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Trump: 'Big Decision' to Make on Iran; U.S. Justice Department Charges Five in Alleged Russian Murder-for-Hire Plots; Canada's Carney Embraces E.U. Associate Membership; Anthropic Reveals R&D Being Led By Chatbot Claude; Britain's King Charles Warns Of "Existential Dangers" Of AI; Winemakers Face Uncertain Future Following Scorching Summer. Aired 2-3a ET

Aired September 18, 2026 - 02:00   ET

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

[02:00:00]

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IVAN WATSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Hello and welcome. I'm Ivan Watson in Hong Kong. Ahead here on "CNN Newsroom," U.S. President Donald Trump says he has a big decision to make when it comes to Iran as fighting intensifies on a new front. Canada's Prime Minister taking a veiled swipe at Donald Trump as his country hopes to deepen ties with the European Union amid a trade war with the U.S. And as calls grow for more safety guardrails around artificial intelligence, Anthropic is making a startling revelation about the current work of its own chatbot, Claude.

UNKNOWN (voice-over): Live from Hong Kong, this is "CNN Newsroom with Ivan Watson."

WATSON: All right, U.S. President Donald Trump says he has a big decision to make on Iran. In an interview with Axios, President Trump said -- quote -- "I have a big decision coming up. Do I want to go in and annihilate them or do I not? It's a big decision. Anything could happen with me."

Trump's comments come ahead of a meeting with Gulf leaders on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York next week. Two U.S. officials say they are set to discuss the next phase of the war with Iran. Trump again insisted that Iran wants to make a deal with the U.S. to end the war.

Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia says one person was killed and two injured as the kingdom intercepted a drone it says was launched by the Iran- backed Houthi militants in Yemen. It's the first death announced by Saudi Arabia this month since the Houthis intensified their attacks in the region. The Houthis did not claim responsibility, but previously announced military operations on southern Saudi areas.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

STEPHANE DUJARRIC, SPOKESPERSON, UNITED NATIONS: Since the start of September and as of yesterday, our colleagues at the U.N. Human Rights Office verified 55 civilian casualties in 19 incidents in Taiz, Al Hodeidah, Marib, and Lahj. Sixteen people were killed, including 10 children, and dozens of others were wounded. Overall, women and children account for 84 percent of the casualties, 84 percent. But I want to stress that these are only verified figures. Tragically, the actual toll is likely to be much, much higher.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WATSON: The U.N. General Assembly voted on Thursday to allow Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas to address the gathering next week via video. It's the second year in a row for these measures. The Trump administration this week again denied visas to the Palestinian Authority president and other top P.A. officials.

The State Department on Wednesday cited an alleged failure by the P.A. and the Palestine Liberation Organization to -- quote -- "live up to their commitments" -- end quote -- under U.S. law for the continued visa sanctions. The alleged failures to reform cited by the State Department include taking actions to internalize -- internationalize the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, including through the International Criminal Court and International Court of Justice.

And the denial of visas comes as the Middle East is expected to be a key topic of discussion at the annual gathering of world leaders. There's expected to be a high-level event on the two-state solution convened by the French and the Saudis.

Moscow is warning the U.S. not to go through with a potential new round of sanctions against Russia. The U.S. Congress passed a new sanctions bill on Wednesday, which is headed to President Trump for his signature. Among other things, it allows him to slap tariffs of up to 100 percent on countries that buy Russia's oil and gas. They could include China and India. But the Kremlin says any new sanctions would backfire on the Ukraine peace talks.

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DMITRY PESKOV, KREMLIN SPOKESPERSON (through translator): We are, of course, monitoring the progress of this document in the United States Congress. It falls under the category of unfriendly actions. And, of course, the imposition of any additional sanctions by the United States would certainly complicate efforts to find a peace settlement in Ukraine.

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[02:05:03]

WATSON: Well, the first polls opened in the past hour as Russia begins elections to choose its lower House of Parliament. Voting will continue until Sunday in the first such election since Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine. Four hundred and fifty seats in the State Duma are theoretically on the line. But the political process is tightly controlled, and President Vladimir Putin's party is expected to stay on top. Most anti-war candidates have been excluded from the ballot. The U.S. Justice Department is charging five people with allegedly working for Russian intelligence services to carry out targeted killings around the world, including in the U.S. The new indictment reveals an alleged murder-for-hire plot against a prominent Russian dissident on U.S. soil.

CNN's Kara Scannell has details.

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KARA SCANNELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Authorities are calling it a global assassination network. Five people, including three high-ranking members of Russian intelligence, were charged with conspiracy to commit murder-for-hire.

Prosecutors allege, as recently as last month, Russian intelligence recruited a U.S. resident to surveil a prominent Russian dissident in the Washington, D.C. area. According to the indictment, Russian intelligence provided street addresses and gave specific instructions to shoot a video longer than 30 seconds and with multiple angles. They also offered the person $40,000 to eliminate or murder the dissident. And when the U.S. resident declined, the intelligence officials asked if he knew of anyone else to carry out the plan, according to the indictment, saying they have people in Mexico, but they are delayed.

The men are also facing charges of conspiracy to finance terrorism for their alleged roles in attacks on military and civilian infrastructure in Prague and Lithuania, two of Ukraine's allies. They allegedly paid for travel and identified targets as part of those operations. The five men remain at large and are not in U.S. custody.

Kara Scannell, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WATSON: All right, we're going to go back to the Middle East now for more on the war with Iran. We're joined now by Danny Citrinowicz. He's a senior fellow at the Institute for National Security Studies, and he used to lead the Iran branch of the research division in Israel's military intelligence. And he's speaking from Rehovot in Israel. Very nice to see you.

First of all, it's almost like head-spinning, the changes in statements that come out of President Trump's mouth when it comes to the conduct of this conflict with Iran, now a fresh threat against Iran to potentially annihilate it. What would your assessment be of the current state of President Trump's war with Iran?

DANNY CITRINOWICZ, SENIOR FELLOW AT INSTITUTE FOR NATIONAL SECURITY STUDIES, FORMER HEAD OF IRAN BRANCH AT IDF INTELLIGENCE RESEARCH DIVISION: Good morning from Israel. Definitely, we see contradiction in President Trump's statement. It's driven from the fact that he has only bad options. He doesn't have a good option. If you want to annihilate the regime, then you need to bring personnel, but I don't think that Trump has the incentive to do so. We cannot topple this regime only by air. It's obvious. We saw that in the 39 days of war. And if you want to return back to agreement with the same regime, then you have to, at the end of the day, accept the demand, especially in the control of Hormuz Strait.

So, again, we don't know what the exit strategy of President Trump is actually. Again, the contradictions in his tweets are -- actually, we see that happening every day. But I think, again, it's driven from the fact that he doesn't have good options. Prices of oil are rising. And also, the status quo that we are right now is unsustainable, given the Iranian attacks in the Hormuz Strait and the Houthi attacks in the Bab el-Mandeb Strait.

So, the bottom line of things, only bad option. He has a great, big decision to make, but I don't think, eventually, that a decision that he will take will improve dramatically the situation on the ground.

WATSON: OK. So, that's a pretty grim assessment, if you're a member of the Trump administration right now. The biggest changes we've seen, really, over the last week are the Houthi offensives in Yemen and an escalation of fighting not only there but, apparently, across the border with Saudi Arabia. The entire strategic equation seems to have transformed in the last week. Do you see the Houthis as continuing to have the initiative on the ground there? Is there something that Saudi Arabia can do to stem their advance?

CITRINOWICZ: It's a very good question. First, we have to explain one important thing. The Houthis are not Iranian partners. They are Iranian partners that are working and actually serving the Iranian interest in pushing the price of oil barrel extremely high, but they're not getting the orders from Iran.

[02:10:02]

That means that even if you want to pressure the Houthis to stop these attacks, like the Saudis are trying to do right now, you cannot pressure Iran because the Houthis won't hear what Iran has to say.

Now, adding to that, and it's important to say again, that the Houthis are attacking in Bab el-Mandeb Strait, but also Saudi infrastructure, mainly Aramco facilities. That's, again, pushing oil barrel extremely high, the price of oil barrel extremely high.

And I think that they won't stop until the Saudis will agree to lift the blockade over Yemen. And that is problematic for the Saudis because, as we saw with the meeting between the Houthis and American representative in Muscat in Oman a couple of days ago and the other day, the Saudis are not able to build a coalition to fight together against the Houthis because they're getting information, intel from Israel or from the U.S.

But the bottom line of things, it's not going to stop, and that is the Saudis. Same as the U.S., by the way, with the same problematic options. You can escalate, but nobody knows what will happen there. The other side might escalate. Again, they're not going to capitulate or reach an agreement. Any agreement like in Hormuz, now with the Houthis, will have to be accepted or embedded if the Houthis demand for it.

So, the bottom line of things about that is that we have the same problematic problem that we have with Hormuz and Iran, but we're not with the Houthis. There are not going to be any agreements until the Houthis will get what they are -- what they want, mainly lifting the sanctions and the blockade over Yemen.

WATSON: Danny, can I get your assessment of what's going on in Iran right now? There was some deeply sourced reporting out of "The New York Times" this week, reporting that hardliners in Iran had managed to basically torpedo the memorandum of understanding with the U.S. and escalate the conflict there. Does that sound correct or plausible to you? What do you take -- how would you describe the Iranian strategy right now in this ongoing conflict?

CITRINOWICZ: Well, I have to say that I have the utmost respect for "The New York Times," but I'm not sure this story is actually aligned with what we see in Iran right now. Definitely, there are restrictions in the Iranian leadership, goes without saying, but we have to assume, and we know that the MOU was accepted by the majority of votes within the IRGC.

So, definitely, there was a consensus about the importance of the MOU. So, I don't think someone tried to undermine that. Even more than that, there is no way in my mind that someone could have launched missiles without the approval of the commanders of the IRGC.

So, I'm saying, yes, there are frictions, yes, there are debates, but I think there is a cohesion regarding the next step that Iran takes regarding the U.S. Iran has no intention to accept the current status quo. They're going to keep attacking tankers going in the Gulf, not to allow someone to export oil if they are not exporting oil, that's important to say, and they will continue attacking those tankers until something will change.

So, yes, there are debates and discussion behind the scene, but I don't think it has dramatic influence on Iran activity. I think they think that they have unique opportunity, strategic opportunity, to push out U.S. from the region, this is one. And second, even more importantly, to open the straits in a way that will serve their interests. So, in that regard, I think there are debates and discussion, but not like it was discussed or portrayed in "The New York Times."

WATSON: A final question in the little amount of time we have left. We're hearing that there may be a meeting between the U.S. and leaders of Gulf states next week. The Gulf kingdoms invested billions in American weapons and in hosting U.S. military bases. Can the U.S. protect them or have the past six months or so shown that this protection is ineffective?

CITRINOWICZ: Well, again, a very good question. I think that, definitely, it's an important meeting because I think what President Trump will hear for most of the countries is that they have no intention to continue the war. They -- of course, they don't like Iran, they don't like the Iranian regime, but at the end of the day, they prefer stability over everything. So, I think he will get interesting remarks when he's going to meet with them in the very important meeting.

On top of that, to continue with your important question, yes, there are problems in relations between Gulf states and the U.S. They cannot abandon the U.S. The U.S. is the most strong -- the strongest power in the world, but they have to diversify.

They understand, for example, Mecca, Kurds and others, the Saudis, the Turks, it is driven from the fact that they cannot rely only on the U.S. I think they didn't want this war. They were upset that Israel and U.S. went to this war. It's against their interests. Now, they need to work with the U.S. to end this war.

But even more importantly, I think for the continuing future, there will be changes in the relations between the U.S. and the Gulf states. It's not going to be this connection, of course, goes without saying, but you'll see more and more Gulf states working with other partners in the region to bolster their defense.

[02:15:03]

So, in that regard, this is another unfortunate byproduct of this war.

WATSON: All right. Danny Citrinowicz, senior fellow at the Institute for National Security Studies, thank you very, very much for sharing your analysis.

CITRINOWICZ: Thank you very much for inviting me.

WATSON: All right. There's much more to come here on "CNN Newsroom." The Canadian prime minister is speaking out about a European Union proposal to deepen their ties. We'll get some insight on what that could mean for their individual relationships with the U.S.

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[02:20:00]

WATSON: Welcome back to the program. Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney took a veiled swipe at U.S. President Donald Trump during a speech to European Union lawmakers in France on Thursday.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARK CARNEY, PRIME MINISTER OF CANADA: I'm not proposing a third bloc in order to become a great power rival, only with better manners.

(APPLAUSE)

We do not seek power to dominate others.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WATSON: Carney added that Canada is instead pursuing resilience so that no one can control its open markets, impair its sovereignty or undermine its freedoms, democracies or rule of law. His comments came a day after the E.U. Commission president proposed that Canada become the bloc's first associate member which provoked a fresh tariff threat from Donald Trump.

More now on Mark Carney's position from CNN's Paula Newton.

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PAULA NEWTON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: We really don't have any details on what exactly he is entertaining here. He's calling it a deeper alliance, but what he's doing here is really to try and have some kind of insurance policy against what is not just a Trump administration that has been difficult to deal with and obviously engaged in a trade war, but a capricious American electorate. And at this point in time, he said the word there, sovereignty.

And I think he personally, Mark Carney, has been working on this for several months, and he wanted to start in Europe. It's a natural thing for him. He was both a citizen of the U.K. and a citizen of Ireland at one time. And he has been working this, trying to find a way to really push back, perhaps not just against what the United States would want now or in the future, but also China, which is really pushing its weight around the world as well. This is what they've come up with: There is an E.U.-Canada summit at the end of October. Perhaps, we will see more details.

Look, Canadian voters, Mark Carney said, would have to weigh in. And it's no surprise to Canadians that, look, the E.U. itself, if you're a member nation, it's a bit of a hot mess. And Canadians, business people that I speak to every day, say they want less bureaucracy, more of the American model, if you will, not more of the European model. Mark Carney would know this well. He is from Alberta.

And you hear people who still really want that good relationship with the United States. Everyone can look at a map and everyone sees their own bottom line. They want this trade war to end. Now, does that mean you don't want to add on the E.U.? Sure, but they do not want to add on more regulations.

And again, Mark Carney was very clear, anything that happens would have to be approved by all the parliaments. Good luck with that. Canada already has a free agreement with the European Union. Several countries, including Italy and France, have not yet joined.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WATSON: OK, I'm going to go live to Brussels now to speak with Dave Keating, the Brussels correspondent for France 24 and author of the book "The Owned Continent: How to Free Europe from American Military, Economic and Cultural Dependence." Good to see you, Dave.

I guess I'll ask, you know, in the context of your book. Would associate membership for Canada amount to a step towards freeing Europe from American military, economic and cultural dependence?

DAVE KEATING, AUTHOR, BRUSSELS CORRESPONDENT FOR FRANCE 24: Certainly, a partnership would do that. I mean, this is really a desperately needed partnership for both sides because they both face the same issue. They're both dominated by the United States, overly dependent on the United States, and currently threatened by the United States. So, if they can come together for some kind of defensive partnership, that is a good idea. It would increase the sovereignty of both unions.

However, this idea of associate membership, it was kind of thrown out there by Commission President Ursula von der Leyen on Wednesday in her State of the Union speech, but it was not consulted with E.U. capitals, possibly not even consulted with the Canadians. It really shocked people. It shocked me when I heard it in the speech. And we've seen everyone kind of walking away from it since then.

For his part, Prime Minister Carney in his address to the European Parliament yesterday, while he acknowledged the invitation from von der Leyen, he never again used the term. He didn't use it at all in his press conference after the speech. He really stressed that he's talking about a deep alliance.

And as was already mentioned, there is an existing free trade deal between the E.U. and Canada called CETA. It is provisionally enforced even though 10 countries haven't yet ratified it. It can still apply in the meantime even in the countries that haven't ratified it.

But he's talking about something that goes way beyond trade. He wants a military partnership where they are producing weapons so they're less reliant on American weapons manufacturers.

[02:25:00]

He wants them to cooperate on developing their own sovereign payment systems so they're not reliant on the American payment platforms, PayPal, Visa, MasterCard. He wants them to develop cooperation in A.I., in computing, in energy particularly, in critical minerals, which Europe desperately needs from Canada. And he also talked about people-to-people connections. He wants Canada to join the Erasmus foreign exchange program, to be part of the E.U.'s Horizon research funding. And eventually, I think this is the most contentious ask, he wants free movements between Canada and the E.U. I think that's going to be very difficult to get.

But, you know, in the long run, what he's envisioning here is a kind of CETA+++. I think that's what we're going to be working toward. I imagine that by the time of that E.U.-Canada summit in Montreal next month, this talk of associate membership will probably be gone. It was more of a branding exercise to get the world's attention. It certainly got the world's attention, including Donald Trump, who reacted so aggressively to the idea.

WATSON: And you're suggesting that they may have had a misstep using that title of associate member. Can I ask, how would you interpret the reaction from different constituencies across the European Union? Is there a wholehearted, full-throated support for a deepening alliance with Canada? KEATING: Yes, almost universally. So, there is no E.U. country that has come out against this idea in the European Parliament itself. Carney got a standing ovation after his speech. Notably, the far-left has also been very supportive of this idea, which is very interesting, because they're usually against free trade deals. Jean-Luc Melenchon, the far-left candidate for French president in the election next year, came out praising this idea of a partnership with Canada in order to free Europe from United States dominance.

But the far-right does not like this. Notably, the far-right MEPs were sitting on their hands during the speech by Mark Carney. They weren't very happy that he was there. So, it's not universally liked. But certainly, among the centrists and among the left, they are welcoming this idea. Also, when you talk to business communities, they welcome this idea.

I mean, I think, again, as was said, that there's really no realistic prospect of Canada becoming a member of the E.U., being in the E.U. single market, having to pay into the E.U. budget and follow E.U. rules without being involved in the lawmaking in the E.U.'s legislature like is the case for, say, Iceland and Norway, which are basically pseudo-E.U. members, having to follow E.U. law without being able to vote in it. It's really impossible to think that Canada would accept something like that.

But when it comes to the realistic objectives that they're talking about here with a kind of super alliance, it would still be unprecedented. The E.U. has lots of different partnerships with different third countries, but this would go way beyond trade, this would go way beyond what existed before.

And you do hear a lot of excitement about that here in Europe and also in Canada, where they are desperately looking to diversify their trading partners. You know, they're smart enough to know they can't completely cut off their relations with the United States, but they know that it is dangerous for them to be so dependent on the United States. That has been in evidence over the past two years. And Europe is in the exact same position.

WATSON: Dave, one-word answer, please. I don't have any time left. Would Canada and the E.U. even be discussing an alliance if it wasn't for the Trump administration?

KEATING: No, not one of this magnitude. Free trade agreement, yes, but this is happening because of Donald Trump.

WATSON: All right. We're going to have to leave it there. Dave Keating, Brussels correspondent for France 24, thank you very, very much.

All right, still to come here on "CNN Newsroom," Britain's King Charles hosts an A.I. summit as concerns grow over the technology's safety. Why he's warning it could pose an existential threat to humanity. That's coming up, next.

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[02:33:34]

IVAN WATSON, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back to CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Ivan Watson in Hong Kong.

I'm going to turn now to the subject of artificial intelligence because as calls grow for A.I. guardrails, Anthropic says its chatbot, Claude, is now helping build its own successor with little or no help from humans. Take a moment to let that sink in.

The tech company reported Thursday, its chatbot is leading more than a quarter of its research and development work. This comes as Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei called for a slowdown in A.I. development, warning the technology will eventually become smart enough to improve itself without human input.

Amodei also called on A.I. firms to be more transparent by disclosing their technological developments and how they are allocating resources.

In a blog post on Anthropic website, Amodei wrote, quote, "Models accelerating their own development could make it more challenging for humans to understand or control these systems. He says greater transparency is critical to understand how close A.I. is to building its own successor."

Now, this comes on the heels of another shocking warning, this one from OpenAI. In a blog post, the tech company reported multiple instances of its A.I. models going rogue and misbehaving.

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At one point, OpenAI said these models were generating their own instructions to ignore developers' messages. There were six incidents, the company revealed of the model misbehaving, one inserting jailbreak like instructions into its work. Two, added instructions to conceal mistakes searching public databases for exposed key codes and fabricating information. Uploading files to the Internet in order to cite them. Unsanctioned use of an internal database to send messages to other agents, and unsanctioned file-sharing between collaborating agents.

Despite OpenAI's recent acknowledgments and promises to improve safety, "Axios" reports, A.I. models are becoming increasingly capable of finding ways around the guardrails that developers put in place. Attention has now turned to Washington, and what lawmakers could do to protect Americans. At the moment, they aren't doing much. The House is in recess until after the November elections, and President Trump has said no protections are needed.

Senator Cory Booker told our Kaitlan Collins that the president and Congress need to take action now. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. CORY BOOKER (D-NJ): What needs to happen right now when you have professionals, experts, leaders of these huge companies all saying that there's -- there's potentially catastrophic things for humanity, even if its just 3 or 4 percent, you or I would not get on an airplane if out of every 100 flights, 2 or 3 of them would crash it.

This is a time to call into special session to say everything that's going on right now. We cannot do anything, but instead the House, the speaker of the House just let them out on recess. Well, you know what is not going to recess? A.I. development and the rapid pace that it's expanding.

I'm a big believer that this technology holds extraordinary possibility for human potential, human opportunity, human healing. There's so much good. But like John F. Kennedy said that the Chinese symbol for crisis is danger and opportunity.

We've got to focus on the danger and a lot of those dangers isn't the cataclysmic things of the future. It's right now. It's surveillance pricing. It's the scams that are at levels of crimes, stealing money from our seniors.

There's a lot of things going on right now. We should have a special session on this technology that presents real and serious danger to humanity, and begin to put regulations in place. We do it for every area, other area of real danger. The National Transportation Safety Board, the FAA, you name it issue that threatens human life. We have government putting guardrails there.

I'm calling for a special session. All of us come back into congress and deal with this issue.

KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN HOST: Some people might look around at the halls of congress and say, hmm, I'm not sure this is the group that is equipped to regulate an industry that a lot of people even struggle to fully understand. I mean, you're one of the younger members who is in the Senate, but how do you see that? Because I do think there's a real question of whether Congress even knows how to handle this.

BOOKER: This is -- we're talking about artificial intelligence. Let's just talk about simple human wisdom. We need to create more transparencies for these models. We need to have the ability to evaluate them independently, not just the companies. We need to put safeguards on the things that we know cause danger right now.

And in addition to that, yes, if the dangers of A.I. outpace our ability to manage them, then we need to slow down. There are common sense things that we need to do that the good people that have been elected by this country can actually sit down and say, okay, what kind of common sense guardrails can we put on now to make sure that we can even investigate something that happens? Not to mention, do the common sense things that that create transparency and the ability to stop them from happening in the first place.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WATSON: Britain's King Charles is also weighing in on artificial intelligence, hosting an A.I. summit in Scotland. He invited technology leaders and experts to discuss the potential risks A.I. poses to humanity.

CNN's Anna Stewart reports from London.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ANNA STEWART, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, this summit was probably planned a long time ago, but the timing couldn't have been better. As the world debates the risks A.I. could pose to humans, the king hosted the event at Dumfries House in Scotland and brought together A.I. leaders including Jensen Huang, the CEO of Nvidia, Demis Hassabis, the founder and chair of Google DeepMind, as well as A.I. advisors from around the world and even representation from China, according to Buckingham palace opening the event, the king highlighted the very urgent need for the discussion.

[02:40:00]

KING CHARLES III, UNITED KINGDOM: Those who have created these technologies are now increasingly warning that A.I. risks developing darker capacities, perhaps even to take life. And in this regard, if I may say so, there seems urgency in adequately considering the existential dangers of such technologies falling into the wrong hands and being used in potentially catastrophic ways. Surely, then, we need sufficient means of control before it is all too late.

STEWART: The king didn't enter a debate or share any opinions on how A.I. should be regulated, maintaining the usual distance that monarchs keep from politics, but at the same time using royal star power to shine a light on an issue clearly deemed important.

Anna Stewart, CNN, London.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WATSON: Okay, coming up next on CNN NEWSROOM, will Europe's record heat change the way we drink wine? Our Melissa Bell spoke to winemakers in France about what the future has in store. And it may make you thirsty.

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[02:45:51]

WATSON: Welcome back to the program.

Heavy rain and severe floods are sweeping through the streets of Valencia in eastern Spain. Several inches of water are bringing cars to a crawl in Spain's third largest city. Authorities are reporting widespread disruption, including road closures, transport delays and flight cancellations. Some residents say the states weather alert was sent out too late, and parts of the city were already flooding before the warning came.

The alert issued Wednesday night warned of torrential rain and potential flooding. One death has been reported in neighboring Catalonia.

And in Brazil, a severe drought is gripping parts of the nation as the country prepares for the effects of El Nino in the coming months. New images show a river in Central Brazil that has partially dried up. A truck driver who regularly crosses by ferry says conditions have gotten so bad that what used to be a single ferry crossing now requires two. The Brazilian government says it plans to mitigate El Nino's effects on water resources in the coming years.

And in France, wine production is facing an uncertain future after the country's brutally hot summer. CNN's Melissa Bell spoke to winemakers in France's Medoc region about the impact that the heat is having on this year's harvest.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MELISSA BELL, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Never had the harvest started this early in Saint Julien. In the Medoc region, as elsewhere, France's hottest summer on record is changing wine and producing smaller, thicker skinned grapes.

DAMIEN BARTON, CHATEAU LEOVILLE BARTON: Because there's so little juice, of course, the effort we put in the vineyard is divided by the volume we get out of it. So the cost of production for a single bottle of wine will be through the roof. For consumers side, it's wonderful. For the producers side, it's going to cost us a lot of money to produce a single bottle.

BELL (voice-over): And times have been tough for producers of Bordeaux wines for a while, partly because the world is drinking much less of it than it did.

ROBERT JOSEPH, WINE EXPERT AND INDUSTRY ANALYST: In the 1980s, there were 20,000 individual Bordeaux estates. Today, there are around 5,000. Although it's probably 4.900 or whatever, and we're losing them probably at the rate of one a day. They're either uprooting their vines or being swallowed by the next door vineyard.

BELL (voice-over): Fewer drinkers of Bordeaux wines means that only those properties at the very top end can continue to thrive. And amongst them, at the celebration of last years Bordeaux in the spring, the word was already of a small but excellent 2025 vintage, and a very tight market.

BRUNO BORIE, OWNER, CHATEAU DUCRU BEAUCAILLOU: People are drinking certainly less. They are more concerned, but they want to drink better all the time. So we are probably in the on the right -- on the right side of the -- of the consumption.

BELL (voice-over): At the top end, global warming has been driving change for some time here at Chateau Siran. The oldest bottles are more than 100 years old. Now the wines can be drunk sooner. EDOUARD MIAILHE, CHATEAU SIRAN: The fruitiness of the berries is so

lively, and the vinification process have improved so much that the Bordeaux wines were in the past are a bit hard, a bit difficult.

BELL: They need time.

MIAILHE: They needed time. Now you can open a bottle of wine in the -- I always say in the five years following the bottling.

BELL (voice-over): So good news for those who can continue to adapt to a more challenging market and more challenging weather.

SASKIA DE ROTHSCHILD, CEO, CHATEAU LAFITE ROTHSCHILD: We see a trend that goes towards more heat and a little bit less water in the spring and in the summer, which means were harvesting almost ten days earlier than we were 20 years ago. So it's really moving the needle.

BELL (voice-over): That needle moved further still this summer with 53 days of heat wave conditions, making the 2026 harvest even smaller than the last.

BARTON: This cost of production will start to hit even the higher wines because -- because the cost of production is so high. So this global warming will impact everyone. We're not just a consumers problem about volume of wine drank per year or even trends about wine regions.

[02:50:00]

It's really -- it's global warming, literally.

BELL (voice-over): Which likely means more challenging times ahead, even for those chateaus still able to carry the cost of making great wines, despite the heat.

Melissa Bell, CNN, Saint-Julien.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WATSON: Okay. Still to come this hour, are self-driving cars the future of racing? After the break, CNN heads to an autonomous racing league to witness such an event. That story and more coming up next.

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WATSON: Here's a question are robot racing drivers on the verge of surpassing human speedsters? Well, those competing in the Abu Dhabi autonomous racing league certainly think so. Which is the first self- driving series with A.I. robots for drivers.

CNN's Ivana Scatola witnessed one of these races and filed this report.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: For the first time ever, the Abu Dhabi Autonomous Racing League has left home soil and gone international. And where better to begin than here at Imola.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (translated): Imola is fantastic. It's a circuit that's so iconic.

REPORTER (translated): Why are you here today?

UNIDENTIFIED BOY (translated): For the passion!

IVANA SCATOLA, CNN CREATORS SUPERVISING PRODUCER (voice-over): Car racing is woven into Italian culture in a way few countries can match. The Imola circuit near Bologna has witnessed some of the sports most memorable and tragic moments. Infamously, it's the place where Ayrton Senna, the iconic Formula One champion, was killed in 1994. But what would have thought of the scene taking place not far from his statue, the Abu Dhabi autonomous racing league, staging a race for driverless cars driven by A.I.

ALESSANDRO TRUCCI, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, ASPIRE HOUSE OF CHALLENGES: We want a legendary track. Of course, we want a track that could represent a challenge for the teams, and we want also a place that could have some legendary and some history behind him.

SCATOLA (voice-over): Sporting robots powered by A.I. are having a bit of a moment in 2026.

MIKE VALERIO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The humanoid robot named lightning ran the 100 meter race faster than Usain Bolts world record time.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The humanoids is at the back with the green flag.

SCATOLA (voice-over): But it's fair to say when the Abu Dhabi autonomous racing league held its very first race, the results weren't convincing.

[02:55:05]

Two years on, the teams involved in this weekend's race say they've learned a lot and have worked on advancing the technology. Matteo Pini is a software integration lead at team Unimore, who crashed out in the last two races.

MATTEO PINI, SOFTWARE INTEGRATION LEAD, TEAM UNIMORE: We did a lot of analysis on what happened and we implemented some a lot of changes on our forecasting modules. So, the modules that try to predict what other opponents will do and we improve also our control of the car. So how it drives on the -- on the -- on the -- on the track.

SCATOLA (voice-over): This race weekend at Imola is a series first outside of its home in Abu Dhabi. Marco Bertogna is team principal at Italian team Unimore.

MARK BERTOGNA, TEAM PRINCIPAL, TEAM UNIMORE: It's a really the opportunity to show what we can achieve and what the Italian European technology can still do. Like in this big world where U.S. and China are ruling this kind of physical A.I. stuff. SCATOLA: How will the track at Imola be different to the one in Abu

Dhabi?

BERTOGNA: Imola is an unforgiving track. Let's say you achieve very, very high speed and there are very, very little room for errors. So, any time you take a wrong turn, you risk really of crashing in completely your car.

SCATOLA (voice-over): For Team Kinetiz, the Abu Dhabi team, they're away from home for the first time.

CHEE KIONG ONG, DEPUTY TEAM PRINCIPAL, TEAM KINETIZ: It turns out to be extremely challenging circuit for us. It's a very different ballgame from what we have in Yas. In Yas, maybe there's a bit more room on the track for overtaking and for maneuvers, but here, it's pretty extreme.

SCATOLA (voice-over): Robotic taxis have become commonplace in some American cities, where they've been developed to prioritize safety and predictability. But robotic race cars are at the opposite end of the spectrum, prioritizing speed and split-second overtaking decisions.

SCATOLA: Why is it so important to develop the technology in this kind of arena?

TRUCCI: Well, if you think about Formula One, for example, Formula One has been for 50 years, probably, the test bed of all the technologies we are using today in our cars. A2RL (ph) does nothing different from that, putting the A.I. autonomous systems under extreme conditions and testing them under those conditions will allow the teams to learn.

SCATOLA (voice-over): Fast forward to race day and former formula one driver Daniil Kvyat is here to support.

SCATOLA: Do you think autonomous racing can compete with Formula One in the future?

DANIIL KYVAT, FORMER FORMULA 1 DRIVER: I think honestly, I wouldn't want that people miss the point about all this. I want that people see it as a platform for a progress for the future, not to replace the racing, but using this racing activity as a form of improvement.

SCATOLA (voice-over): And after the human drivers had finished for the day, it was time for the robots to have their race.

SCATOLA: So the cars have just been brought out to the grid, and it won't be long until the race starts. They'll do 12 laps of this course and they're programmed not to collide into each other. But the technology obviously isn't perfect. And the real question is how much has the technology advanced from last year to this year?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The first international A24L race.

SCATOLA (voice-over): It turns out not enough.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: But a slow car, and our leaders collide.

SCATOLA (voice-over): A big crash between Unimore and PoliMOVE on lap 10, and a hardware failure for Team TUM, last year's winner, and for all team Kinetiz, made it to the line first, taking a big win.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: An extraordinary finish in victory

(CHEERING)

SCATOLA (voice-over): Which started out as a rookie team only two years ago.

SCATOLA: How do you feel?

ONG: It's overwhelming. It's -- I am still processing that -- all the emotions. I knew that we were P4 and this morning, like before the race start, I was telling myself, it's not how you start, but it's how you finish.

SCATOLA (voice-over): It was pretty impressive to watch and see what the technology can do, but it was also refreshing to see that, for now at least, human perception skills are still superior.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WATSON: All right. Thanks for watching. I'm Ivan Watson. I'll be back for another lap around the track. Another hour of CNN NEWSROOM after this quick break.

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