Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Newsroom

Sudden Death of NASCAR's Kyle Busch; 2024 Election; The Pope's Tailor. Aired 4:30-5a ET

Aired May 22, 2026 - 04:30   ET

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

[04:30:00]

BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: About their travel and about possible symptoms and that they then would be observed by CDC staff for signs of illness and that they would have their temperatures taken. So that's kind of a thumbnail of how the screening process here is going at Dulles Airport. Brian Todd, CNN, Dulles International Airport, Virginia.

SALMA ABDELAZIZ, CNN ANCHOR: NASCAR is bidding farewell to one of its greatest drivers. The sudden death of Kyle Busch has shocked the world of auto racing and beyond. The two time Cup Series Champion was only 41. His cause of death has not yet been released but his family been hospitalized with a severe illness.

Busch was scheduled to race at the Coca-Cola 600 this weekend. NASCAR paid tribute to his sharp wit and called him a future Hall of Famer. Coca Cola 600 leaves behind a wife and two children. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ABDELAZIZ: British authorities are appealing for any information related to misconduct by Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor. Thames Valley Police gave an update earlier on their investigation into the former prince. They said they're speaking to witnesses and examining, "a number of aspects of alleged misconduct." They also said they're helping authorities around the UK contact survivors of late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

On Thursday, documents relating to Mountbatten-Windsor's appointment as British Trade Envoy in 2001 were also released. They indicate that the late Queen Elizabeth II pushed for him to get that role and that he was never formally vetted. For more on all of this, Nada Bashir joins us from London. Good morning, Nada. Thank you for being with us today.

So just start by explaining to me, why are British police making this call for people to come forward with information now? Is there something specific they're looking after here?

[04:35:05]

NADA BASHIR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Salma, according to the latest statement that we have had from Thames Valley Police, which is, of course, overseeing this investigation into allegations of misconduct while in public office, there appears to have been an expansion in the line of inquiry by Thames Valley Police. We just had that update earlier today saying that as they continue their investigation into misconduct in public office, they are also now assessing reports that a woman was taken to an address in Windsor in 2010 for "sexual purposes."

Now, of course, this certainly expands the line of inquiry for Thames Valley Police with regards to Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor. They have said that they've engaged with the woman's legal representatives to confirm that should she wish to formally report this incident to police officials, that the this issue will be taken seriously, they say, handled with care and sensitivity and respect for her privacy. And, of course, there had been previous allegations, of course, against Andrew Jim Mountbatten-Windsor of sexual misconduct.

It was understood, of course, that following his brief arrest in February, that the focus of the inquiry and investigation by Thames Valley Police was on misconduct while in public office, centered around his time as trade envoy and coming after revelations of potential leaks by Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, according to filings released by the US Department of Justice of sensitive government information pertaining to his role as trade envoy shared with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

Now, of course, after a decade in that role as trade envoy, Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor did step down in relation to his friendship and close connection with the convicted sex offender. He also, of course, had his royal title stripped last year. And it's important to note that Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor has maintained and continues to deny these allegations. Although Buckingham Palace has been clear that it has listened to and responded to these allegations with deep concern, that it is allowing for the legal process to continue with due course, thoroughly and fully.

But, of course, this certainly raises concern as to the potential for a potential widening of the inquiry and, of course, raises the scope as well of this inquiry. We know that there have been previous allegations of sexual misconduct, but again, it remains to be seen as the investigation continues to play out, whether or not we see any charges being brought against Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, the brother of King Charles III.

ABDELAZIZ: That's our Nada Bashir at Buckingham Palace with the latest on the investigation into the former Prince Andrew. Thank you, Nada.

The Cuban government plans to hold a rally outside the US Embassy in Havana in the coming hours. That's according to a post from the embassy as tensions grow between the two countries. Cuba's foreign Minister now accuses Secretary of State Marco Rubio of trying to incite military aggression. He spoke just hours after Rubio said he doesn't have that much faith that diplomacy will work with Cuba and that the current regime is opposed to changes the country needs.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) MARCO RUBIO, US SECRETARY OF STATE: Right now, there just doesn't seem to be people over there in charge of the regime who are in any way open to any of those changes. And the things they talk about economically are cosmetic in nature. They're not real because that's what they've gotten used to all these years is just buying time and waiting us out.

They're not going to be able to wait us out or buy time. We're very serious. We're very focused. As I told you a moment ago, in the context of Iran, the President's preference is always a negotiated agreement that's peaceful. That's always our preference. That remains our preference with Cuba.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ABDELAZIZ: Rubio also says the sister of a Cuban military conglomerate chief was arrested in Miami on Thursday. He posted that Ida Las Reyes Morabar (ph) was a permanent US resident who also aided the Cuban regime. She is now in the custody of US immigration enforcement.

It's been called an autopsy on why Democrats lost the 2024 presidential election, and it was supposed to be released a year ago. Why we're only getting a look at the report now and why it appears to be incomplete.

[04:39:16]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ABDELAZIZ: CNN has obtained a long awaited report from the Democratic National Committee on what went wrong in the 2024 election and there's plenty of blame to go around. This so-called autopsy was supposed to be year but then came word it was not ready for public viewing. CNN's Isaac Dovere obtained the DNC report and has been digging through the findings for months.

EDWARD-ISAAC DOVERE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: One of the big stories looming over Democratic politics has been Democratic National Committee Chair Ken Martin's decision to abruptly announce in December that he wouldn't release the autopsy of the 2024 election loss that he'd ordered up and spent the whole year promising over and over was coming. That fed a rat's nest of conspiracy theories of what happened and what the DNC was hiding.

Well, the DNC released a version of it today, but that was only after I confronted the DNC with reporting about the autopsy's contents beyond what had ever been public before. And you can read the whole document up on our website, along with a big article explaining the strange story of how the process went so wrong and has now created an existential crisis for Martin's leadership of the DNC.

There's a lot of criticism of Biden and Harris and Democratic campaigning in the autopsy, but it's also all been disavowed now by the DNC. Not in there if you're looking for it, anything about Joe Biden dropping out, Kamala Harris getting the nomination without a primary process? It doesn't even mention Tim Walz's name. And another thing, not in there, though a bunch of people have assumed it would be there. Anything about how the situation with Gaza and how Biden and Harris talked about it reverberated among voters. Here's part of a statement that Ken Martin gave to me.

For full transparency, I'm releasing the report as we received it, and it's entirely unedited and unabridged. It does not meet my standards and it won't meet your standards, but I'm doing this because people need to be able to trust the Democratic Party and trust our word.

He also said, I didn't want to create a distraction, but by not putting the report out, I ended up creating an even bigger distraction. Or there's how another person involved put it to me, this was a bad idea from the start. Isaac Dovere, CNN.

ABDELAZIZ: President Trump is one step closer to building his triumphal arc near Arlington National Cemetery after a key agency approved its design plans. But the arch isn't a done deal just yet. Despite receiving approval from the Commission of Fine Arts, which Trump had stacked with loyalists, the arch faces a legal challenge from a Vietnam War veterans group, which claims the arch will disrupt the view of Arlington National Cemetery.

Now, the design of the arch also received some changes, such as the removal of the gold lions. The new design also saw the removal of an 8 foot tall base that was included in the previous version. The project must now win the approval of the National Capital Planning Commission, which is also stacked with Trump loyalists.

[04:45:05]

The White House postponed plans on Thursday for President Trump to sign a new executive order concerning the regulation of artificial intelligence. The order has already been postponed several times, and the White House has yet to provide a reason for the schedule change. CNN's Hadas Gold has the latest for us.

HADAS GOLD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The postponement of President Trump signing this executive order on artificial intelligence seemed to have come to a surprise to many in industry who were expecting the signing ceremony to take place on Thursday afternoon. And then just a few hours before it was set to take place, we got word that it was being postponed.

The White House had already invited several executives from the major tech companies to attend the signing ceremony, but then President Trump announced in the Oval Office why he wanted to postpone this executive order. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, UNITED STATES PRESIDENT: I didn't like certain aspects of it. I postponed it. I think it gets in the way of, you know, we're leading China, we're leading everybody, and I don't want to do anything that's going to get in the way of that lead. We have a very substantial and AI, it's causing tremendous good and it's also bringing in a lot of jobs, tremendous numbers of jobs.

Again, we have more people working right now than we've ever had. I really thought that could have been a blocker, and I want to make sure that it's not.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ABDELAZIZ: According to my sources, the draft of this executive order, one of the key pieces of it would have been a voluntary framework where the AI company companies would submit their models to government review up to 90 days before they are released to the public. This would give the government chance to take a look at these models, take a look at the capabilities, and potentially also shore up critical infrastructure to defend against these types of models.

Because in the last few months, we have seen some new models from the AI companies like Anthropic and OpenAI, that are incredibly capable, especially when it comes to cybersecurity. It is like having an army of either hackers or cybersecurity defenders who can work 24/7 either finding all the vulnerabilities and way to hack a system, or the flip side of that, of course, finding all the vulnerabilities and patching them.

And so, you can understand why the government would want to be able to have chance to look at these models before they are released publicly. Now, according to my sources, one of the tensions between the White House and the industry was about that time period, because even though it's a voluntary framework, 90 days is a very long time in the AI world. And these things are developing at such a rapid pace that you might have three new models released in the span of 90 days.

I heard from sources that they were pushing for a shorter 14 day window. And so that is a clear difference between the industry. But from what I understand from my sources in the industry is that, the industry was just as surprised that this executive order was postponed. And there's a lot of speculation as to what might be the reason. Now, this executive order has been planned in the past and has been postponed several times before.

And I think that illustrates that there is a divide still within the US government about exactly what role the government should have in these new AI models and their release. You know, in the early days of the Trump administration, they were very clear that they wanted to have a hands off approach. And we heard from President Trump there, he doesn't want to hamper the development of AI, especially with the sort of arms race with the likes of China.

But there is also a recognition and a call for the government to at least have a hand in some way to be able to see what these models are doing before they are released, both for defense of critical infrastructure and potentially at some point some sort of regulation of these models because the polling does show that the US public wants the US government to be doing more when it comes to artificial intelligence. Hadas Gold, CNN, New York.

ABDELAZIZ: As millions of Americans get ready to hit the roads for the Memorial Day weekend and the busy summer travel season, gas prices have climbed to the highest level in almost four years, and they keep on rising. Even in traditionally low priced states like Mississippi, Georgia and Indiana.

AAA, the American Automobile Association, says this is the time in almost four years that all 50 US states and Washington DC are at or above $4 a gallon. On the West coast, it's more than $5 or $6. Now, when the war with Iran started, the national average was just $2.98 for a gallon of gas. Now the Average price is $4.56.

For a Pope getting dressed is more than putting on a simple uniform. CNN visits the studio where the Pope's tailor creates his vestments.

[04:50:45]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ABDELAZIZ: SpaceX scrubbed the launch of its Starship Mega Rocket. The upgraded version of the vehicle, called version 3, was supposed to take its inaugural test flight on Thursday, but last minute issues triggered a cease series of holds. Now, SpaceX can make another attempt on Friday night if the problems are sorted out in time. The company says it is hoping this test flight could hit a few milestones, including deploying simulator satellites during flight.

Now, the clothing a Pope wears is an important part of who the individual is, as well as the tradition and symbolism of the Catholic Church. One man has been behind the design and production of the vestments for three pontiffs. CNN's Antonia Mortensen visited the Pope's tailor.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ANTONIA MORTENSEN, CNN FIELD PRODUCER: Meet the man who has dressed three popes, Filippo Sorcinelli.

FILIPPO SORCINELLI, POPE'S TAILOR (through translation): This is the chasuble of Pope Benedict XVI that he wore for Saints Peter and Paul.

MORTENSEN: Many of his pieces have been worn on the global stage, including garments created for Pope Benedict XVI and the inauguration mass of Pope Francis in 2013 and now Pope Leo.

SORCINELLI (through translation): Being able to create sacred vestments to be worn by a pontiff is, I believe, the highest aspiration for a person who does this job, and there is undoubtedly a great emotional component in seeing it ultimately worn by a pope.

[04:55:03]

MORTENSEN: A trained artist and musician, he founded LAVS, L'atelier vesti sacre, 25 years ago when he found his way into liturgical design through a fascination with ritual, identity and the power of clothing.

This workshop is tucked away in central Italy in Santarcangelo di Romagna. And it feels less like a religious atelier and more like a high end fashion studio.

SORCINELLI (through translation): And the Pope, but also all priests, the whole church, through this act of putting on this most beautiful garment, sends a message of hope. Sacred art lives on this, a message of hope for the whole human race.

MORTENSEN: Each papacy brings its own visual identity, from Pope Benedict's more traditional, ornate aesthetic to Pope Francis simpler, more restrained look. And now Pope Leo with his contemporary interpretation rooted in tradition. Everything here is done by hand, from sourcing the materials to the final stitch using traditional artisanal techniques.

SARA BREGATIN, SEAMSTRESS, LAVS: The emotion is as if it were always the first time. It's a sense of amazement seeing the Pope wearing something we created, a source of joy and pride for us.

MORTENSEN: For Sorcinelli, it's not just about the vestments, it's about the symbolism and the tradition they carry.

Everything in this atelier feels extremely personal because for the man who dresses the popes, every vestment starts in the same way, quietly, carefully, producing something completely unique that then ends up on the world stage. Antonia Mortensen, CNN, Santangelo in Romania, Italy.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ABDELAZIZ: Thank you so much for watching. I'm Salma Abdelaziz. CNN HEADLINE EXPRESS is next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)