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New Tensions in the Strait of Hormuz; Anthropic CEO Sounds the Alarm; Trump Weighs in on Irish Unification; Latino Voters Rethinking Support for Trump; Mexican Workers Settle Lawsuit with Automakers; Ukraine Reports New Barrage of Russian Drone Attacks. Aired 4-5a ET

Aired September 13, 2026 - 04:00   ET

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

[04:00:00]

SALMA ABDELAZIZ, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, and welcome. I'm Salma Abdelaziz in London. Let's go straight to our headlines.

There are reports of an attack in the Strait of Hormuz this morning with Iran saying one of its commercial vessels was struck. This comes just hours before Iranian officials and Arab Gulf leaders are set to meet face-to-face. And one of the leaders in artificial intelligence is sounding the alarm over its rapid advance. Here, his exclusive interview with CNN after a week of eye-grabbing headlines. And the other front in Russia's war with Ukraine. Russian drones are entering the airspace of NATO countries, mostly without consequence for Moscow. How the bloc is responding to hybrid warfare.

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

ABDELAZIZ: All right. We're getting reports of a new strike in the Strait of Hormuz. And this is just hours ahead of expected talks on the future of the waterway. The news is coming from the Reuters news agency. It is quoting a regional governor as saying that an Iranian commercial vessel was hit in recent hours. It said one person was killed and three others were injured.

Meanwhile, Iran's allies, the Houthis, say that they've struck a military base in Saudi Arabia, but without saying when. That's happening after Iran said it expects to hold talks with Arab Gulf states on the future of the strait. This is set for Monday. The meeting is to be held in Oman. And an official from Bahrain says his country will not be there unless Iran stops its strikes in that critical waterway. This is how Iran's president described the meeting.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MASOUD PEZESHKIAN, IRANIAN PRESIDENT (through translator): They will discuss an understanding on this Hormuz route and notify the relevant international maritime organization of its status. As a result, within that framework, and in accordance with international law, this route will remain open provided that the United States ends its blockade and its acts of aggression against us.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ABDELAZIZ: For more on all of this, we are joined now by HA Hellyer. He is a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress. He is also a senior associate fellow at the Royal United Services Institute for Defense and Security Studies. Good morning to you, first of all. Yet another strike in the Strait of Hormuz this morning.

But I want to begin by talking about the Bab al-Mandeb Strait, of course, along the Red Sea, which the Houthis have just claimed control over this week. We often describe it as a strategic prize. It absolutely is. But it's about looking about that geography to break it down. If we could pull up that map, we're going to have our producers pull up that map. Could you talk me through just how big of a prize this is for the Houthis and for Iran?

HA HELLYER, SENIOR FELLOW, CENTER FOR AMERICAN PROGRESS AND SENIOR ASSOCIATE FELLOW, RUSI: Well, thank you very much, Salma. Always a pleasure to be on your program, albeit the topic not being a very happy one. Of course, this is an incredibly important waterway. It doesn't simply matter to Yemen, to Saudi, or to the countries that you can see on the map, but, of course, much further upstream.

If you look at the map further up, then, of course, you'll get to Egypt, you'll get to the Suez Canal. And there you go. That is the connecting point between so much of the world and then the Mediterranean Sea. And then, of course, Europe and further beyond.

Going another route would mean going down to the bottom of the African continent around the Cape of Good Hope, which, by the way, some have already made the decision to do, rather than to risk already over recent months and in previous years through Bab al-Mandeb, because they were concerned about precisely this type of eventuality. But now it's not a risk-averse exercise that people are considering. It is now clear that the Houthi movement controls that particular strait, that particular stretch of waterway.

[04:05:00]

And while I wouldn't say that the Houthis are simply an Iranian proxy, but a stretch of waterway, and while I wouldn't say that the Houthis are simply an Iranian proxy, but these days the difference between a proxy and a very closely aligned ally is, I think, frankly, just semantic. The reality is that, yes, of course, it's an independent movement, but it's one that has benefited tremendously from Iranian support.

And at the present moment in time, the Houthi movement is aligned utterly with the Iranian regime, which means that right now you have the Iranian regime wielding control over both sides of the Arabian Peninsula. This is particularly concerning, I think, for Saudi Arabia, because it was relying on Bab al-Mandeb and the Red Sea, of course, more generally, to be able to export its oil and to provide an alternative route to the strait. Not an alternative that would be permanent, because you can't replace a Strait of Hormuz completely, but to at least be able to reduce and minimize the damage that was being wrought upon it by having Iran in control of the strait. So, no, this is very significant and substantial news.

ABDELAZIZ: Let's talk more about Saudi Arabia, because, of course, you brought up that this yet again chokes that ability to export oil. We've also heard today that that crucial East-West pipeline, rather, is yet again shut down the land route because of drone attacks that the Houthis are claiming.

Walking into these talks tomorrow around the Strait of Hormuz, just how compromised is the kingdom's position? How badly wounded is it, considering also that the U.S. did not carry out the strikes that were requested by the kingdom on the Houthis? And is there any rehabilitating their position here at the negotiating table?

HELLYER: So, I think that the kingdom, as well as the Gulf more generally, has been aware that the Houthis were another card in the Iranian regime's toolbox, as it were, for months. And this is why, I think, earlier on, you can see multiple reports indicating that the Saudis did not want this war to go ahead.

And it wasn't just the Saudis, of course, it was the entirety of the GCC. They made it very clear to the American president that this was a bad idea. They did not want war on Iran. Not out of any sympathy for Iran, but because they knew that the Strait of Hormuz would come into play, and then other consequences, including, frankly, one of the more predictable ones, that the Houthis would become more of a nuisance than they'd already been.

I think that they have been shown to be correct in this regard. And I think that they are walking into these negotiations because, frankly, what is a better alternative? They do not want to escalate. They don't want to take the Gulf into a deeper, more protracted war. They want to try to de-escalate. This is the same, by the way, same scenario that, as I said, the entirety of the Gulf has been trying to avoid. They are all going to the negotiation table tomorrow and looking for a way to try to get out of this.

The Bahrainis are, of course, the more hawkish in this regard, but nobody wants a protracted war in the Gulf. But having this sort of negotiation take place right now, while I do think is the correct course of action, means that they are being pushed to do so against the backdrop of war that they did not want, without getting the support from the ally and security partner that they thought underwrote all of their security decisions in a wider regional security architecture that has not been stable, that has been erratic, and again, took them to war at a time that they did not want to go to war in their own region, and with the cooperation and backing of the worst power from their perspective to do so, i.e., the Israelis.

ABDELAZIZ: HA Hellyer there in Cairo, giving us a preview of the positions of both Saudi Arabia and Iran ahead of those talks tomorrow. A badly wounded kingdom, a strengthened Tehran after that major win for the Houthis in the past couple of days. Thank you so much for that analysis.

[04:01:00]

HELLYER: Thank you.

ABDELAZIZ: Bad weather, a missing ship, and 140 passengers on board. It sounds like the start to a movie, but it's a very real mystery taking place on the Java Sea. An Indonesian rescue agency says it is searching for the Virgo Transport 8, a ship that set sail from East Java going north to Brunei Island carrying 243 passengers. The agency says 103 people were evacuated onto other vessels due to the bad weather, when the troubled ship, quote, "lost contact." The head of the agency also said a team was deployed as well as other vessels plus a helicopter to that last known position of the ship, but it is still not clear what happened to it. Indonesia relies on ferries for travel between its many, many islands, but safety standards are not always enforced.

Now, to one of our lead stories this hour. One of the top leaders in artificial intelligence is warning of danger ahead if the whole industry does not slow down. Anthropic star Dario Amodei says unrestrained development is raising the risks that swarms of A.I. agents could take over the internet. He says it could lead to cyber- attacks, bioterrorism, or major economic turmoil.

In an essay on Saturday, he wrote, I have become convinced that fully addressing the risks requires even more prudence. Not just investing in risk prevention, but pacing the rate of capabilities advancement so that risk prevention has time to keep up. We must slow the pace at which we improve the capabilities of A.I. models. The measures I propose to advance the frontier at a safe pace will not be easy, but I believe we owe it to humanity to try.

Dario Amodei's essay follows a series of very alarming headlines for the Anthropic company. It says it has blocked multiple accounts suspected of trying to use A.I. models to develop biological weapons. Anthropic has also reported that foreign competitors are seeking to weaponize the company's artificial intelligence. Three Chinese A.I. labs have been accused of an industrial-scale campaign to extract capabilities from Anthropic's cloud model.

And all of this comes after an Anthropic researcher resigned over concerns that the company and its competitors are not acting responsibly when it comes to A.I. development. On Tuesday, James Coxon warned that people building A.I. are privately expressing fears that it could kill us all.

Earlier, CNN's Anderson Cooper spoke with Dario Amodei about Coxon's warning and why it is important for A.I. companies to work together. Here's a part of their conversation.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: Obviously, the reason we're talking is these headlines that have come out. Jacob Coxon, who recently resigned from Anthropic, made headlines last week saying the people building A.I. earnestly believe that it could kill us all by the end of the decade. There's a current employee, Evan Hubinger, an alignment science lead, he agreed, saying, we really do earnestly believe A.I. could kill all humans. I personally think it is greater than 10 percent chance within the next decade.

Do you believe, earnestly believe, that A.I. could kill all humans? And what percent chance do you think it is?

DARIO AMODEI, CEO, ANTHROPIC: So, you know, I -- you know, it's funny. I agree with Jacob much more than I disagree with him. You know, and it's, you know, it's an interesting resignation because when he left, he said, you know, I think Anthropic is the most responsible player, right? I think Anthropic is the most aware of these issues. He wasn't calling out us. He was calling out the dynamic of the industry as a whole moving too fast.

Now, you know, I think I already said, you know, these sort of unconditional probabilities, you know, I used to kind of talk in that way because it's kind of an easy way to express I think there's some chance that things go wrong, but, you know, but -- you know, but it's not all that high. But again, I think it's more illuminating to think in terms of, you know, how do you decompose those probabilities? What are the paths in which things go well? And what are the paths in which things go poorly?

And so, instead of saying, you know, it's a 10 percent chance, that sounds like it's a roll of the dice, I think it's much more illuminating to say, well, that forks into different paths. And if we take the right paths, then the chance of something going wrong is very low. If we take the wrong paths, then the chance of something going wrong could be even higher than that.

And so, let's focus on our agency and our ability to take the right paths instead of the wrong paths. And I think that the way to take the right paths is for the industry to work together. Again, you know, we'll talk about the proposal that I've put out today, but at the end of the day, the industry has to work together, and it's harder, but to some extent, the world has to work together.

[04:15:00]

If we go too slow, I still believe that the wrong people will be in charge of the technology. And, you know, that, again, will bring the probability of things going wrong very high.

COOPER: So, what you're proposing is called pacing the frontier of the A.I. industry. And you write, we must stop the pace of the A.I. industry. 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. 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 they observers inside your company and these other A.I. companies, ideally globally, but certainly in the U.S., who would monitor it, they would have employee access, what power would they have?

AMODEI: 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. 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 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 were 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. 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, 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, one of the important things that I need to call for here is, as we get to the pace of model releases, 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 -- 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 with all the industry players, and we can all talk together, and the government can make sure that we're not doing anything nefarious from the perspective of antitrust and collusion. We're just trying to make our systems safe and to work together on making the systems safe. And so, I think that's an important role for the government to have.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ABDELAZIZ: Be sure to tune in to Monday's Anderson Cooper 360 for much more of this exclusive interview with Dario Amodei. That's at 8:00 p.m. Eastern Time or 1:00 a.m. Tuesday in London right here on CNN.

Now, Amodei says Anthropic is committed to installing third-party evaluators with full company access to monitor all A.I. developments, and he is urging his competitors to impose similar guardrails. Elon Musk posted, Dario is right on X. And OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said committing to independent evaluators is, quote, "a great idea," and that OpenAI will do the same.

We have so much more news to come here on CNN. President Trump's Ireland trip took an unexpected turn. What he said that's sparking immediate reaction and debate on both sides, and hundreds of Mexican workers have settled a class action lawsuit against a group of automakers, how they say they were deceived right after a short break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[04:20:00]

ABDELAZIZ: During his quick visit to Ireland, the U.S. president stepped into one of the nation's most sensitive political debates. Donald Trump said that Irish unification would be, quote, "fantastic." This is while he was meeting with Ireland's prime minister.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, U.S. PRESIDENT: 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, 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 would be a great thing. I mean, how can it be bad?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ABDELAZIZ: Now, those comments quickly drew criticism from the British government and unionists. It's a divisive issue, to say the least, that U.S. presidents usually avoid talking about.

[04:25:00]

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

In Dublin, thousands rallied to protest the visit, carrying signs calling him a warmonger and referencing late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Protests were also held at Shannon Airport and in Doonabeg, where Trump's golf resort is located. Our Julia Benbrook, who's following the president's trip, has more for us.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JULIA BENBROOK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: President Donald Trump is spending his weekend here in Ireland. This is a two-day visit, but it's not an official state visit. Instead, it serves as an example of the way that some lines get blurred during some of Trump's travel. He started with some official visits, but then he's spending the bulk of his trip in Doonbeg, where the Irish Open is taking place at one of his properties.

Now, early in the day on Saturday, he was greeted by the Irish president, Catherine Connolly. The two had a handshake. There was a lot of pomp and circumstance, and then they had a kind of behind-the- scenes discussion, a quick little meeting, and then he went on to see the Taoiseach, Micheal Martin. Now, that's where we expect that a lot more of the policy discussions took place. This was a bilateral sit- down, and reporters were able to come into the room.

Prior to this meeting, a White House official had told our team that some of the top areas of discussion were going to be international issues of mutual interest, including economic development and building businesses for both countries. Take a listen to how Trump summed up the relationship between the two.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: We've had some discussions on trade and various other things. We have a big relationship with Ireland, and that will continue stronger than ever. But it's doing very well. The two countries do very well together. We've had a very long, but I would say it's never been as good as it is right now.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BENBROOK: So, again, in some ways, he was just swinging through Dublin, as he now is in Doonbeg, where the Irish Open is taking place. We know this is a president who loves golf. He often spends his weekends in Bedminster or in West Palm Beach playing himself.

But this trip, it really comes with some big issues looming over it, including the ongoing conflict in Iran, which has now stretched into its sixth month. Poll after poll shows that Americans are not happy with the way that Trump has handled that conflict so far. And the midterms are just weeks away now. In fact, he just participated in the first of its kind midterm convention in Dallas, where Republicans looked to engage voters ahead of those crucial elections.

Reporting in Dublin, Julia Benbrook, CNN.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ABDELAZIZ: Still to come here on CNN Newsroom, some Latino voters who supported President Trump in the 2024 election are now having second thoughts. You can hear directly from some of them in a key district in Colorado.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[04:30:00]

ABDELAZIZ: Welcome back to CNN Newsroom. I'm Salma Abdelaziz in London.

U.S. senators will head back to Capitol Hill this week, but at least one powerful man may be a no-show. The Senate returns Monday after a five-week recess, but Senator Mitch McConnell has not said whether he will join his colleagues. The Kentucky Republican has been absent for three months due to health issues. He was hospitalized in June. This is after a fall, then spent time at a rehabilitation center, according to a spokesperson. McConnell has been recovering at home since that time.

President Donald Trump is bleeding support among Latino voters. This is a key group that helped propel him to power just two years ago, but polls are now indicating many Latinos who supported him then have buyer's remorse now. One example is Colorado's 8th District, where Republican Congressman Gabe Evans is in a toss-up race with Democrat Manny Rutinel.

The area is 40 percent Latino, and CNN's John King was there to talk to some of the voters who are second-guessing their support for Mr. Trump.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JOHN KING, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Platteville, Colorado, population 3,000, a frontier outpost back when the railroad spread west, now a quiet ranching town with a giant say in the country's direction. Miko Rios took charge of the Silver Spur when his mother died last year. He is a registered Democrat and a 2024 Trump voter.

MIKO RIOS, COLORADO VOTER: But the charisma caught my attention. I felt like we were a little stagnant for a while, and I wanted some change.

KING: Secret recipe, just like the colonel.

RIOS: Exactly.

KING: OK, got it.

KING (voice-over): But margins are down and costs keep going up for everything, including flour for the homemade bread. Keep going up, despite Trump's 2024 promise they would come down quickly.

RIOS: I don't believe it has changed. The economy I feel like right now is hard for small businesses, and that's what our supplies, our insurance, our cost of living has gone up so much.

KING (voice-over): Platteville is in Colorado's 8th congressional district. Republican Gabe Evans is the first term incumbent, and the race is a toss up.

KING: Has Congress done anything in his first term to help you?

RIOS: Not that I can feel. Nothing comes to mind.

KING (voice-over): And yet registered Democrat Rios is undecided.

KING: Would you prefer a more moderate candidate, personally?

RIOS: I would.

KING (voice-over): Manny Rutinel is the Democratic candidate, a progressive who beat a moderate in the Democratic primary. Adams County is the blue southern end of Colorado 8, suburban neighborhoods within sight of the Denver skyline. Trump ran stronger among Latinos here in 2024, and that helped Congressman Evans.

Manny Tejada and his wife, Alexandra, are active in Hispanic community organizations. He is a Republican, but knows a lot of longtime Democrats who voted for Trump in 2024 because of inflation and because of Biden immigration policies.

MANNY TEJADA, COLORADO VOTER: When they opened the borders, that inflated, you know, like millions of migrants that you will see, you know, on the streets. So Hispanics have been here for decades. They saw that and they didn't like that.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes, so the cost of the aluminum, I want to say three, four years, it's double or more.

KING (voice-over): Now costs are still going up, and Tejada says it is Trump's immigration policy and tone driving the conversation.

KING: You think it's going to swing back to the Democrats this time?

TEJADA: I think so. I think so.

[04:35:00]

KING: And the reasons why? People disappointed in Trump or disappointed in Evans?

TEJADA: You know what, Trump -- mainly Trump. We're hardworking people, we're people of faith. So when you start attacking, you know, our community, then everybody, you know, comes together and says, hey, this is not right.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ABDELAZIZ: The U.S. Justice Department says that for the first time ever, it successfully deported an immigrant using a secretive court. A woman accused of helping plan a failed terror plot back in 2024 was sent back to Afghanistan. This is after reaching an agreement with the DOJ. She conceded she was an alien terrorist. But major legal questions about this court's little-known procedures will remain a mystery.

Now, Congress created the Alien Terrorist Removal Court 30 years ago to quickly deport those accused terrorists when standard immigration proceedings could expose national security secrets.

Hundreds of Mexican workers say the promise of the American dream turned into a bait-and-switch. This is according to a class-action lawsuit, which included auto companies Kia and Hyundai, as defendants' workers claimed they were recruited to Georgia for skilled engineering and technical work. But after arriving in the U.S., it became a completely different story. And there will be no trial because the defendants settled for more than $11 million. Rafael Romo has the story for us.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ISIDRO ARELLANO, ENGINEER: You are, like, what, 24, 25 years old, and you see an ad that says, hey, you can go to work in the United States. Obviously, it's going to sound like, I don't know, like a dream job, like an amazing offer.

RAFAEL ROMO, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Isidro Arellano says he was in his last year of engineering school when he saw an ad at his college in Mexico. He says the ad was for engineering jobs at car factories in the United States. The ideal candidate, young engineers or technicians from Mexico willing to work north of the border.

ROMO: Can you tell me what happened after you applied?

ARELLANO: They called me, and they told me that they have a, a job opportunity to work in a plant that makes parts for the automotive industry.

ROMO: Full of dreams, Arellano says he traveled to the United States in 2021 for what he describes as a quality engineering job, whose duties included taking precise measurements for auto parts. Did you, at any point, feel like this was a little too good to be true?

ARELLANO: Yes, it crossed my mind like a couple of times.

ROMO: A class action lawsuit filed in 2022 in federal court in Atlanta alleges that Arellano and about 600 other Mexican workers were induced to move to the United States with false promises of a skilled job, but relegated to performing assembly line work, subjected to six 12-hour workdays per week with mandatory overtime while American-born workers were not, and paid half of what American-born workers earned for the same job in the same location.

JULIA SOLORZANO, LEGAL AND POLICY DIRECTOR, CENTER FOR MIGRANT RIGHTS: We're receiving calls from workers talking about issues that they were having in the auto supply industry in Georgia and Alabama.

ROMO: Julia Solorzano is the legal and policy director of an organization that advocates for migrant workers.

SOLORZANO: These workers allege that they were recruited for professional jobs doing engineering and technical work in auto supply plants in Georgia. And so these are workers who had degrees and professional qualifications to do that kind of work. In fact, the terms of their visa required them to do that professional work.

ROMO: According to the class action lawsuit, the workers came to the United States with what is known as a T.N. visa, which, according to the U.S. State Department, allows eligible Canadian and Mexican professionals to work in high-skill jobs in the country under the free trade agreement between all three countries known as the USMCA.

DANIEL WERNER, CIVIL AND LABOR RIGHTS ATTORNEY: What it turned into, as is claimed in the case, was a bait and switch. The workers ended up, these engineers ended up in the United States working at these plants and were doing manual labor. They were not working as engineers.

ROMO: Just before trial last month, the defendants, including Hyundai Mobis and Kia Georgia, as well as Georgia-based staffing agency SPJ Connect and Georgia recruiting firm Allswell, reached an $11.5 million settlement. In a statement to CNN, Kia says they resolved the matter saying, the court made no finding of liability of wrongdoing by Kia and no fines or judgments were entered against the company. Kia denies the allegations and denies it played any role in recruiting the claimants.

CNN reached out to Hyundai Mobis and Allswell, but got no response. SPJ Connect appears as dissolved in State of Georgia documents.

[04:40:00]

WERNER: The allegation is that they used the T.N. visa program to provide a supply of labor at their plants. And the way they used the T.N. visa program, according to the lawsuit, was to circumvent the immigration laws.

ROMO: What is the message that this case sends to foreign workers in general, workers who may be in the same situation these Mexican engineers and technicians were?

WERNER: Even in this environment, we have this group of workers who stepped forward and decided that they were wronged and did something about it, and achieved justice.

ROMO: Isidro Arellano returned to the United States and is legally working as an engineer. Other workers in the class action lawsuit who left jobs and family have not been as fortunate.

Rafael Romo, CNN, Atlanta.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ABDELAZIZ: Now, to Sweden, where voting is underway in an election that could bring the far right into government. Sweden's prime minister, who currently leads a minority center-right coalition, is promising jobs to members of the hard-right Sweden Democrats if he secures a second term in office. But it will be a very close race, with the center-left opposition leading polls by a knife edge.

Coming up next on CNN Newsroom, devastating new attacks on Ukraine, with Kyiv reporting that hundreds of drones targeted the country from Russia. We look at where the conflict stands now and the ways in which it is evolving.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[04:45:00]

ABDELAZIZ: Ukraine is reporting a new barrage of Russian missiles and drone strikes. The Ukrainian president says 37 people were wounded when a residential building was hit in the Odessa region. We're going to show you some video from the state emergency services. And it shows how fires gutted parts of the high-rise building.

Ukraine's Air Force says that more than 450 drones targeted the country overnight. And at least two people have been reported killed in an overnight drone strike on a residential area in the Zaporizhzhia region. A woman was pulled alive from the rubble of her home, saying her sister was one of those killed.

Now, these new aerial attacks come as Moscow faces accusations from EU nations of drone attacks inside their territory. Earlier this month, Germany blamed Russia for a drone attack on Leipzig airport in August. That incident caused major disruptions and raised serious security concerns all across Europe.

Romania has also said that Russian drones have breached its airspace dozens of times. This is just one example of what's known as hybrid warfare. And the U.K.'s cyber-spying chief has singled out Russia as a threat on the digital front. The head of GCHQ said infrastructure, democratic processes, supply chains and public trust have all been targeted in Britain and the rest of Europe.

I want to take a closer look at this idea of hybrid attacks with Major General Mick Ryan. He spent 35 years in the Australian Army and is now a senior fellow for military studies at the Lowy Institute. He is also author of "The War for Ukraine: Strategy and Adoption Under Fire." Thank you so much, first of all, for being with us on the program.

I think when we hear about these attacks and, again, Germany now squarely blaming Russia for the attack on Leipzig airport, when we hear of these attacks, my first question is motivation. Why? Why would Russia carry out these attacks when you would think that President Putin has his hands full with a war in Ukraine? What is the driving force here?

MICK RYAN, MAJOR GENERAL (RET.), AUSTRALIAN ARMY AND AUTHOR, "THE WAR FOR UKRAINE: STRATEGY AND ADAPTATION UNDER FIRE": Well, first, it's good to be with you. The reason why the Russians are undertaking this program of subversion and sabotage, which they've done since 2022 at a significant level, is firstly to undermine political support across Europe for supporting Ukraine and its defense against Russia's brutal invasion. It's also about testing the resolve of NATO and its decision-making apparatus. And will each NATO country support each other if Russia keeps turning up the heat here?

Finally, Putin's war in Ukraine is going poorly. He's made no progress in his ground war this year. And he's trying to find every way he can to demonstrate progress to his own people back home in Russia.

ABDELAZIZ: So, part of this, as you said, you've laid out three reasons there. Part of this, as you said, is testing boundaries, testing those lines with the E.U., with NATO, with these Western blocs. So, let's take this German example here. In the airport, an explosive-leading device right by a cargo plane. It did not, of course, cause a plane to explode. But let's say it did. How much further could this go before a red line is crossed here?

RYAN: Well, it's hard to know, because throughout this war in Ukraine, the red lines for Europe have continually moved. But firstly, there would have to be a level of attribution to Russia that European nations and NATO are comfortable with to take action on. This would probably lead to expulsion of diplomats. It would not lead to some kind of military action by NATO. But it might lead NATO to increase readiness along the Baltic borders and Finland and places like that. But it would be very hard to definitively ascertain Russia would be to blame. And without that, it would be very hard for NATO to take decisive action.

ABDELAZIZ: So, let's take Germany's response on this particular incident as an example here. Because critics say that Berlin was essentially muted and that its response amounted to nothing more than a few more sanctions. What could German leaders have actually done to change Russia's behavior, given the caveats that you just mentioned there?

RYAN: Well, I think most importantly, there needs to be attribution. Russia needs to be blamed. European nations have known for over four years that Russia is engaged in this campaign against them.

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Their intelligence agencies have sufficient information to assign attribution to Russia. They are sharing information. And so, far, there has been over 150 of these kinds of attacks, which also include airspace violations, GPS denial and other subversion across Europe in the last four years. Call out Russia, start throwing out more diplomats and not allow other Russians to come into the country who might have any kind of link to Russia's government, military and intelligence services.

ABDELAZIZ: But one could argue that these steps are being taken on some level. The European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, said on Monday that LIPSEC marks a new escalation on European soil. Is what's being done now enough or should we see Europe act collectively in a more defensive manner?

RYAN: Well, I think the evidence shows us it's nowhere near enough because Russia keeps not only continuing these attacks, but has escalated them in the last year. So, until Europe stands as one, calls out Russia, says it's not going to tolerate this kind of provocation and starts making Russia hurt with even more sanctions, more expulsions and further actions along its border to ensure Russia can't weaponize migration and this kind of things.

Russia is going to continue its campaign. Putin doesn't feel the Europeans are pushing back hard enough. He will keep going with this campaign. ABDELAZIZ: Until Europe stands as one, President Putin will continue this campaign. That analysis from retired Major General Mick Ryan from Brisbane, Australia. Thank you so much for breaking that down with us.

CNN Newsroom. We'll be right back right after a short break.

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ABDELAZIZ: A huge upset in U.S. college football. Number four ranked University of Texas stunned number one Ohio State with a 24-23 victory. The Buckeyes took a 20-point lead into the fourth quarter, but the Longhorns roared back with 21 unanswered points. Texas completed their meteoric comeback with a one-yard touchdown with just 25 seconds left in the game.

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 fought back in the second to even up the match. Then Rybakina roared back to seal the win in the third set with an ace. The loss shattered Sabalenka's 19-match winning streak at the Open. Rybakina now has three Grand Slam titles. The 27-year-old Russian-born Kazakhstani will replace Sabalenka as the world number one under the new rankings.

The action will now shift to the men's final later today as American Ben Shelton faces off against Germany's Alexander Zverev, the top seed. Shelton is the first African-American man to reach a U.S. Open final since 1972 and is just one win away from becoming the first American man to claim a major singles title in 23 years.

Thank you so much for watching. I'm Salma Abdelaziz. I'll be back with another hour of CNN Newsroom right after a quick break.

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