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Urgent Rescue Now Underway for 5 Men Trapped Deep in Flooded Cave; Ex-Attorney General Bondi on Capitol Hill to Face Questions on Epstein Files; U.S. and Iran Reach Tentative Deal But Needs Trump Approval; Protests Erupt Again Outside New Jersey ICE Facility. Aired 8-8:30a ET

Aired May 29, 2026 - 08:00   ET

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

[08:00:00]

COY WIRE, CNN SPORTS ANCHOR: And these kids all just knew it. They rattled it off like it was nothing. Incredible stuff.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Coy, no one likes to show off but thank you for being with us this morning. Coy Wire in Washington, D.C. at the site of the National Spelling Bee. A new hour of CNN New Central starts right now.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: Happening right now, the dangerous mission underway to rescue five people stuck inside that flooded cave. After being in total darkness for more than a week, how will they climb out on their own? CNN has a crew on the ground reporting exclusively from the scene.

And we're also waiting to see former Attorney General Pam Bondi arrive on Capitol Hill. She will face questions from lawmakers today over her handling of the Epstein files. Will she actually answer those questions?

And then a judge throws out the case of a traffic stop gone viral. A woman ticketed for holding a phone in her right hand as she was driving, but she literally doesn't have a right hand.

Sara Sidner is out today. I'm Kate Bolduan with John Berman. This is CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

BERMAN: All right, and we do have breaking news. CNN is live on the scene of the mission to rescue five men who have been trapped deep inside a flooded cave for 10 days. The operation, we believe, is underway.

Expert rescue divers from all over the world arrived on the scene this morning, and new video shows just how narrow the passage is that they have to navigate. Now, they've been pumping flood water out of the cave all night to try and clear more space in that very narrow passageway. Now, right when you go in, there's a steep 45-degree-angle drop at the entrance.

Rescuers have to navigate about 800 feet of narrow tunnels, some only about two feet wide. There is a curve with two other steep drops, and it's past that where the survivors are. A member of the rescue team says it takes an experienced diver two hours to navigate from the cave's entrance to the people inside.

I want to get right to CNN's Will Ripley, who is live. We're talking about deep in the jungle in Laos, where this cave is. Will, you arrived not long ago.

What are you seeing? What's the latest?

WILL RIPLEY, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: So people have been coming down from the rescue site, John, people that have been there all day. And one of them I want to introduce you to right now. His name is Johny Pangkam. His brother-in-law is one of the two villagers here who is missing.

Tell me, what is your brother-in-law's name, and what is your family thinking right now? Do you have hope that he still is alive?

JOHNY PANGKAM, BROTHER-IN-LAW OF MAN TRAPPED IN CAVE: Yes, I hope for my brother-in-law. I think my family not feeling good because my brother-in-law, they have not feeling, they have to sick before to come to cave.

RIPLEY: You were saying that your brother-in-law was sick, but he and a lot of other villagers went to the cave because they heard rumors that there was gold that they could find in the cave, and they wanted to go to see if they could find the gold, right?

PANGKAM: Yes.

RIPLEY: So he went in there even though he wasn't feeling well --

PANGKAM: Yes.

RIPLEY: -- and now he's one of the two people who has not been found. They found five alive, but there are two who are still missing. So how is your family doing?

PANGKAM: Now my family to look some people to help them and to come to outside, but now we don't hear him anything now.

RIPLEY: You haven't heard anything.

PANGKAM: Yes.

RIPLEY: And you've been up at the scene -- at the cave entrance all day, so a lot of families have been gathering there at the cave entrance. You were there.

We talked to a woman whose husband is one of the five who's found alive. We talked to two women whose brothers are still inside the cave. So can you tell me what it's like there up at the cave entrance right now where they're trying to rescue the five who are inside?

PANGKAM: I don't know about the five people, but now they not come just because they have to take care inside the cave to give the food. Some the food in there because now they not strong.

RIPLEY: They're not strong and they have to climb out of the cave with their own power.

PANGKAM: Yes, keep the food, take care inside. They have some people from Thailand, from France or from Malaysia.

RIPLEY: You've had a lot of people from all over the world come here to help search. And I know that people have been saying they're so grateful, particularly your friends from Thailand who you consider almost culturally like brother and sister, right? To see them come here and help you in such large numbers.

PANGKAM: (INAUDIBLE) like this.

RIPLEY: And how are the families doing up there?

[08:05:00]

Emotionally, how are you feeling?

PANGKAM: Just to help them for cooking. If you like, take care of food for the need for --

RIPLEY: You could actually send down into the cave. Yes, yes.

PANGKAM: Water and food and they have to need something we have.

RIPLEY: OK, Johny, wish you good luck. And I really hope that we find your brother-in-law safe and sound.

PANGKAM: Yes, I hope so.

RIPLEY: You know, we haven't talked a whole lot about the two that are still missing and those families that are still dealing with so much uncertainty, John. Even as this delicate rescue effort is underway, it's still a very dangerous time for everybody who's in that cave because it is going to be quite difficult, physically exhausting, for them to come out. And that operation is happening, we believe, at the cave entrance as we speak.

BERMAN: Yes, Will Ripley, it's such a great reminder that even though there were five people found alive, there are two still missing. Please give our regards to Johny and his family. And just one quick question while I still have you.

You said that we believe the rescue operation is currently underway. What kind of updates do we expect to get over the next several minutes and hours?

RIPLEY: So we have been in touch with divers who are inside the cave. And the last update that we had from them is that they were actually, they were beginning the final phase, what they described as the operation, to try to bring the first villager out. But we haven't heard an update, and it's been about an hour. Part of the reason why is that there's limited, it's actually incredible that they have internet connectivity inside this cave at all. When you're talking about 800 feet inside, they installed cables to basically have internet routers. And they're able to send back video and updates almost in real time.

But it's been quiet. It's been dark now for the past hour or so. So we're waiting to hear for an update as to how things are going.

And of course, we're keeping our eye on this now very dark road to see if anybody comes down. If they bring somebody to one of these ambulances, we'll know at least that one person has made it out. We haven't seen that yet.

And as you can see, it's basically now pitch black here. There's really nothing around here other than a few small homes in this village. And yet the work continues.

They've got generators up there trying to keep the search effort and the rescue effort going around the clock.

BERMAN: Will Ripley, it's remarkable to have you there really deep in the jungle with the flora and fauna. As the sun has now set, it is dark. Please keep us posted by the minute on this rescue.

Hopefully we will see them headed out alive for treatment in that ambulance shortly. Will Ripley in Laos, thank you so much. Remarkable.

BOLDUAN: You see the light fading as he was talking. Continues into the night. Updates as they come, for sure.

In the meantime, let's turn to this. Soon, former Attorney General Pam Bondi will be on Capitol Hill to face lawmakers. This is all about her handling the Epstein files when she was in that top job still.

What was behind the over-redactions in some places? The reckless under-redactions in others? Why were so many names of survivors revealed when these Epstein files started to be released?

Bondi's interview today is behind closed doors. She will not be under oath, it will not be videotaped, but it will be transcribed. Let's talk more about this.

CNN's Paula Reid following all of this. It's going to be quite a morning. Paula, what are you learning about it?

PAULA REID, CNN CHIEF LEGAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: That's exactly right. This is a much-anticipated appearance by the former Attorney General. She's going to sit across from lawmakers and answer some pretty tough questions about her handling of the Epstein files, particularly the handling of the release of the files, mistakes, as you noted, in redacting a victim or survivor names and private information.

Also, her own series of statements about the files, her sort of promises to release some things, then not following through on that. Eventually, of course, Congress compelled the Justice Department to release most of the Epstein files. She also, of course, had that infamous event where she released binders to influencers that purportedly had a lot of new information, and in fact, it was just a rehash of things that were already in the public record.

And the way she handled this, in many ways, was surprising, because this is someone who has been in public life for decades. She was a prosecutor in Florida for decades. She was the Attorney General of the state of Florida for nearly a decade.

So this is someone who had a lot of experience in public life, in law enforcement, at the highest levels of a Justice Department. So her repeated missteps did often come as somewhat of a surprise to those of us who were covering this. So it'll be really interesting to hear her answers today.

Now, notably, she is represented by the Civil Rights Chief at the Justice Department, Harmeet Dhillon, a somewhat unusual arrangement, but she will be there in this closed-door hearing. We won't see much today. As you said in the intro, this is going to happen behind closed doors.

It is not being videotaped. There will be a transcript that we might get in a week or so. Now, a lot of folks talking about the fact that she will not be sworn in, but look, you still can't lie to Congress.

[08:10:00]

So that is significant, but the terms of this interview were changed once she was no longer the Attorney General. She was, of course, fired, and then they negotiated this voluntary appearance after she had, of course, received that subpoena when she was Attorney General. So this is pretty high stakes for the Justice Department. The Trump Justice Department has, of course, faced a significant amount of scrutiny over its handling of the Epstein matter.

BOLDUAN: To say the least. Thank you so much, Paula. This will all be getting underway very, very soon -- John.

BERMAN: OK, standing by for updates on the status of peace negotiations between the United States and Iran. When might President Trump sign off on a deal?

And new video just in of clashes between protesters and federal agents outside an ICE detention facility.

And just a huge explosion overnight. A Blue Origin rocket goes up in flames. You can see it right there. This could have an impact on the timing of the efforts to get back to the moon.

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[08:15:00]

BERMAN: All right, happening now, oil prices falling with hopes of a potential deal between the United States and Iran. There is said to be a Memorandum of Understanding that would include reopening the Strait of Hormuz, lifting the blockade on Iranian ports, and setting up a future negotiation on Iran's nuclear material.

Now, we are waiting to learn if the president will sign off on it. With us now is really the reporter who broke the word of this Memorandum of Understanding yesterday. From Axios, CNN political and global affairs analyst, Barak Ravid.

Barak, it's always great to see you. Why don't you give us the latest news you're hearing about what the president thinks so far of this memorandum of understanding? What the holdup might be? What are the considerations?

BARAK RAVID, CNN POLITICAL AND GLOBAL AFFAIRS ANALYST: So I think that at least as of yesterday, the president was leaning towards signing off on this Memorandum of Understanding. I think there are two main reasons that President Trump is still waiting. The first reason is that he wants to make sure, he wants to see that the Iranians are not backing away from what has been agreed upon.

Because the Iranians, through the mediators, told the U.S. on Wednesday already that they're ready to sign. And I think President Trump wants to see that they're not walking back. And at least for now, there's been no official and public statement by any Iranian official that walks away from what has been published over the last 24 hours.

And I think this is something we haven't seen so far because in previous rounds, Iranian Foreign Minister Araghchi or his spokesman or other Iranian officials came out publicly, openly and officially and said, this is not true. We do not see it this time and I think it's interesting.

Another thing that I think President Trump is doing, according to what I hear from U.S. officials, he wants to see how this is playing out in the domestic political debate in the U.S. And I think we should look at, for example, and the editorial board of the Wall Street Journal published yesterday an op-ed about the deal that had some criticism, but it was very, very mild. And I think it says a lot about where the hawks, Iran hawks are at the moment. They're not attacking this deal with everything they got. They do criticize parts of it.

And I think this is exactly what President Trump wanted to see and I think there is a chance that in the next day or two, he could make a determination.

BERMAN: So there seem to be two -- well, there are many outstanding issues that have to be discussed going forward, but two of the main areas where those so-called Iran hawks might be looking at are number one, the nuclear program, nuclear material. Number two, what kind of financial relief does Iran get? Let's focus on the nuclear issue first, Barak.

Based on what you know, if this Memorandum of Understanding is signed in the next couple of days, how different would the situation be with Iran's nuclear program vis-a-vis where it was three months ago? RAVID: Well, if the Memorandum of Understanding is signed, it's not going to change anything about the Iranian nuclear program yet, OK? What it does is that it's sort of like a jumping board from the situation that we are now where there's no real negotiations over Iran's, over limitations to Iran's nuclear program to a situation where the U.S. and Iran will sit down for direct talks on how to dispose of Iran's stockpile of enriched uranium, which is 2,000 kilograms of enriched uranium, both highly enriched and both lower levels, and how to limit Iran's uranium enrichment program, which at the moment does not exist because it was bombed already in June -- in June of last year.

So I think this is what's going to happen if a deal is going to be signed. There are going to be negotiations. Whether those negotiations will lead to a deal, I don't think anybody can predict at the moment. And I think that skepticism, it would be a useful tool to try and predict what's going to happen.

BERMAN: Always a useful tool in reporting of this nature. Barak Ravid, thank you for joining us. Thank you for all the work you have done on this and keeping us updated.

Protesters detained and pepper sprayed in new clashes outside an ICE facility. The latest on the situation there.

And new updates on the Trump administrations hot pursuit to put the president on a new $250 bill.

[08:20:00]

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BOLDUAN: New video has been coming in of crowds gathering this morning outside of the controversial ICE facility that we've been tracking in New Jersey, and there after very heavy clashes overnight.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

(VIDEO OF PROTESTERS AND AGENTS SWINGING BATONS)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: Agents seen swinging batons, deploying pepper spray into the crowd as people were -- as protesters clashed with them. The protests have picked back up over reports of inhumane conditions inside the facility. Some lawmakers are now calling for that facility to be shut down.

There also, the protests started back up. You'll remember we've been covering this. If there are reports of people beginning to hold a hunger strike inside, detainees over the alleged conditions.

CNN's Gloria Pazmino is live for us in Newark, covering all of this. What are you hearing there now?

GLORIA PAZMINO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey Kate, things are significantly calmer right now, right?

[08:25:00]

There's a very small group of demonstrators, but as the hours go on, we do begin to see these back and forth between demonstrators and officers significantly escalate. And they become much more violent and confrontational during the evening hours.

As you said in that video, you can see that officers used batons to disperse the crowd last night. They've been using pepper spray. And throughout the day, what you see here is really kind of a standoff between demonstrators who tried to get closer to the facility and officers who tried to hold them back. And there's a lot of, you know, there's a literal push and pull throughout the day.

Now, this hunger strike has been going on for about eight days. Detainees, attorneys representing those detainees who we've spoken to say that there is a lack of good conditions inside, a lack of access to medical care, people being served food that is spoiled, women who are pregnant who cannot access the care of doctors and lawmakers here in the area calling for more oversight and the eventual shutdown of this facility.

The governor of New Jersey, Mikie Sherrill, said yesterday that the health department was denied entry into certain areas of this detention center and that they were not able to do a proper inspection. She has called on the state attorney general to investigate this facility, which is privately run. Now, this detention center is a major flashpoint.

It's also one of the major detention centers in the tri-state area. So as the Trump administration's immigration and deportation efforts ramp up, this is one of the facilities where people are brought in. We will see if this continues to escalate over the next few days and the next few hours and whether or not we're going to see any sort of increased enforcement to try and keep demonstrators back -- Kate.

BOLDUAN: Yes, great to have you on the ground watching it all. Thank you so much, Gloria, really appreciate it.

Still ahead for us, that urgent rescue operation underway to get the group of villagers that have been trapped in a cave back out after they've been in there now for more than a week. We're live at the rescue site deep in the jungle. We'll take you back there.

And a driver is pulled over for having her phone in her right hand while driving. Only problem is she does not have a right hand.

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