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Some CNN Staffers Unable Enter WH Despite Judge's Order; OpenAI Agent Hacks into Australia's National Healthcare System; U.S. Bond Yields Surge as Inflation Concerns Intensify; Jurgen Klopp Set to Make Debut as Germany Manager. Aired 9-9:45a ET

Aired September 24, 2026 - 09:00   ET

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

[09:00:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BECKY ANDERSON, CNN HOST, CONNECT THE WORLD: Well, a live look at the White House for you, where many of the reporters at the center of President

Trump's press ban are still not allowed inside at this hour, even after a judge ordered that their press badges be reinstated.

It is 09:00 a.m. in Washington, 05:00 p.m. here in Abu Dhabi. From our Middle East programming headquarters, I'm Becky Anderson. You're watching

"Connect the World". Also coming up this hour for you, in about an hour from now, President Trump will welcome the Chinese Leader Xi Jinping for

what could be a very consequential state visit.

Issues from AI to trade and the war in Iran all on the agenda. Well, even government data is at risk from AI hackers in a world first. Australia says

its national healthcare files were breached and even altered by an OpenAI agent. We're just about 30 minutes away from the start of trade on Wall

Street.

So, let's check in and see what the futures are indicating, and that is the picture. The indications are a weaker start to the trading day. More on

that at the bottom of the hour. Well, I want to start with a significant, albeit temporary victory for press freedom. Federal judge has ordered the

White House to immediately reinstate media access to CNN, MS Now, and Politico.

But some CNN staff were unable to gain access to the White House when they tried about three hours ago, and it is 09:00 a.m. in Washington. Of course,

no reason was given, and CNN will continue to try to gain access to the White House. Well, this all comes after the three outlets, of course, sued

the Trump Administration for banning them from the premises.

The U.S. Justice Department argued that the ban was a matter of national security. Well, in his overnight ruling, the judge said there weren't any

records before the suit suggesting national security motivated the removal, he was also found it was done without constitutionally adequate due

process.

Right, let's have a look at this. CNN Media Analyst Sara Fischer has been following this, as you can imagine, she's following it very closely.

Joining us now live with the very latest. Sara, it's good to have you. Thank you. Let's start with reaction from the outlets and the Trump

Administration to the judge's ruling.

What do you want to start? Let's start with the outlets.

SARA FISCHER, CNN MEDIA ANALYST: Yeah, of course, the outlets are celebrating this as a victory for press freedom, and they were expecting to

get access today because that's what the judge said. They issued a 14-day temporary restraining order, which said that the White House had to

immediately reinstate access for those outlets.

So, you can imagine some of the confusion when they get to the White House today, and those press badges still don't work. Now, remember, within a

temporary restraining order, Becky, the White House cannot yet issue an appeal, which means that they have to abide by what the judge is saying.

Now, after that 14-day process, after the judge, you know, reevaluates and takes a further look at the case. You know, there might be a further ruling

on First Amendment grounds. This amendment was on Fifth Amendment grounds, and at that case, the White House could try to appeal.

The White House, for now, is not really saying too much. I mean, they had indicated before this ruling even came out that they were planning to

appeal. All we know is that they said that this was a national security issue. That that's the reason these outlets are banned.

The judge clearly doesn't agree with that, and so I'm curious to see how the de tank goes down today at the White House as reporters try to get

access.

ANDERSON: So briefly, just remind us what happens next?

FISCHER: So, the judge has issued a temporary restraining order, which means that for 14 days, the White House cannot appeal his decision. And

within that temporary restraining order, he has mandated that the White House give these journalists immediate access, reinstate their press

badges.

So, it is baffling that the White House is choosing to defy the judge's orders on this. Now, after those 14 days, they can take another look at the

case with more evidence and see whether or not there is further action to be taken. Whether or not this case also violates the First Amendment.

When he made his temporary restraining order ruling, it was on Fifth Amendment grounds.

ANDERSON: Got it.

FISCHER: He said that the judge -- he said that the White House did not provide these reporters with their due process. So, the CNN, Politico, and

MS Now they didn't just sue for Fifth Amendment violations, they also sued, Becky, for First Amendment violations.

So, after the 14 days is when I expect to hear more on whether or not there's a First Amendment ruling here as well.

[09:05:00]

ANDERSON: OK. So, you are a media analyst for us. You'll be speaking to our colleagues in Washington and your colleagues in other media outlets. When

they do get access to the White House, if indeed that happens, and let's see what happens next. How will the way that these organizations cover the

current U.S. presidency change, if at all?

FISCHER: OK, great question. So, a lot of outlets stood in solidarity with MS Now, CNN, and Politico, and they said we're not going to distribute

video or photography of the White House and the president because we are protesting because of this ban. But some of those outlets, for example,

"The New York Times", said that if the access is reinstated, they will end their protest, or if the judge orders that the White House reinstate the

access.

So, we're in this weird gray spot. Are the other outlets going to continue their boycott, even though the judge said that these banned outlets should

get access, but the White House isn't giving it to them, we're not sure. And if they do continue their boycott, the next question becomes, do the

American people then get access to video and photography from the White House, or does this sort of blackout continue?

We don't know. What I do know is that all the outlets in the White House press corps and beyond have overwhelmingly shown support for MS Now,

Politico, and CNN. And what's interesting there, Becky, is in the past, of course, there's always been solidarity amongst the White House press corps,

but we don't normally see three outlets suing at one time.

You know, we saw the AP sue on its own last year.

ANDERSON: Yeah.

FISCHER: We saw CNN sue in 2018 to get Jim Acosta's press credential back, but to have three outlets sue at once, this is a moment where there's more

solidarity than I've ever seen. It wouldn't surprise me if the White House refuses to bring back access if that ban, if that sorry, that protest of

the other outlets continues.

ANDERSON: We will wait and see, Sara. It's good to have you out of Washington today, where it's safe to say it's not a quiet day at all.

FISCHER: Yeah.

ANDERSON: The sort of day when all of these journalists should be and are extremely busy. Why? Well, first rolling out the red carpet. Then, in the

next hour, President Trump welcomes China's Xi Jinping to the White House for his first state visit to the U.S. in more than 10 years.

Now, we don't have footage of President Xi's arrival in the U.S. pool coverage of President Trump's activities was suspended at the time over

this White House ban on CNN and other media outlets, tech, Taiwan, and trade. Some of the big issues that they are expected to talk about, and

they are really important issues to all of us.

Washington and Beijing have agreed to extend the truce in their tariff war at least until January. Well, we are covering all sides of this once in a

decade visit. We've got a date line out of Beijing for you with my colleague Mike Valerio and Stephen Collinson is in Washington.

Mike, let's start with you. What is Xi hoping to gain from this meeting? What's your understanding?

MIKE VALERIO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I think three main buckets, Becky. So, first of all, it's greater economic predictability, greater access to top

American chips, and also putting greater pressure on Taiwan. Becky and Stephen, I think he's going to get the first bucket, but not so much the

second and third.

So, when we're talking about greater predictability, the whole theme of this summit, or the biggest theme from Beijing's point of view, is

maintaining stability. So, as you mentioned in the intro to this segment, the trade truce has been extended until January 10th, and if that didn't

happen, we would have had the average.

And I stress average tariff rate on Chinese goods coming into the United States rise from 30 percent all the way up to 54 percent right before we're

entering the holiday season. So, the name of the game here is to make sure that there are no sky-high tariffs put without any kind of notice on

Chinese or American goods, like we saw during last summer.

In terms of getting greater access to American chips, you know, since the Biden Administration, the top American chips from Nvidia, for example, that

have been used to power AI advancements. Those have been totally off limits to Chinese purchases from any kind of commercial entity.

So, Xi Jinping, whether we talk to analysts in D.C. or Shanghai or Silicon Valley, they're telling us that the leader of China certainly wants to get

more of those advanced chips. That's kind of a pie in the sky aspiration. But at the very least, the Chinese delegation in D.C. is hoping that the

export controls for those really high-power chips will not expand that the vice won't tighten anymore on those advanced American chips.

[09:10:00]

And Taiwan, you know there is exclusive Reuters reporting that came out yesterday suggesting that Chinese Leader Xi Jinping may invoke a 1982

communique between the United States and China, where the United States said at some undetermined point in the future that America was going to

reduce arm sales to Taiwan.

And the President of the United States, notably on Air Force One during the last time he was here in town in May, you know, regarded and called this

$14 billion delayed arm sales to Taiwan as quote, a very good negotiating chip. So, there is the chance that Xi Jinping says, if you want help from

us, be it to end the war with Iran or access to our rare earth minerals, give us something with Taiwan.

But of course, you know, wrapping up here, the President of the United States has said, you know, he's going all in on AI. If you win AI from his

point of view, you win it all. And where are America's chips made for AI? They're designed in the states, but they're made in Taiwan, so we're

expecting very little to change -- Taiwan --

ANDERSON: All right, let me -- there for a moment, I want to get over to the States for my -- one of my colleagues who is CNN "News Central".

(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)

BETSY KLEIN, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: A very busy morning here at the White House, President Xi of China, as I'm sure you have been

discussing, is arriving within the next hour. So, there's a major question of a whether we will be allowed back to the White House to do our jobs and

report the news, or if there's going to be a question of whether that event -- so far has banded together and has not provided coverage until we stay

down to White House access.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: All right, just to recap here, you had your badge seized Saturday. Still can't go in today. The photo journalist, the CNN

photo journalist has to had fresh -- sees today -- taking today even after the judge -- had to allow CNN, MS NOW, Politico in.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: -- in clear political strategies, realistic mandates, and adequate resources. Those most affected by the decisions of the

Security Council should not be the least.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KLEIN: -- according to that judge's temporary restraining order issued just after 01:00 a.m.

BERMAN: OK, Betsy Klein outside the White House. I will say, you know, it could be processing, could be bureaucracy. But you've tried three times.

It's been several hours now. White House reporters are always on the lawn at 07:00 a.m. There are people to let you all in there.

So interesting that it hasn't happened just yet. Keep us posted, please, and hope to see you inside those White House grounds very, very shortly.

All right, Kate.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: Yeah, continuing to track that very closely, and also this overnight, the Australian Prime Minister is speaking out and

calls it completely unacceptable. This is what he's calling the situation now, as he announces an OpenAI agent hacked into Australia's national

healthcare system.

It's the first known AI hack of a government system. The prime minister says that it accessed public and non-public files of Australia's Medicare

statistics database and also even wrote files into it. This comes, of course, at this kind of global inflection point on artificial intelligence.

So much so, yesterday, AI industry leaders Sam Altman and Dario Amodei they spoke to the U.N. Security Council, calling on the Security Council and

global leaders to adopt a set of international AI standards. I spoke with OpenAI's Chief Global Affairs Officer Chris Lehane about the hack in

Australia and also just the state of AI just this morning.

CHRIS LEHANE, CHIEF GLOBAL AFFAIRS OFFICER OF OPENAI: OpenAI initiated an ongoing review. That review continues, where we've been going backwards and

trying to see you know what else we could learn as we've gone through that process and as we've come across other incidents, and to be clear, the

other incidents are not at the scale and caliber and kind of what the Hugging Face was.

We have then taken that information and then communicated that and conveyed it to the impacted parties, and we did this several weeks ago to the

Australians.

[09:15:00]

We do leave it up to the impacted entities to decide whether they want to make this public or not, and we do seek to work with them to be able to

identify any exploitations, any vulnerabilities in their codes that would have made them exposed to this. And you know, this is an ongoing review.

We continue to communicate things as we come across them. We take it very, very, very seriously. The other point I would just really emphasize in all

of this is after the initial event, the Hugging Face event in July. You know, we did take a step back. We actually put a pause on some of our

training.

And we endeavored to build in the types of safeguards, both on something called alignment, making sure the technology is actually following the

directives of humans and the guardrails, making sure it's safe when it is deployed.

BOLDUAN: At the U.N., Sam Altman talked about if AI is to be democratic, the most important decisions cannot be made by labs in San Francisco long,

you're calling for a global body to set international standards when it comes to AI. President Trump has rejected the creation of that global body,

even saying today, I want to leave it exactly where it is.

That's China's position also. Our guardrail is the Justice Department. If you cannot get buy-in from the United States government and the Chinese

government, do any global standards have any teeth?

LEHANE: Yeah. So, our perspective, and Sam shared this obviously yesterday at the U.N., is that you -- this technology is really the first technology

in the modern era of this kind that is really being developed, deployed, and released by the private sector. There's incredible upside.

Sam talked yesterday about there's an opportunity here for this technology to really empower individuals, potentially spark a modern-day new

renaissance where really individuals can participate through this technology in the economy and in other ways. But it also comes with you

know incredibly important issues that we need to address on risk and on safety.

And the U.S. right now is the leader in this technology. We are the innovation leaders. We do believe it's incredibly important that as this

technology moves forward, particularly if you want to get that renaissance impact, that you do build it out on democratic standards around the world.

BOLDUAN: Right. Joining me right now is CNN Tech Editor Lisa Eadicicco for more on this. What did you hear here? What do you? What -- give me your

take on what we heard from Chris Lehane and OpenAI and all of this, especially when -- first when it comes to the Australia incident.

LISA EADICICCO, CNN BUSINESS TECH EDITOR: Yeah, Kate. The one thing that really jumped out to me is this mention of an ongoing review as part of

this process that Lehane talked about, and I think one of the big questions around regulation is kind of the transparency behind it.

BOLDUAN: Yeah.

EADICICCO: You know, what exactly does that ongoing review entail? Now, OpenAI has been fairly public about its processes. It does publish a lot of

blog posts, kind of outlining this. But I think that's kind of the key question with when it comes to regulation. Here is that right now, this is

up to OpenAI's discretion, how it reviews these incidents, how -- when it decides to disclose that to third parties.

And clearly that is a key cause for concern and a key topic here is how long it took OpenAI to disclose this. So, I think that's part of this real

push here to kind of come up with some kind of global standard, some kind of industry-wide standard, some form of regulation, so that maybe it's not

just up to these companies that are developing the technology to decide when they disclose things like that.

And OpenAI did say recently that they're going to disclose incidents more frequently, but that seems to be more focused on incidents that it

discovers during testing and stuff like that. So, I guess we'll have to kind of watch for that moving forward. How often they come out and disclose

these incidents?

BOLDUAN: Yeah. What's the definition of will disclose? How long? What is the definition of transparency, even because Australia is very obviously

not happy with the level of transparency or the you know the timing that they've got in terms of that incident --

EADICICCO: And you have to remember globally, like the perspective on technology and consumer privacy and all of these things is so different

globally. Europe has a much different perspective than the U.S. for example. So that's another challenge as well.

Add it to the list.

EADICICCO: Yeah.

BOLDUAN: It's good to see you, Lisa.

EADICICCO: Thank you.

BOLDUAN: John.

BERMAN: All right. The breaking news this morning. That's the White House. CNN journalists still not allowed in this morning, despite the fact that a

federal judge ordered the administration to let them in. So, what is going on here? And then, all I want to know is where it's going to hit and when.

A powerful and rare nor'easter headed toward millions of people, including me. Rain falls over five inches, winds over 50 miles of an hour. But when

and where along the eastern seaboard?

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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[09:24:01]

(CNN INT SIMULCAST - CNN NEWS CENTRAL)

[09:33:01]

ANDERSON: Welcome back. I'm Becky Anderson in Abu Dhabi. You are watching "Connect the World". Swelling the next hour, President Trump welcomes

China's Xi Jinping to the White House for his first state visit to the U.S. in more than a decade. Back with us, Mike Valerio, who is in Beijing.

And Mike, earlier on this hour, you talked about sort of three main sort of buckets that you believe Beijing and the Chinese President is taking into

these talks. Very specifically, I just want to talk about China-U.S. trade at this point. What do you believe is going to be discussed?

VALERIO: Yeah. I think it's going to be more reciprocal tariffs being lowered. That is the indication that we got up the street today, Becky,

here in Beijing from the Ministry of Commerce. It's to lower the temperature, and what we mean by lowering of reciprocal tariffs, you know,

analysts and politicos here in Beijing say that, that is the most likely tangible outcome of this summit.

And we're talking about tariffs on goods that are not sensitive, that are not critical technology. So, if you think, you know, consumer goods, if you

think agricultural products, those were all included in the fire hose of tariffs last summer, when tariffs between China and the United States,

tariffs on Chinese goods, rose all the way through the roof 245 percent.

So, I think that that is the most tangible result that we can get, and we're getting some good signs. It's a small victory, but it's again trying

to paint more of a stable economic picture.

ANDERSON: Yeah.

VALERIO: Because, frankly, China realizes that it's found a check on the United States with rare earth minerals, and they don't want to repeat that

show all over again, or at least D.C. does not.

ANDERSON: Yeah, no, that's really important point. I think sort of the overarching sort of sense from those watching this intently is that we

should sort of lower expectations as to anything you know concrete and tangible coming out of these talks. But you're right that you know talks on

trade, talks on Taiwan, and very specifically talks on chips will certainly be front and center.

[09:35:00]

Good to have you. As Wall Street opens for business, all eyes then on the bond markets. The sell-off there deepening. We have seen yields pushing

higher in the U.S. and around the world. CNN Business Senior Reporter David Goldman is live in New York. David, let's just bring up these bond yields.

These are incredibly important. Walk us through what we're seeing on the screen there, and why it is that these markets are doing what they're doing

at this point?

DAVID GOLDMAN, CNN BUSINESS SENIOR REPORTER: Yeah. So, these numbers might not mean much. So let me just explain how important and how historic this

is. Here we have the two-year yield. That's the highest since 2023. Doesn't sound great. But what about the 10-year yield?

Well, we're at the highest rate since 2007. Well, this the 30-year we just hit the highest since 2004. So. we are at numbers that, you know, we're

talking about decades long since we've seen highs like this. What is behind this movement? There are a few things. First of all, the U.S. economy is

doing really, really well.

We just had a Purchasing Managers' Index. This isn't necessarily one of those reports that we look at so closely, but we just hit the highest level

since July of 2021. This is a hot economy. We have low unemployment. We had a retail sales report that showed that we had 1.2 percent gains in consumer

spending, where is all this coming from?

It is a hot economy. That is the first thing. The second thing: what happens when the economy is hot? Well, inflation rises. And we are

certainly seeing that with oil compounding all of this problem. We are now back well above $100 a barrel for oil prices, diesel we know are we're near

record highs for diesel.

That is compounding that problem. And then we have the Federal Reserve, so the Fed needs to respond to all of this. And now we have the market baking

in a 71 percent chance that next month the Federal Reserve will hike rates. What does that mean? Well, it means that bond yields need to rise because

if the fed hikes rates, then investors get less return.

They're going to demand more money on the back end to make sure that those investments work out. We were just at 45 percent last week, so now

investors are more confident that we're going to see a rate hike. All of this factoring in to bond yields.

ANDERSON: So, look, and we -- and it's very clear, you know, how a rise in rates affects every day Americans. We're seeing the effect of the rising

gas and diesel on, you know, the man and woman on the street, and also on mortgages and all the rest of it. But I'm really interested in that 30-year

yield, a 30-year T-bond at 5.4 percent yield.

Given the enormous debt that the U.S. carries at present, every time that price goes up, it costs the government more, of course. You know the idea

of that 30-year getting to 6 percent I've heard people in the markets, not just in the U.S. and around the world, say that is a really significant

number. Can we just explain to our viewers why?

GOLDMAN: You read my mind, Becky. Look at this: just to finance the $40 trillion in debt, the United States pays $1.27 trillion a year just to

finance it. And so, when those yields go up, that number goes up. Look at this, that is 19 percent of the federal budget. So that means that 1/5 of

the money that the U.S. taxpayer spends is just to finance the debt that it is borrowing.

That means that there's less money for social services like Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security that people really, really care about. This

is a significant problem, and if Washington can't get its fiscal house in order. This could become a fiscal crisis. We are not close to that yet.

But anyone in the UK remembers Liz Truss and the Greek debt crisis. Those are kind of examples of what could happen if we continue down this path,

Becky.

ANDERSON: It is remarkable, and 19 percent of the federal budget spent on that debt. The kind of mid 90s of balanced budgets.

GOLDMAN: Yes.

ANDERSON: I'm old enough to remember those. Seem a very, very long time ago, don't they, David? Good to have you, sir.

[09:40:00]

GOLDMAN: Thanks Becky.

ANDERSON: Thank you very much indeed. That all makes a lot of sense. Right up next in sports, Jurgen Klopp back on the touch line as he gets set for

his Germany coaching debut. More on that, after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ANDERSON: Well, club football taking a break for the international game, and legendary manager Jurgen Klopp's break is over as he gets set for his

first game in charge of the German national team. Coy Wire joining me now, and he's been making a bit of noise about this, hasn't he?

COY WIRE, CNN SPORTS ANCHOR AND CORRESPONDENT: Yes, just as much as the players on the field tonight, it's going to be all about those managers on

the sidelines. Jurgen Klopp, you know, one of these two legends making their international debuts. Klopp's kind of like the double espresso in

human form, hugs, laughs, teeth out, hair going everywhere.

His teams play like they're playing in fast forward, right? Xavi, on the other hand, he's more like cool as a cucumber, the tactical, the

technician. He wants the ball control. Get this, Xavi said about Klopp that he loves Klopp because he thinks he's so funny. So, we have tonight in

Amsterdam the professor.

We have the party starter. Either way, classes in session. It's going to be magic.

ANDERSON: Fantastic. More on that on "World Sport" coming up after this short break. Thanks, Coy. I'm back with more "Connect the World" in 15

minutes.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:45:00]

(WORLD SPORT)

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