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U.S. And Iran Signal Progress In Efforts To End War; Africa CDC, W.H.O. Unveil 6-Month Ebola Crisis Response Plan. Aired 4:30-5a ET

Aired May 25, 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]

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hence, I'm for it.

MEG MCKNIGHT, PASSENGER: I don't know if I trust AI in the air. I doubt I trust it.

STEVE COLEMAN, PASSENGER: I like the idea of humans having control. I don't like the idea of machines having control.

PETE MUNTEAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Pete Muntean, CNN, Quonset, Rhode Island.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

POLO SANDOVAL, CNN ANCHOR: The U.S. and Iran, they are signaling that they are getting close to finalizing a potential long term cease fire deal.

Still ahead here on CNN Newsroom, a closer look at the key unresolved issues that are looming over these latest talks. Plus, Russia's air assault on Ukraine this weekend, it included the firing of a hypersonic ballistic missile while European leaders are accusing the Kremlin of reckless escalation.

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SANDOVAL: The U.S. and Iran, they appear to be inching towards a framework deal that would potentially seize hostilities that extend the window for current negotiations. According to a senior U.S. official, if agreed, both parties would have 60 days to resolve outstanding issues in an effort to build a more robust and long lasting agreement. But as CNN's Julia Benbrook reports, officials are warning that it may take several days to actually finalize the current wording.

JULIA BENBROOK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Important to emphasize here that any detail specifics of a deal between the United States and Iran are still being worked out. And President Donald Trump is now saying that he is not in a rush to come to a deal and that he believes time is on his side.

I want to pull up one of his posts from Sunday where he said, quote, "The negotiations are proceeding in an orderly and constructive manner. I have informed my representatives not to rush into a deal in that time is on our side. The blockade will remain in full force and effect until an agreement is reached, certified and signed. Both sides must take their time and get it right."

[04:35:08]

Now in recent remarks, Secretary of State Marco Rubio did say that he believes some progress has been made in recent days. He once again reiterated the goal here for the administration. Take a listen.

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MARCO RUBIO, SECRETARY OF STATE: What is the goal here? The goal here, ultimately the ultimate goal is that Iran can never have a nuclear weapon. Iran can never possess a nuclear weapon. The president has been clear about that. They will never possess a nuclear weapon, certainly not as long as Donald Trump is president of the United States.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BENBROOK: A senior administration official tells me that the framework agreement would then give the United states and Iran 60 more days to come to a final deal, that a deal would make sure that Iran cannot possess a nuclear weapon and is committed to giving up its highly enriched uranium. Now, how that stockpile would be disposed of, that would be decided during a later phase.

When it comes to the Strait of Hormuz, that official says that it would be demined and open for business. They did not go into detail, though, on how that critical waterway would operate going forward. Still a lot of questions here. And again, the president is now saying he is not in a rush to make a deal.

Julia Benbrook, CNN, the White House.

SANDOVAL: Earlier I did speak with Ali Vaez, Iran project director at the International Crisis Group, on just how close the U.S. and Iran may actually be to striking a deal.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ALI VAEZ, IRAN PROJECT DIRECTOR, INTERNATIONAL CRISIS GROUP: I think the parties are closer than ever before to the finish line. But as is the norm in these negotiations, nothing is agreed until everything is agreed. And at this point, not everything is agreed to. And in the past, we have also seen President Trump moving the goalposts or hesitating when he sees some domestic backlash to making a deal with Iran.

So there is no guarantee. But I think the odds of crossing the finish line this time around are pretty high.

SANDOVAL: The closest that we've ever been, as you put it, that that's certainly significant. I want you to listen to Democratic Senator Cory Booker as he expressed some skepticism about the deal in the works right now. The senator basically said that he expects it to leave Iran in an even better position than it was under with the Obama era deal, the JCPOA. Listen to how he described it and some of his criticism. And then we'll discuss.

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CORY BOOKER, U.S. SENATE DEMOCRAT: The president said he went into this to deal with their nuclear program. This does not deal with that. Before he became president the first time they had no highly enriched uranium they had sent it out. Now they have it because of him.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANDOVAL: So obviously when we finally have details of that framework, it will certainly be highly scrutinized, especially by the president's critics. But for now, I'm curious what your assessment is. Do you see the Trump administration essentially being forced to give up some of their valuable bargaining chips, perhaps even on freezing some of Iran's assets?

VAEZ: There is no other way. If we are to be able to get a deal with Iran, they would have to benefit from it and they would need economic retrieve, otherwise, why would they compromise. And the reality is that all of this was avoidable if the president had stayed in the previous deal that was negotiated in 2015 and tried to improve it, rather than breaking it completely, destroying trust and then trying to build a new agreement on its ruins. And when that didn't work, engage in two acts of aggression against Iran. But at the end of the day, if there is a deal, a final deal, it is going to see Iran suspend its uranium enrichment for a long period of time.

And in that sense, it might be an improvement to the Obama era agreements, but we're still far away from that. At this point what we're talking about is a framework that would end the hostilities and would start the process of reopening the Strait of Hormuz. It will have very general terms about Iran's nuclear commitments. The details will have to be negotiated later and those details might never be finalized just like the Gaza ceasefire agreement that never went into phase two.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANDOVAL: Russia's deadly strikes on Kyiv this weekend, they are leaving psychological and physical scars. At least four people were killed in the onslaught as Moscow fired hundreds of drones and missiles toward the Ukrainian capital city early Sunday morning. One of them, a new hypersonic ballistic missile, the Oreshnik speed and trajectory, they make it nearly impossible for Ukraine's air defenses to stop. Now it's only the third time that Russia has used the weapon in this war. CNN's Barbie Latza Nadeau following the developments from Rome.

Barbie, this is one of the biggest bombardments that we've seen near Ukraine's capital. What else are you learning?

[04:40:06]

BARBIE LATZA NADEAU, CNN REPORTER: Yes, you know, I mean, there's so much focus on the war in Iran right now that the war in Ukraine has become in many ways a forgotten war. But over the weekend we saw this incredible escalation which is certainly worrying here in Europe. We've heard from both the leaders of France and Germany calling it a reckless escalation. And you know, it's been particularly deadly and difficult for the people of Ukraine.

You know, Volodymyr Zelenskyy spoke out to talk a little bit about to the targets of some of these latest bombardments have been particularly worrying. Let's listen to what he had to say.

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VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY, UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT: And this is civilian goals, the museums, schools, just apartments. The Museum of Chernobyl, which was built by the way, for this anniversary, it was built just one month ago, and so they attacked. They saw this museum, they attacked this exactly to the museum. So it's just crazy.

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NADEAU: And you know, when you listen to him and you listen to those types of targets, these are the kinds of targets that we were hearing towards the beginning of the war. But this, you know, years later, we're still getting the same kind of bombardment. Six hundred drones, 90 missiles, many of them, you know, sort of going past that air defense system. It's incredibly worrying for the people of Ukraine that this continues to go forward and that any talks about peace and aren't even being discussed right now. So it is just another worrying week in Ukraine.

And here in Europe people are continuing to be incredibly concerned about the long term effects of this and the fallout and the continuing dis -- you know, disruption to life in Ukraine, Polo.

SANDOVAL: CNN's Barbara Latza Nadeau with an important reminder that as the conflict in the Middle East continues, a separate war also rages on with no end in sight.

Still to come here on CNN Newsroom, the very latest on the Ebola outbreak and also some of my conversation with the doctor who co- discovered the virus decades ago while he's describing the current spread in Africa as a worst case scenario.

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[04:45:16]

SANDOVAL: The World Health Organization is currently teaming up with the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Their hope is to coordinate a continental response to the deadly Ebola crisis. That announcement comes as the W.H.O. executive board is set to host meetings in Switzerland on Monday and Tuesday. The organization's director general, estimating that more than 900 suspected Ebola cases have been confirmed in Central Africa. Regional conflict is also displacing thousands of people and that's fueling concerns over potential cross border transmission.

And over the weekend, the Democratic Republic of Congo tightened health screening checkpoints around Bunia, which is a city that reportedly at the center of the outbreak.

And the Africa CDC, it is now labeled this latest Ebola outbreak as the second largest ever. In the last hour, I spoke with Dr. Peter Piot. He's a professor of global health at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. He explained just how urgent the regional crisis is and also some of the factors that are threatening to derail the current response efforts.

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PETER PIOT, PROF. OF GLOBAL HEALTH, LONDON SCHOOL OF HYGIENE & TROPICAL MEDICINE: Well, Polo, for me, this is the worst case scenario. A deadly strain of an Ebola virus, a new type, you know, without a vaccine, in an active war zone with very poor people, displaced people, refugees and under equipped health facilities. And we heard the number of cases is going up very rapidly and in the absence of a vaccine, all depends on access to patients too, so that we can isolate and we can protect their families. And that's what, you know, an armed conflict is standing in the way. And that's why I'm calling really for an Ebola truce, you know, something like -- that enables all those who are involved in controlling the epidemic and caring for patients to do their work.

SANDOVAL: Yes. With it now being decades since the discovery of this virus, doctor, are you surprised that there still isn't that vaccine that authorities, that health officials can turn to in its battle against this virus?

PIOT: Yes, we already have an Ebola vaccine that was tested in 2014 in West Africa and was very effective also in the previous big outbreak in Kivu in the same part of the Democratic Republic of Congo. But this is a rare and new strain of, you know, of Ebola virus, Bundibugyo, and has only caused two very limited outbreaks. And the vaccine doesn't work. So this is also a priority to develop a vaccine, but that's going to take six months or so. In the meantime, we really have to do, you know, the regular things, isolating patients, detecting them.

But again, the virus doesn't respect frontlines. And, you know, you can't ring fence a virus if you can't get into the ring. So -- and there are precedents for that. UNICEF organized years ago and starting in El Salvador, days of tranquility also in Afghanistan and others where there was war and so were that the warring factions agreed not to, you know, to prevent all these, you know, these efforts. I think without that, I'm very, very worried that it's going to be very hard to bring it under control.

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SANDOVAL: And when we return, we'll shift gears. K-pop building a loyal following many thousands of kilometers far from South Korea. We'll have a special report for Mexico City. The music has been seeing a meteoric rise. Don't go anywhere. We'll be right back.

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[04:53:01]

SANDOVAL: Tens of thousands of NASCAR fans, they honor the late two time NASCAR cup champion Kyle Busch on Sunday at the Charlotte Motor Speedway and his family was there for that tribute. Busch passed away on Thursday from complications after suffering severe pneumonia that eventually progressed into sepsis. Busch was meant to compete in the Coca Cola 600, which ended with a win for one of his proteges, Daniel Suarez, during a shortened race because of some rainy weather there.

Elsewhere, though, there are some fans of K-pop. The fans of K-pop megastars BTS. They are eagerly anticipating their performance just hours from now at the American Music Awards. And ahead of the show, our Valeria Leon visited a K-pop dance class in Mexico, where the musical genre is really sweeping the country.

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VALERIA LEON, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): 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 and it didn't take long to see why this musical style is so popular.

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

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

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

YESENIA MORALES (through translator): I feel like it's a family because, honestly, this K-pop class doesn't really see age differences the way other academies something do.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Cinco, seis, siete.

LEON (voice-over): 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.

[04:55:07]

CARLA AVILA, STUDENT, K-POP DANCE CLASS (through translator): 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 (voice-over): And according to the school's director, stories like Carla's aren't uncommon.

CRIS DI CARLO, DIRECTOR, K-POP DANCE MEXICO (through translator): For example, people who were physically harming themselves or had certain struggles started getting better after finding K-pop because they hadn't learned how to channel anxiety and they didn't know how to process it. There were cases involving bullying, anorexia, and bulimia. Very delicate situations.

LEON (voice-over): Most students here are between 10 and 20 years old. But age quickly becomes secondary once the music starts.

MULTIPLE SPEAKERS: K-pop dance Mexico.

LEON (voice-over): 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 MALE: Uno, dos, tres, we are BTS.

MULTIPLE SPEAKER: BTS.

CLAUDIA SHEINBAUM, MEXICO PRESIDENT: Welcome. Hello.

LEON (voice-over): 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.

SHEINBAUM (through translator): Would you like to come back to Mexico next year?

MULTIPLE SPEAKERS (through translator): Yes.

LEON (voice-over): Mexico is now Spotify's fifth largest K-pop market. Proof that a soundboard 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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SANDOVAL: And thank you so much for watching. I'm Polo Sandoval in New York. Our coverage continues with CNN "Headline Express" next.

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