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Two Men Rescued from Flooded Tunnels in Nepal; Deadlocked Jury Returns Amid Drama Over Holdout Juror; U.S. Vice President Vance Says Iran Conflict Not a War; A Rare Look Inside Occupied Southern Lebanon; Far-Right AfD Party Seeks First Win in State Election; Volkswagen to Cut 50,000 Jobs Amid Growing Competition; OpenAI Agents Hijacked German Web Site; U.S. Likely to Face Record Fuel Prices This Holiday Weekend. Aired 10a-11a ET
Aired September 04, 2026 - 10:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[10:00:50]
ELENI GIOKOS, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: Welcome to the second hour of the show. I'm Eleni Giokos in Abu Dhabi.
Now the judge in Lindsay Clancy's triple murder trial just sent the deadlocked jury back to deliberations for a seventh day. The jury is split
11 to one, and the judge denied the defense's request to question the holdout juror. The jury is deciding whether Clancy acted with knowledge of
what she was doing when she strangled her three children, or if she was suffering from postpartum psychosis.
Listen to what Clancy's lawyer had to say to the judge about instructing jurors in the court.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KEVIN REDDINGTON, LINDSAY CLANCY LAWYER: You did it yesterday. You did it soft. You didn't do it forcefully. And I'm asking if you do it --
JUDGE WILLIAM SULLIVAN, MASSACHUSETTS SUPERIOR COURT: What do you want me to do?
REDDINGTON: I want you to tell the juror --
SULLIVAN: Get a brass band? I read the instruction as written by the SJC.
REDDINGTON: Right.
SULLIVAN: The fact that I perhaps didn't give it my full inflection, I'm sorry about that, I'm not an actor. I've just given the instructions.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GIOKOS: All right. A heated exchange there between the defense attorney and the judge.
We're tracking the story. We'll bring you more analysis as it comes in. And, of course, we'll bring you some insights in the show later.
All right. I want to move on to another dramatic story that we're covering, and that's in Nepal. Two men are alive after spending more than nine days
trapped inside a flooded hydropower tunnel. Now the pictures are extraordinary. The men were among 42 workers reported missing at the
Trishuli 3A hydropower station after floods and landslides hit the area last week.
Earlier today, rescuers heard voices coming from inside the tunnel and fought their way through the debris to reach the two men. The survivors
were pulled from the tunnel and airlifted to a hospital in Kathmandu for treatment.
CNN's Hanako Montgomery witnessed the extraordinary rescue operation and filed this report for us a short time ago.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
HANAKO MONTGOMERY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Right now, we're at the Trishuli 3A tunnel, one of the worst hit tunnels due to that deadly flashflood in
Nepal. And you can see there are dozens of rescue workers right now passing what appears to be body bags. They are also tugging at a rope. They are
trying to get more access to people who might be stuck inside but it is very unclear right now whether those people are alive or whether they are
dead.
Earlier on Friday, they were able to rescue two individuals out. Those people were alive and they're hoping that because they've seen more signs
of life that there might be more people inside who are still alive. But, again, you could imagine just the arduous conditions that these individuals
would have been in over the past nine days with very lack of resources, with a lack of resources, potentially no water, potentially no food.
And, again, you can see here rescue workers passing down what appears to be black body bags. We've also seen during our 20 to 30 minutes here at the
tunnel, the rescuers passing down oxygen tanks and also face masks. Again, we're not sure who might be inside the tunnel, whether those individuals
are alive or whether they are dead, but these rescuers are trying desperately to get these people out right now.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
GIOKOS: Our correspondent Hanako Montgomery.
I want to bring in David Fisher, who's in Kathmandu. He's the head of the Nepal delegation for the International Federation of Red Cross and Red
Crescent Societies.
David, really good to have you with us. I mean, extraordinary images, extraordinary story of these two men that were rescued in the tunnel. The
hydropower station being one of those areas affected. Give me a sense of what rescue workers are experiencing right now. It is a heroic effort, by
all accounts here.
DAVID FISHER, HEAD OF DELEGATION FOR NEPAL, IFRC: Yes, they are. They have been putting in tremendous work for over a week to rescue people. And now
those people who are sort of most difficult to find, the government has made clear that they're not giving up hope.
[10:05:05]
They are still -- they're still out there. They're still working. Stories like this show that it's still possible even after all of this time,
whether air pockets, where there's water, it's possible that more people may still be found who are in these tunnels. So the army has done a
tremendous job with this.
GIOKOS: So what are you seeing right now during your -- you know, your visit in Nepal and importantly, you know, give us a sense of the affected
areas.
FISHER: Well, this flood had a massive effect all the way down the river basin from the northern part of Nepal, all the way to the south. It had
effects even into India on the southern border. The most concentrated effects are in the north in the Rasuwa District, Nuwakot District, Dhading
District, and the most of the Rasuwa District had been completely cut off from road traffic until just a few days ago.
They opened up a very, very dangerous, difficult road those two days ago. I took it two days ago to the center of Rasuwa. It takes, you know, over nine
hours. It's very dangerous. But we managed to bring in some relief items. There are people who have been displaced who are taking refuge near to the
center of Rasuwa, but there are still areas of Rasuwa that are only helicopter access.
With time now the military is now allowing some of these helicopters to be used for relief. And so we're hoping that we'll have access to those people
in that way in the next couple of days.
GIOKOS: The U.N. Food Programme says 43,000 people need urgent humanitarian relief. Give us a sense of what aid organizations, humanitarian
organizations need right now.
FISHER: Yes. I mean, the U.N. has just announced a figure of around 83,000 that will need life-saving need over the next couple of months. We had
estimated 93,000 earlier. These remain estimates because of the lack of access. We have been able of course to help some people so that, you know,
those who have found refuge and they've set up in schools and government buildings. But they need, you know, many just escaped with the clothes on
their back.
There are many children whose parents were washed away in front of their eyes. I met some of them myself in Nuwakot, and they had nothing. And so
we've been providing food, we've been providing water, we've been providing blankets. We provided the government enormous number of body bags. But
these people will need a lot more, I think, to recover and particularly, you know, concern, of course, for the, you know, children who have been
orphaned, older people.
So we're now able to -- you know, the Red Cross was already there, the National Red -- Nepali Red Cross Society has volunteers in every community,
including those that were affected. So they've been there from day one. And now the rest of our Red Cross team is here helping them, bringing in goods
and equipment and things like that.
GIOKOS: Well, David Fisher, a lot of work to be done on the ground. Thank you for all the effort you're putting on in Nepal. Good to have you on the
show. Much appreciate it.
FISHER: Thank you for having me.
GIOKOS: Well, I want to take you back to the top story now. The judge in Lindsay Clancy's triple murder trial just sent the deadlocked jury back to
deliberations.
Attorney Areva Martin is joining us now live from Los Angeles to speak more about the latest developments in the trial.
And Areva, really good to have you with us. I mean, we saw the heated exchange once again between the defense attorney as well as the judge. You
know, clearly, tensions are rising. What is your assessment of what transpired today as the jury went back in for deliberations, as you're
seeing sort of the deadlock occurring here where you've got one holdout?
AREVA MARTIN, ATTORNEY: Well, clearly the defense attorney has been pushing to have this one juror removed. We learned yesterday on Thursday that there
was one juror, according to the foreperson, that was holding out, refusing to follow the judge's instructions as it relates to finding guilt beyond
reasonable doubt. And that caused the judge yesterday to hold a sidebar between defense counsel and prosecution.
And that's where the defense attorney got very animated, basically screaming during that sidebar, demanding that that one juror be removed.
The judge refusing the request of the defense attorney, brought the jurors in one by one to the sidebar, asking each if they were willing to or would
commit to following the law.
[10:10:01]
Each juror, all 12 of them, including the one holdout, said that they would follow the law. That's what caused the judge to send the jurors back to
continue deliberating. And that's what we're experiencing again this morning. The judge refusing to refuse that one juror saying that as long as
that person commits to following the law, that person has an opportunity and should be allowed to continue deliberating as a part of this larger
jury pool.
GIOKOS: Yes. Yes. And the judge also said he can't remove or dismiss a juror or replace a juror unless there's a personal reason for it because
the application of reasonable doubt, you know, is being applied even though it was questioned.
Help us understand that a little bit more because some are very concerned that we're teetering here on a mistrial.
MARTIN: Yes, it's all turning on this whole concept of reasonable doubt. And that's why the judge reissued the instruction. Massachusetts law, as it
defines reasonable doubt, has this phrase called beyond reasonable doubt to a clear moral certainty. And it's that phrase moral certainty that really
strikes, I think, at the heart of this case. And you've heard lawyers that have tried complex cases in Massachusetts say that they believe they've
won.
Defense attorneys believe they've won their cases because that moral certainty clause in the definition of reasonable doubt. That's a phrase
that a lot of people think is probably hanging up in some ways this jury. Again, we don't know what this juror's issue is with the evidence. The
defense lawyer coming out saying that he believes that the 11 jurors were ready to find his client not guilty. But this one holdout is preventing
that from happening.
Now, we don't know if it's not guilty on the first-degree murder count, if it's not guilty on all counts. But that is what is causing this level of
frustration with this defense attorney.
GIOKOS: So how do you think this is going to transpire in the coming days? I mean, everyone is asking a lot of questions because it seems that a lot
of what we've been hearing, what we've been seeing really hasn't -- you know, there isn't really precedent set for this kind of tension that is
occurring in the courtroom.
MARTIN: Well, we're in day five. Clearly, there's going to become a point at which this judge cannot continue forcing these jurors to go back and
deliberate. And this whole verdict, if a verdict is reached, there is the issue of appeal because you cannot force someone to change their opinion or
to vote just because the majority is voting in one way. That juror, whomever that person is, has an absolute right to hold true to their
conviction as long as they are following the judge's instructions.
And it's very clear that you can follow the judge's instruction and have a difference of opinion about how this case should be determined. And that's
what's so scary about what this judge is doing. This continued forcing them to go back to deliberate. At some point, this juror is likely to say they
were under duress. They were bullied. They were pushed. They were coerced into making a decision that isn't what they otherwise believe was the right
decision to make.
So, at some point today, I cannot imagine that this judge is going to hold this juror -- this jury past the end of the business day today. We have a
holiday coming up on Monday. So I suspect by today we're either going to get another note from this jury that they are hopelessly deadlocked, at
which point the judge is going to declare a mistrial, or they're going to come back and say they've been able to reach a unanimous verdict. Those are
really the only two possibilities I see at this point.
GIOKOS: All right. Areva Martin, thank you so much. Really good to have you on. And of course, we're watching the Lindsay Clancy trial very closely.
We'll bring you updates as they come through.
You're watching CONNECT THE WORLD. And still to come, CNN gets a rare look inside occupied southern Lebanon, where Israeli strikes have flattened
entire villages despite an ongoing ceasefire. That story right after this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[10:16:32]
GIOKOS: The U.S. vice president says America's war with Iran shouldn't even be called a war. A White House briefing Thursday, J.D. Vance claimed there
is no active shooting happening despite three straight days this week of both countries exchanging fire around this region. Vance also would not
forecast a timeline for ending the war when asked about that by CNN's Kaitlan Collins. He said hostilities will end when Iran stops shooting at
ships in the Strait of Hormuz.
We've got Paula Hancocks here with us to discuss this further.
I mean, renewed strikes against Iran this week. Strait of Hormuz still being a flashpoint right now. And you heard J.D. Vance there saying we
shouldn't even call it a war.
PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Exactly, Eleni. And I think there's plenty of people in this region that would disagree with him. I mean,
certainly when you saw what we -- what happened this week, I mean, on Tuesday into Wednesday, there were six hours of U.S. strikes against
Iranian targets, and then you had retaliation against four countries, including the UAE, Jordan, Bahrain, Kuwait. So -- so I think there will be
many that would disagree with that.
But the fact is this showed us what the Trump administration wants to do with this war. And I think we already knew it. They want to move beyond it.
They want it to be something that we don't talk about quite so much. This sort of low level fighting, this familiar pattern and cycle of escalation,
followed by some calm, followed by economic pressure, followed by diplomacy. But certainly what we know is that President Trump has said he
feels under no pressure to try and bring things to a head quickly ahead of the midterm elections.
And so this is what the administration is looking to do at this point. And I think that was really the message we got from there. Now, he did talk
about this economic isolation that the U.S. is trying to do against Iran. This economic D-Day, as the Treasury secretary called it. And he spoke
about Gulf nations doing their part, playing their part in trying to isolate Iran when it comes to not necessarily doing as much business with
them, trying to put this economic stranglehold on them.
Let's listen to what he said.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
J.D. VANCE, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: If you look at Turkey, if you look at Azerbaijan, if you look at UAE, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, a lot of
the Gulf Arab coalition. But if you look all across the world, we're actually seeing a lot of countries. Sometimes they're not willing to say so
publicly, but privately they're doing a lot of good things to help us ensure that the Iranians pay a penalty for firing at commercial shipping.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HANCOCKS: So the UAE has publicly said that they're suspending all financial and trade actions and interaction with Iran. They said that a
couple of weeks ago. But what the U.S. vice president is saying is that there is more cooperation that we don't necessarily know about. Now, of
course, many of these countries would not want to publicly admit that they are assisting the U.S. in this -- Eleni.
GIOKOS: Yes, exactly. And the U.S. can't do it alone in terms of, you know, starting this sort of massive economic pressure on Iran. But I also wonder,
you know, where we're going from here. And I think this is a question for all of us here in the region. Are we going to see further escalation? You
know, is this going to reignite where it moves beyond the Strait of Hormuz? What are analysts telling you right now?
HANCOCKS: Well, we've heard from U.S. officials telling CNN that this is expected to continue, this familiar pattern of escalation, sparks of
violence, followed by some calm.
[10:20:02]
We had two U.S. officials effectively saying that to us because they have seen that Iran has the ability to rebuild. They have seen along the Strait
of Hormuz Iran is being able to reconstitute its capabilities, which is why on Tuesday into Wednesday, according to the Trump administration, they were
focusing on radar systems, which have been rebuilt to some extent, focusing on the capability of laying mines in the Strait of Hormuz, and also, some
of the maritime assets that prevent commercial vessels from traveling through.
So I think the overwhelming feeling is that this is the new normal. This is what we can expect for the near future. And there's no indication that
there's a swift escape from this.
GIOKOS: Yes. I was afraid you were going to say the new normal, sort of this is the state of play, you know, and we kept saying this since the
start. You know, who's going to buckle first? Who's going to endure the biggest pain? You know, whether it's global economy on high oil prices and
gas prices or whether it's going to be Iran. Big questions there.
Paula Hancocks, thank you so much. As always good to see you.
All right. So Israel has released four more Lebanese prisoners as part of ongoing talks with Lebanon. That is according to the International
Committee of the Red Cross. Another detainee had been released on Thursday. Lebanon's president thanked the U.S. for the diplomatic effort that led to
the agreement.
While the release is a welcome step forward near daily Israeli air strikes are keeping southern Lebanon on edge despite an ongoing ceasefire.
According to the Lebanese Health Ministry, more than 4300 people have been killed by Israeli strikes since early March, and the U.N. says more than
350,000 remain displaced since Israeli occupation began.
As Israel continues to target Hezbollah fighters in southern Lebanon, much of the landscape has turned into a near wasteland. CNN joined the Lebanese
Army for a rare inside look at areas where the IDF has withdrawn its forces.
Our Jeremy Diamond reports.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): From this coastal road to the rubble-strewn countryside, you'd be forgiven for thinking this is
Israeli territory. But it's not. This is a rare firsthand look at occupied Lebanon.
We're currently driving through Israeli-occupied southern Lebanon. In fact, we just passed an Israeli military checkpoint. We're in a convoy of
vehicles, dozens of families reaching their homes inside the Israeli zone of control. Three Christian villages where many people are still living,
the only way in or out of this area for these families.
(Voice-over): Israel invaded this area nearly six months ago after Hezbollah, the Iranian-backed militant group that is based here, fired
rockets at Israel for the first time since 2024, retaliating for Israeli strikes on Iran.
We're really close to the Israeli border now and this is all we're seeing. Piles of rubble one home after the other completely destroyed.
(Voice-over): A ceasefire is technically in effect here, yet Israel carries out near daily strikes. Most of this rubble was caused not by airstrikes
but by bulldozers and controlled demolitions, part of Israel's plan to raise every town and village in this area, with only a few exceptions. A
trio of Christian villages have been spared the fate of their Shia Muslim neighbors.
The contrast really is quite striking. We're now inside one of those Christian villages. And as you can see, there is life here.
(Voice-over): But below the surface, life is far from normal. The residents here are surrounded by the ruins of neighboring villages.
So where's Bint Jbeil?
(Voice-over): And the sights and sounds of war. Even 2-year-old Joe recognizes the sounds of jets overhead.
YORGOS MITRI, LIVING IN ISRAELI-OCCUPIED LEBANON (through text translation): What's in the sky? Jets.
DIAMOND: Planes, jets.
(Voice-over): Like many in this Christian village, Yorgos blames Hezbollah, which embedded in the surrounding Shia villages for bringing war to his
doorstep.
MITRI: It's from our side, sure. Can I blame our side?
DIAMOND: What do you mean by our side?
MITRI: Hezbollah and our government. We're living in peace. Nothing happening here. Why we did all of this? And you can see the results.
DIAMOND: When you see their destroyed homes, what do you think? Do you feel like they deserve this? Do you feel like --
MITRI: No, no. Nobody deserve like this. Nobody. Sure, no. And we can't live alone. We need to live all together. And we need our government to be
here and to take responsibilities.
DIAMOND (voice-over): The Lebanese government says it's now trying to do just that, deploying the army to reclaim sovereignty over southern Lebanon
from both Israel and Hezbollah. A task it's trying to accomplish without coming into conflict with either one.
[10:25:01]
COL. RAJA AMER, SOUTH LITANI SECTOR, LEBANESE ARMED FORCES: We need the world to see that we are working in a very dangerous situation and a very
harsh situation.
DIAMOND (voice-over): That danger comes into focus as soon as this soldier begins telling the story of the Israeli strike that killed his comrade.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through text translation): The soldier who died was standing with us here in this position. And I was next to him. He was hit
by shrapnel in his head. And it instantly killed him.
DIAMOND: When you were first deployed to the south -- and that was some kind of Israeli strike close by.
(Voice-over): Despite the ceasefire, Israel has struck the next town over.
So this is at least the fourth Israeli artillery strike that we have heard in this area since we've been here. And we've only been here for about 20
minutes.
How often are you seeing Israeli military strikes like this?
AMER: It's continuous. It's continuous in all the area of operation. As I told you, since the 27th of June framework agreement, we had to know more
than 5,000 attacks. So it's continuous and it's everywhere. In all the sector of the responsibility.
DIAMOND: This is what ceasefire looks like.
AMER: This is what's happening. This is the ceasefire from their side.
DIAMOND (voice-over): The Lebanese Army says 34 of its soldiers have been killed so far this year. Some died in Israeli strikes. Others were killed
by unexploded ordnance.
MAJ. ALI FERRAN, ENGINEERING REGIMENT, LEBANESE ARMED FORCES: In the fifth brigade especially, we had seven soldiers died during EOD missions. So it
is a very risky and dangerous job.
DIAMOND (voice-over): As part of the ceasefire agreement with Israel, Lebanon is working to clear the south of weapons held by non-state actors
like Hezbollah. This fiber optic drone is just one example.
FARRAN: Rockets, missiles, drones missiles, heavy artillery, small grenades, IEDs. We are finding munitions deployed by the Israeli enemy
forces, and we are finding munitions dropped by armed groups from Lebanon.
DIAMOND (voice-over): The scale of the challenge comes into view as we drive through the south, a bastion of Hezbollah support where the group's
flags and martyrs' posters line the roads before arriving in the town of Zawtar al-Gharbiyah. This is a pilot zone where the U.S.-backed framework
agreement between Lebanon and Israel.
Until recently behind Israel's yellow line, the Lebanese army is meant to keep armed militants out. Soldiers now patrol the town, man checkpoints at
its entrances, and monitor military activity from observation posts like this one.
This is really quite striking. You have a Lebanese Army observation post right here. And just a few hundred meters away on the opposite hilltop, an
Israeli military position.
(Voice-over): The pilot zone means some families have been able to return to their homes or whatever is left of them. Here anger at Israel and the
United States for backing it is still raw.
MAHMOUD DARWISH, ZAWTAR AL-GHARBIYAH RESIDENT: This is from Israel, America.
DIAMOND (voice-over): And peace is impossible to imagine.
DARWISH (through text translation): They killed us. They killed our people. They killed our loved ones. They killed our friends. They destroyed our
homes. How do they think they'll ever make peace with us? During five months, the five months of war, I was away from my home and my village. We
fled. We left the village.
I wished, during that period, just for 10, 15 minutes, to return to my home, to smell the land, because this is my land. My land loves me and I
love her. I won't leave her and she won't allow me to leave her.
DIAMOND (voice-over): Darwish barely flinches at the sound of a nearby airstrike.
DARWISH (through text translation): We are here and we will remain here.
DIAMOND (voice-over): It is here, amid displays of defiance, that Lebanon is probing one potential path forward. Here, where Israeli airstrikes still
ring out, where Israeli tanks and Hezbollah flags can still be seen.
AMER: The ultimate objective, the final objective is clear. It's the Lebanese state authority inside the pilot zone strictly.
DIAMOND: But why is the Lebanese Army not going and kicking indoors and confiscating weapons?
AMER: That things needs the full deployment of the army. That needs the full recovery of the south. And that things needs also the ceasefire from
the Israeli side. Doing things in violence against our own people, it will be also with other sequences.
DIAMOND: Lebanon is a country with a history of civil war. Is that one of the reasons why, you know, the Lebanese Army is not being aggressive
against Hezbollah because you want to avoid another civil war?
AMER: I'm saying that we will do this slowly. We will do this in a reasonable way.
DIAMOND: Is it fair to say, though, that one of the Lebanese Army's central tasks is to do all of this in a way that avoids the potential for a civil
war?
AMER: For sure. That is something from the pillar of the thinking of the army. Who will fight the children of this country?
[10:30:01]
But in the same time, we are not going to accept something illegal.
DIAMOND (voice-over): Jeremy Diamond, CNN, southern Lebanon.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
GIOKOS: Welcome back. I'm Eleni Giokos in Abu Dhabi, and you're watching CONNECT THE WORLD. These are your headlines.
A dramatic rescue in Nepal. Two men are alive after spending nine days trapped inside a flooded hydropower tunnel. They were caught up in massive
flooding that swept through the Himalayan country last week. Both of them were pulled to safety earlier today and airlifted to a Kathmandu hospital.
The Trump administration has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to clear the way for restricting mail-in voting. It comes less than two months ahead of
midterm elections and after a long legal fight over the president's executive order instructing the U.S. Postal Service to send mail ballots
only to verified voters.
The deadlocked jury in the triple murder trial of Lindsay Clancy is being sent back for day seven of deliberations. This comes as drama unfolds in
the courtroom after the jury indicated it was split 11 to one. The judge presiding over the case denied the defense's request to question the
holdout juror.
In Germany, a far-right party hopes to win a state election for the first time. Alternative for Germany, the AfD advocate's closer ties to Russia,
its platform also calls for stricter immigration guidelines and seeks to remove war refugee status for Ukrainians in Germany as long as the conflict
remains concentrated in eastern Ukraine.
Fred Pleitgen previews Sunday's closely watched vote.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
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.
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.
[10:35:07]
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.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
GIOKOS: Germany's Volkswagen has announced plans to cut up to 50,000 jobs as part of a historic restructuring. It also is slashing its vehicle lineup
by half. Now the idea is to radically reduce costs as the carmaker is buffeted by rising energy costs, U.S. tariffs, as well as a surge of
competitors coming from China.
Anna Stewart joins us live from London.
Anna, 50,000, an extraordinary number. And also cutting back on its line as well. What more do we know about these numbers?
ANNA STEWART, CNN CORRESPONDENT: So this is all part of Volkswagen's future plan 2030, which actually was sort of earmarked a few months ago, caused a
lot of upset. And what we have today is the result of negotiations with the shareholders, unions, state representatives and so on. So 50,000 job cuts
by 2030, which actually, Eleni, is on top of an already 50,000 job cut that had already been agreed.
So 100,000 in total, which is around 15 percent of Volkswagen's overall workforce. As you say, they're going to reduce the vehicle offerings by 50
percent and also reduce the complexities on offer by 75 percent, which essentially means that when you want to get a customized car, there will be
far fewer options going forwards. There are four plants in Germany that may or may not be closed down.
It looks like they're going to look to see whether there are other things they can make. There is an overproduction issue here. I think over capacity
of 500,000 cars at this point in Europe. Now the AfD, ahead of this election, have certainly pointed to the fact that this is a result of a,
quote, "failed economic and energy policy." Analyst today, of course, point to other issues at the heart of this.
Yes, there is the issue of the E.U. rather than the German federal government pushing automakers to electrify very quickly. They have actually
pushed back on one of the deadlines, which I think was to ban combustion engines by 2030. That has now been pushed back. It's in discussion. There
was obviously a lot of political opposition, but also a huge amount of competition with Chinese automakers in Europe, with Chinese plants in
Hungary and also, of course, some being exported from China.
It has been very hard for the traditional German automakers to compete with much, much cheaper EV models. And customers, of course, quite reluctant as
well to necessarily go electric. Also issues with tariffs in the U.S.. Volkswagen has a huge customer base in the U.S.. It makes 200,000 cars in
U.S. plants, but it exports more than that to the U.S. and actually even more than that from Mexico to the U.S..
So it's facing a huge amount of costs with tariffs. So the writing has really been on the wall here. The one thing not in the plan that we were
slightly expecting was potentially a spinoff on the VW brand. Not in there yet -- Eleni.
GIOKOS: Yes. Big question around whether we'll see consolidation in the sector overall.
Anna Stewart, really good to have you with us. Thank you.
Argentina is ratcheting up tensions over the Falkland Islands after U.S. president Donald Trump declined to say if he would support Britain
maintaining its control over the islands.
[10:40:09]
Britain and Argentina both claim the islands in the South Atlantic and went to war over them in 1982. On Thursday, Argentina's president praised
President Trump for suggesting the U.S. could reconsider its historically neutral stance on the islands. He also announced plans to sanction oil
companies working near the Falklands.
You're watching CONNECT THE WORLD. Still to come, new worries about OpenAI and rogue agents. I'll explain in just a moment.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
GIOKOS: Welcome back. There's word now of another hacking incident involving OpenAI. The Reuters news agency is reporting that rogue agents
took control of a German Web site this spring. The incident is only just coming to light and comes as we are also getting new details about the
recent Hugging Face hack.
Hugging Face hosts open source A.I. data sets. It's prompted debate over A.I. safety and oversight after it was hacked by OpenAI agents that went
rogue, and a new report says there may be more to know about that incident.
Andrew Grill is an A.I. expert and the author of "Digitally Curious," joins us now from London.
Really good to have you with us, Andrew. I'm just going to say I'm digitally anxious right now reading all these stories about these rogue
agents because both of these incidents are quite alarming.
I want you to give me a sense of what we've learned about Hugging Face because frankly it just shows how intricate it was. It shows that there was
sort of sinister personalities that were emerging with these agents. They found a way to communicate with each other. It's pretty scary stuff.
ANDREW GRILL, A.I. EXPERT: It is a bit scary and even I'm a little bit scared now because we're now seeing the powerful -- how powerful these
agents are. But to be clear, the agents went rogue, but they were doing exactly as they're tasked to do. What OpenAI were doing in the Hugging Face
example is they were teaching the systems how to hack into other systems. And so what the systems did, because they've learned from humans that are
very resourceful at hacking into systems, they got in there.
But what I found really interesting for the largest A.I. lab in the world, no one knew what was happening for two months. It went unnoticed, and so it
couldn't be stopped.
GIOKOS: Yes. And then you've got this new story, right? Reuters reporting that OpenAI agents then taking control of a German Web site back in May.
They then find a way to communicate with each other on a Web site where, you know, they -- I mean, I think one analyst said it's like the water
cooler in an office where they're basically embarking on discussions.
What's the sense in terms of OpenAI's willingness for these types of incidents to be investigated?
GRILL: Well, it's quite embarrassing for them because they are wanting to produce these more powerful models, and as I said, they didn't know it was
happening.
[10:45:04]
What they've done is allowed an independent research team to come in and look at what happened. But if you read the recent reporting, they didn't
really allow them full access. They had to stay in the office sometimes until 10:00 at night. They could only look at a week's worth of data. It
really isn't the deep view of what's happened. Now OpenAI in their blog said, you know, kind of we're sorry and we've learned from this.
But I don't know whether any A.I. company has really learned the hard lesson in that if you let an A.I. go out there and do whatever it wants and
it has the power to do that, you need to be monitoring the impact of what happens. And no one has regulated that. And I don't think the companies are
ready yet to actually monitor these very powerful systems. So in that German system, if there was a monitoring of these tests they were doing,
they would have picked up that something was going horribly wrong.
GIOKOS: So what's interesting, and I want to read you this quote, one of the authors of the study on the Hugging Face incident, Ajeya Cotra, said
this, I am not sure what -- sorry, I don't have my glasses on. "I'm not sure that we will get such a clear warning shot before it's too late. This
is honestly just spine chilling. Where do we go from here? Are we sleepwalking into A.I. doomsday?"
What is your response to that? Do you think this is a warning to slow down, to add regulations?
GRILL: It's a warning to any business that has deployed A.I. systems, especially ones where they have autonomous systems, or they can take
control of things. I advise lots of large organizations and boards. I don't think boards are aware of the new risks that now exist. So if an A.I. goes
rogue and as CNN says, what happened, if the board can't say we knew what was going on and we've been able to contain it, that's a real risk.
This is one or two incidents that have happened at OpenAI and other companies. If this started to happen at a bank or a nuclear facility, this
could be catastrophic. So I think everyone listening to this, it's a wakeup call to say, do we have the systems in place? Are we just thinking that the
system is working the way it should work, or is it going rogue? Is it basically trying to do everything in its power to do what it's been asked
to do, even in nefarious ways?
GIOKOS: So, Andrew, look, there's this huge race. I mean, whether it's the building of data centers, whether it's the software, you know, whoever is
going to be coming up with sort of pioneering new ways to implement A.I., Anthropic suggested that there should be a coordinated slowdown of A.I. as
opposed to a race.
Do you think that call will be heeded? Do you think that's likely?
GRILL: Well, we saw earlier in the year when these very powerful models were released, they were so powerful that the U.S. government actually
limited use and access to them. Anthropic had to remove some of their models earlier this year because they realized that in the wrong hands,
they could be very dangerous. I think it's almost a race between A.I. labs. So OpenAI are trying to outdo Anthropic and Meta and all these other
companies.
But I think what they should do -- I say this a lot to clients. Just because you can doesn't mean that you should. So why are they developing
these incredibly powerful models that can go rogue? Why aren't they -- not pausing, but why aren't they looking at a feedback loop so if we do X and
we expect Y, has Y happened or something else? So I think the monitoring is not there.
The regulation, it's very hard to regulate these systems because sometimes they're what we call a black box. You're not quite sure what's going on.
But what this last few months has shown is that it can be unpredictable and the humans can't control it yet.
GIOKOS: Yes. And it feels like it's got a mind of its own. So interesting.
Andrew Grill, great to have you with us. Thank you so much.
All right. This is CONNECT THE WORLD. Coming up next, this weekend, the U.S. could see the highest prices at the gasoline pump ever recorded just
before a major holiday. We'll explain how the Iran war is impacting American travelers. We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[10:50:40]
GIOKOS: So there's nothing like the anticipation of a great road trip. And in the U.S., Americans typically take to the road this Labor Day weekend
for the last big hurrah of summer. CNN meantime has been taking a deep dive into the numbers from the AAA, and they're not pretty. Holiday gasoline
prices for the big weekend mean more pain at the pump.
I want you to take a look at this. Holiday fuel prices hitting $4.15 a gallon today. That's hard on Americans' wallets. It's also another blow to
a drill baby drill U.S. president who campaigned on affordable energy. Now take an average Toyota Camry. It's a common car in the United States. Last
year it would cost $50.56 to fill the tank. This year it is about $65.
AAA is making the situation very clear with a map of the U.S. states with high prices at the pump and want to show you this. Western states are
getting hit the hardest. That's all in the red with California coming in at a stunning $5.80 a gallon.
And then the Trump administration's war with Iran isn't just driving up prices at the pump. Diesel, which is widely used by commercial vehicles
such as lorries or farming vehicles, has climbed to an all-time high, and that is above $5. As you can see, almost $6 a gallon.
And car drivers won't be the only ones feeling the pinch of high prices. If you're traveling by air, you've also probably noticed you're paying way
more for basic fare as well as those baggage add-ons, and that's thanks to sky high jet fuel costs.
We've got CNN's Pete Muntean at the Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport in D.C.. He joins us now live.
Pete, really good to have you there. I'm glad you did a road trip, even though it's just to the airport to report and on assignment. What's
happening on the ground?
PETE MUNTEAN, CNN AVIATION CORRESPONDENT: Well, Eleni, you know, so many people are traveling during this long holiday weekend, but what's so
interesting in the data from AAA is that they say that it doesn't really dampen people's spirit to get out and travel, that the numbers are still
huge. And this is the unofficial end of summer travel here in the United States. Not really, though, going out with some sort of big drop off.
The numbers from the Federal Aviation Administration, 52,000 flights in total handled by U.S. air traffic controllers nationwide today. Hard to
believe that that is actually a smaller number than what we saw yesterday. 54,000 flights handled by U.S. air traffic controllers yesterday, although
today is the number -- the biggest number when it comes to the number of people at airports across the country. TSA says 2.9 million people
anticipated to be screened at airport checkpoints across the country.
The thing to watch, though, today is the weather. This is having an impact not only here in the United States, domestic destinations like Florida, but
right now there is a ground stop because of thunderstorms for flights going into Detroit's airport. That is a huge international hub for Delta
Airlines. So we will see as the day goes on and this begins to trickle down.
You know, one-time delays are only not really in isolation. They move on and on and on and trickle down the line, especially as they start early in
the day. The big tip from those in the know when it comes to travel, try to take the first flight out. We may be at the end of the unofficial summer
travel rush, but we are still meteorologically in summer, meaning that thunderstorms are a huge thing here in the U.S..
GIOKOS: Yes. Yes, there's a domino effect. That's really good advice. Take the first flight in the morning. I should -- that's amazing advice. Thank
you for that.
I want to move on to what we've seen on jet fuel because, you know, it's really been factoring into things. And, I mean, one would anticipate you're
going to pay for your flight, but then you're going to spend less on other things as well. Are you hearing complaints about just the cost of tickets?
MUNTEAN: So many people are just trying to trim where they can, according to AAA, and their latest data says that for a domestic flight this Labor
Day holiday weekend here in the U.S., $750 on average to some of those bigger destinations, $800 for a round trip on average. Airlines have to
swallow the cost somehow, and typically they pass it on to consumers. Jet fuel is their number one expense.
[10:55:01]
The number two expense is labor, and some of the biggest executives at the airline say that they will continue with these high prices for a while
because they know that consumers will pay it and that they know that this will last, at least because of the war in Iran, likely until 2027, they
say. That's their latest forecast. But they have no idea when this conflict is going to end. So it seems that this will stick around at least for a
little while -- Eleni.
GIOKOS: Yes. And passing it down to the consumer. I mean, that's the name of the game.
Are you going away, Pete? Or are you just working the whole weekend and saving some money?
(LAUGHTER)
MUNTEAN: I'm staying at home. I have to work on Monday, Eleni.
GIOKOS: We're saving you. You have to work. I can't go anywhere.
MUNTEAN: Yes. Here is the one last tip I'll give you. This is the official start of shoulder season. Meaning that this is a good time to travel. Now
that summer travel is ending, the costs get lower, things get a little less crowded. The travel experts say autumn is really the time to get out and
go, because things are a little less busy. So I may be targeting a trip then. We'll see.
GIOKOS: You know what? Before I book my flight, I will call you. OK. It seems like I need your advice.
Pete Muntean, always good to see you. Have a great weekend.
MUNTEAN: Keep me on speed dial.
GIOKOS: And that's it for CONNECT THE WORLD -- I will. Stay with us. "ONE WORLD" is up next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
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