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CNN International: AAA: Diesel Hits Highest Recorded Average Price In U.S.; Saudi Arabia-Houthi Conflict Squeezes Gulf Oil, Shipping; Trump Seen With 'Kennedy Center Demolished' Poster. Aired 4:30-5a ET
Aired September 18, 2026 - 04:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[04:30:00]
SALMA ABDELAZIZ, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back to CNN Newsroom. I'm Salma Abdelaziz in London. The war in Iran is causing fuel prices to skyrocket around the world. In the U.S. the motor club AAA says that diesel is now at its highest average price on record.
Currently, it costs an average of $6.44 for a gallon of diesel. That's a massive difference, nearly double compared to what prices were just one year ago. The cost of regular gasoline is soaring too. The latest factor driving up the fuel prices is the intensifying conflict between Saudi Arabia and the Iran-backed Houthi militants inside Yemen.
The Houthis have rapidly seized territory along Yemen's Red Sea coast, this was in recent days. The Red Sea and the choke point Bab al-Mandab Strait are crucial for shipping from Asia through the Suez Canal to the Mediterranean Sea and Europe. The Houthi's tightening grip on the region has raised fears of disruptions to a key alternative route for oil shipments, while Iran and the U.S. battle for control of the Strait of Hormuz, and the repercussions from this are soaring fuel prices.
They have been felt far beyond the United States. Protests, as you can see there, against these high prices have erupted in numerous countries around the world in recent days. Oil futures for both the global and U.S. benchmark are trading above $100 per gallon, though both are down right now. But the White House says that Venezuela is part of its Plan B for oil-related issues.
Axios reports that President Trump plans to meet Venezuela's interim leader Delcy Rodriguez on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly next week, Trump touted access to her country's oil at the recent Republican midterm convention.
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DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We're the biggest in the world, and that's without Venezuela, which we've just added to our little stockpile. Took 25 minutes, and we took over the oil of Venezuela, 65 billion barrels of oil.
(END VIDEO CLIP) ABDELAZIZ: But those billions of barrels will not bring U.S. gasoline
prices down any time soon. Kevin Liptak is going to explain why.
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KEVIN LIPTAK, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: The administration continues to try and point to these deals that it say -- it says will dramatically ramp up supply of oil in the United States. Now it's going to take years for that to happen. The oil infrastructure in Venezuela has been neglected for a long time, and administration officials will acknowledge that as well.
The president has said that perhaps they could use this oil to replenish the strategic petroleum reserve. That also would require some dramatic changes, since the oil that comes from Venezuela isn't the type that typically goes into the SPR. But nonetheless, this is a huge priority for the president.
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ABDELAZIZ: Now to the latest in the legal wrangling over President Trump's efforts to add his name to the Kennedy Center and his plans for the landmark's future. On Thursday, a federal judge ordered that the center to provide at least 30 days' notice before making any major changes. This includes construction or demolition. The ruling came after the center said the building will close for a week for a safety review.
The judge also ordered the administration to provide more details about that closure by next Wednesday. The Democratic congresswoman who sued to keep Trump's name off the building called the temporary closure a pretext to justify shutting down the center permanently.
Meanwhile, hours before his administration told the court the center had to close due to quote, structural deterioration, the president was photographed holding a poster. You can see it there. It appears to read "Kennedy Center Demolished." The image was captured through the window of Air Force One.
CNN's Kristen Holmes has more on this curious image from Washington.
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KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: The battle over the future of the Kennedy Center keeps getting messier and messier. A judge now saying the Kennedy Center has to give notice of 30 days before it makes any changes to the building, and that includes demolition. Now it does seem that things are coming to a head over the fact of President Trump wanting his name on the Kennedy Center building. Here's what he just said about it.
TRUMP: For the Trump Administration, for me, to get involved and to take that on long term and to carry it or to raise money to carry it, I think that the Trump Administration should certainly have recognition because, frankly, if we don't do that, it's going to close. It'll end up being ripped down. It's in very, very bad shape.
HOLMES: Of course, the big question being whether or not he would tear down the Kennedy Center, or is just using this as leverage to try and get his name onto that building. One thing to keep in mind here, $257 million. That's the amount of money that Congress approved to redo the Kennedy Center, and there was always talk about really trying to get it down to its studs in order to rebuild it.
But now, of course, there's this question of whether or not Trump would rebuild it, specifically if his name was not on it. The other issue here is that this administration doesn't seem to take seriously the rulings of various courts, unless it is the Supreme Court. So, there is a question as to whether or not they are actually going to abide by this judge's order. Kristen Holmes, CNN, the White House.
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ABDELAZIZ: We have so much more for you ahead here 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 for us.
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ABDELAZIZ: Heavy rain and severe floods are sweeping through the streets of Valencia. This is in eastern Spain. Several inches of water are bringing cars to a crawl in Spain's third-largest city. Authorities report widespread disruption, including road closures, transport delays, and flight cancelations. Now, some residents say that the state's weather alert was sent out far too late, and parts of the city were already flooding before the warning actually 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 there 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 year.
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 the heat is having on this year's harvest.
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MELISSA BELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: 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 vineyards 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 the consumer side. It's wonderful. For the producer side, it's going to cost us a lot of money to produce a single bottle.
BELL: And times have been tough for producers of Bordeaux wines for a while, partly because the world is thinking 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 and 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: Fewer (inaudible) 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 year's 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 consumption.
BELL: 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.
EDCOUARD MIAILHE, CHATEAU SIRAN: The fruitiness of the berries is so lively, and the vinification process have improved so much that the border wines were in the past a bit hard, a bit difficult, and --
BELL: They needed time.
MIAILHE: Now you can open a bottle of wine in the -- I always say in the five years following the bottling.
BELL: 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 we're harvesting almost 10 days earlier than we were 20 years ago. So, it's really moving the needle.
BELL: That needle moved further still this summer, with 53 days of heatwave conditions making the 2026 harvest even smaller than the last.
BARTON: This cost of production will start to hit even the -- the higher wines because -- because the cost of production is so high. So, this -- this global warming will impact everyone, not just the consumers' problem about volume of wine drank per year, even trends about wine regions. It's really, it's global warming, literally.
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BELL: 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.
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ABDELAZIZ: 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 an event.
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ABDELAZIZ: Are robot racing drivers on the verge of surpassing human speedsters? Well, those competing in the Abu Dhabi Autonomous Racing League certainly think so. It's the first self-driving series with A.I. robots for drivers, and CNN's Ivana Scatola checked it out.
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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 (through translator): Imola is fantastic. It's a circuit that's so iconic. There's so much excitement here.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): Why are you here today?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): For the passion.
IVANA SCATOLA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Car racing is woven into Italian culture in a way few countries can match. The Imola circuit near Bologna has witnessed some of the sport's most memorable and tragic moments. Infamously, it's the place where Ayrton Senna, the iconic Formula 1 champion, was killed in 1994. But what would Senna 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: Sporting robots powered by A.I. are having a bit of a moment in 2026.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A humanoid robot named Lightning ran the 100-meter race faster than Usain Bolt's world record time. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The humanoid is at the back with the green flag.
SCATOLA: But it's fair to say, when the Abu Dhabi Autonomous Racing League held its very first race, the results weren't convincing. 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 the 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 -- other opponents will do, and we improved also our control of the car. So how it drives on the -- on the track.
SCATOLA: This race weekend at Imola is a series first outside of its home in Abu Dhabi. Mark Bertogna is team principal at Italian team Unimore.
MARK BERTOGNA, TEAM PRINCIPAL, TEAM UNIMORE: Is 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 a non-forgiving 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 -- your car.
SCATOLA: 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 ball game from what we have in Yas. In Yas maybe there's a bit more room on the track for overtakings and for maneuvers, but here it's really extreme.
SCATOLA: 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 over taking decisions.
TRUCCI: Why is it so important to -- to develop the technology in this kind of arena?
If you think about Formula 1, for example, Formula 1 has been for 50 years probably the test bed of all the technologies we are using today in our cars. (inaudible) does not nothing different from -- from that. Putting the A.I. autonomous systems under extreme conditions and testing them under those conditions will allow the teams to learn.
SCATOLA: Fast forward to race day, and former Formula 1 driver Daniil Kvyat is here to support. Do you think autonomous racing can compete with Formula 1 in the future?
DANIIL KVYAT, 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 -- as a platform for progress for the future, not to replace the racing, but using this racing activity as a form of improvement.
SCATOLA: And after the human drivers had finished for the day, it was time for the robots to have their race. 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?
ANNOUNCER: The first international A2RL race.
SCATOLA: It turns out not enough. A big crash between Unimore and PoliMOVE on lap 10 and a hardware failure for Team TUM, last year's winners.
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And through it all, Team Kinetiz made it to the line first, taking a big win, which started out as a rookie team only two years ago.
How do you feel?
KIONG ONG: It's overwhelming. It's -- I am still processing that all the emotions. I knew that we were (inaudible), and this morning, like before the restart, I was telling myself, it's not how you start, but it's how you finish.
SCATOLA: 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.
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ABDELAZIZ: We have some breaking news just coming into CNN now. Police in the southern Philippines say at least two people are dead. This is following a school shooting. Provincial officials say the 16-year-old suspected gunman turned the gun on himself and also died. Eight others were injured, with four now in critical condition.
All the victims, heartbreakingly, were students ages 14 to 17. It happened at a high school in Banga. This is on the island of Mindanao. We're going to bring you more information as we get it.
I'm Salma Abdelaziz in London. Thank you so much for watching us this hour. CNN Headline Express is coming up right after a quick break.
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