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One World with Zain Asher
Fires Burning in Spokane County Have Zero Percent Containment; The Return Home After Wildfire Evacuations In Greece; Todd Blanche's Attorney General Nomination Advances To Full Senate; What The "Identifiable Victim Effect" Means For Politics; FBI Agent Accused Of Stealing $900K In Digital Currency; Ariana Grande Spoke To Fans About Her Plans To Step Back; Top A.I. Companies At White House For Talks Today; "No Influencers" Sign Outside Nantucket Store Sparks Debate; Aired 12-1p ET
Aired August 04, 2026 - 12:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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BIANNA GOLODRYGA, CNN ANCHOR: The second hour "One World" starts right now.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: My family barely got out of this alive.
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GOLODRYGA: The federal government has just granted an emergency declaration for the state of Washington. We'll speak with the governor about what comes
next.
ZAIN ASHER, CNN ANCHOR: Plus, full steam ahead. Todd Blanche passes a key hurdle on his road to attorney general.
GOLODRYGA: And later, a step back from visibility. Ariana Grande addresses her decision to take a break from center stage.
All right. Mass evacuations are in place as wildfires tear through parts of Washington State. The commanding general of the Washington National Guard
describes the scene as a war zone.
And this hour, crews are battling more than a dozen fires. So far, more than 260,000 acres have burned. Temperatures are expected to climb this
week, and that will likely create even more dangerous conditions.
ASHER: Police say a man has now been arrested and charged with arson. This is in connection with one of the wildfires raging in Spokane, Washington.
The state of Oregon also faces a devastating crisis as well.
One of the largest fires in the state this year is in the Rowe Creek. The Rowe Creek complex fire, that wildfire alone has burned around 325,000
acres. So many of the people being evacuated are seeing their lives change in just an instant.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KERRY ZIMMER, LOST HOME IN FIRE: Luckily, Jim took photos of every single room before we left, so we can see that and really remember everything.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes. Yes.
ZIMMER: I know. I know. I'm sorry. I'm sorry.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ASHER: And as we just mentioned, one man is being held on suspicion of first-degree arson.
GOLODRYGA: Yes. The sheriff of Spokane County says that the notion that one of these wildfires was set intentionally only adds to the devastation his
community is going through.
Marybel Gonzalez is in Spokane with the latest.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MARYBEL GONZALEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good afternoon, Zain and Bianna.
We are in a neighborhood in Spokane, Washington, affected by the Old Trails Fire. We now have a suspect in connection with starting it. We're talking
about 37-year-old Erin Farinacci. He was arrested Monday afternoon. And this is all thanks to a witness who reported suspicious activity when law
enforcement reported to the scene. They were able to determine that where that man had been standing is where they believe that this fire started.
Now, the sheriff here in Spokane says he was previously convicted of manslaughter in Arizona. He is expected to be in court today and he is
being held on a $1 million bond.
Meanwhile, residents here are forced to face this devastating situation that's been described as a war zone. And you can certainly see why.
One home that you see here behind us has been completely devastated, reduced to rubble with just a few structures still standing.
But right next to that home is a neighbor, still standing, still intact, at least from what it appears on the outside. And this is the situation that
so many residents are going to have to face, that they don't know what their home looks like, how it was affected by these fires.
Another home around this same cul-de-sac, also completely destroyed. And as you can see, there's a car that has been just charred to its frame, parked
in what used to be a garage.
There are tens of thousands of people who had to flee, had to leave everything behind and get to safety. We know at least 700 structures have
been impacted with 10,000 more potentially at risk, as authorities say these fires could continue for the next few weeks.
[12:05:03]
Right now, they are at zero percent containment. And another threat to their firefighting efforts is the rise in temperatures that we're expecting
to see in the coming days.
Reporting in Spokane, Washington.
I'm Marybel Gonzalez.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ASHER: With us now live is the governor of Washington State, Bob Ferguson. Bob -- Governor, thank you so much for being with us.
I just want to say, I am so sorry for what the people in your state are going through right now. I mean, I can't even imagine the -- the -- the
trauma, the grief, the fear, the loss, just all of the emotions that people are experiencing right now.
But I -- I -- I do want to start by talking about the firefighters. We had our weather correspondent speaking to me about half an hour or so ago. And
he was saying that, yes, you have about a thousand firefighters doing what they can to battle this blaze, but a lot of these firefighters are
experiencing losing their homes themselves. They're going through this just like everybody else, you know.
What -- what do you want us to know about a lot of these folks who are risking their lives battling these fires? They're physically and
emotionally exhausted working round the clock. What do you want us to know about some of these folks who are risking their lives to protect everybody
else?
GOV. BOB FERGUSON (D-WA): Well, first, thanks for having me on. And I appreciate your expressions around the grief and the loss and the trauma,
which is very real right now for many, many Washingtonians.
I just returned last night from two days in Spokane and eastern Washington. And in conversations, I was in the room with first responders who were
literally had their home evacuated, wasn't exactly sure what the status was, perhaps of their home. And yet, they're still there, heroically,
really dealing with a situation that is still very dynamic.
But truly, you know, historically speaking, this is a very dire situation. You've seen those images. It is actually described as a war zone there. And
it's hard to put in the words just how devastating the loss is right now.
GOLODRYGA: We just heard Governor from two of your residents there. And it is palpable just the emotion and they are the lucky ones, obviously. And
thankfully, you have not reported on any deaths at this point, but people losing their homes, their valuables, and not knowing if they can rebuild is
all top of mind for them right now.
And as I know it is for you, but first and foremost, it's getting these fires contained. I know that the federal government has just approved your
request for an emergency declaration. Three of these fires are at zero percent containment.
Your deputy fire chief says that they could burn for weeks on end now. Yes, it must be relief to hear that the federal government has approved this
emergency declaration.
But in terms of a major disaster aid from the federal government that will likely be needed for so many of these residents, what is your request at
that level?
FERGUSON: Right. Right. So, of course, we're making a request that will take some time to pull together the entire extent of the damage that
typically takes some period of time.
We are grateful, however, that emergency declaration was granted right away. That will help us with things like temporary shelter, medical
supplies, search and rescue, all things we really need right now.
I just want to say like this -- just so your viewers are aware that devastation they see, these are literally neighborhoods in the city of
Spokane. It's a city of about 230,000 folks. More than 60,000 had to be evacuated.
But these are just neighborhoods right there in the city that have been entirely wiped out. When I stay in Spokane, which I do frequently, I don't
stay at a hotel. I stay at a home that is about -- was evacuated and very close to where that damage is.
My daughter's played in softball tournaments in that neighborhood. That field has been impacted. It is truly devastating for many, many
neighborhoods. They're right in the heart of the city.
ASHER: And, Governor, one of the sort of -- I think one of the cruelest things about this kind of natural disasters that it, you know, there's no
ability to sort of pause to grieve.
I mean, while you're reeling from losing your home in a wildfire, you -- you have to make important decisions about, you know, where you're going to
live and insurance and that sort of thing.
I mean, just to even have the willpower and the emotional capacity, whether it's a wildfire or your house has been flooded, you know, it's very
difficult to have the sort of willpower and the energy to deal with not just the overwhelm of losing your home, but then having to make really sort
of difficult decisions about finances and that kind of stuff.
How is -- how is the government helping with that?
FERGUSON: I would agree with all that out add to that trauma. This all happened in a matter of hours. In other words, individuals woke up in their
homes Saturday morning, in a matter of hours, their homes and neighborhoods were just wiped out, that their -- this happened very, very quickly.
And so our job, my job as a governor, is pull together all the resources from the federal government. Again, we appreciate their emergency
declaration and the assistance that comes with that at the local level and the state level to get more firefighters, more first responders, assistance
with housing.
We're thankful for organizations like the Red Cross who have really stepped up and provided much of that, warm meals for folks, a place to stay. So,
we're working around the clock to make sure that those who are dealing with so much have the assistance they need to get through this very short term
phase.
[12:10:21]
But also, we need to look ahead to the long-term. What's the permanent situation for housing for them?
But for me, I just will say when I return home last night, my kids are here, my life is here, you know, it's a reminder our home means so much to
all of us and the memories and what we have in our homes. And to lose a home in this fashion, especially it'd be hard to put into words I think
what that devastation and that trauma and that grief would entail for many, many Washingtonians right now.
GOLODRYGA: And these fires moving so rapidly affecting hundreds of thousands of people, Governor. Spokane is the second largest city in your
state. These fires, as we noted, many of them not contained.
We don't have good weather forecasts for the area, unfortunately. If these winds return, you've got about 5,000 personnel from what I've read that are
at hand. Where do additional firefighters and help come from if you need more assistance?
FERGUSON: Yes, in multiple ways. So, for example, we've had outreach from states to say, hey, we can help, so we're obviously following up on that.
We're literally training up National Guard members. I've called up the National Guard. And we're in the process of training up National Guard
individuals who can assist as well.
We're pulling from jurisdictions all around the state. Thankfully, we have a system where different jurisdictions can send in their folks who aren't
needed right now because their area is safe to help out with the situation.
And then just to zoom out a little bit from Spokane, which is truly devastating, I think you mentioned at the outset, we have more than a dozen
fires going on. I visited one of our tribal nations, the Colville Tribe, after I went to Spokane yesterday. Thousands and thousands of acres of
their reservation have been impacted by these fires. They've lost home.
So, this across huge area of our state is dealing with these fires. And we still have two months to go in our fire season. So, it's a really brutal
time right now for our state.
ASHER: I always say that when you -- especially when we cover these kinds of disasters, I'm always touched by how much we always see. I mean, pretty
much, I would say always, see the kindness of strangers really come to the fore.
I mean, is there any story that has particularly touched you in terms of strangers showing acts of kindness to each other, helping each other sort
of dig through the rubble and the ash. Just -- just talk to us about that.
FERGUSON: Oh, my gosh. I could go on all day with those stories. And it's things in small and significant ways, but definitely heard stories of
individuals going into neighbor's homes to save a pet, for example, because the neighbor was out of town. They called. And as someone was evacuating,
they stopped at the neighbor's home to pull out a cat for a dog from someone's home. We had when there is this evacuation going on.
Again, over 60,000 individuals in neighborhoods fleeing these fires. You can imagine what was going on the roads. I talked to a state sender who he
himself was evacuating and talked about how people stayed calm. They assisted with moving traffic. They got their cars and help others navigate
that situation.
So, it is -- you're right, as terrible as some things are, and we're seeing now, of course, the arrest that arson, obviously, may have played a role in
one of these fires which is truly devastating.
But you also, at the same time, see the best in people coming through helping their neighbors, helping one another really navigate an extra
ordinarily challenging time.
GOLODRYGA: Yes. There's a question about whether that suspect should have been in custody sooner.
But, Governor, at a time like this, politics should be put aside. I'm -- I'm curious if you've had a chance to speak with President Trump. If so,
what did he say to you? And would you invite him to come tour all of that devastation once these fires are contained?
FERGUSON: Absolutely, yes. I reached out to Secretary Mullin with the administration. We had a couple phone calls immediately after the fire had
happened. And I said to him, hey, I would appreciate the opportunity, if it worked out, to speak with the president directly.
I think within a matter of three hours or so, you know, he arranged that call. And President Trump was gracious. He was aware of the situation. He
expressed deep concern for the people of the state. And, of course, the appropriate time will make that invitation for the president to come visit
and see the devastation first hand.
But I just appreciate him taking time on very short notice to take that call to hear my perspective what was going on, to express his concern and
assistance. And obviously the fact that the federal government moved immediately to declare this emergency declaration which will help unlock a
lot of resources to help people who are in really tough spot right now.
ASHER: Governor Ferguson, thank you. And again, you are absolutely right that your -- you know, your house, it -- it's not just a structure, right?
Your home is everything. It's your -- it's your identity, even your -- your all of your memories your life.
And so it really does put things in perspective just in terms of going home and -- and really being that much more grateful after seeing these images
unfold on our screen.
[12:15:07]
Governor, we wish you the best of luck. And once again, we are so sorry for what your state is experiencing right now. Thank you for joining us.
GOLODRYGA: Thank you, Governor.
FERGUSON: Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
GOLODRYGA: Well, we turn now to Europe where hundreds of firefighters backed by water bombing aircraft remain on high alert in Greece.
ASHER: People who had to get out of their homes, northwest of Athens, are now returning to find their houses gutted and their farmland scorched.
Elinda Labropoulou has the latest on efforts to contain the fires.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ELINDA LABROPOULOU, JOURNALIST: Well, the evacuations have been ongoing, and especially through the early morning hours. Residents have been talking
about firefighters coming door-to-door and asking them to leave within just five minutes. This is because the fire was approaching their homes so
quickly.
Luckily, the evacuation, so far, have gone smoothly. And firefighters are now telling us that they are very close to being able to at least partially
contain these fires.
The big megafire that's burning close to Athens, which has caused all this immense devastation is now under control. And the partial control, and it's
a fragile situation, is the way that they're describing.
And this means that, you know, the residents are now going back, looking at their properties, trying to assess what's happening, joining the many
Europeans this summer that have found themselves in similar situations.
Greece has also been buying a number of aircrafts. What has happened in this particular case, however, is that the conditions were so extreme that
none of this firecraft has been able to take part in these operations.
And this is a more general debate across Europe. Greece is full of high trees vegetation that is very fire prone, is a high fire prone, basically,
at how all this needs to be reassessed and changed. And finally, in a country where tourism is so much such a big part of the economy, really how
much is that tourism stressing the resources that could be going to fire prevention.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ASHER: All right. President Donald Trump's former defense attorney is one the big step closer to leading the Justice Department. The Senate Judiciary
Committee just voted to advance Todd Blanche's nomination to the permanent post of attorney general.
GOLODRYGA: It comes one day after two Republican holdouts said that they would back Blanche after he rescinded an order creating a $1.8 billion fund
that could have paid taxpayer dollars to allies of the president, including convicted January 6 rioters.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. JOHN CORNYN (R-TX): Given this agreement with Mr. Blanche, I expect the -- the department to live up to -- to this in future litigation. And I
will vote to advance him out of the committee today.
SEN. THOM TILLIS (R-NC): The first one I called the payout pot for punks, I've never liked this 1776 fund. It made no sense to me. And I thought it
was an insult to the police officers and the people that defended us on January the 6th. It's done. It's been rescinded and I am satisfied.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ASHER: But critics say there are clear loopholes in the settlement and the order keeps intact, an extensive grant of immunity from tax audits for
Trump and his adult sons.
GOLODRYGA: We're also learning that the White House may have been directly involved in the process. That's where CNN's Kristen Holmes is and she joins
us now live.
So you have the written sort of guarantee from Todd Blanche that was enough to satisfy these two Republican holdouts. The president, though, continues
to speak somewhat of a different tune here. Where does that leave things, Kristen?
KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, it leaves things up in the air in terms of whether or not someone is going to
actually challenge this letter and try to get the fund reinstated one day. And that's what a lot of senators are worried about as they look to
potentially vote to confirm Todd Blanche.
Right now, Blanche is going to have to get basically every single Republican senator to vote for him to become the actual attorney general.
And there are still people who have enormous amount of question marks around them, whether or not they would actually vote to confirm him.
One of them is Bill Cassidy, who was not said whether or not he would vote for Todd Blanche. In fact, he has raised concerns about lawfare,
potentially going after old witnesses who spoke out against President Trump.
And again, Cassidy is one of these senators who is really an unforced error for this White House. The White House President Trump endorsed his opponent
at a primary, meaning basically Cassidy is out of a job come November.
And instead now, Cassidy, has clearly grown somewhat more of a spine in order to stand up to President Trump. And he is potentially going to do so
on this bet as well.
There's also Lisa Murkowski and Susan Collins, two senators who don't always back President Trump or his nominees. Although it does seem at least
when it comes to Susan Collins, more likely that she would vote to confirm just given the fact that it's an election year and she's going to need
Republican voters to be on her side.
[12:20:06]
Now, you mentioned the fact the White House was deeply involved in this. We were told Susie Wiles, the chief of staff, as well as the head of
legislative affair, James Braid, we're following the process very closely.
Administration officials pushed back saying they were not part of the negotiations, but they were just following along.
We also know that the Attorney General or Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche was briefing these top White House officials, not only on what was
going on with the negotiations but also key sticking points.
Now, President Trump has said that he never saw the final deal. He didn't review it beforehand, but I think it's likely safe to say that there were a
lot of people at the White House who understood that President Trump would be supportive of this deal before Todd Blanche signed it. He's not going to
go rogue on something like this.
GOLODRYGA: All right. Kristen Holmes at the White House for us. Thank you.
ASHER: All right. Thousands of newly arrived migrants are still in Spain, North African city of Ceuta and local authorities struggle to cope with the
numbers, even after many more returned to Morocco.
Last week, tens of thousands took part in essentially a massive rush to force their way across the Spanish border. More than 80 people died in that
scramble to get in.
GOLODRYGA: A Moroccan government official blamed a Spanish court ruling which made it harder for Spain to send new arrivals back. And E.U.
ministers met earlier to discuss last week's events.
ASHER: So, what kind of impact do reports of incidents like this have on viewers? A few years ago, researchers decided to try and answer that
question and their findings were fascinating.
CNN's Clarissa Ward share some of their discoveries relating to something known as the identifiable victim effect.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CLARISSA WARD, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: You might not realize it but there is a well-documented effect happening to your brain right now
when looking at images like this and this, which means that these videos coming out of Ceuta are likely to have a big impact on politics and
elections across Europe for years to come.
Now, if you somehow miss this, last Thursday, as many as 60,000 migrants crossed into the Spanish exclave of Ceuta from neighboring Morocco. At
least 72 people died making the crossing.
As of this morning, Spain said that virtually all of them had returned to Morocco, but the swift resolution of this crisis won't change the impact of
these images.
In 2021, a group of researchers discovered what happens to the human brain when looking at a mass instead of a single face. They ran 10 experiments
with nearly 4,000 Europeans and they found that simply seeing Syrian refugees pictured in large groups, rather than individually, made the
viewers' attribute less capacity for guilt, tenderness, compassion to the people in the frame.
In other words, fewer of the emotions that we associate with being fully human. Not because the viewers are cruel, but because the image itself, at
scale, triggers something closer to a threat response than a human one.
It has a name. It's called the "identifiable victim effect" and it's inverse. The more people suffering in a single frame, the less any one of
them registers as a person.
Now, the study also found that after seeing these large group images, participants were significantly less likely to sign a pro-refugee petition
and significantly more likely to sign an anti-refugee petition.
And this fits important. They also became measurably more likely to choose a more dominant, less trustworthy looking face which the study itself
described as, quote, authoritarian looking leaders in a hypothetical leader selection task. And the grouping that participated in this study was
politically mixed.
Now, to be clear, this study focuses on Syrian refugees fleeing war. The migrants who crossed into Ceuta were primarily from Morocco and do not
appear to have been fleeing conflict for the most part.
Europe, back in 2015, absorbed roughly one million refugees. In Ceuta now, almost all the migrants who crossed have returned to Morocco. But in the
end, that may not matter. The images don't fade. Remember that infamous campaign poster released by Nigel Farage in 2016?
At this stage, we still don't really know how this happened in Ceuta or why. And there will be a lot of really great and important reporting on
that which will come out over the coming weeks and months.
But in my experience, elections often get decided by the picture that stays in the body, not the footnote that corrected it later.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ASHER: All right. Still to come here on "One World," he was a member of a national security investigative swat. More on why an FBI agent says he
stole nearly $1 million in cryptocurrency.
[12:25:08]
GOLODRYGA: Also ahead, a Republican congressman face his calls to step away from his campaign, including from his former father-in-law. We'll bring you
that story when we return.
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GOLODRYGA: All right. Well, it sounds like a script for a movie. An FBI agent tasked with gathering intelligence on cryptocurrency accounts across
the globe goes rogue.
ASHER: Yes. Court records show the agent is accused of stealing nearly $1 million in cryptocurrency from accounts the FBI was monitoring.
CNN's cyber security reporter Sean Lyngaas joins his live now from Washington.
I mean, this is quite brazen. Just walk us to what happened here.
SEAN LYNGAAS, CNN CYBER SECURITY REPORTER: It is quite brazen and it's quite emotional when you read the court documents. This -- this FBI agent
kind of confesses to what he did and confides in a former colleague and it all unravels.
But long story short, this guy was a, you know, a multi-year veteran of the FBI's special agent who was tasked in the Boston field office here in the
U.S. to investigate adversarial nation state. The court documents don't name the nation state. It looks to me like it could be Russia or -- or
Iran, but a -- an adversary of the U.S.
And he, in the course of his work, is -- is exposed to various cryptocurrency accounts that -- that state actors or -- or perhaps criminal
actors were using. And he says he became very frustrated by what he saw as FBI inaction on these accounts. And he decided to take things in his own
hand -- into his own hands and that ended spectacularly here in the D.C. area last week where he was arrested in Ashburn, Virginia just outside of
Washington D.C.
And this -- this story really has a lot of elements of it's very 2026 of -- of modern criminal investigations. You have cryptocurrency. This guy was
trying to figure out how to use -- how, you know, pocketed, get it back to his personal account.
But then he also is using ChatGPT, according to the court documents, to ask for advice on what to do with the money including, you know, if -- if you
ChatGPT had a pot of money and you wanted to relocate to an E.U. country, where would you go?
And then, according to court documents, the -- the ChatGPT response giving him advice based on his lifestyle and his apparent -- apparently, he was
interested in going to Portugal. That's not happening because he's in custody. He does have a young family. And the court documents made clear
he's -- he -- he tells the FBI agent interview him, I messed up. And he used the word I can't use on T.V. But he's very shaken, according to the --
the testimony and his life will never be the same.
[12:30:07]
Sean Lyngaas, thank you for that report. Appreciate it.
GOLODRYGA: Well, there is a critical deadline looming for a Republican congressman, Max Miller, and a new pressure on him to drop his reelection
campaign.
ASHER: Yes. The Ohio Republican has been under pressure to step away from his campaign amid allegations of domestic abuse from his ex-wife. Miller
has denied those allegations.
GOLODRYGA: But his former father-in-law, U.S. Senator, is also weighing in. Bernie Moreno is calling for Miller to resign, saying that he was a danger
to his daughter.
CNN's Lauren Fox reports on this family feud with national implications.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
REP. MAX MILLER (R), OHIO: Just want to be clear, no court, no agency has ever substantiated any allegation of abuse against me. I'm not getting out
of this race and I'm winning in November.
LAUREN FOX, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Ohio Republican Congressman Max Miller facing new calls to drop out, amid allegations he
abused his ex-wife, Emily Moreno, an accusation he denies.
Now, for the first time, Miller's ex-father-in-law, Republican Senator Bernie Moreno, is calling on Miller to step aside, writing in a statement
that Miller needs, quote, "psychological help" and that he is, quote, "a danger to my daughter."
"If there are any basic standards of character required to hold elected office, Max Miller fails them. He should not serve in the House of
Representatives." President Trump weighed in today from the Oval Office.
TRUMP: It's a very sad thing. I know Max. He's a -- he's a good person. I mean, I always thought he was a very good person. And I'm going to let the
families figure that out.
FOX (voice-over): Miller once served as a senior aide to the Trump campaign and married Emily Moreno at Trump National Golf Course in Bedminster, New
Jersey in 2022. Two years later, Senator Bernie Moreno, leaning on his close ties to Trump, won his bid for the U. S. Senate.
Miller filed for divorce in 2024. In video obtained by CNN earlier this year, Emily Moreno told police in the course of a now closed investigation
into their daughter's broken collarbone that she was often frightened by Miller.
EMILY MORENO, EX-WIFE OF MAX MILLER: I was just like scared of him a lot, and that's why I left the house and I moved out.
FOX (voice-over): She also described one incident on New Year's Eve, where she alleged Miller held a gun to her head when she was changing their
infant daughter.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: So, when -- when does the gun come into play?
MORENO: When I'm changing.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And what does he do?
MORENO: Holds it on me.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Holds in on you? OK. Can you show me where he held it to you? No. Hey, it's OK. That's fine. That's fine. Like I said, I --
that's a hard thing to talk about.
FOX (voice-over): No charges were ever filed, and Miller has repeatedly denied all allegations of abuse, including to CNN in an interview in June.
MILLER: What we're dealing with, unfortunately, is something that many families go through, Lauren, which is a very nasty divorce. And in the
process, allegations get made that are completely fabricated and are not true.
FOX: So, you're saying this incident never happened in any form?
MILLER: Not at all.
FOX (voice-over): Miller won his primary in May with President Trump's endorsement and is slated to face off against Democratic challenger and
iron worker Brian Poindexter in November.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[12:35:30]
GOLODRYGA: All right. Welcome back to "One World." I'm Bianna Golodryga.
ASHER: I'm Zain Asher.
Singer Ariana Grande, addressed fans about her decision to suspend future appearances and take a break from the public eye. She spoke directly to the
audience during her performance in Chicago on Monday.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ARIANA GRANDE, SINGER: The announcement that was made yesterday was not a reactive or impulsive thing. It is something that I have decided to play on
that I have quietly needed a long time ago. And it's a decision that was made from a thoughtful and empowered place.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GOLODRYGA: Grande's representative delivered the news to "People Magazine" about the pop star, quote, taking a step back from visibility. This comes
after renewed speculation about her weight and health.
CNN's Lisa Respers France joins us now with more on Grande. And, Lisa, your heart goes out to anybody who is under scrutiny in the spotlight, like
Ariana and other celebrities are. There's a lot of viciousness on social media.
At the same time, one can also express concern after seeing someone who looks like they've lost a significant amount of weight over the last few
months.
So, where do things stand right now? Has she addressed what is the cause, actually, for her to take a step away?
LISA RESPERS FRANCE, CNN ENTERTAINMENT REPORTER: She has not, which is what makes this so tricky to even talk about, right? Because we're not part of
her inner circle. We do not know what Ariana Grande's health status is.
And I wrote about this and I sandwiched it in between two very famous cases where people were witnessing someone become very thin, a famous person. And
that was Karen Carpenter back in the 1980s, and she ultimately lost her battle with Anorexia and bulimia and died from it.
And then there is Chadwick Boseman, who fans were very concerned when he appeared in 2020 being very thin. And then we found out later that he had
been battling cancer and that we only found that out after his death.
So, it makes it very difficult to even talk about people, because it's a thin line in between having concern for these people who are very public
facing, but also realizing that we can't police people's bodies.
And in the case of Ariana Grande, it also has to do with the fact that she has a very young fan base. She has hundreds of millions of people who
follow her on social media. And so there's a lot of concern as to what her image is projecting, ladies.
ASHER: I was just speaking to, Bianna, about this during the commercial break. You have seen, over the past few years, a number of high-profile
celebrities be Meghan Markle, Naomi Osaka, Demi Lovato, Britney Spears. The list goes on, obviously. We're talking about Ariana Grande.
But even Simone Biles, people who have just said enough is enough in terms of the public scrutiny that comes with being in the spotlight.
I mean, a lot of young kids grow up dreaming of being famous, but there is a massive price to pay for being in the public eye as a woman. Just talk to
us about that, Lisa.
FRANCE: Yes. You know, Ariana Grande has been very clear in setting a boundary. You know, she has spoken out and said, please stop talking about
my body. That she thinks -- people should feel a little less comfortable talking about someone else's body.
And back in 2013, when she was 19 years old, there was a lot of concern about the fact that she lost weight. And back then, she took the Tumblr,
she said, you know, I'm getting healthier. What you're seeing is the result of that.
[12:40:06]
And when it comes to women in particular, people feel very strongly about how much is owed in terms of celebrity status. Not to mention the
parasocial relationship that many of the fans and followers feel like they have and that they feel like they have the right to express however they're
feeling about someone else's body and someone else's look.
And it doesn't have to be because someone is thin. We see it with Lizzo and Adele, someone who is of a bigger body shape and -- and body size.
And so I think that as talented as Ariana Grande is, an extremely talented singer and actress, you're exactly right, a price tag comes with that fame.
And not everybody is meant to be famous and not everybody can handle the, you know, very tough things that come along with being consistently in the
public eye.
And people feeling like because they support you and your art, that they in some ways almost own a piece of you.
ASHER: Yes. I mean, can you -- just the mental health challenges that a lot of these artists have talked about, just people just commenting on your
parents, your looks, you know, your private life and thinking that they have the right to do it. And there's nothing you can do to stop them. And
it's not as if you make a public statement. Suddenly, they're going to say, oh, you know what, we're so sorry. We're going to stop it. There's nothing
you can do to get away from it.
And as you point out, it's not everybody can handle it, you know. Not everyone has that ability to handle that kind of constant scrutiny. And
famous something that you can't undo. Once you're famous, that's it, folks. You know, you can't sort of turn back the clock and not be famous anymore,
despite sort of retreating away from the spotlight.
Lisa Respers France, thank you so much for that. We appreciate it.
FRANCE: Thank you. Thank you both.
ASHER: We'll be right back with more after this short break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ASHER: All right. Let's get a quick check on how the U.S. markets are doing. Green arrows across the board. Dow is up about two percent, as is
the NASDAQ. S&P 500 up about 1.5 percent. This is your business breakout.
GOLODRYGA: All right. Some exciting news for investors. The S&P 500 is on track for its first record high since June. Nerves about A.I. roiled
markets earlier this year, but a strong earnings season and rebound in tech has helped to push the S&P 500 back towards record highs. There were also
comments from the Treasury Secretary this morning about the state of the war that I think triggered the positive energy on Wall Street as well.
[12:45:01]
ASHER: Wall Street is about to get SpaceX's first ever earnings report as a public company. Elon Musk's rocket satellite and A.I. company will get a
pulse check after closing about Tuesday. Shares had soared after the biggest IPO in history about two months ago, but have certainly come back
to Earth since then.
GOLODRYGA: The top artificial intelligence executives in the country are meeting at the White House today. And they're getting a look at new
regulations aimed at guiding the pace of A.I. development.
The framework was laid out in an executive order by the president and comes just two days after two companies reported their A.I. agents went rogue and
hacked into other company's systems.
Joining us for more on this to discuss is Sarah Kreps, the director at Cornell Tech Policy Institute. She's also a government professor and
adjunct professor of law at Cornell. Sarah, welcome to the program.
So, you have this meeting today. This is a framework that's entirely voluntary. And as noted in the introduction, two of the executives have
come forward in just the past couple of weeks saying that their A.I. agents had gone rogue and hacked into other company's systems.
Is the government getting ahead of technology? Or is this an indication of them scrambling just to keep up?
SARAH KREPS, DIRECTOR, CORNELL TECH POLICY INSTITUTE: Yes. I mean, it's a great question. And I think it depends on who you talk to. Some people
think they're too late. Some people think that if they lean into aggressively, they might stall what is a very, you know, ambitious American
A.I. leadership.
So, I think it's really that's where the White House is finding itself is in this conundrum of whether they're too late or too early and how they
should navigate this.
ASHER: And just in terms of what we can expect for A.I. regulation over the next sort of two to five years, before we get to regulation, what are the
biggest A.I. safety risks in your view over the next few years, do you think?
KREPS: Yes. I mean, I think the two -- you know, Anthropic has been talking about this a lot, the CEO, OpenAI. And some of this is, I wouldn't say
specific, but they talk a lot about risk, a lot about harms.
And one of the -- but there's some ambiguity there. And I think it's because it's a bit -- it's prospective. It hasn't happened yet. And I think
that is the challenge of trying to do something like what the Anthropic CEO has talked about, an FDA for A.I. Some sort of vetting regime that will
look at these frontier models and say which ones are safe enough and which ones aren't.
And I think that that is the challenge is. We don't know exactly what those risks are until they manifest. And for some people, that is too late. But I
think one of the one -- one of the risks that you hear a lot about is that the cybersecurity risk that are these models now so aggressive that they
can offensively hack into other systems and the bio safety risks that can these models now be used for very, you know, nefarious biological weapons.
So, I think those are the -- those are the risks that -- that these leaders are talking about. And I think those are the ones that the White House has
in mind.
GOLODRYGA: So, Sarah, we still haven't been able to get Congress to regulate social media companies. And now here we are having the same
conversation as it relates to even more powerful technology and that is A.I.
According to CNN reporting, there is not one designated person who would be in charge of such regulation. It seems to be some sort of combination of
the national cyber director, the Treasury secretary, the Commerce secretary coming together.
And on the other hand, you have the executives and the leadership of these companies. Sarah?
ASHER: OK.
GOLODRYGA: A.I. DIDN'T GET IN THE WAY THERE. KREPS: Yes.
ASHER: Oh, she can hear us.
GOLODRYGA: Can you hear us? We lost -- we lost. OK. Fine. You're back.
So -- so there you have this question about who would be in charge in this administration in leading this effort for regulation. And you have the
executives of these companies in multiple ways and ideas really suggesting that they can self-regulate.
Demis Hassabis says that these propose some sort of like FINRA-type model. Elon Musk said that he would even break bread with Sam Altman and come
together and -- and bring China in on this. Can they be trusted to self- regulate?
KREPS: Well, I think there is a sense that -- that if they're talking so much about these harms, then why not delay instead of going all in?
And so I think that suggests that the fact is that there's so much invested that they are not going to take their foot off the gas. And that -- that's
kind of what a public admin -- you know, an institution should do.
Now, I will say that you mentioned Congress and there is a first bipartisan proposal to do some of what you're talking about. This would be kind of
incident-based reporting. And I think the advantage is that that being out of Congress rather than the White House takes some of that concern that
there might be about politicization out of the -- out of the equation.
[12:50:08]
And since it's not yet clear what those risk thresholds are, it gives -- it's an incident-based system, which I think has some advantages.
So, that is starting to work its way through. And I think there would be some -- some real pros to that alternative to this being concentrated in
the executive branch.
GOLODRYGA: All right. Sarah Kreps, thanks. Great to have you on. Appreciate the time.
ASHER: All right. Still to come, a small business draws a big line in the sand, the sign that the internet -- that has the internet talking rather,
and the owner's explanation behind it.
GOLODRYGA: Is the internet talking? A.I.?
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ASHER: All right. A small sign is sparking a big debate on one of America's most picturesque islands.
GOLODRYGA: Yes. A Nantucket Shops, "no influencers" message has gone viral. But the owner says, it's less about excluding people and more about setting
some light-hearted boundaries.
Ivana Scatola has the story.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
IVANA SCATOLA, CNN PRODUCER: This sign has the internet divided.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's time we talk about the infamous, "no influencer" sign at the store in Nantucket.
SCATOLA: It hangs in Four Winds Craft Guild, which is a long-established shop specializing in antique and traditionally handcrafted baskets. It's in
Nantucket, which is a popular summer vacation island 30 miles south of Cape Cod.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What happened to humor? Like it's just like a little bit like a bit like local like humor. Like, it's just funny.
SCATOLA: John Sylvia's family owns the store and he told CNN that it was just a light-hearted way to set boundaries. Nothing more.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What actually is an influencer in 2026? This sign isn't describing a behavior, it's labelling a group of people.
SCATOLA: It all started when influencer Paige Paul called the store out on Instagram and some of the discourse that's followed has called the sign
anti-successful women.
Others have pointed out that the sign is basically a modern version of a no-photos or no-filming sign. Legally, private businesses can generally
refuse service to some customers, but can't discriminate based on factors such as race, religion, sex or national origin.
The onus of the sign wasn't directed at any group or individual, certainly not women.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
GOLODRYGA: Well, Zain, next time we go to Nantucket, no influencer. You're --
ASHER: Yes. No -- no camera.
GOLODRYGA: -- such a big influencer.
All right. That doesn't for "One World." I'm Bianna Golodryga.
[12:55:02]
ASHER: I'm Zain Asher. Appreciate you watching. She'll be back in about five minutes. I'm doing the math correctly, with --
GOLODRYGA: Five minutes, 15 seconds. Yes.
ASHER: With "Amanpour."
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
END
