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CNN International: Bessent Proposes A.I. Safety Notifications In Talks With China; Trump To Meet With Mayor Mamdani Ahead Of UNGA; Ceuta Residents Protest Near Spain's Border With Morocco. Aired 4:30- 5a ET

Aired September 21, 2026 - 04:30   ET

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

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WILL RIPLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: -- should notify each other if there was a serious AI-related security incident, and the backdrop to all of this is just how much China's position has changed. When Trump first hosted Xi at Mar-a-Lago in 2017, nine years ago, China was much more vulnerable to U.S. pressure on trade and technology, but now Xi arrives in Washington, leading a China that is far more confident, a major player in A.I., robotics, chips, and even reusable rockets.

China recorded a roughly $1.2 trillion global trade surplus last year, powered in part by exports including electric vehicles, solar panels, and chips. And its dominance of rare earth supply chains gives Beijing real leverage over Washington. And here in Taipei, the big question is how Trump and Xi handle the highly sensitive issue of Taiwan. Beijing wants stronger U.S. language opposing Taiwan independence, and Trump has already called a pending $14 billion U.S. arms package for Taiwan a negotiating chip.

So, we need to watch Trump's wording very closely here and watch what happens to that arms package, particularly after Taiwan's military drills on Friday, and above all, whether Taiwan somehow becomes part of a broader deal between Trump and Xi. Will Ripley, CNN, Taipei.

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POLO SANDOVAL, CNN ANCHOR: You just heard Will mention Sunday's meeting between the U.S. Treasury Secretary and China's Vice Premier. Well, Scott Bessent offering some -- some new details about that meeting. Listen to this.

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SCOTT BESSENT, U.S. TREASURY SECRETARY: What we discussed was setting up a mechanism, so it's going to be called the U.S.-China A.I. dialog. We've agreed to meet again. We have -- the U.S. has proposed that we have a notification mechanism between the two countries, and we want a shared -- a shared vision of common goals and common threats.

(END VIDEO CLIP) SANDOVAL: Secretary specifically addressing A.I. talks. In the last

hour, I spoke with one expert about the potential threat from A.I. and what governments should do to add some guardrails.

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NATE SOARES, AUTHOR, IF ANYONE BUILDS IT, EVERYONE DIES: Up until this summer, I think a lot of this was theoretical. People like me had been doing the theory and trying to lay out some of these warnings, but it was only this summer when we started to see AIs sort of go beyond their instructions, we'll say, and acknowledge that they were doing things outside of their intended scope.

And some of them were, you know, sacrificing their objectives for the collective benefit in some of these, you know, OpenAI swarm cases. I think these cases hit a lot of these researchers hard, and they started to realize it's not just theory, and that these AIs don't always just follow instructions, and that, you know, humanity is sort of, in some sense, growing these -- these sort of new alien minds, and I think that has caused a lot of people in the industry to start getting pretty concerned.

SANDOVAL: And as an expert, you've explored the question of then what do we do about it? And as you know, the Trump Administration is preparing to host a multi-country event on A.I at this week's UN General Assembly. What kind of safeguards do you think should be discussed -- could be discussed, that would maybe be sufficient enough to address these growing A.I. concerns?

SOARES: You know, there's a whole range. At one end of the range, we should, at the very least, establish some technical communication between the -- the folks there and the folks here to sort of understand you know, can this really be an extinction-level threat, like many of these researchers are warning?

I think the answer is yes, but of course, the very first thing to do is, is sort of establish that possibility and talk about it. I think that the actual response that would deal with this problem is not racing towards smarter and smarter versions of these AIs.

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SANDOVAL: New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani is expected to host President Trump for talks later today. Let's go to CNN's Gloria Pazmino for a preview.

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GLORIA PAZMINO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: This will be the third time that President Trump and Mayor Zohran Mamdani meet in person, and what's different about this time is that Trump is coming to Mamdani's home turf. He's going to be meeting with him at Gracie Mansion, the mayoral residence here in New York City, and we are expecting that there will be several topics the two will likely talk about.

Now, Mamdani's aides have only confirmed that the meeting is going to take place on Monday. They issued a statement saying that the meeting will be focused on issues affecting New Yorkers, but what is very likely to come up as well is immigration, which has continued to be a pressure point between both the president and Mamdani.

Many of Trump's immigration policies having a severe effect here in New York City's immigrant community, and also likely to come up is housing and infrastructure. In fact, the last time that Mamdani met with Trump in February, he pitched him on a major federal -- federal housing project. So, we will see if that is another subject that. Mamdani tries to speak to the president about.

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You know, these presidential visits are sort of rare, certainly, ones that are to the mayoral residents here in New York City. We haven't had one since President Reagan was in office, so this is definitely, you know, happening. It's -- it's not that common that it happens. It's also happening as we get started on the United Nations General Assembly Week here in New York City, where dignitaries from all around the world will be in town to attend the General Assembly.

In fact, Trump is scheduled to speak at the United Nations on Tuesday. New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani has been meeting with several mayors from around the world who are in town for the United Nations over the past few days. So, it's going to be interesting to see if any sort of international issues come up as well.

On that point, I should mention that Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also scheduled to be in New York City this week. We know that Mamdani is a fierce critic of the Israeli government. In the past, he has said that he believes Netanyahu is a war criminal and that he should be arrested. But he has since backed away from that threat, acknowledging that the NYPD here in New York City doesn't have the authority to do that.

Mamdani has been asked about Netanyahu's visit to New York this week. He has said that he does not plan on participating in many of the protests that are scheduled, but he has said that if people want to protest, they should be able to do that.

Now, the last thing I want to mention is that despite the fact that these are two very different politicians, right, ideologically opposed in every way, in the past these meetings have gone surprisingly well. In fact, during their first meeting in the Oval Office shortly after Mamdani was elected, Trump said that he was very comfortable with the fact that Mamdani was going to be leading his hometown, New York City, as mayor.

Despite Trump's criticism of Mamdani in the past, he has referred to him as a communist and as a lunatic. Mamdani also has had some words for the president, calling him a despot. So, we'll see how Monday's meeting goes. But for now, we can tell you that a lot of us are going to be closely watching to see what we can learn out of that meeting. I'm Gloria Pazmino in New York City, CNN.

(END VIDEO CLIP) SANDOVAL: In Spain, hundreds of people are protesting the ongoing

immigration crisis in the city of Ceuta, located in the North African coast. You see them there. They marched toward the border that Spain shares with Morocco, some of them carrying signs that read "SOS Ceuta Invaded."

Residents have been demanding solutions from the Spanish government after a mass crossing of migrants from Morocco into the tiny territory in late July. Most have laughed, but about 10,000 migrants still remain there.

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LUCIA, PROTESTER AND CEUTA RESIDENT (through translator): What government needs to do is to change the government. That's what we need. This could have been solved from the first minute, but they have left us abandoned. This is the Spanish and European border, and they have left us abandoned.

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SANDOVAL: The Spanish military started escorting some groups into new temporary housing that's built at the city's port. Problem is, it only has room for about 1,700 people, leaving thousands of others stranded on the city's beaches and streets, fueling tensions there.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security says that a man is in federal custody after being shot by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent in Texas. An immigration lawyer who said she's currently representing the family identified the man as Wilbur Rafael Garces Perez, who officials say was shot and injured while working as a food courier in Austin.

Homeland Security says that he's an undocumented immigrant from Venezuela who had a final order to leave the country.

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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh my God. Holy (BEEP) dude. Oh my God. What the (BEEP).

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SANDOVAL: And let's stay on this. A woman who was live streaming on Facebook happened to capture the moment that gunshots rang out during that shooting. It's still unclear whether the DHS agent that's seen in the video is the actual agent who fired the shots. Police were brought in as crowds began gathering there to protest following the shooting.

Some of the demonstrators waved anti-ICE signs as well as Mexican flags, and according to a CNN analysis, at least 20 people have been shot by on-duty ICE or Customs and Border Patrol agents during the second Trump Administration. Eight of those shootings were fatal. A Democratic lawmaker who represents Austin is calling for an independent review of the latest shooting.

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REP. GREG CASAR (D-TX): I think it is appropriate for this community to ask for independence, to ask for transparency, and to ask for accountability. This is a pattern. It's a disturbing pattern, and it's got to stop. ICE has arrested five-year-olds in Austin in the last few weeks, they've arrested pre-K teachers, and now someone's been shot, and this has to stop.

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SANDOVAL: Canadian police are stepping up patrols near religious communities after an officer was shot on Sunday night near a synagogue in northern Ontario. The shooting happened as worshippers were gathering to observe Yom Kippur, which is the Jewish Day of Atonement. Police say that the officer and an unnamed individual sustained some injuries after what's described as an encounter.

The condition of both involved is still unknown at this hour, and it's also not known exactly how the shooting unfolded or why the officer was there in the first place. We do, however, know that no one was inside the -- I should say that nobody inside the synagogue was injured.

And still to come, for the first time since his ex-wife's mistrial, Patrick Clancy is speaking publicly. His devastating memories of losing his son, and also the scrutiny he says, that has followed him ever since. Stay with us.

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SANDOVAL: We're hearing from the ex-husband of Lindsay Clancy, who's the woman who strangled her three children and whose case ended in a mistrial earlier this month. This is the first time that Patrick Clancy has spoken publicly since the trial of his ex-wife. In an interview on 60 Minutes that aired on Sunday, he described the hope that he felt that his eight-month-old son, Callan might still survive.

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PATRICK CLANCY, EX-HUSBAND OF LINDSAY CLANCY: I remember that night, I -- I really thought there was a chance that Callan would live, and I remember just thinking, just give me one, just give me one kid, and I would raise him as best I could, and I would give him the best life I possibly could, and I'd tell him about his brother and sister, and I was holding out hope for that, and then when I got to the hospital, I saw the doctor. I saw the look on her face, and I knew that it wasn't going to be a good prognosis.

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SANDOVAL: In the interview, Clancy spoke of forgiving his ex-wife. He says that he asked her if she remembered killing their children, and that she described the experience "like a dream." Also spoke of his struggle to navigate the public scrutiny and the conspiracy theories that emerged since his ex-wife's murder trial.

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ROSS DOUTHAT, CBS CORRESPONDENT: How do you respond to people who have that idea about you?

CLANCY: It's deeply harmful to the legacy of my children. It is a huge distraction from what really matters here, which is perinatal mental health, and it's done real harm to real people, myself included, but also others.

DOUTHAT: How does it affect you directly. the stuff that's out there online?

CLANCY: It's painful to see, and it makes it difficult to be in public, and it's possible that some of those people, after seeing lie after lie after lie, they start to believe it, and that's what we're left with.

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SANDOVAL: The District Attorney has not yet said whether he will retry Lindsay Clancy, but has said there is a status hearing that's scheduled in her case for September 29th.

Now to the brother of the late Princess Diana, who claims that King Charles had a "giddy tone" on a phone call following his sister's death nearly 30 years ago. Earl Charles Spencer made the accusation during an interview with the BBC ahead of the release of his memoir on his sister, Diana. In it, he recalled a conversation with then Prince Charles, now King, saying that he felt that there was a "lightness in the prince's tone."

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CHARLES SPENCER, PRINCESS DIANA'S BROTHER: I was rushing around the house, preparing the children and all of that sort of thing for the day ahead, and I remember picking up the telephone. I was upstairs in my house in Cape Town, and he was telling me how he had told the boys William and Harris at Balmoral and broken the news to them.

And I -- I felt, as I say in the book, actually, I felt there was sort of giddy tone. I'd had a lot of calls that day from people who cared, who were stunned, like we all were, and I just felt there was a lightness in his tone about Diana's death that really jarred with me.

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SANDOVAL: Buckingham Palace has pushed back on the allegation, suggesting that Spencer's judgment and memory at the time had been clouded by his grief. Up next on CNN newsroom, a star-studded opening night for filmmaker George Lucas and his museum dedicated to narrative art. The celebrities weigh in when we return.

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SANDOVAL: NASA's Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope has successfully captured its first photons of star light by activating its wide field instrument, also known as an infrared camera. It also tested its Planet Imager, the coronagraph instrument, which will help discover exoplanets.

It's a huge milestone that confirms the telescope is operational in space to help scientists discover the universe's darkest secrets. Renowned astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson spoke about that earlier on CNN about what we can learn from all of this.

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NEIL DEGRASSE TYSON, ASTROPHYSICIST: The longest unsolved problem in modern astrophysics, and it's been with us since the 1930s. And it is what is the nature of the dark matter of the universe. And what's different about this telescope from other space telescopes is that it has a huge field of view, huge, and in so doing, you can take in much more of the universe at once to see the impact that the dark matter has on the gathering of matter and energy in the universe.

And so, Hubble got us up close and personal in tiny fields of view. This has a much wider field of view, so that you can answer different questions about the structure, the large-scale structure of the universe.

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SANDOVAL: And the stars were out in Los Angeles as filmmaker George Lucas and his wife celebrated the long-awaited opening of the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art. It was a big night that came years after the couple first proposed a cultural institution dedicated to visual storytelling. My colleague, CNN's Elex Michaelson was there.

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ELEX MICHAELSON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Welcome to the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art. For more than 20 years, George Lucas, the director, and his wife Mellody Hobson have been envisioning this. It's now a reality. It looks almost like a spaceship, a 300,000 square foot facility that had cost them over a billion dollars.

Of course, it has Star Wars in it, but it's also got a lot more than that. A look at storytelling over the years. Mellody Hobson emotional seeing Oprah at the opening event.

MICHAELSON: Is the emotion hitting?

MELLODY HOBSON, LUCAS MUSEUM CO-FOUNDER: It is really. It's like -- I saw Oprah, and I just like, you know -- you see idols at your event, it's deeply moving. OPRAH WINFREY, MEDIA MOGUL: To see them accomplish this, really, is

one of the most meaningful things I've seen.

MICHAELSON: It brings you to tears.

WINFREY: It brings me to tears, to see what they have been able to do here is -- it's beyond words.

MICHAELSON: What's the big thing you want people to see when they walk through those doors?

HOBSON: Themselves, we want them to see themselves when they're here and their stories.

MICHAELSON: You've dedicated your life to storytelling.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You too.

MICHAELSON: Yes.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Right back at you.

MICHAELSON: Why does storytelling matter?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Because we know it changes people's lives.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's the heartbeat of what -- what and who we are, right?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It tells us a lot about where we've been, who we are, where we're going.

RUSSEL WESTBROOOK, NBA LEGEND: They give people something to look forward to, to talk about. I think its good for our youth.

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DAVID ALAN GRIER, ACTOR & COMEDIAN: If you have children, if you've ever had a loved one who's older, younger, sick, what's the first thing you do? I'll read to you. If not read, I'll tell you a story.

AL ROKER, NBC NEWS: Especially stories told with narrative art have a certain universality about them. You know, that you almost don't need to speak a language to understand what that story is.

MICHAELSON: What does this museum mean to the Star Wars legacy?

MARK HAMILL, ACTOR, LUKE SKYWALKER IN STAR WARS: Well, it's an acknowledgement of how George created something that has become a permanent part of pop culture for the ages.

FRANCIS FORD COPPOLA, DIRECTOR: He's inspired young people, which is the most important people to inspire.

JON M. CHU, DIRECTOR: Star Wars made me believe in magic. Made me, you know, sit in that theater and want to change my whole life. NANCY PELOSI, FORMER US HOUSE SPEAKER: I invited George to come to the

Capitol, a number of years ago. There's nobody who ever showed up at the Capitol who got more attention from the staff, from the members.

BRIAN GRAZER, PRODUCER: And just think about it. He -- he invented a museum. I mean, a lot of it's his stuff too.

MICHAELSON: It's all his stuff.

SIR LEWIS HAMILTON, FORMULA ONE DRIVER: It's -- it's mind blowing. I mean, this this building is really Mellody always describes it. It's like going through George's brain, you know, and the fact that he's collected 50,000 pieces of art.

MICHAELSON: This museum officially opens to the public on Tuesday. Elex Michaelson, CNN, Los Angeles.

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SANDOVAL: Thanks, Elex, for that sneak peek, and thank you so much for watching. I'm Polo Sandoval in New York. Our live coverage continues with CNN Headline Express. Stay tuned.

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