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U.S. Launches New Strikes On Iranian Military Site; Israel Launches New Strikes In Southern Lebanon; Five People Trapped In Laos Cave Found Alive; Two Still Missing; Recovery Efforts Resume After Chemical Tank Rupture; U.S. Launches New Strikes on Iranian Military Site; Trump Not Satisfied With Proposed Deal From Iran; U.S. Military Strikes Alleged Drug Boat in Eastern Pacific; Europe's Deadly, Early Heat Wave is Smashing Records; FIFA's Ticket Prices Under Investigation; FIFA Bribery Case Dropped; Atlanta Airport Unveils Nelson Mandela Sculpture; Two Roscosmos Cosmonauts Conduct Spacewalk at ISS; Naomi Osaka Sports Eiffel Tower-themed Dress at Tournament. Aired 2-3a ET

Aired May 28, 2026 - 02:00   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[02:00:38]

KIM BRUNHUBER, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome to all of you watching us around the world. I'm Kim Brunhuber. This is CNN NEWSROOM.

A fragile cease fire seems to be under threat as the U.S. and Iran launch fresh attacks against each other.

Plus, Israel intensifies strikes in Lebanon and orders thousands to evacuate. I'll speak with an expert about what Israel's long-term strategy could be.

Also ahead, celebrations in Laos as researchers -- rescuers reach five of the seven villagers trapped in a narrow flooded cave for over a week.

ANNOUNCER: Live from Atlanta, this is CNN NEWSROOM with Kim Brunhuber.

BRUNHUBER: We begin this hour with Iran's latest retaliation against the U.S. The country's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps says it launched an attack on an American air base. Now, it's not clear which one. They say it's the same base that carried out a new round of strikes in Iran. U.S. official tells CNN the U.S. was targeting a military site near the Strait of Hormuz that was being used to launch attack drones. The official says the move was purely defensive amid ongoing efforts to reach a peace deal.

Here's what President Trump said Wednesday about where the negotiations stand.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Iran is very much intent, they want very much to make a deal, so far they haven't gotten there, we're not satisfied with it, but we will be -- we will be, either that or we'll have to just finish the job. They're negotiating on fumes.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRUNHUBER: Now, his comments come as Iranian state media report that Iran fired warning shots at four ships that tried to pass through the Strait of Hormuz, forcing them to turn around.

CNN's Ivan Watson is following the latest developments in the peace talks.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

IVAN WATSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: It's all behind closed doors. We don't know what the two sides are saying to each other. We hear about it occasionally from perhaps the mediators or from the statements that are coming from both sides, and they both, Tehran and Washington, are contradicting each other.

We've heard Iran saying that no agreement will happen unless tens of billions of dollars worth of frozen Iranian assets will be released, Iran claiming that it is going to maintain some authority over the Strait of Hormuz moving forward, though a spokesperson for Iran's Foreign Ministry has kind of shifted, saying that it's no longer going to ask for tolls for ships to go through.

Meanwhile, we've had President Trump shift from -- you remember when he used to call for unconditional surrender from Iran? He's not saying that anymore, but he's saying that the Strait of Hormuz has to be open, that there's not going to be any exchange of money for concessions on the part of Iran, and then in a strange moment, in a cabinet meeting, he issued a threat against what has been considered an ally, Oman. Take a listen.

TRUMP: The Strait is going to be open to everybody. It's an international waters, nobody is going to control it. We're going to watch over it. We'll watch over it, but nobody's going to control it. That's part of the negotiation that we have.

It's international waters, and Oman will behave just like everybody else who will have to blow them up.

WATSON: Don't know what exactly that's going to mean. One final thought, the Kuwaiti military says that its air defenses were firing at hostile incoming objects in the last couple of hours, a suggestion of how dicey things still are in this oil rich, gas rich region.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRUNHUBER: Israel is stepping up strikes on targets outside of its self-declared security zone in Lebanon. A short time ago, the Israeli military said it hit Hezbollah infrastructure in the city of Tyre. Earlier, Israel issued what appears to be its largest evacuation

warning for the city on the Mediterranean coast. The IDF has been ramping up operations in southern Lebanon in recent days, including more than 150 reported strikes on Hezbollah targets since Tuesday.

For more analysis, we're joined by Fawaz Gerges, Professor of International Relations at the London School of Economics, he also wrote the book The Great Betrayal: The Struggle for Freedom and Democracy in the Middle East, and he is in London.

Good to see you again. Thanks so much for being here with us.

[02:05:02]

So, Prime Minister Netanyahu, he's been very clear about getting a firm grip on southern Lebanon. Do you get the sense that this is an operation with a -- with a clear exit strategy, or you think Israel's digging in for the long haul here?

FAWAZ GERGES, PROFESSOR OF INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS, LONDON SCHOOL OF ECONOMICS: Well, I think it seems to me that Israel has not really learned from its, you know, 40 years military engagement in Lebanon. It started in the 1970s and it ended in 2000 and back to Israel is becoming deeply and deeply entangled in the minefields of Lebanon.

I think what we need to understand about the new offensive, the wider Israeli offensive it came in the aftermath of President Trump talked about a negotiated settlement with Iran and we have seen this kind of escalation twice during the cease fire the first round of the cease fire between Iran and the United States, and now again. Why? Because Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is trying to delink the Israel-Lebanon front from the American-Iranian potential negotiated settlement. He has come under tremendous domestic pressure in Israel because of his failed strategic goals in Iran, and finally Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu faces re-election next month, and his domestic situation is not really quite well.

So, I think deepening his offensive in Lebanon is a kind of really basically going on the offensive in order to face the domestic opposition at home, and tell them, look, we are trying to destroy Hezbollah, to dismantle Hezbollah, to enlarge our self-declared security zone in Lebanon.

BRUNHUBER: So, given that, then I mean, there's supposed to be a cease fire in place between Israel and Lebanon that was extended two weeks ago, and yet here we are. So, what do you expect Hezbollah's response to this will be?

GERGES: You know, Kim, I want to give your, our viewers a kind of glimpse what we're talking about, because I think sometimes when we talk about politics, it's a lot of noise.

Since the second round of war started on the second of March, Israel has killed more than at least 3,000 -- 2,060 Lebanese, including more than 200 children and 300 women, and 130 medics. At least it has injured 9,700 Lebanese and displaced 1.1 million Lebanese. And in return, Hezbollah has killed 23 Israeli soldiers and one defense contract. I mean, I just want your viewers to see 40 -- 24 Israeli soldiers versus 3200 Lebanese, mostly civilians. Israel has raised scores of villages and towns in Lebanon, like what they did in Gaza, and no one really knows what Israel wants. I mean, this kind really forever war.

It's not just about Lebanon, as you and I were talking about, Israel has been striking Gaza, even though there's a cease fire in Gaza. People in Lebanon, and I have many friends and family members, they say, what kind of cease fire? What are you talking about? Israel is bombing the south of Lebanon, the Bekaa Valley, Tyte, Sidon (ph), many places, and I think at the end of the day, what we need to understand is that Israeli prime minister is trying to really basically go on the offensive to escape his domestic basically opposition at home, and also to impress on President Trump that any deal between the United States and Iran does not really cover the Lebanese fraud.

So, it seems to me there is no end inside for the Israel-Hezballah war. In fact, my fear is that any breakthrough on the U.S.-Iran front could see further strategic escalation by Israel in Lebanon, and this tells you about the geopolitical and domestic politics involved in the Israeli-Lebanon.

BRUNHUBER: Given what we've just been seeing in Iran with these attacks going each way, the potential of a deal with Iran seems sort of further than it was maybe a couple of days or a week ago. I wonder in terms of what you said about the link between the Iran situation and what's going on in Lebanon, I mean, we're going to see these direct Israel-Lebanon talks scheduled in Washington next week.

I mean, does what's happening now on the ground kill any chance of progress at that table. I mean, I get the sense that you're quite pessimistic about any chance of anything happening there.

[02:10:06]

GERGES: Well, I think you really -- you put your pulse -- your finger on the pulse of the situation. Iran insists that any deal between the United States and Iran covers all fronts, including Lebanon.

So, at the end of Israel war in Lebanon is a condition for Iran, and what the Israeli prime minister is trying to do, I mean, as a spoiler, is trying to really basically tell the Americans and Iranians, no way, this is my way.

So, already, the American Iranian cease fire is coming under tremendous pressure as a result of increasing tensions and bombings, and in the past few days, really, if you ask me about the U.S.-Iran cease fire, it's on a life support. The two sides are far too apart, despite what President Trump has been saying in the past few days, that the negotiated settlement is largely negotiated. We know nothing is negotiated, and it seems to me what I fear is that even though both sides, the United States and Iran, are trying to manage their escalation, they do not really want all our poor. It seems to me there is a potential endanger for miscalculation between the United States and Iran.

As we have seen last time, Iran retaliated against American bombings of its one drone stationed inside Iran by attacking supposedly an American base in Kuwait, this could easily escalate, and the broader Israeli invasion of Lebanon could also not only complicate any potential deal between the United States and Iran, it could really basically trigger a wider conflict, bringing in the Houthis in Yemen and Iran as well, in order to help their ally Hezbollah in Lebanon.

BRUNHUBER: As always, really appreciate your analysis, Fawaz Gerges, thank you so much.

GERGES: Thanks for having me.

BRUNHUBER: Palestinians say four people are dead after the latest Israeli strikes in Gaza. Israel's military says it hit an apartment building as it struck two Hamas militants on Wednesday. Earlier in the day, Israel said it killed the commander of the group's militant wing, just days after eliminating his predecessor. The newly appointed commander was considered a key planner of the October 7th massacre of Israelis. Israeli strikes have continued, despite a cease fire being in place since October, while the diplomatic efforts have repeatedly stalled, according to multiple sources.

Ukraine is asking the U.S. for help with its air defense systems. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy met with U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal and Congressman Jim Himes in Kyiv on Wednesday. Zelenskyy says Russia is threatening new ballistic missile strikes, calling them Moscow's last major advantage on the battlefield. The regional governor in Odessa reports at least 11 people were injured in latest Russian strikes on Wednesday.

Now, that comes as a new report suggests Ukraine has gained the upper hand in its fight against Russia, at least for now. It finds the war is far from a stalemate, even though neither side is capable of making a decisive strategic move, the report by the Institute for Study of War says Russia's rate of advance is plummeting. It's losing more soldiers to make fewer gains, and Ukraine is gaining more ground than it's losing for the first time in three years.

All right, turning now to Laos, where divers have found five of the seven people trapped in a cave for more than a week, alive and healthy. We have that moment caught on tape. Watch this.

The men were found sitting on a rocky ledge, surrounded by floodwaters. Now rescuers are preparing the group for the difficult extraction process. CNN's Mike Valerio is following developments from Beijing, so Mike, I understand rescuers are hoping to start bringing people out today. Is that right?

MIKE VALERIO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Kim, that's incredible. And you're exactly right. I mean, incredible to hear that news that more than a week after these men were looking for gold in this very isolated part of Laos that they've not only been found alive, five of them, but the latest update that we have from a Thai rescuer who is a veteran of the 2018 Thai soccer team rescue, we're talking about Kengkard Bongkawong, he told our own Kocha Olarn super producer for CNN, who is based in Thailand, "If access in the cave can be opened further, rescuers believe these survivors are physically strong enough to help move themselves out of there with the help of the team."

But that, Kim, is certainly easier said than done. We started to talk about this with Elex Michaelson in the last hour, but we have more details on why this could be extremely difficult.

You know, let's break out our little tape measure here: 23 inches or 60 centimeters. That is one of the smallest entry points for the cave -- for the cave rescuers, and what these five men would have to put themselves through an entrance that essentially I can't fit through.

[02:15:12]

But not only that, we heard from one of the rescuers that in order to get through one of those spaces, you have to exhale, you have to get as much oxygen out of your body as possible to try to squish your organs and squish through that opening, and also take off all of your equipment.

So, not only are the physical demands quite intense of getting their way through about 220 meters of murky waterlogged cave, but also pockets of the cave we've learned within the past couple hours are filled with hydrogen sulfide, which is a toxic chemical that builds up in very deep enclosed spaces, and when it does, it essentially tricks your body into non-efficiently using oxygen, essentially paralyzing your respiratory system, and you're at a risk of dying if you inhale too much of this gas, so more oxygen canisters have to be placed along that route.

So, the point is, Kim, they're hoping to get some of them out today, but it's going to take a very large effort to do so. That's perhaps the understatement of our afternoon in Asia right here, Kim.

BRUNHUBER: You've given us a vivid picture of the challenge ahead. We'll be following this story throughout the day. Mike Valerio in Beijing. Thanks so much.

Still ahead, people are pushing back on the Trump administration's plan for Americans who have been exposed to the Ebola outbreak in Central Africa. Stay with us.

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[02:20:59]

BRUNHUBER: Uganda says it is temporarily closing its border with the Democratic Republic of Congo in an attempt to stop the spread of a growing Ebola outbreak. Uganda has not reported any new cases since Monday, though the government says the total number of contacts with the confirmed cases has increased. The country has reported seven cases associated with the outbreak, including one death.

Meanwhile, the DRC, which is the epicenter of this outbreak, says there are now more than 1000 suspected Ebola cases in the country, with more than 230 suspected deaths. Among those, 121 cases and 17 deaths have been confirmed.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARCO RUBIO, U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE: We cannot and will not allow any cases of Ebola to enter the United States.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRUNHUBER: That was U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio there during a cabinet meeting Wednesday. The Trump administration says it's focused on keeping Ebola out of the U.S. The administration is making plans to send Americans who may have been exposed to the Ebola virus but don't have symptoms to health facilities in Kenya. Officials say the state of the art facility is designed to provide care for Americans who would need to get quickly out of the DRC and quarantine without the risks of a lengthy transport back to the U.S.

The U.S. has its own specialized network of hospitals that are highly equipped to treat Ebola patients, that some experts say would be much better suited to handle the situation. Critics warn the plan could be unethical and illegal. It's also not clear whether the facility in Kenya will also accept other nationalities, which makes some residents wary of the U.S. plan. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I kind of feel like that's a little bit off and not a bit fair for the host, like us being the host, like why would you create a facility within my country and it doesn't serve me. Yet, the same facility is going to host people who are endangering my own life.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRUNHUBER: Search crews are continuing the grim task of recovering nine people presumed dead after an industrial accident in Washington state. At least two people have been confirmed dead after a tank containing hazardous chemicals ruptured at a paper plant on Tuesday. Eight others were injured. The rupture also led to a chemical spill in the Columbia River. Officials are still assessing the impact, but they say there are no public health concerns outside of the plant. Our Nick Watt reports.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NICK WATT, CNN CORRESPONDENT So, what's happening at that plant in Longview, Washington, is no longer a possible rescue operation, it is a recovery operation. Nine workers still missing now presumed dead. Two other workers already confirmed dead. They were among the 10 people taken to the hospital after this accident, suffering from burns, issues with breathing, issues with their eyes. One of those taken to hospital was also a firefighter treated for chemical burns and released.

So, what happened here is there was a tank capacity 900,000 gallons. From that tank flowed about half a million gallons of what they call white liquor. They use that, it's a very, very strong alkaline pH 13 14 extremely caustic. They use it to basically break wood chips down into pulp, that is how potent this stuff is.

So, that half a million gallons released from this tank, and also a fire hydrant was compromised. So, you then had water, so you had water, and this toxic substance slopping around inside this plant at about 7:15 in the morning, Tuesday, just after a shift change.

Now, we've been told that this was a blast, a rupture, a failure. Still unclear exactly how this happened. Federal officials have now launched an investigation.

So, at some points rescuers were met with waste to chest deep water. They were also concerned that tank that was compromised, was actually going to collapse. So overnight things were locked down. At first light, they began again what was a rescue operation that turned in to a recovery operation.

[02:25:09]

Now, this is a small town on the banks of the Columbia River, just across the border from Oregon and Washington, this mill's been around since the 1950s. About 500 people work there, as I say, it's a small town.

So, there will be pretty much everybody in that small town of under 40,000 people will know somebody or will have lost somebody themselves.

So, it is a huge disaster for that little town. And the local representative said that first responders and others, what they've seen are, "Unthinkable horrors".

Now, one of the victims, the first victim to be named, Gilbert Bernal. He was described by his daughter as a one of a kind grandfather. She said on Facebook, I really can't picture our lives without him.

So, the recovery operation goes on. We're told that will be slow and deliberate to keep fire personnel safe and to also treat the remains of the dead with dignity.

Nick Watt, CNN, Los Angeles.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BRUNHUBER: The U.S. and Iran are trading new attacks as the Trump administration pushes for a peace deal. We'll have the latest developments after a short break.

Plus, a climate expert says the heat wave scorching Europe is mind- bogglingly crazy. He joins us live after the break. Please stay with us.

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[02:30:58] BRUNHUBER: The U.S. has launched new attacks against Iran. That's according to a U.S. official who says U.S. forces struck a military site near the Strait of Hormuz. The official says the strikes were purely defensive and aimed at maintaining the fragile ceasefire. Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps says it has already retaliated by targeting an American air base.

It comes after President Trump said he's in no rush to make a peace deal. CNN's Alayna Treene reports.

ALAYNA TREENE, CNN WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Despite the heavy dose of optimism we've heard from President Trump's top officials in recent days, there was far less optimism when the president spoke during his cabinet meeting on Wednesday. Trump seemed eager to try and push back the impressions that some people have that he is overeager to try and strike a deal with Iran.

He also argued that he's not in a rush. He made one comment that he felt the Iranians perhaps believed that they could wait him out, noting that the midterm elections were only a couple months away. Trump, however, said that wasn't the case. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, (R) PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: They thought they were going to outwait me. You know, we'll outwait him. He's got the midterms. I don't care about the midterms. Look what happened last night. That was the prelude to the midterms. People understand that. They know that, very simple, Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TREENE: Now, I think clearly, that is not something many Republicans, particularly those on Capitol Hill, would welcome having the leader of their party say. But I also think it's not overly shocking. The point that the president was trying to make is that he's not being pressured, at least politically, into a deal with Iran, even though, of course, I think it's hard to believe a suggestion that Republicans' viability in the midterm elections is not weighing on him at all.

But look, I think the president made clear that things are still a bit far apart when it comes to this final memorandum of understanding that Washington and Tehran are furiously working to try and finalize. He said, on Wednesday, that he's not satisfied with where things stand and that he's happy to wait to ensure that they have the right deal rather than a bad deal.

And then when it got to the Q&A portion of the cabinet meeting, that's where we learned some other new details as well, one of the biggest, I think, being that he really pushed back heavily on what we heard from Iranian state TV today in their summation of what this MOU looks like. Trump said, essentially, that the Strait of Hormuz cannot be controlled by Iran.

He also pushed back on this short-term potential deal that would have Iran and Oman, in the meantime, work to keep the Strait open, have -- exert some sort of influence over it to ensure that it could return to pre-war levels of commercial travel. Trump essentially said that's a nonstarter and also threatened, in his words, to blow them up. A lot of very extraordinary comments we heard from the president and new threats to some of the United States allies.

Alayna Treene, CNN, the White House.

BRUNHUBER: The U.S. Military is reporting a new strike against an alleged drug boat in the Eastern Pacific. The U.S. Southern Command says intelligence confirmed the vessel was engaged in narco trafficking operations, though no further details were given. The strike killed two men on board. The military says no U.S. Forces were harmed.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

[Foreign Language]

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRUNHUBER: An unprecedented heat wave across France and other countries in Western Europe has pushed dozens of homeless people to protest in Paris. They're demanding more spaces in shelters and emergency housing as the temperatures spiked this week. The high temperatures have broken records not just in France, but also in the U.K., which broke the record for the hottest day in May when temperatures hit 35-degrees Celsius or 95-degrees Fahrenheit on Tuesday.

I want to bring in Peter Thorne, who's a Professor and Director of the ICARUS Climate Research Center. He joins us now from Edenderry, Ireland. Thank you so much for being here with us. So I mentioned the records. I mean, they're not just being broken. They're being smashed by pretty wide margins here. What's driving this?

[02:35:00]

PETER THORNE, PROFESSOR AND DIRECTOR, ICARUS CLIMATE RESEARCH CENTER: So this is the combination of an extreme weather type, which many of these stations have seen before because they've existed for hundred plus years with human-induced climate change, higher emissions of heat-trapping greenhouse gases.

BRUNHUBER: OK, so -- but the more acute situation, this heat dome, I mean explain exactly how that works and what is happening.

THORNE: So normally, over Western Europe, we have winds coming in from the Atlantic, keeping Northwest Europe in summer relatively cool and in winter relatively warm. And what's happening here is the blocking situation, a high pressure is basically sat over, it's sucking up air from Africa and it's keeping the skies clear. There's a lot of sunshine right now in Europe, a lot more than is usual, and it's basically heating and heating and heating, and that heat has nowhere to go and that's what is causing this heat wave. But we've seen this before in the past 100 plus years, it's not broken records to this extent, it's really the human-induced climate change that is making it that much worse.

BRUNHUBER: OK, so explain that for me then, because as you say, I mean we've been seeing this for hundreds of years, but the records being set, in your words, you've said that they're mind-bogglingly crazy. I mean, what is it exactly that we're seeing this week that's surprising you as a scientist?

THORNE: We're seeing records broken at individual stations by five, six degrees centigrade. We're seeing in national records in Ireland, in the U.K., and France smashed by a couple of degrees. We don't expect -- we wouldn't expect this in a normal climate. We would expect records to be broken, yes, but by tenths of a degree, not by whole degrees.

So we're seeing something really, really astounding, but it's not that it's a complete surprise. If you've listened to the scientists for the past 20, 30 years, we've said these will happen and this is the first time, think back to the Pacific Northwest heat wave a few years ago, where again, similarly mind-bogglingly huge numbers, the records have been broken by now (ph).

BRUNHUBER: Yeah, and I mentioned in the introduction, France, I mean several people there have already died from the heat, including some people who were out just exercising. You mentioned the past, I mean two years ago, more than 62,000 people died from heat-related causes across Europe. Do you expect to see something like this again this year?

THORNE: Yes, so the deaths that have been reported are directly attributable deaths, things like people drowning because they're going into water. There will be a far higher number of deaths, excess mortality, because people -- because medically vulnerable, the old, the very elderly, the very young cannot cope with this heat, particularly when you get heat very early in the season, when people are not acclimatized to it.

And Europe for the past couple of weeks before this had been anomalously cold, so this is a real shock to people's systems. This is a huge spike in heat when they're not expecting it, so I expect very large excess mortality, much larger than the reported numbers.

BRUNHUBER: Gosh, yeah, something that will have to be protected against, but you know, we're just not seemingly adapting to all this. I mean, the U.K. Met Office is saying that what used to be a once in a hundred year event is now happening once every 30 years or so. You talked about scientists, I mean, they've been sounding the alarm on this for a while now. But are we prepared as societies for heat at this level? I mean, when you talk to the policymakers about all this, do you get the sense that they actually get the urgency here?

THORNE: They're very, very much starting to get the urgency. I Chair our National Adaptation Committee. We've been saying for years that we need to act to protect citizens from what is coming. If there's one thing good government should do, it is to protect their citizens from harm, and climate is increasingly part of that harm.

BRUNHUBER: Hopefully, we won't see as many deaths this year as we saw those many years ago in terms of the acute response, but certainly in terms of long-term, more needs to be done. Peter Thorne, thank you so much, appreciate it.

THORNE: Thank you.

BRUNHUBER: Football fans have long been grumbling about the soaring cost of World Cup tickets, and now FIFA is facing an investigation. We'll have the details coming up. Please stay with us.

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[02:44:25]

BRUNHUBER: The attorneys general of New York and New Jersey are investigating the sky-high ticket prices for the upcoming World Cup. They've already sent subpoenas for FIFA documents on pricing practices for matches at New Jersey's MetLife Stadium. They're saying fans may have been misled about the location of their seats. CNN's Brynn Gingras picks up the story.

BRYNN GINGRAS, CNN U.S. NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, we've been hearing about how these tickets are so expensive for the World Cup games. But what we're now hearing through these investigations announced is, did basically FIFA violate rules when putting these tickets online allowing for people to buy them?

[02:45:00]

Now one person that I talked to, a lifelong soccer fan, basically says they feel like FIFA pulled a whole bait and switch. He described to me how he waited online the FIFA website to purchase tickets for the World Cup, spent 12 hours online in a queue waiting just to actually purchase tickets, picked two seats next to each other, $515 each, good seats on the side of the pitch. And then when he spent another five minutes to get to the checkout, his ticket confirmation showed completely different seats, seats that are on the opposite side of the stadium he wanted to go to, behind the goal.

So this is the kind of stories that we're hearing about, but also I imagine, these attorneys general are also hearing and wanting to hear more about how this could possibly be, in addition to those high ticket prices. Like I said, it's the New York and New Jersey attorneys general that filed the subpoenas requesting this, some information starting this investigation. But just a couple weeks ago, the attorney general in California sending a formal inquiry as well to FIFA asking for specific details about their ticketing strategy.

Basically, what sort of disclosures are given to people who purchase tickets? What do their maps look like when someone is on their website trying to purchase tickets? So a lot of fact-finding, trying to figure out how this process goes. Unclear if there will be any restitution in this. Certainly, the World Cup starts in just a couple of weeks, so probably not likely before these games start, but maybe afterwards, at least that's what one soccer fan told me, he hopes for.

But I can tell you that we did talk to some fans who are saying, at least somebody is on our side because they do feel like they are getting a bit cheated and losing this game for sure.

Bryn Gingras in New York, CNN.

BRUNHUBER: Meanwhile, the U.S. Department of Justice has dropped a high-profile bribery case involving FIFA. A federal judge dismissed the charges after the DOJ said the case isn't a priority for the Trump administration, and then it doesn't want to put resources towards the prosecution. Former 21st Century Fox Executive, Hernan Lopez, and an Argentine sports marketing company were accused of bribing soccer officials to win media and broadcast rights.

Lopez said he's relieved that a "case they never should have started is over." The decision comes exactly 11 years after the Justice Department launched a corruption case against FIFA figures, which caused a reckoning in football's governing body and the resignation of top officials. And this comes nearly six months after FIFA presented President Trump with its own so-called Peace Prize.

Well, the benefits and drawbacks of artificial intelligence continue to be hotly debated. But in one of Africa's leading sectors, agriculture, the use of A.I. is growing. We take a look in today's Africa Insider.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

AUDREY CHEBET, SENIOR RESEARCH ASSOCIATE, BRITER (voice-over): Across Africa, we're seeing A.I. turn agriculture from a field that was, you know, reactive to one that's proactive and also in a system that's been historically fragmented, we're seeing A.I. help make decisions earlier, faster and also with more precision.

CHEBET: We have in South Africa company like AIRobotics that uses drone and state-led imagery to look at crops on a farm and detect diseases early and sometimes they can go down to a single leaf and save basically a season's harvest.

In Ghana, farmers are able to get a digital mentor to help them assess what diseases are affecting their crops and therefore, able to handle this different climatic challenges.

[Foreign Language]

ALLOYSIUS ATTAH, CEO & CO-FOUNDER, FARMERLINE: We've built a solution called Darli AI. It is an A.I. agronomist that speaks about 43 African languages. It has ability to send messages to farmers. It has ability to receive messages from farmers and answer questions in the native language of farmers using voice.

So a rural farmer that is in a rural village without internet access using a feature phone can place a phone call, like a 9-1-1 for farmers, and get access to information about the weather, access to how to plant, and just use that information. The original intention is to also become a call center agent and realized very quickly that if a person calls, our A.I. transcribed that like, you know, to English, then goes to LLM, pulls back the answer and translates it back to English and then to local language. The latency is just like 10 to 30 seconds.

So we know very quickly that that's not going to work for that use case. So like, we know that A.I. is -- today, is great for being a translator versus being a call center agent, right?

So for us, it is just like knowing the limitations and embracing them, and also being very transparent about the people that we are working with as well about the strength, but also the limitations of the system.

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The other companies like, in Ghana Natural Language project, there is Lelapa AI in South Africa. They -- like those guys did -- they were doing cool research on A.I. before it became cool. We took a lot of inspiration from them, we work with some of them as well. Those are pioneers in this space, so we stand on their shoulders, the A.I. research, because the way we think of language is not actually going to be a moat, but it's going to take collaboration for us. You reach the 7,000 languages that are spoken in Africa by a billion people, so it's going to take all of us working together.

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BRUNHUBER: Well, just ahead, can artificial intelligence help to recreate the genius of France's greatest playwright? Our Melissa Bell explains, stay with us.

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BRUNHUBER: The world's busiest airport has a new attraction to welcome visitors. Atlanta Mayor, Andre Dickens was on hand for the ribbon-cutting, unveiling a sculpture honoring Nelson Mandela. South Africa gifted the statue of its former president to Atlanta in recognition of its role as a global gateway. Wednesday's ceremony coincided with the airport's "Gates to Goals" initiative, providing travelers with immersive experiences ahead of this year's World Cup.

Playwright, Actor and Poet, Moliere is considered one of the greatest writers in French and world literature. He lived and died in the 1600s, but now, artists are trying to recreate his genius using artificial intelligence. CNN's Melissa Bell has more.

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MELISSA BELL, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The final touches as actors prepare for the premiere of the play the French playwright, Moliere, might have written in 1674 had he lived a few more months.

BELL: It is here in the splendor of the Opera Royal at Versailles that the play will be put on tonight, in this very classical theatre, where Moliere himself came and acted in some of his later plays. 600 people tonight will be able to decide what they think of this newest play in the style of Moliere.

BELL (voice-over): For two years, more than a hundred people, scientists, historians and thespians have worked with A.I., training it and correcting it every step of the way.

HUGO CASELLES-DUPRE, MEMBER OF OBVIOUS (AI ARTISTS): Our vision is to use A.I. in a way that we could discover new things about Moliere and to make people enjoy Moliere in a different way, and to see that we can reconciliate art creation and history study with this new technology.

BELL: And tonight then, the important thing is to see the reaction, I guess, of the 600 people who will come to watch.

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PIERRE-MARIE CHAUVIN, VICE PRESIDENT, THE SORBONNE: Yeah, that's really the main verdict because we know that all the process, creative process, scientific process was really stimulating for everyone, for researchers, for artists. But we don't know how public -- how the public, how the audience will receive it.

BELL (voice-over): While the Oscars now officially ban A.I.-written scripts from contention, France's theatre world has no such rule, but many remain skeptical. Like the Philosopher, Eric Sadin, who says that given how seriously generative A.I. threatens artistic creation, there is a moral duty not only to avoid these systems, but to categorically oppose their use.

Those behind this project, though, say that it has been a profoundly human endeavor, simply improved by A.I.

[Foreign Language]

BELL (voice-over): Thanks to A.I., the performance is as close to what you might have seen here in the late 17th century. The costumes, the set, brought back in time, even the accents the actors use.

[Foreign Language]

BELL (voice-over): Really remarkable to a modern ear, and as for the emotion --

[Foreign Language]

(APPLAUSE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Very moved because I felt that I saw for the first time, a new play from Moliere, in this very same place where the king was discovering the first play.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's great. We just -- we have been laughing and so on, as if it was a real Moliere. BELL (voice-over): A little piece of the past brought back to life, thanks to the technology of the future.

Melissa Bell, CNN, Versailles.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BRUNHUBER: Two Russian cosmonauts took part in a spacewalk outside the International Space Station on Wednesday. The expedition commander and flight engineer picked up scientific equipment that had been placed outside the ISS for research, and they worked to install new hardware for a solar radiation experiment. This was the first spacewalk for the Russian Space Agency, Roscosmos, this year.

Four-time Grand Slam tennis star, Naomi Osaka, surprised crowds at the French Open in Paris with this outfit, a shiny gold tennis dress designed by Nike. Osaka says it reminds her of the lights sparkling on the Eiffel Tower at night. She also says it's a nod to France and its famous couture fashion.

The tennis champ added she was concerned officials would kick her off the court because of how reflective the dress was, so she had multiple backup outfits.

All right, thanks so much for watching. I'm Kim Brunhuber in Atlanta. "CNN Newsroom" continue with my colleague, Polo Sandoval, in New York.

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