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U.S. Ramps Up Pressure on Cuba With Potential Castro Indictment; School Bus-size Asteroid to Zoom Past Earth; World Races to Contain Growing Ebola Outbreak; CDC Limits Entry to U.S. From Ebola-hit Region; Trial Begins for Ex-assistant Principal After Six- year-old Shoots Teacher; Trump Creates Nearly $1.8 Billion Fund to Compensate Allies Who Claim They Were Targeted by Biden Administration; Ebony Parker Charged With Eight Counts of Felony Child Abuse and Disregard for Life. Aired 2-2:30p ET

Aired May 18, 2026 - 14:00   ET

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

[14:00:00]

MICHAEL J. BUSTAMANTE, CHAIR, CUBAN & CUBAN-AMERICAN STUDIES, UNIVERSITY OF MIAMI: -- turning to migration as a safety valve in the way that they have in the past would surely create a risk of being interpreted in the White House as sort of a cause for action.

So I don't think they can use that tool to the same extent. Mass migration still remains a risk. I mean, there is the fact that Cuba has already lost a tremendous -- a record number of people in the last few years. There's a real question as to who's left to leave.

But in a scenario where you do have a continuation of U.S. sanctions, a true social decomposition or U.S. military action without a real well-considered plan afterward, social decomposition could result in mass migration sort of after the fact, too. And that's something that I think would be of concern to this administration. Absolutely.

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN CO-ANCHOR OF "CNN NEWS CENTRAL": Yeah. Michael J. Bustamante, thanks so much for sharing your expertise and perspective.

BUSTAMANTE Thanks.

SANCHEZ: A new hour of "CNN News Central" starts right now.

A public health emergency of international concern, the new warning about an Ebola outbreak that has believed to have hundreds of people already infected, dozens killed. And eight counts of felony child abuse, one for each bullet in the gun a six-year-old used to shoot his teacher and assistant principal facing those charges in a trial that begins today.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN CO-ANCHOR OF "CNN NEWS CENTRAL": Plus, a close call and one we didn't even know about. An asteroid as big as two school buses will zoom by our planet today. Astronomers didn't even know it existed nine days ago. We're following these major developing stories and many more, all coming in right here to "CNN News Central."

We begin this hour with a race to contain a growing Ebola outbreak that's believed to have killed more than 100 people so far, sickening more than three times that number. The majority of those cases have been detected in a largely rural province in the Democratic Republic of Congo, a country that is no stranger to this virus. The World Health Organization, though, calls this outbreak extraordinary because it's being driven by a rare strain of Ebola with no approved treatment or vaccine.

KEILAR: And also concerning officials is evidence that the virus was circulating, perhaps for weeks before the outbreak was even confirmed. And that all of this is happening as worldwide travel prepares to take off in advance of the World Cup happening here in the U.S.

CNN Medical Correspondent, Meg Tirrell is tracking all of the developments. Meg, what do we know about this particular strain and how it spreads?

MEG TIRRELL, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT Well, this is a strain that we really haven't seen as much as another. The Zaire strain of Ebola is the one we most commonly see. This one is called the Bundibugyo strain, and it was only discovered in 2007. It's been associated with two prior large outbreaks in DRC and one along the DRC-Uganda border.

And in those, there were 38 cases and 13 deaths reported in one. 131 reported cases and 42 reported deaths in another, about a 30 percent fatality rate. This outbreak is already larger than both of those, and that is such a concern. And part of the reason this has already been declared by the World Health Organization, that public health emergency of international concern already being detected in two countries, the DRC and two cases in Uganda, including one death there.

There's concern that this could spread even more broadly in that region and requires an international response. Now, what we know about Ebola is that it's thought to only spread when it's symptomatic, when somebody has a fever, some of these other symptoms. And it spreads via contact with bodily fluids, either direct contact with fluids or with things like laundered or not laundered bedsheets and things like that, where those fluids can be found.

So that's the understanding of how Ebola spreads. Now, the CDC is taking action just this morning, saying that they were invoking Title 42, a sort of public health law which restricts some entry into the United States. So they're enhancing public health screening and traveler monitoring from -- for people who are arriving from countries affected by this outbreak.

And they're also going to have entry restrictions on non-U.S. passport holders if they've been in Uganda, the Democratic Republic of Congo or South Sudan in the previous 21 days. Additionally, the State Department is issuing a Level 4 advisory on travel, saying do not travel to the DRC or Uganda right now as this outbreak is unfolding, guys, and unfolding so quickly.

SANCHEZ: Meg, do you know if any Americans have been infected? Has the State Department or the CDC confirmed that?

TIRRELL: There have been a lot of questions to the CDC about that because they have said that they're participating in coordinating the withdrawal of what they say is a small number of Americans who are directly affected in the outbreak areas. They haven't said if those people were actually infected with Ebola or what the nature of their sort of exposure was.

And so we are waiting to hear more from the CDC around that and where those folks might go, because as we know, one of the places that would typically handle folks coming back from an outbreak area is Nebraska, the quarantine center, which currently has a lot of the folks quarantining from the Hantavirus cruise ship, guys.

[14:05:00]

KEILAR: All right, Meg Tirrell, thank you so much for that. Tomorrow marks 80 days since the U.S. and Israel launched the war with Iran. But today, how it ends is anything but clear. Iran says it did send a new response to Pakistani mediators about U.S. criticisms of its latest 14-point peace proposal.

President Trump rejected that offer last week, saying he stopped reading it after the first sentence. Impatient over the impasse, the president is again threatening to destroy Iran, saying on Sunday, quote, "The clock is ticking and they better get moving fast or there won't be anything left of them."

Let's talk more about all of this with Democratic Congressman, Josh Gottheimer of New Jersey. He's a member of the House Intelligence Committee. Congressman, thank you so much for being with us. We've seen threats like this before. Do you think the president is ready to make good on this threat this time?

REP. JOSH GOTTHEIMER, (D-NJ) HOUSE INTELLIGENCE COMMITTEE: Well, obviously, I won't predict what Donald Trump is going to do, but he did say that he's going to be meeting with his national security team in the Situation Room tomorrow. We also know what appears to be the response to the latest from Iran on a proposed deal, which seems like, according to reports, right, more words and not a lot of substantive action on their nuclear program.

So between, you know, obviously what we're looking for, the progress we're looking for from Iran on their nuclear program, plus a lack of action on scaling back their ballistic program or their terror programs from one of our key enemies, the regime there, it seems to put forth a lot of question marks about Iran taking things seriously when it comes to action on our side, and add to that what's going on in the Straits, Hormuz, where you're looking at a thousand ships or so that are still stranded there, stuck there, which of course is leading to much higher gas prices for Americans back home.

In Jersey, where I live, average now $4.50 as we head into Memorial Day weekend, right? You can imagine that's weighing pretty heavily.

KEILAR: On the closure of the Strait, Iran has launched this new entity, the Persian Gulf Strait Authority, to manage the Strait as they're trying to really cement their control over this critical passageway. Is it possible that Iran retains control of the Strait in perpetuity? And certainly, it appears they're going to try to do that for several months here in the near term. Is there any scenario where that could go on in perpetuity?

GOTTHEIMER: I mean, I don't think that's anything that we could accept as a country. You can't have more than 20 percent of the world's oil passing through this key artery, one of our top adversaries holding the keys, right? That seems unacceptable to me, you know, both in terms of what that would do to global oil pricing and also impact on our allies as well. You know, let's remember what we're dealing with here.

The Iranian regime flies under the banner of death to America, calls us the great Satan America, and has attacked and killed our service members and attacked our bases, killed our allies. These are no friends of the United States of America. But what's been -- continue to be unclear is what our ultimate strategy is in the region and what our progress has been through the conflict.

You know, as much as I want to crush Iran, I also want to understand what our goals are. And so far, what we're seeing is very high oil prices, and at least according to public reporting, you know, still maintaining -- Iran still maintains massive missile and drone capabilities and capacity, as well as significant nuclear capacity, and has the resources -- and I think this is a big issue -- whether they have the resources to fund their proxy terrorist program -- Hamas, Hezbollah, Palestinian Islamic Jihad.

So you have a lot of questions that are still hanging out there, not a lot of answers. But we'll see what's next. The Iranians appear, right now, not to be concerned about our threats.

KEILAR: As this drags on without congressional oversight or really meaningful input, Democrats have continued to push for some kind of ability to curb the president's war powers. Is there any progress on that front that you can report?

GOTTHEIMER: Well, I'll admit that's been incredibly frustrating. I sit on the Intelligence Committee, and a lot of my colleagues who sit on Armed Forces Committees -- and none of us have gotten, as well as the full Congress, put aside the American people, the briefings that we should in terms of the objectives and progress on the conflict. And as you know, the War Powers Act made -- which was passed in 1973, says that after 60 days, the president has to come to Congress either for an authorization of force or for a declaration of war.

[14:10:00]

President Trump has done neither, and he's not kept us apprised, in my opinion, as he should have, so that we can do our jobs or oversight in understanding where we are. And so, I know it is frustrating the American people, it is clearly frustrating to Congress, and I think what we need to keep the pressure up to get that information. Again, someone like me who believes that we should crush the Iranian regime, they are not our friends, they do not believe in our in our democracy or share our values. However, you can't -- the president can't just go it alone. There is a

responsibility here to keep us briefed, so we can understand what exactly is happening both, not just in the Straits, but more broadly, and what progress we've made.

KEILAR: I wanted to ask you because you've been outspoken when it comes to your party about anti-semitism, saying that there's a double standard within your party, AIPAC funding has become quite controversial during this primary season. And as you're talking to your fellow lawmakers, who are navigating the political realities of a Democratic primary, some of them saying they're not taking AIPAC funding for instance, where have you seen a meaningful debate about AIPAC policies, about Israeli government policies considering the U.S. does provide so much aid to its strategic partner that also respects the right of Israel to exist and the rights of Jews around the world, including here in the U.S. to live in safety?

GOTTHEIMER: Yeah, I mean, one of the big issues that I've brought up continually is saying to my colleagues that we should not bring any, allow any hate or anti-semitism into our party, into our tent. And you know, what's been very frustrating to me and to others is you have candidates and members of Congress who are embracing extremists who are these socialists like Hasan Piker.

By the way, on the other side, Candace Owens, same type of extremism, who are peddling in hate, right, calling -- Hassan Piker calling Jews pig, dogs, and saying that Orthodox Jews are inbred. And you know, then you have members of Congress and candidates who are running for office in the Democratic Party, many of them as socialists, as Democratic socialists, but running and not doing what you should do, which is stand up and say, there's no place for this kind of hatred in the Democratic Party, just like there can't be any Islamophobia or any hate targeted toward anybody.

And that's what I've really said. It's really outrageous that this has gone on, you know, Hasan Piker has said, has spewed all this anti- American rhetoric that 9/11 was America's fault, right? So this is this embracing of socialism and hatred, which I find, you know, to have no place in the Democratic Party. And I'll continue to speak out against that in the days ahead.

KEILAR: Congressman Josh Gottheimer, thank you so much for being with us. We appreciate it.

GOTTHEIMER: Thanks for having me.

KEILAR: Still to come, the Trump administration is launching a nearly $1.8 billion fund to compensate allies who say they were unfairly targeted by the Biden administration. We have more on this unprecedented move that is drawing accusations of corruption.

Plus, some new details in the investigation into Jeffrey Epstein's death. The House Oversight Committee interviewing a guard on duty the night that he died in jail as lawmakers dig deeper into what happened.

And then later, the White House says China has agreed to purchase $17 billion of American agricultural goods every year. We'll take a look at what that could mean for American farmers. That and much more coming up on "CNN News Central."

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[14:18:20]

SANCHEZ: Breaking News to CNN. The CDC says that an American working in the Democratic Republic of Congo has tested positive for Ebola. The person developed symptoms over the weekend and tested positive late Sunday. Officials say they will now be moved to Germany for treatment and care. The World Health Organization has declared the outbreak a global health emergency. We'll, of course, bring you more details as we get them.

Meantime, back in the United States, the Department of Justice has announced the creation of a nearly $1.8 billion fund to pay allies of President Trump who claim they were unfairly targeted by the Biden administration. The fund, which will be financed by American taxpayers, comes as Trump is dropping his $10 billion lawsuit against the federal government where he alleges the IRS failed to protect his and the Trump Organization's tax returns during his first presidency.

CNN Chief Legal Affairs Correspondent, Paula Reid joins us now. Paula, take us through what we've learned about this fund.

PAULA REID, CNN CHIEF LEGAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Look, Boris, I think the most important thing is this is going to face a lot of legal challenges, and politically, it's going to be challenging for the president, his allies, potentially even Republicans, because we're talking about $2 billion in taxpayer money that is primarily going to benefit the president's allies.

But they say in this announcement today, the Justice Department insists there is no partisan requirement. If you believe you have been unfairly targeted by the Justice Department in an investigation, you can file a claim. You can get an apology and potentially monetary damages.

Now, this is going to be overseen by five individuals. They're going to be volunteers selected by the attorney general. One of them will be selected in consultation with Congress. But President Trump can fire any of these people if he doesn't like what they're doing.

[14:20:00]

So there are a lot of questions about the oversight here. Now, look, I've been covering the president, his lawyers, his legal entanglements for a decade.

I think the average voter may not fully appreciate how strongly the president and his lawyers believe he was unfairly targeted by the Justice Department. In a statement today, the president's personal lawyer said, quote, "President Trump, his family, supporters, and countless other America First patriots were illegally targeted by the Democrat-led law enforcement agencies, including the Department of Justice and the IRS." They say President Trump is entering into the settlement squarely for the benefit of the American people, and he will continue to fight to hold those who wronged America and Americans accountable.

Now, again, they truly believe that the president was wrongly targeted, but it didn't seem to me that they had sort of fully thought through how taxpayers are going to feel once you reach into their pockets to compensate people for these grievances.

SANCHEZ: There's also a question I want to follow up with, Paula, about the fact that this is the sitting president --

REID: Yes.

SANCHEZ: -- coming to a settlement with his own government.

REID: It's a great point, because the people who are sitting around on the table negotiating this are his personal lawyers --

SANCHEZ: Right.

REID: -- who helped him file that $10 billion lawsuit against the IRS, which the judge overseeing that case had already looked at pretty skeptically. So it's his personal lawyers on one side, and then the other side are lawyers in his own administration at the IRS, at the Justice Department, at the White House. There's no outside voice here. And for example, the fund, the exact amount is $1.776 billion.

That is an intentional reference to the nation's upcoming birthday. That's cute and all, but I don't know that taxpayers are going to find this very amusing, Boris. This is something that could become a political liability --

SANCHEZ: Yeah.

REID: -- especially on the campaign trail heading into midterms. We'll see.

SANCHEZ: Paula Reid, thank you so much for walking us through the details.

Still to come, a former assistant principal facing criminal charges after a school shooting, the latest case testing the limits of who becomes responsible when a juvenile opens fire.

Plus, just hours from now, an asteroid the size of a couple of school buses is going to whiz by planet Earth. We're going to show you how you can see it happen, next.

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[14:26:53]

KEILAR: In what appears to be a first, a trial is underway for a former Virginia elementary school official who is facing criminal charges over a school shooting. Ebony Parker is accused of ignoring repeated warnings about a first grader possibly having a gun. The six-year-old boy ultimately shot his teacher in the chest and hand. Thankfully, she survived. Parker has pleaded not guilty to felony child abuse charges. CNN Correspondent, Brian Todd is with us now.

Brian, you've been monitoring this. This is such an interesting case because, and I know hindsight's 20/20.

BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Right.

KEILAR: -- but there were many possible times where the school official maybe could have heeded a warning, and that's really what's at issue here. What have you heard so far in this proceeding?

TODD: Brianna, that is at the crux of this case. This is going to be a compelling trial that will unfold throughout the course of the week.

Jury selection going on as we speak. Then opening statements will come. As Brianna mentioned in the intro, this appears to be the first case ever that an educator has actually been put on trial criminally related to a school shooting.

You had parents in both Georgia and Michigan who have been convicted of serious charges related to school shootings. Ebony Parker, the woman you see there, the first educator to be charged. She is the former assistant principal at Richneck Elementary School.

She faces eight counts of felony child abuse and disregard for life. Those eight counts, one each for each bullet that the child had in the gun that day. Ebony Parker has pleaded not guilty to the charges. Setting it up for you now, on January 6, 2023, Abigail Zwerner, a first-grade teacher, was shot as she sat at a reading table and seriously wounded by this six-year-old boy.

Zwerner and prosecutors had argued that Ebony Parker had been informed at least three times that day that the boy had a gun and that she failed to act. In November of 2025, just a few months ago, Abigail Zwerner won a $10 million judgment in a civil lawsuit against Parker and the school system.

Now, at the time, Parker's lawyers argued that this shooting was not foreseeable. Officials tell CNN that the prosecution does intend to call Abigail Zwerner. There you see some video of her. They do intend to call Abigail Zwerner to the stand.

Also, CNN affiliate, WTKR is reporting that the judge in the case, Rebecca Robinson, has denied a motion from the defense to prevent the testimony of another retired teacher named Susan White. The prosecutors had mentioned a previous incident where this former teacher, White, had been strangled by this boy when he was younger.

We believe it was a year before this, when he was in kindergarten, as about a 5-year-old. Prosecutors claimed that Ebony Parker had knowledge of that incident as well. The judge in this case is going to allow Susan White to testify. We just heard a prosecutor a short time ago saying they do intend to call Susan White. So, Brianna, between the testimony of Susan White, this former teacher, who, again, this incident according to prosecutors, she was strangled by this boy months and months before this shooting. This boy had a history of just horrible behavior.

Between that testimony of Susan White and the testimony of Abby Zwerner, this is going to be a very dramatic trial going to be unfolding throughout the course of the week.

KEILAR: Yeah, and we've seen Abby Zwerner testify.

TODD: Yes.

KEILAR: It was incredibly --