the part of the United States. It undermines America's leadership worldwide. President Trump now is declaring all-out economic warfare against Iran, there is relative consensus that American economic sanctions will not really force Iran to surrender or to accept America's consequences.

So any measure in terms of long-term consequences, if the Strait of Hormuz continues to be closed, if the lack of oil and fertilizers, this really could be devastating to the world economy in terms of recession. And President Trump himself made it very clear a few weeks ago that if the crisis continues, this could really have devastating impact on the world economy, in particular on the U.S. economy in terms of inflation and in terms of potential recession.

HUNTE: As you mentioned, the U.S. is escalating economic and military pressure on Iran. All of that considered, does Washington actually have a realistic path to victory here? GERGES: Well, I think we know that the Iranian people are already

suffering a great deal. You have almost 100 million people in Iran who cannot really afford basic, I mean, food items, whether you're talking about milk or eggs.

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You have long lines waiting for gas shortages in Iran. The Iranian economy has been devastated. So I have no doubts in my mind that the brunt of America's severe economic sanctions will be felt by the Iranian people.

But I doubt it very much, and most people who know Iran tell you a great deal, that the Iranian regime will basically, well, let's have random, that the Iranian regime will be able to basically absorb the economic pain, even though the pain will be felt by the Iranian people. Keep in mind that the United States has been waging economic warfare against Iran since 1982. So Iran has been under one of the most severe economic sanctions regimes in history, and yet Iran has not surrendered, because Iran has found ways and means to go around the American sanctions, and in particular China.

China buys about 80 percent of Iranian oil and gas, and China has already refused to abide by America's unilateral sanctions. And without really China basically sanctioning or basically stopping to buy Iranian oil, I doubt it very much whether the U.S. economic sanctions will basically produce any major results in terms of forcing Iran to end its control and management of the Strait of Hormuz.

HUNTE: Okay. Fawaz Gerges, a professor of international relations at the London School of Economics. Thank you so much, I appreciate it.

GERGES: Thanks.

HUNTE: President Trump is downplaying the possibility of Russia attacking NATO territory, saying he's had, quote, good talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin. That is despite CIA Director John Ratcliffe traveling to Moscow earlier this week to warn Russia against such a move. That's according to two people familiar with the matter.

Ratcliffe also used the trip to press Russia to cut off support for Iran as the Trump administration tries to isolate Tehran financially. Ratcliffe's trip was the first known visit by a senior Trump administration official in months.

Ukraine is reeling from a wave of daytime Russian strikes that targeted cities all across the country. Officials say one person was killed when a drone struck a shopping center in Kharkiv that is Ukraine's second largest city. The strike happened around lunchtime, leaving three other people injured.

Employees and shoppers were quickly evacuated amid fears of a second strike. The capital, Kyiv, was also targeted with Russian strikes hitting several warehouses and sparking a massive fire. Ukrainian officials say two people were wounded as the attacks continued for hours. The strikes came after Ukraine has been targeting warehouses of Wildberries that is Russia's largest online retailer.

There is much more to come here on "CNN Newsroom." See you in a moment.

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HUNTE: Welcome back.

President Trump is threatening to further escalate his trade war with Canada. That's if the United States' northern neighbor does not back down.

In the past week, the U.S. imposed 50 percent tariffs on billions of dollars' worth of Canadian goods. Canada responded with matching retaliatory tariffs. On Thursday, after trade negotiations between the two countries collapsed, President Trump signed an executive order renaming Lake Ontario as Lake America, effective immediately.

The President has the authority to determine how the U.S. government refers to geographic landmarks, but he cannot force other countries to adopt the new name.

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TRUMP: It's the purpose of this, more than anything else, is we're going to be changing the name of Lake Ontario, effective immediately, to Lake America. We can't let the whole Canadian thing that's been going on for decades, and it has to come to a stop.

So the lake change, Lake of America, was something I've been thinking about for a long time. The Canadian officials have treated us very badly. They're nasty people.

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HUNTE: Well, in response, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney posted on social media that the name dates back more than 400 years, making it older than the U.S. and Canada too. Mr. Carney also wrote that "Canadians will call it Lake Ontario then, now and always," that is a quote.

Stargazers around the world are celebrating a very rare celestial event, a partial lunar eclipse fully visible to nearly a billion people. Cloudy skies in Los Angeles actually obscured that event, which is when the Earth passes between the Sun and the Moon, casting a shadow on the lunar surface.

Experts say this was the best chance to see a lunar eclipse until New Year's Eve of 2028. The views were better in Europe and South America. This video comes to us from Athens, Greece. At the peak of the eclipse, the Earth's shadow covered more than 96 percent of the Moon. Ideally, Earthlings would see a bright ring around the Moon, while its surface glowed in a rusty, reddish color.

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Astronomer Briley Lewis was on set with Elex Michelson as the eclipse was happening just a few hours ago. She explained that the phenomenon is not unique to Earth.

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BRILEY LEWIS, ASTRONOMER: A lunar eclipse can happen anywhere where there's a big planet casting a shadow and there are moons. So lunar eclipses can totally happen on other worlds. It's solar eclipses that are really extremely unique to Earth, because we have a Moon and a Sun that just happen to appear to be the same size.

And that's a really weird coincidence, and it's because the Moon happens to be 400 times smaller than the Sun, and the Sun happens to be 400 times further away, so they end up appearing to be the same size. But yes, other planets can have, especially lunar eclipses, and not necessarily full solar eclipses, but they do have things where a Moon can pass in front of the Sun, and it won't block out the Sun completely, but you can see the shadow of the Moon.

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HUNTE: Well, there is much more to come here on "CNN Newsroom." See you in a moment.

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HUNTE: Welcome back, I'm Ben Hunte in Atlanta. Let's take a look at today's top stories.

Nepali police say they have received information that a barrier lake dam has burst on the Chinese side of the border, triggering fears of another deadly flood; this follows the catastrophic flood that has killed at least 469 people. Reuters reports Nepal has paused rescue efforts in the area. China has also suspended rescue operations over fears of new flooding and landslides.

Norway's royal house has announced the passing of King Harald V. He was Europe's oldest monarch and Norway's ceremonial head of state since 1991. His health had deteriorated in recent years following a series of operations, including heart surgery in 2020. King Harald of Norway, dead at the age of 89.

As the U.S. engages in a tense trade war with its neighbor to the north, President Trump has signed an executive order renaming Lake Ontario as Lake America, effective immediately. In response, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney posted on social media that Canadians will forever call it Lake Ontario. He noted the name dates back more than 400 years.

The death toll in Nepal has climbed to at least 469 people after catastrophic flooding tore through the region along its border with China. Relatives of the injured gathered outside a shelter in Nepal as army personnel delivered supplies. So far, 573 people have been rescued on the Nepal side, according to the Nepali Prime Minister.

Over 1000 are still missing, and that includes more than 700 foreigners. Both China and Nepal have been organizing evacuations for tourists and others who have been impacted by the flooding. Here's what one tourist had to say about her harrowing escape.

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ANJANA RAJA, INDIAN TOURIST: Gush of water all the way dirty mud, you know, rising all the way for four-story high. We ran for our life. We ran 500 steps all the way up the mountain to be safe.

REPORTER: Did you hear something before you saw the mudslide? What was it? Please explain.

RAJA: Like water falling, it felt like a boulder falling down.

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HUNTE: Okay, there's much more to come here on "CNN Newsroom." See you in a moment.

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HUNTE: Welcome back. Here are your business headlines.

Bloomberg is reporting that Venezuela is considering leaving OPEC. The move comes as Caracas has strengthened ties with Washington since the U.S. arrested President Nicolas Maduro in January. Venezuela joined the oil production group as a founding member in 1960, the U.S. has long been at odds with OPEC over oil prices.

The Trump administration has invited refiners and fuel retailers to the White House next week, that is according to an industry source. Analysts say the wars in Iran and Ukraine, plus export restrictions in China, have eroded refining capacity all around the world. U.S. refineries are running all out to make up the gap and raking in massive profits.

NVIDIA's strong revenue forecast sent tech stocks higher on Thursday. That pushed the Nasdaq up 1.57 percent, its best performance of the three major indexes; the S&P 500 rose 0.72 percent, while the Dow gained 0.2 percent. NVIDIA warns that memory chip shortages could slow the industry's growth. After a wily journey to the big screen, "Coyote vs. ACME" is finally

here. The live-action animated comedy premiered in Los Angeles on Wednesday after CNN's parent company, Warner Bros. Discovery, shelved the film in 2023. Fans refused to take no for an answer, launching a campaign to help save the movie before Ketchup Entertainment acquired it.

In the film, Wile E. Coyote takes ACME to court rather than taking another of its defective products to the face. "Coyote vs. ACME" opens in theaters on Friday.

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Gamers are gathering in Cologne, Germany, for the world's biggest video game trade fair. And many seem to agree social media can be very addictive, especially for children. Gamescom features more than 1700 exhibitors and runs through this weekend.

The trade fair comes just a few days after Meta agreed to an $18 billion settlement in a child addiction lawsuit. The tech giant is also expected to announce changes to keep it safe on platforms, including on Facebook and Instagram.

One of the world's most celebrated and best-selling artists has died at the age of 97. Stephy Chung, the Asia editor of CNN Style, describes Yaoyi Kusama's inspirations.

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STEPHY CHUNG, CNN STYLE ASIA EDITOR (voice-over): Japanese artist Yaoyi Kusama, famed for her pumpkin sculptures and large-scale infinity mirror rooms, has died at 97. She passed away at a Tokyo hospital on August 14, according to a statement on the artist's official website.

Kusama was born in Nagano, Japan, in 1929, into a dysfunctional and abusive household. She first began experiencing vivid hallucinations at a young age, which flooded her world with the polka dots that she would later deploy in her work.

The artist moved to the U.S. in the 1950s, where she produced a significant body of work that included not only paintings and sculptures, but surreal works of film, literature, and performance art. In the 1960s, she staged what she called happenings, where she transformed naked bodies into dotted canvases. She returned to Japan in the early 70s and checked herself into a psychiatric hospital soon after, where she continued to live in recent decades, and up until her final days, produced art from the facility and a small studio nearby.

YAOYI KUSAMA, ARTIST (translated): Since I was five or 10, I began drawing. Even now, there is not a day that goes by without me drawing.

CHUNG (voice-over): After some years of relative obscurity, she would later become one of the world's most famous artists and achieved mainstream commercial success and collaborated with brands like Louis Vuitton. Her famous infinity mirror rooms attracted millions of visitors to galleries and museums around the world, where many of her paintings have sold for millions of dollars, proving her works resonated deeply and will continue to inspire audiences today.

KUSAMA (translated): I want to spend every day with the desire to do whatever possible to bring love into humanity, to battle for the best for humanity in a society which is peaceful and a wonderful world without war.

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HUNTE: All right, that's all I've got for you. Thanks for joining me and the team, and thanks for sticking with us through some tech issues there. I'm Ben Hunte in Atlanta, "World Sport" is next. See you tomorrow.

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