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U.S., Iran Reached a Tentative Deal, Trump Has Yet to Approve the Plan; Blue Origin Rocket Exploded at the Launch Pad During a Test. Aired 3-4a ET

Aired May 29, 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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BEN HUNTE, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, wherever you are in the world. You are now in the "CNN Newsroom" with me, Ben Hunte in Atlanta, and it is so good to have you with me. Coming up on the show.

A tentative deal is struck between the U.S. and Iran, and now it remains to be seen if President Donald Trump will give his approval.

An explosion on the launch pad, the impact that the Blue Origin mishap will have on next steps for space exploration.

And rescue workers are hoping the weather will allow them to extract five men from a cave in Laos.

UNKNOWN (voice-over): Live from Atlanta, this is "CNN Newsroom" with Ben Hunte.

HUNTE: Welcome.

Welcome.

We are learning that the U.S. has reached a tentative agreement with Iran.

It is now down to just a couple of sticking points. But Vice President J.D. Vance says it is hard to say whether President Trump will now sign off on it. U.S. officials say the potential deal would include reopening the Strait of Hormuz and lifting the U.S. blockade on Iran's ports.

It would also set off 60 more days of negotiation to address Iran's nuclear program. Iranian state media, citing unnamed sources close to the negotiating team, is reporting that the text of the proposed agreement, quote, "has not yet been finalized or made definitive."

CNN's Alayna Treene is following the latest developments for us from the White House.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) ALAYNA TREENE, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: U.S. officials that my colleague Kevin Liptak and I have spoken with say that there has been a tentative agreement that has been reached on this memorandum of understanding between Washington and Tehran, essentially a short-term framework that would then trigger another 60 days of negotiations on this entire nuclear deal.

Now, what would actually be in this framework, as we understand it in its latest form, is, one, there would be an agreement to immediately reopen the Strait of Hormuz to pre-war levels. And in return, the United States would get rid of its blockade on Iranian ports. They would also have a commitment from the Iranian side not to develop a nuclear weapon.

But the thorniest issues, we're told, still need to be worked out. And that's actually expected to happen on the other side in that 60-day period, where they really get into the nitty-gritty of what this more permanent, longer-lasting deal could look like.

That includes, of course, one of the biggest issues that has been, you know, an obsession of Donald Trump's, one, the enforcement mechanism to ensure that when Iran says they would not create a nuclear weapon, how does the United States and the Trump administration hold them to their word? The other, of course, being what happens with the highly enriched uranium in Iran's possession.

Now, I will say, from the conversations I've had with Trump officials today, they are optimistic about where things stand. But as always, it's hard to know whether or not that optimism is really going to last. And, of course, there has been skepticism, because, one, President Donald Trump has not yet signed off on this agreement.

And as far as we know, the supreme leader of Iran hasn't either. Now, we did hear from the vice President, J.D. Vance, Thursday evening when he was getting off a plane from his trip to Colorado. Listen to what he said.

J.D. VANCE, U.S. VICE PRESIDENT: I think it's hard to say exactly when or if the President is going to sign the MOU. We're going back and forth on a couple of language points.

I do think that we've made a lot of progress here. It's very clear that I think the Iranians, they want a deal.

TREENE: So he said he can't guarantee that they're going to get there. He also argued that he doesn't know if the President is going to sign this or when he would sign this memorandum of understanding. But, again, optimism from him as well. So we really have to see where this all ends up.

And, as always, any sort of change from either the United States or Iran, and particularly their leaders, could upend this entire state of play and progress. So we'll be watching closer to see whether there's any movement and whether or not the President Donald Trump, feels closer to wanting to sign his approval off on this.

Alayna Treene, CNN, the White House.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HUNTE: Let's go to Mina Al-Oraibi, editor in chief at "The National." She's joining us live now from London. Thank you for being with me, I appreciate it.

We are hearing U.S. officials say they're very close to a deal with Iran that could extend the ceasefire and reopen the Strait of Hormuz. But we have also seen fresh sanctions, military incidents and accusations of violations. How fragile is this process right now, and what could still derail it?

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MINA AL-ORAIBI, EDITOR-IN-CHIEF, "THE NATIONAL": Hi, Ben. Indeed, it is fragile.

We've seen over the last just couple of days Iran's strike at Kuwait, the U.S. strike at Iran, even though the U.S. has said no drone was downed over Iran.

Iran claims that it downed a drone coming in to attack one of its facilities. Bandar Abbas was also struck. This was all in the last three days.

So there is both military activity, but of course there is continued concern about the Strait of Hormuz not only being blocked, but Iran making statements saying that they would still have some sort of control. The sticking points publicly seem to be very much there, especially on the issue of the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz in international waters.

We've heard from American officials, including Vice President J.D. Vance saying that the agreement is somewhere that President Trump would be in a position to accept it. And he's made very clear that the Strait of Hormuz has to be absolutely open.

So it's fragile not only because of the activity that's happening on the ground, but also because they seem to still be at a distance. However, there is incredible diplomacy going on in the region.

There's also the foreign minister of Pakistan in Washington today. So we'll have to see where those talks go. And let's also keep in mind that this is an agreement for further negotiations.

This is not going to be the final agreement that things to a point that actually can get us to a lasting ceasefire or a peaceful resolution. This is to give us 60 days for further negotiations to come to a more comprehensive deal. That, of course, has to include the nuclear program and the opening of the Strait of Hormuz.

HUNTE: Well, let's talk about what could potentially happen within that negotiation period, because one apparent red line for Washington is the freedom of navigation through the Strait of Hormuz. Do you think there is any realistic compromise there or is that issue completely non-negotiable?

AL-ORAIBI: It is non-negotiable that the Strait of Hormuz is completely open. This is an issue not, of course, just for the U.S. and the Gulf countries, but globally.

We've heard countries from as far as Singapore through into Europe all making it very clear that they cannot accept the Strait of Hormuz being subjected to a toll not only because of the realities on the ground, that 20 percent, as we've said several times on this program, 20 percent of the world's energy comes through the Strait of Hormuz, but it would set a very dangerous precedent for waterways all over the world.

And so it cannot be acceptable that anything other than a full freedom of navigation coming back into the Strait of Hormuz. Iranians, of course, have discovered a very powerful weapon that they want to be able to use, and so they will negotiate very hard to have some sort of control.

They were trying to pull Oman into this. The Omanis have made assurances that they did not plan to be part of a toll with Iran over the Strait of Hormuz. That's an important indicator not only for the U.S., but also for the region.

HUNTE: Let's talk about the markets as well, because the oil markets do seem to be betting that diplomacy will win out here, with prices falling sharply on reports of a possible agreement. Do you think the investors are getting ahead of themselves there?

AL-ORAIBI: The markets have been very interesting in the last two and a half months in terms of how they've reacted. I mean, clearly, the fact that this seems to be the most serious point of coming to a negotiated settlement over the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz and the statements from the U.S. that they will not accept any sort of closure on the Strait of Hormuz has meant that prices can ease.

As to whether they're getting ahead of themselves, let's not forget there was hundreds of reporters heading to Pakistan expecting that there would be direct negotiations only a few weeks ago, and that didn't happen. So anything is possible at this point.

HUNTE: It is unclear how a tentative deal with Iran could affect the conflict in Lebanon, where Israel is escalating its military campaign. An Israeli source says the IDF targeted a Hezbollah missile unit commander in Beirut on Thursday, marking the first strike in Lebanon's capital in weeks.

The United Nations says it is deeply alarmed by the latest wave of Israeli strikes following one of the deadliest days since a fragile ceasefire took effect last month. Lebanese officials say at least 34 people were killed and 77 others injured in Israeli strikes on Wednesday.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says he has directed the military to take more territory in Gaza. He spoke about it at a conference in the occupied West Bank on Thursday. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BENJAMIN NETANYAHU, ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER (through translator): Right now, we are tightening our grip on Hamas.

Yes, we are now in 60 percent of the territory in the Gaza Strip. We were at 50 percent, we moved to 60 percent. My directive is to move to, take it step by step.

First of all, 70. Let's start with that. We are tightening our grip on them from every direction, and we will deal with the remnants.

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HUNTE: Well, under the October ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas, Israeli forces withdrew to a demarcation line known as the Yellow Line, which encompassed roughly 53 percent of Gaza. Hamas accuses Israel of moving the line, saying this is an explicit and ongoing undermining of the ceasefire agreement.

CNN's Oren Liebermann is in Jerusalem with more on Israel's plans for Gaza and other developments in the Middle East.

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OREN LIEBERMANN, CNN JERUSALEM BUREAU CHIEF: Major developments here when it comes to both Gaza and Lebanon.

On Gaza, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that he has directed the Israeli military to seize 70 percent of Gaza's territory. Now, in terms of how much land that is, it's not a big change from what Israel already controls. According to maps distributed by the Israeli military to humanitarian aid organizations late last month, Israel already controls some 64 percent of Gaza.

Now Netanyahu says he's told the army to push past that and take 70 percent of Gaza, and he suggested that more might even be possible. Hamas has said this is a blatant violation of the ceasefire agreement as Israel takes more and more of the territory. The agreement itself gave Israel about 53 percent, but Israel was supposed to withdraw gradually from that territory as an international security force came in to secure the land.

That international security force is nowhere to be seen, and during that time, Israel has not only carried out near daily strikes in Gaza, but has taken more and more of the territory, and that pushes some 2 million Palestinians into an ever-shrinking part of the shattered enclave.

Meanwhile, in Lebanon, the Israeli military has pushed deeper and carried out more strikes. Israel carried out its first strike in weeks on the capital city of Beirut. An Israeli source tells CNN that Israel was targeting a commander of Hezbollah's missile unit. The last time Israel carried out a strike in Beirut was on May 6th,

when Israel targeted the commander of Hezbollah's elite Radwan force. So you see it's a fairly rare occasion for Israel to strike in the Lebanese capital of Beirut, and that's because the U.S. and President Donald Trump have essentially restricted Israel from doing so, as they try to push forward a diplomatic track between Israel and Lebanon.

But in the absence of strikes on Beirut, Israel has expanded its strikes in southern Lebanon, including the cities of Tyre and Nabataea, as well as in the Beqaa Valley. Israel says it's going after more and more Hezbollah infrastructure sites and Hezbollah militants.

Meanwhile, we have seen ongoing and continued barrages of explosive drones that Hezbollah has launched towards Israeli forces, both in southern Lebanon and northern Israel. Despite what's happening in terms of the conflict and the ceasefire that's almost impossible to see, the White House is set to host at the Pentagon representatives from the Israeli and Lebanese military on Friday.

As they try to move forward with a diplomatic track, they have had three direct meetings between ambassadors from Israel and Lebanon as the White House pushes on that diplomacy and tries to get to a broader ceasefire agreement.

But from what we see now, that is very difficult to see.

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HUNTE: Now to a shocking sight at Cape Canaveral. A Blue Origin rocket blew up on a launch pad about six hours ago during a ground test.

We are told that everyone is OK, no casualties, but look at that. Wow.

But the New Glenn rocket that was supposed to be part of lunar missions won't be going anywhere. Blue Origin is calling this an anomaly, which is space speak for an explosion or mishap.

A space futures professor told CNN this is the largest explosion that she can recall at that facility and she explained what it means for future missions.

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LAURIE LESHIN, PROF. OF SPACE FUTURES, ARIZONA STATE UNIVERSITY: This was during a test. So what happens is they put fuel onto the rocket and they hold down the rocket really tight and they fire the engine. And it seems that there was a problem when they were firing those first stage engines and a massive explosion ensued.

This is going to be a setback for sure for Blue Origin's plans and for NASA's plans potentially, because Blue Origin is a key partner in the next set of Artemis missions, which are ultimately designed to get our crew down to the surface of the moon. So there will be a formal investigation, the FAA has already been contacted and will be involved in that investigation and will have to be involved in understanding root cause and in making sure that they would clear that rocket for future launch.

So that will start right away. And what that means is that launch site is going to be locked down for a while.

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HUNTE: Two people are tending to their wounds after a drone struck an apartment building in Romania during a Russian attack on a nearby port in Ukraine.

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Romania's defense military says it happened during Russian strikes overnight. The Ukrainian port is about 65 kilometers away from the Romanian town. A CNN affiliate in Romania says the drone hit the apartment building's roof.

Russian drones and missiles have repeatedly breached the airspace of NATO members in Europe, including Romania. The country has seen at least 28 such incidents, including one that forced it to scramble fighter jets.

All right, specialized divers begin an arduous rescue of five men who have been trapped deep inside a flooded cave for more than a week now. We'll have a look at the challenges ahead next on CNN. See you in a minute.

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HUNTE: Welcome back.

Rescue workers hope they'll be able to begin bringing five men trapped in a cave in a remote part of Laos back up to the surface, that's in the coming hours. The group had been searching for gold deposits when flash flooding trapped them more than 250 meters inside the cave system, that was nearly a week ago now. Crews have been pumping floodwaters out of the cave in hopes that they can walk the men out to safety.

Well, the man with the answers about what's happening next to these individuals is Mike Valerio, and he's joining us now with more. Mike, what is the latest?

MIKE VALERIO, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Benny, I'll tell you, we got a text message from one of the leaders of this rescue. We're talking about Mr. Boncombe Luanglath. He's the President of the Laos People's Volunteer Association.

And he tells us this, that "there's a chance the five men could be brought out today, but it will depend on their physical condition. And the good news is that the water level inside has dropped significantly after pumping." So let's just break that down a little bit.

You know, the name of the game had been trying to get as much water out of that cavern system as possible with the theory that these five men were found alive and with enough soft food, they could potentially summon up enough energy with no water in that cavern system to find their way out again with the assistance of these incredible cave divers who have now come from as far as France, Indonesia, Thailand, we know of Malaysia as well, a new contingent arriving today.

I think what is notable though, is the consideration that there are pockets of hydrogen sulfide, which is something we just found out about yesterday. And hydrogen sulfide, it happens when you have caves that don't have that much access to oxygen to break down organic components and it essentially is a compound that makes it inefficient for your body to process oxygen and slowly starts to shut down your respiratory system. Not a great situation to have.

So what the cave rescuers are trying to do is have enough oxygen tanks, we're talking about tanks that are like 40 liters big, through different portions of this cavern so that if oxygen levels start to diminish that these five men who are, you know, not in the best of shape can go to these oxygen tanks and get the help that they need.

But, you know, when we're looking at these pictures, like this one that's on the screen right now, with the rescuers having to contort themselves, you know, they are getting food, they're getting soft food. But when you think of being weakened from last Wednesday up until a week when they were found, you know, it's still an open question of how much physical stamina and contorting they're going to be able to do, which is why getting as much water out of there as possible is the primary objective here.

We also want to note, Benny, you know, we've been talking about there were seven people who are missing total. No word on the two other people. There are five who are on that ledge waiting for the go to get out of there, but the rescue team says that they are remapping parts of the cave in hopes of finding those remaining two people, Benny.

HUNTE: Okay, so a bit of a mixed bag there. Some good news potentially to come.

For now, Mike Valerio, thanks so much. Give us the latest when you get it. We'll see you in a bit.

Okay, still ahead, after growing backlash, a Kenyan court puts the brakes on a U.S.-backed plan to set up an Ebola quarantine facility. See you in a moment.

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HUNTE: Welcome back, I'm Ben Hunte. Let's take a look at today's top stories.

U.S. officials are confirming that American and Iranian negotiators are closing in on a peace deal. The tentative agreement would see the Strait of Hormuz reopen. It would also kick off 60 more days of negotiation on Tehran's nuclear program, President Trump has not signed off on it yet, and neither has Iran's supreme leader.

A Blue Origin nuclear rocket has exploded during a ground test at Cape Canaveral. The company is calling this an anomaly. Blue Origin founder Jeff Bezos said all personnel are accounted for and that it's too early to know what went wrong, but he's vowing to, quote, "rebuild whatever needs rebuilding and get back to flying."

Rescue workers are hoping for a break in the weather so they can start to bring five men out from a remote cave in Laos. They have been trapped underground for nearly a week now. Crews are pumping water out of the cave to clear a path to safety for the men.

A high court in Kenya has suspended plans for the U.S. to open an Ebola quarantine facility in that country. The judge ruled late on Thursday that Kenya is also not allowed to admit anyone exposed to or infected by Ebola under the planned agreement with the U.S. until a legal challenge plays out in the courts.

The Trump administration was planning to open a 50 bed quarantine unit in Kenya for those who do not show any symptoms instead of bringing them back to the U.S.

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U.S. CDC officials also disagreed with the Trump administration's course of action and in fact advised against it. Kenyan doctors had warned of the risks of introducing Ebola exposure into a country that has reported no cases as of Thursday. The outbreak centered in the Democratic Republic of Congo is believed to have caused at least 238 deaths and more than 1000 suspected cases so far.

Well earlier I spoke with Dr. Krutika Kuppalli before all of these latest developments, she is an Associate Professor of Medicine in the Division of Infectious Diseases and School of Public Health at University of Texas Southwestern. I asked her about the reasoning behind that proposed U.S. Ebola facility in Kenya.

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DR. KRUTIKA KUPALLI, ASSOCIATE PROF. OF MEDICINE, DIVISION OF INFECTIOUS DISEASES, UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS SOUTHWESTERN-SCHOOL OF PUBLIC HEALTH: It's really unclear why they have decided to stand up this facility in Kenya after the 2014 West Africa outbreak. The U.S. invested billions of dollars in facilities here to help care for persons that have what we call high consequence infectious diseases. So Ebola would be one of those things.

So it really is unclear why they are doing this and the ability to stand something up that has effective biocontainment capacities in a few days seems very unclear. HUNTE: Well let's talk a bit more about that because many experts have

questioned whether a new Ebola treatment facility can be created quickly while maintaining the highest standards of care and safety. Tell me how challenging it is to build and operate a facility that is capable of treating severe Ebola cases like this.

KUPALLI: Yes it is really complicated. You have to have appropriate infrastructure. You have to have isolation rooms for persons who may have been exposed or also those who are sick.

Probably most difficult would be to make sure that you have the appropriate laboratory capacity and also the appropriate waste management capacity. So trying to do this in a couple of days really does not seem like a good idea when again we have the infrastructure here in the United States and have safely repatriated Americans who had Ebola in 2014.

HUNTE: At the same time Secretary Rubio says the U.S. cannot and will not allow Ebola cases into the country. But critics do know that the U.S. has spent years like you said investing in specialized containment units and treatment networks. What do you make of that debate?

KUPALLI: Well so it is interesting to hear Secretary Rubio say that because in 2014 he did say that the U.S. had the ability to care for these patients at home and so now this seems to be a departure from what he said in 2014.

That being said again I think that I understand why they want to protect the United States from Ebola but if you look back to 2014 every single person that we repatriated from West Africa who had Ebola they all survived and no one went on to infect anyone else. So when you do this in an appropriate controlled setting this is a safe thing to do.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNTE: A blistering heat wave has been scorching Western Europe for days now but some may get a break from the brutal temperatures very soon. We have the latest forecast for you. See you in a moment.

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HUNTE: Welcome back. Here are your business headlines.

The U.S. is going through its stockpiles of oil and gasoline at a rapid pace as the war of Iran drags on. Federal data shows inventories of crude oil, diesel and other energy products are at their lowest seasonal level since May 2003. Meanwhile gasoline stockpiles fell last week to the lowest level for the month of May since 2014.

For the third time in less than a month a South Korean computer chip company has joined the ranks of the exclusive $1 trillion club. S.K. Hynix is now one of the few companies on the planet that has a market cap of $1 trillion, its rise comes as the semiconductor industry is experiencing a boom sparked by the expanded use of A.I. products. The other members of that exclusive club are Samsung Electronics and Micron of the U.S.

Restaurants in Italy are not legally required to serve customers plain tap water, that is according to the country's Supreme Court. It ruled that a five-star hotel broke no laws when it told a customer they would have to buy water at about eight bucks a bottle. The guest had argued that access to water was a fundamental right.

People across Western Europe have been sweltering under extremely high temperatures. New records have been set in several cities this week and by the weekend things are expected to cool down in parts of France. CNN meteorologist Allison Chinchar has the forecast for us.

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ALLISON CHINCHAR, CNN METEOROLOGIST (voice-over): An early blast of heat is making late May in Europe feel like the dog days of August.

A powerful heat dome which traps hot air over a region like a lid on a pot broiled parts of the continent this week sending temperatures 10 to 15 degrees Celsius higher than what's for this time of year. Tourists tried to make the best of it.

NIMA GHESHLAGHI, GERMAN TOURIST: Theoretically it should be cooler than this but unfortunately we are seeing this global climate change happening in real life.

CHINCHAR (voice-over): The high heat is expected to continue in Spain and Portugal through the weekend capping off a week of extremes across the continent.

RUBEN DEL CAMPO, SPANISH WEATHER AGENCY (through translator): In Western Europe there has been a spell of very high temperatures not only in Spain but also in Portugal, our neighboring country which has also reached 38 to 39 degrees Celsius. In France temperatures have also exceeded 33 degrees Celsius. In the U.K. a milestone has been reached for the first time since records began temperatures have hit 35 degrees Celsius somewhere in the British Isles.

CHINCHAR (voice-over): That was on Tuesday when the U.K. had its hottest day ever recorded in May but some areas are still struggling from the effects of the high heat. Bottled water was handed out in emergency stations in Kent England because thousands of people were without tap water due to high demand.

But there's a cool down expected in parts of France like Paris which for much of the week was sizzling above 30 degrees Celsius. By Sunday those temps are finally expected to drop but workers in Bordeaux in southwest France where temperatures surpassed those in the capital say it's been brutal to be outside. HENRI VISSE, FRENCH ROAD WORKER (through translator): It was very difficult there was the heat from the engines, the heat from the equipment and no air so naturally we made more stops we took more breaks.

CHINCHAR (voice-over): Summer hasn't even officially begun yet but forecasters say it's an early indication of what's to come. Spain's weather agency is warning of possible dangers ahead saying the brush on the ground could quickly dry out igniting yet another deadly fire season.

Alison Chinchar, CNN.

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HUNTE: And with that that's all I've got for you, thanks for joining me and the team. I'm Ben Hunte in Atlanta, I will see you at the same time tomorrow but there is still so much happening all over the world so stick with our teams for the latest as it happens.

"World Sport" is next, then there's more news after that. See you in a bit.

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