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U.S. Envoys Meet Putin in Moscow For Ukraine Talks; CNN on the Ground in Tibet After Last Week's Flash Flood; U.S. Military Strikes Three Iranian Tankers in Retaliation; Germany's Far-Right AfD Seeking Victory in State Elections. Aired 5-6a ET

Aired September 06, 2026 - 05:00   ET

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

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[05:00:36]

SALMA ABDELAZIZ, CNN ANCHOR: Hello and welcome to our viewers joining us in the U.S. and all around the world. I'm Salma Abdelaziz in London. Let's go straight to our headlines.

Peace talks in both Moscow and Kyiv. The U.S. looks to make some kind of progress on ending Russia's war on Ukraine. We're going to have the latest on those high-stakes negotiations.

Aggressive tactics are on the rise between the U.S. and Tehran. We're going to have a live report for you from Jerusalem with the latest on the conflict.

Plus, CNN is on the scene with very rare access to the disaster zone on the China side of the China-Nepal border. We're going to follow that devastating floods impact.

ANNOUNCER: Live from London, this is "CNN Newsroom" with Salma Abdelaziz.

ABDELAZIZ: U.S. envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner are expected a very short time from now in Ukraine to renew their efforts for peace negotiations. It comes just a day after very similar talks were held in Moscow with Russian President Vladimir Putin. A White House official said that both sides discussed, quote, "Plans for next steps, which will be announced in the coming weeks."

Putin began the three-hour meeting by acknowledging that the negotiators faced a tall order. Still, he struck a warm tone, saying such discussions are always helpful.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

VLADIMIR PUTIN, RUSSIAN PRESIDENT (through translator): I know that you are planning to visit Kyiv after Moscow. In any case, regardless of what happens next, contacts of this kind are undoubtedly always beneficial. And of course, the quality of the mediation and the trust placed in those facilitating it are crucial.

I would like to say that working with you is a comfortable experience for us, and we certainly place a high level of trust in you throughout this process.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ABDELAZIZ: Now, to coincide with the visit, President Putin did order Russia to stop hitting the Ukrainian capital for three days. Kyiv has been facing relentless attacks prior to that, including the strike on a warehouse that took place on Friday. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says his country is also ready to pause its attacks on Moscow during the envoy's trip.

The Kremlin's special envoy, Kirill Dmitriev, also met with Kushner and Witkoff in Russia. He hailed the trip as an important peacemaking visit.

For more, we're joined now live from Kyiv by Oleksandr Merezhko. He is the Chair of the Foreign Affairs Committee in Ukraine's parliament. Thank you so much for joining us on such a key day, because of course, we are expecting very shortly now to see Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff in their first visit to Kyiv, and I really want to begin there. How significant is it that it is their first visit? What is it that President Zelenskyy is going to want them to see? And if I may ask, how is it that they have not visited Kyiv yet?

OLEKSANDR MEREZHKO, CHAIR, FOREIGN AFFAIRS COMMITTEE, UKRAINIAN PARLIAMENT: Thank you for having me. Yes, the upside in this story is that special envoys of President Trump, finally, better late than never, finally, they're coming to Kyiv to see for themselves what's going on, because it's really suspicious when the representatives of President Trump have never been before to Kyiv, and they don't know what's going on in Ukraine.

Finally, they're coming, and hopefully they will see the damage, for example, done to Kyiv, maybe to other cities of Ukraine, and I'm not sure whether it will change their attitude to Ukraine and to the whole issue to Russian aggression. I'm not sure about that. But again, it's better late than never, and it gives a small chance that President Trump will understand better the real situation and who is the victim and who is the aggressor.

ABDELAZIZ: Better late than never, as you said, and your hope is, of course, that you'll be able to open their eyes, as you said there, to some of the damage and the sacrifices that are happening in Ukraine. But there's also the view of the Ukrainian people in this, of course. We've collected some sound that I'd love for you to hear, just people on the street in Ukraine discussing how they see this peace proposal.

[05:05:02]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): Personally, I'm very disappointed in the international community and its attitude toward the war in Ukraine. It's such a deep disappointment that I can't even put it into words. We must make use of every contact and every opportunity. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): In this situation, everything depends on one person, Putin. Unfortunately, a person who has long since lost their mind. Unless this person changes or is forced to do what needs to be done, all efforts to resolve the situation will be in vain.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ABDELAZIZ: As you can hear there, they were both expressing a sort of pessimism and skepticism around these talks. Do you think that that is shared by President Zelensky's government, or is there hope that this time, because we've seen quite a few times before this, attempts to restart peace talks, that this time it might work?

MEREZHKO: Well, of course, we have to remain optimistic against all odds. But people in the streets, they don't have high expectations based on the previous experience. And there is one thing which seems President Trump doesn't understand completely. This is the fact that Putin, who's a war criminal, he has committed so many crimes that he believes that the only way to avoid responsibility is to impose on Ukraine surrender, which is not going to happen.

And the only way to deal with Putin is not by appeasing him, but by using position of strength, by supplying and providing more military aid to Ukraine, and implementing sanctions against Russia and against Russian allies. That's the only way to reach peace.

People in Ukraine understand it perfectly well. And I hope that at some point, President Trump's envoys and President Trump himself will understand this reality and will start to act accordingly.

ABDELAZIZ: And of course, the envoys did visit Moscow first. They spoke to President Putin first. How will President Zelenskyy see that? What message do you think potentially Moscow will bring? And what is this proposal? Because that's all we're getting from Washington, D.C., is that this is a proposal. What is in this proposal? And what could Ukraine get out of it?

MEREZHKO: Well, first of all, it doesn't bode well for Ukraine that the envoys of President Trump first came to Moscow, and only after that they're going to Kyiv. We had it before, when they came to Moscow, came up with the Russian plan of surrender for Ukraine, so- called 28-point plan, and then tried to impose on Ukraine. It would be much more logical to come first to Kyiv and to talk to President Zelenskyy, to talk to people, and come up with realistic plan, and then present it to Russian dictator, which didn't happen.

That's why we are not optimistic. As for the plan, Putin, he hasn't renounced his absurd demands with regard to surrender of Ukraine. And that's why I don't believe in any peace plans, because there is only one obstacle, and we heard it in the streets of Kyiv, that there is only one obstacle to peace, Putin himself.

ABDELAZIZ: Oleksandr Merezhko, it must feel like a bit of deja vu with the Trump administration yet again trying to restart peace talks, but as you pointed out there, it's going to mean a great deal to President Zelenskyy that President Putin was the first stop and he is the second. Again, this is the first visit for those two U.S. envoys, the President's son-in-law and Steve Witkoff. Thank you.

It is now day 11 since catastrophic flooding buried entire communities along that border area between Nepal and China, but thousands of families are still on edge, not knowing if their missing loved ones are dead or alive. Hopes grew, of course, after two more people were rescued. This was on Saturday, including a Chinese man that you see there.

He was trapped inside a flooded tunnel. He says he was able to see the flashlight lights that rescuers were holding for days, but they couldn't hear his cries for help. The other survivor is a 63-year-old Nepalese woman who was stuck in the wreckage of a four-story building. Her family had actually started preparing for her funeral.

More than 5,000 other people are still missing, including hundreds of workers who could be trapped deep in those flooded tunnels. One worker's brother says he has reason to hope his missing sibling could still be alive.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KRISHA POUDEL, BROTHER OF MISSING NEPALI WORKER (through translator): Since the floods happened, I have lost contact with my brother. He is inside the tunnel. I met so many people who were able to escape, who knew my brother. They told me, your brother is inside the tunnel. He was driving a vehicle inside. They said they could hear the voices of about 200 to 300 people.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[05:10:02]

ABDELAZIZ: Meanwhile, Nepal's army is working on building a makeshift bridge, hoping to reach survivors in areas that were cut off by the flooding. Dozens of bridges were damaged or washed away by the disaster, along with about 55 kilometers of roadways.

Officials say close to 1,400 people have been confirmed dead so far. The search for survivors will continue for at least a few more days. For more information about how you can help flood victims, go to CNN.com/impact.

CNN has reached what you could call ground zero of the disaster, a border area between China and Nepal. It was one of the first areas to be hit when a massive wave of water and debris came crashing down into the valley. CNN's Simone McCarthy is now on the Chinese side of the border.

This is a very rare trip that was organized by the government: but we do want to clarify that CNN still has full editorial control of the coverage. I spoke with her just in the past hour.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) SIMONE MCCARTHY, CNN SENIOR CHINA REPORTER: We've all, I think, seen that video of just a wall of water that washed over a five-story border -- border point crossing on the Tibet side of the China-Nepal border 11 days ago when that landslide and flooding hit that region. That building was completely obliterated. But this is the first time that foreign media is getting access into this area to see what this looks like up close.

And it's just absolutely unbelievable how destroyed this area is. It was once a bustling border crossing with international tourists coming into Tibet, out of Tibet, traders, travel agents. There was hundreds of people crossing through this border crossing each day.

And now there's just absolutely nothing here at all. There are still many questions, as you said, about just who was here during that time. According to the latest update from Chinese officials, more than 500 people still remain unaccounted for. About half of those are foreign nationals.

Now, just walking around this area today, it's just -- you would almost never know that there had been anything here previously. We saw the foundation of that seven-story building that was captured in surveillance footage, just with that wall of water washing over it, and people fleeing for their lives, just absolutely heart-wrenching footage.

And then today, we've just seen basically the foundations of the buildings that were here instead at that, you know, now, that are now here at that time, and seen some of the rescue efforts that are underway.

Now, it's been incredibly difficult for emergency responders to reach this area. There's a few different reasons for that, one of them being just that the road, the one that we actually just drove into to access this region, was completely destroyed for about, for a couple of miles.

And essentially, it took a week for officials to be able to clear those roads in order to allow thousands of responders in order to access this area. Prior to that, the only access was through boats, as well as people actually trekking into this region, and limited access via air as well. And we can really understand why, because this is an incredibly remote region.

There are canyons on both sides, and the helicopter access will be challenging. The weather conditions change very quickly. As you can see, it's lightly raining here. It was pretty sunny when we first arrived. And so, there's just been a host of challenges that rescue workers have been contending with. But not -- and maybe one of the greatest ones that we can talk about here is just how much mud there is.

I'm just looking around me here, and it's just, feet and feet, as we understand of mud, have been layered on top of what was once that bustling port. And that's, I mean, walking around, we're basically sinking into it. There's excavators working behind me trying to get through that and hopefully get more answers.

So, that's really what we've seen here today on the ground with this access that CNN has been able to get into this area that there still remains so many questions about.

ABDELAZIZ: And Simone, you're absolutely right. When I'm looking at where you're standing, I would never be able to tell that that is anything other than what looks like right now, a construction zone, a construction site. I can see that there are, of course, still concerns with you having that hard hat on.

Now, we do know, according to reporting, that more than 530 people are unaccounted for potentially in that area. Do you have any sense of those men behind you, what the rescue efforts are like that they're carrying out? Is there specific areas? Is there specific villages? Is there specific homes? Can you give us any more details about their work?

MCCARTHY: Yeah. So, I mean, no survivors have been found at this area so far. And so, I think it's safe to say that a lot of what the effort are focused on now is really recovery and trying to get more information, which is the question that many families have, trying to get more information about loved ones that they believe were at this area.

[05:15:11]

The last time that we've had an update about the official numbers of how many people are missing, how many people have been confirmed dead was on Friday. So, we're -- we're anxiously awaiting more information about that.

CNN will actually be attending a meeting with local officials here in the Gyirong Port area later today. So, we're going to put some of those questions to officials.

We have been speaking with rescue workers on the ground. Many of them are focused on the day-to-day efforts of just clearing, I shouldn't say day-to-day, but the kind of imperative daily effort right now, the essential effort of clearing out some of this area, trying to excavate essentially. And so, that's the work that we're seeing here now. But you're absolutely right that there's a lot more information that we're -- that we're hoping to learn.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ABDELAZIZ: A powerful category for hurricane is now churning towards Hawaii, where a state of emergency is now in effect. Hurricane Lowell has been fluctuating between a Category 4 and a Category 5 storm on Saturday. Its winds reached up to 150 miles an hour. That's about 240 kilometers an hour. It is expected to turn north in the coming hours, putting Hawaii's western islands in its potential path early this week. CNN Meteorologist Allison Chinchar has the forecast for us.

ALLISON CHINCHAR, CNN METEOROLOGIST: It feels like deja vu all over again, talking about yet again another system that could impact Hawaii. This is Hurricane Lowell. It is well south of the islands right now, but it's expected to make that sharp turn to the right or the north and bringing impacts to the islands here in about the next 24 to 36 hours.

Now, we mentioned the deja vu factor here because this is the third storm in just as many weeks. Now, we have Lala that came first. That was the one that brought very heavy rainfall across the big island. Some flooding, high surf occurred with that. The second one was Moke. This one stayed a little bit farther south of the islands and then just kind of continued its trek out to the west.

Lala was taking a similar path up to now, but we expect the storm to continue to slide off to the north once it makes that rightward turn.

Now, the real question is how quickly does it make that turn? That's really what's going to be the biggest factor and how much of an impact the western islands of Hawaii end up getting from this particular storm. Now, the reason why we've had so many storms back-to-back is because of the extremely warm temperatures that are in the Pacific.

Now, we've already started to see the impacts from El Nino across this region, warming those waters even more, but as more and more storms kind of come through here, we all know warm water is fuel for hurricanes and tropical systems and that's why we continue to see a lot of these storms continue to develop.

Now, this particular one, more of the models are finally starting to come into a little bit better agreement with this particular storm about when it's going to make that sharp turn off to the right or north and really kind of mainly focus over the extreme western portion of Hawaii.

Now, this doesn't mean they won't get any impacts. In fact, Kauai and much of Kauai County is still expected to have some heavy rainfall, very high surf and the potential for some mudslides and landslides.

ABDELAZIZ: We have so much more news to come here on CNN. Iran is threatening to intensify strikes against the U.S. after the latest attacks in the Persian Gulf. How those hostilities could threaten to expand the war in the region.

Plus, the U.S. ambassador to Israel meets with Palestinian Americans in the West Bank. What he said about the surge in Israeli settler violence right after the break.

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[05:22:45]

ABDELAZIZ: The latest exchange of hostilities between the U.S. and Iran (technical difficulty) the conflict well beyond the Persian Gulf. Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps is threatening to intensify strikes against U.S. military vessels all in the region. The warning comes after the U.S. military says its forces struck three Iranian crude oil carriers on Saturday. Those attacks were retaliation for a ballistic attack aimed at two U.S. Navy warships. U.S. Central Command released this video. You're watching now of one

of those Iranian ships. It targeted the M/T Kylo in the Gulf of Oman. When it went down, U.S. Central Command claims the ships are part of a multi-billion-dollar shadow network that funds the Iranian Guard and its proxies. The ship was not carrying any oil cargo at the time of the attack.

The two other Iranian oil carriers were hit just off the coast of Iran's Kharag Island, which typically handles roughly about 90 percent of the country's crude oil exports.

We're joined now live by our Oren Liebermann from Jerusalem with the latest on these attacks. You know, Oren, it was just a couple of days ago that President Trump was describing this conflict as small potatoes, but this is not any small potatoes attack here targeting a multi-billion-dollar shadow fleet. What are you learning?

OREN LIEBERMANN, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Not at all. This is the resumption, as we've seen over the course of the past week, of very much open conflict between the U.S. and Iran. It might be limited in scope, certainly compared to the opening weeks of the war when Israel and the U.S. were carrying out major strikes in Tehran and around the country. The question is, where does this go, and is there an off- ramp, as neither the U.S. nor Iran seem to be willing at this point to make any additional concessions or try to get to a point where there can be either a return to the memorandum of understanding or renewed negotiations towards some broader agreement?

In that context, what you see here is conflict over who controls the Strait of Hormuz. It appears the Iranian attack targeting two U.S. warships is not only a significant escalation on Iran's part, but it's those warships that are trying to escort tankers through the Strait of Hormuz as the U.S. attempts to get as much oil and crude through the Strait as possible for its effect, of course, on the world economy and its potential effect on gas prices in the United States.

[05:25:13]

Iran is challenging that, but in doing so, they will see and have seen a U.S. retaliation, the U.S. targeting some Iranian oil tankers. As Iran has struggled to get its own oil moving through the Strait of Hormuz, the U.S. is trying to do as much as it can to get that flow going. It's certainly not close to pre-war levels, and it's not clear how sustainable this is, because ships are only going through with extraordinary steps. Their transponders turned off a U.S. Navy escort.

So, it's not clear that this is a long-term plan, but it's in this gray area that you see this conflict between the U.S. and Iran starting again.

One of the other key challenges here, as you pointed out, is -- is what is the authority by which the U.S. is doing this? Once again, Vice President J.D. Vance, refused to call this a war, even if it says -- even as he said, there's no end date on it. So, it certainly sounds like it might be a forever conflict. Here's a look at what that could mean in terms of the authorities Congress should have to regulate the president's ability to carry out war.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ALEX PITSAS, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: On the U.S. side, some of the language that's being used, particularly whether it is or is not a war, is specifically around the U.S. War Powers Resolution, or the War Powers Act, rather, in which the president would have 60 days at that point to either withdraw the forces after committing them to hostilities without getting congressional approval. And so, when they said, you know, major hostilities were over, the clock reset. And so, some of this is really a wording game with Congress for accountability purposes.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LIEBERMANN: And that's the bigger picture here. It's not only a conflict over control of the Strait of Hormuz, but in the United States on the political scene, it's a back and forth between the authorities that President Donald Trump is using to carry out what is and has proven to be and will continue to be an incredibly unpopular conflict with Iran.

Salma?

ABDELAZIZ: Very interesting context there from Oren Liebermann on not only the fight over the Strait of Hormuz, but the fight over the conflict itself back in D.C. Thank you so much for that.

Israel has launched a new round of strikes targeting southern Lebanon. The IDF says the move was retaliatory after Hezbollah reportedly launched two drones at Israeli forces that were stationed in the border security zone. The U.S. ambassador to Israel says violent settlers in the West Bank are damaging the country's reputation. Mike Huckabee's comments come amid a surge in attacks against Palestinians there.

During his visit to the occupied territory this weekend, Huckabee met with Palestinian-Americans, including relatives of U.S. citizens who were killed by Israeli settlers. On Saturday, CNN's Jeremy Diamond asked him point blank why the U.S. is not leveraging the financial, military, and political support it provides to Israel in order to stop the violence. Take a listen to how he responded.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MIKE HUCKABEE, U.S. AMBASSADOR TO ISRAEL: How do you know I'm not?

JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, because the attacks are continuing, sir.

HUCKABEE: Yeah, but I think it's important for you to know that I think I've taken as strong and as public a stand as anyone has regarding the lawless behavior of a very small minority, and that's why I'm here today to do that very thing.

DIAMOND: Do you feel like the Israeli authorities are doing all they can, sir, to confront this settler terrorism, as you call it?

HUCKABEE: I don't know. I mean, I would like to think that they are going to take all of our concerns very seriously, and that they will look at it.

DIAMOND: But are you demanding Israeli authorities do more?

HUCKABEE: Well, I don't have the right to demand anything. I'm certainly requesting.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ABDELAZIZ: The Israeli government has condemned settler violence, but it is facing international criticism due to a lack of arrests and legal action against those responsible.

Still to come here on "CNN Newsroom," Germans are heading to the polls for a crucial state election that could put the far right AfD party in power. We have the details just ahead.

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[05:32:32]

ABDELAZIZ: Welcome back. I'm Salma Abdelaziz in London. Let's take a look at today's top stories.

U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner are trying to sell a new peace proposal to both Russia and Ukraine. On Saturday, they presented Washington's IDs to Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow. A White House official said they discussed, quote, "plans for next steps," which will be announced in the coming weeks.

And the U.S. military says its forces struck three Iranian crude oil carriers. This was on Saturday. U.S. Central Command says its forces permanently disabled two of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps' crude oil carriers and sank yet another one, another crude tanker, in the Gulf of Oman. The Iran Guard warned strikes on U.S. military vessels will intensify if the blockade continues.

The U.S. ambassador to Israel addressed Israel to rising violence in the West Bank during a visit to the occupied territories. Mike Huckabee suggested it would be in the Israeli government's interest to take action against settlers that are carrying out what he called terrorism among Palestinian communities. He says the attackers make up a minority of Israeli settlers but are damaging the country's reputation.

Voting is now underway in key regional races in eastern Germany that could put the far right in charge of a state government for the first time since World War II. The Alternative for Germany party is seeking a win in the eastern state of Saxony-Anhalt. There are still major hurdles, though, for the party to expand its success into mainstream German politics. Many popular conservatives have denounced AfD, and German intelligence has classified it as a right-wing extremist organization. The party has also been blacklisted by a so-called firewall agreement by all the other parties to keep AfD out of power. But leaders could get around that if AfD wins an outright majority.

For more on all of this, we are joined by CNN's Frederik Pleitgen. Good morning to you, first of all. Thank you so much for being on with us, Fred.

Polls have opened, of course, and it seems like there are so many eyes on this vote. Why does this matter so much? What is the atmosphere like? And remind us of the significance here.

[05:35:07]

FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, first of all, you're absolutely right. I think a lot of eyes definitely are on this German election internationally, but of course also here in Germany as well. I can tell you that the leaders of most German political parties will be watching this, some with trepidation because they fear that the AfD could have a very strong showing in these elections, could be very detrimental to the German Chancellor Friedrich Merz as well.

But the question you ask is absolutely key. Why does this vote matter so much? Because if you look at it on the face of it, the state that we're talking about here in Germany, Saxony-Anhalt, is very small. It only has about 2.1 million inhabitants. That's a lot less than the capital Berlin, for instance. But because there is this chance that there could be the first far-right AfD governor ever in post-World War II Germany, that is definitely something that a lot of politicians are looking at very carefully.

And of course, some people here in Germany fear as well. There are some who say they fear that it could hurt Germany's reputation as an international place for business, that they say that it could hurt generally the reputation of this country. I actually managed to speak to Ulrich Siegmund on the campaign trail, and he told me that he believes all of that is nonsense.

He thinks that it would still be a place of international business. And generally, the AfD does feel that they have a chance for the first time to really break through and make it into a governing authority. Let's listen in to what Ulrich Siegmund had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ULRICH SIEGMUND, GERMAN POLITICIAN (through translator): And of course, we will also take on government responsibility with a simple majority. That is quite clear. And why is that? Because we and the AfD stick together. Because we simply do not have the same sort of situation as in the CDU. And because we know that our beautiful fatherland does not have much time left. That every day counts. It will take a long time to rebuild what they have been destroying here for over 20 or 30 years.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PLEITGEN: However, Ulrich Siegmund is going to need a very strong showing to actually make that happen. You mentioned the fact that the other political parties here in Germany, including the conservative Christian Democratic Union, which is the party of German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, are not going to work together with the AfD. So, right now, depending on how many parties actually make it into the parliament, folks believe that if he has somewhere between 43 and 45 percent, that there could be an outright majority for the AfD.

Polls, however, have not given them so much. So, this election is really very much on a knife's edge. And there are many people who believe that the signals that could come from this election could be very important for Germany's political future in the near term, Salma.

ABDELAZIZ: And Fred, I've of course been watching your reporting on this. And you were following, of course, Siegmund on the campaign trail. And you were speaking to his supporters and the issue they brought up again and again as their key issue was immigration, immigration, immigration.

But at the end of the day, this is -- this is local government. Would the AfD even have the authority over those key issues? Would they actually be able to make that impact and that influence that so many fear?

PLEITGEN: Not to the extent that they have been saying. First of all, immigration policy in Germany is obviously set by the federal government. And right now it doesn't seem as though there are going to be any major changes to that. As far as restricting, for instance, immigration is concerned.

However, on a local level, of course, an AfD government or any government in the state could put through measures that could make it less attractive for folks to come to the state of Saxony-Anhalt. Like, for instance, handing out less money to people instead of giving people money when they come in.

Instead giving them, for instance, vouchers or things of the like. So, certainly there are things on a regional level that can be done. However, as far as the federal level is concerned, there really is very little that the AfD would be able to do.

However, of course, one of the things that we have to keep in mind is that then the voice of the AfD, if they had a governor sitting in the state capital of Magdeburg, would become a lot louder also in German federal politics. Like, for instance, the United States, the Germans also have an upper and lower house of parliament. The upper house, which is very similar to the U.S. Senate.

The AfD would then be represented in that because they have the governorship in this one state. So, certainly their voice would become a lot louder. As far as the actual changes in the near term on immigration policy, there isn't really very much of consequence that they would be able to push through, Salma.

ABDELAZIZ: A far-right voice that could become much louder if they win these local elections. Fred Pleitgen there following every turn for us. Thank you so much.

In the United States, a 21-year-old Iranian woman has been detained by immigration officials for more than a year. And she is now facing deportation to a nation where she has no ties or support. The young woman fled Iran after converting to Christianity and says she could face serious threats returning to her home country.

[05:40:09]

But as CNN's Rafael Romo explains, being dropped off in the Central African Republic is also a terrifying prospect.

The detained Iranian woman as CNN not to being dropped off in the Central African Republic is also a terrifying prospect.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RAFAEL ROMO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The detained Iranian woman as CNN not to reveal her name out of fear that her family in her home country may face persecution. And also because she's afraid that she may face retribution from immigration authorities here in the U.S.

According to her attorney, the 21-year-old woman has been held for 14 months by Immigration and Customs Enforcement at the Stewart Detention Center in Lumpkin, Georgia, located south of Atlanta. Last month, she received a document stating that the U.S. Department of Homeland Security intends to deport her to the Central African Republic, a war- torn country she has no ties to.

I don't know from where the order came that they needed to send me to the Central African Republic, and I had to sign a paper, the Iranian woman told me, over the phone. "And I was so shocked, so shocked, I was scared, and I kept telling them that I wouldn't know what to do in that country. This is making me crazy," she said.

Her attorney, Martin Rosenbluth, told me his client entered the country legally through the Mexican border in 2024, but won what is known as a withholding of removal case, which used to mean she could stay in the country. Rosenbluth also told me her arrest at her apartment here in Atlanta in June of last year was completely unnecessary because she had been fully compliant with immigration authorities.

During our telephone interview, I asked the Iranian woman why she fled Iran in the first place, and she told me the following, quote, "I left Iran because I converted to Christianity. I was born a Muslim, and I converted to Christianity, and we had some problems with the IRGC, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, so I had to leave the country.

Rosenbluth said, they are --

(END VIDEOTAPE) ABDELAZIZ: Coming up next on "CNN Newsroom," the Lindsay Clancy murder trial has gripped America's attention for weeks, but it bears striking similarities to a case more than 25 years ago. After the break, the dark parallels between two mothers put on trial for killing their children.

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[05:45:38]

ABDELAZIZ: Murder trial of Lindsay Clancy has brought maternal mental health into the national spotlight. In the U.S., she admitted killing her three children, but she said she suffered from postpartum psychosis. A jury could not decide on guilt or acquittal and a mistrial was declared.

We don't know what's next for her, but we do know what's happened in cases like hers before, 25 years ago, Andrea Yates drowned her five children in a bathtub while also allegedly suffering from the same condition.

CNN's Randi Kaye has more on the parallel stories.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RANDI KAYE, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Houston, Texas, June 2001, a mother calls 911 to report an emergency.

DISPATCHER: Are you having a disturbance? Are you ill or what?

ANDREA YATES: Yes. I'm ill.

DISPATCHER: Do you need an ambulance?

YATES: No, I need a police officer. Yeah, send an ambulance.

KAYE (voice over): The caller, Andrea Yates. She calmly tells the 911 operator to send an ambulance after she drowned all five of her children in the bathtub. Noah, John, Paul, Luke and Mary ages six months to seven years old. Yates later confessed.

POLICE: After you drew the bath water. What was your intent? What were you about to do?

YATES: Drown my children.

KAYE (voice over): As with the Lindsay Clancy trial, now, a legal battle ensued about her mental state and whether Yates was not guilty by reason of insanity. This was Yates being interviewed by a forensic psychiatrist weeks after her arrest.

YATES: The cartoon characters were talking to us.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The cartoon character --

YATES: The characters saying, hey kids, stop eating so much candy. KAYE (voice over): Before the murders, Yates had been hospitalized four times, attempted suicide twice, and was on and off psychotic medications. On the day she killed her children, she waited for her husband to leave for work. Then, one by one, drown them in the tub.

Remember, Lindsay Clancy's husband was out running errands she sent him on when she killed her three children. The prosecution argued Andrea Yates was mentally ill, but also that she knew what she was doing was wrong.

Her defense lawyer claimed she was in a psychotic state and believed she was saving her children from Satan and hell. I asked her lawyer about that in 2012.

KAY'S LAWYER: What loving mother would want their children to burn in hell.

KAYE (voice over): At her 2002 trial, the jury found Yates guilty and she was sentenced to life in prison.

KAYE: Later, it turned out that a key prosecution witness had lied about a non-existent episode of law and order, where a mother killed her children and then claimed insanity. The appeals court ruled that that may have influenced the jury's rejection of Yates insanity defense. And Yates was granted a new trial.

KAYE (voice over): Three years later in 2006, she was tried again. This time, Yates was found not guilty by reason of insanity. She was committed to a Texas state psychiatric hospital and remains there today. When I met with her lawyer in 2012, he told me she was being treated for depression and taking medication for her bipolar disorder.

KAYE: I'm just curious, does she feel any guilt?

KAY'S LAWYER: She mourns and she feels a great deal of remorse, and perhaps she can equate that into guilt.

KAYE (voice over): Randi Kaye, CNN.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ABDELAZIZ: More news coming up right after the break.

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[05:53:02]

ABDELAZIZ: Some Europeans are trying to break into the market for commercial space missions, and they had a major win yesterday. The German start-up, Isar Aerospace, launched its uncrewed Spectrum rocket in Norway on Saturday. This was following a series of delays earlier this year.

The rocket carried five small satellites, as well as a technological experiment. Its take-off marks the first successful orbital flight to originate from inside Europe. French butter is widely considered among the best in the world. Now, a

boutique in Paris is dedicated entirely to the common dairy spread. Le Butter Shop near the Eiffel Tower is giving customers taste sensations with unexpected fruity and savory flavors. CNN's Saskya Vandoorne has this report.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ERWAN LEO, "LE BUTTER SHOP" OWNER: You're going to find chocolate, there is vanilla here.

SASKYA VANDOORNE, CNN SENIOR FIELD PRODUCER (voice-over): It's the star of French cuisine.

LEO: Such as onion, here it's herbs.

VANDOORNE (voice-over): And a new shop in Paris is hoping to spread the love of butter beyond what's offered in the supermarket.

LEO: In France, it's cheese, wine and butter for me. Those are the main things that you think of. And so, like Italians, maybe more olive oil. Here it's butter.

VANDOORNE: It's called "Le Butter Shop", and it features 30 different varieties of butter Some savory, some sweet, plenty of options to please the palate of a country that churns out more than 350,000 tons of butter a year.

LEO: There are so many different flavors, so many different fat percentages, from different regions, different cows. Before buying the butter, you can taste all of them, like you do in an ice cream shop, basically.

VANDOORNE: A staple of French cooking, from sauces to dough to a topping on toast, France's agriculture ministry estimates each citizen consumes 8 kilos or 17 pounds of butter a year. It's always been a classic, but specialty butter is having a moment. And some patrons in the shop say they like the fresh take.

[05:55:07]

TANYA KHAVAANSKA, SHOPPER: At some point it got a bad rep, but now it's back to, like, you eat your fats, and that's excellent, and it is very French. It's very good. It's -- I mean, look at the French people, they are healthy moving, good looking.

VANDOORNE (voice-over): Blocks of butter at the shop range from $5 to $15, which can be a bit rich for an everyday product, but some shoppers say it's changed the way they butter their bread.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: So, I never thought that butter could have so many different ingredients embedded in it. So, chocolate butter, raspberry butter as well. So, super good.

(FOREIGN LANGUAGE)

VANDOORNE: Saskya Vandoorne, CNN Paris.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ABDELAZIZ: That actually made my mouth water.

Hong Kong's first robot-operated convenience stores opened this week. Shoppers were welcomed by a humanoid shopkeeper in the three 24-hour stores that offer snacks and drinks. Now, shoppers say the experience was entertaining, but some said there is still some room for improvement in the technology.

Pizza makers are putting a whole new spin on their craft at a competition in Argentina. The action was hot, literally, as the cooks tossed, twirled, and juggled pizza dough on Friday.

The Pizza and Empanada World Cup in Buenos Aires is a three-day event featuring 12 categories, from mozzarella to speed and the biggest pizza. The top prize was a trip to Italy for next year's World Pizza Championship.

Venezuelan chef Rubens Pena took the freestyle title.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RUBENS PENA, FREESTYLE PIZZA WINNER: It's a big, enormous joy because not only is one person, but behind there's a whole country, a whole work in process, days going to sleep late, hard-working days. And thanks to that work, here you see the results.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ABDELAZIZ: Thank you so much for watching. I'm Salma Abdelaziz. "CNN This Morning" is coming up next.

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