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Trump Says Russia, Ukraine Agree To Energy Ceasefire; Ukraine Official Says Energy Ceasefire Was News To Them; Interview With Representative Debbie Dingell (D-MI); New Strike On Saudi Airport Causes Fire At Terminal; Source: Trump Considering Firing Ambassador Kimberly Guilfoyle; Remnants Of Tropical Storm Rachel Push Inland; Pope Leo Says He Needs Surgery To Remove A Lung Nodule. Aired 7-8p ET

Aired October 11, 2026 - 19:00   ET

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

[19:00:52]

JESSICA DEAN, CNN ANCHOR: You're in the CNN NEWSROOM. Hi, everyone. I'm Jessica Dean here in New York.

President Trump announcing a new energy ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine, appearing to catch Ukraine off guard. Trump posting today, quote, "Effective immediately, there is an energy ceasefire in the war between Russia and Ukraine. Both parties have agreed. Do not break it." But there's been no confirmation yet of such an agreement from Moscow and a source close to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says the development was a surprise to him.

Zelenskyy posting that while Ukraine supports a ceasefire, he is, quote, "awaiting details from the American side."

CNN senior White House reporter Betsy Klein is joining us now from the White House.

And, Betsy, what are you hearing about this tonight?

BETSY KLEIN, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Jessica, I think the -- the fact that Russia continues to strike Ukrainian energy infrastructure makes it very clear there is reason for skepticism here, that there is, in fact, any kind of energy ceasefire at this time. But President Trump claimed this morning that both sides had agreed to this energy ceasefire and that it would take place, quote, "immediately."

Ukraine's President Zelenskyy indicated since then that this came as a surprise to him. One source familiar with the matter telling CNN that they found out about it in Ukraine from the president's post to social media. But President Zelenskyy is open to a ceasefire, and he's waiting for more information from this White House. There's no word from the Kremlin yet on whether they are on board. But if you're tracking their actions, there is no energy ceasefire at this time.

Now, I asked the White House if they could provide any more details beyond the president's social media post on how this came together and what the next steps are. They referred me back to that social media post. But there's some important context here, and that is that on Friday, President Trump spoke with Russian President Vladimir Putin, and the two of them unveiled what has proven to be a controversial deal to supply markets with Russian diesel fuel.

Now, this deal has drawn bipartisan criticism, including a new statement from a bipartisan group of seven senators. That's four Republicans and three Democrats. They say that this is against a law passed by Congress banning Russian energy imports in the U.S. They are calling on the president to immediately reverse course.

I should also note that after this deal was announced, Ukrainian officials met with top U.S. officials in Miami to discuss a path forward. But Zelenskyy criticized that diesel news. He says that this will prolong the war -- Jessica.

DEAN: All right. Betsy Klein there at the White House. Thank you so much for that.

CNN global affairs correspondent Matthew Chance is joining us now from Moscow with more on President Trump's -- what he's calling an energy ceasefire and the reaction it could see in both Russia and Ukraine -- Matthew.

MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN CHIEF GLOBAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Look, I mean, I think it's -- I think it's unlikely that either side is going to want to directly contradict or confront President Trump on this issue. I think they know pretty well how volatile he is.

I've tried to speak to the Kremlin. I'm looking at my social media messaging with them now, asking them about this issue. There's been no public announcement and they haven't even read my messages, frankly. So, you know, we'll wait to see what comes out.

Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the president of Ukraine, has responded basically saying that it is important that a ceasefire becomes a reality. So not actually confirming that a ceasefire has been agreed. In fact, a Ukrainian official told CNN in Ukraine that the Truth Social post that President Trump made was the first they ever heard of it. So it seems that once again, President Trump is, I mean, out in front of the other parties when it comes to announcing these deals.

There have been ceasefires like this in the past. There were two in 2025 which didn't sort of result in much. There was one earlier this year in, I think it was -- it was in January this year, which lasted for a couple of days. It may -- it's not clear whether it will be different this time, but I think what is different this time is that Trump, President Trump, has so much more at stake. He is facing the midterms, as you all know over there.

[19:05:02]

He's got really high prices at the pump. You know, diesel prices, gasoline prices as well. And he needs to show the American electorate that he's doing everything he can, or at least something to try and -- to try and alleviate that painful price and cost that they're paying before those elections take place. So I think that may be what is at play here. That diesel deal, remember, came just 24 hours ago, just before this

energy ceasefire was announced. Very controversial, basically lifting sanctions or energy sanctions on Russia to allow it to legitimately export its diesel products and other energy products from Russia, which would earn it billions of dollars. Yes, of course, in revenue.

The really important thing about it, though, is it basically is a huge blow for Ukraine because Ukraine has been targeting Russia's energy infrastructure as a way of making it feel the pain for its -- for its full scale invasion of Ukraine. And it's also a big blow to the Western alliance. You know, for several years now, for the last four or more years, there's been a sort of joint Western effort to try and isolate Russia, to try and punish it for its full scale invasion. This very much puts Washington on the other side of that -- of that divide. And so that's a big blow for Western unity.

DEAN: All right. Matthew Chance in Moscow for us. Thank you so much for your reporting, Matthew.

And we're joined now by Democratic Representative Debbie Dingell of Michigan. She serves on the House Energy and Commerce and Natural Resources Committees.

Congresswoman, great to have you here with us. Thank you for your time tonight. I want to start there where Matthew kind of left off, which is about this diesel deal that the president claims to have with Russia. There is now bipartisan criticism of this deal to ease sanctions on Russian diesel.

Do you think that it's legal knowing that Congress passed two laws around Russia being able to do something like this?

REP. DEBBIE DINGELL (D-MI): No, I do not believe it is legal. We passed legislation in 2022. The vote in the Senate was 100 to zero. How often does that happen? And there were only seven votes that did not vote for it as well in the House. It was overwhelmingly, I think -- I can't remember the exact number. But it banned the imports or the exports of energy products from Russia to this country.

And I know that the president is desperate. People are really angry. They are hurting. So this is his attempt to try to say, well, I'm doing something, but it's illegal. It is not helping the war in Ukraine. Our allies in Europe and Canada are outraged by this move in other countries confirming it. So nope, don't think it's legal and don't think it was a good idea.

DEAN: And so knowing that, what recourse do you think Congress has? Does it have recourse here?

DINGELL: Well, the election is 22 days away. I think you are likely to see lawsuits in the next week or two. There'll be legislation in the House that will have a discharge petition filed with it. So you will see a lot of people trying to stop this in the next few weeks. And immediately after the election, when the Congress comes back, there will probably be an effort to vote in the House and Senate. DEAN: I did want to ask you about that, because I think what you're

talking about is Republican Congressman Brian Fitzpatrick has said he plans to introduce a bipartisan bill to block any and all purchases of Russian oil. So your sense is that that could really go somewhere.

DINGELL: I very much believe that there are people that are very angry in the House and the Senate on a bipartisan basis. The election is going to be over. People -- Republicans are not going to be worried about having Donald Trump get angry with them. And I think the dynamics are going to be very different when Congress returns in November.

DEAN: OK. I want to look ahead. You mentioned the midterms. I was speaking last night with a colleague of yours, Democratic Congressman Adam Smith, about how oversight could potentially change if Democrats do indeed win back control of the House in these midterm elections. And he told me he believes the only way to end the war with Iran was to remove President Trump from office. I just want to play you a clip of what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. ADAM SMITH (D-WA): At this point, I think it has to be impeachment. I mean, he's so out of control in so many different directions. We can't wait two years.

DINGELL: If you were to go down the impeachment route, though, there are -- there are obviously plenty of Democrats who agree with you on that strategy. There are other Democrats who say that's a waste of time. It will go to the Senate. That's not -- it's not ever going to happen and we're wasting time by doing that.

SMITH: Yes. Let me tell you, I was one of those Democrats, like a month ago, but I see the disastrous policies that the president is putting forward.

[19:10:05]

I see his, you know, threats to undermine this election coming up. I see how he doesn't pay attention to Congress.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DEAN: So, Congresswoman, I just want to get where you're thinking is on all of that.

DINGELL: So I think we need to be doing -- there are several things. One, let's wait and see what the outcome of the election is. It's only three weeks away, but, two, I think when a vote came up on the House floor before I left, I could not vote on it. There was a motion to table it, which would have meant if there had been enough votes. The process of impeachment would have moved forward.

And I could not vote to table that because, quite frankly, I agree with my colleague how outrageous the things are that we are watching. I also believe that there are a lot of things we must do if we do take the majority back in November, and we'll have 100-hour agenda, 100-day agenda. We're going to need to move to reverse many of the cuts that happened under the Big -- I call it the bad bill. I use a lot of other words.

The Affordable Care tax credits, we're going to need to do work like that. So the work of investigating can happen at the same time, as we are passing legislation that is going to deliver for the American people on lowering the cost of groceries, lowering gasoline prices, help fixing a broken health care system. We're going to have to do both.

DEAN: And so what would you say -- because I hear what you're saying, and it sounds like you are saying we need to prioritize, that you all need to prioritize. So in terms of priority, how high of a priority would impeachment be for you going into all of this?

DINGELL: I want to say this to you. You can prioritize. You know, impeachment is not a simple process. It requires hearings. The Judiciary Committee can begin the work of that while the other committees at the same time are doing the work that the American people expect us to do. You know, one of the reasons, in Michigan we're paying almost $6,000 per family because of the tariffs that the president has imposed.

There are a lot of issues that need to be addressed, and they're going to -- we're going to have to show as Democrats that we can deliver on the things the American people need reliefs on.

DEAN: And you're one of the only members of Congress still holding town halls, and you're home in your district. What -- I'm curious, what are people saying to you?

DINGELL: Well, they -- I mean, I've had a lot of interesting town halls because sometimes I have a data center and the town halls that have been held on data centers, people are very, very angry. And that's why I have a data -- framework for a data center bill of rights. But if you're in a town hall, people are hurting. They're worried about the cost of groceries. They don't like the tariffs. Canada is our economic partner, and it's a national security issue.

The cost of gasoline, there are people that don't know if they can put food on the table and afford to drive to work. People, I mean, a mother said to me, I'm a single working mother and I can't afford my child's inhaler. There are a lot of issues that people are scared about and want to see something done about to help them. And, you know, the big blank bill that we talk about has also cut SNAP benefits. And we have hungry children and hungry seniors.

DEAN: All right, Congresswoman Debbie Dingell, thanks for your time tonight. We appreciate it.

DINGELL: Thank you.

DEAN: Be sure to tune in to a special edition of "NEWSNIGHT WITH ABBY PHILLIP," "Midterms 2026 Countdown to Election Night" tonight at 8:00 p.m. Eastern and streaming on the CNN app with an "All Access" subscription.

One day after a missile strike killed 12 people, including an American, at the main airport in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, the airport has come under attack again. Plus, flooding risks on the West Coast of the United States as what's left of Tropical Storm Rachel moves across the desert southwest. And a health scare for Pope Leo as he undergoes -- he will announce -- he announces he will undergo surgery. We'll talk more about that.

You're in the CNN NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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DEAN: A second strike has hit Saudi Arabia's busiest airport. Officials say the attack today killed one person and injured several others. It also caused a fire in one of the terminals. And it wasn't the only incoming attack. Air defenses later intercepted a cruise missile nearby. Meantime, on Saturday, a strike killed at least 12 people, including an American, and wounded more than 300.

Iran-backed Houthis in Yemen are claiming responsibility for both attacks, and CNN's Oren Liebermann has the latest now -- Oren.

OREN LIEBERMANN, CNN JERUSALEM BUREAU CHIEF: The Iran-backed and armed Houthis in Yemen are showing they are ready and willing to fight and to escalate, attacking civilian infrastructure in Saudi Arabia. This, although they haven't claimed responsibility for it, matches the pattern of attacks we've seen on the exact same airport, King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh.

It was on Saturday that a Houthi attack hit the airport, causing the deadliest attack on Saudi Arabia in more than a decade. At least 12 people were killed, including a U.S. citizen, and more than 300 people were injured.

[19:20:02]

That led into Sunday, where Saudi authorities say another attack hit the airport, striking a terminal building there and hitting a fire, and Saudi air defenses intercepted a cruise missile that was on its way effectively towards the same target here. So the Houthis there are indicating that they're willing and very much able to fight.

Now, the Saudis have carried out punishing strikes against the Houthis in Yemen, trying to offer their support to the internationally recognized government of Yemen, which has tried to push back against the Houthis. But in much the same way we saw Iran fight, the Houthis are doing the same. They don't have the military capability or the weapons to match Saudi Arabia's military. What they do have are drones, ballistic missiles and cruise missiles, and they're able to use those very effectively to cause the disruptions we're seeing here.

Now why does this matter beyond the Arabian Peninsula? And why does this matter beyond the Middle East? Take a look at this map. Just as Iran was able to leverage control over the Strait of Hormuz on one side of the Arabian Peninsula, and that sent gas prices surging and shocked the global economy, the Houthis may well be able to do the same to the Bab al-Mandeb Strait on the other side of the Arabian Peninsula, one of the world's most critical waterways, through which traffic going to or from the Suez Canal has to pass.

That is the risk to the global economy here, and that is the reality the region and, frankly, the world are facing. As the conflict between the Houthis and the Saudis escalate. The key question, of course, now is what is the U.S. and what is President Donald Trump going to do? The Saudis have made clear they want the U.S. involved here striking the Houthis. In fact, it was President Donald Trump who said earlier during the weekend that he's considering his options and he may get involved, but it's unclear that he's really willing to do so.

The war with Iran is already unpopular and has driven up gas prices. Another unpopular war with the Houthis. Another shock to the global economy this close to the midterms, it's not clear Trump wants to go in that direction. And that leaves the Houthis perhaps feeling emboldened as they carry out and continue to carry out these attacks on the Saudis.

DEAN: All right. Oren Liebermann, thank you for that.

We also have new surveillance video tonight from that Saturday attack at the Riyadh airport, showing people running inside the King Khalid Airport following the Houthi strike. We do want to warn you, the video is graphic. This is new. We're just getting it and I'll let you watch it.

(VIDEO CLIP)

DEAN: You can see just how serious the damage was, how people were just sitting normally like they would in an airport when that explosion happened.

We are joined now by CNN national security analyst Alex Plitsas. He's also the director of the counterterrorism project at the Atlantic Council.

Alex, good to see you. Thanks for being here with us. We're just playing that new video. You just saw it and it really drives home how violent these attacks are. Obviously, 12 people killed in that particular one, one being an American. Over 300 people injured. Now we have more attacks today.

What are you hearing about what's going on in terms of possible retaliation and what this means going forward?

ALEX PLITSAS, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: So it means that the Houthis is as Oren correctly laid out are continuing to escalate here. And as he once again framed everything perfectly, it really comes down to a question of who's going to come in to support the Saudis at this point. The Saudis were supposed to be leading the naval coalition to make sure that Bab al-Mandeb Strait stayed open, as well as to deal with the Houthis and back the Yemeni recognized government. And so far, they've been unsuccessful in dealing with that on the

ground. But this is not in the vacuum of the Iran conflict. This has been going on for quite some time. Yemen has been split into civil war with the Shia majority Houthis. And then you have the recognized government sort of split as a proxy war between Iran and Saudi Arabia. That calmed down for a while. But then as the conflict kicked off again over the last year, the Houthis began firing at Israel and other places.

And so the U.S. and Israel were bombing pretty heavily. And then we got a ceasefire last year, and that remains in place right now, which is why U.S. ships in international shipping outside of Saudi Arabia are not under attack. As Oren correctly put it, if the U.S. were to strike now, it could cause that in question, causing a second chokepoint and then causing oil prices to spike shortly before the midterm elections.

DEAN: Right. So you're kind of getting ahead of what something I wanted to ask you, too, because the U.S. has sent more than 100 military advisers to provide intelligence. But to your point is so far not getting directly involved in all of this. So what do you see as the options for the U.S. on this front at the moment? Because it sounds like you're just saying, if they do get involved, it could really escalate quite quickly.

PLITSAS: Right. Well, this also comes on the heels of Saudi Arabia signing a historic defensive agreement with Turkey and with Pakistan. That was supposed to be, you know, the makings of a of a NATO force of sorts in the Middle East amongst Arab or Muslim majority countries.

[19:25:07]

But so far, we've seen neither Turkey nor Pakistan really commit or send any forces to Saudi Arabia's rescue here. And I think there's an expectation that they were going to take care of this themselves or activate this alliance before the U.S. got involved. And so far that hasn't happened. But these sustained attacks against civilian targets here are continuing to be troublesome. You know, as we just mentioned, this is the largest attack in almost 10 years inside of Saudi Arabia.

The U.S. did move additional air defense systems in both Saudi Arabia and Qatar, about a month ago, but I believe those were placed around strategic oil and gas targets because we're worried about Iran retaliating in the event of a renewed set of strikes. It's clear that there was not -- there was insufficient air defenses because we've seen two missiles get in two days in a row both struck the airport.

DEAN: I'm curious, too, just more broadly, the Riyadh airport obviously is a very prominent airport there in Saudi Arabia. If you think about connecting flights from, you know, the West to Asia, a lot of stopover going through the Middle East, going through Riyadh, American business interests there as well. The fact that this airport is now, in the last several days being hit daily, what does this mean for the region more broadly? And how all those pieces fit together?

PLITSAS: Sure. So you have the airport that had been hit inside of Yemen and the capital city. So there was some, you know, tit-for-tat as the way the Houthis were looking at this in terms of striking back. Yes, they do take orders from Iran. But if you speak to intelligence officials in the U.S. as well as other countries, they do act on their own. Most of the Gulf partners I talked to believe that this will end in some sort of political settlement, that it's not really winnable militarily.

But the impact, to your point here, not only on civilian commerce, because we're still seeing a no flight over the area, is if you saw the video we played earlier, there were folks that were there wrapped in sort of white robes or sheets. That is a transit point. So many people, if you're familiar with the annual pilgrimage to Mecca, to the Hajj, outside of that period, there's still pilgrimages called the Umrah.

So people are still showing up as Islamic pilgrims. And the Houthis actually killed more pilgrims there for religious purposes than they have Israelis in terms of the damage they've done. This one after civilian targets, which is really crossed the line. And, you know, so terrorism is politically motivated violence against civilians. These were not government targets. These hit civilian airports.

So this is definitely an escalation from the Houthis. And, you know, something is going to have to give. The Saudi government can't allow this to continue to go unchallenged. And at some point, they're going to have to come back with larger strikes. This is going to continue to cycle.

DEAN: Yes, there's going to be more to this.

All right. Alex Plitsas, it's always great to have you. Thank you so much.

PLITSAS: You too. Welcome back. You've been missed.

DEAN: Thank you. It's good to be back. Thank you.

Rachel isn't done with the southwest. The latest on the storm and the flooding threat it currently presents.

You're in the CNN NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[19:32:09]

DEAN: We do have some breaking news, as a source tells CNN, President Trump is considering whether to fire Kimberly Guilfoyle, the U.S. Ambassador to Greece.

According to the source, Trump has been keeping a close eye on reports claiming Guilfoyle accepted lavish gifts as ambassador and sought money in exchange for providing access to administration figures before she was confirmed.

Let's bring back in CNN senior White House reporter, Betsy Klein. Betsy, has the President said anything about the allegations?

KLEIN: Well, earlier this week, he did indicate that he was aware of the reports. But now, we are learning that President Trump is weighing whether to remove Kimberly Guilfoyle from her post as ambassador to Greece after this string of embarrassing revelations that have called into called into question her conduct.

Now, over and over, we have seen President Trump make clear that he is unhappy when his allies profit off their relationship with him. So, it is unclear at this point whether there are going to be consequences here, but these are very serious allegations of a quid pro quo between a very top Trump ally and a former Trump donor.

This is Eric Deters. He is a Trump donor who ran for Congress in Kentucky, and he alleges, according to a series of text messages, that Kimberly Guilfoyle asked him to pay off $100,000.00 in American Express debt in the days before her confirmation.

Now, Guilfoyle, of course, is a person who is very, very close to the Trump family. She was engaged to be married to Donald Trump, Jr., the President's eldest son, for about four years. And after that breakup, her plum assignment as Ambassador to Greece was announced back in December 2024.

And according to these text messages provided to CNN by Deters, she was six days before a confirmation hearing, she asks him to wire her this money, again. $100,000.00.

Deters ultimately did not do so, but he said he didn't have the liquid assets at the time, and a lawyer for Guilfoyle is disputing the authenticity of those text messages.

But all of this now is raising eyebrows in Trump world. Allies of the President and his son tell CNN that this entire episode is embarrassing, and the reports have also irked senior administration officials, particularly because it comes as Secretary of State Marco Rubio is traveling in Athens to give a major speech on democracy.

The President is expected to make a decision soon, Jessica.

All right, Betsy Klein, thank you so much. That was great reporting.

We are tracking the remnants of Tropical Storm Rachel in the Southwest. The storm's powerful waves damaged homes on the coast in Southern California, and the owners of these oceanfront properties are now facing the loss of their homes from these just relentless waves.

While in Nevada, video from today shows a flooded street near the Las Vegas Strip. Las Vegas and other cities now under threat of more flooding as rain moves across that region.

CNN meteorologist, Melissa Nord joins us now.

Melissa, what are you tracking?

[19:35:10]

MELISSA NORD, AIMS METEOROLOGIST: Still a lot of these remnants that I am tracking that are going to last through the overnight tonight.

Las Vegas set a daily record rainfall and in October, they are tied for the wettest day in the whole month of October in history.

You can see though, the last couple of hours, it has been much lighter. A lot of their heavier rain fell overnight first thing this morning. We've been tracking more of that heavy rain near Lake Mead and out towards the Grand Canyon this afternoon.

There are a lot -- a number of flash flood warnings still in place, and a lot of these areas that have, you know, topography where it is very prone to flash flooding.

Flood alerts, flood watches stretch as far north as Idaho. In fact, up in Idaho and Montana, it is colder than it is in Las Vegas. So we've not just been tracking rain, but up in Montana, it has been snowfall today.

Look at all of that moisture streaming as well into Utah. We will see this snow, rather rain, breaking into snow overnight tonight Bitterroots through Montana as we track all that moisture. And in fact, in some parts of Montana, they've gotten a foot of snow so far today.

But that flood threat is still with us. Level 3 out of four risk between Las Vegas and St. George of excessive rainfall and flooding through the overnight tonight. Additional rainfall could be another half inch to an inch or so in some places. These are spots that don't get a lot of rain in the first place in the month of October.

More moisture streaming in tomorrow thanks to a little upper level low as well. So we will keep that threat of rainfall and some snow in the front range of the Rockies going to start the week -- Jessica.

DEAN: All right, Melissa, thank you so much for that.

Julia Vargas Jones is in La Jolla, California, near San Diego with how things are looking along the coast.

Julia, what can you tell us?

JULIA VARGAS JONES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Jessica, the tropical storm warning is over, but the conditions that Rachel brought with her are certainly not.

You can probably hear the wind here in La Jolla, California, and see these waves. This is what the National Weather Service has called dangerous surf and rip currents. This is, of course, not only here, but up and down the Pacific Coast. We've seen all the way up near Los Angeles what those waves have done to homes and beachfront properties.

These are Rachel-generated waves that are added to an already higher than expected water level, a foot-and-a-half more than expected in some areas.

This, of course, could have catastrophic repercussions for this part of the country, not only on the coast but going inland as well. Those desert areas of Utah, Nevada and Arizona that just cannot absorb this level of rainfall.

In San Diego, one inch is what is expected to be a total from Rachel. That is more than San Diego gets of rain in an entire month, the entire month of October, usually. Similarly, in Nevada, catastrophic what rain can do. Even a little bit of rain could do in areas that are just not used to it, and then you have winds as well.

Right now here, we are looking at between 20 and 40 mile per hour winds, but as you go up the mountains, other areas that could go up to 60 miles an hour. And of course, then the risk of flash floods and those winds could mean difficult circumstances.

This is, of course, extremely unusual for Southern California to have a tropical storm warning that has only happened once before in the history of tropical storm warnings in California, that was in 2023, with Tropical Storm Hilary.

Now, we are seeing this for a second time at the same time as this state gets ready for Super El Nino and the entire coast has been already battered at the beginning of the season.

So, extremely unusual and it remains to be seen what this does not just here, but for the rest of the southwest of the United States -- Jessica.

DEAN: All right, Julia Vargas Jones, thank you so much for that.

Taxpayer funded ads promoting President Trump and his policies may be ending, but at least one member of his Cabinet is defending those ads, saying he is all for them.

Well discuss here in the CNN NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[19:43:48]

DEAN: Pope Leo today announcing he will undergo surgery to remove a small growth on his lung. The 71-year-old pontiff, making the announcement to a crowd gathered at St. Peter's Square for a Sunday prayer service.

The Vatican says the surgery is planned for later this week. And CNN Rome correspondent, Stefano Pozzebon has more on the Pope's announcement.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

STEFANO POZZEBON, CNN ROME CORRESPONDENT: The announcement by Pope Leo that he is to have an operation to remove a nodule in his lung in the coming days took most people by surprise, especially when they heard it live this Sunday in a very warm October morning here at the Vatican in Rome.

However, this surprise does not necessarily mean that there is a cause for anxiety. A lung nodule is a small mass of dense tissue on the lung, and most of them are not cancerous. The procedure is fairly simple, and according to experts that spoke with CNN, the pontiff is expected to recover in about seven days.

Pope Leo made the announcement at the end of his Angelus on Sunday morning, and he referred to it as a matter-of-fact.

Take a listen.

[19:45:01]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

POPE LEO XIV, BISHOP OF ROME, HEAD OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH AND SOVEREIGN OF THE VATICAN CITY STATE (through translator): My dearest, Recently, during some medical examinations, doctors found a localized nodule in my lung. It was detected at a very early stage and is well contained.

The doctors believe it is advisable to intervene. So, following their advice, I've decided to undergo surgery to remove it. The operation is already scheduled for the next few days.

I thank you for your spiritual support and entrust myself to your prayers.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

POZZEBON: Shortly after the Vatican confirmed that Pope Leo is due to go to the Gemelli Hospital, the main hospital that is known for treating pontiffs and other high hierarchy in the Catholic Church, that is just a stone's throw from the Vatican itself, and he will go through the operation in the upcoming days.

Before making the announcement, Pope Leo spoke directly to Peruvian faithful who were listening to him in St. Peter's Square, saying that he is looking forward to visiting Peru in the upcoming month.

The pontiff is due to travel to South America, Uruguay, Argentina and Peru between November 6th and November 17th. And at this stage, it does not seem that this upcoming operation will put that travel at risk.

For CNN, this is Stefano Pozzebon, Rome.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

DEAN: All right, Stefano, thank you.

We do have some breaking news regarding those controversial ads promoting President Trump's agenda and paid for using taxpayer money. We will update you after the break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[19:51:13 ]

DEAN: We do have breaking news as a federal judge is temporarily blocking the controversial ads promoting President Trump that were paid for by taxpayers. Those ads have faced bipartisan pushback and multiple lawsuits over the use of public money.

The administration spent about $19 million in taxpayer money on the effort.

CNN's Brian Stelter is joining us now.

Brian, good to see you. What did the judge say?

BRIAN STELTER, CNN CHIEF MEDIA ANALYST: This ruling just came in out of the Southern District of New York, responding to a lawsuit filed by the advocacy group, Common Cause, and the judge is making very clear that Common Cause will likely prevail if there is ever a trial, and thus she's granted a restraining order that will be in effect for two weeks.

What's interesting about this is the timing, Jessica. The government said in a court filing overnight that this lawsuit is irrelevant and moot because the ads are going to stop airing tonight, Sunday night, a big television night, prime time in the U.S., so the Justice Department basically said, don t worry about this, we are done with the ads. Nothing to see here.

Well, the judge has reviewed the evidence and she disagrees. She says this is not a moot point and that as of 6:45 P.M. Eastern Time, the government has to cancel any further ads.

So interestingly, if any viewers see these on T.V. tonight, let me know. I am curious to see if the administration is able to put this into place within this tight, narrow window of timing and this comes as there has been bipartisan backlash to these propagandistic ads, very clearly meant to prop up President Trump and the GOP in the final weeks of the midterms.

This controversy has gone on for a number of weeks, as these ads have racked up about $20 million in spending thus far. The DOJ says $19 million of the $20 million has already been spent, and those are taxpayer dollars.

But this judge basically putting an order in place because she wonders, I think this might continue between now and the midterms, so she is drawing a line in the sand.

DEAN: Yes, and last week, President Trump said he'd pay for the campaign style ads after all the backlash kind of happened. Can he go a different route? Can he use his PAC, MAGA Inc.?

STELTER: Well, that's what he says he is going to do. But I think the President was highly misleading about this. His post came about a week ago. Let's put it on screen. He talked as if he was immediately making changes and moving away from the taxpayer funding, and he wrote right there, you know, the left is upset, so I have decided to do the patriotic ads and pay for them myself with money I have raised for MAGA Inc., his Super PAC.

The suggestion there is that that's a present tense, immediate change that he was making, but it turns out it was not, because these ads have continued to run at taxpayer expense for an entire week.

So, it seems to me the President took advantage of the news cycle, played it as if he was fixing this right away and changing course. But in fact, all the ads kept running all week long. And that may be why this advocacy group still had standing in court.

The Democratic National Committee had also filed a lawsuit trying to block these ads, because it was so unprecedented to have a government, a presidential administration, running promotional propagandistic ads using taxpayer money. These were nothing like the PSAs that we saw during COVID, for example.

So you have the courts, again, in this case, stepping in. We will see if Trump actually does spend his Super PAC money from donors on other ads between now and the midterms or not.

DEAN: So we will watch that.

Also, looking ahead, the new White House Press Secretary will hold her first briefing on Tuesday. What are you watching for?

STELTER: That's right. This just announced by the President, Katie Zacharia, making her debut as Press Secretary on Tuesday morning. I am hopeful were going to get back to regular schedule of briefings.

In past administrations, they were almost a daily basis, with Karoline Leavitt became a weekly tradition. Now, Katie Zacharia stepping into Leavitt's shoes and taking over tomorrow.

So the first briefing, Tuesday morning, at a crucial time for the President, right? We talked about his record low approval ratings and many controversies on many fronts. Zacharia has a lot of experience defending the President on television, here on CNN, also on Fox News and Newsmax.

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She has some controversies in her past that she might be asked about: Her flirtation with election denialism, for example, back in 2020. But there is a lot to ask her about on Tuesday morning. We know that first briefing is scheduled for 9:30 A.M. Eastern Time.

DEAN: All right, so a lot of eyes will be on that as well.

Brian Stelter, always good to see you on a Sunday night. Thank you so much.

STELTER: Good to be with you.

DEAN: And remember to sign up for Brian's "Reliable Sources" e-mail. You can do that by going to cnn.com/ReliableSources.

And I want to say thank you so much for joining me tonight. I am Jessica Dean.

We have a Special Edition of "NewsNight" with Abby Phillip. It is headed your way, next.

We are going to see you right back here again next weekend. Have a great night, everybody.

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