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Trump, Pritzker Clash Over Possible National Guard Deployment to Illinois; Judge Says Utah's Congressional Map Must Be Redrawn for 2026 Midterms; Police Arrest L.A. Burglary Crew Suspected in Nearly 100 Break-ins; Australia Expels Iranian Ambassador After Spy Agency Finds Iran Directed Anti-Semitic Attacks on Its Soil; Israeli Security Cabinet Meeting Ends With No Decisions Reached on Major Issues; Growing Condemnation Over Israeli Strikes on Gaza Hospital; Extreme Weather Out West Fuels Wildfire Conditions, Dust Storms; New GLP-1 Weight Loss Pill May Be Closer to Reality. Aired 1:30-2p ET

Aired August 26, 2025 - 13:30   ET

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


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[13:31:43]

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN CO-ANCHOR OF "CNN NEWS CENTRAL": Chicago is one of the cities where President Trump may expand his federal crackdown on crime, but he's facing major pushback from Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker, who told Trump yesterday not to send Guard troops to his state today. The president responded.

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DONALD TRUMP, (R) PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: You would think that Illinois would have such a problem with crime, such a bad governor. He should be calling me and he should be saying, could you send over the troops please? It's out of control. It's out of control.

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KEILAR: CNN's Whitney Wild is in Chicago. Whitney, tell us what you're hearing from people there about this possibility of troops coming to their city.

WHITNEY WILD, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT CORRESPONDENT: Brianna, we've spoken to a wide range of people. We spoke with an alderman yesterday. We heard from Governor J.B. Pritzker yesterday, as well as Chicago's Mayor Brandon Johnson. And we spoke with people who live here, regular people. And what we are finding is that there really is some split perspective here.

It is not as simple as everybody is opposed to the National Guard. So what we have done is we've tried to find out what people who are most affected by these policies actually think. So, let me have you listen to what some gun violence victims had to say about this. They spoke out today, they are against the National Guard deployment, and here's why.

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YOLANDA ANDROZA, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, ONE AIM ILLINOIS: Once again, our communities are being threatened by policies rooted in fear. The Trump Administration's threat to send National Guard troops to Chicago is not about safety. It is not about safety. It's about control through intimidation and fear.

SAMUEL MORMON, GUN VIOLENCE SURVIVOR: We have PTSD already. So what you think military is going to do when we see that? You think some of us want to see the same guns that were used against us?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WILD: Brianna, the leaders here, Illinois governor, Illinois attorney general and the mayor are all pointing out that crime here has dropped significantly. So let's go to some of the data here and what I'll show you is that, you see homicides have dropped significantly. Shootings have dropped significantly. Carjackings have dropped significantly. When you go to the city data website, you can see that major crime categories all show a success.

You see these pretty dramatic, I mean, we're talking about a double- digit drop, Brianna, in these major crime categories year-over-year. So this is, in a lot of ways, according to leaders here, a success story. But when you talk to people in Chicago, I spoke with one woman yesterday who said that she's concerned about the National Guard. She's opposed to it. But I spoke with another woman who said she welcomes it. Here's why she says this could be a good thing.

AMEENAH HAQQUE, CHICAGO RESIDENT: My first reaction was that this is a good thing. I think that the governor as well as the mayor should be on board with it just so we can get a bit more of security in Chicago, the way that we need.

WILD: The crime has dropped since 2024. Do you feel like the city feels safer?

HAQQUE: No, not at all. No, especially with the police being defunded.

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[13:35:00]

WILD: Brianna, there is city data to show that the police department has seen some increases in funding. But what I'll say, Brianna, is that, of course, you're hearing some people say that they support it, other people say they don't support it. Even still, leaders here say that they're going to fight it. And the Illinois attorney general has made very clear the moment that he feels like he has enough of a case to fight this, he plans to go to court to try to stop the National Guard from coming here, Brianna.

KEILAR: All right, Whitney Wild, thank you for the report. Boris?

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN CO-ANCHOR OF "CNN NEWS CENTRAL": Now to some of the other headlines we're watching this hour, a federal judge in Utah has ordered state lawmakers to redraw the state's congressional map, ruling the Republican-controlled legislature unlawfully changed a voter approved ballot measure meant to make sure that districts were not drawn to favor any party. The new maps will need to be quickly redrawn for the 2026 midterms, but Republican lawmakers are promising to appeal this decision which could help stall adopting new maps until 2028.

And in Los Angeles, officials say law enforcement agencies busted a major burglary ring, suspected nearly a hundred break-ins across the region. Police say 10 people are now in custody following an operation against the so-called Rich Rollin' burglary crew, and that all were repeat offenders and confirmed gang members. During the operation, police say they found luxury items like watches, wallets and cash, as well as burglary tools like window breaking devices, handheld radios and firearms.

And Australia is expelling the Iranian Ambassador to Canberra after its intelligence agency linked Iran to at least two anti-Semitic attacks inside the country. The country's prime minister says that Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps directed the attacks, targeting a Jewish owned restaurant in Sydney and a synagogue in Melbourne. The Iranian ambassador and three other diplomatic staff have a week to leave the country. Iran's foreign minister called the allegations baseless and ridiculous.

Still to come on "News Central," Israel releases its initial report on Monday's deadly military strike on a Gaza Hospital. Why it says troops were given the OK to attack.

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[13:41:30]

SANCHEZ: Today, Israelis are staging a nationwide day of protests, demanding the government agree to a ceasefire hostage deal with Hamas. Protestors are burning tires and blocking major roads in what protest leaders are calling a day of struggle. Families of the hostages want to know why the government hasn't responded to the latest truce proposal that Hamas accepted last week. As protests erupt in the streets, the Israeli security cabinet just met behind closed doors, discussing the expansion of the military operation in Gaza. CNN's Oren Liebermann joins us now live from Tel Aviv. And Oren, what are you learning about this security cabinet meeting?

OREN LIEBERMANN, CNN JERUSALEM BUREAU CHIEF AND CORRESPONDENT: So, that security cabinet meeting lasted for just a couple of hours this afternoon in Jerusalem. There were key members missing there, including several of the far-right members that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu relies on to hold his government together. So, there were really no substantive discussions there and no effort to consider the ceasefire plan that's currently on the table that Hamas accepted now more than one week ago.

Instead, according to two sources familiar with the discussion, it was a talk about regional security across the country and that, the fact that the government simply at this point refuses to take up the deal on the table, one that's very similar to what Israel and Netanyahu had accepted one month ago, that drives a lot of the anger and a lot of the crowds you're seeing here behind me. These crowds have come out on weekly protests. Some of those we have spoken to make sure to protest multiple times a week.

It's a way of trying to get through to the government and frankly, to get through to the outside world and in some cases, even to get through to President Donald Trump, that Israel and repeated polling has shown this, the majority of the country wants an end to the war and wants to see the release of the hostages. And they are furious, frankly, as one protester told me that the government refuses to take up the deal that's on the table right now.

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HAIM WEISS, ISRAELI PROTESTER: The Prime Minister, they're manipulated by very extreme ultra-orthodox people with these fantasies or messianic fantasies about conquering Gaza and building settlements there. And they are using this horrific situation in order to promote their agenda that has nothing to do with the security of Israel.

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LIEBERMANN: Having given up on Netanyahu going for a deal on his own, many here believe it is President Donald Trump who needs to pressure the Israeli government and Netanyahu himself to go for a deal. That is pressure they say is fundamentally lacking right now. Even as Trump said just yesterday or within the last couple of days, that a comprehensive deal maybe just a couple of weeks away here, two to three weeks.

SANCHEZ: Yeah. And Oren, Israel is facing global outrage over that so-called double tap strike on that Gaza Hospital on Monday night, reportedly killing 20 Palestinians, including five journalists. What can you tell us about that?

LIEBERMANN: Well, we have seen international outrage pour in since the minutes after the strike, and it has only grown over the course of the last 24 hours or more. The United Nations calling for accountability and an investigation as well as a number of other international organizations. The Committee to Protect Journalists say it's now 196 or so journalists who've been killed by Israel in Gaza, a number that rose with five more journalists who were killed.

[13:45:00]

For international news organizations, Al Jazeera, Reuters, the Associated Press, as well as freelance journalists who were there in the Nasser Medical Complex in Khan Younis in southern Gaza, at a place where they had routinely been from an elevated viewpoint to see what was happening in Khan Younis. And it is in this scenario that we have learned that Israel carried out multiple strikes, back to back, double-tap strikes as they're called, on the hospital itself. The first, because soldiers there believed a camera on the balcony was being used by Hamas to observe the movement of Israeli troops. And the second, just a couple of minutes later, as we saw in live videos and recorded videos from the scene just a few minutes later that hit first responders.

According to the hospital and the Palestinian Ministry of Health, at least 20 Palestinians were killed, including five journalists. We've just gotten an update a short time ago from the Israeli military. The military says the soldiers there believed it was a camera, a belief that was reinforced from Israel saying Hamas has used the hospital in the past. And that went into the belief that this was a Hamas camera that was watching troops. That being said, the military also says there were six Hamas terrorists that were killed, unclear why that statement didn't come yesterday then. And also saying there were gaps in the decision making process. Those need to be investigated.

SANCHEZ: Oren Liebermann, live for us in Tel Aviv, thank you so much, Oren.

Coming up, weight loss drugs without a needle. New details on a pill that's getting closer to finding its way to your pharmacy.

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[13:51:04]

KEILAR: The extreme weather out west is not only fueling thunderstorms and dangerous wildfire conditions, but also this. It's a blinding dust storm known as, yes, a haboob that gobbled up parts of Arizona. Yesterday's storms triggered airport delays, downed trees. It left tens of thousands of people in the dark. So let's go to CNN Meteorologist Allison Chinchar on this. That is quite impactful in this area, Allison. Could we be seeing anything else like this big dust storm?

ALLISON CHINCHAR, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Yes, you could because the origin of what causes these haboobs is in fact going to happen again today. So let's take a look at the time-lapse, so we can understand. You've got the parent thunderstorm cloud in the back and what's going to happen is it's picking up all of that dust. There you see that giant wall of dust spreading it all the way into Phoenix. But then once the dust settles, then you get the rain drops that you can see on the screen.

So again, all of this basically comes, you've got the parent thunderstorm that's out there in the back, outflow, which are the very strong winds that come down from the thunderstorm, push down and it picks up all of that dirt and sand that's just kind of sitting on the surface and it churns it up, sometimes shooting it thousands of feet into the air. And that's what ends up basically creating zero visibility for some of these folks. And then once that clears out, the thunderstorm behind it pushes back in, bringing the rain and showers with it.

So let's kind of break down what actually happened yesterday. So you're looking at about 5:30 p.m. local time in Phoenix. This is the thunderstorm we were talking about before it pushes in. The temperatures were originally in the triple digits and winds were maybe about 20 to 30 miles per hour at best. You kind of push forward and you're going to start to see some of those temperatures beginning to drop. They dropped 35 degrees in just 30 minutes.

Again, a tremendous temperature drop and the winds go from about 20 miles per hour all the way up to 70 miles per hour. But we do in fact have some showers and thunderstorms in the forecast for the remainder of the day today and even into tomorrow. So, you could end up getting some additional haboobs on top of what we had yesterday.

KEILAR: No additional haboobs; that's not what we want. Allison Chinchar --

(LAUGH)

KEILAR: Thank you so much. Boris?

SANCHEZ: They have become the juggernauts of the weight loss world -- Ozempic, Mounjaro, Wegovy, Zepbound. But, all these meds need to be injected. And now, Eli Lilly is one step closer to offering patients a GLP-1 pill that's unlike anything out there. Here's CNN Health Reporter, Jacqueline Howard.

JACQUELINE HOWARD, CNN HEALTH REPORTER: The company, Eli Lilly says that its GLP-1 pills were found to be safe and have compelling efficacy results in new Phase 3 trial data. Based on these results, the company says it plans to move forward with filing for regulatory approval. Now, what we know about the Phase 3 trial, it included adults with diabetes who also had obesity or were overweight.

Some of the participants were given the GLP-1 pill. Some were given a placebo After 72 weeks, the company says the participants who were given the GLP-1 pill at its highest dose lost on average 22.9 pounds. And in comparison, the adults who were given the placebo only lost about five pounds. Also during those 72 weeks, the company says that the GLP-1 pill lowered A1C levels on average by 1.8 percent. There were some side effects, but they were mild to moderate according to the company. And they were similar to the side effects we tend to see with the GLP-1 injections -- nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, constipation.

So based on this Phase 3 trial, the company says it does plan to submit its data for regulatory approval. If approved, it wants to make the GLP-1 pill available to the public. Again, this is the same medication that we have seen administered as an injection. Just, this particular form will be as a once-daily pill.

[13:55:00]

SANCHEZ: Our thanks to Jacqueline Howard for that report. Still to come, the president picking another fight with the Fed, saying he is firing Fed Governor Lisa Cook, but she says she's not going anywhere. And Taylor Swift tells Travis Kelce, I want you for worse or for better. But she won't have to wait forever and ever. I'll find out what these lyrics are from in just moments. Stay with "CNN News Central."

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