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Search Intensifies after Rescue of Two Tunnel Survivors; Russia Pummels Kyiv for Eight Straight Days; German Far-Right AfD Party Seeks First Win in State Election; U.N. Backs New Map to Correct Colonial- Era Distortions; Venus and Serena Williams Doubles Return Ends in Tie Break Loss. Aired 3-3:30a ET

Aired September 05, 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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BEN HUNTE, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): Hello. Wherever you are in the world, you are now in the CNN NEWSROOM with me, Ben Hunte in Atlanta and it is so good to have you with me.

Coming up on today's show, not giving up hope in Nepal, rescue crews are still trying to find people alive following two incredible rescues just one day ago.

Ahead of the U.S. midterm elections, president Donald Trump has a new way to describe the war with Iran, how those words are playing out.

And mistrial: the judge declares an end to the Lindsay Clancy trial after the jury remained deadlocked. We'll look at what happens next.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice-over): Live from Atlanta, this is CNN NEWSROOM with Ben Hunte.

HUNTE: Welcome. We begin with new hope in Nepal. After a miraculous rescue of two men trapped in a flooded tunnel for nine days now, emergency efforts are shifting into overdrive in hope of finding more survivors.

Nepal's army says rescuers have dug about 700 meters farther and established a link with another tunnel. They are using rafts and boats to move in, while also pumping water out. New video into CNN shows Indian emergency crews navigating a tunnel where people are believed to be trapped.

Nepal's army says civilian and military aircraft rescued more than 50 people from other areas on Friday. The death toll from the disaster now stands at almost 1,400 people, with 5,000 others still unaccounted for. Gage Goulding is monitoring these developments for us from Seoul and he joins us live.

Gage, there have been several miracle moments over the 24 hours.

What else can you tell us at the moment?

GAGE GOULDING, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes. You know, I think you described it perfectly. These are truly miracle moments because, nine days after, you know, we're now in the 10th day mark.

But yesterday, on the ninth day, you know, I could only imagine that those rescue crews were potentially losing hope. I mean, they were working around the clock, as they still are, with very little success, specifically in the area of these hydropower tunnels.

Let me just -- I want to quantify how daunting this task is. They have about a dozen of these hydropower sites that -- where some 900 workers are missing or unaccounted for.

Just how would you even go about handling that?

Yet, I mean, quite literally, they're out there with their hands, bare, digging through rock and mud and sludge, trying to get to these tunnels. So whenever they were not only able to rescue one but two people, it is truly a miracle. That was 24 hours ago.

And unfortunately, we haven't had yet another miracle. And I believe, as the days continue to go on, the odds of that is going to decrease unfortunately. But the stark reality is that these rescue crews, the Nepal army, Nepal police, they're simply not giving up.

Because you mentioned, Ben, in these top -- of the story that there is a significant number of people that are still missing, to the tune of some 4,898 at last check that are still missing. You know, it's just a daunting number of people that they are desperately trying to find, you know, dead or alive at this point.

Because they simply want to bring closure to these families. Those two people that were rescued was from the Trishuli-3A plant. We're told that there are believed to be some 40 or so workers still trapped in there. Again, some 900 workers, Ben, that are trapped or missing across all those sites.

HUNTE: So after these amazing rescues, what happens next?

And what would you say is the biggest challenge for rescuers as they do continue that work there?

GOULDING: You know, I think what happens next, let's tackle that part. What happens next is they're going to continue working around the clock as they have been. And maybe with a little bit of extra miles per hour behind their step because they proved to themselves that, OK, what we're doing is, is actually working.

As for the biggest obstacle in what is going to prevent them, I think it's the same exact thing, is this is an astronomical amount of water, mud, debris. We were told by geologists that they had to use controlled explosives to clear rocks the size of cars that are jammed inside these tunnels and other tunnels.

They had to actually cut into the top of them, kind of entering it from a different perspective, if you will, to try to at least attempt to reach these people. Now mind you, they've been using all kinds of different technology, ground penetrating radar, thermal.

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I mean, just the latest and greatest technology to try to see if there are any signs of life. And they're looking for these spots where they think people could potentially be saved.

But the sheer aspect that there is so much ground to cover, there is so much earth to move that was put there as a result of this flood. I mean, it's just it's very daunting, very large task.

Mind you that this is not an urban area. We're in the middle of a rural mountain valley, Ben. So I mean, it's also that, too. It's trying to get equipment and infrastructure to and from there. That is just a very, very big hill to climb.

HUNTE: Yes, indeed. Gage Goulding reporting from Seoul. Thank you very much. Appreciate it.

And for more information about how you can help the flood victims, go to cnn.com/impact.

The White House is trying to downplay the current state of the war with Iran. CNN's Kevin Liptak reports for us from Washington.

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KEVIN LIPTAK, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: President Trump's description of the Iran war as "small potatoes" was the latest attempt by the administration to minimize a conflict that has cost 18 American service members their lives.

We also got new casualty figures this week; 790 service members have been wounded. You also see diesel prices at a record high and Labor Day gas prices also at a record high for a holiday. But the president nonetheless is trying to characterize the war as a low-grade intermittent conflict. Here's what he said.

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QUESTION: Mr. President, the vice president said yesterday that he would not describe the conflict with Iran as a war. But the U.S. resumed strikes for the first time in recent weeks.

Can you explain to the American people, this is not a war, what exactly is it?

DONALD TRUMP, U.S. PRESIDENT: Well, I'll tell you what. A lot of people don't call it a war. I call it a military conflict because it's small potatoes for us. It's not a big thing. We did Venezuela and we did this. In Venezuela, we lost nobody.

In this, we lost 18 people. And in Vietnam, we lost 100,000 people. And in other conflicts, we lost tens of thousands of people. I would say that it's intermittent. You know, we do intermittent strikes. So I heard what he said and it was interesting because I think that there's a lot of truth to it. We're not fighting right now. There's no fighting.

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LIPTAK (voice-over): Now the president, in those comments was trying to rationalize what we heard from the vice president. JD Vance, a day earlier, when he said that he didn't think the conflict should be called a war. And the vice president and the president suggesting that fighting had come to an end, at least major combat operations.

The president saying that, quote, "There's no fighting right now."

That's despite what we saw earlier this week, which was a back-and- forth exchange of fire with Iran. The U.S. striking nearly 60 military targets around the Strait of Hormuz, including radar systems, maritime assets and mine laying capabilities.

But clearly, the administration is looking to put the conflict in a rearview mirror. They had signaled a shift, a shift in strategy away from military operations and more toward an economic campaign to try and choke off Iran financially, including by going after its major, major trading partners.

But the president on Friday saying that the largest trading partner of Iran, which is China, at this point not doing anything that would worsen the conflict, saying that they were, quote, "not really involved" and that there was, quote, "very little involvement" by China.

Suggesting he is in no hurry to upend his relationship with president Xi Jinping three weeks before he is scheduled to come to the White House for a state visit -- Kevin Liptak, CNN, the White House.

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HUNTE: We are waiting to see when U.S. mediators will try to jumpstart the stalled peace efforts in Ukraine. A U.S. official confirmed to CNN that Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff will soon be headed to Moscow and Kyiv.

Russia's state news agency says the trip could begin in the coming day. The peace efforts have been stalled since last winter, before U.S. attention turned to Iran. But as the two envoys seek peace, Russia's strikes on Kyiv are not letting up.

The capital came under attack on Friday night when a Russian drone hit this warehouse you're seeing there. Earlier in the day, Moscow struck the headquarters of Ukraine's security service for the first time since the war began. For more, Stefano Pozzebon joins us from Rome.

Good to see you, sir.

After months of stalled talks, could this trip finally be the opening that brings about a ceasefire?

STEFANO POZZEBON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, then, we will have to wait and see what this trip will ultimately achieve. However, it's important to note that this is the first time that Jared Kushner, which is Trump's son-in-law, and Steve Witkoff, are actually heading to Kyiv.

We understand that they will be able to meet with president Zelenskyy maybe as early as Sunday -- so tomorrow, if the meeting goes ahead.

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And it's the first time that they will be in Kyiv, which signals a more direct interest from the White House.

Let's remember also that both Kushner and Witkoff are heavily involved in efforts to bring an -- bring to an end to the other war or, as the president was calling it earlier last, last night, these intermittent strikes, which Kevin was talking about, also the Iran war.

But as I was saying, Witkoff and Kushner come to Kyiv at a moment where we are seeing an escalation in the conflict with especially an uptick in ballistic and drone strikes.

At least 50 people have been killed in Ukraine in the last seven days as a result of Russian strikes, four of them just overnight, where Ukrainian forces say that they have reported more than 160 ballistic and drone strikes directed across the Ukrainian territory.

United States president Donald Trump said then that he admitted that he has been unable to bring an end to a conflict that he was boasting would take only 24 hours for him to settle when he was running as a presidential candidate back in 2024. But he blamed his failure on personal differences. Take a listen to what he said last night.

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TRUMP: We have an idea for peace. Look, I said late wars. Most of them were supposed to be, in my opinion, more difficult than Russia- Ukraine. There is a personality problem in Russia-Ukraine. You have president Zelenskyy and President Putin. They truly hate each other.

Do you know what hate is?

They have serious hate.

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POZZEBON: "You know what hate is?"

We'll understand whether Witkoff and Kushner are able to bring these two people that hate each other to the table. So far, efforts to bring to peace have failed, mostly because both parties, but particularly Russia, have refused to give up on their maximalist demands.

Especially Russia demands a large swathes (sic) of Ukrainian territory to be annexed by the Russian Federation, while instead, Zelenskyy, of course, maintains that the territorial integrity of Ukraine must be respected in order to enforce a truce.

Zelenskyy did call, however, for a ceasefire, while the two envoys are in the region. we will understand if, in the coming hours, if that ceasefire will be endorsed by Moscow, Ben.

HUNTE: OK, Stefano Pozzebon, reporting from Rome. Thank you very much. Appreciate it.

A mistrial was declared in the Lindsay Clancy case on Friday after jurors said they were hopelessly deadlocked. That's despite days of deliberations. Clancy faced three counts of first degree murder in the deaths of her three young children.

The judge told both parties that he'd like to retry the case and ordered a status conference for the end of the month.

Clancy's attorney says he wants any new trial to get underway as soon as possible but prosecutors have yet to decide whether they will attempt to retry her. The district attorney and Clancy lawyer both discussed the case after the mistrial was declared.

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KEVIN REDDINGTON, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: They know that they were robbed by one man, for whatever his agenda was, who stole seven weeks of the life of these other jurors.

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TIMOTHY J. CRUZ, PLYMOUTH COUNTY DISTRICT ATTORNEY: This case is not about a health care system or about how women are treated in it or what diagnoses there are in the DSM or what they are not. Those are all important issues. They stir up emotion and sometimes they stir up anger.

This case, however, was about Lindsay Clancy and what she did on January 24th, 2023, and the cruel and calculated killing of three innocents.

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HUNTE: Authorities say at least 58 people are injured, along with an unconfirmed number of possible fatalities. That's after an explosion at a military base in Bolivia. Video shows people running for shelter after a sudden and massive explosion, you're seeing there.

It happened on the outskirts of the capital, La Paz. The deputy defense minister says pyrotechnic material was being stored at the base but the cause is not yet known. The vast majority of those injured are civilians, along with six military personnel.

All right. There is much more to come here on CNN NEWSROOM, including a new way of looking at the world. Why the U.N. is backing an alternative map that could seriously change your perspective. After this break. See you in a minute.

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HUNTE: Welcome back. I'm Ben Hunte in Atlanta.

A Mexican lawmaker has been found dead with a gunshot wound in the eastern state of Veracruz. Zenyazen Escobar was found inside his car on Friday. Authorities say his vehicle showed no signs of violence.

Escobar was a member of Congress from Mexico's ruling Morena party. He represented Veracruz, that's home to some of the country's oil complexes. His death comes less than a year before local and federal elections.

Saturday marks the Alternative for Germany party's final campaign rally, one day before voters head to the polls. The far-right party, known as the AfD, is leading in the polls and a strong showing could reshape the political landscape in this Eastern German state. CNN's Fred Pleitgen reports from the campaign trail.

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FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice- over): Despite the captivating grin, some believe this might be Germany's most dangerous man. Ulrich Siegmund, candidate for the right-wing Alternative for Germany or AfD, could soon become the first far-right state governor in Germany since World War II.

"The other parties have lost voters' trust," Siegmund tells me at a campaign rally. "For decades, they did exactly the opposite of what they promised."

I caught up with Ulrich Siegmund on the sidelines of an AfD event in Dessau in the east German state of Saxony-Anhalt, ahead of this weekend's election that Berlin's political establishment is watching with trepidation.

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The AfD is miles ahead of all other parties in pre-election polls. The top issue by far, folks here tell me, immigration. I asked Irina (PH) whether there's a bandwidth of issues or if immigration tops everything.

"I think right now with the children, for me and the children, yes, it's immigration," she says.

The AfD openly calls for a mass deportation of undocumented foreigners and foreigners who committed crimes, a policy AfD chairwoman Alice Weidel controversially calls remigration, cheered on at a 2025 campaign event by the self-declared AfD supporter Elon Musk.

The federal government in Berlin ultimately decides immigration policy but many Germans fear electing a far-right state governor could seriously damage the whole country's reputation.

"I can't imagine international investors turning up for groundbreaking ceremonies with an AfD state governor," German chancellor Friedrich Merz recently says.

At his rally, Siegmund tries to brush off those concerns.

"There are many countries where people are seeking positive change with conservative parties that put national interests first and don't believe they have to save the world," he says.

Here in the former Communist East, Siegmund portrays himself as the common man's man, often riding an old East German scooter or displaying Communist-era Trabant cars at events.

But while his appeal is local, he makes no secret that the AfD's foreign policy agenda aims to change both Germany and Europe, weakening the E.U. in its current form, seeking a return to close ties with Russia while stopping all support for Ukraine.

"We hope that starting from Saxony-Anhalt, we can usher in the beginning of the end of this crazy policy for all of Germany."

Only about 2.1 million people live in all of Saxony-Anhalt, one of the least populous states in Germany but one that's drawing global attention ahead of Sunday's vote -- Fred Pleitgen, CNN, Dessau, Germany.

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HUNTE: The United Nations is backing a new way of looking at the world. The General Assembly overwhelmingly approved a resolution promoting the Equal Earth map projection. Supporters say it challenges colonial era views of the world.

The United States cast the only vote against it. The Equal Earth map is designed to show countries in a more accurate proportion. For example, Africa appears 15 times larger than Greenland on the new map, whereas the commonly used Mercator map shows them almost equal in size.

For more on this story, I want to bring in CNN correspondent Larry Madowo joining us live from Nairobi.

Good to see you. This seems like a pretty big vote at the United Nations.

But why does changing the world's map actually matter?

And why did the U.S. vote against it? LARRY MADOWO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The U.S. think it's gimmicky. So let's get that out of the way. But the reason why the African group is pushing for this is very simple. Let me show you an explanation.

This is the map you probably learned in school. You see Africa here, which is almost the same size as Greenland; except, in reality, Greenland is much smaller in reality. So that is a Mercator projection that's been in use for more than 450 years.

This is the Equal Earth projection, which is more accurate. Now you see Africa is much longer here, stretched. And Greenland is tiny here because it's 14 times smaller than Africa.

So the reason why the map that we commonly know as the Mercator projection has been in use for such a long time is because it's a projection. It was very useful for navigation but it's not great for accuracy. It distorts the world and centers Europe.

And countries at the poles, so the North Pole, the South Pole look much bigger. Countries in the center, not so much. And that is why the Africans have been pushing for this, for the U.N. to recognize that it's time to correct the map, which has been a campaign running across the continent for some time.

Here's the Togolese foreign minister who spearheaded this campaign and this vote at the U.N.

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ROBERT DUSSEY, TOGOLESE FOREIGN AFFAIRS MINISTER (through translator): So this issue goes far beyond just the sphere of mapmaking or cartography.

It has to do with cognitive justice, with access to precise geographical knowledge, the dignity of people's historic memory and the fight against representations that we have inherited and have an influence on perception.

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MADOWO: So that's his argument, it's more than symbolic; it's about accurate representation. But the next fight is on digital representation. This is Google Maps. It has the same big Greenland, same size as Africa. And this is Apple Maps. And that's again similar. Greenland is quite big, almost the same size as Africa.

The U.N. vote is nonbinding but it's a start. The African Union is calling for digital companies like Apple and Google and everywhere else.

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You get your maps to adopt the more accurate, Equal Earth projection and not the distorted, inaccurate Mercator projection, which has been in use again for more than 450 years, Ben.

HUNTE: OK, so those are the facts.

But tell me, what reactions have there been so far?

There's quite huge news.

MADOWO: It's quite huge because a lot of Africans feel that this is a colonial relic. It was useful in the 15th century when it was launched. But the world has changed so much. And they see that as a much wider trend in the way that Africa has been diminished and reduced in global standing.

And they feel like this is part of starting to make sure that Africa takes its rightful place not just in representation but also in agency around the world.

HUNTE: Love that. OK. Thank you so much. Larry Madowo, live in Nairobi, thank you for joining us. Appreciate it.

A new boutique dedicated to all things butter has become a hit in Paris. Le Butter Shop near the Eiffel Tower is billed as the city's first boutique devoted to the churned dairy product. It offers 30 varieties from small French producers, including unusual flavors like raspberry butter and chocolate butter.

The French are among the world's biggest consumers of butter. France's agricultural ministry says the average person consumes an estimated eight kilos or nearly 18 pounds of butter each year.

The return of Venus and Serena Williams to the U.S. Open has ended in heartbreak. The sisters blew a 5-0 lead in a match tiebreaker, losing to Hao-Ching Chan and Maya Joint in three sets.

The Williams sisters hadn't played at the U.S. Open since 2022, a grand slam tournament that they won twice; 44-year old Serena returned to tennis this year, while 46-year old Venus continues to compete. The sisters are now 27-8 at the U.S. Open across 10 appearances.

That's all I've got for you. Thanks for joining me and the team. I'm Ben Hunte in Atlanta. I will see you tomorrow. "CONNECTING AFRICA" is next. See you then.