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Five of Seven Villagers Trapped in Flooded Laos Cave Found Alive; Blood Test Now an Option for Colorectal Cancer Screenings; Former AG, Pam Bondi, Recovering From Cancer Treatment; Trump Says Nobody Will Control Strait of Hormuz, It Will Be Open; At Least One Dead, Nine Missing After Chemical Tank Ruptures in Washington State; A Bill That Would Increase Benefits for Severely Wounded Veterans and Surviving Family Members Now Heads to the Senate. Aired 1:30-2p ET

Aired May 27, 2026 - 13:30   ET

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

[13:30:00]

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN CO-ANCHOR OF "CNN NEWS CENTRAL": -- a flooded cave in Laos for a week now have been found alive. Cave diving specialists located them earlier today, and while they're still stuck in that underground cavern, the five are said to be safe, healthy and in good spirits.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): OK, now, I am Benz here and this is Mr. Mikko. We have now successfully located the five Lao nationals. Everyone is safe. We will proceed with providing further assistance.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: The five villagers described feeling weak and hungry after being trapped since last Wednesday, no surprise. They were mining for gold when floodwaters blocked the entrance and rescuers are now focused on getting them supplies and preparing them for the difficult extraction process.

The search continues for the two others who are still missing. Boris?

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN CO-ANCHOR OF "CNN NEWS CENTRAL": Well, it could soon become much easier for you to get checked for colon and rectal cancer and avoid colonoscopy. For the first time, the American Cancer Society is recommending blood tests to try and dramatically increase the number of people who get tested.

That's because so many people skip colonoscopies while colorectal cancer is killing younger Americans at an alarming rate.

CNN Health Reporter, Jacqueline Howard joins us now. So, Jacqueline, what more are you learning about these new guidelines?

JACQUELINE HOWARD, CNN HEALTH REPORTER: That's right, Boris. So for the first time, like you said, the American Cancer Society is recommending blood testing, but it says colonoscopy is still the gold standard. And this recommendation is only for people who otherwise would not have been screened because they simply can't or outright decline colonoscopy or other visual exams or stool testing.

So, the blood test we're talking about here is called the SHIELD test. It was FDA approved in 2024. And if you go this route, it's recommended every three years. Another major update, Boris, the American Cancer Society has also added two additional stool tests to its screening recommendations.

It has added an upgraded version of the stool test, Cologuard, called Cologuard Plus, and a new FDA approved test called ColoSense. And these stool tests, again, are recommended every three years. What the American Cancer Society said it's doing here, Boris, is it says one in three people who are eligible for screening still have not been screened.

So by adding these additional tests, they want to help give more options to those people who otherwise would not have been screened, Boris.

SANCHEZ: And Jacqueline, have the guidelines said anything about screening earlier because rates of colorectal cancer are spiking among younger people?

HOWARD: That's right. It still says to start screening at age 45. That's for people at average risk. But the American Cancer Society told me they are continuing to look at data to see if they should make that recommendation for a younger age. So we have to really wait to see, Boris, if they will make that change in the future.

SANCHEZ: Jacqueline Howard, thank you so much for the update on that important story.

Breaking News to CNN, Former Attorney General Pam Bondi tells us that she's undergoing treatment for thyroid cancer, including having surgery a few weeks ago. Bondi says she was diagnosed after leaving the Justice Department in April. You may recall that the president fired Bondi as AG earlier that month. Todd Blanche is now Acting Attorney General.

She is scheduled to testify this week in the House Oversight Committee's investigation on Jeffrey Epstein. So stay tuned for updates on her and her health.

Iranian state TV is reporting details of what it claims is an unfinalized agreement between the U.S. and Iran. President Trump, though, is denying key parts of it. The White House says it is a complete fabrication. That story is next.

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[13:37:50]

SANCHEZ: President Trump is rejecting Iran's latest bid to gain authority over the Strait of Hormuz. Earlier today, Iranian state media reported on a draft memo that it claimed would give Tehran and Oman control over the Strait as part of a deal to end the war.

A short time ago, the president responded. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, (R) PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: The Strait is going to be open to everybody.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And who would control it?

TRUMP: It's international waters. Nobody is going to control it. We're going to watch over it. We'll watch over it. But nobody is going to control it. That's part of the negotiation that we have. They would like to control it. Nobody is going to control it. It's international waters and Oman will behave just like everybody else and we'll have to blow them up. They understand that. They'll be fine.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANCHEZ: We're joined now by Ivo Daalder, former U.S. Ambassador to NATO and currently a Senior Fellow at the Harvard Belfer Center, also the Host of the "World Review with Ivo Daalder" podcast.

Ambassador, thank you so much for being with us. Do you think the U.S. currently has enough leverage to keep Iran from pursuing its ambitions with this Persian Gulf Strait Authority and its desire to control traffic through the Strait of Hormuz long term?

IVO DAALDER, FORMER U.S. AMBASSADOR TO NATO: No. Frankly, the Iranians have controlled the traffic through the Strait of Hormuz since February 28th when we started this war. And predictably, the response to that war was for them to close the Strait. As long as Iran is geographically located where it is, which is right around the Strait, it will have the capacity to attack shipping through the Strait of Hormuz unless and until the United States decides to end its capacity to do so through military force, which requires the occupation of large swaths of Iran. Iran's going to have the capability to do this.

So the president can say the Strait is open. The president can say that international waters are international waters. The Iranians have a different idea. And so far, they've been able to dictate the terms.

SANCHEZ: How about nuclear concessions? I mean, if the U.S. were to lift the blockade, as this memorandum suggests, does the U.S. have enough leverage to get into this negotiation specific details on what Iran is going to do with either uranium that's already been enriched or that they perhaps could enrich in the future?

[13:40:00]

DAALDER: We'll have to see. I mean, so far the answer to that again is no. All the reporting suggests that the memorandum they're negotiating does not address the nuclear issue. It may lay down some parameters of what a nuclear negotiation one day may look like. But as Secretary of State, Marco Rubio said the other day, you don't negotiate the end of the uranium nuclear program in 72 hours on the back of a napkin.

He's absolutely right. It took the Obama administration 16 months. It took the Europeans starting in 2003 to negotiate an agreement that was finally signed in 2015. And foolishly, the president walked away. And I think it's very important to underscore if the Iranian nuclear deal, the so-called JCPOA that was negotiated in 2015, had been in force today, Iran would not have had more than 300 kilograms of uranium enriched to 3.67 percent.

Today, Iran has 8,500 kilograms of enriched uranium, much of it enriched, some of it to 60 percent, other parts to 20 percent, and sufficient material to make, if they have the time, not just 11, but perhaps 100 bombs.

SANCHEZ: Sure.

DAALDER: That's the situation that President Trump created.

SANCHEZ: So you're obviously rejecting Trump's point of view that Iran was not serious about maintaining its end of the JCPOA and that, in his view, they would have had a nuclear weapon already had he not removed the United States from that agreement. Help us understand why you reject that claim.

DAALDER: Until the day that the president of the United States walked away from the nuclear agreement, Iran was abiding by its terms. No one suggested that Iran was not abiding by the terms. And the presumption must be that if they had abided by the terms for three years, they would continue to do so.

Now, it is true that there was a sunset provision in the agreement that would have set in 10, 15, and 25 years different kinds of things that the Iranians could do. But remember, this agreement was signed in 2015. The Iranians would not have been allowed to enrich above 300 kilograms of uranium, above 3.67 percent, until 2031.

So if the President wanted a better deal, he could have had a long time to negotiate that. He didn't. He decided to go to war, thereby increasing the likelihood of Iran wanting to acquire a nuclear weapon because the Iranians will have now understood that the only way they can prevent Israel or the United States from attacking them, which they have now done twice, is by having a nuclear weapon.

So we're not better off. We're much worse off. And in the meantime, before the war, the Strait of Hormuz was indeed international waters. It may still be international waters, except the Iranians control access to it. And that's a problem that we now all have to live with.

SANCHEZ: Former Ambassador, Ivo Daalder, thanks so much for sharing your perspective.

DAALDER: My pleasure.

SANCHEZ: Still ahead, dangerous chemicals are complicating the search for nine missing employees after a tank ruptured at a power plant in Washington State. We have the latest on the search for those nine missing. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:47:58]

KEILAR: On this week's Home Front, a bill that would increase benefits for severely wounded veterans and surviving family members now heads to the Senate. The Sharri Briley and Eric Edmundson Veterans Benefits Expansion Act passed the House last week. Lawmakers behind the legislation say that it would be a major boost for more than 7,000 severely disabled veterans along with their families, and for the more than half a million Gold Star families who have not received a significant increase in benefits in over three decades.

This would be meaningful for the family of retired Chief Warrant Officer 4 Garrett Illerbrunn. He suffered a traumatic brain injury during a drone attack at Erbil Airbase in Iraq on Christmas Day 2023. And we're joined now by Chief Illerbrunn's spouse, Lorna. She's also a former U.S. Army Medical Evacuation Pilot. Lorna, thank you so much for being with us.

I know this is a really big step for your family and so many others. Before we talk about the bill, just to tell people the kind of families that we're talking about here, can you tell us a little bit about your husband and what he has been through, and what your family has been through?

LORNA ILLERBRUNN, MILITARY SPOUSE & CARETAKER TO DISABLED VETERAN HUSBAND: Sure. Thank you for having me, Brianna. My husband, he's just an amazing human being that grew up on a farm in North Dakota. Wanted to do that and then kind of looked up at the sky and decided that he wanted to follow aviation and fly helicopters for the Army.

And so, one thing that shows his persistence is he applied to flight school seven times and was eventually accepted and then went on for many long, successful years in that. We met in Afghanistan in 2013, another example of his persistence. I said I don't date pilots. I don't date Army guys. I definitely don't date Army pilots, especially Apache pilots. But I think he took that as a challenge.

[13:50:00]

And years later, we're happily married with a young son, Tucker, who's 10. So when Garrett was injured, that changed our, you know, happy, little, charmed life for sure.

KEILAR: Yeah, certainly. And tell us about what this bill would mean for you and for your husband and your son.

ILLERBRUNN: Well, I think I speak now not only for myself, Brianna, but for the many others who are in a similar situation that our family is, who often may feel invisible or just exhausted by the weight of bureaucracy and administrative and caregiving burden. It's very easy to kind of get caught up in that. But I will say that when your whole life gets upended, and I've had to leave my job to care for Garrett. He's right now in long-term care, maybe he'll eventually go back, but everything is very uncertain. And finding a way to have financial and energetic stability at a time like this is really, really important.

KEILAR: And you can speak to this yourself too, as a veteran, but there is a covenant that our country has with its veterans, and I think especially with those who have sacrificed, who have been injured, or who have been killed and their families, that they are going to be provided for, that they have served their country. What does this bill that increases these benefits do to make good on that promise?

ILLERBRUNN: I think it's, you know, essentially showing more than telling. So words are one thing, but when action is behind those words, it matters. I think the American people are amazing, and I think that, in general, so many of our country on a bipartisan level supports the soldier and has a deep reverence for our brothers and sisters in arms and the veterans that they become.

And in order to show the American people that our lawmakers also feel that reverence and want to hold it sacred, bills like this should be passed.

KEILAR: Your husband, he has been through so much. He's been transferred to Walter Reed, on to a VA trauma center in Virginia, to North Carolina. This requires a lot of care, right, both medically and seeing that through is a commitment on the part of your family, and then caregiving at home, which is the case of so many families. Can you speak a little bit about that?

ILLERBRUNN: Sure, I can. I'd say Garrett just retired from the military in December, so we have traveled from Germany to, as you said, many places, many facilities. I actually, if I were to count, it would be more than all of my fingers, right? And so now, we're finally back in New Hampshire trying to get our life more stabilized.

And you know, in a position where we can live daily life and find time for those, like, hopes and dreams we've always had, which sometimes get completely interrupted to the point that you wonder if you're ever going to get there again. One thing I'm wondering about is I'd really like to be able to bring Garrett home, at least on a part-time basis.

And with that, I have to find a house that I can modify, adapt. I not only have to do that, but I have to, more importantly, figure out how am I going to staff this and make it work, because I can't provide that care 24/7. I know I can't. And no caregiver should be asked to do that.

So I think if the VA were to find a way, they do many things well, but one thing that I feel they could do better is care coordination. I've spoke with countless other caregivers who feel the same way, that it's hard to navigate the options. It's kind of like being at the Cheesecake Factory with all the options, and you don't know which one to choose. You don't even know what it is. I'm sure if there was someone in the VA who could walk me through how would this look if you were to bring him home? How would this look if he were to be in a facility part-time and come home? That would make our future much more clear because, right now, it's very, very unclear.

KEILAR: Yeah, I think that's a very worthwhile suggestion and you're speaking on behalf of so many families who have been experiencing that as well.

[13:55:00]

Lorna, thank you so much for sharing your story with us, for sharing Garrett's story with us, and thank you to him and to you for your service, both as a veteran and as a military spouse. We really appreciate it.

ILLERBRUNN: Thank you, Brianna. And thank you for bringing light to this important issue.

KEILAR: Did President Trump just create a possible path for Democrats to win in Texas? Senate hopeful, James Talarico is already out with his first attack ad.

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