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Paintings Stolen From Renoir Museum; Canadian Tariffs Go Into Effect; NYC Mayor Says Officials Misled City About Air Quality After 9/11; Rival Saves Driver From Burning Race Car; Five Killed in Amazon Cargo Plane Crash Were in Van on Ground. Aired 2-2:30p ET

Aired September 08, 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]

MELISSA BELL, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: -- Renoir Museum in a small town not very far from Nice, made off with the paintings in less than five minutes after the alarm sounded, losing a couple on their way. It is of course, once again, for French authorities a hugely worrying development with more calls for greater security at French museums. And given what happened here at the Louvre, those jewels that were stolen less than a year ago still haven't been found, fears that the Renoirs might not be either.

But beyond the clear security lapses that there are currently at French museums, there's also been this report by Europol that explains that there is a new kind of criminal activity targeting precious artifacts in museums, with criminals recruiting the people to carry them out on social media, and criminals now targeting a different kind of precious artifact and in a much more organized and often violent way.

Melissa Bell, CNN, Paris.

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN CO-ANCHOR OF "CNN NEWS CENTRAL": Canada's counterpunch, new tariffs hitting roughly $20 billion worth of American goods, an alarming escalation of President Trump's trade war. So how will the administration respond?

And a dangerous secret coming to light 25 years later. Even though some folks were suspicious of this, New York's mayor is officially releasing records showing that the government misled the city's residents about the air quality around Ground Zero after 9/11.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN CO-ANCHOR OF "CNN NEWS CENTRAL": And rival to the rescue, a race car driver says he owes his life to another driver who saved him. He calls it a quote, "incredible act of bravery." We're following these major developing stories and many more, all coming in right here to "CNN News Central."

Nearly 25 years since the 9/11 attacks, New York City is releasing 170,000 pages of previously undisclosed records that reveal just how unsafe the air quality around Ground Zero really was in the aftermath. Those documents show city officials knew the air was unsafe to breathe, despite repeatedly telling the public otherwise. Nearly 3,000 people of course were killed in the attacks that day, but as New York's mayor said this morning, many more lost their lives because of the toxic air that they were exposed to in the weeks and months that followed.

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MAYOR ZOHRAN MAMDANI, (D-NY): Now, close to 25 years later, more people have died from 9/11 related illnesses than were killed on the day itself. It would be one thing if government had stood alongside survivors and provided them with everything they needed at every step of the way. And yet, we know that could not be further from what actually happened.

People got sick because the leaders they trusted lied and told them they were safe to breathe in toxic air. And then when they began to contend with the symptoms of the illnesses that followed, the government that had not hesitated to send them into harm's way was nowhere to be found.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: Let's bring in the Speaker of the New York City Council, Julie Menin. She lost her mother to a 9/11-related cancer. You also lived on 9/11 in Lower Manhattan. You ran a restaurant right across from the Stock Exchange. I know your husband had a close call with a meeting that day scheduled in the World Trade Center and switched at the last minute.

What's your reaction to this announcement today?

JULIE MENIN, SPEAKER OF THE NEW YORK CITY COUNCIL: Well, this is wonderful news. We have pushed very hard for the release of the 9/11 files for many, many years. I chaired the Lower Manhattan Community Board for seven years after 9/11, and we pushed at that time for the World Trade Center Health Registry because we knew that the air was not safe to breathe.

We have to remember that the federal government and specifically the EPA Head, Christy Todd Whitman, at the time said the air was safe to breathe. And those of us who lived downtown, we all stayed downtown. Even though there was a horrible, acrid smell in the air for days and weeks, but we were told to stay downtown. My mother lived with us at the time. Sadly, she passed away from a 9/11-related cancer.

And now, almost 9,000 people have died from 9/11-related illnesses.

KEILAR: Mayor Mamdani was asked today about who is culpable here. He pointed to, or if there was a cover up, he pointed to a number of administrations here. Who do you hold accountable for the delay in releasing this information?

MENIN: Well, right now, today is about accountability and transparency. What the federal government did in those days after 9/11 is they told us to stay downtown. They said time and time again, the air was safe to breathe, even though, you know, it's not rocket science to know clearly it was not safe to breathe. You could smell it in the air. In the first early days when the towers fell, you could barely see a couple inches in front of you.

[14:05:00]

And the toxins that were in there, the asbestos, the PCBs, the environmental toxins were obviously incredibly detrimental. And so right now, this is a time for transparency and accountability. I'm very pleased with this result. In this year's city budget, we negotiated with the mayor to provide the funding for the release of these files, and this is a very important step on the road to transparency, accountability, and ultimately justice.

KEILAR: Do you think that Mayor Mamdani should go to the 9/11 ceremony? Former Mayor Giuliani says he shouldn't. There are some families who lost loved ones on 9/11 who agree.

MENIN: So I served on the jury that selected the 9/11 Memorial and went through 5,201 design submissions where we selected that memorial. I served on the board of the 9/11 Memorial Foundation since the very beginning. I firmly believe that elected officials should be there.

I think that right now, it's a very difficult day. It is a very difficult day for the family members. It's a difficult day for those of us that lost loved ones, for the first responders. But this is a day where, hopefully, we can put politics aside and try to focus on the remembrance, remembering those that were lost, remembering the acts of heroism of first responders, and the kindness of strangers. We need to get back to that unity. Right now, there's so much divisiveness and fractious debate across the country.

And on this solemn day of the 25th anniversary, and I go every single year, right now, we have to focus on the families who lost loved ones and really make sure that we never forget. And that's why, just a couple days ago, I announced that the City Council is donating $1 million to the 9/11 Memorial Foundation to bring public school students to the memorial and to the museum because we have a whole generation of young people who were not alive for the events of 9/11, and we want to make sure that they never forget as well.

KEILAR: Yeah. Can you talk a little bit more about that because, I mean, I remember my eight-year-old seeing the plane going into the building. It was kind of accidental that he saw a picture of it on T.V. but it actually prompted a really important conversation in our house about it. And we went this summer to the museum, which was an amazing experience. It's an incredible tribute to the people who lost their lives that day, the people who did so much and really showed up that day.

What do you hope that helps accomplish?

MENIN: Well, I think the educational part is so important. You can't learn about 9/11 from a textbook. We need young people to come to the museum and see it. And we have to remember what the terrorists tried to take away from us. They tried to take away not only those loved ones who were tragically killed, they tried to take away our freedoms and our way of life. And we in Lower Manhattan and across the city and across the country really fought back.

I was focused for over a decade on the rebuilding of Lower Manhattan after 9/11. We want to make sure that that next generation learns about those lessons and again, learns about the unity that at the time really brought the city and the country together. We need to get back to that time and it's my fervent hope that by bringing young people to the memorial and to the museum that that is what they take away from it.

They take away those lessons that we learned on 9/11 and make sure that we memorialize them properly.

KEILAR: And Julie, I want to show this picture of your mom who you lost to a 9/11-related illness. I know that she is so much on your mind always, but especially this week and with the release of these documents.

We really, really appreciate you being with us to talk about everything that's going on there. Thank you so much.

MENIN: Thank you so much.

KEILAR: Boris?

SANCHEZ: We've now learned that all five people killed after this weekend's fiery crash of an Amazon cargo plane were in a van on the ground. Today, the Miami-Dade Sheriff released the names of the men who died. They range in age from 47 to 75 and they worked for a cleaning service.

On Sunday, the cargo plane collided into their van and an SUV when it tried to land at Miami International Airport and just overran the runway. The Boeing 767 was still traveling at more than 130 miles an hour when it reached the end of that runway. And new video appears to show one of the pilots jumping out of the front of the plane as it burned.

You see him there in that highlighted portion of your screen. The NTSB chair told CNN earlier today that investigators have since retrieved the plane's black boxes.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JENNIFER HOMENDY, CHIEF, NATIONAL TRANSPORTATION SAFETY BOARD: The real data that we need is on the flight data recorder which is being analyzed right now. Both the cockpit voice recorder and the flight data recorder were transferred to the NTSB headquarters, to our labs last night in D.C.

[14:10:00]

They're being analyzed this morning and we hope to have all that information today including speed, you know, flight control inputs, engine parameters. We'll have -- we should have all that data hopefully to provide later today but I would caution everybody to hang on until we have the actual data in hand before drawing any conclusions.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANCHEZ: Another five people were hurt from the crash, the sheriff is saying that two of them remain in critical condition. The NTSB will give another update on the investigation later tonight.

Still to come this afternoon, Canada counterpunching, how its new tariffs could impact your wallet. And later, Democrats sounding the alarm in New Hampshire, what has them so worried? That much more coming your way on CNN.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:15:32]

SANCHEZ: After weeks of anticipation, American businesses are now feeling Canada's clap back in President Trump's trade war. Overnight, 15 to 50 percent tariffs took effect, totaling roughly $20 billion worth of U.S. goods. Six sectors -- steel, dairy, appliances, farming equipment, paper, and electronics -- seeing the biggest impact.

In response, President Trump has threatened to ban the sale of Canadian Bombardier jets in the U.S. We're joined now by Cameron Ahmad. He's a former Director of Communications to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. Cameron, thanks so much for being with us.

So, if the U.S. responds to these new retaliatory tariffs with another escalation, how do you anticipate Canadian leaders are going to respond? What other sectors might they target?

CAMERON AHMAD, FORMER DIRECTOR OF COMMUNICATIONS TO PRIME MINISTER JUSTIN TRUDEAU: Well, I think the goal of the Canadian government is the same as it has been since the beginning. It's not to have a tit- for-tat and keep responding with more tariffs on either side of the border. The goal is to get back to the negotiating table and try and reach a deal that's going to be lasting and good for both of our economies.

I think because Canada didn't choose to be in this position, it was forced to respond with the measures they put into force today. And they would be prepared to -- we would be prepared to do it again, as we were during the first Trump administration when we were facing American tariffs on many of our goods. So I think, ultimately, this is bad news for Canadian and American consumers and businesses.

And the goal is to get back to the table, to keep the channels open, and try and reach a deal that's going to be good for our integrated economies.

SANCHEZ: Ontario's Premier, Doug Ford, put on the table the idea that his province would restrict electricity exports to border states like New York and Michigan. Do you think that should be on the table?

AHMAD: I mean, I think you're hearing different leaders across Canada try and talk about leverage that we might have, and retaliatory tariffs that the prime minister announced are some of them. You're hearing leaders in different parts of the country talk about natural resources, things we export to you, to the Americans, that could potentially be used, but it's not where anyone wants to be, including Premier Ford.

I mean, everybody is pretty united in Canada, and everybody is on the same page, that this is just an unfortunate situation that we find ourselves in. We are, of course, a smaller economy, but we do have some things we can do, and we've been through this before. We have the experience of having negotiated with the Trump administration for years under former Prime Minister Trudeau, and we're doing it again today.

But I think what everyone is trying to help Americans realize, I think most Americans do realize. You're hearing from chambers of commerce, you're hearing from workers, many politicians, including Republicans, saying that tariffs being imposed on both sides of the border just make life more expensive for Americans --

SANCHEZ: Sure.

AHMAD: -- and make doing business harder when ultimately we should be competing together against the rest of the world. And that's, you know, the best position we could put ourselves in.

SANCHEZ: On that notion of getting both parties back on the same page, Carney, the Prime Minister, says that talks collapsed over these French-language and Canadian content rules, though we did hear from Trade Representative Greer denying that. Is the Canadian position on those issues so untouchable that it's worth putting $20 billion in tariffs, aluminum and steel doubling to 50 percent, plus autos potentially going there January 1st? Is it truly non-negotiable?

AHMAD: I mean, there are some things that the prime minister has made clear are non-negotiable, and our ability to be a sovereign country, make deals with other countries, because that was one of the things that we talked about that you heard the prime minister mention, was there was, you know, a threat that Canada could not be able to make its own deals as a sovereign country with other countries around the world.

Those are obviously things that are non-negotiable for a Canadian government because we operate independently from the United States. And so I think those are pretty fundamental things. Protection of the French language, one of our two official languages in Canada, is another one that is extremely important for all Canadians, but especially for French-speaking Canadians.

And we've been able to negotiate trade agreements with many countries around the world. We're actually one of the best connected countries in terms of international trade of all developed countries.

[14:20:00]

And we've been able to negotiate with the United States as recently as the renegotiation of NAFTA, which happened just a few years ago under this president. So I think there's plenty of room to maneuver and discuss on the Canadian side, but there are some pretty fundamental things that we obviously won't budge on.

SANCHEZ: So on that point of sovereignty, Cameron, what's your reaction to this post by President Trump, this picture of North America that he posted yesterday, marking it all as the United States of America, also later posting a cartoon of the two leaders playing hockey with the words "Get Up, Governor" attached? Do you see that as bluster, as a genuine threat, what do you think?

(LAUGH)

AHMAD: I think in Canada we've become pretty used to this kind of rhetoric or memes from the administration and you know, obviously, we are all quite united behind our government and behind our negotiating team. And we keep -- we're keeping our heads pretty cool, but we're staying patriotic and united. And so we know that these tariffs are going to hurt our industries and our businesses and our workers. We know that retaliating is also going to have an impact on us, just like it's going to have on Americans, but we don't see this as a fight to be had in this way.

I think we view Americans as friends, neighbors, allies, and we want to get to a place where we can you know move beyond this type of rhetoric and just negotiate on the terms of a deal that's going to be good for our economies, that are already so deeply integrated. So we're I think able to look past the day-to-day bluster as some may put it, but we're a very patriotic country and people are quite united behind the government and how it's responding.

SANCHEZ: Cameron Ahmad, we appreciate you joining us to share your perspective.

AHMAD: Thanks so much for having me.

SANCHEZ: Up next, some incredible video. You see the heroic moment, a rival racer stops to help an opponent trapped inside his burning car. Don't miss it. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:26:32]

KEILAR: New video shows the moment that a Ferrari explodes into flames during a multi-car crash at a race in Shanghai. British driver, Ollie Millroy was trapped inside of that wreckage, and before emergency crews could arrive, a rival racer, Loek Hartog, pulled over and dragged Millroy from that burning car. Here's the moment.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: Wow. Millroy suffered a broken collarbone, hand, finger, and also a bruised lung, but he spoke out after the terrifying incident, saying he's alive because of Hartog's quick action. Jay Busbee is with us now. He's a senior writer at Yahoo! Sports. I mean, just an amazing moment, Jay. You really see Hartog taking a risk. He's battling a lot of smoke to do this, and this risk really pays off. Tell us about what he said just not long ago on social media. He's just responded to this.

JAY BUSBEE, SENIOR WRITER, YAHOO! SPORTS: He's basically done what almost every driver does, which is say, I was absolutely happy to do it, but I would have done it for anyone. He said he was grateful that he was able to get Millroy out. This is what you see about drivers. They know how fearsome fire can be. They know how bad it can be.

And so they go from being rivals to being, not teammates, but being colleagues and looking to rescue one another at a moment's notice. The rivalry goes out the window, and all they're focused on is helping their friend get out of the car and get ready for the next race.

KEILAR: Yeah, the fire, the smoke, and he's just in there on his own until his rival comes to help. Talk to us a little bit about -- it was interesting in the video that Hartog put up, he said he wanted to make this a focus about making the sport safer, which is really interesting.

BUSBEE: Yes.

KEILAR: He used a fire extinguisher to try to put out the flames, and then he did what we see in the video there. What are racers typically equipped with here? Can you tell us?

BUSBEE: Yeah, not a whole lot. I mean, they're very much at the mercy of the elements. What happened here at the Shanghai International Circuit, there was a hairpin turn. The track goes almost 180 degrees back in the other direction, and that, as opposed to an oval track, tends to send cars in unpredictable directions. And when they go in unpredictable directions, unpredictable things happen, like colliding in unexpected areas and causing this kind of conflagration.

So what you have is a situation where everything went wrong at once, and one of the key problems here was that the track officials were apparently not prepared for this level of fire, this level of trouble in this particular area. And so, Hartog took it upon himself to take control. I think that that's what he's mainly referring to, is that these tracks have to be prepared for these kinds of eventualities.

You see in Formula One tracks, IndyCar tracks, NASCAR tracks, they have safety equipment everywhere, and that clearly wasn't the case here. So it's to Ollie Millroy's good luck that Hartog was right there and able to risk his own life to get him out.

KEILAR: Yeah, because talk to us about the response time of emergency responders versus really how much time he had here before it was going to be a really bad situation.

BUSBEE: Yeah, I mean, you hope that they're there within just a few seconds, but when you're talking about a massive track like this, you --