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Prime Minister Netanyahu to Address U.N. General Assembly; James Comey Indicted; Russia's Fuel Crisis, Russian Frozen Assets; Russia Meddling in Moldovan Election; President Erdogan Visits White House. Sarkozy Sentenced To 5 Years In Campaign Financing Case; U.S. Federal Agencies Warned About Advanced Hackers. Aired 2-3a ET
Aired September 26, 2025 - 02:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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KIM BRUNHUBER, CNN HOST: Welcome to all of you watching us around the world, I'm Kim Brunhuber. This is "CNN Newsroom." Israel's prime minister will soon speak at the United Nations amid growing calls for Palestinian statehood.
Former FBI director James Comey says he welcomes a trial after being indicted by President Trump's Justice Department.
And former French President Nicolas Sarkozy finds out his fate following his conviction.
We begin at the U.N. General Assembly where Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will speak in the day ahead. He's expected to be harshly critical of countries recognizing a Palestinian state. Meanwhile, the Palestinian Authority president is making his position clear, Hamas should have no role in governing a future Palestinian state.
Mahmoud Abbas condemned Israel's deadly military campaign in Gaza, but he also denounced the October 7th attacks on Israel and the kidnapping of hostages by Hamas and other groups. Hamas is rejecting the notion that it should have no role in the future Palestinian state. The group says that would be an infringement on the rights of the Palestinian people to choose who governs them.
Well, delegates to the U.N. will get another perspective on the war in Gaza in the day ahead. CNN's Jerusalem bureau chief, Oren Liebermann explains.
OREN LIEBERMANN, CNN JERUSALEM BUREAU CHIEF: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is scheduled to speak at the United Nations General Assembly on Friday morning in what will be quite a remarkable moment, a world leader in New York speaking at the U.N. who has an arrest warrant out for him from the International Criminal Court for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity because of the ongoing military campaign in Gaza, charges that Israel and Netanyahu have vehemently denied. Netanyahu is expected to blast a number of countries that have
recognized a state of Palestine throughout the week, both at the General Assembly itself and before at a French-Saudi summit to support a two-state solution. Netanyahu and Israel have said that recognizing a Palestinian state under current conditions only emboldens Hamas, and yet France and other countries have made it clear that their vision for a Palestinian state does not include Hamas governance in Gaza.
In fact, it calls on Hamas to disarm and give up the power it has in the besieged territory. Netanyahu has vowed a response, but he has said that response will only come on Monday. And that perhaps is the critical part of Netanyahu's visit, because that's when he will meet President Donald Trump at the White House. It is Trump who will set the limits and green light, whatever Israel's response looks like to those countries recognizing a state of Palestine. And that's why that meeting is critical.
Meanwhile, Trump also, or the Trump administration, I should say, met with a number of Arab states and leaders to talk about the Trump administration's 21-point plan for the end of the war in Gaza, which calls for the release of the remaining hostages, a comprehensive end of the war, and a governance structure that rules out Hamas and has Arab states participating.
From regional sources, there was broad agreement on most of the points there. Arab states also asked for more humanitarian aid to enter Gaza, a red line on annexation of any parts of the occupied West Bank and maintaining the status quo in Jerusalem. But crucially, broad agreement on an outline of what that would look like. U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff said there might be a breakthrough in the coming days. There is good reason to be skeptical because of the number of times we have heard that. But the General Assembly has brought the attention, at least to some extent, back to Gaza.
Meanwhile, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas spoke earlier on Thursday, where he condemned Israel's ongoing campaign in Gaza that's left more than 65,000 Palestinians dead, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health. But he also condemned Hamas' attack on October 7, called for a release of the hostages, and he too said Hamas has no role in the future governance of Gaza. Oren Liebermann, CNN, in Jerusalem.
BRUNHUBER: All right, for more on this, I want to bring in Gideon Levy, who's a columnist for "Haaretz Newspaper," and he comes to us from Tel Aviv. Thank you so much for being here with us again. So, just to start, what are you expecting to hear from Netanyahu, and who mainly are his comments aimed at, do you think?
GIDEON LEVY, COLUMNIST, HAARETZ NEWSPAPER: He will blame the whole world except of the one who is responsible for the bloodshed in Gaza.
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He will blame Europe and other countries for recognizing Palestine, which is an Israeli interest, by the way. He will blame all the world for blaming Israel. He will blame the world with anti-Semitism and he will not look upon himself and look upon his policy and not say one word of truth, I'm afraid.
BRUNHUBER: So you expect a lot of blaming I guess and one of those things that you talked about was the growing number of countries recognizing a Palestinian state. I mean, how isolated is Israel right now and does Netanyahu care basically as long as the U.S. president is by his side?
LEVY: That's exactly the point, Kim. For Netanyahu, there is only the United States and in the United States there is only Donald Trump. He trusts him. He builds now all his policy on him, totally ignoring few facts, like, for example, that one day there will not be Donald Trump around. That Donald Trump might also change his mind as we saw in the past, and then Israel is totally lost.
Because we lost any confidence for other parts in American public opinion. We are losing Europe dramatically. And when we will really need the Europe and other factors in your society, in the American society, there will nobody be there for Israel. And therefore it is such an adventurous and dangerous policy to put, as we say in Hebrew, the eggs in one bag, to count only on Trump and to ignore all the rest.
BRUNHUBER: Yeah.
LEVY: And the rest is very important and is isolating Israel, definitely.
BRUNHUBER: I want to get to Netanyahu and Trump a little bit later, but just before we do, at the U.N. we heard Mahmoud Abbas call for Hamas to disarm and declare that Hamas wouldn't be involved in the administration of the Gaza Strip. I mean, what do make of those comments and Hamas's predictable response?
LEVY: I'm afraid that it is quite pathetic. Mahmoud Abbas is totally irrelevant right now, partly because Israel made him irrelevant and partly because of all kinds of domestic problems. And I don't think that anybody take serious what Mahmoud Abbas says. At the same time, I must say that it is really outrageous that the person who is wanted by the International Criminal Court is welcome in New York, and Mahmoud Abbas is bent on getting to the General Assembly.
This is outrageous. It's also a violation of the agreement between the U.N. and the United States and somehow it passes quite silently. This is outrageous that they didn't let him come to the U.N.
BRUNHUBER: So, President Trump claims that a deal is close, but we've been here before. Any reason to be skeptical?
LEVY: Skeptical yes, but they wouldn't exclude now a possibility because we are getting quite to a place with no return and no way forward. I mean, I know that Netanyahu wants to continue the war but it leads to nowhere except of more and more bloodshed and more and more destruction. And there will be a moment in which Donald Trump will understand it. If this moment arrived, I mean, it's really all about Donald Trump. If he will be decisive and finish this war within hours. Until now he wasn't decisive at all. And also Netanyahu misled him and
misled him and promised him all kinds of promises which were never fulfilled. And here we are now in a point in which I'd be very happy if Donald Trump will wake up. I'm not sure it happened already. Skeptical, yes. Hopeful, no.
BRUNHUBER: All right, we shall see what comes from their pivotal meeting on Monday. Gideon Levy in Tel Aviv. Thank you so much. Really appreciate it.
LEVY: Thank you for having me.
BRUNHUBER: Former FBI Director James Comey has been indicted by a federal grand jury on two criminal charges, giving false statements and obstruction of a congressional proceeding. Reactions to the indictment are coming in from all corners of the political spectrum. Comey posted his own response in a video statement on his Instagram account, proclaiming his innocence. Her he is.
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JAMES COMEY, FORMER FBI DIRECTOR: My family and I have known for years that there are costs to standing up to Donald Trump. My heart is broken for the Department of Justice, but I have great confidence in the federal judicial system and I'm innocent. So let's have a trial.
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BRUNHUBER: Comey is expected to be arraigned on October 9th. As CNN's Evan Perez reports, President Trump celebrated the indictment.
EVAN PEREZ, CNN SENIOR U.S. JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: A federal grand jury indicted former FBI Director James Comey on two felony counts of making a false statement to Congress and obstructing a congressional proceeding. The historic indictment marks an escalation in President Donald Trump's push to use the Justice Department to prosecute his political enemies.
The grand jury in Alexandria, Virginia approved the two felony counts after newly installed U.S. Attorney Lindsay Halligan made the presentation herself. The grand jury rejected a third count for a separate alleged false statement.
Now, it's unusual for U.S. attorneys to present cases to the grand jury themselves. Usually career lawyers in the office do this, but we know that prosecutors in the office had raised concerns about the strength of this case. Comey is a longtime adversary of the president and is now the first senior government official to face federal charges in one of Trump's largest grievances, which is the investigation surrounding the 2016 presidential election.
Just last weekend, the president posted on social media urging Pam Bondi, the attorney general, to take action against Comey and other political enemies. Trump celebrated the indictment on his social media platform, saying, "Justice in America. One of the worst human beings in this country has ever been exposed to is James Comey, the corrupt head of the FBI."
Comey could face up to five years in prison if he's convicted, the Justice Department says. Both charges relate to his September 30, 2020 testimony to the Senate Judiciary Committee. Comey testified that he did not authorize someone at the FBI to be an anonymous source for news sources, according to the Justice Department. Now, according to the indictment, that statement was false. Comey responded to the indictment in an Instagram video saying, let's have a trial, keep the faith.
And Attorney General Bondi said in a post on X, "No one is above the law. Today's indictment reflects the Justice Department's commitment to holding those who abuse positions of power accountable for misleading the American people." Evan Perez, CNN, Washington.
BRUNHUBER: Former Trump White House lawyer Ty Cobb says Comey's indictment may be a wake-up call for Americans. He says this is an opportunity for people to seriously look at the damage that President Trump is doing and the freedoms that are being eroded.
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TY COBB, FORNER TRUMP WHITE HOUSE ATTORNEY (through telephone): This is unprecedented. It's what every law student is told is not possible and what distinguishes us from dictatorships around the world, that the executive branch does not dictate or the executive leading the executive branch does not dictate to prosecutors who will and will not be charged.
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BRUNHUBER: The U.S. president has announced sweeping new tariffs on many household products. Some of the items now facing 50 percent tariffs are imported kitchen cabinets and certain kinds of furniture. Previous tariffs had already caused the cost of furnishings to rise considerably over the past year. Following the announcement, stocks for companies like Wayfair and Williams and Sonoma tumbled on Wall Street.
President Trump also announced a 25 percent tariff on heavy trucks and some imported pharmaceuticals will be subject to a whopping 100 percent tariff in just a few days.
Well, Fuel is in short supply in Russia because of Ukraine's drone strikes on oil infrastructure and now Russia is making a drastic move trying to shorten the lines. Well, that story ahead.
And as in the United States, the justice system in France is serving as a political battleground. Former French president Nicolas Sarkozy is sentenced to prison over illegal campaign funding. Details later in our program. Please do stay with us.
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BRUNHUBER: Ukrainian drone strikes on oil infrastructure are producing more economic pain in Russia. The Kremlin is banning all fuel exports through the rest of the year because of gasoline shortages caused by strikes on refineries and other facilities. Meanwhile, Germany is making a policy U-turn. It's urging the European Union to seize up to $160 billion in frozen Russian assets which would be used to help Ukraine. Chancellor Friedrich Merz made the case for that in an op-ed in the "Financial Times" on Thursday. On the diplomatic front, Ukraine won more backing from Britain at the U.N. General Assembly.
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DAVID LAMMY, BRITISH DEPUTY PRIME MINISTER: We stand with Ukraine because we must defend the core values of the U.N. Charter, sovereignty, territorial integrity and the respect for international law. And because the world will suffer if aggression is allowed to pay. We must all strive for a just and lasting peace in Ukraine which maintains the integrity of our U.N. Charter and sees Ukraine emerge from Russia's brutal war as a sovereign, secure and independent nation.
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BRUNHUBER: NATO's chief is seizing on U.S. President Donald Trump's that dismissed Russia as a paper tiger. Trump added insult to injury on Thursday, saying Moscow has little to show for its massive bombing campaign in Ukraine. NATO's secretary-general reacted to the comments in an interview with CNN's Christiane Amanpour. Here she is.
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CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: What is the hope, do you think for Putin to understand that it's time to agree to a ceasefire, to negotiate an end?
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MARK RUTTE, NATO SECRETARY GENERAL: Well, I think President Trump hit it exactly as he should have by saying -- mentioning the paper tiger. And then the Russians coming back yesterday the whole day and saying, no, we're not a paper tiger. We are a bear. Hey, when you see a bear, you know you see a bear. You will know this well.
AMANPOUR: Right, but that's an offensive posture.
RUTTE: Yeah, but it means that Russia is insecure and that President Trump was able to hit a nerve, probably at the highest echelons of the Kremlin.
AMANPOUR: Okay.
RUTTE: And why is this? Because if I was a student of history as I am, and Putin is also a student of history, and he loves his country and is proud of that history, I would not be in a good place. He has lost one million people now, or seriously wounded in this war. He is now losing in one month what the Soviets lost in 10 years in Afghanistan, only in one month.
So this is what's happening at the moment. And he is not making the progress he wants. He has these long lines waiting for the gasoline stations to fill up the cars with gasoline because the Ukrainians are successful in hitting the oil refineries in Russia. So, he is not in a good place and I think President Trump feels that and he is putting pressure on Putin. Come to the table.
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BRUNHUBER: Moldova faces a critical election on Sunday. It could decide whether the country keeps moving toward integration with the E.U. or whether the former Soviet Republic leans closer to Russia. But the Moldovan government says that Kremlin is already trying to influence the outcome. CNN's Clare Sebastian explains.
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CLARE SEBASTIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Moldovan police apparently moving in on a Russian state-backed network to organize mass riots around upcoming parliamentary elections. Dozens arrested. The fear of violence spilling onto these politically charged streets, a new twist ahead of a crucial vote. The government here has already warned Russia is trying to rake.
MAIA SANDU, MOLDOVAN PRESIDENT (through translation): The Kremlin is pouring hundreds of millions of euros to buy hundreds of thousands of votes. People are intoxicated daily with lies.
SEBASTIAN (voice-over): The Kremlin denies any interference. But is publicly accusing Moldova's government of persecuting political opponents and denying those who support Moscow their right to vote.
(On camera): What would happen if pro-Russian parties gain a majority in this election?
LAURA THORNTON, MCCAIN INSTITUTE: The first step is just to push Moldova away from the E.U. That's just the gateway drug to pulling them into the Russian sphere.
SEBASTIAN (voice-over): Russia's full-scale invasion of neighboring Ukraine supercharged this tiny post-Soviet state's E.U. ambitions. Last year, it started accession talks. But the pro-Russian opposition is pushing back. Its main candidate and former president Igor Dodon claiming the E.U. is preparing Moldova for war with Russia.
THORNTON: They still have a lot of steps they need to go through to become a member of the European Union. A pro-Russian party or pro- Russian coalition would probably stall that if not try to reverse it.
SEBASTIAN (voice-over): Natalia Zaharescu, a Moldovan investigative journalist, says she has seen Russian tactics evolve first-hand. Zaharescu has spent more than three years infiltrating online networks linked to this man, Ilan Shor, a fugitive Moldovan businessman living in Moscow and linked to a vote-buying scheme that threatened to undermine last year's presidential election and referendum on E.U. integration. His latest effort, Zaharescu says, was to train Moldovans to become professional online trolls. Shor has not responded to a CNN request for comment.
NATALIA ZAHARESCU, MOLDOVAN INVESTIGATIVE JOURNALIST: Hundreds of people were trained how to use social media, how to make accounts under fake names, how to post these messages that they were given.
SEBASTIAN (voice-over): And she, working undercover, was one of them.
ZAHARESCU: And they were telling that we are in an informational war. We have to act like a big troll farm. Everything is paid directly from Moscow.
SEBASTIAN (voice-over): Moldova is, experts say, a testing ground for Russian hybrid tactics. One whose European future now hangs in the balance. Clare Sebastian, CNN, London.
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BRUNHUBER: U.S. President Donald Trump wants Turkey to use its influence to try to end the war in Ukraine. He hosted Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan at the White House on Thursday. Trump said Turkey has been neutral so far, but he'd like to see it bring Russia and Ukraine to the negotiating table. He also said he believes Turkey may stop buying Russian oil, but as Nic Robertson explains, Erdogan came with his own list of priorities, which include some high- tech U.S. weapons.
NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: Trump has leverage over Erdogan right now. Erdogan comes into this meeting and President Trump spoke about it, wanting F-35s, wanting F-16s, wanting other goods from the United States. Patriot defensive missile systems was another one on the list there.
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Erdogan was very close to getting, or at least on track for F-35s back in 2019 and that went off the rails because he bought a Russian made surface to air missile defense system, the S-400. And he was part of a group of countries who are actually helping in the development of F- 35s. Now he comes back to the table with Trump and Trump is saying this is on the table again. So in those terms there is some form of leverage that President Trump has there over Turkey on the oil, but it's not clear that that's something that is realistic for Turkey to sign up to right now.
Perhaps the president is going to look for commitments for a reduction over time. Not clear. I thought it was very interesting just to sort of digress slightly into Syria, telling Erdogan, who was sitting there right next to him, who he'd called tough and opinionated in positive terms actually, than going on to say and you were the one that essentially should take credit for overthrowing Assad in Syria and installing al-Sharaa and saying that these people were your surrogates. I would be totally fascinated to hear what Erdogan has to say about
that because at the time at the end of last year that was sort of the assumption of what was happening. Again, inside details on that scant, President Trump laying some of them bare it seems.
BRUNHUBER: A sudden downfall for a man who was once the leader of France. Former president Nicolas Sarkozy will soon head to prison. He's been convicted in a plot to finance his campaign with illegal money from Libya. More details ahead, here on the "CNN Newsroom." Please stay with us.
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BRUNHUBER: Former French President Nicolas Sarkozy will spend five years in prison after a Paris court found him guilty of criminal association tied to campaign financing. Sarkozy was found guilty in a plot to finance his campaign with money from Libya in exchange for diplomatic favors for the Libyan government under Muammar Gaddafi.
CNN's Melissa Bell has the details.
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MELISSA BELL, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): He arrived at the courthouse with his wife looking confident, but Nicolas Sarkozy emerged as the first ever former French president to be headed to prison.
NICOLAS SARKOZY, FORMER FRENCH PRESIDENT: If they absolutely want me to sleep in prison, I will sleep in prison. But with my head held high, I'm innocent.
BELL: The former French president was found guilty of criminal conspiracy in a trial he's long argued was politically motivated.
Sarkozy was accused of striking a corruption pact with Libya's Muammar Gaddafi back in 2005, in order to help illegally fund Sarkozy's victorious presidential election bid in 2007.
It's not the first time that Nicolas Sarkozy has faced a guilty verdict, or indeed a jail sentence. But in 2021, when he was found guilty of having tried to bribe a judge, he was allowed to wear an electronic bracelet at home. This time, he left court knowing that he'd be incarcerated.
His wife, Carla Bruni, posting on Instagram after the verdict, "Love is the answer. #hatredwillnotwin."
Nicolas Sarkozy isn't the only leading politician accusing the French judiciary of political bias. In March, the far right's Marine Le Pen was found guilty of embezzling European funds. She's now appealing a five-year ban on seeking political office with an eye on the next presidential election in 2027.
Nicolas Sarkozy, too, has vowed to appeal.
SARKOZY: Those who hate me so much think they are humiliating me. What they have humiliated today is France.
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BELL (on camera): But the judge's ruling, which referred to the extreme gravity of the offenses, means that no appeal is going to change the fact that Nicolas Sarkozy is going to jail. He'll find out when his prison sentence is to start on October 13th.
Melissa Bell, CNN, Paris.
BRUNHUBER: American cyber experts are warning federal agencies about hackers looking to exploit security weaknesses. Coming up, the concerns behind a recent emergency directive. Please stay with us.
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BRUNHUBER: U.S. officials have ordered federal agencies to defend themselves against an advanced group of hackers. The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency issued an emergency directive on Thursday. They say hackers have been exploiting previously unknown flaws in Cisco-made software, and have already breached at least one agency. Private experts believe the hackers are based in China and state-backed. Civilian agencies have until the end of Friday to update their software and report any compromises.
Amazon is on the line for $2.5 billion after being accused of tricking customers into buying subscriptions for the company's Prime membership. The settlement comes just a few days into the trial between the e-commerce giant and federal regulators. Under the agreement, Amazon will pay $1.5 billion civil penalty and provide $1.5 billion in refunds to 35 million customers. The 2023 lawsuit was initially filed over the company's cancellation policies during the Biden administration.
A prison in Rio de Janeiro hosted its 19th annual beauty contest. The ten inmates who got to compete were selected based on their good behavior. They competed in a fashion show featuring colorful denim outfits they designed themselves.
(INAUDIBLE) Suarez Machado won the crown. She was presented with a sash and posed for photos with other contestants. The judges came from justice system representatives, public authorities and civil society members. The contest was organized to encourage self-esteem among the women.
While the Los Angeles zoo is celebrating new additions to their family. A pair of newborn female chimpanzees. They're the first chimpanzees born at the zoo in more than a decade.
[02:40:03] Zoo officials announced the births on Thursday and say two were born just weeks apart. Zookeepers say both infants and their mothers are doing well and are bonding with their mothers.
All right. Thanks so much for joining us. I'm Kim Brunhuber.
"WORLD SPORT" is next and I'll be back with more news at the top of the hour.
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