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CNN International: Trump Prepares For Diplomatic Flurry As UNGA Approaches; Iran: U.S. Plans To Resume Action In Iran With Regional Backing; Chancellor Merz's Party Losing Ground To Far-Right AFD; Italy To Ban face Coverings In Schools; Bessent Proposes A.I. Safety Notifications In Talks With China. Aired 4-4:30a ET

Aired September 21, 2026 - 04:00   ET

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

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[04:00:51]

POLO SANDOVAL, CNN ANCHOR AND CORRESPONDENT: And thank you so much for starting your work week with us. I'm Polo Sandoval, live in New York.

And ahead here on "CNN Newsroom," President Trump has a big week ahead at the U.N. General Assembly, but that's not the only place that he'll be focusing his diplomatic efforts.

And the Middle East remains on high alert as Tehran warns that the U.S. plans to resume military action against Iran.

And the White House strips CNN of its T.V. pool assignments today as President Trump escalates his war on the press.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Live from New York, this is "CNN Newsroom" with Polo Sandoval.

SANDOVAL: It is the start of a busy diplomatic week for the U.S. President, as he prepares to attend the UNGA here in New York and to meet separately with his Chinese and Ukrainian counterparts.

CNN's Julia Benbrook tells us what to expect.

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JULIA BENBROOK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: President Donald Trump, he travels to New York tomorrow for the United Nations General Assembly.

And then on Tuesday, that is when he will give remarks. He'll give a speech. He's also going to take multiple meetings with foreign leaders.

And according to a senior White House official, those remarks are going to touch on a number of subjects, but the conflict in Iran will be one of those areas. Trump is expected to reiterate his stance that Iran cannot, under any circumstance, have a nuclear weapon. Now, Trump, it is important to note that at the beginning of this conflict, those first joint U.S. Israel strikes against Iran, that Trump said that this could last a matter of days, it could last several weeks. The conflict is now nearing the seven-month mark.

And it's also coming as poll after poll shows that the American people do not approve of the way that Trump has handled this conflict. This speech, of course, will be for a big audience, a global audience, but it also comes, as the midterms are quickly approaching.

One other area of focus will be the conflict in Ukraine. Ukrainian President, Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that he and Trump spoke earlier today and that the two have agreed to meet while they are in New York.

He said that today's discussion was an important one. He said that the meeting could change a lot. And that is coming not long after Special Envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner made stops both in Kyiv and in Moscow to discuss potential ways to bring this conflict to an end.

At the time, the White House said that those talks were substantive and that there would be an update in the coming weeks.

Now, the diplomacy doesn't stop there after Trump returns to Washington. That is when he is scheduled to have a state visit to host Chinese leader, Xi Jinping. That will include a formal state dinner and both of those leaders are expected to give remarks.

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SANDOVAL: And high on the list of topics at the U.N., as you could imagine, will be the war with Iran. Tehran is warning that the U.S. plans to resume military actions against Iran.

According to Iranian military command, they have the backing of other countries in the region. And Iran says that any U.S. attack will trigger sustained strikes on American bases as well as other interests in the region. And anyone supporting U.S. aggression will be considered parties to the conflict.

Let's go live to CNN's Leila Gharagozlou, who joins me from Abu Dhabi. So -- so, Leila, help us set the stage. What's happening in the Middle East as world leaders prepare to meet here in New York to try to address that conflict?

LEILA GHARAGOZLOU, CNN PRODUCER: Yes. So, as you said, there is a concern of a renewed escalation in this conflict, particularly given the comments that we heard from President Trump just at the end of last week where he said he had a big decision to make on Iran whether to annihilate it or not.

Now, the Iranians are saying that they also are assuming that the U.S. will, at some point, resume some sort of military action on them and have said that they would strike back. And this is something that they've said throughout this conflict, if you hit us, we'll hit you back harder. Now, as you also mentioned, we're heading into the UNGA week. The Iranian president is expected to speak on Wednesday. The U.S. president is also expected to meet GCC leaders who have been really at the forefront of this conflict. So, there are a lot of different moving parts.

[04:05:09]

Now, as we spoke last hour, I -- I've spoken to a number of analysts who've said, you know, President Trump is faced with a series of just bad decisions, and it's unclear which way he's going to go, but the fundamentals of this conflict just have not changed since February.

Iran is very unlikely to capitulate to any sort of military pressure. The Strait is still closed. And while the goals for the U.S. have continuously moved throughout the last seven months, Iran has stayed pretty steady in how it views this conflict.

So, if there is an escalation and aerial assault is unlikely to change it, and a military on the ground kind of invasion is also one that seems very unlikely to push Tehran to change its behavior.

So, a series of bad decisions facing the U.S. president. We're going to have to see what comes out of the next week at the UNGA. Polo.

SANDOVAL: We will. We'll be watching that closely. Leila Gharagozlou, as always. Thank you so much for that reporting, live from Abu Dhabi.

Now, to an unprecedented move from the White House, as it removed CNN from its Monday assignments as the pool network covering the president. And today starts a busy week in New York for President Trump as he gets ready to meet multiple leaders at and on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly.

Under longstanding arrangement, the five big networks, ABC, CBS, CNN, NBC, and Fox News, will take turns and they'll share T.V. poll responsibility. And that includes filming the president's and providing live footage to one another and to the wider press corps as well.

And the change deepens the dispute that began Friday when President Donald Trump said that he was banning CNN, MS NOW, and "POLITICO" from the White House.

The news organizations are now preparing a First Amendment lawsuit to challenge that ban.

Earlier, CNN spoke to our media analyst, Sarah Fischer, about the importance of the White House media pool.

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SARA FISCHER, CNN MEDIA ANALYST: Not every news outlet can bring a big camera in to cover the president, whether he's at the White House or he's traveling. And so instead, the big five networks, which are CNN, NBC, CBS, Fox, and ABC, rotate who is going to manage the coverage, the video coverage of the president.

Now, they provide that feed for all of the other outlets in the press pool. And then those outlets distribute the content to viewers all around the world. And so it matters if there is not a clear understanding of what happens with the press pool, because it means we wouldn't get video feed of the president. That's a huge, huge issue.

We've seen, over the past few weeks, instances where having video footage of the president has been critical. I think back to some of the 9/11 coverage of the 25-year anniversary, you know, all the footage that was captured that day came from the pool. So, the press pool is critical. We just don't know what's going to happen tomorrow with it.

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SANDOVAL: CNN senior political analyst Ron Brownstein explained a potential political strategy behind this fight.

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RON BROWSNTEIN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: To the extent there is political strategy, I think it was signaled by the gathering Republicans had the other day in Dallas, where the speaker after speaker, including the president, focused on anything other than the economy, tried to ignite all sorts of culture war issues on different fronts. I think this is an extension of that, politically.

You know, fighting with the media, I think, they believe as a way to energize and motivate their base, which is showing much less engagement with the election than Democrats.

I think, politically, it's pretty hard to shift the subject from the economy on as many Americans as we are seeing today are feeling that they are falling behind and feeling squeezed and feeling that Trump has failed to do what above all he promised to do, which is alleviate their cost of living.

But I would say, whatever his motivation and whatever the political fallout of this, which I think will be more negative than positive for him, the underlying reality is this is a five-alarm fire for American democracy.

And it's just -- it's just another reminder, I think, on how many different fronts Trump is banging against the barriers or the -- or really the buttresses that we believe uphold the basic principles of our democracy.

As we saw again today on all of the -- the weekend U.S. shows, Republicans are not going to call him to account on this. So, it is very important to see what other media institutions do in the next few days.

Do they stand together to push back against this more effectively than we saw from law firms or universities or hospitals or other groups that have been the targets of the president's efforts? (END VIDEO CLIP)

SANDOVAL: And there is still much more to come here on "CNN Newsroom." We'll dive into two elections that are drawing some international attention, one in Russia and the other one in Germany. What it could mean for the region?

[04:10:04]

Also, Italy's prime minister is moving to ban face coverings in the classroom. We're going live to Rome for some perspective on why she's doing it now.

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SANDOVAL: Welcome back.

We are keeping a close eye on two separate elections that are drawing some international attention over the weekend in Russia. The pro-Putin ruling party is expected to win Sunday's parliamentary elections, further consolidating powers. It's a little surprise.

But we are starting our coverage in Germany where preliminary state election results are reflecting the surge of the far-right and also putting pressure on German Chancellor, Friedrich Merz.

CNN's Sebastian Shukla joining me live from Berlin with more.

Let's start with what this election, this -- these state elections, the latest ones, will mean in terms of the political dynamic there in Germany, Sebastian.

SEBASTIAN SHUKLA, CNN FIELD PRODUCER: Yes, good morning, Polo.

The -- this is the nightmare scenario for the German chancellor. In Berlin, where there were elections on Sunday, they have fallen out of power of being the ruling party here to the left. In Mecklenburg- Vorpommern, the region that is in the northeast of Germany, they have fallen out of parliament altogether.

[04:15:07]

And in both instances, what we've seen is a surging far-right party. In Berlin, they have doubled their vote share. And in Mecklenburg- Vorpommern, they are the largest party or have been become the largest party, although will fall well short of the majority they need to govern outright.

The pressure that is now being placed on the German chancellor, and to be honest, had been coming even before last night's two regional state elections, is now going to be colossal.

The questions of whether it is even feasible for him to remain as chancellor are and will be the talking points here in the German capital as we go through the next few days. But I want you to take a listen to the position that the German chancellor has taken and has remained steadfast throughout this turbulence as he took to the podium last night in the capital.

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FRIEDRICH MERZ, CHANCELLOR OF GERMANY (through translator): Germany is capable of reform. I would even go so far as to say that these reforms are the antidote to the authoritarian poison that, together with the fascination for authoritarianism, is penetrating ever deeper into our society.

What must be done now requires backbone, steadfastness, and patience. I will demonstrate these qualities as chairman of the CDU and, above all, as chancellor of our country. Thank you.

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SHUKLA: Steadfastness is something that the German chancellor has exuded for the last month or so as he has come under this increasing pressure. The -- he has said consistently now that he does not believe stepping down is the right course and that he wants to continue with the reforms that him and his government have set out.

Patience, though, I think is the remaining standout question here, whether the Christian Democratic Union party is able to weather the course here and believe that Friedrich Merz is the person to continue leading them towards the next election or if that patience has run out and that a chancellor swap, as it's called here, may now be the only course of action. Polo.

SANDOVAL: CNN's Sebastian Shukla live in Berlin, Germany, where the chancellor finds himself in a precarious situation right now. Thank you, Seb.

Let's turn back down to Russia's parliamentary election. CNN's Clare Sebastian closely following that race.

Few to know surprises Clare, but stakes still very much high with Russia still engaged in a war with Ukraine.

CLARE SEBASTIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes. And I think that's the key thing, Polo, is, look, as you say, there was no surprises in these results. It looks in these results. It looks like Putin's party, United Russia, has perhaps even increased its vote share compared to five years ago when they last held parliamentary elections at almost 58 percent, which should, according to the latest data, translate into a supermajority in parliament.

Not that it really matters if they have a supermajority or not, because the other parties that have made it into the parliament all pretty much agree with them on the key issues, and in particular, the war.

But they will be using this result as a way to portray a strengthened mandate to show that the country is behind the war, behind the army, and to do with that, what, you know, they have already signaled perhaps that they are going to do, which is escalate the war.

So, concerning from that regard, but I don't think it's going to change the policy direction within Russia, look, there were certainly warning signs around the selection, not least of which is the fact that -- that all opposition parties were barred from taking part, the last of which, Yabloko, which opposes the war, was taken off the ballot.

In August, there's that. Yabloko had a -- an election observer who apparently fell unconscious while being detained by police at a polling station in St. Petersburg. They said others were barred from entering polling stations. There were no OSCE observers, independent observers, which has drawn rebuke from overseas exit polls, I should say, run by independent organizations outside of Russia have noted that another party, the New People Party, actually won in most countries with United Russia, Putin's party, trailing far behind.

So, look, clearly, there are warning signs. The E.U. has come out this morning saying that this election underscored, and I quote, the continued and deepening erosion of democracy in Russia taking place in an increasingly authoritarian political environment.

It also criticized the fact as Ukraine has done that Russia held these elections in the occupied areas of Ukraine, which it has claimed to annex. The Russian still head of the Donetsk region said the turnout there was over 80 percent with preliminary results, not perhaps surprising, given that we've seen images emerging from there of people in military fatigues handing around polling boxes with sort of mobile polling stations. So, clearly, that's happening under a state of -- of high military tension.

[04:20:05]

But, look, it's about what happens next. How much do they escalate? What do they do with this claim of a new mandate? And, clearly, all of that is of great concern to Ukraine.

Polo.

SANDOVAL: It really is. Clare -- Clare Sebastian live in London. Thank you so much for your reporting.

Italian Prime Minister, Giorgia Meloni, says that Italy will be banning face coverings in the classroom as well as limiting the number of international students per class. She announced that measure on Sunday at a youth event that was organized by her Brothers of Italy political party.

Immigration is certainly a hot button issue in Italy where foreign students make up nearly 12 percent of those enrolled in schools.

Let's go to CNN's Stefano Pozzebon who's standing by now live in -- in Rome for more. Hey, Stefano, good morning to you.

So, is the Prime Minister saying why this legislation is needed? And is this the first time that we see such a measure? STEFANO POZZEBON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: No, Polo. It's not the first time that we hear similar discourses from the authorities here in Italy. For example, I remember growing up here in the immediate aftermath of 9/11 or also the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan in the early 2000s, successive right-wing government will try to present a similar legislation.

And in particular, when it comes to capping the number of foreign students per classroom, there is already a -- a -- a directive from the Ministry of Higher Education here in Italy that has been in place since 2010 that prohibits classroom to have more than 30 percent of non-E.U. students already. Two, of course, support the integration of foreign students.

You should not really listen to what Meloni is perhaps saying, but actually how is she signed.

I want you to listen at the moment of the announcement and the way that she presented it to her audience. Take a listen to it.

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GIORGIA MELONI, ITALIAN PRIME MINISTER (through translator): A measure will soon be presented to a cabinet meeting to legally establish a maximum number of foreign students per class.

It also requires parents of foreign students facing serious difficulties integrating into the school system to learn Italian and bans burkas and niqabs in school.

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POZZEBON: A announcement about public education less than a week after the school year has officially begun here in Italy made to the youth wing of her party and met, of course, with loud claps and applauses.

Well, this announcement tells us that Italy is already in a political campaign in all but its name, Polo.

Last week, the government lifted or announced plans to lift a car ownership tax that has been in place since 1950s without really explaining how they intend to make up for the loss of income coming, generating from that tax.

And now, of course, these other measure about preventing further immigration or try to limit the impact of immigration into Italian society.

What is really happening is that for the first time in her career, Meloni is now facing a challenge from a person who is a very more on the far-right than she -- than she currently is. And, of course, she doesn't want to be seen as the next Merz, the next right-wing or center right prime minister. Well, in Germany it's a chancellor, but it's the same head of government that is suddenly under pressure because someone is coming for them on the far-right. Clearly, the lesson from Germany that said but was speaking in the early about 10 minutes ago here without is also being taken care of here in Italy and followed very, very closely.

Polo.

SANDOVAL: Stefano Pozzebon with that live report from Rome. Thank you so much, Stefano.

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SANDOVAL: Let's go to Brazil now -- Brazil now, where hundreds of people marched through Rio de Janeiro's Copacabana Beach, all supporting religious freedom.

The annual event brought together groups from a variety of backgrounds to promote religious diversity. There are many participants addressing some of these traditional costumes while Brazil's constitution protects the free exercise of religion.

A 2023 United Nations report on Brazil found that those who practice African origin spiritualities face harassment from religious institutions as well as some in the media there.

And a massive fire in Colombia has spread into a wildlife sanctuary burning at least 100 hectares of nearly 250 acres of forest.

Officials say that more than 250 emergency response units are battling this blaze but the strong winds coupled with difficult terrain are all hampering the efforts to try to contain some of these fast-moving flames.

[04:25:07]

Authorities say that preliminary information indicates that the fire was deliberately set and the investigation is underway.

Still to come here on "CNN Newsroom," the U.S. Treasury Secretary says that A.I. safety will be a topic of conversation when President Trump meets with Chinese leader Xi Jinping this week. What they plan to discuss and more, when we come back.

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SANDOVAL: Hey, welcome back. I'm Polo Sandoval in New York.

The 81st United Nations General Assembly kicks off on Tuesday. Nearly 130 world leaders are set to gather in New York.

And it comes at a critical time, questions of A.I. and security have taken on new urgency. And the U.S. war with Iran is nearing now the seventh month mark with economic implications stretching far beyond the Middle East.

President Trump set to address the assembly on Tuesday. In fact, a short time ago, China's Foreign Ministry also confirmed that President Xi will be paying a state visit to the United States from September 23rd to 25th.

Trump's Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent says that he set the stage for that meeting by holding economic talks with China's Vice Premier.

Here's CNN's Will Ripley with more.

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WILL RIPLEY, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: The talks between U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng, who oversees China's economy, really set the table for what we're expecting when President Donald Trump host Chinese leader Xi Jinping at the White House on Thursday.

The two leaders last met in Beijing in May. And this time, three big issues were likely to dominate; technology, trade, and Taiwan.

Artificial intelligence is particularly important. Bessent says the two sides have agreed to a new U.S.-China A.I. dialogue, including discussions about how the two leading A.I.