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Epstein Files Now Spreads to Some Parts of Europe; An Australian Travel Company is in Hot Water Following an A.I.-generated Itinerary to Tasmania that is Non-Existent. Aired 3-3:45a ET

Aired February 04, 2026 - 03:00   ET

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

[03:00:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ROSEMARY CHURCH, CNN ANCHOR: Hello and welcome to our viewers joining us from all around the world. I'm Rosemary Church, Just ahead.

Tens of thousands of Ukrainians are left without heat after Russia's latest attack on the country's infrastructure. And it comes even as both sides look ahead to the next round of peace talks.

Plus, why the latest release of the Epstein files is making waves not only in Washington, but also in parts of Europe.

And be careful before you let A.I. book your next vacation. How an Australian travel company mistakenly sent tourists to a dream destination in Tasmania that did not even exist.

UNKNOWN (voice-over): Live from Atlanta, this is "CNN Newsroom" with Rosemary Church.

CHURCH: Good to have you with us.

Well, the next round of peace talks between Russia, Ukraine and the United States is set to take place in Abu Dhabi in the hours ahead. Just a day after Moscow launched its largest attack on Ukraine so far this year.

New video shows extensive damage to a power plant from Tuesday's assault. President Trump says Vladimir Putin kept his word by not attacking Ukrainian cities for a week. But that pause ended with this latest siege.

Ukraine's president says Moscow targeted energy facilities, launching dozens of missiles and hundreds of attack drones. Six people were wounded. The assault knocked out heat to tens of thousands of people during bitterly cold winter temperatures.

President Trump says he would have wanted Russian President Vladimir Putin to extend the pause in fighting.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, U.S. PRESIDENT: I would like to-- I want him to end the war.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHURCH: Meanwhile, NATO Secretary General told Ukrainian lawmakers that reaching a peace deal with Russia will require difficult choices. He said the recent Russian attacks indicate Moscow is not serious about peace. Here's Ukraine's President ahead of the next round of talks.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY, UKRA.I.NIAN PRESIDENT (through translator): Russia must feel pressure so that it complies with partners requests and genuinely moves towards peace negotiations. So far, only Ukraine is expected to make concessions. Russia must make concessions and the most important one is to stop the aggression.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHURCH: I want to bring in the director of the Eurasia Democracy Initiative, Peter Zalmayev. He joins me live from Kyiv. I appreciate you talking with us.

PETER ZALMAYEV, DIRECTOR, EURASIA DEMOCRACY INITIATIVE: Good morning.

CHURCH: So Russia is intensifying its attacks on Ukraine, targeting civilian infrastructure and power plants in the midst of subzero temperatures. Despite plans for trilateral talks with the U.S. and Ukraine in Abu Dhabi just in the coming hours, what's Vladimir Putin hoping to achieve militarily ahead of these talks?

ZALMAYEV: Well, I think Vladimir Putin is hoping to achieve what he has wanted all along. He wants to come to the negotiating table with Ukraine, essentially down on its knees and ready to sign whatever capitulatory agreement that Vladimir Putin will offer at those talks.

And that explains his two-pronged strategy, trying to drag out his feet at these talks in Abu Dhabi, placating Donald Trump with, of course, all these gentlemanly offers of a week-long energy security, energy ceasefires, which turned out to be three days or maybe four days and not really ceasefires. And people traveling on passenger trains get killed and buses full of coal miners get killed, but who's counting, right? And the second part of that strategy is what is continuing to rain down missiles against Ukrainian civilians, apart from whatever advancement that Putin is having on the battlefield.

He wants people, especially in the capital, to be essentially cast into darkness, cold and chaos to reign in the capital, to where folks start demanding from Zelenskyy to come to whatever agreement that he can with Vladimir Putin. It also shows that Vladimir Putin is kind of desperate to wrap this up as quickly as possible, because by all accounts, Russia's economy is not doing so well.

CHURCH: Right. And NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte says that Moscow is not serious about peace. Is he right? Does President Putin have no real interest in negotiating a peaceful end to the war in Ukraine? Is he just stringing President Trump along here?

[03:05:09]

ZALMAYEV: I believe he is and he's actually successful at it. Of course, you know, Mark Rutte would know better than anyone. He's the gentleman who showed up in Kyiv, he spoke to the parliament there just yesterday. And once again, Vladimir Putin shows his appreciation of that visit by essentially ordering some of the largest aerial bombardments Ukraine has seen, hundreds of drones, 750, 45 ballistic missiles on the day that Mark Rutte is visiting Kyiv.

That shows what Vladimir Putin thinks about Ukraine's European alliance, what he thinks about NATO, what he thinks about the sense of impunity that he's got with Donald Trump, who's constantly praising Putin for his desire for peace and actually winds up hanging a photo with Vladimir Putin in the White House. So yes, I think this is a very clear indication that Vladimir Putin, once again, has not backed down from his maximalist goals in Ukraine, that is Ukraine's cessation of hostility as a sovereign independent state.

CHURCH: So what does President Putin consider to be a sufficient strategic outcome in this war?

ZALMAYEV: Well, at this point, I think this, you know, it's been said that, you know, that Vladimir Putin thinks along the lines of tactics rather than strategy. And we're seeing several tactical steps that actually will, Putin hopes, amount to a strategic victory.

And right now, I think, he is trying to sell the idea to the Americans that, you know, all Ukraine needs to do is leave the remaining little bit of the Donbass, my hometown, my home area, about 15 percent is still, actually, a third is still controlled by Ukraine. And it comprises of strategic towns, fortress towns like Kramatorsk and Sloviansk.

But there's the dispute how many people still remain in those towns. But all Ukraine needs to do is leave them. And then Russia will re- engage in good faith in, you know, hashing out the final agreement.

Ukrainians, I think, rightfully see this for what it is. It's a Trojan horse. Vladimir Putin will gobble up more territory, he will command those heights from which to continue attacking Ukraine's territory.

And so that's why it's been reluctant to agree to any land swaps or any of these, you know, deals. Zelenskyy also knows that this is a recipe for -- this is a true recipe for chaos.

Ukrainians, I think, can weather these attacks, they can weather being without electricity in record sub-zero temperatures. You know, Ukrainians are having, you know, raves of electronic music on ice to show what they think about this sort of tactic by Putin.

But this is more serious. I think Putin is trying to achieve diplomatically through Donald Trump something it has not been able to achieve militarily.

CHURCH: Peter Zalmayev, thank you so much for joining us. We appreciate it.

Well, meanwhile, Ukraine is still trying to get the upper hand on the battlefield and make the cost of war unsustainable for Russia. President Zelenskyy recently told his new defense minister to try to increase the number of Russian casualties to 50,000 per month. Ukraine says more than 35,000 Russian troops were killed or seriously wounded in December.

U.S. and Iranian officials say they will meet for nuclear talks later this week, though tensions between the countries remain sky high. U.S. Special Envoy Steve Witkoff is expected to meet with Iran's foreign minister. A source tells CNN those talks will take place in Oman but the White House says President Trump is keeping open the option of military strikes on Iran if talks are not successful.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: They had a chance to do something a while ago and it didn't work out and we did midnight hammer. I don't think they want that happening again, but they would like to negotiate. We are negotiating with them right now.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHURCH: And this comes as the U.S. has increased its military presence in the Middle East. Earlier Tuesday, U.S. forces shot down an Iranian drone that aggressively approached the USS Abraham Lincoln as the aircraft carrier moved through the Arabian Sea.

Iran says its drone was flying in a routine and legal mission to collect surveillance. Separately, two Iranian gunboats approached a chemical tanker flying the U.S. flag in the Strait of Hormuz. Iranians threatened via radio to board and seize the tanker, which was in international waters, U.S. military forces escorted the tanker away from the area.

[03:10:00]

President Trump hosted his Colombian counterpart at the White House on Tuesday and President Gustavo Petro says they can now see a new path forward. The pivotal talks come just one month after the U.S. captured Venezuela's Nicolas Maduro and threatened Petro could be next if he didn't do more to stop drug trafficking.

CNN's Kristen Holmes has more from the White House.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN SR. WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Diplomatic relations between the United States and Colombia seem to be on an upward path after President Trump sat down with the President of Colombia for nearly two hours at the White House. Here's what President Trump said.

TRUMP: We got along very well. He and I weren't exactly the best of friends, but I wasn't insulted because I never met him. I didn't know him at all and we got along very well.

HOLMES: We also saw a number of posts from Gustavo Petro, the President of Colombia, essentially saying that the meeting was good, showing off some of the merch that he had gotten from the Oval Office, a hat that he had changed to say make America's great again, a signed copy of the art of the deal. But just a reminder of how we got here, because it hasn't always been so friendly between these two leaders.

In fact, it grew incredibly tense almost right after President Trump was sworn into office for a second term, starting with the fact that Petro said that the United States could not send military planes filled with undocumented immigrants into Colombia. Now, President Trump threatened enormous amount of tariffs, which quickly got Petro to turn around on that claim and allow those planes into Colombia. But this then continued to escalate.

We saw President Trump making fun of Petro. And at one point while he was here for the United Nations General Assembly, Petro took to the streets with a bullhorn and essentially encouraged American soldiers or American military not to listen to President Trump, something that got his visa revoked and had financial sanctions levied on him and his family. But right now, after this meeting, it does appear as though the two countries are going to work together on a pathway forward.

President Trump has said he wants Colombia to step up when it comes to helping with drug trafficking. And we know that Colombia would like to see tariffs lifted as well as getting better access to Venezuelan oil.

Kristen Holmes, CNN, the White House.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CHURCH: Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, the son of former Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi, has been killed in an apparent assassination. Gaddafi's political adviser says he was shot in what he called a treacherous and cowardly attack by four masked assailants at his home in northwestern Libya.

Gaddafi was once seen as the heir apparent to his dictator father, who was executed after his regime was toppled in 2011. In recent years, he had been making a play to return to politics in Libya.

Still to come, after an A.I. mishap sent tourists to non-existent hot springs in Tasmania, I'll speak with a tourism expert on how you can properly use A.I. to plan your next trip. Back with that in just a moment.

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[03:15:00]

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CHURCH: Welcome back, everyone.

Well, the partial U.S. government shutdown is over after three days. President Trump signed a sweeping spending bill on Tuesday to restore funding. But lawmakers are facing a two-week deadline to prevent another arm of the government from shutting down, funding for the Department of Homeland Security is set to run out.

And Democrats are demanding changes to the way the Trump administration handles immigration enforcement. They want ICE agents to remove their masks, end roving patrols, and tighten parameters around warrants for searches.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. TIM BURCHETT (R-TN): I'd say it's very hard right now. I think one thing that's going to help us, I know, I noted that, you know, they had over 200,000 people, I think, applied for the jobs for ICE jobs, but also the fact that they're going to be having, they've asked to wear cameras, body cameras. I think that that's going to provide a lot of protection.

REP. JASON CROW (D-CO): Well, they continue to not operate in good faith, right? Over and over and over again, you know, we feel like Charlie Brown trying to kick the football, right? And then they're moving it all the time.

Meanwhile, Americans are abused. Americans are being murdered on the streets by this rogue agency. So I'm not going to play that game with them anymore.

If they want to come with firm guarantees and assurances and guardrails, we can talk. But until then, I'm going to be a no.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHURCH: President Trump is urging Americans to move on from the Epstein files.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: I think it's really time for the country to get onto something else. Now that nothing came out about me other than it was a conspiracy against me, literally by Epstein and other people. But I think it's time now for the country to maybe get onto something else.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHURCH: CNN's Kaitlan Collins pressed the president about the extent of redactions in the last release of Epstein files and the concerns of survivors about their private information, President Trump declined to address those complaints.

Well the latest batch of Epstein files are making waves beyond the U.S. CNN understands that Britain's former Prince Andrew is no longer a resident of Windsor, one of the official residences of the monarchy. The move was expected as he faces renewed pressure after his name and photos appeared in the latest release of the Epstein files.

CNN's Melissa Bell has the details on other public figures facing scrutiny after the new files were released.

[03:20:06]

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MELISSA BELL, CNN SR. INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: The fallout here in Europe as a result of the latest revelations from the Epstein files continues in the United Kingdom. Lord Mandelson, who had been the ambassador to Washington until last September, resigned at the time because of revelations that had come out then, has been at the heart of some of the latest documents to have emerged.

Documents that suggest that he may have received payments from the late Jeffrey Epstein, although he denies remembering any of those, but perhaps most damagingly that during his time as a business minister in 2009, he had passed on to Jeffrey Epstein documents relating to the 2008 financial crisis and the British government's attempts to try and stabilize the British economy in its wake.

Those latest revelations had led Peter Mandelson to resign from the Labor Party earlier this week. He's now announced he's leaving the House of Lords and we understand that the British Prime Minister is looking at legislation that will strip him of his peerage, meaning that we will no longer be speaking about Lord Mandelson, but Peter Mandelson, as we once did.

Elsewhere, we understand that the Polish government is going to be conducting a probe to look at what ties there may have been between Russian intelligence and Jeffrey Epstein.

And in Norway, the fallout continues for Crown Princess Mette-Marit. She has seen her son go on trial today. He's accused of sexual abuse, he's denied all counts of rape.

But even as that trial continues over the course of the next seven weeks and is guaranteed to attract a lot of media attention, she herself has been the focus of a lot of attention as a result of the links that the latest tranche of documents suggest she had with Jeffrey Epstein, very close links that she has now spoken to, saying that she regrets them, she is embarrassed by them, but also pointing out that anything Jeffrey Epstein did wrong, he was solely responsible for.

Melissa Bell, CNN, Paris.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CHURCH: A travel company promised tourists a trip to tranquil Tasmanian hot springs, but when they arrived, they saw nothing. We will discuss how A.I. caused the mishap and how you can avoid falling into the same trap. Back with that in just a moment.

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[03:25:00]

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CHURCH: Welcome back to "CNN Newsroom," I'm Rosemary Church. I want to check today's top stories for you.

Russia has unleashed a devastating assault on Ukraine's energy infrastructure. The air attack was Moscow's largest so far this year. And you are seeing video of an undisclosed thermal power plant that has suffered heavy damage, tens of thousands of people were reportedly left without electricity amid frigid winter temperatures.

U.S. and Iranian officials say they will meet for nuclear talks later this week, though tensions between the countries remain sky high. U.S. Special Envoy Steve Witkoff is expected to meet with Iran's foreign minister. A source tells CNN those talks will take place in Oman, but the White House says President Trump is keeping open the option of military strikes on Iran if talks are not successful.

Authorities say they are aware of reports of possible ransom notes in the disappearance of 84-year-old Nancy Guthrie. The mother of "Today Show" host Savannah Guthrie has been missing since late Saturday. She's believed to have been abducted from her home in Tucson, Arizona. The local sheriff and the FBI are asking the public for any leads to help find the suspect.

A 13-year-old boy in Australia is being hailed a hero after swimming for hours to get help for his stranded family. Austin Appelby, shown here on the right, was kayaking and paddle boarding with his family when they were swept out to sea. He swam more than two miles to shore after his kayak filled with water.

And here's how he described the experience to CNN affiliate Seven Network.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

AUSTIN APPELBEE, SWAM 2.5 MILES TO SHORE: I was fighting rough seas. I thought I saw something in the water and I was really scared. I was just thinking, I was just thinking in my head, like thinking I was going to make it through.

But I was also thinking about like all my friends at school and friends of my Christian youth. And yes, I just said, all right, not today. I have to keep on going.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHURCH: A rescue team eventually found his mother, brother and sister out at sea clinging to a paddleboard. A marine rescue commander says it was a super human effort.

Well, an Australian tour company is in hot water after an artificial intelligence snafu. An A.I.-generated blog on the company's website sent tourists to hot springs in northern Tasmania that don't actually exist.

Screenshots of the now-deleted blog that was shared with CNN show recommendations for the world Burra hot springs. It claimed the place offered a peaceful escape and was a favorite among hikers. The tour company told CNN that the online hate and damage to its business reputation has been, quote, "absolutely soul destroying."

[03:30:01]

And joining us now from Hobart, Tasmania, is Anne Hardy, professor of tourism at Southern Cross University. Good to have you with us.

ANNE HARDY, PROF. OF TOURISM, SOUTHERN CROSS UNIVERSITY: Thank you very much for having me.

CHURCH: Of course. So it's certainly a cautionary tale, isn't it, for those tourists planning to rely heavily on A.I. when selecting travel locations. So what do the numbers tell us about just how wrong A.I. generated travel advice can be?

HARDY: Well, the numbers are pretty shocking, actually, because research is showing us at the moment that about 90 percent of recommendations that are made by A.I. actually have some form of inaccuracy in them. So it's really a case of buyer beware or user beware when we're talking about A.I.

The mistake may be small, like a different, a wrong opening hour, but it also could be quite a big mistake, such as a completely inaccurate location or else giving the wrong safety advice. So it's quite a big issue in tourism at the moment.

CHURCH: Yes, absolutely. So how can tourists use A.I. properly for planning trips and, of course, ensure that they don't get fooled by A.I. when it comes to selecting their travel locations? What's your advice?

HARDY: My advice is probably to use a variety of different websites, because what we've realized is that people really trust A.I. About 30 percent of tourists will actually use it when they're planning their trip but A.I. amalgamates information from all over the Internet.

So my recommendation would be use peer-reviewed websites where you actually have people saying, yes, I went there, it's a real place, take this, take that, go at this time, go at that time.

So really sort of looking at a variety of different websites and peer- reviewed sites and not just relying on A.I., because it can hallucinate. And that's where we have some concern around safety and also the visitor experience.

CHURCH: Yes, that is very good advice. And of course, what are some of the potential consequences of blindly following an A.I.-generated itinerary? And what else did the owners of Tasmania Tours have to say about the fake Hot Springs blog? It was on their website, wasn't it?

HARDY: Yes, they did. And look, I think it's a really unfortunate thing for their business. And it's something that you don't ever want it to happen to a business. But I think what we can learn from it is that when we're designing

things using A.I., like I mentioned before, it can hallucinate. So we really need to double check. It's also sort of a good story, I think, that things can be sort of funny and humorous, it might be that there's just a mistaken location that was suggested in this particular instance.

But there's also a really serious side to A.I. when it hallucinates. And that is that it might do things like suggest that people go to the same place and cause a lot of overcrowding in specific locations. And that might cause angst for the community.

But in a place like Tasmania, where I'm living, and we have really remote national parks with walks that are far away, and our weather can be really, really harsh, when A.I. makes mistakes, it can actually have really disastrous consequences. It could direct people into places that are not safe, that are difficult to navigate. And that's what we're really worried about.

CHURCH: Yes, that is a critical point, isn't it? And how is the tourism industry as a whole guarding against these problems, like when tourists use A.I.? And how can they make sure that mistakes like this don't keep happening?

HARDY: It's a really good question. And it's kind of like, how do you stop a tidal wave? Do you try and swim with it? Or how do you prevent things from happening? But one thing that people are doing is that when they're using A.I., businesses can look themselves up.

And if they see a mistake, then you can actually correct A.I. in that particular way. So by giving A.I. feedback, that's a way that you can actually tell it to what's inaccurate and what's accurate. But I think this is a really difficult issue.

And the industry is really trying to embrace it for marketing, which is great. About 60 percent of businesses now use it to assist with their marketing.

But at the same time, being very careful and fact-checking every time you use it. It's kind of like having a young research assistant. They're great, they're enthusiastic, but you've kind of got to check that their accuracy is bang on every time.

CHURCH: Yes, I like that. Anne Hardy, joining us from the wonderful Hobart, Tasmania. Thank you so much, I appreciate it.

HARDY: Thank you, Rosemary.

CHURCH: Absolutely.

[03:34:58]

Well, the Seattle Seahawks and the New England Patriots are preparing for Sunday's big game. But many people might not be watching just for the sport. Why this year's commercials may have a similar theme, that's just ahead. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CHURCH: Welcome back to CNN. This is your Business Breakout. We want to start with a check of Asia-Pacific markets right now, bit of a mixed bag there.

And now to the business headlines.

[03:40:01]

French authorities want to speak to Elon Musk after raiding the offices of X in Paris. The Paris prosecutor's office says Tuesday's raid is part of a broader investigation into the social media platform and its A.I. chatbot, Grok. Musk called the raid a political attack.

It was a tough day for tech on Wall Street. Bitcoin was hit especially hard on Tuesday falling to its lowest level since President Trump won re-election in 2024. Despite his promise to make the U.S. the crypto capital of the world, Bitcoin is now down about 40 percent since hitting a record high in October.

Walmart is the first brick-and-mortar retailer to hit a market value of $1 trillion. Its stock closed up nearly three percent on Tuesday, just shy of $128 a share. Walmart's online selling platform is booming and the company is pushing its third-party marketplace and advertising businesses.

Well, it's Super Bowl week here in the United States. The Seattle Seahawks and the New England Patriots will battle it out during American football's biggest night. But Sunday's sporting event isn't just about the NFL.

Many people tune in to watch the commercials. Brand consulting firm Triggers says this year brands like Spectrum and Budweiser may lean more into patriotic themes as it coincides with America's 250th anniversary.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LESLIE ZANE, TRIGGERS CEO AND FOUNDER: This is the 60th Super Bowl in 2026 and 2026 is a very important year. This is the year of America's 250th anniversary. It is a big year for brands.

And so every brand is going to be trying to connect itself to American themes. You're going to see that in this Super Bowl and you're going to see this probably for the entire year. You're going to see it at the shelf, you're going to see it online.

Everybody is going to try to associate their brand with the greatness of America.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHURCH: Well, now is the time to vote for your favorite wildlife moment caught on camera. These are among the images on the shortlist for the Wildlife Photographer of the Year People's Choice Award for 2026.

London's Natural History Museum teamed up with an international judging panel to select just 24 photos from over 60,000 entries. They've been submitted from more than 100 countries. Voting is now open online and at the Natural History Museum, the winner and four runners up will be announced March 25th.

I want to thank you so much for your company, I'm Rosemary Church. Have yourselves a wonderful day. "World Sport" is coming up next.

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[03:45:00]

(WORLD SPORT)