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What We Know with Max Foster

Progressive Abdul El-Sayed Wins Michigan Senate Primary; Ukraine: 17 Killed In Russian Missile Strikes Around Kyiv; Iran Casts Doubt On Trump Claim Of Strait Reopening; Trump Campaigns For Republicans In Nevada; Israel Launches Fresh Strikes At Hezbollah Targets In Lebanon; Russian "Black Widows" Allegedly Marrying Soldiers For Money. Aired 3-4p ET

Aired August 05, 2026 - 15:00   ET

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

[15:00:49]

LYNDA KINKADE, CNN HOST: A big win for progressive Democrats in a key battleground state.

I'm Lynda Kinkade, in for Max Foster, and this is WHAT WE KNOW.

We begin this hour with the biggest victory of the election year for the progressive wing of the Democratic Party. Abdul El-Sayed has won the

fiercely contested Democratic primary for Michigan's seat in the U.S. Senate. Now, this race is much closer than expected as recent polls had

shown that El-Sayed had a double-digit lead.

The contest was seen as a test of whether progressive candidates could succeed outside a few big city strongholds. Israel was also a major issue

in the race, with pro-Israeli organizations spending tens of millions of dollars to boost El Sayed's opponent Haley Stevens. But even though the

race was contentious, Democrats are now flocking behind the winner as they seek to keep Republicans from snatching a crucial Senate seat.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ABDUL EL-SAYED (D), MICHIGAN SENATE CANDIDATE: Sometimes, you know, intra- family squabbles are the biggest ones. But we all know that when we walk out the house, we stand united. We're going to build a movement that

reaches out to everybody. I know not everybody's going to agree with me on everything. That's not how this works. But I do know that they agree with

me on the need to beat Mike Rogers and the need to hold Donald Trump accountable.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KINKADE: Our Arlette Saenz is in Detroit with the latest on this race.

Good to have you with us, Arlette.

So many say that this is a national test of the Democratics -- Democratic Party's direction, progressive versus establishment. But this race was

incredibly close. So, is this a rejection of the establishment or a uniquely Michigan race shaped around local politics and, of course, the

candidates?

ARLETTE SAENZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Lynda, this race has really shown a major victory for the progressive movement as they were able to show that

a candidate can win in a more swingy, moderate type of state like Michigan and something that they're hoping to be able to replicate come November.

Now this is a race that did have some local issues, but this really boiled down to El-Sayed running a campaign that was against the establishment, not

necessarily just the establishment that is viewed here in Michigan, but on the national level as well.

His opponent, Congresswoman Haley Stevens, really had the backing of national establishment figures like Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer,

also the state's retiring Senator Gary Peters. But ultimately, El-Sayed was able to turn all of that to a disadvantage into her as he really railed

against the way that establishment figures tried to wade into this campaign.

One thing that we heard him talk about a lot during this passed over a year on the campaign trail was the role of outside money here in Michigan. More

than $60 million poured into the state on behalf of Haley Stevens, including about $30 million from AIPAC, the pro-Israel lobby. That is

something that El-Sayed really latched onto to try to use as a negative in this campaign and in speaking with voters that is an issue that they

repeatedly pointed to as something that was driving their votes.

Now big question going forward for El Sayed is whether he will be successful in November against a Republican candidate in a state that has

swung between Republicans and Democrats for the past few presidential cycles. And El Sayed did say that he believes the party needs to come

together and unite I asked him whether he thought the fact that this was such a close race might complicate that ability and he said no he does

think that ultimately they will be focused on their efforts to try to defeat the Republican nominee but really he passed this first test for the

progressive movement here in the Democratic primary but the next big test will be what happens in November and whether they are able to secure a

victory which with a general electorate that is much more different than the Democratic voter voters who were voting in this primary just yesterday.

KINKADE: Arlette Saenz for us, good to have you with us from Detroit, Michigan. Appreciate it.

Well, a devastating Russian onslaught has killed at least 17 people in and around the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv. Officials say Moscow fired more than

two dozen ballistic and anti-ship missiles. What's key is that none of the missiles were intercepted by Ukraine's defenses. Kyiv stocks of missile

interceptors are dangerously low, with Ukraine's president calling on allies to provide more missile interceptors.

The overnight strikes caused damage to prominent businesses, including the Ukrainian equivalents of Amazon and IKEA. That appears to be in retaliation

for Kyiv targeting Russia's e-commerce giant Wildberries.

Clare Sebastian has more now on the increasing danger to Ukrainian civilians even far from the front lines.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CLARE SEBASTIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: This was the latest in a series of drone and missile barrages, particularly targeting the capital Kyiv, that

have been growing in frequency and ferocity throughout the summer as Russia tries to exploit what is now a well-publicized lack of defenses in Ukraine,

particularly against ballistic missiles.

Now, this attack involved some 24 ballistic missiles and four anti-ship missiles, which almost as difficult to bring down, so specifically designed

to be as difficult as possible for Ukraine to deal with. And as a result, none of these missiles were brought down by air defenses, according to

Ukraine's Air Force.

Now, according to CNN's calculations, there has been an increasing difficulty for Ukraine in tackling these attacks involving ballistic

missiles. In July, Ukraine was able to avert only about 23 percent of the ballistic missiles that Russia fired. And so far in August, Russia has

fired some 56 ballistic or similar missiles, of which only one has been brought down, according to CNN's calculations.

So, this led to more urges and pleas from President Zelenskyy today to his partners to increase supplies of interceptors for ballistic missiles to

provide Ukraine with the licenses that it needs to produce them locally. He warned that supplies have dropped threefold since 2025.

Now, this attack was also striking because of the targets involved here. We know that Ukraine has been hitting e-commerce warehouses inside Russia.

This was clearly designed as a response. We saw many different logistical and warehouse facilities hit. Six people were killed in warehouses

belonging to the operator of Ukraine's biggest supermarket chain. There were also reportedly three killed at a sorting center for the Ukrainian

postal service.

But perhaps the most gruesome scenes of all came at a train station in a suburb of Kyiv where eight people were reportedly killed. They were said to

be waiting after a delay in a train, waiting, having missed the last train there. So, the big picture context here is that July was the deadliest

month for Ukrainian civilians since April of 2022, August already shaping up to be a brutal month.

Clare Sebastian, CNN, London.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KINKADE: My next guest is journalist Jared Goyette, who is joining us live from Kyiv.

We appreciate your time today.

JARED GOYETTE, FREELANCE JOURNALIST: Thank you for having me.

KINKADE: So, you're joining us from Kyiv after one of the most intense Russian attacks in recent months. Just walk us through what you heard and

saw overnight, what weapons Russia was using, and where the strikes here.

GOYETTE: You know, I think there was -- the initial alarm I was trying to go to sleep at the time. And there was a time when there would be attacks

that would be more drone heavy. And so I was checking my phone, hoping that one time of the drones coming, maybe this is going to be a mass coordinated

attack. But the first wave of missiles landed soon after that. And I just went to equivalent of a shelter in my building and the -- what surprised me

is that there was one wave, and then another, and then another, and then another, and it just seems like the explosions wouldn't stop.

The worst part, as you report alluded to, though, was later, like that wave, after those waves stopped, I went back to my room, then the Zircons,

those anti-ship missiles, those struck several hours later, there is no alarm. You're just there and you hear explosions, and then the alarm's off.

I went into the corner of my room and as I heard like one, two, three, four explosions, like you can't help but think like, where's the next one going

to land? And if it lands here, there's nothing I can do. It's terrifying experience to go through. It's very loud. It's very brutal.

The, you know, and I think the report did a good job of describing what was hit in the sense of them going for logistics, e-commerce, but those, you

know, those people that were waiting for the train -- the civilian passenger train is right next to a freight train connection. So, the space

separating these is meters.

[15:10:00]

And that's why an attack on civilian logistics ends up being essentially a massacre of people waiting for their train. because the distance doesn't

make a difference when it's a missile.

KINKADE: Jared, you've spoken to residents. You describe this feeling of being exhausted, increasingly anxious. I understand you got a text message

from a friend. Just explain the mood.

GOYETTE: Yeah. You know, people still believe. There's no lack of defiance, but people are also exhausted.

And that figure, I think that figure of zero interceptions really stuck with people because it's been getting worse and it's been getting worse.

And now you know that with every explosion or with every missile launched, because you see missiles launched, right? We get an alert, or you can

follow monitoring channels that let you know when missiles are launched. And now you know that when missiles are launched, someone is going to die.

And, like, the harsh reality of that, that every explosion you're hearing is- because sometimes you would hear explosions that would be

interceptions. Now you know that when you hear an explosion, someone's dead, and you can't, you know, help but think about that.

KINKADE: I want to ask you about the particular weapons that Russia use, the Zircon hypersonic missiles in this attack that you mentioned earlier.

Why are these weapons in particular such a concern for Ukraine? And what's the message Ukrainians have for allies?

GOYETTE: Well, I mean, they're particularly dangerous because they can get to Kyiv within three to six minutes. They go eight times the speed of

sound. They travel low, and there's nothing that Ukraine has that can intercept them. That three-to-six-minute time window also means that

there's no meaningful warning. You just start hearing explosions, and you just hope that the next one's not going to land with you.

I think the message that Ukrainians have for allies is that there's Patriots out there. There are interceptors that could help at least

alleviate this crisis because winter is literally coming, right? And if this upcoming -- the grid that's keeping Kyiv, the heating grid is worse

off than it was last year, and there's a lot less defenses.

And if Ukraine doesn't get more defense before winter hits, and if Russia knocks out the heat like many people expect they will, this could be a real

humanitarian concern. And it's right around the corner, and people have got to wake up to that.

KINKADE: Jared Goyette, we really appreciate your perspective on the ground there in Kyiv. Thanks so much for joining us.

GOYETTE: Thank you.

KINKADE: Well, Iran and Oman are reportedly closed to finalizing the framework of a deal on a safe route for ships in the Strait of Hormuz by

Friday. According to an Iranian foreign ministry spokesperson, any potential agreement would need to be signed off by the regime's senior

leadership.

U.S. President Donald Trump says he believes a deal to reopen the strait could be announced as soon as today. That claim is being rejected by Iran's

state media.

Kevin Liptak is in Las Vegas, where the president is delivering remarks soon at an event there.

Good to see you, Kevin.

So, Nevada remains a key battleground state. The president is going to be speaking there shortly, I assume, about the economy, affordability, other

voter concerns. Talk us through what we can expect.

KEVIN LIPTAK, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Yeah, no, that's exactly right. The theme is the economy, or at least the ostensible theme is the

economy. President Trump's speeches tend to sort of be about everything and anything, particularly this kind of venue. But the economy is certainly

what the White House hopes he'll talk about. And so, you see signs here that say no taxes on tips. That's one of his

initiatives. You see a sign that says Trump Accounts. Those are the federal savings accounts that the administration set up for kids.

And so, the president really trying to break through on this most an issue for voters, but he has really struggled to do that over the last many, many

months. One is because he has trouble staying on topic. The other is that Americans do not feel like the economy is doing particularly well.

And I think it's always difficult for presidents to try and insist that their policies are making Americans lives better when Americans, in fact,

feel like their lives are getting worse. Any person in the Biden administration would tell you the same thing.

President Trump had hoped to spend the doing this, you know, heading in to January, White House officials said that he would be on the road every

single week talking about the economy and talking about his accomplishments. But the Iran war waylaid him in a lot of ways. The Iran

war also caused prices to go up, including at the gas pump.

And so, the president, I think, trying to refocus on this issue. But it will be -- it remains to be seen just how successful he will actually be in

doing that.

KINKADE: Of course, Kevin, the Iran War has dragged on months and months.

[15:15:00]

And that has also caused the price of gas to soar here in the U.S. and around the world. There is talk that the president could announce a new

deal today that would open the Strait of Hormuz.

What are the expectations with regards to that potential deal?

LIPTAK: Yeah, and the president, I think, is trying to amp up the optimism for that deal coming through, although, as you mentioned earlier, the

Iranians suggesting that they are not close yet to finalizing it.

What this deal would do, and it's a deal not necessarily between the U.S. and Iran, although the U.S. would sign off on it, it would be a deal

between Iran and Oman, which is the other country along the coast of the Strait of Hormuz, to try and reopen that waterway, and sort of the broad

contours would be that the ingoing traffic would go on the Iranian side, on the Iranian route, and the outgoing traffic would go along the route that's

closer to Oman.

And so, this deal is not sort of the grand arrangement that the president once set out to strike with Iran. It has nothing to do with their nuclear

program, but it would, in his mind, get that out of the way, and then they would move on to talk about the nuclear issues, which, Lynda, if it sounds

familiar, is exactly what he was trying to do with the memorandum of understanding that he signed and then ripped up two weeks later. And so in

a lot of ways, he's just going back to that.

But still, American officials are optimistic that this will be announced, if not today, sometime in the coming days, and that would ease up some of

the pressures on the Strait of Hormuz in a way that would allow space for more negotiations. But as we have seen time and time again, we have gotten

close to a deal on any manner of topics, including the strait, only to see it all collapse. And so, until it's actually finalized and signed, I think

we'll have to sort of wait and see what they actually come up with.

KINKADE: Yeah, certainly, even talking about the potential for another deal feels like deja vu, but we no doubt we'll talk again soon and we'll

listen out for the president's comments.

Kevin Liptak for us, good to have you there in Nevada. Thank you.

The fragile ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon is being tested once again. Israel's Defense Forces says they launched precise strikes in

southern Lebanon at Hezbollah targets. They say they were carried out in response to a complete violation of the ceasefire by Hezbollah. The strikes

come as Lebanese and Israeli officials are meeting in Rome this week to cement the terms of the June ceasefire.

Nearly three years after an Israeli attack on a residential block in Gaza City, more than 100 Palestinians killed in that strike were laid to rest in

a mass funeral. Gaza's civil defense began sifting through the rubble last month to recover the remains, but dozens of people still couldn't be found.

CNN's Jeremy Diamond reports.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN JERUSALEM CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Draped in Palestinian flags, the remains of 112 people are carried through the war-

torn streets of Gaza City. This funeral procession is nearly three years overdue. The 112 men, women and children being buried today were killed in

November 2023, when Israeli bombs struck a residential block in this same city.

Search and rescue teams were only able to begin recovering bodies from the rubble last month. Nearly three weeks later, Gaza's civil defense spokesman

says they recovered the remains of 112 people, dozens more could not be found.

MAHMOUD BASAL, GAZA CIVIL DEFENSE SPOKESPERSON (translated): Those we didn't manage to recover, we couldn't find any signs of them. Where did

their bodies disappear to? Where did their bodies go? Were they eaten by stray dogs? Did they disappear? Were they torn apart?

DIAMOND (voice-over): Praying over his cousin's bodies, Issam Abu Shariaa has a different question. Who will he play with?

Hundreds have come to bid farewell. Nearly every person killed in that November 2023 attack hailed from two large Palestinian families, one of

which is tied to the Mujahideen Brigades, a Palestinian militant group.

The Israeli military has not publicly identified any militants killed in that strike. Many more bodies are still trapped beneath the rubble, some

8,000 according to Gaza's civil defense.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KINKADE: We're going to take a quick break. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:22:34]

KINKADE: Welcome back. I'm Lynda Kinkade.

In Russia, controversy is growing around so-called Black Widow scams. Women allegedly entering shared marriages with soldiers to claim death benefits

if they're killed.

Our Matthew Chance has the story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN CHIEF GLOBAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The mass wedding of Russian soldiers before they're packed off to the front

lines.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): I want to shake your hand and thank you for not running away, for not being scared.

CHANCE (voice-over): But not all marriages offer love. Russian military wives get thousands of dollars compensation if their husbands are killed in

action. And officials say ruthless scammers dubbed Black Widows now tricking vulnerable recruits into wedlock.

The father of Maria from St. Petersburg died after being shot in Ukraine last year. She told me she only found out her dad had joined the army after

he was killed, and only then did he had a new wife.

CHANCE: How did you feel when you found out that your dad had got married just days before he went off to war?

MARIA, DAUGHTER OF RUSSIAN SOLDIER (through translator): It felt unreal. When I was being issued the death certificate, they asked if he was

married. I said no, but they told me he was. I never even managed to contact the woman. I simply didn't know what to say to her because I

suspected it was a scam.

CHANCE (voice-over): It's just one suspected case in a growing number scandalizing Russia. With the war in Ukraine now in its fifth year, and

casualty rates at catastrophic highs. It's hard to imagine there are people out there marrying vulnerable men and encouraging them to join the military

just so they might financially benefit if they're killed on the front lines. No wonder there's outrage across Russia at the spread of these Black

Widow scams.

There are numerous allegations of recruits honey trapped before dying on the front lines, even marrying on their deathbeds in hospital. This woman

who married a soldier 10 days after meeting him, then posted images of herself with other men, was branded a black widow in the Russian media and

denied compensation when her husband was killed before their divorce went through.

[15:25:02]

She denied any wrongdoing, saying the allegations had blackened her name.

But there's growing public anger at how cynical some Russians have become about the war, which the Kremlin calls its special military operation.

"If I want an apartment, where am I supposed to get the money?" the host of this podcast asks. "It's simple," the guest, who's a real estate agent,

responds. "Find a man serving in the special military operation, and when he's killed, you get eight million rubles," she laughs.

The podcasters were prosecuted and forced to apologize, a rare intervention by the Russian courts.

Back in St. Petersburg, Maria takes us to the block where her dad's old apartment has now been sold off, convinced he was also scammed out of his

home.

CHANCE: Do you know who the new owner is? How long, how many years did your dad live here? Five years. This is it. It's open.

CHANCE (voice-over): Behind the broken door.

MARIA: What's your name?

CHANCE (voice-over): The new occupants insist it was a legitimate sale and that they never even met the seller.

It means the money and the widow, just like Maria's dad, are now long gone.

Matthew Chance, CNN, in St. Petersburg.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KINKADE: Still to come, the A.I. impersonator, what we're learning about A.I. models creating fake identities to get what they want.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:30:06]

KINKADE: Back now to our top story, the biggest victory of the election year for the progressive wing of the Democratic Party. Abdul El-Sayed has

won the Democratic Senate primary in Michigan by a narrow margin. The big question now is how El Sayed's left-wing politics will play statewide in

the general election.

President Trump seems to think it's a major setback for the Democratic Party. He called El Sayed a communist who hates Jews and the win is great

news for the Republican Party.

Shortly, before the polls closed on Tuesday, Senator Bernie Sanders spoke about the choice facing Democratic voters in Michigan. Senator Sanders says

it shows progress in the party.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. BERNIE SANDERS (I-VT): I think what we are seeing, no matter what happens tonight in Michigan, and I hope very much that El-Sayed wins, is

you're seeing the transformation of the Democratic Party. And what the debate within the Democratic Party is about, it's not only about ideology.

I want to see billionaires start paying their fair share of taxes.

I believe, as progressives do, that health care is a human right. We need Medicare for all. I believe that we cease all funding to Netanyahu's

extremist government, et cetera. But it's not only ideology that we disagree with the Democratic leadership about. It's how you do politics.

It is no great secret that what the Democratic leadership does and the Republicans do it even more. If you go to wealthy billionaires, you say,

give us campaign contributions, you start super PACs, you hire all these consultants, you put 30-second ads hard, you do opposition research, that's

your campaign. We do it differently.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KINKADE: Well, not everyone in the party agrees. Democratic Senator John Fetterman spoke to our Wolf Blitzer Wednesday morning. He believes El-

Sayed's win makes it harder for Democrats to win this November.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Considering El-Sayed's win in Michigan and we've now projected he is the winner in the Michigan primary, are you willing to

consider that perhaps you are the Democrat missing what voters want from their candidates?

SEN. JOHN FETTERMAN (D-PA): I mean, so for me, what if this candidate, I have a great relationship with vast majority of Democrats. We have really

great candidates across the map -- in Ohio, Georgia, in Texas, you know, we have great ones, . But you know, I have a real problem with people that --

that are proud to campaign with people that love Hamas or that they love communist kinds of regime and under those kinds of policies overall.

And that's why I'm saying objectively as a Democrat in the Senate saying now that puts that seat in danger and now that could and now people like

Sanders, you know after what he's done in. Maine with Platner and now it's like it's creating more kinds of chaos. And now it's like, will you own?

Will you own the blowback and making it much more difficult to defend this seat?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KINKADE: We should note Abdul El-Sayed has vowed to keep Jewish Americans safe. He's also told CNN that both Israel and Hamas are evil.

So, what we want to know is do voters want a more progressive Democratic Party?

Joining me now is Maria Cardona, CNN political commentator and a Democratic strategist.

Great to see you, Maria.

MARIA CARDONA, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Thank you. Good to be here.

KINKADE: So this was one primary in one state, in one party, but some are calling it a turning point for Democrats nationally. Are we reading too

much into this result?

CARDONA: I actually do think we're reading too much into this result. Now, that doesn't mean that November is going to be a huge test for Abdul El-

Sayed. It will be because a lot of people don't think that he can win in November. I happen to think that he can.

What he did in this primary is he focused on what voters wanted. are really mad across the board. They are pissed off.

They are wanting someone who's going to be a fierce fighter for them. They want someone to stand up to the status quo. They want someone who is going

to help them make ends meet. They want someone who's going to put their economies first.

I think it's a big opportunity for El Sayed to focus that anger against and towards the Republican Party because let's remember that it's been Donald

Trump along with Republicans who have rubber stamped everything that he has done. And Mike Rogers is one of those people and will be one of those

people if elected to the Senate, where Trump has betrayed the voters that he promised in 2024 that he would focus on bringing down the cost of

groceries, gas and rent, bringing down the cost of healthcare, bringing down inflation.

[15:35:00]

And everything he has done up until now has done completely the opposite. Prices have exploded. Rents have gone up. He has ripped health care. He and

Republicans have ripped health care from hundreds of thousands of people in Michigan and across the country.

Those are very powerful stances that El Sayed can absolutely use to his advantage going into November because that is the pain that voters in

Michigan are feeling, which is why and here's what I contend and what I say to my party and to others who are so focused on labels. Voters don't care

about labels. They don't care whether you call yourself a Democratic socialist or whether you call yourself part of the establishment or whether

you're an incumbent or a challenger. What they care about is that you are going to fight for them, that you are going to find solutions.

Even if you have been there, even if you are the incumbent, if you talk to them about knowing that you have to help solve the issue for these voters,

they're going to come out and support you. You also have to mobilize, and you have to organize, and you have to go door-to-door, and you have to talk

to these voters where they are.

That's something that El-Sayed did very, very well. He's going to have to expand that effort to bring in the people that did not vote for him, but I

think he has a real opportunity to do that.

KINKADE: Yeah, I want to ask you about that, how he's going to bring those other Democratic voters in, because this was a tight race, won very

narrowly, and Republicans are already preparing to paint him as too far left. So how does he bridge that divide and bring the Democrats within

Michigan together?

CARDONA: He started doing that with his remarks this morning, frankly, where he talked about how he knows that he has to bring the party together.

What I love about his other opponents is that they already promised, Mallory McMorrow, Haley Stevens said that they would absolutely support

him, that they would help bring the party together, that they would indicate to the people who voted for them that they should come and support

El Sayed because the real enemy here, the real focus, the real eyes on the prize is making sure that Mike Rogers never reaches the Senate of the

United States of America because that going to be what defines an agenda that is going to continue to help make billionaires richer and working

class people poorer, or whether the voters of Michigan and across the country who have been hurting so badly are going to be prioritized by right

now. It's the Democrats who were focused on the issue of affordability.

But you also see across the board that there are a lot of independence Republicans who have had it with this administration with the incompetence,

with the corruption, with the chaos, with the craziness, with the cruelty. And I think all of those messages are messages that can bring the party

together.

But again, it will be a test for El-Sayed to make sure that he is the one that does that. He is the one that brings all these disparate voices under

one roof. He's got to do better with African American voters. He's got to do better with low -- lower class, working class voters, white working-

class voters. He's got to do better with older voters and with all of those who did vote for Haley Stevens.

But again, I think that this is his opportunity to prove that he can do it.

KINKADE: All right. Well, three or so months to go to those November elections. He's got his work cut out.

Maria Cardona, thanks so much.

In the final moments of trade on Wall Street, stocks are higher. The Dow is riding its fifth straight day of gains to an all-time high.

This is our Business Breakout.

SpaceX shares are tumbling once again after the company's first ever earnings report as a public company. Shares are down more than 10 percent

after the company spent more than $18 billion on things like A.I. infrastructure in the last three months. That's a lot more than analysts

had expected. The company lost around half a billion dollars overall in the last quarter, although that was better than the forecast.

Shares in the New York Times Company have fallen more than 14 percent. Investors are worried about the paper's growth prospects while revenues

grew over the last three months. The company says it's expecting subscription revenues to slow down in the next quarter.

TikTok users will soon be able to make videos with their favorite Disney characters, including Pixar, Marvel, and Star Wars characters. This after

the two companies signed a licensing deal similar to the one Disney reached with OpenAI and its video platform Sora earlier this year, only for Sora to

be shut down.

Artificial intelligence isn't always honest. The most advanced A.I. models from Anthropic and OpenAI went to new lengths to deceive real people during

testing by Britain's A.I. Security Institute. Both Anthropic and OpenAI are investigating.

[15:40:06]

Joining me now is CNN A.I. correspondent Hadas Gold live from New York.

Great to see you.

So, we've seen the headline, A.I. agents going rogue. So, when an A.I. agent does something unintended, is the problem the model itself or is it

the humans who gave it access?

HADAS GOLD, CNN A.I. CORRESPONDENT: I mean it can be both. It is how the model itself is both developed and how it's trained and also the safety

guardrails that are put into it.

And in some of these situations and some of these testing environments, it can be a result of how they are prompted, what directions they are given

and also the testing environment itself because in the earlier incidents, for example, the OpenAI agent that escaped its testing environment hacked

Hugging Face, a completely different company. There was a previously unknown fault essentially in the lab, in the testing environment that gave

or that allowed the agents to be able to gain access to the open Internet that they should not have had. So, if they had built a more secure lab or a

more secure testing environment, then that would have happened.

But these models are developed in a way to get the job done no matter what you have to build it, train it, kind of like a child, morals and ethics and

things like that because otherwise they're just going to get the job done no matter what that takes, and whether that means hacking into something or

deceiving somebody or, you know, other sort of illegal or unethical activities, they will do so because their sole focus is to complete the

task.

KINKADE: And so are we talking about a real world threat right now Hadas or are these mostly warning signs in a controlled experiment? And what are

the companies behind it saying?

GOLD: This is an entirely real world threat because real companies are being hacked. Hugging Face when it was hacked by OpenAI's agents knew it

was being hacked, didn't know by who it was and contacted law enforcement. I mean, hacking another company systems is a crime, and we are just waiting

for the day when one of these test A.I. agents is being tested in some sort of lab environment and then it goes off and hacks some sort of critical

infrastructure, maybe a water supply, maybe a financial institution.

It was the good guys, you might call them good guys versus like a bad actor, a hacker who was just testing out their agents and they escaped and

managed to do something bad. So, these are real world situations. In the most recent case of these Anthropic and OpenAI models that the U.K.

Security Institute was testing, they actually went on to try and deceive real humans.

One of the agents from Anthropic's Mythos was trying to get malicious code inserted into GitHub, which is essentially the Wikipedia of open source

software, but has human editors, human reviewers who review things before it's published. These agents took on fake identities to try and trick the

human reviewers into publishing this malicious code. They were essentially using what scammers do. Scammers will pretend to be your bank or pretend to

be your credit card company to try and get you to divulge information or do something that you shouldn't do.

And we saw A.I. agents doing that right there. And had they been successful, which they were not, then malicious code would have been

inserted into an open source platform that a lot of companies use to try and get software code and use it for their own companies.

KINKADE: Such a fascinating beat. Never a dull day.

Hadas Gold, thanks very much.

We're going to take a quick break. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:46:24]

KINKADE: Welcome back. I'm Lynda Kinkade.

U.S. officials want to know how a commercial jet was able to fly so close to the Marine One helicopter carrying President Trump on Tuesday. It's not

clear why, despite warnings from the helicopter's pilots, the jet took off from Reagan National Airport as Marine One was leaving the White House.

Heavy restrictions on helicopters operating near the airport were put in place after a collision last year between an Army helicopter and American

Airlines plane which killed 67 people.

Well, now to Cuba, where intense heat, power shortages, and routine blackouts are making life unbearable. Now the lack of fuel is also causing

another crisis, streets lined with garbage with no trucks to clear it.

Our Carlos Lopez reports from Havana.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JUAN CARLOS LOPEZ, CNN EN ESPANOL ANCHOR & CHIEF CORRESPONDENT: This is a regular street scene in the Miramar neighborhood in Havana. Beach is right

over there, at least the ocean. But now I'm going to show you what it's really like, and this is one of the consequences of the lack of fuel.

The city of about two million people has to deal with this. Since there's not enough fuel to go around, trash accumulates on many corners. It's not

only the historic Old Havana, it's neighborhoods like this one. And we've seen the trucks picking up the trash. We've seen the workers at night and

at day trying to clean this up.

But there's just so much that you'll find this anywhere you go in Havana. This is one of the consequences of the lack of fuel. This is what the

residents of the city have to put up with in the middle of this crisis.

It's not only the rolling blackouts which bring a lack of water, but then also the smell on the sight of trash on many of the corners of the city.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KINKADE: Well, hundreds of people are fleeing their homes in Guatemala as one of the most active volcanoes in Central America enters its most intense

phase of eruption. The Fuego volcano is about 50 kilometers southwest of the capital, Guatemala. It's been spewing lava and ash since Monday.

Record low water levels on the Danube River are fueling an energy crisis in Central Europe. Hungary is largely shutting down its own nuclear power

plant because there isn't enough water to cool it. It's urging people to scale back on energy use as temperatures soar in Budapest and other cities.

Operations at Slovenia's only nuclear power plant are also being scaled back. The plant uses water from a Danube tributary and supplies power to

Slovenia and Croatia.

Well, still to come, FIFA's president under fire. Why Gianni Infantino called for an emergency crisis meeting. And what's next for the football

giant?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:51:44]

KINKADE: Welcome back. I'm Lynda Kinkade.

FIFA's president Gianni Infantino has called a crisis meeting with senior staff in Morocco. Last week, he sent shockwaves through the football world

with a business proposal to involve private investors in tournament operations. After intense criticism, the plan was scrapped just a few days

later. but he's now facing cause for his departure.

Infantino is seeking a fourth term at the FIFA Congress in Morocco in March.

I want to go straight to our Don Riddell, who joins us live here in Atlanta.

Don, good to see you.

So, Gianni Infantino came into power promising a new era of transparency after all the scandals involving his predecessor.

So, what do we know about this crisis meeting?

DON RIDDELL, CNN WORLD SPORT: Not very much to be honest, Lynda, but the fact that this meeting was supposedly called is hugely significant. I mean,

remember just a few weeks ago, it was Gianni Infantino that was ushering the U.S. President Donald Trump off the stage, at Spain's World Cup trophy

presentation. Now Infantino himself is in, I would argue, grave danger of being sidelined as well.

And this is just a remarkable turn of events, because on the eve of the World Cup, he was expected to coast to a fourth consecutive term in the

election as the FIFA president. He's already been serving for 11 years. That election is coming up in March, and the question now is, will he even

survive that long? Will he even be in charge in seven months' time? Because The football world in the main has really turned on him as a result of this

proposal.

KINKADE: I mean, Don, FIFA certainly, according to critics, has become too centralized around one person. Did Infantino miscalculate the level of

opposition from not just European football leaders, but other stakeholders?

RIDDELL: Clearly. I mean, clearly, he underestimated the response. And it was immediate and it was furious.

And what we saw in particular from UEFA, which is the European governing body that oversees 55 countries, and that's where when you talk about kind

of the wealth in the game and the most successful teams historically on the world stage, when they said they simply wouldn't play in such a World Cup,

that was a game changer. I mean, that was the nuclear option that they went for. And that basically scuppered this plan within days of it being

proposed. And that was a game changer.

But, of course, it wasn't just Europe. It was so many organizations, federations, confederations around the world. And now the hits just seem to

keep on coming for Infantino. Every day brings more revelations that paints him in an increasingly unflattering light.

KINKADE: Yeah, it certainly does. We will wait and see what comes from this crisis meeting and indeed if his job is safe, at least until the next

election. Don Riddell, great to have you with us. Appreciate you.

Well, finally tonight, actor Matthew McConaughey and his wife have had a special meeting with Pope Leo. Now this happened at Saint Peter's Basilica

after the pope's weekly Wednesday audience.

In an interview with our Christiane Amanpour last year, McConaughey expressed a desire to strengthen his faith and the Vatican has announced a

new trip for Pope Leo. He's set to visit Uruguay, Argentina and Peru this November for the first time since his election. The pope spent decades as a

missionary and a bishop in Peru.

I'm Lynda Kinkade. That is WHAT WE KNOW. Stay with CNN. We have much more news after the break.

END

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