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China Mine Explosion, 90 Dead; U.S. Peace Talks Continue with Iran; New York City Shipyard Explosions; Tulsi Gabbard Resigns; Pep Guardiola Steps Down as Manchester City Manager. Aired 3-3:30a ET

Aired May 23, 2026 - 03:00   ET

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

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice-over): This is CNN breaking news.

BEN HUNTE, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): We begin with breaking news out of northern China. The death toll in a gas explosion at a coal mine has grown massively. Reports say people are still trapped underground. Our Mike Valerio joins us now from Beijing.

Mike, what is the latest that you're hearing?

MIKE VALERIO, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Benny, the story has gotten worse. The last hour we were with you, the death toll stood at 82. It is now up to 90. And we can't stress enough how bad this is, the worst mining disaster here across China in now more than a decade.

We were checking our reporting the last hour with our senior China reporter, Simone McCarthy. We've gone through the data, our past reporting. And now this is the worst mining disaster in more than a decade.

How this all started, to take you through it, just in case you're catching up with the news, around 7:30 last night, local time, there's an explosion, a gas explosion. Carbide -- carbon monoxide levels are reported elevated in and around the disaster area.

And then, miraculously, more than 200 people have been evacuated by 6 am local time. The scale of the disaster, though, increasing as we are all waking up, getting apprised of the news and checking our sources around sunrise, the death toll was 3. Around lunchtime it was 50.

And when we were with you, just about 58 minutes ago, it stood at 82. This is significant enough that Xi Jinping, China's leader, has gotten involved, releasing a statement that he wants an all-out rescue and has urged a thorough investigation into the explosion's cause with accountability pursued in accordance with the law.

So Shanxi province, this is about seven hours drive south of where we are here in Beijing. And this is where China, Benny, gets about a quarter of its coal from. So a huge coal mining province. This is the lifeblood of the people who live there. And to put this further into context, this has also been a province

where there have been numerous mining accidents. But things have slowly started to -- there has been a greater effort since the early 2000s to put in greater safety measures to improve the conditions of workers' lives.

Mandates from the government here in Beijing coming down to improve the reputation of Shanxi province. And now we have this. The unthinkable of 90 people dead.

According to our latest reporting, there are still nine people missing. And our colleagues from CCTV, China's central television, there's a reporter who's been on the scene and has said that myriad people, miners from surrounding communities, are coming in to help find missing workers and help out in any way that they can.

We also have up on cnn.com that there are around 400-500 people who are working on underground search and rescue efforts. So this is not a finished story. It's still continuing.

And I'm just checking my notes to make sure that we have the latest reporting. That seems to be where we are at this moment. But still, the effort to find the nine people who are unaccounted for remains ongoing. Still a very active scene at this hour, Benny.

HUNTE: And obviously this is developing. You're going to bring us the latest, as you do know more.

But what do you currently know about the scale of the rescue efforts to find those people?

And how challenging would the conditions be for teams trying to reach them?

VALERIO: We're trying to honestly get more reporting from our affiliate network with CCTV, China central television, which is terrific. They are on the ground and have been contributing very detailed reporting.

But it seems to be, you know, we have had an explosion in Inner Mongolia over the past couple of years. I believe it was 2023. Forgive me if I'm off by one or two years. But that's a couple of hours drive north of here that killed 53 people. And that was an all-out effort.

So based on the fact that this is the worst mining accident in more than a decade, Xi Jinping has commented on this, you can bet that as many resources as possible are being sent to this disaster site. So forgive me forever, Benny. I don't have the exact information.

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Aside from 400 to 500 people who are working on these underground operations. But because this province has such reputation of numerous accidents and China is positioning itself on the world stage to be a leader in energy independence, more than half of its energy comes from coal. They no doubt will be sending all the resources possible, especially

with nine people still missing. But such a feat that more than 200 people could be evacuated when there were 247 is the exact number of people who were underground when this explosion happened at 7:30 in the evening yesterday.

So we're watching closely. More reporting is trickling in. If you're clicking off the TV, we're going to have more information that's added to our story on cnn.com. But this certainly this effort is not over, Benny.

HUNTE: It is absolutely awful. But thank you for those updates. Mike Valerio in Beijing. We appreciate it. Thank you.

VALERIO: No problem.

HUNTE: The World Health Organization has revised the risk assessment of Ebola to very high in the Democratic Republic of Congo. That's while the global risk does remain low.

In the coming hours, Africa Centers for Disease Control is convening a high-level meeting with Uganda, the Democratic Republic of Congo and South Sudan to strengthen coordination of the Ebola response.

The WHO says at least 177 deaths are thought to be linked to the Ebola outbreak in the DRC, with nearly 750 suspected cases. This strain of Ebola was declared an emergency about two weeks ago. Now there is no approved vaccine or treatment for it.

However, listen to what the director general of the World Health Organization told reporters on Friday.

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DR. TEDROS ADHANOM GHEBREYESUS, DIRECTOR-GENERAL, WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION: We're now revising our risk assessment to very high at the national level, high at the regional level and low at global level.

So far, 82 cases have been confirmed in DRC, with seven confirmed deaths. But we know the epidemic in DRC is much larger.

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HUNTE: The U.S. is expanding the list of airports that can screen people traveling from certain African countries that are grappling with the fast-moving Ebola outbreak.

International airports in Atlanta and Houston, as well as Dulles Airport outside Washington, have been cleared to receive passengers who have been in a Democratic Republic of Congo, Uganda or South Sudan in the past 21 days.

President Trump is weighing his options on the war with Iran. He met with top national security officials on Friday to discuss next steps, which could include restarting military action or letting diplomacy take center stage.

A source says the meeting ended without a decision. Delegations from Pakistan and Qatar are now in Tehran in hopes of ending the conflict. Iran's foreign ministry says it will take further negotiations because the two sides are not close to reaching a deal.

While in Sweden meeting with NATO foreign ministers, U.S. secretary of state Marco Rubio gave an update on the peace talks.

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MARCO RUBIO (R-FL), U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE: We await word on those conversations that are ongoing. There's been some slight progress. I don't want to exaggerate it but there's been a little bit of movement and that's good.

CNN's Kevin Liptak has more for us on where things currently stand.

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KEVIN LIPTAK, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: President Trump convened his national security team again on Friday to discuss a path forward in Iran as he appears to be nearing a decision about whether to restart strikes in that country or to allow more time for diplomacy to proceed.

And we are now in the timeline that the president himself set earlier this week to try and come up with a deal that he can agree to with Iran. He said that the strikes would begin by early next week, unless Iran submitted a proposal that he could sign off on.

Now it doesn't appear as if the president has made a decision quite yet. The diplomacy does seem to be proceeding apace. There was a Qatari delegation in Tehran on Friday continuing these discussions.

You also have the Pakistani mediators continuing to trade back and forth proposals between the United States and Iran.

What Marco Rubio, the secretary of state, said on Friday, was that there was progress being made but that, quote, "we're not there yet."

We heard a slightly more pessimistic tone from the Iranian foreign ministry saying that a deal was, quote, "not close" and that there were, quote, "very deep differences remaining between these two sides."

At least from the White House's perspective, they say that they have not changed their red lines on this conflict, saying that any agreement must include the provision that Iran turned over its stockpile of highly enriched uranium.

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So a lot of issues that still need to be worked out before the two sides can reach a deal.

The question now is whether the president will allow time for those issues to be worked out or whether he will begin the strikes anew.

We know that Pentagon has prepared options for him and they stand that they're ready to do that. They're simply waiting for his order.

As the president said on Friday, "Iran is dying to make a deal and we'll see what happens" -- Kevin Liptak, CNN, the White House.

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HUNTE: Activists on board a humanitarian flotilla are alleging severe mistreatment by Israeli forces who intercepted their ships. A group of Italian activists arrived in Rome on Friday. They were among 428 passengers on board the Global Sumud Flotilla that was demoted (ph) on Thursday.

They say Israeli forces intercepted a flotilla over several days after it left Turkiye. The small fleet was carrying food, medicine and humanitarian supplies for civilians in Gaza. The group claims its members were detained and subjected to beatings, torture and sexual violence before being deported.

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MERIERN HADJAL, FRENCH PRO-PALESTINIAN ACTIVIST (through translator): We were taken against our will onto an Israeli military vessel, which we nicknamed the torture ship, because we were tortured there.

First, they took our warm clothes, then we were herded into a hangar, one by one, where I was subjected to sexual violence and groping. I underwent groping and violence. I was hit, slapped, touched, kneed in the ribs. My hair was pulled. I was traumatized for hours.

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HUNTE: The group's account of alleged treatment has already triggered international backlash.

The Israel prison service told CNN, quote, "The allegations raised are false and entirely without factual basis."

It added that it, quote, "operates in accordance with the law."

The U.N. Security Council met in emergency session on Friday following a deadly Ukrainian drone strike in a Russian-controlled area of Ukraine. Russia's ambassador condemned the attack as a war crime.

At least six people were killed and dozens injured in a drone strike in Luhansk, which has been occupied by Russia since 2022. Kyiv says it struck an elite drone command unit but Moscow claims it was a student dorm. Russian president Vladimir Putin is threatening retaliation against Ukraine and has ordered his military to prepare options for an attack.

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VLADIMIR PUTIN, PRESIDENT OF RUSSIA (through translator): The Russian ministry of foreign affairs has been instructed to inform international organizations and the international community about this crime.

But, of course, we understand that, in such cases, statements from the ministry of foreign affairs alone are not enough. Therefore, the Russian ministry of defense has been ordered to submit its proposals.

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HUNTE: U.S. secretary of state Marco Rubio is in India for a mix of political and cultural events. He was in Kolkata earlier to visit a children's home. The trip to India follows Rubio's Sweden visit, where he met with NATO's foreign ministers. Rubio tried to clear up confusion over the mixed signals about U.S. military deployments to Europe.

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RUBIO: What's happening now is that any decision that's announced or made is viewed through the broader

context of some of the, you know, the frictions that we've had in recent months.

But at the end of the day, I think it's well understood in the alliance that the United States troop presence in Europe is going to be adjusted,

that work was already ongoing. And it's been done in coordination with our allies.

I'm not saying they're going to be thrilled about it but they certainly are aware of it. And, you know, we have obligations in the Indo-Pacific. We

have obligations in the Middle East. We have obligations in the western hemisphere. So this has been an ongoing process. It's not -- shouldn't be

a surprise to anybody.

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HUNTE: Earlier this week, Trump said he was sending an additional 5,000 troops to Poland. Officials there praised the deployment, saying it demonstrated responsible policy for the common good.

All right, the war in Iran is disrupting the food supply in the impoverished nation of Myanmar, more than 2,000 miles away. We'll bring you what farmers told CNN about the struggle to feed their families.

And a display on Washington, D.C.'s, National Mall marks Memorial Day. Just ahead, how 600,000 handmade poppies honor the sacrifices made by military service members and their families, too. See you in a moment.

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HUNTE: Thirty-six people have been injured in a deadly fire and two explosions at a New York City shipyard. Many of them are firefighters and other first responders, too. Emergency crews received reports of two workers who were trapped in a basement at the back of the shipyard on Staten Island.

An explosion happened shortly after crews arrived. One civilian was killed. Five firefighters and paramedics were looking for the trapped workers when a second blast happened. More people were hurt and that's including a fire marshal and a firefighter, too.

The threat of a toxic explosion at an aerospace facility in Garden Grove, California, has now forced tens of thousands of people from their homes. Some 40,000 residents within a nine-square-mile area around a facility in Orange County are now under evacuation orders.

Authorities say a tank filled with a highly toxic and flammable chemical used in plastics manufacturing is overheating. Officials warn that the tank could either leak or explode. Exposure to the chemical can cause serious breathing problems.

The streets around the U.S. embassy in Havana were absolutely packed on Friday. Thousands gathered to demonstrate against a decision to indict Cuba's former president in connection with the downing of two civilian planes that happened three decades ago.

The early morning protest came amid an ongoing oil embargo and months of escalating tensions with the U.S.

The U.S. Director of National Intelligence is resigning. Tulsi Gabbard made the announcement on Friday.

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Saying she will step away from the role at the end of June. Gabbard told president Trump in a letter that her husband was diagnosed with cancer.

She says she wants to, quote, "fully support him through this battle."

President Trump says Gabbard deputy Aaron Lukas will step in as acting intelligence chief.

Farmers in Myanmar were already struggling with low price rises and soaring fuel and food costs due to the civil war there. Now the war with Iran and the closure of the Strait of Hormuz is pushing those farmers to the brink of starvation. CNN's Hanako Montgomery has their story.

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HANAKO MONTGOMERY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Maung Nu Sein savors this small meal, unsure how much longer his farm in Myanmar's Rakhine state can keep his family fed.

"Life has been very difficult. I'm struggling to feed them," he says.

"I've reduced half of the farmland that I used to work since last year."

Much of the fuel and fertilizer he and others like him need to nourish their fields is stranded more than 2,000 miles away waiting to cross the Strait of Hormuz. Myanmar imports 90 percent of those crucial supplies and the U.S. and Israel's war with Iran has disrupted deliveries, sending their prices soaring.

"The rice we sell doesn't even cover the cost of fuel, let alone workers' costs," the 72-year old says.

Even before the conflict in the Middle East, many of Myanmar's farmers were struggling with plunging profits and rising costs, a result of the country's civil war. The World Food Programme says that 12.5 million people in Myanmar are already acutely food insecure, a crisis that's only deepened since February.

SAMIR WANMALI, REGIONAL DIRECTOR, ASIA AND THE PACIFIC, WORLD FOOD PROGRAMME: Across the country, we've seen a 22 percent increase in basic food prices. So that's usually a staple like rice, if it's there, or an alternative, salt (ph) and pulses. Families and parents will make choices about how much they eat, what they eat.

MONTGOMERY (voice-over): For those displaced by violence stemming from the 2021 military coup that decimated Myanmar's economy, the situation is even more dire.

"We didn't have food to eat yesterday, so we starved," Ma Khin Than says, as she grinds chili into rice for a rare meal at a displacement camp in Myebon.

"My tears welled up in front of my kids. They don't want me to beg but I don't want them to starve."

Many farmers nearby are abandoning their land, unable to hold out until supplies begin to flow once again through the Middle East. But for Maung Nu Sein, who has seven family members to feed, that's not an option.

"If we don't do the farming, he asks, who will feed us?

"That's all we've got" -- Hanako Montgomery, CNN.

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HUNTE: Twelve iguanas from the Galapagos have been seized at an airport in Ecuador. The animals were found with their legs bound and in a possession of three Thai nationals, who were apprehended at the scene.

The iguanas were discovered as part of an investigation into the trafficking of marine iguanas. Four other similar iguanas were found near the same airport last week. Much of the tourism in the Galapagos is driven by the presence of endangered species unique to the islands.

Manager Pep Guardiola is leaving Manchester City at the end of the season. To many fans of the sport, his decision brings an unexpected end to an era-defining legacy. CNN's Amanda Davies reports.

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AMANDA DAVIES, CNN WORLD SPORT: It's been one of the worst kept secrets in football, but now officially confirmed, the Pep Guardiola era at Manchester City will come to an end after one final game on Sunday.

After 10 years and 17 major trophies, including six Premier League titles and this year's FA Cup, the 55-year old's final match in charge will be against Aston Villa. The news comes just three days after the club were beaten to this year's Premier League title by Arsenal, and we'll see Guardiola leave with a year still left on his contract.

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PEP GUARDIOLA, OUTGOING MANCHESTER CITY MANAGER: I don't know the right words, really satisfied, happy and proud and have been the experience, I would say, maybe of my life. Otherwise, it wouldn't have been 10 years.

So, I cannot be more grateful for the amount of love and affection that I had, not today, these days, not for many, many years. And when the moment we cannot fight for anything else, because it's already achieved. So, that is a moment to say, OK.

I want to say proper goodbye to my people on Sunday. I want to hug them, all of them on the pitch. And that's why we announced it. I would love to continue to be part of this club.

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So not a manager action. And I will not take absolutely zero decisions on that. Just to be part of club, if they need me to represent or do something in many, many clubs that this organization has, I will be there.

I like still to be, you know, part of this club in a different role, completely different, not in the daily decisions, not being in front of the spotlight, always behind the scenes. But I like to be part of that.

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DAVIES: Well, it has been announced that Pep Guardiola will take up a role as the city football group, global ambassador. And the North Stand at the Etihad Stadium will be renamed The Pep Guardiola Stand. And City's chairman, Khaldoon Al Mubarak, the man in charge of getting

Guardiola to join the club in 2016, has paid tribute, saying, "Over the last 10 years, honesty and trust have formed the bedrock on which we have navigated every situation together with Pep.

"Always understanding that we could find the right answer together, today, the right answer is for Pep to finish his journey as the manager of Manchester City. The unique approach that he brings to his coaching has allowed him to constantly challenge the accepted truths of our game.

"It is the reason that in the last 10 years, he's not only made Manchester City better, he has also made football better."0

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HUNTE: A wall of poppies on Washington's National Mall is helping mark Memorial Day events in Washington, D.C. Each of the 600,000 handmade flowers represent an American military service member who was killed in World War I and later.

The installation is meant to give veterans and their families a place to reflect, decompress and pay their respects.

One veteran says, "Rather than celebrating the unofficial start of summer with cookouts and parties, Memorial Day is meant to recall the sacrifices that Americans made."

OK, that's all I've got for you. Thanks for joining me and the team. I'm Ben Hunte in Atlanta. "BLUEPRINT" is up next. I will see you tomorrow at the same time.