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Iran Turns to Gulf States for Talks on Hormuz; Trump Says He Would Love to See Unified Ireland; A.I. Safety Fears. Aired 3-3:30a ET

Aired September 13, 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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[03:00:00]

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, Iran is hoping some Arab Gulf states could help to work out the future of the Strait of Hormuz after talks with the U.S. are at a standstill.

While visiting Ireland, the U.S. president dips his toes into the unification debate. He says he would love to see a united Ireland.

A warning about the future of A.I. from Anthropic's CEO, the exclusive interview that he gave to CNN.

Welcome. We begin with a new move by Iran to cut the U.S. out of the decision about the future of the Strait of Hormuz. Tehran says it expects to meet with Gulf Arab countries in Oman on Monday to discuss management of the strait. An official from Bahrain says his country is not coming unless Iran stops its strikes in the Strait of Hormuz.

But as Tehran prepares to talk, we are getting reports of a new attack in the strait. The Reuters news agency is quoting a local governor, saying that an Iranian commercial vessel was hit, which killed one person and wounded three. A British monitoring group also reported a strike earlier, but it is unclear if they are talking about the same incident.

Larry Madowo is keeping an eye for us on those developments, and he joins us now live. Iran is proposing talks that leave the U.S. out, Larry, and Bahrain says it won't join unless Iran stops its strikes. So, how big are those developments? What else have you heard?

LARRY MADOWO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: This is a major development, Ben. And Iran essentially and what Bahrain is saying is that this meeting in Oman is a photo op that they will not be a part of. They don't think it's a gesture of peace. Until the attacks stop, until responsibility is claimed, until the harm is named, they will not be a part of that, is a strong statement from this Bahrain official speaking to CNN. They also said that the strait is not a privilege to be granted, it is a right under law on the -- of the sea open to every flag. It should remain controlled by none.

So, that is a strong statement from Bahrain, and they're saying that as we hear these reports of an attack on the Strait of Hormuz, there's two separate incidents. The one reported by the U.K. Maritime Organization, that is this body that monitors trade, and this one reported by Iranian state media of a vessel hit, one person killed and seven wounded.

And this governor, according to Iranian state media, blamed the U.S. terrorist enemy for that. Again, it's not clear if that referred to the same incident, but that's the problem here. Since the start of the war six months ago, the strait is generally closed. During, before the start, about 120 vessels used to go past. On Saturday, only 13 made it through, and that is the scale of the problem that Bahrain is referring to.

HUNTE: And while I've got you here, Larry, what is the latest on the Saudi pipeline attack? What's happening now?

MADOWO: We understand that -- President Trump was asked about this while traveling in Europe, and he said Iran was probably responsible. Initially, in two separate instances he was asked about it, he said everything will work out fine. Everything will work out fine and dandy, he said. But eventually pressed, there was this question, and this is how the president responded.

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REPORTER: Iran responsible for the attack on the East-West Pipeline, and when do you think Saudi Arabia is going to be able to get that back up?

DONALD TRUMP, U.S. PRESIDENT: Well, I think they are. Probably, they are. They're -- you know, and they're on the balls of their feet right now, but I think they are. They've been in charge of that for a while.

We've had discussions. The Houthis called us, and they don't want to.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MADOWO: And that's President Trump essentially saying that, yes he blaming Iran for this. And Saudi Arabia has its back to the wall right now because the Houthis and the Iranians essentially have managed to make it very difficult for it to export its oil resources after the closure of this East-West pipeline which allowed it to access the Red Sea and the current blockade on the Strait of Hormuz.

Separately, Iraqi officials claim to have found the drone launch site from where the drones targeting this pipeline were launched from and seized it. That is still an allegation. It's not confirmed because some of the bodies, some of the militias within Iraq who could have been responsible for this have so far not claimed responsibility, and in fact, one group has denied.

HUNTE: Okay. Larry Madowo reporting live from Nairobi, thank you very much, sir. [03:05:01]

I appreciate it.

U.S. President Donald Trump is facing backlash over controversial remarks he made during his visit to Ireland. He said that Irish unification would be, quote, fantastic while meeting with Ireland's prime minister. It is, of course, a big issue that U.S. presidents usually avoid talking about. Unionists want Northern Ireland to stay in the U.K., while Republicans want it united with the Republic of Ireland.

Here is what Mr. Trump told reporters on Saturday.

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TRUMP: Well, I don't want to cause any problems. But I will tell you, I'd love to see it unified. I have friends on both sides, great people. They're Irish people. How can they be bad, right? I'd love to see it unified. I think it would be a great feather in everybody's cap if that happened.

Now, the U.K. will have something to say about it, obviously, but I think it'd be a great thing. I mean, how can it be bad?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNTE: Those comments quickly drew criticism from the U.K. government and unionists. The leader of the Democratic Unionist Party said that Northern Ireland's future, quote, will be decided by the people of Northern Ireland, not by commentary in London, Dublin, or Washington.

President Trump held those talks with Irish leaders early on Saturday morning in the hours after he arrived there. Then he headed to the Irish Open, which is actually being played at one of his golf resorts. He's expected to attend the final round of that tournament in the hours ahead.

Thousands rallied in Dublin on Saturday to protest that visit, carrying signs calling him a warmonger and referencing the late sex offender, Jeffrey Epstein. Protests were also held at Shannon Airport and in Doonbeg, home to Trump's golf resort.

Joining me now is Daniel Mulhall, who served as Ireland's ambassador to the United States. Good to see you, sir. President Trump has said he would love to see a united Ireland, and that it could happen now. How significant are those comments coming from a sitting U.S. president?

DANIEL MULHALL, FORMER IRISH AMBASSADOR TO THE UNITED STATES: Well, first of all, no American president has ever said anything remotely like this. Even the presidents who were very, shall we say, partial to Ireland, President Biden, President Clinton, President Obama never said anything to indicate what their personal preference might be, though might -- one might assume that they probably are partial to the idea of a united Ireland. So, it is unusual to see President Trump. And it is significant for a president, a serving president, to say something like this. But it -- and predictably, of course, nationalists in Northern Ireland have responded enthusiastically. Unionists have responded with a hostile attitude.

Now, it's important to say that this does not mean that the United States is going to be you know, actively campaigning for a united Ireland. But it is interesting that a serving president saw fit to express his views in this way, in a way that no previous American president has ever done or probably would've done, because they would've seen the political pitfalls of entering into this territory.

HUNTE: Well, saying that, how important is it for Ireland to maintain a close relationship with Trump when he has taken such a strong position on an issue that sensitive?

MULHALL: No. Look, I mean, Ireland and the United States are bound by ties of history, people-to-people links, the 6 million Irish that went across the Atlantic in the 19th century, and now more recently, economic links that are phenomenally important to Ireland, and indeed important to America as well. You've got huge amounts of American investment in Ireland, and you've got increasing amounts of Irish investment in the United States. You've got a huge trade relationship, and you've got a tourism connection as well. I think there are about 15 American cities that are connected by flights from Dublin. So, it's an extraordinarily important relationship.

And Ireland is a kind of a bridge, if you like, between the United States and the European Union at a time when maybe that relationship is not as good as it maybe ought to be. So, the stakes for Ireland are huge, and so far Ireland's relationship with the Trump administration this time around has been quite good. The Irish Taoiseach, Micheal Martin, has been twice now in the Oval Office for St. Patrick's Day, and although there was trepidation about how those visits might work out, given that there are differences between the two countries on policy issues, in fact, those two visits went very well.

And this visit to Ireland so far, there was worry about how President Connolly might react to President Trump, given that she's on the left and has criticized (INAUDIBLE). And again, that meeting seems to have gone off fairly smoothly.

So, I would say from the Irish point of view with Donald Trump during the second term, it's been so far so good, and the government will want to preserve that good relationship for the coming two years.

HUNTE: All of that being said, though, Trump's comments have already been rejected by several politicians. How concerned should Ireland's leaders be about those reactions, and what could potentially happen next with this?

[03:10:05]

DANIEL MULHALL: Look, we know very well because we live this all the time, that you have two points of view. Well, you probably have three points of view. You have people who are really in favor, passionately in favor of a united Ireland. You have those who are passionately against, and you have people in the middle who maybe could be persuaded either way.

So, at the moment, there's no plan for a referendum on Irish unity. And therefore this issue, to some extent, is interesting, but not very significant. So, I don't think the Irish government will be worried about this. They will have other things on their minds, which is when and how to bring about a referendum.

There's growing pressure in certain parts of Ireland for a referendum on Irish unity, which is provided for in the Belfast Peace Agreement. The British government says they have no plans to hold a referendum on Irish unity, and I think that's the issue that's going to be dominating this debate over the next few years rather than, you know, the views of President Trump. But it is interesting to find a president of the United States willing to make comments of that nature in favor of Irish unity.

HUNTE: I just wonder, how does this relationship between these two countries feel different compared to when you were ambassador?

MULHALL: Well, of course, the Trump administration's second time around is very different from the first Trump administration. President Trump is far more powerful now. He has far fewer restraints on him than he had in his first term when he was still learning the job. But-- and, of course, every country in the world has struggled in the last year-and-a-half to find a way of dealing with Trump Mark Two, because it's very different from Trump Mark One.

And I think Ireland, if you look at the spectrum of countries, has done quite well, and we'll be quite happy that the relationship has actually thrived during the second Trump term, although it's been a very unconventional and very unpredictable presidency in many ways.

So, for example, we have a very large trade surplus with the United States. Yesterday in his remarks, Donald Trump seemed to -- he was critical of it, but he kind of accepted, it's okay. It's fine. The Irish are good. I like what they're doing. You know, he praised Ireland while being a little bit maybe critical of our trade surplus. Again, Ireland is very dependent on U.S. investment. He didn't really target that in any way. There have been differences over Gaza, over the occupied territories. Again, that didn't come up yesterday in any kind of critical way.

So, I would say the Irish government will feel that things are going pretty well, and they would like this relationship to remain on an even keel over the next two and a half years. And, obviously, the visit to Doonbeg, and the president really loves that golf resort. It's one of the -- it's one of his pride and joys, and he will really be enjoying today, seeing the great golfers of the world playing his course. And that's going to give him a really positive feel towards Ireland.

I mean, one of the reasons, he has no ancestral links with Ireland, but that golf course has given him an affection for Ireland, which has turned out to be very valuable from an Irish point of view. HUNTE: Well, things are good for the president. Daniel Mulhall, thank you so much for your time, and speak to you again soon, I'm sure. Thank you for now.

MULHALL: You're very welcome. Thank you.

HUNTE: One of the top leaders in artificial intelligence is urging the whole industry to slow down. Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei says the unchecked development among rival A.I. models is raising the risk of out-of-control technology. He warned it could lead to cyberattacks, bioterrorism, or major economic issues.

In an essay on Saturday, Amodei wrote, it's my worry that in six to twelve months, such a swarm could be capable of taking over the entire internet. The scale of damage would continue to increase from there if A.I. becomes more powerful without the necessary guardrails.

Earlier, CNN's Anderson Cooper spoke with Amodei about his three-step plan for pacing the frontier and why it's important for A.I. companies to work together. Here is part of their conversation.

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ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: So what you're proposing is called pacing the frontier of the A.I. industry, and you write, we must slow the pace at which we improve the capabilities of A.I. models. Progress will seem fast, and we must make wise use of the time we gain. And there's three parts to this. One is embedded evaluators, part two is democratic coordination, and part three is global coordination. Sam Altman at OpenAI just endorsed the idea of embedded evaluators.

Essentially, you are suggesting -- I don't know if are there observers inside your company and these other AI companies, ideally globally, but certainly in the U.S., who would monitor it, they would have employee access. What power would they have?

DARIO AMODEI, CEO, ANTHROPIC: Yes. So, before I even get to that I'm just -- I'm very grateful to see, you know, support for this proposal just in the first few hours of having put it out by Sam Altman, by Elon Musk, by, you know, various legislators and government officials.

[03:15:15]

I think it's a positive sign about, you know, our ability to make something that looks like this plan work.

But to get to your question, yes, embedded evaluators, so there is precedent for this. If you look at how banks are regulated, right, there's all kinds of, you know, there's all kinds of rules about, you know, how banks are allowed to do their business, right? Because, you know, we don't want to have financial crises.

And one of the things that are done in some cases is, I think they're called supervisors in the financial industry, but they're folks who are independent of a company, who are embedded in the company day to check their practices. And I think we can do the same thing in -- I think we can do the same thing in A.I.

COOPER: The other thing you are calling for in this three-part proposal is democratic coordination, which is essentially democracy, all the companies that are under democracies having these evaluators, having this coordination. And probably the most important, because the argument is, well, if the U.S. or companies are the only ones regulating themselves, what about does China get ahead? You're calling for global coordination. That's obviously a lot more difficult.

AMODEI: Yes. You know, in this three-step proposal, each step is more difficult than the one before, and Anthropic was kind of getting the ball rolling by committing to the first step. But we shouldn't kid ourselves that these next two steps are going to be more difficult and we may not succeed. And so my proposal is a proposal that we should try.

Now, again, from all the agreement from others that I've seen in just the first few hours of putting out the essay, that creates some optimism, but that needs to follow up with results, so, yes, pacing among companies in democratic countries.

Now, the -- one of the important things that I need to call for here is, you know, as we get to the pace of model releases, right, that's commercial activity. And in order for companies to coordinate directly on commercial activity, they need to do so working with the government.

And so the one thing that we're asking for from government right now, right, I mean, there's also this question of what should the regulations be. But there's something even simpler that the government can do right now, which is it can sit down in the room and with all the industry players, and we can all talk together, and the government can make sure that we're -- you know, we're not doing anything nefarious from the perspective of antitrust and collusion. We're just trying to make our system safe and to work together on making the system safe.

And so I think that's an important role for the government to have.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HUNTE: Be sure to tune in to Monday's Anderson Cooper 360 for his, much more of his exclusive interview with Dario Amodei. That's at 8:00 P.M. Eastern on Monday, 1:00 A.M. Tuesday in London, right here on CNN.

Ukraine is reporting a new barrage of Russian missile and drone strikes. The Ukrainian president says 37 people were injured when a residential building was hit in the Odessa region. You are now looking at video from the state emergency service showing how fire gutted parts of the high-rise building. Ukraine's air force says more than 450 drones targeted the country overnight.

A mystery is brewing in the Java Sea after the Indonesian passenger ship there with a hundred and forty people still on board went missing after losing contact early on Sunday. Indonesian rescuers are searching for the Virgo Transport eight ship that set sail from East Java going north to Borneo Island carrying two 243 passengers.

The rescue agency says a hundred and three people were evacuated onto other vessels due to bad weather, and then the troubled ship, quote, lost contact. The head of the agency said it deployed a team and other vessels and a helicopter to the last known position of the ship, but it's still not clear what exactly happened.

Indonesia relies on ferries for travel between its many islands, but safety standards are not always enforced.

There is much more to come here on CNN Newsroom.

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HUNTE: We're back. Voting is underway in Sweden in an election that could bring the far right into government. You're seeing some live pictures there of voting. Sweden's prime minister currently leads a minority center-right coalition, and he's promising jobs to members of the far, hard right even, Sweden Democrats, if he secures a second term in office.

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HUNTE (on camera): A test for Sweden, NATO's newest member that shed some of its liberal image in recent years after imposing strict limits on crime and immigration. Sunday's vote is a razor-tight race. It pits Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson's center-right coalition, which won a narrow victory four years ago by pledging to crack down on crime, against a center-left bloc led by the Social Democrats. That's Sweden's longtime dominant political party.

Kristersson says his time in office has been a success.

ULF KRISTERSSON, SWEDISH PRIME MINISTER: We have a decrease in, in, in criminal gang shootings by 75 percent. We had a surge in irregular migration to Sweden. Now we have seen a decrease also in, in those terms by 75 percent. The economy is recovering. We have won the fight over inflation.

HUNTE: But there is a catch. One of his coalition's biggest supporters is a party called the Sweden Democrats, a far-right party with roots in the neo-Nazi movement. They are currently not part of the government, but Kristersson says they will be if he gets a second term.

[03:25:00]

In recent years, the Sweden Democrats have tried to moderate their image and have apologized for past neo-Nazi and anti-Semitic views. But critics say their inclusion is a further shift to the right and a move away from Sweden's core values.

MAGDALENA ANDERSSON, SOCIAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY LEADER: But, clearly, a government completely dominated by the Sweden Democrats and with a prime minister whose wings have been clipped would result in a very different Sweden from the one we have today, a country where we have built our strength precisely by rejoicing in each other's successes and standing together when times are tough.

HUNTE: The opposition has also toughened its stance on crime and immigration. Some voters say those issues are still top of their list.

WILHELM, SWEDISH VOTER: Criminality obviously has been a big topic in these past four years. It's important for me as well. So, just making sure that we're ending up at a solution that is, let's say, sustainable in the long-term.

HUNTE: But others say they're against bringing a far-right party into the government.

EHSAN BRIFKANY, RETIREE: The Sweden Democrats have changed Sweden for the worse. They claim to want to fight criminals, yet they fight against all immigrants.

HUNTE: With both the center-right and center-left blocks similarly aligned on major campaign issues, like the economy and support for Ukraine, Sunday's outcome may depend on how far right Sweden is willing to lean.

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HUNTE (on camera): Elena Rybakina has won her first U.S. Open women's singles title, defeating the two-time defending champ, Aryna Sabalenka. Sabalenka dropped the first set, but pushed back in the second to even up the match. Then Rybakina roared back to seal the win in the third set with an ace. She now has three Grand Slam titles and will replace Sabalenka as world number one under the new rankings.

The action now shifts to Sunday's men's final, as American Ben Shelton faces off against Germany's Alexander Zverev, the top seed. Shelton is just one win away from becoming the first American man to claim a major singles title in 23 years.

That's all I've got for you. I'm Ben Hunt in Atlanta. I'll be back with you tomorrow. See you then.

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