Return to Transcripts main page
CNN Newsroom
Iran Expected To Respond To U.S. Proposal Thursday; Ted Turner, CNN Founder And Philanthropist, Dies At 87; CNN Founder, Ted Turner, Dies at 87; Cruise Ship to Dock in the Canary Islands in Coming Days, About 150 People Remain Onboard; Top U.S. Diplomat to Meet With Pope Leo at the Vatican; Judge Releases Purported Epstein Suicide Note; PSG Seeking Back-to-Back Titles in Final Against Arsenal; BTS Visits Mexico's National Palace Ahead of Concerts. Aired 2-3a ET
Aired May 07, 2026 - 02:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[02:00:37]
ROSEMARY CHURCH, CNN ANCHOR: Hello and welcome to our viewers joining us from all around the world. I'm Rosemary Church.
Just ahead here on CNN NEWSROOM, President Trump says he's close to a deal with Iran. The latest on when Tehran may respond.
Plus:
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CNN HOST: What's your proudest achievement?
TED TURNER, CNN FOUNDER: My family first, and outside my family, CNN.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHURCH: We look back at the legacy of CNN's founder, media tycoon and philanthropist Ted Turner.
And K-pop stars BTS get a grand welcome in Mexico City, where fans have waited a very long time for the visit.
ANNOUNCER: Live from Atlanta, this is CNN NEWSROOM with Rosemary Church.
CHURCH: Good to have you with us. First this hour, signs of progress on talks to end the war with Iran. A source says Iran is expected to reply to the U.S. proposal on Thursday, and we're learning both sides are moving closer to an agreement on a short memo aimed at bringing the conflict to a close.
U.S. President Donald Trump has touted good talks with Iran, saying there's never a deadline for an Iranian response, but that came after he issued a new threat that the bombing would start at a higher level if Iran does not agree to a deal. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon, and they won't, and they've agreed to that, among other things.
They want to make a deal. We've had very good talks over the last 24 hours, and it's very possible that we'll make a deal.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHURCH: One sticking point in negotiations has been future security in the Strait of Hormuz. Iran says safe passage through the Strait is possible under, "New procedures," without explaining what those procedures are.
Well, CNN's Eleni Giokos is following developments from Dubai. She joins us now live. Good morning to you, Eleni.
So, President Trump says he's close to a deal with Iran. What are the expectations in the region and what's happening in the Strait of Hormuz right now?
ELENI GIOKOS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, really good question, Rosemary. And frankly, we've heard sort of a positive aspect around talks time and time again, and only to be disappointed, but this time, it seems, is a real push, diplomatically, to try and get something tangible on the table.
According to sources telling CNN that there's now a one page memorandum that has been shared with mediators in Pakistan, Iran currently reviewing this and what this one page memorandum basically entails is a 30-day negotiation period into the war for 30 days that will then help resolve the big sticking points.
And those sticking points now are what happens in the Strait of Hormuz, where we, frankly, have seen so much confrontation since the beginning of the week after the United States announced Project Freedom to try and guide vessels through the Straits. Then that halted after 48 hours of being enforced, the United States saying that the U.S. naval blockade is still in force. And in fact, we've seen a bit of confrontation there where the U.S. Navy has disabled one Iranian linked tanker.
This one-page memorandum also entails what will happen with the nuclear program. The United States wants to see a halting of any nuclear enrichment for a 20-day -- 20-year period. It seems that something a little bit lower will come through from the Iranian side. They've been looking at a much lower number.
And the other big question is, what happens with the already enriched uranium? President Trump posting this on Truth Social, Rosemary, and it gives you an indication of where he stands right now. He says, assuming Iran gives what we've been agreed to, which is perhaps big assumption, the already legendary, Epic Fury will be at the end, and the highly effective blockade will allow the homies Strait to open. And then he says, if they don't agree, the bombing starts and will be,
sadly, a much higher level and intensity than it was before.
In the meantime, the Iranians also, you know, very vocal about this. And Parliamentary Speaker Ghalibaf also stating that Iran should still prepare for all options, asking people to hunker down. And he posts this, my request to all people is that you yourselves practice saving and frugality, and also seriously encourage others to do the same, and calling on intellectuals and specialists to approach the government directly with ideas to solve the problem that arise because of the war.
[02:05:05]
Keeping in mind that the Iranians, at the same time, as we saw the halting of Project Freedom, came out with an authority called the Persian Gulf Strait authority, where they're trying to formalize control of the Strait of Hormuz. We have seen multiple attacks on vessels by Iran over the last few days, and basically increasing the threat scenarios for vessels wanting to transit.
In the meantime, and this is quite important. Sources tell us that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel is currently discussing with the Trump administration's the contours of this memorandum and the status of the talks right now, and of course, this having a really big impact in terms of what happens next, Rosemary.
So, a lot at stake right now. We're waiting to hear whether Iran is open to this one-page memorandum, and they'll be sharing their response with Pakistani mediators.
CHURCH: Critical point here, Eleni Giokos in Dubai with that live report, many thanks.
Israel says it has targeted the commander of Hezbollah's elite Radwan force in Beirut. It is the first strike in the city since the cease fire in Lebanon, Israel's defense minister did not say if he was eliminated, but an Israeli official told CNN the deputy commander is believed to be wounded.
Israeli troops and Hezbollah fighters have continued to target each other in southern Lebanon. Israel claims their operations in that region don't violate the truce.
Well, for more, we are joined from Abu Dhabi by Mina Al-Oraibi, the editor-in-chief of The National, that is an English language news outlet based in Abu Dhabi. Appreciate you being with us.
MINA AL-ORAIBI, EDITOR-IN-CHIEF, THE NATIONAL: Thanks for having me.
CHURCH: So, Iran is expected to respond to the U.S. proposal in the coming hours, with President Trump saying progress is being made. What are the expectations in the region, and how close might a deal really be to ending this war?
AL-ORAIBI: Well, in the last few weeks, we've had these moments when it looked like a political or diplomatic breakthrough would be close, and then suddenly it would fall apart. It's interesting this time that it is a negotiation over this memorandum, whether the points of agreement, but also disagreement, rather than an expectation of an actual meeting between American and Iranian mediators facility -- sorry, interlocutors facilitated by Pakistani mediators.
So, in some ways, it's more positive, because we're talking substance, rather than just the sake of a meeting for a meeting, which, of course, didn't happen almost two weeks ago now, with the expectation that an American delegation would go to Pakistan to meet with the Iranians.
Now, President Trump has said 48 hours for Iran to get back. We have had deadlines set before by the US that were not met. And the Iranians play on time. They like to be able to say that they will test the Americans. So, it's important to see if this time, they will respond within that 48 hour framework, which is probably in the next 24 hours, 36 hours, we'll see some clarity.
It's also important that different sources have said that this is a 14-point memorandum, and yet, sometimes there are different documents being passed to try to give the Iranians some space to maneuver negotiation. And that is a problem. The Iranians play on uncertainty, and they also play on differences. Within Iran itself there are differences. Eleni was just speaking now to Ghalibaf calling on the Iranian people to save, to confront the enemy. The reality is the economic pain is very real in Iran, and this call for savings is a way to tell people to expect further pain, not only from sanctions, but of course, the fallout of war. So, Iranians need to get to an agreement too.
CHURCH: Now, Iran said on Wednesday that safe passage through the Strait of Hormuz is possible under new procedures. We don't know any more than that, but what we do know is that Tehran has previously said it wants $2 million for every vessel passing through that critical waterway. Is this what Iran will likely propose? And if so, how will the U.S. and the Gulf nations likely respond to that toll?
AL-ORAIBI: The Iranians have found that the Strait of Hormuz is an incredible weapon, and they want to keep it and the Gulf and addition to the U.S. but also powers like the Europeans, in addition to countries like Singapore, are all saying this is unacceptable. You can't have the Strait of Hormuz being controlled by Iran or any other nation frankly, the right of passage through waterways is by international law, critical globally.
And so, while the Iranians will try to keep some control of Hormuz, it's important that, of course, the pushback is, no, the waterways must be open to all, which frankly, was the case before the war, before the 28th of February.
And so, the Iranians want to use this as negotiating card, but it cannot be acceptable for the Gulf. But as I said, for many other players that are all affected by Iran trying to impose its will over the Strait of Hormuz.
[02:10:11]
CHURCH: Now, on Wednesday, to President Trump said the Iran talks were going well, as we've said, and claimed there was never a deadline for an Iranian response. But he said this after he threatened that the bombing would start at a higher intensity if Iran doesn't agree to a deal. So, how does Tehran receive mixed messages like that?
AL-ORAIBI: Well, Tehran benefits from mixed messages because they also give out mixed messages. And it's been quite interesting to see that differentiation between the so-called hawks and the leaders of the IRGC Ahmad Fahey, for one, has said that that they must continue the fight. Previous, of course, to President Trump's latest statement, and that is getting prepared for a longer-term war.
Whereas you do have the speaker of parliament Ghalibaf and also the Iranian foreign minister, who was just in Beijing, saying that they want a political solution. So, they play off American mixed signals with their own mixed signals. And of course, this part of the fog of war that's also very disconcerting, not only for the people who are affected directly by this, but also diplomats who are trying to work through a resolution.
CHURCH: Mina Al-Oraibi, many thanks for joining us and sharing your perspective and analysis on this, appreciate it.
Still to come, about 150 passengers are still on board a cruise ship hit by a deadly outbreak of hantavirus. We will bring you the words of wisdom being shared by former cruise passengers who had to endure quarantine at sea. Back with that and more in just a moment.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[02:16:14]
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TURNER: I dedicate the news channel for America, the cable news network.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHURCH: That is Ted Turner, nearly 46 years ago, announcing the launch of this network CNN. The groundbreaking media mogul and philanthropist, passed away Wednesday at the age of 87. His business acumen extended far beyond CNN. He owned the Atlanta Braves and the Atlanta Hawks. He founded a slew of cable channels, TNT, Headline News, Turner Classic Movies, the Cartoon Network and more. He met with world leaders like Russia's Vladimir Putin and Cuba's Fidel Castro. Turner wanted to eliminate nuclear weapons, and co founded the Nuclear Threat Initiative back in 2001.
He was also an environmental visionary, a conservationist helping preserve imperiled species, from prairie dogs to bison to grizzly bears. He loved the environment so much. He even created an entire cartoon series about saving the Earth.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TURNER: The best idea, environmental idea I ever had, by far was Captain Planet. We dealt with every subject. We even had two episodes on overpopulation. We had them on warfare. Mostly they were environmental, and we really simplified those. Most of you all have seen it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHURCH: Ted Turner revealed he had been diagnosed with Lewy body dementia in 2018. Three years earlier, Christiane Amanpour sat down with Ted in Montana, where he spent his final years as a rancher and conservationist.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
AMANPOUR: Can I ask you about how you're feeling?
TURNER: I'm feeling tired, but I'm working on it.
AMANPOUR: Do you feel you don't have the same energy than you used to?
TURNER: Oh, no question about it. I've got arterial fibrillation that's in remission right now, but it could come back at any time.
AMANPOUR: You are somebody who's known for your phenomenal success. I mean, kind of mind-blowing success and the cutting-edge reforms that you've been doing. How much do you look at success in context with failure? What does failure mean to you? How do you look at failure? How you deal with it?
TURNER: Trying to avoid it. And I've been successful in doing that. I knew I didn't have enough money to get CNN to break even. But I figured, I said, how am I going to get around it? I thought it through real carefully. And I figured if I get on the air and people see just how helpful it's going to be, I'll be able to raise the money later on. And I was able to do just exactly that.
It was hard because of the finances. The first year, the budget, we were 100 percent over the budget on expenses. It cost us twice as much to run as we had projected. And the income was half as much as we predicted. So, the bottom line was one quarter of what we projected. And the bankers just said, Ted, we're sorry. This is not a bankable deal. You've got to give us our money back. I said, give me a little time to get somebody else to lend to me.
It was really fun. I mean -- and it was scary. It was just as scary or scarier than the wind in the facet race. But all storms have a lot in common. You know, you're in danger. You've got to be a cool head. Timing is important in everything that you do. The first 10 years, we lost money. And then we broke even in the 11th year. And now, we're making a decent profit.
[02:20:25]
AMANPOUR: When you were very young, your father told you to be sure to set your goals so high that you can't possibly accomplish them in one lifetime.
That way, you'll always have something ahead of you. Did you set your goals high enough? Most people would say yes. And you've accomplished them all.
TURNER: Yes. Well, I haven't accomplished them all. We haven't gotten rid of nuclear weapons. And we haven't got -- we're headed in the right direction, but we haven't gotten far enough along with fighting global climate change. That after nuclear weapons is the greatest danger that we face, and it's preventable. The good thing is almost everything is preventable. The bad things, all you've got to do is do them.
AMANPOUR: You have done so many amazing things, and you have had and are living an amazing life. One of the things I'm really interested in is this incredible FastNet race in 1979.
So, what do you remember today about that race, which was such a dangerous race?
TURNER: It was a dangerous race. I remember that. It was -- the winds got up to close to 70 miles an hour, and the waves got to 40 feet high, according to the statistics. So, it was rough, and 14 people were killed.
AMANPOUR: Did you know it was going to be as big as it was?
TURNER: Uh-huh. In fact, when I heard the weather forecast, our navigator came out of the navigation booth and told us it was going to be the weather that it was. I said, 20 people were going to die tonight, and 14 did.
AMANPOUR: Fourteen or 15, in fact, did. You're absolutely right. Did you ever think of not going through with the race? Was it ever --
TURNER: Dropping out? No way. I never liked dropping out with CNN.
AMANPOUR: So, you were determined to push on?
TURNER: Absolutely.
AMANPOUR: Was there ever a moment that you thought you wouldn't make it?
TURNER: No. But I didn't spend a whole lot of time thinking about not making it. I was trying to figure out how to keep going.
AMANPOUR: Were you afraid?
TURNER: No. I was concerned, but I wasn't afraid. If I'd have been afraid, I'd have dropped out. There was no penalty for dropping out.
AMANPOUR: Except you wouldn't have won.
TURNER: Right.
AMANPOUR: Were you more concerned with winning than dying?
TURNER: That's what it said in the book. Absolutely.
AMANPOUR: And CNN was also a major challenge. I mean, it wasn't an easy thing to start, right? It was the --
TURNER: No. everybody -- just about everybody that had an opinion didn't think we could do it. And what did you say to them? What did you say to that? Take a look at it. In retrospect, now you can see that we did do it, obviously. And it was a huge success. Huge.
AMANPOUR: How did you convince them? And did you ever feel that if all these experts are telling me I can't do it, well, maybe there's something to it?
TURNER: Didn't bother me at all.
AMANPOUR: Were you trying to create a revolution with 24/7 news or were you just trying to find another brilliant business opportunity? What was your motivating impulse?
TURNER: Both. Both. And I thought it through very carefully. That's what I did. I studied the situation and I knew what I was doing. At least I felt like I knew what I was doing. And it turned out that I did.
AMANPOUR: And then after you created CNN in the United States, which already created a revolution, do you remember what it was like when you
were shut out, when CNN was shut out of the White House, for instance?
TURNER: It wasn't for very long. We sued the president.
AMANPOUR: You sued the president?
TURNER: And the government and the Supreme Court heard the story right quick and voted in our favor.
AMANPOUR: So, then CNN cameras could go and cover the White House like everybody else?
TURNER: Right. That's all we were asking. It's equal access.
AMANPOUR: You've said that of all the things you've done, and you've done a lot, that CNN is the business achievement of which you're the most proud.
TURNER: Yes.
AMANPOUR: Ten years later was the Gulf War, when CNN really exploded into the international consciousness, into the global --
[02:25:03]
TURNER: We were the only ones that were covering the war live from behind the lines.
AMANPOUR: Do you remember all the pushback you got from the president of the United States, from the chairman of the Joint Chiefs, from all these people who called you up and said, Ted, get your people out of Baghdad?
TURNER: Well, the president didn't call me. He called Tom Johnson. But the word got to me.
AMANPOUR: Did you ever think of obeying those orders?
TURNER: I couldn't do it because it was too important. And I said, as long as we have people that volunteer to stay, and Peter Arnett volunteered.
AMANPOUR: And Bernie Shaw and John Holliman.
BERNARD SHAW, FORMER CNN ANCHOR: Let's describe to our viewers what we're seeing. The skies over Baghdad have been illuminated. We're seeing bright flashes going off all over the sky.
TURNER: Bernie really got caught there. He got out the next day. He was only there the first day.
AMANPOUR: But it's legendary what they did that night.
TURNER: Oh, yes. Yes, that was it.
AMANPOUR: And then everybody else took CNN.
TURNER: Right.
AMANPOUR: Fast forward all these years to now, there's a lot of politics that's involved, even in news coverage. And people can criticize. They can say, well, were you on the side of the Iraqis? Why weren't you patriotic Americans? What were you doing in the enemy camp? Why were you behind enemy lines? What do you say today to people who still ask that question? Not just about --
TURNER: They don't ask it.
AMANPOUR: Not just about this story --
TURNER: It's -- we changed the way things were done. It wasn't -- we weren't anti-American. We were just pro-truth.
AMANPOUR: And were you pro-truth when you took up the invitation from Fidel Castro decades ago to actually go to Cuba and see what this guy was all about? What made you go there? Was that about --
TURNER: Curiosity. That's what makes us go everywhere. That's what people watch the news for. Because they're curious about what's going on.
AMANPOUR: Did you have an idea of Fidel Castro?
TURNER: Thought he was pretty colorful.
AMANPOUR: And did you change your opinion when you got --
TURNER: And he had a lot of courage to tackle the United States, you know, being so close to us.
AMANPOUR: Did you change your opinion at all when you got down there? I mean, your father was very strongly anti-communist like most Americans.
TURNER: I was too. You don't have to agree with somebody politically on everything to feel like they have, that they have worth.
AMANPOUR: And you also said, after this eye-opening trip to Cuba, I flew home with a whole new desire to understand more about other cultures and political systems and to do what I could to increase communication and dialogue between nations.
TURNER: Yes. What's wrong with that?
AMANPOUR: Nothing. But it doesn't happen very much. And do you think people are still that committed to doing precisely that?
TURNER: Maybe not quite as committed as I was.
AMANPOUR: I mean, your whole ethos was about trying to build bridges between nations, especially with the Goodwill Games, when you tried to build bridges between then Soviet Union and the United States.
TURNER: During the 20 years of the Goodwill Games, we never had better relations with Russia.
AMANPOUR: And just remind me, who was your guide then? Wasn't it the young Vladimir Putin?
TURNER: Yes, vice mayor of St. Petersburg. We had the games there. Forget what year it was, but it was when he was there.
AMANPOUR: And what was -- what did you think of him at that point?
TURNER: Seemed like a pretty capable, competent guy.
AMANPOUR: Does it surprise you that now that he's president, all these years later, there is real antipathy between him, Russia, and the United States?
TURNER: It's terrible. I'm the guy that believes that we should learn to how to get along, particularly the countries that we cannot afford to get into conflict with Russia, and because of their nuclear weapons, and China.
AMANPOUR: So, during this crisis between Russia and Ukraine, and the raid against the West, something that I thought was unthinkable happened.
President Putin has, one way or another, raised the specter of, "The nuclear option." And I certainly never thought in my life, particularly after the Cold War, that this would be a possibility. And you, who've spent so much of your life trying to secure nuclear weapons with the Nuclear Threat Initiative, can you believe that this is actually happening in 2015?
TURNER: It's hard to believe, but we're both, we're both guilty. The only thing that we can do is have total nuclear disarmament. Either we all have nuclear weapons, or we all don't have them. And I'm in real favor of not having them. We should get rid of all of them, and sign a treaty that we'll never mess with them again.
[02:30:00]
We don't want to destroy the world. It's a very dangerous situation. Those bombs are so powerful that just a few of them will kill life on earth. And we've got thousands of them on hair-trigger alert.
CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: Do you worry that there could be an accident?
TURNER: Yes. There have been numerous accidents. But fortunately, none have triggered an explosion yet. But it could happen at any time. Just look at how we deal with airline travel. We've worked so hard all over the world to make our planes safe. And even with that, every month one crashes somewhere in the world.
And so, if that can happen with our airlines, it can sure happen with our nuclear weapons. We've got to get rid of them. It's just like having dynamite in your basement. We've got to work on the things that make our lives better, not the things that make our lives worse.
And weapons and armies and aircraft carriers are just a waste of money and a waste of time. It's time to put war behind us. We've made enough progress to where we can say goodbye to war, and say hello to cooperation and working together.
AMANPOUR: Well, you can say that because you're 76-years-old and you have been fighting for this.
TURNER: I've been saying it all my life, too.
AMANPOUR: Precisely.
TURNER: I haven't changed. I was saying this 50 years ago.
AMANPOUR: What advice would you give to the young entrepreneurs of today who are wondering where to invest their energy, where to put their creativity? You seized cable before cable was cool, as the ad went. What would you say to people today? What is the most important area of business endeavor?
TURNER: Want a chance to make a fortune? Energy. Clean, renewable energy is the biggest single project because most of the people in the world don't have clean, renewable energy.
AMANPOUR: What would you say to the skeptics who say there may be some climate change going on, but, A, it's got nothing to do with us, and, B, trying to fix it with alternative energy is just economically not viable? What would you say to them?
TURNER: I'd say, I hate to say this, but I think you're wrong.
AMANPOUR: I want to go back a little bit further. You went to Brown University to study the classics.
TURNER: No.
AMANPOUR: No?
TURNER: I went there because my father wanted me to go to an Ivy League school, and I got in there.
(LAUGH)
AMANPOUR: Your father wanted you to go to an Ivy League school, and you got in. That's why you went?
TURNER: I didn't plan to study the classics when I first went to Brown. I didn't know what I was going to study.
AMANPOUR: You did study the classics, right?
TURNER: I ended up going that way because it was inspirational for me.
AMANPOUR: In what way?
TURNER: Well, the grandiose plans of the classics, "Horatius at the Bridge."
Then step forward, Horatius, the Captain of the Gate. He said, "To every man of woman born, death cometh soon or late. And how can man die better than facing fearful odds for the ashes of his fathers and the temples of his Gods?"
"Hew down the bridge, Sir Consul, with all the speed ye may. I, with but two beside me, will hold the foe in play. On yon narrow span a thousand might well be stopped by three. Now who will stand on either hand, and guard the bridge with me?"
I like that.
(LAUGH)
AMANPOUR: I like that, too.
TURNER: I signed up for classics.
(LAUGH)
TURNER: I said, "Here I am. Hew down the bridge."
AMANPOUR: This letter from your dad when you declared classics your major, he said, "My dear son, I'm appalled."
TURNER: I know.
(LAUGH)
AMANPOUR: "Even horrified that you've adopted classics as a major."
(LAUGH)
TURNER: I know.
AMANPOUR: As a matter of fact, I almost puked --
TURNER: -- on the way home today.
(LAUGH)
AMANPOUR: You remember the letter. I think you're --
TURNER: Of course, I remember the letter.
AMANPOUR: -- rapidly becoming a --
TURNER: An asshole.
(LAUGH)
AMANPOUR: No, it was a jackass.
(LAUGH)
TURNER: Damn it, I sent you there.
(LAUGH)
AMANPOUR: What did you think when you got that letter from your own dad?
TURNER: I was more amused than anything because I saw the value in classics.
AMANPOUR: But what would have happened had you stuck with the classics? Would there have been a CNN? Would there have been a nuclear threat initiative? Would there have been a Goodwill game?
TURNER: I did stick with the classics. I stuck with the classics and they were with me. I was inspired to stand at that bridge.
AMANPOUR: Can you do Shakespeare?
TURNER: A little bit.
AMANPOUR: Do you have anything you'd like to declaim?
[02:35:00]
TURNER: This is, I think, Richard III. Anyways, one of the Richards.
"Oh, my honor is my life. We live in one. Take honor from me. And my life is done.
Then pray, my liege. My honor, let me try. For that I live. For that will I die."
And I live with that. There's not one blemish on my honor in my entire 76-year career. Not once.
How many times have you heard protesters saying, get rid of Turner's corruption? Never paid anybody off, never.
And in the news business, there were times when putting a little money on the table would get you some access that you wouldn't get otherwise. It's very easy to slip into corruption, very easy. But I resisted it all the way along, not one time.
AMANPOUR: What do you most want to be remembered for?
TURNER: The good things I've done.
AMANPOUR: What's your proudest achievement?
TURNER: My family first and outside my family, CNN.
AMANPOUR: And what advice would you have for any young person who came to say, Ted, you've done it all, what can you tell me?
TURNER: Clean energy.
AMANPOUR: Ted Turner, thank you very much.
TURNER: You're quite welcome.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[02:41:25]
ROSEMARY CHURCH, CNN ANCHOR OF "CNN NEWSROOM": Welcome back, everyone. Health officials here in the state of Georgia are monitoring two people who just returned home from the cruise ship at the centre of a Hantavirus outbreak. Officials say they are not showing any signs of infection and are following CDC recommendations.
The cruise ship is currently en route to the Canary Islands after spending days off the coast of Cape Verde.
CNN's Will Ripley has more details on what passengers on board may be facing.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
WILL RIPLEY, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Off the coast of West Africa, a cruise ship under quarantine. Three more passengers medically evacuated, all tied to a deadly outbreak of Hantavirus, a rare, typically rodent-borne disease with no specific treatment or cure. The open decks of the MV Hondius deserted, dining rooms empty, passengers told to stay in their cabins.
JAKE ROSMARIN, PASSENGER ON BOARD THE MV HONDIUS: Hi, I'm Jake, and I'm spending the next 35 days crossing the Atlantic visiting some of the most remote islands in the world.
RIPLEY (voice-over): This is how the journey began for Jake Rosmarin, a Boston photographer, one of around 150 people on board.
ROSMARIN: People with families, with lives, with people waiting for us at home.
RIPLEY (voice-over): Health officials are now retracing the ship's route, trying to figure out where and when passengers became infected. Their 35-day expedition began from the edge of Antarctica, visiting some of the most remote islands in the South Atlantic.
DR. MARIA VAN KERKHOVE, W.H.O. ACTING DIRECTOR OF EPIDEMIC AND PANDEMIC MANAGEMENT: On those islands, there are birds. Some islands have a lot of rodents, others don't.
RIPLEY (voice-over): Hantavirus is usually picked up by breathing in particles from rodent droppings or urine. Symptoms often start like the flu, but can quickly cause severe breathing problems, organ failure, and death. The incubation period, one to eight weeks.
Lab tests have yet to confirm it, but investigators think this may be a rare South American strain that sometimes spreads not just from rodents, but between people.
VAN KERKHOVE: Among the really close contacts, the husband and wife, people who've shared cabins, et cetera.
RIPLEY (voice-over): This small boat medically evacuated a handful of infected passengers. Investigators say the outbreak began in early April. The first victim, a Dutch passenger, died on board April 11th. His wife died around two weeks later in a hospital in South Africa.
A third passenger, a German national, died on board on May 2nd. A British passenger remains in intensive care. Everyone else stuck on board, undergoing medical checks, a situation Kent and Rebecca Frasure know all too well.
REBECCA FRASURE, PASSENGER ON BOARD THE MV HONDIUS: We don't know how long you will have to stay in the hospital.
RIPLEY (voice-over): I met them back in 2020. They were quarantined on the Diamond Princess cruise ship off Japan.
RIPLEY: What's the hardest part?
R. FRASURE: I'd say the unknown.
RIPLEY (voice-over): Rebecca, one of the first Americans to test positive for COVID.
RIPLEY: There she is. She's standing in the window right now. Rebecca, here we are. Hi.
RIPLEY (voice-over): She spent weeks in a Tokyo hospital. Kent was quarantined in their cabin.
RIPLEY: What would be your advice for passengers stuck on this ship right now?
KENT FRASURE, QUARANTINED ON CRUISE SHIP DURING CORONAVIRUS PANDEMIC: If you start thinking about what's happening around you, it is so difficult to stay away from a mindset where you're getting depressed and just like, really fearful of what's going to happen. You have to try to stay as upbeat as you can.
RIPLEY (voice-over): They know how difficult staying upbeat can be. For everyone on the MV Hondius, facing fear and uncertainty on a floating quarantine zone.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
RIPLEY (on camera): A passenger who left the ship before news of the outbreak is now being treated in Switzerland as the ship heads from Cape Verde to Spain's Canary Islands.
[02:45:00]
Some officials there are pushing back, even as Spain's national government says they will receive the ship. Nearly 150 people on board from 23 countries, including, reportedly, more than a dozen Americans.
Will Ripley, CNN, Taipei.
CHURCH: Much more to come. New court documents reveal Jeffrey Epstein's purported suicide note that may have been written weeks before his death. New details on where it was found and what it says, that's next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[02:50:12]
CHURCH: U.S. Secretary of State, Marco Rubio has just arrived in Rome. The top U.S. diplomat is set to meet with Pope Leo XIV in the coming hours. Rubio is dismissing the notion that his trip is meant to reset diplomatic relations with the Vatican. President Trump has been especially critical of the pope's calls for an end to the war with Iran. And he repeated the criticism on Wednesday.
Pope Leo has never said he wants Iran to have a nuclear weapon. He has said the mission of the Catholic Church is to preach the gospel and peace.
A federal judge has unsealed a purported suicide note from Jeffrey Epstein. The unverified and undated document was placed on the court docket in the case of a former cellmate of the late convicted sex offender, who said he had found the note. The Justice Department indicated that it did not know if the note is legitimate. CNN's Katelyn Polantz has the details.
KATELYN POLANTZ, CNN SENIOR CRIME & JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: A note that a cellmate of Jeffrey Epstein's says he discovered inside a book in 2019. That cellmate says this is the suicide note of Jeffrey Epstein in an attempt on his life where he tried to kill himself and did not succeed. He survived that suicide attempt and then later killed himself weeks later.
This note, the sort of thing that many, many people would have been wanting to see this earlier that was not released by the Justice Department when they put out millions of files for transparency around Jeffrey Epstein, his time in jail, his death, as well as his crimes of sex trafficking. But this note, it was in the hands of this cellmate for quite some time, seven years. And then The New York Times, just in the last month or so, went to court and said this should be released.
This cellmate has been talking about it publicly. Here's a little bit more from that cellmate, Nicholas Tartaglione, a man who's serving life in prison for a quadruple murder. He was speaking to a podcaster earlier this year.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
NICHOLAS TARTAGLIONE, JEFFREY EPSTEIN'S CELLMATE (through telephone): It was in my book. Yeah. When I got back into the cell, I opened my book to read and there it was. And he wrote it and stuck it in the book. And that was, I believe, the reason why he stopped saying because he didn't want to go to suicide watch, because I think his first thing was, oh, yeah, he tried to blame me for attacking him.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
POLANTZ: But now this note in the public domain released by the judge. And we can see what it looks like, this scribbled out words by supposedly Jeffrey Epstein. What the cellmate says was Epstein's handwriting. What it says is, "They investigated me for a month, found nothing, so 15-year-old charges resurrected. It is a treat to be able to choose one's time to say goodbye. What do you want me to do? Burst out crying? No fun. Not worth it."
Back to you.
CHURCH: Coming up next, K-pop mania comes to Mexico City. BTS was greeted by their so-called Army, who turned out in strong numbers. The group's message to the fans after the break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[02:55:44]
CHURCH: Paris Saint-Germain is headed back to the Champions League final. A 1-1 draw at Bayern Munich was enough to seal a 6-5 win on aggregate, with PSG largely in control across both legs. The defending champs now have a shot at history, looking to win back-to-back titles when they face Arsenal in Budapest on May 30th.
Celebrations filled the streets of Paris overnight, though some clashes with police broke out as crowds gathered to mark the moment.
And finally, K-pop supergroup, BTS paid a visit to Mexico's National Palace and were greeted by a multitude of screaming fans. We're talking around 50,000 members of the so-called BTS Army.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KIM TAEHYUNG "V", BTS (through translator): Did you miss us? We missed Mexico a lot. The energy here is incredible. thank you for loving us so much, see you next time.
(CROWD CHEERING)
KIM NAMJOON "RM", BTS (through translator): Let's have fun. I love you. Thank you very much.
(CROWD CHEERING)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHURCH: A sea of fans gathered to catch a glimpse of the group who had been meeting with Mexican President, Claudia Sheinbaum. She thanked them for promoting a culture of peace and inclusion.
I have known BTS since I was 13-years-old. I'm 25 now and I'm extremely excited. I've been waiting for them for almost 10 years, so I am really, really excited.
CHURCH: And those excited fans had been waiting for hours in the city's main square. BTS will play their first of three shows in Mexico City in the coming day.
I want to thank you so much for your company this hour. I'm Rosemary Church. "CNN Newsroom" with Polo Sandoval is next after a quick break. Stay with us.
[02:58:01]
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[03:00:00]
