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Trump, Pezeshkian, Zelenskyy to Address the United Nations General Assembly; Major U.S. Networks Stand with CNN After Pulling Out of White House Pool Coverage. Aired 3-3:45a ET

Aired September 22, 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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SALMA ABDELZIZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT AND ANCHOR: Hello, and a very warm welcome. I'm Salma Abdelaziz, in London. Let's go straight to our headlines.

World leaders head to the United Nations as wars are raging in Ukraine and the Middle East. Will any peaceful solutions arise?

Israel's Prime Minister is promising surprises during his address to the U.N., why he is changing plans for his trip to New York.

And Germany's Chancellor is facing mounting pressure to resign after his party took a beating in weekend elections. What he's doing to keep his job.

UNKNOWN (voice-over): Live from London, this is "CNN Newsroom" with Salma Abdelaziz.

ABDELAZIZ: United Nations General Assembly debates get underway in the coming hours. President Donald Trump will be speaking in the morning, but the gathering is expected to be overshadowed by the U.S. war with Iran and the lingering Russia-Ukraine conflict.

The UNGA is also taking place amid President Trump's ban on CNN and other media outlets from the White House. While the world will be able to see Donald Trump's speech thanks to UNTV, the U.S. President's trip to New York will not be receiving the coverage it normally would. But that's because major television networks are standing with CNN by declining to replace its White House pool crew after the Trump administration barred the network from fulfilling its assigned duties on Monday.

Now, a preliminary hearing on the potential restraining order is scheduled for Wednesday. MS NOW and Politico were also banned from the White House and have joined CNN in this retaliatory lawsuit. The network alleges that President Trump's ban violates the Constitution's due process protections. It also requires that journalistic access be restored immediately.

In a joint statement, the media outlet said the ban could not be a more direct assault on the First Amendment, nor a more blatant violation of our most fundamental constitutional principles. In a show of solidarity, other major television networks declined to replace CNN's White House pool coverage on Monday, and CNN issued a statement along with four other networks responsible for covering live Presidential events, ABC, CBS, NBC, and Fox News. All parties agreed that no administration should restrict a news organization because it objects to its reporting.

Federal Judge Tim Kelly, who is set to hear Wednesday's arguments, has previously ruled against the White House in First Amendment cases, and the President already appears to be anticipating a loss, posting on Truth Social that he expects to appeal the judge's eventual ruling.

President Trump insists his ban is not an attack against the free press, but rather on fake news, which he described as, quote, a cancer in America. But Vice President J.D. Vance described it very differently.

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J.D. VANCE, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: He's not banning media outlets. What he's doing is saying, we're not going to give you special access to the White House if you engage in what is effectively propaganda.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ABDELAZIZ: Now, all of this is taking place as Iran's delegation is arriving in New York. That's Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi that you can see there on your screens. The Trump administration says it has allowed a, quote, "core delegation to attend."

And President Masoud Pezeshkian is expected to be at the U.N. General Assembly. Araghchi says Iran plans to highlight the deadly U.S. strike on an Iranian elementary school at the UNGA. And although tensions between the two countries remain high, there have been no publicly reported U.S. strikes on Iran in nearly two weeks.

But President Trump is signaling major decisions on the conflict may be coming soon, while Iran is warning that any new attack would trigger strikes on U.S. targets across the Middle East.

Joining us now for more on all of this is CNN's Paula Hancocks. She joins me live from Abu Dhabi. Good morning to you, Paula.

Look, this seems on paper like it could provide, the UNGA could provide, a critical chance to de-escalate the crisis, to cool tensions. Is that possible?

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PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well Salma, I mean, there is always that possibility if the leaders are in the same place at the same time. But what we know from the Iranian side, the Foreign Minister Araghchi speaking to Iranian media gave some indication of what the President Masoud Pezeshkian's speech would likely contain on Wednesday, saying that he will be focusing on that deadly strike on an elementary school in Iran, in Minab, at the start of the war, which killed at least 120 students and 26 teachers.

And it's also going to be a speech, we understand, from Araghchi that's going to focus on and take aim at the Western and European nations who they believe have remained silent about events in Palestine, Gaza. We're certainly expecting a fairly combative speech and we could expect the same later today from President Trump. So certainly publicly we could hear some fairly strong words from both sides.

Now we do know that President Trump has said that he is in deciding mode at this point and that there could be very big things happening soon. Iran's Central Military Command said just on Sunday that they had information that the U.S., supported by some of its allies in the region, was considering further strikes against Iran, without providing evidence. But they did say that if that were to happen that there would be substantial strikes against U.S. assets and targets in the region.

Now President Trump is expected to meet leaders from the Gulf on Tuesday as well. Certainly we know that some of those leaders have managed to pull him back from the brink at previous stages of this war when he wanted to renew attacks and strikes against Iran.

And it also comes at a time when you see what is happening in Yemen with the Houthi rebels really staging a remarkable assault on that country and potentially taking control or being able to be in a position to take control of the Bab al-Mandeb Strait, a second critical waterway coming out of the Middle East. Now we have reporting that the Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman last week did ask the U.S. President for help in trying to repel this assault but that was rejected.

So that will be another interesting meeting to take note of. Salma?

ABDELAZIZ: You have some key meetings and of those speeches that we're expecting at the UNGA this week. Thank you, Paula Hancocks there.

I want to bring into this conversation now Steven Erlanger. He is the chief diplomatic correspondent for the "New York Times" and he joins me this morning from Berlin.

Good morning. It is so lovely to have you on to just continue this conversation that we just started with Paula Hancocks.

And I really do want to start there with the UNGA because as you heard there from Paula, both Iran and the U.S., President Trump and the President of Iran have these very fiery speeches planned but you still have all the key parties of this conflict in the room including the Gulf. Is this an opportunity for dialogue? Is this a possibility that we could see these peace talks that have been stalled jump-started again?

STEVEN ERLANGER, CHIEF DIPLOMATIC CORRESPONDENT, "NEW YORK TIMES": Well, I would say inshallah. It would be nice if that would happen. It is an opportunity without question.

I think the Iranians have made it very clear they want to go back to talks but they want to go back to the deal they already made with President Trump which was the memorandum of understanding in June which Mr. Trump now calls a dead letter and Iran will go into talks if it understands what it was going to get from the memorandum which was sanctions lifting, freedom of travel for its own ships through the Strait of Hormuz. If things like that can come up front, then I think we have a chance.

I think though Donald Trump feels that the policy of squeezing Iran and trying to starve it to death is working in some fashion and I think he wants to avoid more kinetic warfare, more warfare in the run- up to the November midterms. But with Trump it's always very hard to tell.

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Certainly the Gulf states don't want a renewal of any military fighting because Iran has made it very clear that if so, they will also be attacked and not just American assets.

So that's one issue and of course Zelenskyy, Volodymyr Zelensky will be there, President of Ukraine. That's another war that's ongoing. Mahmoud Abbas will come, he's been banned from coming, but he will make a speech.

But the Gaza situation remains very dire and in all of this the U.N. is a good place for people to meet, but as an institution it seems more and more irrelevant these days.

ABDELAZIZ: So let me take it from there, because that's absolutely the point. President Trump in particular is obviously very dismissive of the U.N. and of international institutions in general. So when you're speaking about all of these conflicts, Ukraine to Sudan and so on, you've seen the Security Council, you know, deadlocked in vetoes.

Can we actually see an impact when it comes to these crises from the United Nations? Or do you think we will yet again have a lot of rhetoric, have a lot of talk, but not much action?

ERLANGER: Well, we're always going to get a lot of rhetoric and talk at the U.N. General Assembly. But action, I mean, this is difficult, because in the Security Council, which is really what matters, you have Russia and China, who are much more openly antagonistic to the United States and to its policies, particularly in Iran, and certainly in Ukraine.

So that kind of blocks any real action. Now you can have good conversations, for example, about artificial intelligence. Should the world be doing more? Can we get the main actors together to talk about regulating A.I. somehow?

The U.N. also does extremely good humanitarian work, which we shouldn't forget, for refugees, for people who are ill, for young people, for children. The World Food Program is excellent, the World Health Organization, which Trump has pulled out of, but still is very important to the rest of the world. So I mean, there is value in the U.N.

It's just that its idea in the beginning, which is that somehow the big powers would come and make sure the world stayed at peace, that seems to be failing. And it's very hard to imagine a reform that all would agree upon.

ABDELAZIZ: From governing the future of A.I. to trying to mitigate some of the conflicts and crises around the world, today the UNGA will attempt it. The cautiously optimistic "New York Times" chief diplomatic correspondent Steve Erlanger there for us. Thank you.

ERLANGER: Thank you.

ABDELAZIZ: New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani is doubling down on his criticism of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is set to address the U.N. on Thursday. Speaking with CNN's Christiane Amanpour, Mamdani pointed to the International Criminal Court's outstanding arrest warrant for Netanyahu. The mayor said no one should be above international law.

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MAYOR ZOHRAN MAMDANI (D), NEW YORK CITY: I have been clear about the way that I see the world. And I always owe New Yorkers that honesty. And when it comes to Benjamin Netanyahu, I have described him as I believe him to be a war criminal and an architect of a horrific genocide of the Palestinian people.

And I've also been honest with New Yorkers that New York City does not have the authority to carry out the ICC's warrant, which, as you said, has been issued for Prime Minister Netanyahu. And that I do believe that that is something that should be honored, because what we want to see, and we've been talking about this today, is a faith in our politics, a faith in accountability.

You know, I recently met the mayor of The Hague here at U20, and the key thing he kept emphasizing to all of us was the importance of the rule of law. And if the International Criminal Court deems someone worthy of an arrest because of a violation of those laws, then who are we to say that anyone should be above that? And I think very clearly that everyone should be held accountable to it.

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ABDELAZIZ: Now, Mamdani is defending his decision to meet with President Trump on Monday. The two sat down at the mayor's official residence, as you can see there, and discussed a number of issues. Mamdani says he's been consistently been willing to, quote, "work with anyone that could deliver for New Yorkers."

Mamdani confirmed that he initiated the meeting where the two discussed immigration and migrant safety. The leaders also discussed affordable housing and plans for a massive development backed by the mayor. [03:15:08]

Trump said he would consider supporting the project, noting it would need a lot of federal approvals.

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REPORTER: Did you talk about affordability, and is there anything you can do for affordability for New Yorkers?

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: Well, I know a lot about affordability because I did that housing, I did many low- income and moderate-income buildings over the years, and had great success with it.

We have, we really were, it was very important. I would think that Sunnyside would have to have a component, at least a pretty substantial component of exactly that. So yeah, we discussed that.

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ABDELAZIZ: There is much more to come here on "CNN Newsroom," including new details about a shooting outside a synagogue in Canada. We're going to have the latest on the investigation.

And why state election losses in Germany are putting Chancellor Trump in doubt right after the break.

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ABDELAZIZ: Welcome back.

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney says he is pushing for new laws to combat hate and extremism following Sunday's shooting outside a synagogue in Ontario. CNN geolocated this video from a nearby neighborhood where gunshots and police sirens can be heard.

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Now, police say a 29-year-old man with a shotgun exchanged fire with constables as worshippers gathered nearby to observe Yom Kippur. One officer was seriously wounded in the shooting and remains in the hospital in critical condition. Officials say he faces a long recovery. \

A police spokesperson commented on the shooter's potential motive.

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KRISTY DENETTE, SPOKESPERSON, ONTARIO SPECIAL INVESTIGATIONS UNIT: There are dozens of bullet holes in the street behind me, and some homes have been hit, and there are some vehicles with shot-out windows, that sort of thing. So, it would have been quite the scene, indeed.

REPORTER: Would you say that there is evidence suggesting that this was a terrorist attack aimed at the Jewish community?

DENETTE: I mean, I'd be speculating, but I think that common sense would say that probably was the case.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ABDELAZIZ: Now, the synagogue's President tells CNN the constable had been hired to protect the congregation that day. He was inside an unmarked vehicle nearby and made contact with the shooter as he approached the building. Police have since increased patrols, especially around places of worship.

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz is calling this weekend's state election results a, quote, "disaster" after victories by far-left and far-right parties. The results mark a major setback for Merz and his center-right Christian Democratic Union, leaving the chancellor under increasing pressure to resign after less than 17 months on the job.

CNN's senior international correspondent, Fred Pleitgen, has this report for us.

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FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice- over): It's become almost a sad routine these days for German Chancellor Friedrich Merz. His opponents cheering after beating Merz's party in a state election. In this case, the right-wing Alternative for Germany, whose leader tells me flat-out Merz needs to resign.

He is strongly damaged, she says. I believe the CDU cannot continue with Friedrich Merz with a weak chancellor.

While Friedrich Merz is trying hard to dispel any notion that he might have to resign, there's no doubt that the German chancellor is on the ropes and currently fighting for his very political survival.

Nobody has asked any questions about personal consequences or launched a debate about personnel neither last night nor this morning, Merz said after meeting with his party's leadership.

But Merz's conservative Christian Democratic Union has now lost three state elections in a row, the winners in each case parties on the political fringes. After getting beat by a landslide two weeks ago by the right-wing AfD in Saxony-Anhalt, this weekend in the northeastern state Mecklenburg-West Pomerania, the CDU didn't even get enough votes to make it into local parliament. The winners again, the far-right AfD, which calls for mass deportation of undocumented immigrants and an end to all military aid for Ukraine.

Meanwhile in the German capital Berlin, Merz's party lost to the far- left Die Linke, which wants to expropriate large real estate companies and faces allegations of anti-Semitism in its ranks, allegations the party's leadership strongly denies. We have been witnessing for several months growing radical and openly

expressed anti-Semitism that is even welcomed with applause.

Merz has vowed to fight on and continue what he calls his reform agenda, but Germany's economy remains sluggish, his popularity ratings are in free fall, and even he acknowledges he's become a liability for those in his party fighting for re-election.

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I know that national politics played a major role, both in the state election two weeks ago in Saxony-Anhalt and in yesterday's election, as did my own role.

And Merz claims he still believes he can fix his government's issues and bring Germany back on track, but the chancellor might be running out of time.

Fred Pleitgen, CNN, Berlin.

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ABDELAZIZ: There's much more to come here on "CNN Newsroom," including Ukraine's push for more military support from its allies. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is hoping to secure new deals to defend against Russia's deadly airstrikes. More on that coming up.

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ABDELAZIZ: Welcome back to "CNN Newsroom." I'm Salma Abdelaziz, in London.

A Canadian police constable remains in critical but stable condition following Sunday's shooting outside a synagogue in Ontario, The officer had been hired to provide security for the synagogue's Yom Kippur services, police say a 29-year-old man armed with a shotgun drove up and exchanged fire with the officer and another one who came as backup. No one in the synagogue was injured, though the building did sustain damage from gunfire.

CNN, M.S. NOW and Politico are uniting after President Trump banned them from the White House. The media outlets argue the move is unconstitutional and they're suing the administration to immediately restore access for their journalists. A preliminary hearing for the White House's potential restraining order is scheduled for Wednesday.

U.S. President Donald Trump is set to address the U.N. General Assembly in the day ahead. President Trump's address will come amid the U.S. war with Iran, that's now more than six months old with no immediate end in sight. Iranian President Massoud Pezeshakan is also expected at the UNGA after the Trump administration allowed a quote "core delegation to attend." Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is in New York for the General

Assembly. He says Ukraine is pushing to strengthen its air defenses and says, quote, "a new drone deal is also ready to be signed."

Mr. Zelenskyy is set to meet with several world leaders, including the U.S. President. On Monday, Donald Trump renewed his calls for Russia's war in Ukraine to end. He says one reason is because Russia has, quote, "lost control of its diesel oil industry."

This comes the day after Ukraine launched a major drone attack on the Moscow region, damaging one of Russia's largest oil refineries. Mr. Zelenskyy says Ukraine is targeting facilities that bring in billions of dollars to fuel Russia's war machine.

Mr. Trump, however, says it is causing a diesel shortage at a time when the U.S. war with Iran is already spiking global prices. Last week, he asked Ukraine to stop.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: I've asked President Zelenskyy not to hit the diesel plants, refineries.

REPORTER: Is it potentially that he's going to hit?

TRUMP: Because that's what's driving it up. The diesel is being driven up by the fact that it's having a hard time coming out of Russia. And that's a case that hurts the world, we've got to stop.

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ABDELAZIZ: There's much more to come here on "CNN Newsroom," including Paramount's latest steps towards closing a landmark media merger with Warner Bros. Discovery, the legal settlement that's going to make it possible.

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ABDELAZIZ: Welcome back. Here are your business headlines.

Operations are slowly returning to normal after major disruptions at airports in the northeastern United States. Both an aging circuit and its backup system failed on Monday, impacting five major airports, including three in the New York area. Newark saw more than 300 cancellations, more than any other airport in the world, according to data from flight tracking site FlightAware.com.

The U.S. housing market is slowly shifting in buyers' favor. Sellers outnumbered buyers nationwide by 58 percent in August, the widest gap since real estate website Redfin began tracking the data in 2013, homes are also sitting on the market longer, with nearly five months of inventory. However, experts say inflation and higher mortgage rates have sidelined many buyers.

The 12-state antitrust lawsuit, which sought to block Paramount from purchasing Warner Brothers Discovery, has reached a landmark settlement, and that's cleared the path for one of the largest mergers in U.S. history. The planned acquisition is still being finalized, but the CEO of Warner Bros. Discovery expects it will close no later than early October.

CNN's Brian Stelter takes a closer look at the details of that new agreement.

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BRIAN STELTER, CNN CHIEF MEDIA ANALYST: Paramount has cleared the final hurdle in its year-long quest to take control of Warner Bros. Discovery. The announcement came on Monday from California Attorney General Rob Bonta, who had been leading a 12-state coalition suing to block the deal on antitrust grounds.

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Bonta said that the state A.G.s, those 12 state Democratic attorneys general in states like New York and Connecticut and Oregon and Arizona, had all agreed to settle rather than taking the case to trial. That is what clears the way for Paramount to complete one of the largest mergers in U.S. history. And already the settlement terms are proving controversial.

But this resolution means that this channel, CNN, and the rest of Warner will soon be controlled by the Ellisons, the billionaire family that's assembling a global media empire, with the help of Middle Eastern sovereign wealth funds and other investors. The merger is likely to take effect in the next 10 days or so, and many of the impacts are yet to be known. But there will almost certainly be layoffs and other cost-cutting moves, because Paramount will be under pressure to pay down its debt, and to prove and deliver on the synergies that it promised to Wall Street.

Now, California and those 11 other states sued to block the deal in July, and at the time they talked about wanting structural remedies, like asset sales or divestitures, in order to let Paramount move forward. There was a trial date set for March, but Paramount pushed hard for a settlement agreement, and seems to have prevailed on many counts.

Bonta said that Paramount is making more investments in domestic film production, and legally committing to releasing 30 films in theaters per year, but those are behavioral remedies, not the more severe structural remedies that Bonta said he was seeking. Paramount is also staying put in California, after weeks of talk about a possible relocation, so Bonta can call that a win.

But I spoke with sources in other state attorney general offices who said they were disappointed by the outcome. In Connecticut, for example, that state wanted Paramount to be forced to divest to sell off both CNN and Paramount's CBS News division. That is not happening. But there is language in the settlement agreement that calls for an

editorial independence board, made up of journalists appointed by Paramount who are meant to ensure ethical coverage and editorial freedom. Who those board members will be, what they will do, whether it'll be effective, whether viewers and readers will buy it, all of that remains to be seen. But we will be hearing more about what the combined company might look like in the next few weeks.

Brian Stelter, CNN.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ABDELAZIZ: A New Zealand company is showing off its battery-powered boat just in time for Climate Week.

Vessev's VS9 took a cruise through New York Harbor on Saturday with its hull lifted above the surface of the water to reduce drag. That's a key factor in allowing this electric boat to use a smaller battery, according to the company's CEO. The vessel can purportedly run up to two hours on a single charge, with a range of up to 50 nautical miles.

Thank you so much for watching, I'm Salma Abelaziz. "World Sport" is coming up next, then I'll be back at the top of the hour with more news.

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