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Israel Reacts To Latest Progress In U.S.-Iran Peace Talks; U.S. & Iran Signal Progress In Efforts To End War; Pope Leo To Present First Encyclical Letter As Pontiff; Three Candidates Leading Colombia's Presidential Race; K-Pop Soars in Mexico; Spurs Dominate OKC in Game 4, Tie Western Finals Series 2-2. Aired 1-1:45a ET

Aired May 25, 2026 - 01:00   ET

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

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BEN HUNTE, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, wherever you are in the world. You are now in the CNN Newsroom with me, Ben Hunt in Atlanta. And it is so good to have you with me.

Coming up on the show, U.S. and Iranian officials signal progress towards a deal to end the war. But what seemed imminent just a day ago may now take a little while. We'll have the latest in a live report for you.

Plus, how an agreement to end that conflict could affect the fragile truce in Lebanon.

And Pope Leo takes on artificial intelligence. What we can expect from his so-called magnificent humanity letter.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Live from Atlanta, this is CNN Newsroom with Ben Hunt.

HUNTE: Welcome. Let's begin with the war with Iran. And officials from Tehran and Washington are now signaling they are closing in on an agreement to turn the current ceasefire into a long-lasting resolution to the conflict. Both sides are talking of a memorandum of understanding that will address all outstanding issues. But what's actually in that framework still remains very unclear.

A senior U.S. official tells CNN the blockade of Iranian ports in the Strait of Hormuz would loosen proportionately in response to Iran adhering to the proposed deal. President Donald Trump is already boasting about the impending deal, saying in part, "If I make a deal with Iran, it will be a good and proper one, not like the one made by Obama."

Oil markets have already responded positively to the news. Brent crude, that is the global benchmark, and U.S. crude both dropped on Sunday and continue to fall. But a relief in oil prices could only be temporary. As Iran warns, it will maintain economic pressure if the U.S. prolongs this war. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAJ. GEN. MOHSEN REZAEL, MILITARY ADVISER TO IRAN'S SUPREME LEADER (through translator): About negotiation, the Islamic Republic has put the least costly path before you. The Islamic Republic is telling you that if you continue the war, we will make the American people miserable and the American economy miserable. Iran is here for a fair negotiation with you.

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HUNTE: I spoke earlier with Ali Alfoneh, a senior fellow at the Arab Gulf States Institute, on how close the U.S. and Iran actually are to striking a lasting peace deal. Have a listen to this.

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ALI ALFONEH, SENIOR FELLOW, ARAB GULF STATES INSTITUTE: It's difficult to be very optimistic at this point. I think we still need a few more days to find out how serious both parties are.

HUNTE: Well, before that, there are some serious signs of optimism. Do you think this is the strongest signal yet that this conflict may actually be winding down?

ALFONEH: It is my impression that President Trump has reached the conclusion that the war was not such a big success. He has found out that he was deceived by Prime Minister Netanyahu, who claimed that the war would be extremely easy. It would be very short. And President Trump and the U.S. would be victors of the war very fast. And he has realized that this is not possible.

On the other hand, the Iranian regime also needs access to money in order to rebuild the country. Iran has to provide for its population. So both parties are strongly motivated. The only question is, who believes, you know, who can last longer? Because there is also the element of midterm elections in America. And this war is not a popular one. The question is, which party is going to blink first?

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HUNTE: Well, CNN's Jeremy Diamond is in Tel Aviv with Israel's reaction to where things stand in the U.S.-Iran talks.

JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN JERUSALEM CORRESPONDENT: Well, it was only a few days ago that the Israeli prime minister was on the phone with President Trump, telling him that he thought it was a mistake to call off planned strikes against Iran. The Israeli prime minister was advocating on the phone for a return to all-out war against Iran.

But now President Trump indicating that a deal with Iran is nearly negotiated. And the prime minister got back on the phone with President Trump on Saturday evening. But this time, the Israeli prime minister understood where things were headed.

And now in a post on social media, the Israeli prime minister is trying to diminish any notion of daylight with the U.S. president. This is the post that the Israeli prime minister posted, in which he says that he and President Trump agreed that, "Any final agreement with Iran must eliminate the nuclear danger." He also said that his and President Trump's policies remain unchanged, that "Iran will not have a nuclear weapon."

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But this is perhaps the most interesting part of this post. He says that President Trump, "Reaffirmed Israel's right to defend itself against threats on every front, including Lebanon." And that is very notable, because this points to one of the potential points of disagreement here between the U.S. and Iran and how each side is interpreting this budding agreement. And we've seen this movie before, as it relates to Lebanon.

The Israeli prime minister here is trying to retain the ability to carry out strikes against Hezbollah, despite the fact that Iran seems to believe that this agreement would mean that there would be a total ceasefire in Lebanon. And what we have seen over the last month-and-a- half, as there has been already a ceasefire in Lebanon, is daily Israeli strikes against Hezbollah, and Hezbollah also carrying out attacks against Israeli troops in southern Lebanon.

But this is just one of several different potential areas of disagreement, as this agreement is coming close to fruition. We have seen already the ways in which Iranian media is talking about this potential deal and the way in which U.S. officials are talking about it. And there are a range of disagreements, everything over exactly how open the Strait of Hormuz will be following this agreement, to whether or not Iran has privately made any commitments about reining in its nuclear program going forward.

There is also a major disagreement, it seems, over Iranian frozen assets, Iranian officials describing in state media that those assets being unblocked would be a first step in any agreement, but the United States indicating this won't happen until the Strait is reopened. It is a reminder that until every single word in this agreement is actually finalized and both sides sign on the dotted line, this deal is not yet done.

Jeremy Diamond, CNN, Tel Aviv.

HUNTE: Let's bring in CNN's Ivan Watson live from Hong Kong for us. It is good to see you, sir. Are we looking at a genuine shift in momentum here, or have we seen similar moments before?

IVAN WATSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: I do think we've seen similar moments. We've heard President Trump go back and forth between threats to dangling the prospects of a deal, an imminent deal, multiple times. Yes, there's definitely some signaling coming out of both Tehran and Washington that some kind of agreement could be in the works, but we just have to wait and see what happens.

And I think, as we just heard from Jeremy, a lot still seems to be up in the air. We've seen some reporting coming out of Iranian state media saying that there's still one or two clauses that are unresolved. And from what we do know, it appears that the -- whatever this memorandum of understanding, whatever version is being discussed right now, it primarily addresses reopening the Strait of Hormuz and subsequently, or at the same time, lifting the U.S. blockade of Iranian ports, which is not the reason that the U.S. and Israel went to war in the first place, because, of course, the Strait of Hormuz before they launched the war on February 28th of this year.

It is only after the war was launched that Iran recognized it had this control that it has declared over the Strait of Hormuz, and it has plunged the global economy into an energy crisis. Let's take a little listen to what the U.S. Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, just had to say about this from New Delhi, the Indian capital.

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MARCO RUBIO, U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE: So, we have what I think is a pretty solid thing on the table in terms of their ability to open up the Straits, get the Straits open, enter into a very real, significant, time-limited negotiation on the nuclear matters. And hopefully, we can pull it off. It has a lot of support in the Gulf. It has a lot of support globally. Every country that we've walked through it understands it's not just very reasonable, but it's the right thing for the world to get done. As the President said, he's not in a hurry. He's not going to make a bad deal.

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WATSON: But already the President is coming under fire from some Republican lawmakers, Iran hawks, who are worried that this is going to be potentially a bad deal, since it is essentially kicking the can down the road for possibly two months for really trying to get any resolution about Iran's nuclear program, which, again, that was the casus belli. That's why Israel and the U.S. first began this war at the end of February. Ben?

HUNTE: OK, Ivan, thank you so much for that insight. We appreciate it. I'm sure we'll be speaking to you again very soon. Thank you for now.

Growing uncertainty over the Iran war is dividing lawmakers on Capitol Hill. Republican Senator Thom Tillis spoke to CNN earlier saying, he believes President Trump's possible deal with Iran doesn't make sense.

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SEN. THOM TILLIS (R-NC): There are a lot of things that need to be explained. And as I've said before, any agreement with Iran that isn't subject to ratification by Congress is going I think going to be doomed to fail just like the agreement we're trying to replace.

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HUNTE: His comments come after House Republican leaders suddenly cancelled last week's vote to limit President Trump's war powers in Iran. At the time, Republicans appeared to be on the verge of losing the vote due to absences.

Russia's deadly strikes on Kyiv this weekend are leaving physical and psychological scars. At least four people were killed in the onslaught. That's after Moscow fired hundreds of drones and missiles towards the Ukrainian capital earlier on Sunday morning.

One of them, a new hypersonic ballistic missile, the Russian speed and trajectory make it nearly impossible for Ukraine's air defense systems to stop. It's only the third time that Russia has used a weapon in its war. The scale of the attack left residents shaken.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): I was so scared. Honestly, I thought it was my last day.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): It was terrifying and very loud. First, around 2:00 or half past 2:00 in the morning, I heard five explosions. Then around 4:00 in the morning, there were two more explosions. That's when people started running. They were wounded.

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HUNTE: Ukraine's president visited a heavily damaged neighborhood in Kyiv on Sunday. He condemned Russia's attack and its use of the Oreshnik missiles, saying, "It's vital that this doesn't go unpunished."

All right. The Democratic Republic of Congo is intensifying health screenings amid the worsening Ebola crisis. Still ahead, the latest on international support aimed at boosting local response efforts. See you in a moment.

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HUNTE: Emergency crews are racing to stabilize the dangerous overheating of a chemical tank at an aerospace facility in Southern California, and you are seeing some live pictures of that there. About 50,000 residents of the surrounding area are under evacuation orders due to risk of exposure to the toxic and highly flammable chemical that is held in that tank that you are seeing. Evacuees at a nearby shelter share their ongoing anxiety as they do wait for updates.

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DOREEN ZOLLER, EVACUEE: I feel really stressed out because I'm not sure what the future has to tell for us. I don't know how long this is going to be, how long we're going to have to be displaced, where we're going to be, if we're going to have the money to be able to provide for our kids and our family.

LAURA JOHNSTON, EVACUEE: I was really concerned because both my husband is physically disabled, my daughter is mentally disabled, and I -- and they have breathing issues. I didn't want them to be around that chemical because they weren't really telling us a whole lot.

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HUNTE: On Sunday, officials said a possible crack in the unstable tank may be relieving some of the pressure inside, but that there's still a risk of catastrophic explosion.

The World Health Organization is teaming up with the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to coordinate a continental response to the deadly Ebola crisis. The announcement comes as the WHO executive board is set to host meetings in Geneva, Switzerland on Monday and Tuesday. The organization's director general estimates there are now more than 900 suspected Ebola cases in Central Africa. Regional conflict is also displacing thousands of people, fueling concerns over potential cross-border transmission. Over the weekend, the Democratic Republic of Congo tightened health screening checkpoints around Bunia, that is a city reportedly at the center of the outbreak.

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OK, Pope Leo will be delivering his first encyclical letter as pontiff in the coming hours, why he's chosen to focus on the rise of artificial intelligence. That is just ahead. See you in a moment.

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HUNTE: Welcome back to CNN Newsroom. I'm Ben Hunte in Atlanta.

In the coming hours, Pope Leo will present his first encyclical letter as pontiff, entitled "Magnifica Humanitas" or Magnificent Humanity. Vatican sources say it will address the protection of human dignity in the era of artificial intelligence. The letter is expected to focus on the impacts of A.I. on warfare, workers' rights, and the ethical risks of the growing technology. Pope Leo is expected to break from tradition and present the letter himself on Monday from the Vatican.

Let's discuss it with Paolo Carozza, professor of law at the University of Notre Dame and faculty fellow at Notre Dame's Religious Liberty Initiative. Thanks so much for being with me, sir. I appreciate it. You have called this a defining document for our era. That is a massive statement. What makes this more than simply another Vatican document about technology?

PAOLO CAROZZA, FACULTY FELLOW, NOTRE DAME RELIGIOUS LIBERTY INITIATIVE: Part of it is the context in which it appears. We're living in a time of incredible transformation, incredible confusion, and really a moral vacuum, I think, on the global stage. So Pope Leo is stepping into a time of desperate need to hear coherent, comprehensive, moral voices calling us to build something that is actually going to serve human beings rather than just diminish them or degrade them.

HUNTE: A lot of people may hear the Pope and artificial intelligence together and assume that this is a warning against technology itself, but that's not really what the document is saying. So what do you think is the core message here?

CAROZZA: No, that's really one of the most remarkable things about it, I think, is that on the one hand, I think the document shows itself to be very realistic and clear-eyed about the dangers that we're facing in this moment where artificial intelligence is transforming labor, democracy, politics, and order. It's the development and education of our children and so forth. So there are warnings against all of those things.

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But at the same time, right from the start, the Pope emphasizes that the genius of technology is part of human creativity and always has been as well and can really serve the common good and serve people's development and flourishing. So he's really trying to draw a narrow path between a pessimism and a naive kind of utopian approach to technology. He's basically saying, look, the technology itself isn't the issue. It isn't the problem.

The question really is, are there ways that we can develop and deploy the technology that helps individuals and communities to be more humane, to be more just, to be more participatory? Or is it going to be a technology that is going to foster exclusion and social control and increase inequalities? So if it's going to be the former, which is what we all want, then we have to develop a technology that's going to preserve our humanity by not reducing human beings just to data points and cogs in a machine. That's what he's calling for.

HUNTE: One of the biggest themes here is power and specifically who develops these systems and who controls them. Why does Pope Leo see that as such an important issue, you think?

CAROZZA: Well, without placing the value of human beings at the center, as I mentioned a moment ago, he notes that everything then gets reduced to a culture of power and that that in turn will result in violence and exploitation. The technology itself, he emphasizes, is never just neutral. It is conditioned by who is deploying it, by who's creating it, for better and for worse.

And so he really calls for a concern about the concentration of power and monopolies in private sector and for a dispersion of a participatory approach, really, to the question of design and governance of the technology on a global scale. So the technologies need to be subject to genuine social participation in a pluralistic way on a global scale with real oversight and accountability for those who are using it and those who are creating it.

HUNTE: I don't want to be too negative, though, because there is a hopeful message within this. So what does Pope Leo believe the people can still do to shape the future of A.I. rather than just react to it and get on with it?

CAROZZA: Yes, he really is a hopeful, presenting a hopeful message. I agree with that. Primarily, it's one that says, look, humanity is capable of moral progress. But to make moral progress collectively, we have to assume and reclaim our agency in the face of these challenges. We can only do that, first of all, if we take very seriously the gravity of the question that's in front of us. What kind of a world are we building? Is it one of the logic of power and exploitation and enslavement? Or is it a world of cooperation and mutual care for one another in detriment? And he calls it a civilization of love.

In order to build the latter, what he's stressing in particular is not a blueprint of politics or policy, so much as a call to genuine cooperation, to constructing a city together. And by together, he's appealing to everybody from technologists and policy experts to families and civil society. And even every single individual, he calls a lot for personal responsibility or for how each one of us relates to the project of technology in the world today.

If we have that kind of cooperation, he says, then he is certain that there is a possibility for humanity to develop the technology in ways that will really help us flourish, rather than serve as something that will harm us and dehumanize us.

HUNTE: That makes sense to me. I think we all want a civilization of love. That sounds very good, but for now, thank you so much, Paolo Carozza. We appreciate it. Thank you.

CAROZZA: Thank you.

HUNTE: Citizens in Colombia will vote in the first round of its presidential election in a week from now. Three front runners include left wing candidate Ivan Cepeda, who faces conservative candidates Paloma Valencia and Arbalado de la Espriella.

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PALOMA VALENCIA, CANDIDATE, CENTRO DEMOCRATICO (through translator): Because this is an all-star team, because this is what stands behind this campaign, a great alliance among different forces with a single purpose, Colombia, a single purpose to defend our democracy from the violent, to defend it from tyranny.

ABELARDO DE LA ESPRIELLA, COLOMBIAN PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We are going to be free from corruption, from negligence, free from (INAUDIBLE) who seek to perpetuate a tyranny that has already caused enough harm. Free from traitors to the homeland. Colombia needs to reinvent itself.

IVAN CEPEDA, COLOMBIAN PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Neither Antioquia nor Colombia will return to a time when fascist authoritarianism, the humiliation of the poor and indigenous peoples, the persecution of young people and homosexuals, the contempt for women and their rights and violence were everyday practices in Colombia.

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HUNTE: Cepeda has pledged to deepen social reforms and to pursue peace talks with illegal armed groups. De la Espriella has vowed to end those negotiations and take a tough stance on crime. And Valencia promised to expand the size of the armed forces and to launch an offensive against criminal gangs.

K-Pop is building a loyal following many thousands of kilometers away from South Korea, we will have a special report for you from Mexico City, where the music has seen a meteoric rise.

See you in a moment.

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HUNTE: Welcome back.

Fans of K-Pop phenomenon BTS are eagerly anticipating their performance just hours from now at the American Music Awards. Ahead of the show, our Valeria Leon visited a K-Pop dance class in Mexico, where the music is sweeping the country.

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VALERIA LEON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: This is K-Pop. South Korea's biggest cultural phenomenon, which has found a huge audience as far away as Mexico.

I decided to join a class at the country's biggest K-Pop dance school, where everyone was grooving to the hit band "Twice" (ph). And it didn't take long to see why this musical style is so popular.

Everybody feels so free here, letting go and just enjoying.

VALENTINA, STUDENT, K-POP DANCE CLASS: I started listening to K-Pop in 2020. And little by little, I liked it more and more until I found the academy and decided to sign up for classes. And well, I had never danced before.

LEON: For students like 54-year-old Yesenia Morales, it's all about feeling accepted.

YESENIA MORALES, STUDENT, K-POP DANCE CLASSES: I feel like it's a family because honestly, this K-Pop class doesn't really see age difference the way other academies sometimes do.

LEON: But for many fans, it goes beyond the music itself. Some say they see themselves reflected in the messages, with lyrics that often explore hope, everyday struggles and a sense of belonging.

CARLA AVILA, STUDENT, K-POP DANCE CLASS: It came into my life during a difficult time. During the pandemic, my grandfather passed away. And around that time, I discovered a group that talked about hope, and about dealing with depression and getting through it. So that really inspired me.

LEON: And according to the school's director, stories like Carla's aren't uncommon.

CRIS DE CARLO, DIRECTOR, K-POP DANCE MEXICO: For example, people who were physically harming themselves or had certain struggles, started getting better after finding K-Pop because they hadn't learned to channel anxiety. And they didn't know how to process it.

There were cases involving bullying, anorexia and bulimia, very delicate situations.

LEON: Most students here are between 10 and 20 years old, but age quickly becomes secondary once the music starts.

And here in Mexico, K-Pop has found a home. Earlier this month, more than 50,000 fans flocked to Mexico City's Main Square to see the global sensation, BTS.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Welcome. Hello.

LEON: The excitement even reached Mexico's national palace, where President Claudia Sheinbaum welcomed members and invited them back in 2027 after three sold-out concerts.

CLAUDIA SHEINBAUM, MEXICAN PRESIDENT: Would you like to come back to Mexico next year?

BTS, K-POP BAND: Yes. Very great.

LEON: Mexico is now Spotify's fifth largest K-Pop market. Proof that a sound born nearly 12,000 kilometers away can count on fans singing along on the other side of the world.

Valeria Leon, CNN -- Mexico City.

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HUNTE: It is all tied up at two games apiece in San Antonio after the Spurs grabbed game four of the NBA playoff's Western Conference Finals. The Spurs took an early lead over the Oklahoma City Thunder and never looked back, cruising past the defending champs on Sunday to win 103 to 82.

San Antonio has their seven-foot-four star Victor Wembanyama to thank. He scored 33 points, including this unbelievable half court bucket to close out the second quarter.

The best of seven series now returns to Oklahoma City for game five on Tuesday.

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HUNTE: A unique tradition marked the climax of Hong Kong's annual Cheung Chau Bun Festival. 12 people scrambled up a tower 14 meters or nearly 50 feet tall, to grab as many buns as possible.

The climbers had a three-minute limit. They received points based on how high they snatched the buns.

According to tradition, getting a bun from the top of the tower brings luck to their family, and at the end, a bun king and bun queen are chosen.

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KWOK KA-MING, BUN KING: Winning the championship for the 11th time feels pretty special. I was feeling a bit tired at the start, maybe because I had been waiting for so long and I made a small mistake early on.

Luckily, I was able to recover and catch up, securing enough nine- point buns to win.

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HUNTE: That is all that I've got for you. Thank you so much for joining us.

I am Ben Hunte in Atlanta.

"WORLDSPORT" is next. But stay tuned for so much more news in CNN NEWSROOM at the top of this hour. You'll be with Rosemary Church. You're in safe hands.

I'll see you next weekend. Thank you so much. Bye.

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