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Federal Reserve Hikes Interest Rate by 0.25 Percent; Narges Mohammadi's Memoir Details Experience in Iranian Prison; OpenAI Reveals More Cases of Misaligned Behavior; Congress Weighs New Bill to Protect Digital Content Creators; Princess Diana's Brother Heavily Criticizes Royals in New Book; Mexico Caps Independence Day With Military Parade; Gaza Building Collapse Kills At Least 21 And Dozens Trapped. Aired 2-3a ET

Aired September 17, 2026 - 02:00   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[02:00:35]

ROSEMARY CHURCH, CNN ANCHOR: Hello and welcome to our viewers joining us from all around the world. I'm Rosemary Church. Just ahead on CNN NEWSROOM, fighting inflation, the U.S. Federal Reserve raises interest rates for the first time in three years. How's President Donald Trump responding?

Canada looks to Europe amid strained ties with Washington. Could it become the bloc's first associate member?

Plus, a rare interview, Iranian Nobel Peace Prize winner Narges Mohammadi speaks to CNN following her temporary release from prison.

ANNOUNCER: Live from Atlanta. This is CNN NEWSROOM with Rosemary Church.

CHURCH: Thanks for joining us. And we begin with President Trump lashing out after the Federal Reserve raised interest rates for the first time in more than three years. The Federal Open Market Committee voted unanimously Wednesday to hike the key overnight lending rate by a quarter point, and 16 of 18 policymakers expect at least one more rate hike this year. The move underscores the Fed's concern about high inflation, which has worsened in recent months due to the war with Iran. Trump defended his handpicked Fed Chairman Kevin Warsh, but accused other Fed officials of raising rates for political reasons.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: They're raising the rates to -- they're raising the rates to make Trump do as bad as they can possibly do. The problem they have is that we have the greatest economy in history. We have over $21 trillion being invested in this country, which is five times more than we've ever had before. So, they're raising that only for political reasons, and that's a raise against Trump.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHURCH: CNN's Matt Egan is in Washington with more now on the significance of the Fed's rate hike and what it means for borrowers and the economy.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MATT EGAN, CNN SENIOR REPORTER: This was a big moment for Kevin Warsh and the Fed. This is the first interest rate hike in three years, and notably the first rate hike under Warsh, the Trump-nominated Federal Reserve Chair. And this is, of course, the exact opposite of what the White House wants. The president has been demanding not slightly lower interest rates, but dramatically lower rates-the lowest on the planet. And the irony here is that the president's hand-picked Fed chairman is doing the exact opposite.

But what's important to stress here is that this was a unanimous vote. Unlike the historic amount of dissent seven weeks ago, all 12 Fed officials voted in favor of this interest rate hike, including not only Kevin Warsh himself, but some other Trump-nominated Fed officials like Christopher Waller and Jerome Powell, the former Fed chairman, and Lisa Cook, the Fed governor, who the president has tried to fire.

So, this is really the first concrete evidence that the Warsh-led Fed is willing to be truly independent from the White House, and that Warsh he's willing to back up all of his tough talk on inflation with real action.

So, why did the Fed hike? Well, first off, Warsh noted that the economy, in his view, has strengthened in the last seven weeks, and that suggests that the economy can handle slightly higher interest rates. The other factor, of course, is inflation. Warsh flat out said that inflation is a problem. He noted that the Fed has been missing on its inflation target for 5.5 years now, and he's suggesting that that's just not going to stand under his watch.

So, what does this mean for borrowers? Well, it means slightly higher borrowing costs, especially for floating rate debt. So, think credit cards, home equity lines of credit, anything that has an adjustable rate, like certain personal loans and some student debt. It also means slightly higher costs for auto loans going forward.

Now, hopefully, it means some relief from historically high inflation that we've seen over the last 5.5 years. Of course, that's going to be decided in large part by what happens next with the war, which has driven up the cost of diesel, gasoline, and other forms of energy.

Now, the Fed has signaled that it's likely not done yet. Officials are penciling in at least one more interest rate hike this year, but again, that's largely going to be decided by what happens next on the inflation front.

CNN, Matt Egan, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE) CHURCH: All right, let's see how markets are reacting to the Fed's rate hike, and this is U.S. Futures. You can see there the Dow Futures has gained some of that ground it lost. It's added more than 300 points there. The S&P 500 up 40 points, and the NASDAQ Futures have added more than 140 points there.

[02:05:19]

Stocks fell, bond yields moved higher, and the U.S. dollar surged Wednesday afternoon after the Federal Reserve raised interest rates. The major indexes have fallen for three straight sessions, and in seven of the past eight.

Well, for more on this, I want to bring in Tim Mahedy. He is CEO and Chief Economist at Access/Macro. He joins me now live from San Diego. Good to have you with us.

TIM MAHEDY, CEO AND CHIEF ECONOMIST, ACCESS/MACRO: Hi, thanks for having me. Great to be here.

CHURCH: Wonderful. So, U.S. stocks tumbled in response to the Fed raising interest rates a quarter of a percentage point Wednesday, the first rate hike in three years. And coming, our soaring oil and grocery prices are already hurting most people. It also follows the European Central Bank's second rate hike this year. What is your assessment of where things stand right now economically in the U.S. and, of course, globally?

MAHEDY: So, I guess we're starting off with the easy stuff, huh? Yes, it's been a real situation the last couple of weeks. We have started off with the stuff that's going on the treasury market. We had the 30- year yield spike. We had the 10-year Treasury has been moving up. The economy seems resilient. Chair Warsh said this, we've had strong growth. Q2 looked pretty good. Investment, particularly A.I. has been strong.

But there's some real concerns that I have over what was done today and what this means for market rates going forward and for consumers, we have the inflationary shock. Probably two or three inflationary shocks are starting to take hold again. I don't know the 14th time this year, and now we have rates going up.

We have something called the term premium. I want to talk about this a bit tonight. The term premium has been shoving up interest rates already, and now we've got kind of more tailwind to that.

So, credit conditions are going to tighten more than I think they did today. So, it's -- I think we're in the easy part, as a colleague of mine described it. We're in the easy part of the decision tree when it comes to the Fed. Things are going to get harder as we move forward.

CHURCH: Right. Wanted to talk about that because the Fed Chairman Kevin Warsh defied President Trump by hiking interest rates, didn't he? But Trump defended his pick for Fed Chairman while attacking the rest of the board. That's despite the decision being unanimous. Another rate hike is expected before the end of the year. So, could this independence signal the start of a new cycle of rate hikes, and how many might it take to deal with stubbornly high inflation do you think?

MAHEDY: So, as someone that used to work at the Fed, I was happy to see that we have some independents in the building. Mrs. Mich (ph) took over. Great, good news. It didn't take very long for there to be a Truth Social post. I think there's more of those that will be coming.

The president clearly upset around the path of interest rates and what was laid out to be at least one more in the summary of economic projections, which is the, you know, kind of a consensus view of where -- kind of like consensus view, it's where the committee thinks rates could be going, right?

And so, we've got at least one more. I would say there's even more risk that we get two, maybe three more over the next year. That's not going to make the president happy. There's going to be more of these, especially as we go into the election.

I think today, Mr. Warsh said, hey, I'm here for the American people and for the central bank. I'm going to make my own decisions. It was a clear moment of telling the world that he is not beholden to the president, but there's no question that the pressure is going to ratchet up over the next few months. No question at all.

CHURCH: Indeed, of course, the Fed interest rate hike comes as the Congressional Budget Office says the war with Iran is expected to cause a spike in U.S. inflation in the first quarter of 2027, largely due to high energy costs driven by the Iran war. The CBO also estimates that the war will continue to cost the U.S. to $2-3 billion per month. So, how worried should we all be about this, and of course, its impact on inflation and affordability going forward?

MAHEDY: Well, so you've raised a lot of good points that we're all still kind of thinking through and trying to plan out. As I just kind of step back and do like a SWOT analysis, you know, for you MBA majors out there, or those in an MBA program, I should say, there are risks to this, and the risks all point in one direction.

So, while you, you know, normally as economists, we talk with two hands. Others, pluses and minuses here. When I look at where interest rate policy is going, I think to what happened in '24 and '25 when the Fed cut 175 basis points, and the 10-year Treasury eked up over that period of time. That's because market rate expectations were going down, but they're being offset by this kind of chaos compensation factor that is in Treasury yields.

[02:10:03]

Now you've got both those things moving in the same direction. You've got the expectations of future rates going up, and you have this kind of chaos factor also going up, which means there's even more momentum behind upward movement in rates. That means tighter financial conditions, tighter mortgage rates, tighter credit card rates. All of those things are going to start to show up even more than we thought before, on top of the inflationary shocks that you mentioned.

So, the economy has so far been resilient, but we're really going to put it to the test here in Q4.

CHURCH: Tim Mahedy, appreciate your analysis. Thanks for joining us.

MAHEDY: Thank you so much.

CHURCH: Of course. Well, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney is turning to Europe as the country's trade war with Washington intensifies. He's expected to address European lawmakers in the coming hours after the European Union asked Canada to become its first ever associate member. President Trump is not welcoming the move and had a sharp warning for Europe. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: No, I think it's laughable. Look, the whole thing with Canada. Canada has been a terrible trade partner, and no, I don't see that. And if they do that, if I think it's at all a hostile act, I will put very serious tariffs or stop trading with Europe on many things.

So, if they do that, if Europe does that with a bad intention, if it's a good intention, that's fine. If it's a bad intention, we'll put very heavy tariffs on Europe.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHURCH: It's still not clear what being an associate member would entail. The E.U. ambassador to Canada told the Canadian press that the partnership would be unlike anything that currently exists, without giving specifics. Here's how the European Commission president explained it in her State of the Union address.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

URSULA VON DER LEYEN, PRESIDENT OF THE EUROPEAN COMMISSION: We will integrate defense industrial bases. We will make the Arctic a flagship joint project. We will work on energy critical minerals and batteries on A.I., quantum, cyber, and economic security. This is not a partnership against anyone else, but for our common strength.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHURCH: Prime Minister Carney attended von der Leyen's address in Strasbourg, where he received a standing ovation. He said Canada is pursuing a unique alliance with the European Union.

The U.N. General Assembly gets down to business next week with a number of high-level meetings and speeches. President Trump is scheduled to meet with Gulf leaders on the sidelines of the assembly to discuss the Iran war.

On Wednesday he said high gas prices are a small price to pay to prevent Iran from getting a nuclear weapon, and he again claimed that Iran wants to make a deal. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: Well, hopefully we're toward the end of the war, they want to make a deal, and we'll see how that works out. They're very much wanting to make -- Iran is very much wanting to make a deal. We'll see how that works.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHURCH: President Trump also claims that the Russia-Ukraine war is driving up diesel prices, and he predicted gas prices would, in his words, come tumbling down after the midterms, all this comes just one day after the U.S. House passed a measure for the third time requiring President Trump to end the Iran war.

Iran-backed Houthi rebels have released a video of what they say is the wreckage of a Saudi F-15 fighter jet and claim they shot it down over Yemen. In a statement, the Houthis say the jet was downed with a surface-to-air missile as it conducted what they called hostile operations. The video shows Houthi fighters inspecting wreckage and men raising what appears to be the tail fin of an aircraft, which has a Saudi flag insignia.

CNN has not been able to verify or geolocate the footage. Saudi Arabia has not commented.

But the Saudis are accusing the Houthis of a red line attack, saying a Houthi drone was shot down near Mecca, Islam's holiest city, on Tuesday. The Houthis deny the claim. Their military spokesman says the group was targeting Saudi oil facilities and military bases, "Far removed from the holy places."

Well, in Gaza, a deadly building collapse has turned into a desperate search for survivors. At least 21 people, including children, are dead after a war-damaged apartment building gave way in Gaza City. Officials fear dozens more may still be trapped beneath the rubble. CNN's Jeremy Diamond reports.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN JERUSALEM CORRESPONDENT: Well, there still is a lot of uncertainty. Dozens of people still believe to be trapped under that rubble. Their status is not known whether they are alive or dead.

What is known right now is that at least 21 people were killed by this building collapse, according to the director of Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City. This was a six-story building that had previously been targeted by Israeli strikes at the beginning of the war in Gaza in 2023 in the Al-Rimal neighborhood.

[02:15:10]

So, you can imagine a six-story building. You will have dozens of families in that building, which was clearly unstable and ultimately collapsed. We have seen some videos of some dramatic rescues that did take place from that building. One boy, Abdul Rahman (ph), and his sister, were pulled from the rubble in the early hours of this morning, but none of their family have so far been recovered from the rubble.

This is not an isolated incident though. We know that there are many buildings in Gaza that are considered to be structurally unsound and where people are living in them despite those risks.

Eighty percent of all structures in Gaza were damaged or destroyed over the course of the nearly -- last nearly three years. And there are calls now from the United Nations, among others, for the urgent entry of heavy equipment into Gaza, which makes this rescue process so much more difficult because of a lack of that heavy equipment that has not been allowed in by Israel over the course of this ceasefire.

Gaza's housing ministry is also saying that there are thousands of other families that are at similar risk of this kind of collapse due to living in buildings with structural damage or cracks caused by the war.

And all of this is it's important to know to tie it back to the political process, because everything in Gaza right now is basically frozen, waiting for Israel and Hamas to move forward with that ceasefire agreement.

Hamas has said that it is willing to relinquish its weapons under a process negotiated by the Board of Peace, but it says it won't move forward with that until Israel ceases fire in Gaza and moves back its troops at least to that yellow line in Gaza.

And what we've seen instead from the Israeli side are continued near daily strikes that are taking place in Gaza, including assassination attempts against Hamas militants who participated in the October 7th atrocities among other things.

And in Israel certainly, it doesn't appear like any concessions will be made until after the Israeli elections in late October at a minimum.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CHURCH: We have much more to come here on CNN NEWSROOM, including concerns in the U.S. over a new Russia sanctions bill. Why some lawmakers believe the legislation could give too much tariff power to President Trump.

Plus, Sweden's election results are in. We will tell you who is on the verge of taking power when we return.

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[02:22:17]

CHURCH: Welcome back, everyone. The U.S. House has passed a new Russia sanctions bill, which is now headed to President Donald Trump's desk for his signature, the measure allows for new tariffs of up to 100 percent on countries that buy Russian oil and gas. But sources say nearly a dozen Republicans wanted those tariff powers removed from the bill. They and many House Democrats were concerned that new tariffs could lead to more price hikes and further hurt the economy.

But House Speaker Mike Johnson and his team apparently rebuffed any proposed changes to the bill. The measure is named after the late Senator Lindsey Graham, who had pushed it for more than a year before his death in July.

France and Lithuania are conducting joint military drills amid growing Russian pressure along NATO's eastern flank.

The two countries conducted joint live-fire exercises in Lithuania on Wednesday. Military officials say the drills help Lithuanian troops learn how to use French heavy artillery systems. The exercise follows a string of Russian drone incursions in Europe.

Earlier this week, a NATO jet shot down a suspected Russian drone in Lithuania's airspace for the first time.

Sweden's center-left opposition appears poised to take power after a razor-thin race that came down to the final ballots. Public broadcaster SVT announced the incumbent right-wing governing bloc was defeated after 99 percent of the votes in Sunday's election had been counted. Parties led by opposition leader Magdalena Andersson of the Social Democrats are projected to win 175 seats in Sweden's parliament.

Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson's right-wing governing coalition, which includes the far-right Sweden Democrats, is projected to secure 174 seats. Sweden's election authority is continuing to count late arriving ballots and says the process could last until Thursday before the final vote tally is complete.

Well, still to come on this hour of CNN NEWSROOM, an Iranian human rights activist and Nobel laureate speaks to CNN despite the risk of retribution from the regime. We will hear from Narges Mohammadi just ahead.

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[02:29:28]

CHURCH: Welcome back, everyone. I'm Rosemary Church. We want to take a look now at today's top stories. U.S. President Trump is defending Federal Reserve Chairman Kevin Warsh, but attacking the rest of the Fed's board after the central bank unanimously voted to raise interest rates for the first time in more than three years. The president called them very hostile and very political, accusing the Fed of raising rates for political reasons rather than economic ones.

The Federal Open Market Committee voted unanimously Wednesday to hike the key overnight lending rate by a quarter point. The move underscores the Fed's concern about persistently high inflation, which has worsened in recent months due to the war with Iran. And 16 of 18 policymakers expect at least one more rate hike later this year.

[02:30:00]

Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, Narges Mohammadi symbolizes resilience within the Iranian women's movement. She spent much of the last two decades in prison on charges of propaganda and collusion, and has just sat down for an interview with CNN's Jomana Karadsheh.

To avoid putting her at further risk of retribution by the regime, CNN agreed to focus the interview on her new memoir and personal experiences rather than recent events in Iran.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NARGES MOHAMMADI, IRANIAN NOBEL PEACE PRIZE LAUREATE (through translator): I was subjected to a very difficult arrest last December and was assaulted by security forces. The blows I received to my head caused many problems.

JOMANA KARADSHEH, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): In one of her first interviews since her temporary release from prison, Nobel Peace Laureate, Narges Mohammadi spoke to CNN from her home in Tehran, where she says she is recovering and still under medical care. Mohammadi's health severely deteriorated after her re-arrest at this event in December.

After warnings from her family and the Nobel Committee that she was in critical condition, Mohammadi was released for medical treatment in May. She spoke with us about her memoir that's releasing this week.

KARADSHEH: How do you even write a book in Iranian jails and get that writing out?

MOHAMMADI (through translator): Well, getting the writings out was very difficult. I was very fortunate that many of my fellow prisoners, whose names, unfortunately, I still cannot mention, because the Islamic Republic is still in power and some of them are still in prison or being pursued by the authorities. These courageous prisoners helped me get a large part of the book out of prison.

KARADSHEH: So, did you smuggle your writings out of prison?

MOHAMMADI (through translator): It was smuggled out. It was extraordinary. I couldn't have done it on my own.

KARADSHEH (voice-over): Mohammadi, a fearless defender of human rights, has spent much of the past two decades behind bars and, for her activism, sentenced to a total of 44 years in prison and 154 lashes, accused of actions against national security and propaganda against the state.

Speaking with CNN could put her at risk of retribution, but Mohammadi is not worried. She says this is her duty.

KARADSHEH: Every time you speak out, you get punished. Your prison sentence gets longer and longer. You are risking this again with the book. Why did you feel that that risk is worth taking?

MOHAMMADI (through translator): Every moment of my life has involved confronting the system, a system that was systematically violating human rights. This book, too, is part of the course of my life and is written from this perspective. I may have taken risks and there may be consequences, but this is what life is like for us here in this region and in this country.

KARADSHEH: In the book, you describe some of the terrible things that take place inside Iranian prisons. You name interrogators. You name judges. Why did you feel it was necessary?

MOHAMMADI (through translator): In order to document these things, it's better to speak out openly about their methods, to expose and reveal their torture. Perhaps the names remain in the minds of survivors and prisoners, and later we may be able to identify the person.

KARADSHEH: All these years of being behind bars, being denied medical treatment so many times, what impact has that had on your health, on you physically and mentally?

MOHAMMADI (through translator): One of the government's tools of repression is, in fact, depriving prisoners of timely and adequate medical treatment in prison. That seriously endangers their health and in some cases, leads to their death. These deaths are a form of silent execution, without any public attention. Naturally, I was no exception.

I was repeatedly denied medical care, and as a result, I now have medical conditions for which I'm currently receiving treatment.

KARADSHEH: Do you at times sit there and regret the path that you have chosen in your life that has led you to sacrifice your time with your children and your freedom?

MOHAMMADI (through translator): I believe that if I could go back to the moment when I began my struggle, and to each and every moment when I was arrested, even knowing what would happen to me, I would certainly make the same choice to begin the struggle and continue it. I have no doubt about that, and I have no regrets.

But when I look at Ali and Kiana, I find myself faced with doubt. Did I really have the right to deprive them of a very ordinary life, of having their mother with them? That is the difficult part of the question, and I cannot answer it with certainty.

[02:35:00]

KARADSHEH: I can see you've got the photo of Mahsa Jina Amini there behind you and that calligraphy next to you that reads "Woman, Life, Freedom." It has been four years since the death of Mahsa Jina Amini in the custody of the so-called Morality Police and the Woman, Life, Freedom uprising that followed. What has the impact been of this movement? MOHAMMADI (through translator): This is an opportunity through the pages of this book and through this television screen to pay tribute to Mahsa Jina Amini and to all those killed during the Woman, Life, Freedom movement, the events of January, and all the movements that the people of Iran have courageously created over the past 47 years.

If you look at the streets of Tehran and even at cities across the country, you can see how courageously women are standing tall in the streets, despite the fact that the government is repressing them by every possible means in order to push them back.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CHURCH: The Iranian government and official media have downplayed Mohammadi's allegations of mistreatment, despite eyewitness accounts and international public outcry.

OpenAI says it plans to report instances of concerning A.I. model behavior more frequently than it has in the past. The announcement comes after the company identified six more cases of models acting on their own over the past six months. In one rare instance, a model posted what's been described as jailbreak-like instructions, adding that it had been freed from the constraints imposed on other chatbots.

The company says all of these cases involved internal models, but incidents like these have prompted many industry leaders and lawmakers to call for a slowdown in A.I. development to make sure the technology does not escape human control.

The U.S. Congress is considering a bill called the CREATOR Act, which would give visual artists a federal right to protect their signature styles from A.I.-generated imitation. Dozens of creators took their $250 billion industry to Capitol Hill this summer to meet with lawmakers and lobby for the digital creator economy. Their discussions focused on labor policy, artificial intelligence, health care, taxes and intellectual property.

Joining me now is Shira Lazar, a journalist who follows digital culture and social media. Good to have you with us.

SHIRA LAZAR, JOURNALIST AND FOUND OF WHAT'S TRENDING AND CREATORS 4 MENTAL HEALTH: Thanks for having me. I appreciate it.

CHURCH: Of course. So you have been in Washington, D.C. for Creator Advocacy Week, meeting directly with lawmakers to advocate for policies impacting your industry. What have you been asking for and what has specifically come out of these meetings in relation to A.I. and, of course, its growing impact on your industry?

LAZAR: Oh, well, so much. One, we want to definitely have the public and lawmakers look at us as a workforce, not just entertainers. And this week was specifically very historic because Senators Cory Booker and John Kennedy launched the bipartisan Senate Creators Caucus, building on the bipartisan Congressional Creators Caucus in the House led by Congresswomen Beth Van Duyne and Yvette Clarke. And I've actually been deeply involved in this advocacy work, having co-developed the Creator Bill of Rights with Congressman Ro Khanna. So lots has been going on the past two years. But this week, as you mentioned, was about continuing to give creators really a seat at the table for the topics that are important to us, from A.I. protections, privacy modernization, and even things like loans, which it's really hard to get because we are small businesses and in many cases, independent contractors as well, and shared these concerns with lawmakers.

So a key policy that we were looking at as well, and of course, I was invited here by YouTube, so I want to preface that, was the bipartisan NO FAKES Act, which is led by a pretty big coalition of organizations from YouTube to TikTok, the Recording Academy, SAG, and even the NFL, which would, speaking of A.I., protect people, not just celebrities and creators, from unauthorized A.I. replicas of their voices and likenesses. And this is definitely top of mind here and in these conversations.

CHURCH: Right. So those were the things you were asking for. What are you expecting to get from these lawmakers?

LAZAR: Well, it's going to take a lot of time. The hope is after the election, possibly by the end of the year, could we get this to actually happen? The fact is that this is something that is urgent. The TAKE IT DOWN Act happened and was passed revolving around sexually explicit photos. I look at something like the NO FAKES Act, and I haven't publicly gone to say that I am supporting it, but something like that needs to get put into place to protect all of us from our likeness, our voices, your voice as an anchor, and our faces being used in A.I., as well as the everyday regular average person.

[02:40:00]

I mean, in your feed right now, you might have noticed you're being sold different products. Well, a lot of those videos recently have popped up that are fake. They're not just A.I. replicas and A.I. avatars, but they actually are impersonating real people and it is scamming everyone right now. So this is something that needs to be looked at to protect our work, you know, the money we're making, and also it is a danger actually beyond a nuisance.

CHURCH: And Shira, you have been active in these types of conversations for years now. How different is it now with A.I. taking up all the oxygen in the room and changing the way everyone does business?

LAZAR: The fact is I've been involved in emerging technology for two decades. There's always been something, but this is a technology that is advancing at a speed unlike anything we've ever seen before. And we're seeing it, of course, impact all workplaces and industries as well as Hollywood and the creative space.

So it's something that is a hot topic that is brought up in every conversation right now. I'd like to bring it back to the fact that as small businesses and a lot of us as creators, we are running the entire company as a media company. It can help with productivity and efficiency, but we also have to remember that these tools need safeguards and we need to include the companies, the founders, we need to include government, experts, and the industries that it's impacting.

CHURCH: And Shira, why do creators need to increasingly be treated as small businesses and not just influences?

LAZAR: That's a great question. Well, just in the U.S. alone, there's 27 million part-time and full-time creators. According to YouTube had a really interesting stat that the creative ecosystem alone there contributed $55 billion to the U.S. GDP in 2024. These aren't small numbers.

And according to other stats, it's going to contribute or be a $0.5 trillion industry by 2030. So it's time we really take it seriously for how it's contributing to the economy and then looking at the actual workforce and the people that it's building on, on the backs of, and how we make sure that it is a safe and sustainable ecosystem for us and also the next generation.

How many younger people want to be creators? So what kind of environments are we welcoming them into?

CHURCH: Shira Lazar, thank you so much for talking with us. Appreciate it.

LAZAR: Thank you. I really appreciate it.

CHURCH: Coming up next here on "CNN Newsroom," an endangered apex predator that depends on human settlements gets a helping hand. We'll take a look.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[02:47:34]

CHURCH: From rural farmlands to urban neighborhoods, learning to coexist with wildlife is equally beneficial to both humans and animals. Today on Call to Earth, conservationists on a remote Japanese island aim to help a small, but mighty, predator that has historically depended on people for survival.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

HANAKO MONTGOMERY, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Walking along the edge of a forest on Japan's Tsushima Island, a team of researchers look for signs of a rare and elusive creature.

TAKUMA KAITO, SENIOR NATURE CONSERVATION OFFICER, TSUSHIMA WILDLIFE PROTECTION OFFICE (through translator): Most residents are aware of the Tsushima leopard cat and feel positively toward it. But very few have actually seen one. That shows just how rarely these animals are encountered today.

MONTGOMERY (voice-over): The Tsushima leopard cat is listed as critically endangered by the Japanese government, with around 100 believed to remain in the wild.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: [Foreign Language]

MONTGOMERY (voice-over): About the same size as a domesticated cat, its appetite for rodents makes the furry feline vital to life on Tsushima.

KAITO (through translator): The key feature is that this is an island ecosystem. You find species that have evolved unique characteristics, species that have arrived recently and closely resemble mainland Japanese fauna, and species that come from the continent or have long been isolated here.

Within this unique assemblage, the Tsushima leopard cat functions as one of the apex predators.

MONTGOMERY (voice-over): As a species, leopard cats live across an extensive range. But the Tsushima leopard cat is a subspecies that only exists here on its namesake island. Historically, Tsushima Island was what the Japanese call Satoyama.

YOSHIO HANE, VICE PRESIDENT, CONSERVATION SOCIETY OF TSUSHIMA LEOPARD CAT (through translator): Satoyama refers to areas where farmland and forests lie next to human settlements, a landscape rich in nature where people and wildlife coexist.

The leopard cats don't just live deep in the mountains. They've always had a close relationship with people in Satoyama environments. We've learned that such human-influenced landscapes are actually ideal for them.

MONTGOMERY (voice-over): But the balance is shifting. A declining human population has, in part, led to a significant reduction in the farmland the cats rely on for food.

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KAITO (through translator): The cats historically coexisted with primary industries around settlements, but as island populations decline, fields are abandoned.

MONTGOMERY (voice-over): On the other hand, roadkill accidents have become one of their biggest threats. Traps set for other animals, diseases spread from feral cats, dog attacks, and deforestation are also contributing factors to their decline.

But the nationally protected species does have help. The Tsushima Wildlife Conservation Center was established to preserve this fragile population through research, education, and rehabilitation of injured animals.

KAITO (through translator): Yes, many visitors say the Tsushima leopard cat is so cute, which makes us happy, but our center is not a zoo. As a facility under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of the Environment, our purpose is to help people understand Tsushima's natural environment. MONTGOMERY (voice-over): In addition, they monitor the wild population via camera traps and DNA analysis of fecal samples, and help organize the placement of road signs where the cats are known to have crossed.

Meanwhile, the NPO Yoshio Hane helps run, which she says has operated on the island for more than 30 years, is now working to improve their habitats.

HANE (through translator): We designated this mountain as a reserve, cultivate fields, and plant buckwheat. When the buckwheat produces seeds, mice come to feed on them, and then the cats come to hunt the mice. It's a bit complex, but that's how we're working to build a sustainable food environment for the cats.

MONTGOMERY (voice-over): For the conservationists here, who say a recovery of the cats' population is being observed, it all comes back to Satoyama, finding ways to sustainably coexist with the natural world around us.

HANE (through translator): The Tsushima leopard cat serves as a barometer for the human environment. Protecting them is, in essence, protecting our own living environment.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CHURCH: And let us know what you're doing to answer the call with the hashtag, calltoearth. And we have much more ahead here on "CNN Newsroom." Do stay with us.

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CHURCH: Welcome back, everyone. The brother of the late Princess Diana claims that just days after her death, King Charles, who was then Prince of Wales, said she would be forgotten soon enough. The comment appears in Charles Spencer's forthcoming memoir, according to an excerpt published Wednesday by The Daily Mail.

Spencer says the then Prince of Wales launched into a stream of anger with Diana's brother.

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Spencer had objected to William and Harry taking part in their mother's funeral procession, saying Diana would not have wanted them to do so. In an unusually strong statement, attributing a reaction directly to the King, Buckingham Palace suggested that grief had clouded Spencer's memory and judgment. Princess Diana died in August 1997 after a car crash in Paris.

Well, a Paris court has awarded Kim Kardashian one euro in compensation following an armed robbery in the French capital 10 years ago. That is according to The Associated Press, which reports that a lawyer involved in the case says that is the exact amount the Kardashian had asked for. CNN's Melissa Bell has more now from Paris. MELISSA BELL, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Just one euro is what billionaire, Kim Kardashian will receive in the wake of the 2016 armed robbery here in Paris. That's according to Associated Press reporting from the courts, looking into the damages awarded as part of the case.

It was last year that at this court here in Paris, eight men were found guilty of the 2016 robbery that had seen several of them enter the exclusive hotel in which Kim Kardashian was staying for Fashion Week. She was then tied up and threatened in what she later described on "Keeping Up With the Kardashians" as one of the most terrifying experiences that anyone can go through.

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KIM KARDASHIAN, AMERICAN MEDIA PERSONALITY AND SOCIALITE: My door was open like this and then I saw two guys holding another guy down in police uniforms, but right outside of my bedroom, five feet away. So I slid off my bed and picked up my phone and I'm like, I don't know how to call 911 in a different country.

And so I like called Pascal and then the guy came and grabbed the phone from me, threw me on the bed -- and I was like, this is it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BELL: In all, the robbers made off with $6 million worth of her jewelry, including a diamond ring that was reportedly given to her by Kanye West. Most of that jewelry has yet to be recovered, but those eight men have now been found guilty.

The one euro worth of symbolic damages was exactly what Kim Kardashian had asked for because she explained what she was after was acknowledgement of the crime rather than compensation.

Melissa Bell, CNN, Paris.

CHURCH: Mexico celebrated its Independence Day on Wednesday with a parade through Mexico City. The show included a display of military might as members of the armed forces, along with heavy machinery and weaponry, marched through the heart of the country's capital. President Claudia Sheinbaum presided over the festivities.

I want to thank you so much for your company this hour. I'm Rosemary Church. "CNN Newsroom" with Polo Sandoval is next, after a short break. Stay with us.

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