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Two Men Survived from the Massive China-Nepal Flooding, Immediately Taken to Hospital After Rescue; Vance Unknown When Will the Iran War Ends; Beyonce Re-Releases Sophomore Album in Time for her 45th Birthday. Aired 3-4a ET

Aired September 04, 2026 - 03:00   ET

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

[03:00:00]

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UNKNOWN (voice-over): This is CNN Breaking News.

BEN HUNTE, CNN ANCHOR: Hello and welcome. I'm Ben Hunte, in Atlanta. Let's get right to our breaking news.

We begin with dramatic and hopeful news in Nepal. More than a week after the Himalayan region was devastated by a massive flood that killed hundreds of people. Rescuers cheered as two men were rescued after being trapped for nine days.

Local officials said voices were heard from inside one of the tunnels of a hydropower plant that was hit by the floods. It is unclear how many are still in the tunnel.

Prior to this, around 900 workers were believed to be missing at various hydropower projects in the area. Rescuers resorted to digging by hand to get through all of the debris. Here is what a Nepali Major General had to say about the rescue efforts.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAJ. GEN. ANUP JUNG THAPA, HEAD OF MILITARY OPERATIONS: We pushed everything we had. You're absolutely right. Everything we had.

So remember I said earlier, first few hours we were not taking out food because even the minutes that it takes to load extra food, unload them, find people to give it to, that would take away from somebody's life saving. So the first 72 hours was completely, you're focusing on saving lives.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNTE: Let's bring in CNN's Gage Goulding who's following the story for us from Seoul, South Korea. Good to see you, sir.

This seems like a huge moment and it is potentially a positive moment as well from this awful tragedy. What's the latest you can give us? GAGE GOULDING, CNN CORRESPONDENT: You know, you really paint the

picture beautifully there, Ben, because you talk about a tragedy yet you have this beautiful silver lining amidst this tragedy, you know, for days, I mean, nine days really. It's just been bad news after bad news.

And now there's just this heroic, incredible rescue with this incredible story of survival. These two men trapped underground for nine days, not only finding the willpower to survive, but then answering the call whenever we understand that rescue workers yelled into this part of the tunnel that they were at and you can see this is the moment that they're being rescued, that they finally met them.

And the story goes they heard voices and then whenever these voices from inside called back, they said, don't worry, we are rescuing you. I mean, it's literally straight out of a movie is what it sounds like, but it's just absolutely incredible.

The fact that they are finally able to get to these people and you can see the situation, the setup, where they spent the last nine days in this dark, cramped tunnel filled with debris. And this is the Trishuli 3A hydropower plant. This is where we're told that 42 workers could possibly be trapped or they're unaccounted for, at least in that exact area there.

And this is the moment that they're being pulled from the ground. We understand that one is a 30-year-old mechanical foreman. The other is a 45-year-old mechanical supervisor, both taken to hospitals in the nearby capital city.

But, I mean, the rescue here is just absolutely incredible. I've been talking about this quote that we got from an Indian Army colonel a few days ago. He was explaining that after 48 hours trapped under the ground in these kind of situations, you begin hallucinating.

And then he went on to say, quote, "but there have been miracles." And this is just that, Ben. This is a miracle, the fact that these guys were able to survive underground for that long.

Now the question, though, is what about the other 40 or so people that are trapped under there? Where are they, and are they going to be able to be rescued as well, Ben?

HUNTE: Yes, indeed. As you just said, our initial reporting did say that the rescuers heard many voices in this area. So how likely is it that we could be seeing more rescues soon?

GOULDING: You know, I think they're working around the clock to try to get to them.

Obviously, it's taken a significant amount of time to get to the tunnels. I've kind of divvied this up into, like, two different operations, if you will. There's the operation of trying to get to the entrance to the tunnels, right?

You know, there's no infrastructure, there's no bridges. They have to actually work their way there, get to the tunnels. And then it's, okay, once you're in the tunnels, there's water, there's debris, there's mud that's being described as, quote, "tunnels are filled with liquid-like mud."

There's videos of rescue crews using rafts to move through these tunnels. They're crawling to displace their weight. So it's just all these different obstacles after obstacles.

So, you know, to answer your question, you know, plainly, I don't think it's going to be an easy operation. But the hope is that this is finally groundwork to get to these trapped people.

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There's one really interesting part here, geologists telling us earlier today, that they had to blow up rocks the size of cars. That way they could get through the tunnel and eventually get to these people.

So, I mean, it's a tumultuous task. It's a very incredibly large task. But, you know, the hope is that they'll be able to get to these people then.

HUNTE: Okay. CNN's Gage Goulding, who has been following the Nepal story for us. Thank you very much, sir, I appreciate it.

U.S. Vice President J.D. Vance says he cannot provide a timeline for when the war with Iran might end, including whether that might come before the midterm elections in November. They're coming up.

Speaking during a White House news conference on Thursday, Vance suggested instead it was up to Tehran to end the conflict that began with joint U.S. and Israeli airstrikes on Iran six months ago. The Vice President pushed back on even calling the conflict a war. That is, of course, despite three consecutive days this week when the U.S. and Iran exchanged fire.

CNN's Kaitlan Collins asked him all about it.

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KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN CHIEF WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: In terms of the war and the timeline, given this administration has put timelines out there before, what you just said about no negotiations happening with Iran, will this war be over by the time of the midterm elections?

J.D. VANCE, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: Well, Kaitlan, again, I don't, I wouldn't call it a war. Right now there is no active shooting. I recognize there have been places where this has flared up.

Major combat operations, again, major combat operations lasted for about six weeks. And since then, we destroyed, of course, their nuclear facilities with midnight hammer.

With epic theory, we destroyed their defense industrial base for producing weapons and also a lot of their conventional military. And then we made it harder for them to rebuild that nuclear program.

But when you ask when will this end, you're asking me a question like when will the Iranians stop shooting at ships?

I think the reality is I don't know the answer to that question. You'd have to ask the Iranians.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNTE: Meanwhile in Iran, mourners held a funeral on Thursday for victims of a U.S. airstrike that reportedly struck a wedding party near the Strait of Hormuz on Tuesday. Iranian authorities say at least four people were killed, and that includes a child, and nearly 70 were wounded in the strike.

The U.S. Vice President said on Thursday the administration is investigating that incident. Vance declined to rule out that civilians were killed while insisting the military never targets civilians in combat.

Well, CNN's Paula Hancocks is tracking developments in the region for us and joins us now from Abu Dhabi. It's good to see you.

Can you just get to where the fact is the war that we're seeing at the moment is a war. We are seeing it as a war, we've been seeing conflict earlier this week. What does this mean now? What's the latest?

PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Ben, from what we've been hearing from the U.S. Vice President, it is fairly clear that the White House would like to put this on the back burner, at least when it comes to speaking publicly about it. We've heard from President Trump as well on very similar sentiments.

There is at this point a cycle of a familiar pattern, if you like. We see violence, we then see calm, we then see economic pressure, then we see diplomacy. And this has really been going for some time now.

And there doesn't appear to be a clear way for this to be broken. In fact, we heard from two U.S. officials just about 24 hours ago that there was an expectation that what we saw this week when it came to what J.D. Vance called a flare-up in violence, but what we saw as significant U.S. strikes along the Strait of Hormuz, that those kind of operations would still be necessary going forward because they had seen evidence that Iran was able to rebuild and reconstitute the radar systems, the attempts to try and lay mines again, and also the ability to target commercial vessels in the Strait of Hormuz.

So there is a very strong sense that this is the new normal, that we will see this familiar pattern in the coming weeks. And, of course, what we know from the Trump administration is that they would like to focus on other things at the moment, especially with the midterm elections coming up.

We have also heard from President Trump, for example, insisting this week that he feels no pressure to wind down hostilities in the run-up to those elections. So the fact that we have no timeline, we have no indication most recently from the U.S. Vice President as to when gas prices, for example, will come down, when oil prices will come down, no indication of when Iran will end this war, does leave this in a very significant stalemate, which is really a state we have been in for some time.

[03:10:03]

There are no talks, we have heard from the Trump administration. We know that there are still mediation efforts ongoing. But, of course, when it comes to the Strait of Hormuz, there are still commercial ships that are being targeted by Iran if they are using a route that Iran does not want them to be using.

We did have figures just this week from U.S. Central Command about how their naval blockade is going. They're trying to prevent vessels reaching Iranian ports so that they can put that economic pressure on Tehran that way. They said that there were some 86 vessels that have been redirected since they brought this naval blockade back.

Three have been disabled and two have been boarded. Also saying that they believe Iran has not been able to export oil since July.

So, really, the economic pressure, this economic D-Day, as the Treasury Secretary called it, does appear to be one of the most significant tools that the Trump administration is using at this point. But to point out that this isn't a war and there are no active combat operations is simply not accurate. Ben?

HUNTE: Yes, indeed. CNN's Paula Hancocks, live from Abu Dhabi. Thank you for those updates. Speak to you soon.

I spoke earlier to Sahar Razavi, the Director of the Iranian and Middle Eastern Studies Center at Cal State Sacramento. And I asked about U.S. Vice President J.D. Vance's refusal to call the conflict in Iran a war.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SAHAR RAZAVI, DIRECTOR, IRANIAN AND MIDDLE EAST STUDIES CENTER AT CAL STATE SACRAMENTO: I think everybody knows that it's a war and on its face it's interesting and maybe a little surprising that he would say that. But when you start to look at the background and the context of the growing, really, anger on the part not only of Americans but American service members and their families, then you start to understand why he might be saying this, perhaps as some kind of, even a mild countermeasure against that anger.

We're seeing reports that the loved ones, the widows of those service members who were killed in this war, are being denied death benefits because it has not been declared a formal war. That's on top of the anger of the service members on the U.S.S Abraham Lincoln and other assets and bases in the region who are really under some serious conditions of deprivation at this point.

So, I think some of it is political posturing and some of it is perhaps trying to sell this as less of a war than it actually is. But really, anybody who is observing this quote-unquote "conflict" can see that it is a war, it has been called a war. Donald Trump himself has called it a war so many times. It's more just bluster, I believe, from J.D. Vance.

HUNTE: Well, on J.D. Vance, he also says there's no active shooting right now. But we have, of course, seen U.S.-Iran exchanges of fire this week. Are we actually seeing de-escalation?

RAZAVI: No, I don't think we are. I think we're seeing right now, we're at the cusp of potentially a much greater intensification of an escalatory cycle.

And I think if your standard of whether something is a war or not is whether there are rockets being fired at this exact moment, then wars are there and then not there and there and then not there many times. That is not how we discuss whether a war is actually being prosecuted or not. It is very clearly a war.

You just played footage from the funeral of those who were killed in the strike on the residential home where a wedding celebration was taking place. And on top of that, we have very serious strikes by Iran against U.S. bases in the region, including some quite significant ones in Jordan.

I don't think anybody would look at that and say, well, the guns are not shooting at this moment that we're speaking. So it's not a war.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNTE: There is much more to come here on "CNN Newsroom," including an update on the rescue of two men from a flooded tunnel in Nepal. We'll speak live with a member of the country's parliament about the operation. See you in a moment.

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HUNTE: Welcome back.

We want to bring you up to speed on our breaking news this hour. Two men have been rescued from the flooded tunnels of a power plant in Nepal. Video from the scene shows one of the men being carried out piggyback style just a few hours ago.

Hundreds of workers are believed to be trapped in the underground tunnels after last week's flash flooding disaster. Rescue crews have been using heavy machinery and even digging by hand to try to reach any survivors.

Former CNN international correspondent Sumnima Udas joins us now from Kathmandu. She is a current member of parliament in Nepal. It's good to see you again. So two workers have just been rescued alive after nine days trapped

underground. What does all of this mean for the families of workers still waiting for news, though?

SUMNIMA UDAS, CHAIRMAN, INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS AND TOURISM COMMITTEE, NEPALI PARLIAMENT, AND FORMER CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: It's great news. I mean, the Nepali security forces and the government has always maintained that there is a real possibility of finding survivors inside these tunnels of over a dozen hydroelectric power stations such as this one and on the day nine, after this devastating deluge, this is just an incredible story and it really gives everyone hope and a reason to smile.

[03:19:59]

I just got off the phone with the brigadier general of the Nepali army who was overseeing these rescue operations and he said a joint team of the Nepali army and the armed police force, a total of some 90 security personnel, have been working on the ground in this particular site, Trishuli 3A, continuously from day two because they believe that 42 men, or that's what they had heard, that 42 people were still missing from this particular station.

And the circumstances were such that the debris was such that they had to dig 15 to 20 meters underground using excavators, drilling machines, and blasting machines before they could actually find the mouth of the tunnel. And once they found the mouth, some of the security forces personnel had to walk in or sort of climb through and they went in 170 meters inside, which is roughly about 560 feet, before they found these two survivors.

And the army general said that they were able to do this really with sheer determination and perseverance because they've been, again, digging since day two at this particular site.

The survivors' names, Sanjay Sah and Kabir Mahajan, they were both mechanical engineers. And Sanjay Sah, right after his rescue, he's the one who's been, he's on the piggyback. He even had the wherewithal to speak to the rescuers once he was brought to Kathmandu.

And he said that when the disaster struck, there were about 40 to 45 people inside the control room of this hydroelectric power station. And since he was responsible for the control room, he encouraged everyone to leave, or he sort of pushed that, or asked everyone to leave the premises, but he got stuck. And he said there could be still a few more trapped in that powerhouse.

And the brigadier general that I spoke to said they're still actively looking in that particular site.

HUNTE: More than 1200 people have now died, and thousands are, of course, still missing. Where do you think the search and rescue operation stands today?

UDAS: It's still very much a search and rescue operation, although the Prime Minister recently announced in parliament that we have moved to the rehabilitation phase as well, and that means rebuilding some of the roads that have been damaged so that life can really get back on track, because a lot of the major highways have been destroyed by this flooding, which means all the supplies that have to come into Kathmandu Valley, for example, which is where I am, that's been delayed.

Everything has sort of been on hold, so to give a sense that the country now sort of has to move on, right, in terms of the economy, in terms of tourism, in terms of daily life. So while we are working as a government to sort of work on developing all of these places again and getting back on track, the search and rescue mission is still very much on. About 21,000 personnel are still very much on the ground, security personnel digging and looking through some of this debris and mud and silt that you see.

HUNTE: There are also still hundreds of foreign nationals missing, and families around the world are so desperate for answers. How confident are you that Nepal can identify the victims and give those families some closure should bodies be found?

UDAS: Well, all the bodies that are being found downstream in this area called Chitwan, they are being picked up and they are being buried at the moment, and the ones that are unidentifiable, they are taking DNA tests before they are being buried. Temporarily buried, I would have to say, because the idea is that when families start arriving, looking for their loved ones, and should they wish to take them out of these burial sites, they can.

And families are starting to arrive, and a help desk has been set up at the airport, at the Nepal Tourism Board to assist these family members because obviously they are in a state of shock. It's confusing what to do, where to do, where to look. There are still about 539 foreign nationals who are still missing.

So the government is working very hard to assist with all of that. In the meantime, they are also trying to, again, get back on track because it's already been more than a week since this devastation. And tourism, for example, I head the Committee for International Relations and Tourism, and there's already been huge cancellations in terms of the tourists who are planning on coming to Nepal.

[03:25:00]

And so a lot of these tourism entrepreneurs are coming to us, businesses are coming to us, saying, you know, we need to do something because this is going to really affect our economy. So we're trying to get on track, but at the same time doing as much as we can in terms of the search and rescue as well.

HUNTE: Okay. Sumnima Udas, Member of Parliament in Nepal. Thank you so much for joining us and for your work, we'll have much more on this story later in the broadcast.

Ukraine says there are no reports of injuries after a Russian strike on a Coca-Cola plant near Kyiv. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says Russian drones damaged a factory on Thursday. He added that the attack on a U.S. company was clearly a message to Washington.

Southeast of the capital, Russian drones also destroyed a warehouse. Video from the scene showed the building engulfed in smoke as firefighters scrambled to put out the flames. A Ukrainian official says the strike should not cause shortages of medicine.

There is much more to come here on "CNN Newsroom," including a look at Italy's prime minister, that's Giorgia Meloni, who has just achieved a historic milestone. That's ahead. See you in a moment.

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

Two men have been rescued from the tunnel where they were trapped after last week's flooding in Nepal. Searchers have been focusing their efforts on the tunnels of a hydropower plant when they heard voices from inside. Once they were located, the two men were quickly taken to safety. It is unclear how many are still in that tunnel.

U.S. Vice President J.D. Vance says he cannot give a timeline for when the war with Iran might end. Vance said during a news conference at the White House on Thursday that there were no peace talks going on between the U.S. and Iran, he also argued that a conflict should not even be called a war since active combat operations ended months ago. That is despite three consecutive days just this week when the U.S. and Iran exchanged fire.

The fate of Lindsay Clancy remains in limbo. After six days of deliberations, jurors in the triple murder trial are still struggling to reach a unanimous verdict, raising the possibility of a mistrial. One of Clancy's lawyers told the court that the juror was refusing to quote, "listen to the law regarding reasonable doubt."

Let's go back to our top story out of Nepal. Two men have been rescued after being trapped in a tunnel due to flash flooding that tore through the region last week.

New video into CNN shows the two men arriving in Nepal's capital. That's Kathmandu, after being flown by chopper out of the flooded region. They were rescued after searchers heard voices while searching through a hydropower tunnel.

Let's bring in CNN's Hanako Montgomery, live from Nepal for us. Hanako, we've seen some incredible video of this rescue that's been recently occurring. What is the latest where you are?

HANAKO MONTGOMERY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes Ben, we actually just went up with the Nepali army to take a look at the Trishuli 3A tunnel where we saw a rescue operation underway right in front of us. We saw dozens of workers standing around a hole and they were tugging at a rope and I was asking one of the commanders there what they were specifically tugging at. They told me that they believed there might be two people stuck inside. They weren't sure whether they were alive or dead but they were trying to get those people out.

Now we also saw some oxygen tanks being passed into the tunnel. We also saw, of course, face masks and headlights being passed into the tunnel as well.

Now Ben, we were around the Trishuli 3A tunnel for around 45 minutes or so and we saw, again, dozens of rescuers trying desperately to get some signs of life, trying to get some people out. But of course, as you can imagine, this is an extremely difficult task for them. They've been at it for more than nine days now as they've been trying to get as many survivors out as possible especially in those hydropower tunnels.

Now on Thursday, local time, Ben, we did speak to the Major General of the Nepali Army who is in charge of all military operations and he told us that specifically, again, at the Trishuli 3A tunnel, which is seeing a lot of damage, there is a conduit that is about 26 meters deep, I mean, that is a huge drop.

And he told us that that conduit is largely filled with water, not mud. So what they've been able to do is take rafters, those rafters that you would use when you go whitewater rafting, and they've been able to inflate them inside and try to, again, get deeper into the tunnel as they try to look for any more survivors.

And then when we saw those two individuals getting pulled out of the tunnel early Friday morning, I mean, it was absolutely amazing to see, again, just signs of life so many days into this disaster, Ben.

HUNTE: Thank you for that. I'm just wondering what you've heard from some families since this news of these individuals being rescued. What's the vibe at the moment?

MONTGOMERY: Of course, Ben, I mean, you know, when we've spoken to families of survivors who have been rescued over the past nine days or so, there's, of course, an overwhelming sense of jubilation.

[03:35:04]

I mean, many families aren't even sure whether their loved one's bodies will be able to be returned to them or not. So the fact that their loved ones are alive, you know, they might be injured, they might need medical attention, but the fact that they are alive is absolutely joyous news for these families.

And Ben, again, you know, just on the note of search and rescue operations, again, you know, the first 72 hours are very, very critical when you try to get survivors out alive. And when you get past that, a lot of operations do end up becoming a recovery, as we've heard from the Major General of the Nepali Army. And when it gets to that point, families are, you know, grateful for the fact that they're even able to get a body so that they can give their loved ones a proper funeral. So, as you can imagine, it's extremely difficult right now for the Nepalis as they're dealing with such a devastating disaster that has touched pretty much every single person in this country in every single region, Ben.

HUNTE: Okay. Hanako Montgomery, thank you so much. I appreciate it.

Germany's far-right Alternative for Germany Party could make history this weekend.

Voters in an eastern state go to the polls on Sunday, with the AFD hoping to win control of the German state for the first time. The party holds a wide lead in the polls, focusing on voter dissatisfaction with the national government. A recent survey put the AFD at 42 percent, that's nearly twice the support of the Christian Democratic Union, which currently leads the state.

Giorgia Meloni is now officially Italy's longest-serving prime minister since World War II. She has been in office nearly four years, breaking the record previously held by Silvio Berlusconi.

Meloni's conservative coalition is now the longest-serving government across Italy's eight decades as a republic. She is holding a rally on Friday to mark the milestone.

Meloni has held her office longer than several other European leaders. France has had five prime ministers since autumn of 2022, while, of course, the U.K. has had four.

In the last hour, I spoke to independent journalist Matthew Karnitschnig in Berlin. I asked him about the significance of this moment for Meloni and for Italy.

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MATTHEW KARNITSCHNIG, INDEPENDENT JOURNALIST: This is unprecedented in Italy, really. If you think back just a few years ago, Italy was still the laughingstock of Europe in a lot of ways because of the instability of its political system. Even though Silvio Berlusconi did serve for a similar amount of time, he was also kind of a cartoonish figure, a clownish figure internationally.

That is something one can't say about Meloni. She's taken very seriously internationally and I think that is part of the secret of her success.

She has shown that despite the fact that she comes from what is regarded in Europe as the far-right of the political spectrum, that she could govern in a very pragmatic way. She supported the Atlantic Alliance, for example. She supported the efforts to support Ukraine and so on.

That was really what a lot of people were worried about in Europe when she came to power as this neo-fascist, as many people described her then, that this was going to be a chaotic situation in the third largest economy in Europe and one that is a country that is heavily indebted. There was a lot of fear that Italy could be going over a precipice here, and that has turned out not to be the case.

HUNTE: Italy has, of course, been famous for political instability. How has Meloni managed to stay in power for nearly four years?

KARNITSCHNIG: I think the key here is that she doesn't have within her coalition any strong rivals who could cause trouble, as it were. She's managed to put together this right-wing coalition, which she controls. They depend on her more than she depends on them.

I think because she's managed to stabilize the economy, that's a key factor here. Unemployment in Italy has fallen to the lowest they've seen in decades, and even though the economy itself is not showing strong growth, in fact, that remains a problem in Italy, the slow, low growth of the economy. Things have stabilized.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNTE: Argentina's President Javier Milei says he will speed up sanctions against companies involved in oil exploration in the Falkland Islands. During a nearly 15-minute speech on Thursday, Milei repeatedly pushed Argentina's claim over the territory. Milei also said oil companies there are operating under British occupation.

[03:40:09]

His friendship with President Trump raises questions about whether Washington will maintain its neutrality over the sovereignty dispute. Britain retained control of the Falklands after defeating Argentina in a war in 1982. A U.K. analyst says Argentina has never held sovereignty over the island and that Britain's claim predates Argentina's independence.

All right, thanks for watching. I'm Ben Hunte, in Atlanta. For international viewers, "World Sport" is coming up next, for our viewers in North America, we'll be right back with so much more "CNN Newsroom." See you in a moment.

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[03:45:00]

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HUNTE: Welcome back. Here are your business headlines.

Volkswagen is slashing 50,000 jobs and half of its vehicle lineup as the German automaker moves to cut costs. The company is facing rising competition from Chinese automakers and higher costs from U.S. tariffs. It says its German factories have capacity to build about 500,000 more vehicles a year than it needs.

Chipmaker NVIDIA is buying artificial intelligence startup Hugging Face for nearly $13 billion. Hugging Face hosts and accesses open source A.I. data sets, the company was recently hacked by rogue open A.I. models, it has been the center of debate over whether A.I. tech should be closed or widely available. In buying the company, NVIDIA is taking a huge chance on expanding the reach of open source A.I. tech.

U.S. Vice President J.D. Vance is calling on the Federal Reserve to lower interest rates. The central bank is scheduled to meet later this month. Vance says cutting rates would be proper and responsible, that is despite growing concerns about inflation. President Trump has waved off recent questions about interest rates in an effort to give the new Fed chair, that's Kevin Warsh, greater latitude.

Vice President Vance also argued that, in his estimation, the war with Iran is not actually a war in its current state. He says active combat operations ended months ago. This is despite the fact that the U.S. and Iran exchanged fire over three consecutive days just this week, including around the Strait of Hormuz.

Iranian state media citing an Iranian official says 18 people were killed and 108 wounded in U.S. attacks across multiple provinces. Vance says the U.S. is investigating reports that one of those strikes hit a wedding party, killing at least four civilians, including a child, near the Strait on Tuesday. When asked, the U.S. Vice President refused to give a timeline on when this war might end.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is getting a new vote of confidence, that's despite a wave of recent criticism. This time, it's coming from Vice President J.D. Vance.

CNN senior White House correspondent Kristen Holmes reports for us.

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KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: The Trump administration is doubling down on Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth amid turmoil at the Pentagon surrounding resignations, mass firings and blocked promotions.

First, President Trump telling a group at the Rose Garden that he had been on the phone with Hegseth the night before as they were going through strikes in Iran and praising Hegseth. But perhaps more interesting was when Vice President J.D. Vance took to the podium for the first press briefing since the departure of Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt and was asked specifically about the Secretary of the Army, Dan Driscoll, who had resigned in part because of the frustration with Pete Hegseth. Driscoll is a very close friend and went to school with Vance.

Vance seemed to side and support Hegseth.

VANCE: I feel like the military is in a much better place than it was 18 months ago. Of course, there's a lot of work still to do. And of course, some of that work is going to take years because, frankly, the rot got so deep under previous failed administrations.

We needed to have a culture shift at the Department of War. We have to ask ourselves some very difficult questions, and it has nothing to do. I want to be clear, this has nothing to do with the amazing troops that we have, the amazing military officers, non-commissioned officers and enlisted personnel that we have.

HOLMES: And Vance pinned this all squarely on this idea of some kind of culture shift that he believes or says should be done in the Pentagon, talking about how it's not about the men and women on the front lines, but instead involving leadership, involving not only leadership at the Pentagon, but also in the White House.

So right now it seems pretty clear, the writing is on the wall, that Pete Hegseth has the full backing of this administration, even as we have heard from top military officials who say they believe that he is causing irreparable harm to the military as a whole.

Kristen Holmes, CNN, the White House.

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HUNTE: The Trump administration is slapping new sanctions on Cuba, including on a grandson of former President Raul Castro. The restrictions also target the foreign bank of Cuba and four other entities, which Washington accuses of exploiting the country's natural resources and energy reserves.

[03:50:07]

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio says these new sanctions reflect President Trump's vision for a free Cuba.

Meanwhile, the government in Havana is looking to counter U.S. pressure by attracting foreign investment, trade and tourism. New regulations are aimed at making the country's beaches, workforce and real estate more accessible.

Tesla unveiled its new driverless two-seater cyber cab in Austin, Texas, on Thursday. Tesla CEO, that's Elon Musk, has said the autonomous vehicle is the key to transforming the company into a dominant force in driverless vehicles.

Musk has promised for years that driverless Teslas are imminent, but its robo-taxi rollout has fallen short of his targets. Since launching a small pilot last year, Tesla has expanded its robo-taxi service to a handful of cities in Texas and Florida. But its core electric vehicle business faces intense pressure from global competition, especially Chinese E.V. makers.

Londoners now have the chance to ride in robo-taxis. The cars use A.I. technology from British startup Wave to navigate the streets of London autonomously. The taxis will start with trained operators behind the wheel to monitor the system in partnerships with Uber.

They have surround-view cameras and radar that provide data processed in the vehicle. The technology has been tested on London roads since 2018. Uber says customers matched with an autonomous vehicle will be able to accept a driverless ride or switch to a conventional driver. There are new champions of the seductive dance, the tango. A couple

from Buenos Aires won the stage tango event at the city's Tango World Championship. They performed the final dance before a packed live audience and viewers online.

In all, more than 800 couples from 47 countries took part in the competition. The couple has competed in previous championships and they explained what made the difference for them this time round.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NAIMA GERASOPOLOU, STAGE TANGO WORLD CHAMPION (through translator): The truth is that we really enjoyed it. In other years and other performances, we couldn't fully enjoy it. This year we felt it from the qualifying rounds.

It was a pure and real emotion from within. And well, it seems it came through and we are happy that it worked.

NICOLAS SCHELL, STAGE TANGO WORLD CHAMPION (through translator): Sometimes it's frustrating and you have to keep going, insist. But what happens is that once you are on stage, you have a choreography but the detail, the connection and what really happens, you improvise.

Because things are constantly happening inside an embrace. So it's not mechanical and that is the most beautiful thing.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNTE: The European Space Agency is celebrating the launch of its BepiColombo mission to explore Mercury. The spacecraft won't enter the planet's orbit until late November. Then it will separate from a Japanese orbiter just a month later.

This is only the third mission to Mercury, which is the closest planet to the Sun in our solar system. Temperatures on the swift planet, as it's called, soar to more than 400 degrees Celsius during the day and fall to negative 170 degrees at night.

Beyonce is celebrating her 45th birthday today with a sachet down memory lane. She is re-releasing one of her early albums with some new tracks and a special guest star. CNN Entertainment's Lisa France reports.

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LISA FRANCE, CNN ENTERTAINMENT SENIOR REPORTER (voice-over): Beehive, you're not having deja vu. Beyonce is taking you back to 2006.

Queen B is turning 45 and she's inviting her hive to the party, releasing a 20th anniversary edition of her sophomore album, appropriately titled "B'Day." Recorded in only two weeks, Beyonce told CNN in 2007 that the album was inspired after months of playing the role of Dina Jones in the film adaptation of "Dreamgirls."

BEYONCE, SINGER: Because I played this character for so long, for six months, and I wouldn't allow myself studio time, I wouldn't allow myself appearances, I wanted to become this character, I had so many things to say. So I used this album as my release.

FRANCE (voice-over): Twenty years later, Beyonce is still ringing the alarm. The singer surprised fans this past July when she announced this re-release, followed with a new single titled "Morning Dew."

[03:55:00]

The album will also feature three Spanish-speaking tracks, that includes a steamy duet with singer Shakira.

And while the hive eagerly awaits the final act of Beyonce's "Renaissance" trilogy, Queen B is giving you the green light to enjoy this nostalgic trip down memory lane for now.

Lisa France, CNN.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HUNTE: That's all I've got for you. Thanks for joining me and the team, I'm Ben Hunte in Atlanta. There is so much more "CNN Newsroom," right after this break. See you tomorrow.

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