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Trump's Next Moves Unclear as Efforts to End Iran War Stall; U.S. Lawmakers Concerned About Lack of A.I. Regulation; Claude Helping Build Its Own A.I. Successor; Republican Campaign Ads Mostly Avoid Mentioning Trump; Russia's First Parliamentary Elections Held Since Ukraine Invasion; Ninth Woman Found Dead in South Africa; Residents in Border Towns Grapple with Unwanted Split of U.S. and Canada; Winemakers Face Uncertain Future Following Scorching Summer; Japan Has Record 100,000 Centenarians. Aired 10a-11a ET
Aired September 18, 2026 - 10:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[10:00:37]
ANNOUNCER: Live from CNN Abu Dhabi, this is CONNECT THE WORLD.
ELENI GIOKOS, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: Welcome to the second hour of the show from our Middle East programing headquarters. I'm Eleni Giokos in Abu
Dhabi.
The Trump administration has approved a potential multibillion dollar sale of Stealth F-35 fighter jets to Saudi Arabia. We'll explain why that's
stirring controversy. And we are following another revelation from an A.I. company that could stoke public anxiety. Anthropic now saying A.I. program,
Claude, leads a quarter of all research and development work in the company.
And a ninth woman has been found dead in Johannesburg as police probe a series of killings in the past two months. I pressed South Africa's
minister for women on what she is doing to stop the violence.
Welcome to the show.
The Trump administration is giving a green light to the potential sale of U.S. F-35 fighter jets to Saudi Arabia. The U.S. State Department says the
sale is worth more than $24 billion. It would hand the Saudis dozens of F- 35 jets and related equipment. Israel has objected to the idea and U.S. law requires Washington to preserve Israel's military edge in the region.
This announcement comes as U.S. President Donald Trump discusses the Iranian regime with Axios, saying this. "I have a big decision coming up.
Do I want to go in and annihilate them, or do I not? It is a big decision. Anything could happen with me."
CNN's Alayna Treene is standing by at the White House.
I mean, quite a few important points here. Let's talk about what we heard from President Trump in that Axios interview using the word annihilation
once again. He's been using inflammatory language multiple times during the span of this war, Alayna. What more are we learning?
ALAYNA TREENE, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes. Look, I mean, where the president -- excuse me, I'm getting a little feedback, Eleni. The president
has, as you mentioned, used a lot of this type of language for months now. But I will say the state of where they are and from the conversations,
Eleni, I've been having with people here at the White House has been for now and definitely until the November midterm elections, they do not want
to see escalation.
Of course, the president wants to leave that on the table. And he still believes, personally, I'm told, that potential -- an increase and more
military action could potentially lead the Iranians back to the negotiating table in a meaningful way. Now, I will say we haven't seen that strategy
work in the past, but there's still a belief that if they go far more aggressive in the military action that they've taken, perhaps that could
turn the tide.
But for now, they've been happy to kind of wait and see. I will say the next big thing, we will, I think, see play out next week that could give us
an indication of where things stand is the president is going to be meeting with many Gulf partners at the U.N. General Assembly in New York City.
We're told that he's going to have a bilateral meeting with Saudi officials, for example, as well. And that could give us a good indication
of what they're telling him about how to proceed with the war.
And, of course, the Saudis, and you mentioned this F-35 sale to them, which is a major deal that potentially could shift the balance of power in the
Middle East. But they are very close with the president and they have -- the president has listened to them when it comes to decisions on how to
proceed with the Iran war. So that could give us a little bit of a sense of where things are going to progress moving forward -- Eleni.
GIOKOS: All right. So another big development is the deadly U.S. strike on an Iranian school. According to the United States, an investigators say
that they have grounds to believe that the United States may have committed a war crime in Iran. What more are we learning about this report? And what
is the Trump administration's response been to this?
TREENE: Yes. So this was a U.N. fact-finding mission that discovered those findings that you just laid out, Eleni, and the report, it was done by an
independent investigators. They say that -- excuse me. They say that it could be used by international courts like the International Criminal
Court. We are expected to see this presented to the U.N. Human Rights Council next week.
[10:05:02]
But these are really focused on some of the attacks we saw the U.S. carry out on Iran toward the beginning of the war. One of them on that school
that the U.S. had said in the past, you know, hasn't actually determined what had happened but has insinuated that perhaps it was an accident. And
then another one as well. I'll lay out for you one -- the first one, the school I'm mentioning found that at least 156 people, including 120
children and 26 teachers, were killed when a missile hit that school.
Again, there have been different variations in the death toll. But this fact-finding mission found that in that case, there was reasonable grounds
to believe that the United States committed the war crime of launching indiscriminate attacks, resulting in the loss of life or injury to
civilians, or damage to civilian objects.
The other attack that they are looking at was a second strike that same day, which hit a sports center in a residential area in the southern city
of Lamerd. That strike killed 22 civilians, according to the U.N.. Now, as for what the Trump administration is saying, we did get a statement from
the State Department. One of their officials told us that the Trump administration does, quote, "not give credibility to findings in this
report."
They also pointed out that President Donald Trump had removed the U.S. from the U.N. Human Rights Council back in February of 2025, just weeks after
taking office. At the time, the president had accused the organization of antisemitism.
I note as well the Defense Department, we did not get a comment from them. They declined to comment, but they did note that there is an ongoing
investigation into the attacks that are cited in this independent U.N. report. I will note as well, the U.S. has still not published they said
they would an investigation into what had happened, particularly with that school attack that left 120 children dead.
We're still waiting to see what their answer will be on that. We have not yet personally gotten a comment, Eleni, from the White House, but I'm sure
we will hear some criticism of this report and particularly next week if it comes up at the U.N. General Assembly.
GIOKOS: All right. Alayna Treene, always good to see you. Thank you.
Congress is failing to make progress on regulating artificial intelligence, according to a key member of a bipartisan task force studying its possible
dangers. That task force has now been disbanded. But Republican Congressman Jay Obernolte is one of a growing number of lawmakers calling for safety
guardrails to be put in place. Take a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. RUBEN GALLEGO (D-AZ): Well, the biggest problem is that they're making A.I. safety a partisan issue. This isn't a partisan issue. I want to work
with the Republicans, Democrats and independents to get A.I. safety and regulation right.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Is this Congress capable of passing meaningful legislation to regulate A.I.?
GALLEGO: This Congress is not. This is why I've been very insistent that we actually get a commission much akin like the 9/11 Commission, where we
bring in experts.
REP. RICH MCCORMICK (R-GA): Let's face it, when the average congressman or senator is getting up there and they have a hard time turning on their cell
phone, and your staff has to figure out how to do things for you, how are we supposed to govern A.I. from that perspective?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GIOKOS: All right. The issue is back in the spotlight after President Trump dismissed warnings about the risks posed by A.I..
Annie Grayer joins us now live from Washington.
Annie, good to see you. So what are we learning about this task force and why Congress is stalling on the issue?
ANNIE GRAYER, CNN SENIOR CORRESPONDENT: So to take you back to December 2024, there was this bipartisan task force that had just put out 85
recommendations, and the top Republican leading that task force, Republican Congressman Jay Obernolte, went to House Republican leadership to say he
wanted to take this a step further. He wanted to create a special committee that would actually be able to draft legislation and bring legislation to
the floor, because, as we know, A.I. touches so many different industries.
And the current setup of Congress would require these bills to really get way, way down in the committee process, that they'd have to be brought up
to individual committees. But sources tell me Republican leadership rejected this idea because they thought the task force that Obernolte led
had completed its work, and that committees of jurisdiction that already existed could take up the recommendations that Obernolte's task force had
put out, and take it from there.
The problem is the ball was really dropped. What we've seen instead is a number of bipartisan proposals that have been introduced, including one
from Obernolte and his Democratic counterpart, Lori Trahan, but they haven't made it through the committee process. They haven't made it to the
floor. In fact, there's even a committee that's passed 10 bills related to A.I., including A.I. security and regulation that's passed out of one of
the House committees.
And that also has been stuck and hasn't made it to the floor. So I spent this week talking to over a dozen lawmakers and sources trying to figure
out why. And there's a couple of key factors here. The first is political will. So when Trump came in to the White House in 2025, he was very pro
A.I.. His administration was not in favor of regulation.
[10:10:02]
They wanted to see this industry develop. They were concerned about the U.S. race against China. But there was also a component of the president
was close with a lot of these A.I. executives. You remember his inauguration a lot of them attended it. A lot of them have donated to his
various construction projects. So that trickled down to Congress, where Republicans were not very pro-regulation.
And there's also this larger conversation going on of what role Congress really has to play here. House Speaker Mike Johnson says he wants to defer
to the industry to put forward the best proposals, and that they know what's best in order what regulations are needed. Democrats say that's a
complete abdication of the role of Congress, and that Congress regulates every other industry, why wouldn't they regulate A.I. as well?
There's also an age component here. I talked to a number of people who said that, look, there are a lot of people who are older, who are serving in
Congress, who don't use A.I. regularly, who are not familiar with the technology and therefore don't understand the pressing need to regulate it.
But the small bipartisan group of lawmakers that do see a path forward say that, you know, lawmakers don't need to be experts in these industries in
order to be able to regulate them. For example, lawmakers don't fly planes, and they still regulate the FAA.
But Democrats really see this as an opening. They are very pro-regulation here. They have said that if they reclaim the majority in the House, they
will make this a front and center piece of their agenda because they really do see Congress having a role to play. Now, lawmakers on both sides of the
aisle, there was a group that wanted to keep the House in session to start working on this more. Now that there's such public attention on the issue
of A.I., they were really hoping that would create some bipartisan momentum in Congress.
But instead, what we saw is House Speaker Mike Johnson sent lawmakers home a day early. And now -- between now and the midterms, there's going to be
no legislation that's going to be passed. There's no -- lawmakers are not in session. They're not working on this issue here in Washington. And so
for voters back home and for people who are seeing the alarm bells being raised by the whistleblowers, by A.I. executives, have real cause for
concern.
But right now, all we can do is wait and see what Congress, if anything, they're going to pass -- they can pass and rise to this occasion, Eleni.
GIOKOS: Yes. Annie Grayer, good to see you. Thank you so much for that update.
Well, as lawmakers struggle to keep pace, the technology is advancing fast. Anthropic says its chatbot Claude is now helping build its own successor
with little or no help from humans.
We've got CNN's Hadas Gold joining us now live in New York with more.
I mean, I just want to repeat this. Chatbot Claude is now helping build its own successor with very little help from humans. So how significant is
this, Hadas? Because it sounds kind of scary.
HADAS GOLD, CNN A.I. CORRESPONDENT: Yes. So to be clear, it's not fully doing it. It still needs a lot of human input. But the amount of the
advancements that it's had in the last few months is significant because, you know, Anthropic put out this chart where they showed that back in
February Claude was doing zero percent of its own research and development, and now they're at 26 percent of the A.I. model's own research and
development is being done by Claude by itself.
And this is all on the path to what's known as recursive self-improvement. This is where these A.I. models will be able to fix themselves, code
themselves, train themselves, all with very little to no human input. On the one hand, that's really cool. Things will advance really fast. They are
really good at being able to find security bugs. You know, you don't need as many humans sitting through going line by line of code.
But the flip side of that is the fear that when the A.I. gets so good at improving itself, that humans will lose the ability to monitor and help
keep tabs on things and make sure that things are going the way we want them to, to avoid an A.I. model going rogue, doing something we didn't
intend for it to do. And so there is this sort of balance of wanting things to be -- to advance because it will get better, but also still wanting to
have humans involved in the loop.
Now, Anthropic has said that, you know, at the fully autonomous level, what they -- what they call AL5, an engineer wouldn't even have to bring an
issue to Claude's attention, and Claude would be trusted to monitor itself, scope itself out, design and implement a fix. And it would still have to
say what it's doing and why, and have to take human feedback when it is offered. But a human wouldn't necessarily have to be involved unless it
wanted to be.
So Anthropic says that it's starting to be much more transparent about where it is on this issue, because it is such an important topic when it
comes to A.I.'s capabilities and how much we as humans will be able to monitor them.
GIOKOS: All right. So, Hadas, we know that you've immersed yourself in this A.I. story, specifically around the doomsday scenarios. So when we say that
A.I. could exterminate humanity, what would that look like? I mean, what are the scenarios that, and probabilities that people are discussing?
[10:15:06]
GOLD: So first of all, to be clear, this is not a widespread held belief by every single A.I. engineer and researcher. A lot of them do feel this way,
but they all have different interpretations of what that will look like. You know, in some extreme scenarios, they're really concerned about A.I.
and bioterrorism or, you know, creating a new biological weapon. We also have to remember that right now to create any sort of biological weapon,
you have to have humans involved or something, someone involved to help create the actual virus in the lab.
The A.I. does not yet control the robot. So a lot of those people who have fear about bioweapons, they're talking about, you know, years in the future
when the robots get good enough, when the humanoid robots get good enough and they're controlled by an A.I. system in a lab, who can then create it
there. The more kind of, I hate to say realistic fear that people have is it's a slower, smaller step that could happen little by little where as we
have A.I. models running things like governments, like cities, that they make certain small decisions that will have, you know, after on effects
that will then affect all of us.
They might affect what health insurance you get, what -- you know, what medical procedure is approved for you. They might affect the levels of
chemicals in our water supply, things like that, that people are very concerned about. And then obviously, there's the more immediate concern
that I think is completely widespread. And these are bad guys getting access to these really advanced A.I. models and carrying out really, you
know, terrible cyber security hacks of everything from governments to financial systems or also rogue A.I.s when the humans unintentionally set
them off on potential hacks, like what we saw in Hugging Face.
But instead of an A.I. company being hacked, it would be, you know, the Philadelphia water system or something like that.
GIOKOS: Well, three scenarios you've played out there that just sound absolutely awful.
Hadas, we appreciate that clarity. Good to see you, Hadas Gold. Have a great weekend.
All right. We are just 64 days until the U.S. midterm elections and President Donald Trump has repeatedly made this plea to American voters.
Pretend I'm on the ballot. The one place his name has not been popping up, Republican campaign ads, as CNN analysis shows Republicans aired more than
500 TV ads between September 1st and the 15th. Just 12 mentioned the U.S. president.
I spoke to CNN's Jeff Zeleny about why last hour.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JEFF ZELENY, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: His name is not on the ballot, but Democrats are sure trying to put his policies, agenda, and
overall job approval rating on the ballot. But this analysis is quite interesting because it really shows what is really happening underneath the
surface here with about six weeks to go before the U.S. midterm elections.
Republicans have some strategic choices here about where they are spending their money here, and as you said, just 12 of 500 ads in some of the top
races are mentioning the president at all by Republicans. But Democrats on the other side are mentioning him constantly in many of these top Senate
races. They're trying to tie him to these Republican candidates, tie them to the unpopular Iran war, tie them to the economy, other things.
So, what is also interesting, it's not just Republican candidates distancing themselves from the president, which we see in election after
election with an unpopular president. It's Trump's own political network, his own top advisers, his own brain trust, if you will, deciding that he's
not the best messenger. In talking to those Republican strategists, one said, look, the president is not the right message or the right messenger
at this time.
So it really underscores how much of a liability he is. However, the Republican strategy is also to overwhelm Democrats with money, and that is
happening in every Senate race in America, with the exception of Georgia. Republicans have a spending advantage. They are using their money to try
and knock down, attack, disqualify these Democratic Senate contenders.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
GIOKOS: Well, the former Republican governor of Kansas is speaking out about the direction of today's Republican Party. And he tells CNN why he's
crossing party lines and endorsing a Democratic candidate over the Republican incumbent in the high stakes Kansas Senate race.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BILL GRAVES, FORMER REPUBLICAN KANSAS GOVERNOR: The Republican Party to me today feels like sort of a bad frat party. Everybody is sort of just full
of this joy and enthusiasm about how great things are going. And they're not -- they're not really grasping the struggles that are going on every
day for everyday Americans. I mean, we have lots of problems in this country and the Republicans are not manning up in dealing with them.
And right now, the Republicans in Congress have simply given away, have walked away from their responsibility to be the check and balance against
this executive branch. And that is wrong. And it needs to be rectified.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
[10:20:07]
GIOKOS: Well, I want to discuss this more. And we're joined by Republican strategist and former RNC communications director Doug Heye.
Really good to see you, Doug. Thanks so much.
DOUG HEYE, REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST: Thank you.
GIOKOS: Look, I want to start off with your thoughts on how Republicans are approaching the midterms so far, and they're taking their distance from
Trump. But also, if you buy Bill Graves' point in that soundbite we just heard, not doing much to stand up to him. How do they walk that line?
HEYE: It's a very difficult line to walk. And some of this is very normal. I've experienced this in elections I've worked in where the incumbent
president wasn't popular. The 2006 midterms in George W. Bush's presidency was tough for Republicans because Bush was so unpopular. But here's the
difference. In 2006, the Senate campaign I was working on, we could be critical of President Bush and of his policies.
We'd have conversations with the RNC and the senatorial committee, and they would always say, we don't love this, but you got to do what you got to do.
The difference is Donald Trump, he doesn't take that attitude with anybody. And it's going to be very interesting to see for those Republicans who have
spoken out whether or not Donald Trump goes after them. Obviously, you know, there's a new ad for from a Florida Republican congresswoman.
Does Donald Trump go after her or not? And it's the fear that Republicans have of what Donald Trump can do to undercut them with the Republican base.
GIOKOS: Yes. I just also want to step back on what we've been covering these past few minutes. I mean, President Trump is dealing with an
intractable war in Iran. I mean, it's causing serious global economic pain, and even in the United States, with gas and diesel prices. There's panic
about A.I.. There's his historic low approval ratings. I mean, the numbers are really interesting, 36 percent, according to CNN's Poll of Polls.
But do you get the sense that any of that is sinking in?
HEYE: Oh, I think it's all sunk in for voters. Clearly, what we've seen with Trump's approval ratings is that they've fallen time after time. They
just get a little bit lower each time. And the reason for that are two main issues. The economy and immigration. Both of those issues were really
Donald Trump's bread and butter. He was the businessman who was going to fix the border.
And the reality is his numbers are below on both. And obviously, if you look at A.I., it's a real driving concern and data centers, real driving
concerns that speaks to the nervousness that voters have.
GIOKOS: But, Doug, do you believe that it's sinking in for President Trump and his administration, that this is the reality they're contending with,
that the economy is not doing well?
HEYE: People in the administration certainly know it. The difference is Donald Trump is walled off and sealed from reality in a way that, look,
every president has sealed off from that to some level. With Donald Trump it's much more so. And the more time he spends on things that are important
to him, say, the Kennedy Center and not important to voters really drives that divide even further.
GIOKOS: All right. So, the United Nations General Assembly occurring next week. We know that President Trump is going to be meeting with President Xi
of China, as well as other Gulf leaders to discuss potential off-ramp. I mean, who knows where this is going? The Iran war is causing major issues.
It's going to be consequential.
What are you expecting and how will he be positioning himself in those conversations?
HEYE: Sure. I was at the Polish Economic Forum in Karpacz, Poland last week, and I can tell you every single conversation touched on what the
United States is doing in Iran, and then also what that means globally, not just for gas prices, but Russia and China and how they're trying to try to
triangulate with the U.S.. Real serious questions going in. And we know how Donald Trump reacts to strong leaders.
President Xi is somebody who we've seen Donald Trump say, well, he was nice to me, and we got along and things that other presidents wouldn't really
talk about. Donald Trump will probably try and do some of that in the UNGA week next week as well. But again, speaking to those concerns I heard at
the Polish Economic Forum, he's not going to address those in a broader sense. And it's why our allies still are nervous and growing more nervous
every day.
GIOKOS: All right. Doug Heye, great to have you with us. Thank you so much.
HEYE: Thank you.
GIOKOS: Well, you're watching CONNECT THE WORLD. And still to come, Russians vote in their first parliamentary elections since the Ukraine war
began. Ukraine has dismissed them as a farce. We'll bring you an update on those in just a moment.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[10:26:49]
GIOKOS: Voting is underway in Russia and the country's first parliamentary elections since its full scale invasion of Ukraine. A short time ago
President Vladimir Putin cast his vote electronically from the Kremlin. Critics have dismissed the election as a sham, citing a lack of real
opposition.
Clare Sebastian has more.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CLARE SEBASTIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: This is not a Democratic exercise in its true sense, but that doesn't mean that the Kremlin doesn't still rely
on public support or at the very least public acceptance or frankly apathy in some cases to their rule. And in particular, when it comes to the war.
So what we saw in the lead up to this election was the removal of real opponents before they actually went to the polls.
So Yabloko, which is the only anti-war party that remained on the ballot, was barred in a court case in August. There were other candidates labeled
foreign agents and things like that, and that meant that they could carry out this vote with the trappings of democracy, this sort of theatrical
show, and then claim legitimacy for that.
And Putin laid out in his speech on Wednesday exactly what he wanted to get out of this vote. Take a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
VLADIMIR PUTIN, RUSSIAN PRESIDENT (through translator): Your choice and your will will once again demonstrate that millions of people are behind
our soldiers, that we are a united people bound together by shared values, historical memory, and love for our homeland.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SEBASTIAN: Well, I mean, of course it will show that the people are behind Russia's soldiers because they have no option to not vote for a party that
is behind the war. So I think you see the sort of farcical nature of this, but as we said, still matters to the Kremlin. And look another way they are
trying to legitimize their war through this vote is by holding voting in areas of occupied Ukraine that the Kremlin has claimed to annex.
I think we can show you some pictures there. This is -- there has been early voting in these regions. And the images that are emerging really show
the true nature of these men in military fatigues and masks carrying ballot boxes into rural areas. Ukraine is obviously very concerned about this. The
Foreign Ministry has labeled it a farce and an illegal spectacle.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
GIOKOS: All right. Thanks for Clare Sebastian there.
I want to get you up to speed on some other stories that are on our radar right now.
At least 16 people have been killed in a suicide attack on a mosque, and police officers in northwest Pakistan, close to the Afghan border. A car
loaded with explosives rammed into an outer wall as people were praying. Five police personnel are among the dead.
Police in the Southern Philippines say at least two people were killed and eight wounded in a school shooting. It happened at a high school in Banga,
on the island of Mindanao. All the victims were teenage students. Provincial officials say the 16-year-old gunman also killed himself.
Right. Still to come, South African police find a ninth woman's body as they investigate a series of killings around Johannesburg over the past two
months. I'll bring you my interview with the country's minister for women. That is coming up next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[10:32:19]
GIOKOS: Welcome back. I'm Eleni Giokos in Abu Dhabi. These are your headlines.
A major arms deal is in the works between the U.S. and Saudi Arabia. The Trump administration says it is willing to sell F-35 fighter jets to
Riyadh. Congress must still approve the more than $24 billion deal. Under U.S. law, Washington is required to ensure that Israel maintains a military
edge over other countries in the region.
There's another revelation from an A.I. company, which could fuel more public anxiety. Anthropic now saying A.I. program, Claude, leads a quarter
of all research and development work in the company. Anthropic adds that Claude is now helping to build its own successor with little or no human
help.
Russians are voting in the country's first parliamentary elections since its full scale invasion of Ukraine. The ruling United Russia Party is
widely expected to win a majority, and the country's only anti-war party has been barred from running. Ukraine has dismissed the vote in Russian
occupied areas of Ukraine as a farce.
South African police have found a young woman's body near Johannesburg, the ninth recovered in two months. Police have not confirmed whether the cases
are linked, but say they cannot rule out the possibility of a serial killer. Investigators say many of the victims were women between 20 and 40.
Several bodies were found partially undressed and showed signs of sexual assault.
Now, one of the cases, Elizabeth Moselakgomo went for a run in Johannesburg last week, leaving her 8-year-old daughter at home. When she failed to
return, her daughter alerted relatives. Hours later Moselakgomo, of course, police were on the lookout for her. A few days later, they discovered her
body. Moselakgomo's disappearance went viral very quickly and it triggered an outpouring of rage, of fear and anger across South Africa.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
NOMGQIBELO TSHABALALA, COMMUNITY MEMBER (through translator): I'm feeling a lot of fear and paranoia, especially for those of us with daughters. My
daughter took an Uber yesterday and I couldn't sleep worrying. Then I heard about this incident on the radio this morning and I became even more
afraid.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GIOKOS: All these killings are unfolding in a country already grappling with the crisis of violence against women. The United Nations estimates
that around 15 women are killed every day in South Africa. And according to the country's crime statistics, 569 women were killed between April and
June of just this year.
I spoke with South Africa's minister for women, youth and people with disabilities, Sindisiwe Chikunga, and asked her about what else we know
about this investigation. Take a listen.
[10:35:09]
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SINDISIWE CHIKUNGA, SOUTH AFRICA MINISTER FOR WOMEN, YOUTH AND PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES: We can't answer the question right now on whether there's a
serial killer or not. What we, however, know is that there is an arrest of one person for the person who was killed in July in the area, and that
person is an intimate partner of that woman who was murdered. A police are making a -- they are following leads on other matters. However, I think it
is still early for one to state whether there is a serial killer or not.
I must indicate that of the nine bodies that were reported, five are still unidentified, and therefore and nobody has reported them as missing, which
of course will create problems for the investigators.
GIOKOS: Yes. Minister, there's a lot that's going on right now. I think one of the questions that is being asked is, you know, why did it take for
Elizabeth Tsontos Moselakgomo's murder to create outrage, to go viral for the police to say, look, we've got an issue in Ekurhuleni in Johannesburg,
for there to be a real investigation and start exploring whether there is a serial killer, whether these murders are, in fact, linked in any way?
CHIKUNGA: Well, of the nine cases that we speak about, only two were reported to the police as missing persons. Only two of the nine. And
therefore seven cases were not reported as missing person. Amongst those that were reported, Tsontos, the one you're talking about. And therefore
they had to follow up on the leads because the missing person was reported. On others, they discovered the bodies in the fields being dumped as they
are investigating other cases.
And that is why maybe the investigation is happening after you have discovered the body, because first, you don't know that that person has
been murdered. And secondly, you don't know that that person is missing. And that is why we probably have a situation like it is right now.
GIOKOS: In 2025, President Ramaphosa declared GBV a national disaster. And the question becomes, since it has been endemic, it's been going on for a
very long time, what is going to change now after these cases to move the needle on femicide?
CHIKUNGA: In fact, if you look at the Human Science Research council, what the Human Science Research Council said to us is that more than 2.1 million
women have survived sexual violences in their lifetime, and it further said that at least one in three women in South Africa has experienced gender
based violence by an intimate partner, or anybody else. It further indicated to us that at least not more than three women are killed in South
Africa every day.
That is the study that was conducted as a baseline. Now, if you look at that, there is so much that has been done. I was actually saying that
following the approval and the signing of the national strategic plan on gender based violence, that has an implementation plan. We've looked into
our legislation and we strengthened our legislations. For instance, in South Africa, if you have committed any gender based violence and femicide
crime, particularly rape or murder of a woman or assault with intent to do grievous bodily harm, you are not easily to be considered for bail.
And also, we have said, for crimes such as rape and murder of a woman, the sentence should at least be life sentence. And we've gone on to look into a
correctional services legislation to say it should not be easy to grant parole on such a --
GIOKOS: Minister, are those -- are those new policies being implemented? Because some of the ones that you mentioned were actually legislation in
2021. So that's not new. Is there anything new that you're doing in terms of ensuring that these are implemented adequately?
CHIKUNGA: In fact, if you look at the number of life sentences right now in South Africa, they've increased a lot. So we're seeing a lot of life
sentences being handed down to perpetrators. It is happening. The problem is that we do have drivers of gender based violence and femicide.
[10:40:02]
And these are in terms of research conducted not by government but by research institutions that might include even in universities or private
sector institutions. The issue of drugs and the issue of alcohol abuse is regarded as one of the drivers. The issue of availability of firearms is
regarded as one of the drivers of gender based violence and femicide. As a matter of fact, the study is saying 65 percent of gender based violence and
femicide in our tertiary institution is related and linked to drug abuse and alcohol abuse.
GIOKOS: Given that South Africa has been dealing with some of the highest rates of intimate femicide, of femicide, of gender based violence, you
know, women are reporting that they're afraid to leave their homes. They're saying the grass is too long in certain areas. It creates risks. There
aren't any cameras. There aren't enough law enforcement in the street knowing that this is a continuous issue in all parts of the country, not
just one part of Johannesburg.
CHIKUNGA: Maybe let me start by saying domestic gender based violence and femicide is not only South African problem, it's a global problem.
GIOKOS: It is, but South Africa has some of the highest rates. It's five times higher than the rest of the world.
CHIKUNGA: Yes. Yes, in other countries as well. And to be honest, we have not taken long to do these things. We are a developing country, not a
developed country. We don't have all the resources. However, where we have identified that there are there is a need for us to intervene. We have done
that and that is why on the ground we have data collectors. We have data capturers who inform us about hotspot areas.
We have rapid response teams on the ground who are able, where possible, to talk to identify potential houses where gender based violence and femicide
can happen. I must indicate again that the study that was conducted in South Africa indicated that it's intimate partners in the case of gender
based violence and femicide are actually the one that made gender based violence so prevalent in South Africa.
And when that happens, it happens behind closed doors. And that is why sometimes it's very difficult and very complex for us to deal with such
issues. But I must indicate that there is a lot of work that has gone into gender based violence and femicide. Not only supported by ourselves, but
even some international bodies, international countries that are assisting South Africa to deal with the issue of gender based violence and femicide.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
GIOKOS: Right. So that was the minister of women and youth in South Africa. The country are really just shaken by the spate of killings in a
concentrated area around Johannesburg. But importantly, women feel that not enough is being done to deal with gender based violence that has been
plaguing the country for a very long time.
Right. We're going to a very short break. We're going to be right back after this. Stick with CNN.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[10:45:18]
GIOKOS: The strained relations between the United States and Canada are being keenly felt in border towns in the state of Vermont and the province
of Quebec.
CNN's Omar Jimenez spoke to residents on both sides of the border about the unwanted split.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: So Lake Ontario, that's gone. Lake America.
OMAR JIMENEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The U.S. and Canada relationship hitting some new lows.
TRUMP: I can tell you this, you know, Canada has been ripping off the United States for many, many years, for decades.
JIMENEZ (voice-over): Online, the U.S. president posted this image, beating up the Canadian prime minister in hockey. While offline, the two countries
are locked in an escalating trade war as President Trump now threatens outright bans on Canadian products on top of the 50 percent tariffs on more
than $20 billion of Canadian goods, which Canada is now matching dollar for dollar. And these Americans aren't upset about.
SHARON CAMPBELL, DERBY LINE, VERMONT RESIDENT: I don't know what else is going to work with that man, but --
JIMENEZ: So, you're glad that Canada is fighting back with retaliatory tariffs?
S. CAMPBELL: I kind of -- yes, absolutely.
JIMENEZ: Yes. Yes.
S. CAMPBELL: I don't blame them at all.
JIMENEZ (voice-over): The U.S.-Canada border runs right through Wayne and Sharon Campbell's Vermont house.
WAYNE CAMPBELL, DERBY LINE, VERMONT RESIDENT: This part of the border will be in Canada. The pond, the Border Patrol has three cameras on the
property. I could walk out there, but I can't leave my property into Canada. I have to go through a border.
JIMENEZ (voice-over): In the small border town of Derby Line, Vermont, you can't separate the United States and Canada, regardless of politics. Even
their library is split in half by the U.S.-Canada border.
Driving this town, the one thing you cannot miss is the U.S.-Canada border checkpoint. I mean, it basically funnels you right into that middle of
town. The town on the other side of the border is Stanstead.
(Voice-over): Karin Cantin owns the Auberge Le Sunshine Bakery there.
KARIN CANTIN, OWNER, AUBERGE LE SUNSHINE CAFE BISTRO: It's almost 50 percent of our customers come from U.S.
JIMENEZ (voice-over): She says she's been seeing more lately, like these women on a group biking trip.
MARIANNE EATON, VERMONT RESIDENT VISITING CANADA: We thought, OK, we got to pull together and support our Canadian friends, and we could have chosen
any place.
JIMENEZ: Do you find yourself apologizing to Canadians?
AIMEE MOTTA, VERMONT RESIDENT VISITING CANADA: It's true. And when I do meet someone who's Canadian who's come to Vermont to visit, I thank them.
But the sadness is heavy.
JIMENEZ (voice-over): But the cross-border visits haven't been reciprocal.
CANTIN: It's like our way to tell to the politics say we are not agreeing with that.
JIMENEZ (voice-over): Starting in February 2025, U. S. Customs data shows arrivals to the U.S. from Canada at this Derby Line port of entry declined
every month for 13 months straight compared to monthly arrivals in the previous year.
JANICE BEADLE, DERBY LINE, VERMONT RESIDENT: I've lived on this border for 72 years.
JIMENEZ: Why are you also flying the Canadian flag here?
BEADLE: Why?
JIMENEZ: Yes.
BEADLE: I feel just as loyal to the Canadian side growing up here my whole life.
JIMENEZ: Yes, where Canada is quite literally just across the street.
BEADLE: It's just across the street, right there.
JIMENEZ: How would you say business here has changed over the past year?
LORALEE TESTER, DIRECTOR, NORTHEAST KINGDOM CHAMBER OF COMMERCE: It's been stressful because it's unpredictable. The tariffs have been really
challenging to navigate. Where I see the greatest hit is in all of our businesses related to tourism and then that manufacturing piece because
that is, again, like I said, the consistent backbone of our economy.
CANTIN: It's sad for everybody. We hope that it's just a few years.
JIMENEZ (voice-over): Back with the Campbells.
W. CAMPBELL: So if I sit here to do any kind of work at all, I'm in Canada.
JIMENEZ (voice-over): They're a house divided by border, but they still believe in unity.
W. CAMPBELL: They're our closest ally, and it's become a mockery.
S. CAMPBELL: We're just, we're loving and honoring. It's those guys in Washington that are screwing everything up. I almost said --
JIMENEZ (voice-over): Omar Jimenez, CNN, Derby Line, Vermont.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
GIOKOS: Great report there from Omar.
All right. We're going to a very short break. Stick with CNN. I'll be back right after this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[10:51:12]
GIOKOS: So wine production in France is facing an uncertain future. Just the news you need ahead of the weekend. And that is after the country's
brutally hot summer gives way to, like, production.
CNN's Melissa Bell spoke to winemakers. Let's take a look.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MELISSA BELL, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Never had the harvest started this early in Saint Julien. In the Medoc region, as
elsewhere, France's hottest summer on record is changing wine and producing smaller, thicker-skinned grapes.
DAMIEN BARTON, CHATEAU LEOVILLE BARTON: Because there's little juice, of course, the effort we put in a vineyard is divided by the volume we get out
of it. So the cost of production for a single bottle of wine will be through the roof. For the consumer side, it's wonderful. For the producer
side, it's going to cost us a lot of money to produce a single bottle.
BELL (voice-over): And times have been tough for producers of Bordeaux wines for a while, partly because the world is thinking much less of it
than it did.
ROBERT JOSEPH, WINE EXPERT AND INDUSTRY ANALYST: In the 1980s, there were 20,000 individual Bordeaux estates. Today, there are around 5,000, although
it's probably 4,900 and whatever, and we're losing them probably at the rate of one a day. They're either up between the vines or being swallowed
by the next-door vineyard.
BELL (voice-over): Fewer drinkers of Bordeaux wines means that only those properties at the very top end can continue to thrive, and amongst them, at
the celebration of last year's Beaujolais Spring, the word was already of a small but excellent 2025 vintage and a very tight market.
BRUNO BORIE, OWNER OF CHATEAU DUCRU-BEAUCAILLOU: People are drinking certainly less. They are more concerned, but they want to drink better all
the time. So we are probably in the -- on the right side of the consumption.
BELL (voice-over): At the top end, global warming has been driving change for some time. Here at Chateau Siran, the oldest bottles are more than 100
years old. Now the wines can be drunk sooner.
EDOUARD MIAILHE, CHATEAU SIRAN: The fruitiness of the berries is so lively, and the vinification process have improved so much that the Bordeaux wines
were in the past a bit hard, a bit difficult that needed --
BELL: They need the time.
MIAILHE: Time. Now, you can open a bottle of wine. In the -- I always say in the five years following the bottling.
BELL (voice-over): So good news for those who can continue to adapt to a more challenging market and more challenging weather.
SASKIA DE ROTHSCHILD, CEO OF CHATEAU LAFITE ROTHSCHILD: We see a trend that goes towards more heat and a little bit less water in the spring and in the
summer, which means we're harvesting almost 10 days earlier than we were 20 years ago.
BELL: Wow.
ROTHSCHILD: So it's really moving the needle.
BELL (voice-over): That needle moved further still this summer, with 53 days of heatwave conditions making the 2026 harvest even smaller than the
last.
BARTON: This cost of production will start to hit even the higher wines because the cost of production is so high. So this global warming will
impact everyone. They're not just a consumers' problem about volume of wine drank per year, even trends about wine regions. It's really, it's global
warming, literally.
BELL (voice-over): Which likely means more challenging times ahead, even for those chateaus still able to carry the cost of making great wines
despite the heat.
Melissa Bell, CNN, Saint-Julien.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
GIOKOS: OK, so I love this story. 100th birthday parties are becoming more common in Japan. For the first time ever, the number of people aged 100 or
older has passed 100,000 in Japan.
Hanako Montgomery met one 103-year-old who is still working.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
HANAKO MONTGOMERY, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Fuku Amagawa is 103 years and seven months old, and she still works five days a week.
[10:55:04]
FUKU AMAGAWA, CENTENARIAN (through translator): I'm truly happy. It's wonderful to still be able to work even at 103.
MONTGOMERY (voice-over): Her specialty is making ramen at a shop she and her family opened six decades ago.
Oh, looks so delicious.
(Voice-over): Amagawa is just one of over 100,000 centenarians in Japan, a new national record. Experts say the country's healthy diet, low obesity
rates, and universal healthcare are some reasons why people here live so long.
But Japan's overall population is shrinking. The birth rate is at a record low, leaving few workers to support a growing elderly population.
(Voice-over): But Amagawa isn't ready to retire just yet. Most Japanese aged 100 or over are women like her. And while scientists don't exactly
know why, Amagawa has her own theory.
AMAGAWA (through translator): Maybe it's our willpower. I think men rely too much on women and say, I'm too old to do things now.
MONTGOMERY (voice-over): She tells me she has a few tips for living long, drinking a beer every night. Eating a lot. And most importantly to find a
reason to get up every morning.
Hanako Montgomery, CNN, Tokyo.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
GIOKOS: OK, I've written those three tips down. Beer, eating and then walking.
That's it for CONNECT THE WORLD. Stay with CNN. I'm Eleni Giokos. "One World" is up next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
END
