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Trump Announces "Energy Ceasefire" Between Ukraine & Russia; Pope Leo to Undergo Surgery for Growth on Lung; Moderna, Merck Celebrate Successful MRNA Vaccine Trial; Federal Officials Defend I.C.E. Agents Involved in Shooting; People Use Ice, Detergent, and Soap to "Downhill Ski". Aired 4:30-5a ET

Aired October 12, 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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CHRISTINA MACFARLANE, CNN HOST, CNN NEWSROOM: Welcome back to "CNN Newsroom". I'm Christina Macfarlane. Turning back now to one of our top stories, Donald Trump is insisting that his Russian and Ukrainian counterparts have agreed to an energy ceasefire, but the news appears to have surprised Ukrainian leadership.

And it comes as authorities in Kharkiv report attacks on the city's energy facilities and residential areas after President Trump's announcement on Sunday. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says Ukraine supports the idea and is still waiting for more details about the arrangement.

Here to dive deeper into all of this. Joining me now is Ukrainian Parliament Member Oleksiy Gonscharenko live from Kyiv. Thank you so much for your time. Let's just start there with this energy ceasefire deal that apparently has been declared by Donald Trump.

What is your understanding of that deal? Because, as we mentioned, there it seems to have taken your president by surprise and most of Ukraine's government.

OLEKSIY GONCHARENKO, UKRAINIAN PARLIAMENT MEMBER: Hi, we here in Ukraine we need peace, and so we are welcoming any de-escalation step. So, if there is a really energy ceasefire, it's great. But for the moment, it looks like Russia does not respect it, because also we heard that this is the agreement is just not to heat refineries of both sides.

But it couldn't work like this because Ukraine almost doesn't have any refineries, so this is not a deal which has any parity with Ukrainian interest. So, if we are speaking about energy ceasefire as a ceasefire, an attack on any energy objects, refineries, power grids, and so on, that is something which is absolutely acceptable and welcomed by Ukraine.

So, we hope that we are speaking exactly about this, and we hope that Russia will respect the energy ceasefire as well as Ukraine already respects it.

[04:35:00]

MACFARLANE: President Zelenskyy over the weekend condemned Donald Trump's announcement of a deal to import Russian diesel into the U.S. calling it a gift to President Putin. How dismayed are you that Donald Trump has made this deal, and how much is it going to put Ukrainian lives at risk?

GONCHARENKO: For sure, it's a threat for us. Any strengthening of Russia and any money coming to Russian watch, they will go to the war. That is very clear. But I want to tell you that, like 10 days ago, I announced in Ukraine my peace plan, and it says that if we can't have a big deal right now, let's go by step-by-step de-escalation, and the energy de-escalation can be a real thing.

So, if Russian diesel coming to the world market will be accompanied by end of Russian attacks against Ukrainian power and energy and power infrastructure, and end of Russian attacks against the ports in the Black Sea, because the world needs Ukrainian grain even more than Russian oil.

In this case, it is absolutely acceptable for us, and that can be a very good step towards the end of this war. But again, it should also include Ukrainian interest, not just Russian interest. And we hope that President Trump clearly realizes it.

MACFARLANE: Yes. Well, I mean, look, the call with President Putin appears to have been very damaging for Ukraine. I mean, he left that conversation with President Putin on Friday, more convinced than ever it seems that Ukraine's strikes on Russian refineries are a key driver of high diesel prices.

And once again, he has heaping pressure on Ukraine to halt those attacks. In reality, how effective have those refinery attacks been for you, and how critical are they to your defense?

GONCHARENKO: They are absolutely critical to our defense because, once again, oil expert and oil products export is the main source of Russian war chest. So, when Russia is escalating every day with new and new attacks, killing civilians, destroying infrastructure, and so on. That is for us the way how we can react on this and make Russia also suffer.

So, the thing is that I don't think that the war in Ukraine is the main reason for the picking of the fuel prices. We all understand that probably the Middle East is the main reason, but it doesn't matter. We want to have de-escalation. We want to have peace.

So, if President Trump will help us to find peace on the Black Sea, in the energy, in air, that is something we are welcoming. I am sure that President Trump doesn't want to look as somebody who helps Putin to continue his war, not just against Ukraine, but against the whole West and including the United States of America.

MACFARLANE: And I just want to ask you briefly, because we know that Donald Trump has already ended much of his United States assistance to Kyiv. If you're concerned that there could be further consequences, you know, if you do not do what he's asking here and halt your attacks on oil refineries?

GONCHARENKO: United States is still very important to life for us because U.S. weapons is absolutely vital for our survival. U.S. intelligence is very important for all our operations, and but also, we are sure that billions of dollars invested to Ukraine and our security by United States nation people that will also not be wasted by any American administration.

So, to help Ukraine to defend itself against Russia is in the best interest of the United States of America. It doesn't matter who is the president at the exact moment.

MACFARLANE: OK, Oleksiy Goncharenko, we appreciate you coming on, giving your thoughts about where Ukraine stands this morning. Thank you very much.

GONCHARENKO: Thank you.

MACFARLANE: Now, Pope Leo is undergoing surgery this week after doctors discovered a small nodule on his lung. This is the first health scare since the 71-year-old became American, became Pontiff. The Vatican says he's expected to be in hospital for a week to recover, and he will be visiting Latin America next month.

CNN's Stefano Pozzebon joins us from Rome for more on this. And Stefano, the details here are pretty scarce from the Vatican, but I suppose we can take it as a good sign that he is still planning to make that trip to Latin America.

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STEFANO POZZEBON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, exactly, Christina. And the understanding is that the Pope himself decided to have these operations sooner rather than later, perhaps because of how important he considers that trip to South America to be? He will go through Uruguay and Argentina before visiting Peru between the 6th and the 17th of November.

And Peru is where Leo was known as a "Pope Prevost", and he was a missionary but also a Bishop in the dioceses of Chiclayo, so it's clearly something that is extremely important for him, and that's why he made the decision that as soon as the doctors, as he was telling the faithful yesterday at the Angeles on Sunday morning.

As soon as the doctors identified that nodule in the lung, he decided to have the operation to remove it. It's not at the moment a cause for anxiety or concern. Pope Leo right now is still at the Vatican, but we understand he will go to the Gemelli Hospital in the upcoming days, where he will have this operation.

The Italian press is reporting it could be -- it could happen as early as Wednesday. We still are waiting to hear from the Vatican whether that is confirmed. However, for the time being, things go on as normal here in Rome, Christina.

MACFARLANE: All right, Stefano Pozzebon, there with the latest update from the Pope. Thank you very much. We'll continue to watch this. Now, October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month in the U.S. and Tuesday marks the National Day of Awareness for Metastatic Breast Cancer.

It's meant to highlight the need for more research and more treatment for the deadly disease. Well, for years, researchers have focused on MRNA technology as a potential treatment for difficult cancers. In August, Moderna and Merck announced the results of a breakthrough clinical trial of their joint MRNA cancer vaccine.

The study found that the vaccine kept early-stage melanoma patients from relapsing by training the body to target cancer cells. The company will need to conduct full trials, but scientists are excited by the results they've seen so far.

Well, Stephane Bancel is CEO of Moderna, and he is joining us now live from Hong Kong. Thank you so much for your time. This has been called a watershed moment for cancer treatment, and the vaccine that you've created here with Merck, I understand, has been shown to prevent the return, the spread of skin cancer in a large trial. Can you explain how the vaccine works and why this is different from previous cancer immune treatments?

STEPHANE BANCEL, CEO, MODERNA: Yes. Hello, and thank you so much for having me. So indeed, the field has tried for many decades now to use the immune system to be able to attack cancer. We know today that cancer is a disease of DNA, DNA mutation.

And we know that the immune system is able to manage that and keep that in check. And so basically, what has happened is we develop a product where we sequence, basically, we read all the letters of the DNA of a healthy cell of your body. We do the same thing with a cancer cell, and we compare letter by letter where are the mutation.

And then we develop a product in around 30 days, that includes 34 mutations that are unique to your cancer. So, if you and I were diagnosed by the same doctor in the same hospital on the same day, that we both have skin cancer melanoma, Moderna will make a product for you and will make a different chemical for me.

It's totally customized to our individual mutations, and what we've shown in the phase two study, and soon in two weeks in Madrid at the ESMO Cancer Conference, we'll share the full phase three data of a late-stage development.

In the phase two, we show that five years, around 76 percent of people are disease free, are cancer free, which is a remarkable improvement of around 50 percent better against the current standard of care. And so, we are very excited by this progress, and we look forward to fighting to the regulators soon. So hopefully, the product center being available next year.

MACFARLANE: Yes. Well, I was going to ask you, you know, where things stand at this stage? How many more hurdles you have to do before we can see this vaccine be rolled out to you know to patients?

BANCEL: So basically, we are right now filing all the files to the regulators, preparing those files. As soon as it's ready, we will file, and hopefully, because it's cancer and because of a great breakthrough in terms of data, as just mentioned, we expect a potential approval starting in the U.S. as early as next year.

[04:45:00]

MACFARLANE: Amazing. I mean, you talk there about the fact that what we're looking at now is a personalized cancer treatment. You know, through the use of DNA, the use of MRNA. Does this open the door to personalized treatment for other cancers and other tumours types as well?

BANCEL: We think so. Of course, we're going to have to show it in the clinic at large scale in phase three study. But we have already shown that we have responses in lung cancer, in head and neck. We have more than nine clinical studies ongoing now with our partner Merck. The next one is most probably data in kidney cancer, and then lung cancer and bladder cancer.

MACFARLANE: That's incredible. I mean, in terms of implementation and vaccine rollout, I know you have obviously vast experience having helped to create the COVID-19 vaccine. How much has that technology sort of helping you with this cancer -- this new cancer technology? And is it also going to help you in in in in that rollout plan and getting the vaccine out?

BANCEL: So, it's a great question. So of course it's the same amount in technology. The difference here is scale. In COVID, the goal was to make billions of doses, here the role is to shrink everything down, so we can make one product from one human in a machine at a time.

And so, we basically has been investing for many years to reduce the size of a reactor, to optimize everything. We've already done more than around 5,000 products through all the clinical trials that are ongoing, and so we think we are ready for commercial launch. The factory is ready.

It's in Massachusetts. We can ship products around the world in less than 48 hours to people through partners that have distribution capabilities, and so we are ready for scale up. It's the same technology. It's the same team that did the rollout of a COVID-19 vaccine.

MACFARLANE: Well, I mean, all of this is incredible, hugely promising and important work, and we wish you every progress with getting this vaccine out. Stephane Bancel, thank you so much for coming on and explaining this to us. Appreciate it.

BANCEL: Thank you so much for having me.

MACFARLANE: "CNN Newsroom", and we'll be back after this short break. Stay with us.

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MACFARLANE: Welcome back. A man struck by a U.S. Immigration and Customs enforcement vehicle in Texas was scheduled to undergo surgery on Sunday. We have video of the incident to show. We want to warn you that the images are graphic and could be disturbing to some viewers.

I.C.E. officials say Miguel Parra-Hernandez suffered injuries to his lower body when the vehicle hit him while fleeing an enforcement operation near Houston. At last check, he was in stable condition. It comes just days after the I.C.E. involved shooting in New York City. Federal immigration agent shot a driver in the Bronx while his five- year-old child was in the back seat. CNN's Mark Morales reports on the latest.

MARK MORALES, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT REPORTER: An agency spokesperson said that the man seen in that video, ran in front of an I.C.E. vehicle. Now, according to his attorney, he has two broken legs and is currently in I.C.E. custody. But he wasn't the target of this.

I.C.E. officials had targeted the man he was in the car with. That was the target. They were -- they had deemed him to be a public safety threat, and he's the one who had a deportation order. But he was not caught. So, this video also really brings into the forefront the question of tactics.

And as you've seen, this has been a hot button issue, especially in New York City after a man was shot inside a vehicle by I.C.E. agents while his five-year-old son was in the back seat. Now Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin was on State of the Union, and not -- he not only defended the tactics of the I.C.E. officers but also said that their body camera footage would be released.

Now, as we've seen, that footage of those moments, either before the incident took place or after the incident, even during the incident, they all meshed together to really give a full picture of what's been going on. Here's Markwayne Mullin. Take a listen.

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MARKWAYNE MULLIN, U.S. SECRETARY OF HOMELAND SECURITY: Every single department, I don't care if it's state, if it's local, if it's county or if it's federal, they all have undercover divisions, and undercover divisions make arrest every single day in plain clothes.

When they approach the vehicle, they had their badges out. You can see that their badge was out, and they were given lawful commands. So, the tactics that are used are the same tactics that are used by law enforcement from coast to coast, from local, city, state to federal.

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MORALES: New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani has been very critical about the presence of I.C.E. in New York, especially pointing to this incident, saying that it's a very good example as to why New Yorkers are not safe.

Meanwhile, the man at the center of all this, Oscar Belgal, he's currently in solitary confinement at a federal detention center in New York under I.C.E. custody. Lawyers for him have finally got a chance to speak with him over the weekend. They say that not only is he in a lot of pain, but that he needs emergency surgery to deal with that bullet wound. Mark Morales, CNN, New York.

MACFARLANE: Well, right now, Hurricane Simon is lashing Mexico's Pacific Coast with dangerous waves, heavy rain, and strong wind. The storm has been downgraded to a Category III, but it's still a powerful. The storm has not made landfall, and forecasters aren't sure if it actually will.

But Mexican officials are warning residents to shelter until the danger has passed, and the country has deployed thousands of military personnel to the states that are expected to be hit hardest by the hurricane.

Well, a landslide-triggered flash flood has left a trail of destruction across Central Nepal. Authorities say Nepal's army is working to evacuate those stranded by the flood homes and bridges that have been swept away, and at least five people have been reported missing so far. The disaster comes less than two months after the catastrophic floods at the Nepal-China border killed hundreds of people and left thousands missing. We will be back after this short break in "CNN Newsroom". Stay with us.

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MACFARLANE: Welcome back. A London suburb is proving you don't need snow to go skiing. Organizers staged what they called a downhill skiing event in Surbiton on Sunday. And since there was no snow, as you can see here, participants strapped blocks of ice to their feet and other objects, and slid along a ski run made slippery with water and detergent. Such a great idea?

Proceeds from the entry went to a local charity. That poor man. I could have watched that all day. Thank you for joining us. This is the end of the show. I'm Christina Macfarlane. "CNN Headline Express" is coming up after this quick break. Stay with us.

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