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The Brief with Jim Sciutto
CNN International: Arrests in Alleged U.K. Terrorist Plot; Trump Open to Iran Sanctions Relief; Kyiv Academy Attacked; NVIDIA Vows to Help Prevent Rogue A.I.; Nepal Hit by Fresh Disaster Weeks After Deadly Floods; Growing Challenges for Palestinians; SpaceX Launches Most Powerful Rocket Ever into Orbit. Aired 6-7p ET
Aired September 28, 2026 - 18:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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JIM SCIUTTO, CNN ANCHOR, "THE BRIEF": Hello and welcome to our viewers joining us from all around the world. I'm Jim Sciutto in New York, and
you're watching "The Brief."
Just ahead this hour, British police arrest five men in a suspected terrorist plot outside a Royal Air Force base. Those suspects now out on
bail. Russian drones reign terror once again on Ukraine, killing civilians and damaging an historic building, while the E.U. says Russia is targeting
science itself. And NVIDIA announces a new tool aimed at keeping A.I. from running out of control after a spate of A.I. agents targeting outside
organizations, including U.S. government websites.
To our lead now, British authorities have released five men on bail after they were arrested over the weekend on an alleged terrorist plot. The
suspects detained on Sunday close to RAF Fairford in England. That air base is British, but it's been used by U.S. bombers flying missions against
Iran. Aerial footage shows a bomb disposal robot, you see it there, moving between two white vans near the base.
However, the decision to release the five suspects on bail has raised questions. At the Oval Office today, President Donald Trump said he would
not have released them himself and suspected their actions might be linked to Iran.
Joining us now from Fairford is Nic Robertson. Nic, first on the investigation so far, can you tell us what U.K. terror police have learned
about this plot so far?
NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: It's very hard to understand everything that they've learned, Jim, because I think they're
keeping a lot of what they know to themselves. They don't want to give away to whoever was behind this too much of what they've gleaned. But it does
seem to have gone from a base that had been under direct threat by the Iranian IRGC over the weekend, where the assumption was this was a big
plot, and it presented a grave danger to the base. President Trump indicated that as well. To suddenly today, less of a threat altogether.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ROBERTSON (voice-over): Early Sunday, they were cuffed in police custody. Now, the five men arrested on suspicion of terrorism and explosive charges
outside a U.K. base used by the U.S. Air Force are out on bail.
ASSISTANT COMMUNICATION LAURENCE TAYLOR, HEAD OF U.K. COUNTER TERRORISM POLICING: To be very clear, this does not mean that the investigation is
over. They are subject to stringent conditions on their movement and contact with others. They absolutely remain under investigation as we
explore multiple lines of inquiry.
ROBERTSON (voice-over): Police, after searching their vans, appear to lack evidence for now to support their suspicions.
TAYLOR: Those vehicles have been subject to extensive examination with the support of military assets and forensic experts.
ROBERTSON (voice-over): It was finding those vehicles that triggered this farmer, who took pictures of them to raise the alarm.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: First thing I noticed was there's a vehicle on our farm drive, and then I realized there's three of them, and they're parked
in a really strange formation. Say --
ROBERTSON (voice-over): Right after she spotted the now released men.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's such a flash moment of seeing them, but there were definitely more than five. We think maybe between eight and 10 of them
were there at that point, and a lot of them were -- had their faces covered.
ROBERTSON (voice-over): She called the police hotline, 999, and then her friends.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I now put a message on our village WhatsApp group just saying, because I didn't want people to be scared, I just said, just
to let you all know, something very odd has happened today in our -- in the -- or tonight in the village, and told them what I'd seen. Literally,
within five minutes of that, everything sort of kicked off and armed police arrived.
ROBERTSON (voice-over): After them, the bomb squad showed up. Next, several hundred local residents, including the farmer, evacuated.
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But the circumstances leading to the short-lived arrests are raising concerns.
ROBERTSON: Local residents, including the farmer who called the police, have questions. They say over the past week, the base appeared to put in
place what looked like additional security measures, big vehicles, concrete blocks blocking the gates giving access to the airfield.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I just can't process how that base was on such high alert and that the men were even there, never mind how many and how many
they caught. And they reacted very quickly to the 999 call, but before that, where were they?
ROBERTSON (voice-over): The area's local lawmaker has questions too.
ROZ SAVAGE, BRITISH LIBERAL DEMOCRAT MP: -- in their homes, but I have so many questions that I really want to ask the Secretary of State for
Defense, even the Prime Minister, about who knew what and when. If there was advanced intelligence, then it seems that a lot of people who should
have known that didn't know that.
ROBERTSON (voice-over): For now, more unknown than known. The U.K. counter-terrorism chiefs leaving the possibility open. The men acted
wittingly or unwittingly working for a foreign state.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SCIUTTO: So Nic, this of course taking place in the midst of an expanding hybrid war across Europe carried out by Russia. How does this alleged plot,
at least at this stage, how do investigators believe this alleged plot fits into that and are the same actors behind it potentially?
ROBERTSON (on camera): You know, there's certainly strong hints that the intelligence agencies and counterterrorism believe that these men were
motivated by money, not terrorism, meaning they were sort of criminals for hire, and that's something that the U.K. has witnessed on several accounts
recently.
Attacks on the former prime minister's house, on his vehicle that was perpetrated allegedly, and found in courts to have been the result of
criminals paid in some way connected to Russia. There was a similar case of an incident like that involving a, a Ukrainian warehouse that had been
torched by criminals being paid for by Russia. There was a case of a Iranian government believed to be behind criminals perpetrating an act in
the U.K.
So, you have that sort of threat picture, a matrix, complex, and that's how the counterterrorism officials described it today. Complex array of
challenges for them to look at. And then look more broadly at what's happening on the European spectrum. Again, they're believed to have been
Russia behind paying criminals for explosive attacks, drone attacks at railway stations, at government buildings at, at, at airports in different
parts of Europe.
So, in this picture at the moment, this, this hybrid picture, if you will, it's not clear if a government was behind, which government was behind it.
But the picture that's being presented, and that's the most sort of clear image that comes from these U.K. officials today, is that these were men
who were being paid to front something that looked like it could be terrorism.
But it's also more complex than that because it very much appears as if on the base, they understood for over a week that there was a significant
threat to the base, yet what materializes is something that's nowhere near the precautions the implication or the precautions that were being taken on
the base. So, it's not even a simple sort of fake hoax kind of maybe sort of pseudo type of criminal activity type attack. There's something else
behind it as well, and I think that's what will be troubling intelligence officials at the moment, Jim.
SCIUTTO: Yes, no question. And by the way, that using -- as you say, using criminal groups as sort of a force multiplier is an MO we've seen before.
Nic Robertson there in Fairford, thanks so much.
Well, a U.S. official tells CNN that President Trump is now willing to give Iran sanctions relief and release frozen Iranian assets in exchange for
some concrete progress on a nuclear deal. The official says the U.S. is having constructive discussions through mediators. This comes after the
president said he expects more talks with Iran this week. We should note he rejected the country's latest proposal to reopen the Strait of Hormuz on
Saturday. Just a few hours ago, President Trump spoke about Iran's nuclear program.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, U.S. PRESIDENT: One thing already has happened is Iran will never have a nuclear weapon. That's a very big thing. This is something
that should've been done for many years by many presidents or other countries. It doesn't have to be us, but we're the most powerful country in
the world by far. We have the best military equipment in the world.
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And by the way, we're building more equipment now than at any time in the history of our country. We have no choice but to do that.
SCIUTTO: So, Kristen Holmes, there is President Trump projecting strength once again in familiar terms. But always with some sort of contrast,
because just a few days ago there was reporting that, well, he's ready to go back to war after the midterm elections. Now, we have him advertising
progress in nuclear talks or, well, at least in talks including the nuclear discussion, which is something he said before as well, and we haven't
actually seen the progress.
So, what's changed? I mean, when you talk to White House officials, is there actual progress? Is there actually something going on now that wasn't
going on before?
KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: It's unclear, but we do know that there are conversations going on. I want to be very clear,
these conversations are not between the United States and Iran. They are between mediators and the United States and mediators and Iran, and leading
those talks are the same group of people that we know have been kind of in this. Steve Witkoff, the special envoy, Jared Kushner, Secretary of State
Marco Rubio, Vice President J.D. Vance.
But one thing to note is that they are being very clear, at least the White House officials and U.S. officials that I spoke to that they're not
necessarily believing Iran at face value. Something that obviously seems as though it would be obvious given what we've seen in the past, but they are
explicitly saying that now in these conversations.
And one of the things that a U.S. official told me is that Iran has shown some willingness to come to the table and amend how it feels about its
nuclear program to kind of fall in line with some of what the United States is demanding. Now, again, they are not hearing this from Iran. This is Iran
through a mediator to the United States.
And as you've noted, we've heard this before. We've heard this idea that Iran was going to come back to the table. And some of the concerns that
you're hearing from U.S. officials is that Iran is just in a really bad place right now, that they will do or say whatever they can to the United
States to try and kind of get out of where they are. They're in this economic strangulation. There are obviously issues there. We know that the
United States has tried to cut off every form of business that Iran is doing.
They say that what they've seen from Iran in the past just the fact that they were so willing to break the ceasefire, so willing to break the terms
of the memorandum of understanding, has made them somewhat skeptical. I would say most Americans who are paying attention to this are also somewhat
skeptical. But it does seem as though the mediators are trying to get both sides back to the table here for any kind of conversations around a long-
term deal, a long-term ceasefire.
Unclear how successful they're going to be, a- and also unclear, you know, if they're being completely honest with each side- about what the other is
saying as they, again, they have their own vested interest in getting the sides to the table.
SCIUTTO: No question. Just before we go, and you've been covering this administration for some time and this president for some time, do you have
any sense that President Trump still has a- An appetite for returning to full-scale war with Iran, or does it strike you as president would prefer a
diplomatic outcome here?
HOLMES: I think the president wants this to be over. Whether it's diplomatic or putting an end to it, in any way that he possibly can. I
think that right now, this is not something he wants to be dealing with, particularly ahead of midterms, but even afterwards. I mean, at this point,
we're getting into talking about his legacy.
He only has two years left, and a majority of that now has been taken over by this war that has literally no end in sight. So, I think the priority
for him will be just to get out of this in whatever way he can.
SCIUTTO: Kristen Holmes at the White House, thanks so much.
HOLMES: Thank you.
SCIUTTO: Well, Russian airstrikes on the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, once again targeting civilians. They killed at least one person on Monday,
injured six others, including three children. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy posted this video of Ukraine's National Academy of Sciences
blazing after it was hit by a Russian jet-powered drone. The E.U. condemned the attack saying, quote, "Today, science became a target for Russia."
Moscow has been taking advantage of Ukraine's current shortage of air defense missiles, and it is using increasingly sophisticated technology to
do so. Claire Sebastian has more.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CLARE SEBASTIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, shocking scenes unfolded in central Kyiv on Monday afternoon. People leaning out of second floor
windows of the Ukrainian Academy of Sciences trying to escape after the building housing Ukraine's top scientific research institution was hit by a
Russian drone in broad daylight. Well, firefighters managed to rescue these people as smoke billowed from the top of the building.
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The attack is part of a new Russian strategy we've seen over the past month, the round the clock strikes, mostly targeting the Ukrainian capital.
It's a strategy that's seen Russia hit an expanding list of targets from warehouses to data centers, even a strike on the headquarters of Ukraine's
domestic security service. And it has fundamentally altered people's lives. School is now happening in bunkers.
On Sunday in Kyiv, the air raid siren was on for a total of 18 hours. This high-rise apartment block among those hit. And even as the U.S. looks to
restart trilateral talks, this cycle of violence may only get worse. President Zelenskyy promised Monday that Russia will definitely face a
response, he said.
But the Kremlin is already painting this as revenge, as it often does in this war. Ukraine will have to pay a price for the actions taken in recent
months, said Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov on Monday, referring of course, to Ukraine's deep strike campaign that has targeted mainly oil
infrastructure and military facilities. That, he said, is precisely what is happening now.
Clare Sebastian, CNN, London.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SCIUTTO: Still ahead, NVIDIA claims it's found a way to stop out of control A.I. We'll discuss the chip giant's new software platform and
whether it could actually deliver on that promise, just after the break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SCIUTTO: Welcome back. In today's Business breakout now. A rough start to the trading week on Wall Street. U.S. stocks falling across the board as
bond yields pushed higher once again. The NASDAQ fell almost 1 percent. Shares of A.I. chip giant NVIDIA bucked that trend. They rallied more than
1.5 percent after the company announced a $150 billion increase in its share buyback program. That's the largest in Wall Street history.
NVIDIA has also announced a new software tool which it claims will help prevent A.I. agents from escaping human control. The company says it is --
its Open Agent Safety Platform was developed with the help of more than 100 industry partners and will monitor all actions taken by A.I. agents. It
will help prevent the kinds of alarming security incidents that have been making headlines globally. Again, that's the company's claim.
Last Friday, OpenAI revel- revealed that its A.I. agents carried out unauthorized searches of U.S. government websites. Florida's attorney
general is now asking a federal court to stop OpenAI from developing new models without outside oversight.
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That request is part of a lawsuit accusing the company of harming children. President Trump is set to hold a meeting on A.I. development Tuesday at the
White House. Reports say many of the major players in the A.I. industry will be there. Of course, President Trump has said he believes it doesn't
need new regulation.
Gary Marcus joins me now, emeritus professor at New York University and author of Taming Silicon Valley and Marcus on A.I. Substack. Gary, good to
have you on. Thanks so much for joining.
GARY MARCUS, EMERITUS PROFESSOR, NEW YORK UNIVERSITY: Glad to be here. And Silicon Valley is definitely in the need of the taming right now.
SCIUTTO: So, this isn't the first time a company has said, hey, hey, we got this handled. We're going to introduce our own tool. We don't need
outside interference or oversight to create guardrails here. This NVIDIA tool, software, do you have high expectations it can solve this problem of
escaping A.I. agents?
MARCUS: Solve is probably too strong a word. I think it can probably help. I'm not sure it will solve it 100 percent. I'll be surprised if it does.
Cybersecurity has a history of being kind of an arms race or a cat and mouse game where the lead goes back and forth. I do think that they are
right to focus on the cybersecurity side of this.
A lot of people have been talking about doom and extinction and all of this kind of stuff. And really at core, a lot of what's been going on is bad
cybersecurity at OpenAI. And maybe NVIDIA can help them out. So, we'll have to see the details for how much it can.
SCIUTTO: So, your view of the machines are going to kill us fear is that this is just about protecting ourselves better, that you don't you don't
see the tools getting out of control of their human handlers?
MARCUS: I mean, they are out of control in the sense that they're sloppy and don't follow instructions. And that's not great. The so-called doomers
think that the entire species will be extinguished by A.I., and I think that's silly. If A.I. starts doing really harmful things, we will fight
back. Like it's not even clear that A.I. would ever be motivated like in the Skynet kind of way.
But what we're facing right now is that A.I. can be used as a tool by hackers to destroy infrastructure. And that seems actually kind of likely
if we don't get our act together.
SCIUTTO: OK. So, let's look at what Florida is doing here. So, Florida going to court, in effect, first state to call for a pause in ChatGPT
development. Are more states likely to follow suit in your view? I mean, could this be a model for other states?
MARCUS: I hope so. I mean, in the beginning of September, I realized how out of control open A.I. in particular was and how incompetent they were.
And I started calling in my Substack for a pause on OpenAI. And I think Florida is basically doing that. I think that that's great.
I think other states and other nation states should follow suit like until they get their product together and make it safe so that it's not doing
things that at least look like computer crimes. I think everybody should say, hey, you know, hold on. When you fix that, you can come back on the
market. But while you're doing that, making a mess and dragging your feet, reporting things and so forth, that's not cool. And we're going to take you
off the market until you fix it.
SCIUTTO: The trouble is the current head of this nation state has said he's not interested in that and that all you need is a super high IQ
president himself to manage this. Can states bring about broader regulation, even if the federal government for now sits this out?
MARCUS: It has some power. I mean, I think the federal government's making a mistake that might come back to bite it. If some serious incident happens
soon, then I think Trump would bear some of the responsibility by not regulating it sufficiently, not enforcing existing laws, not investigating
and so forth. But individual states, you know, even one state banning a product actually is this huge problem. It requires a lot of extra work on
the part of the vendors. If a lot of states do it, then it's an even bigger problem.
And so, the states do have some power here to enact change. We've seen that in things like, you know, California setting emissions requirements. So,
sometimes a single state can lead the way for other states.
SCIUTTO: Yes, if they're big enough, I suppose. A new CNN poll shows a majority of both Republican and Democratic voters believe the federal
government's not doing enough to regulate A.I. I mean, do you see the politics of this, in effect, creating the outcome that voters are going to
say, hey, you know, we're worried about this.
MARCUS: Well, the voters, I think, need to organize around this, decide how much they're worried. And if they're really worried, then they have to
disempower the federal government that is failing.
SCIUTTO: Yes, they got to vote for people who are willing to pass that kind of legislation, right, or for a president who would be willing to
regulate. I mean, that's the nature of politics.
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MARCUS: Exactly. And to get anything -- yes. To get anything through, we're going to need more than just the majority because Trump's going to
try to veto anything. So, we need a super majority. So, we really got to, you know, change things here if we want to see things done at the federal
level anytime soon.
SCIUTTO: Final question, if I can, because, you know, listen, it's yet another competitive space among the superpowers of the world right now,
particularly the U.S. and China here. And Trump will say, listen, we can't regulate because we'll fall behind China. By the way, he's not on an island
in that position, because when I hear the A.I., you know, the Sam Altman's of the world speak, they say quite the same thing. Who wins A.I. wins, wins
everything, right.
If it's just the U.S. that puts up guardrails and China's like, we're not going to do it or we're not going to do it in your way, does that create an
imbalance?
MARCUS: It might, but it's like a thought experiment, because the reality is China is actually regulating A.I. much more vigorously than the United
States. They have a licensing regime that they follow. And we only vaguely sort of in the sense that Trump takes a look and decides what he likes or
doesn't like. But we don't have a systematic regulatory regime. And China does. So, I think this is a fantasy.
I also think that China has made it clear that they're worried about the consequences for cybersecurity. And so, you know, I think they're willing
to consider some kind of regulation on these specific issues. No country should want its financial infrastructure to be attacked, its electrical
infrastructure to be attacked and so forth. So, I was disappointed that Xi and Trump didn't make more progress on these issues than they did.
SCIUTTO: Gary Marcus, good to have you on. Thanks so much.
MARCUS: Thanks.
SCIUTTO: Checking some of today's other business headlines now, the U.S. and China have agreed to reduce tariffs on one another after last week's
summit between Donald Trump and Xi Jinping. The two countries will reduce tariffs on, well, a percentage of their trade, a combined $60 billion worth
of goods. The list of items includes U.S. coal and farm products and Chinese toys and holiday decorations. In a blow to U.S. farmers, however,
soybeans, American soybeans will not be subject to lower Chinese tariffs.
The Trump administration is slashing Biden era fuel economy standards for cars. The new standards will require automakers to build cars with an
average fuel efficiency of just under 35 miles a gallon. That's down from a goal of 50 miles a gallon set by the Biden administration.
Environmentalists warn the new measures will harm the environment and make it more costly to drive. Of course, you've got to buy more gallons of gas.
Apple says it will appeal a more than $5.5 billion jury verdict announced late last week. A California jury said Apple used a patented haptic
technology developed by another company without its permission. Apple says its technology that makes iPhones and Apple watches vibrate is entirely
different. This would be one of the largest patent infringement payouts on record if it were to stand.
Coming up on "The Brief," from the Gaza humanitarian crisis to Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, Palestinians are facing mounting
challenges. The Palestinian ambassador to the U.N. joins us next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
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SCIUTTO: Welcome back to "The Brief." I'm Jim Sciutto, and here are the international headlines we're watching today.
A U.S. official tells CNN President Trump is willing to give Iran sanctions relief if the two sides make concrete progress on a nuclear deal. Mediators
are trying to bring both nations back to the negotiating table. Over the weekend, the president rejected Iran's latest proposal to reopen the Strait
of Hormuz, though he said more talks are expected this week.
Counterterrorism police say five men arrested on suspicion of a plot to attack a U.K. air base, which U.S. long-range bombers flew from, have now
been released on bail. Police say strict conditions will apply to those British nationals aged between 23 and 25. Police took them into custody on
suspicion of a plot to attack an RAF base there, which U.S. bombers flew from, to carry out strikes against Iran. The investigation is still
underway.
The White House is defending a controversial new ad featuring President Trump. It came out over the weekend, features the president vowing to fight
a final battle against communists and the deep state. It clearly says it was paid for with taxpayer money. The White House claims it was an
educational ad, not a political one. Of course, the midterm is just a few weeks away.
A new disaster has hit Nepal just weeks after catastrophic flooding there killed more than 1,300 people, with many more missing. You're looking at a
huge landslide crashing into a river, this in the northern Mustang district. Wow, that's enormous. At least 21 people have now been reported
dead due to floods brought by intense rainfall, the number rising significantly over the weekend. Elsewhere, at least four people were killed
after an avalanche hit a base camp in a remote mountain area. Hanako Montgomery has more.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
HANAKO MONTGOMERY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: More extreme weather is battering Nepal just weeks after at least 1,400 people were killed and thousands more
were left missing by deadly floods. Over the weekend, we know that 14 people were killed in Nepal due to heavy rain and flooding. You can see in
this video a multi-story building falling into a gushing river. And separately in this video, you can see residents taking shelter on their
roofs because their homes were partially submerged in floodwater.
Now, rescuers have been trying to get people to safety using inflatable rafts and also ropes to rescue these individuals. Now separately, also in
Nepal on Sunday, an avalanche hit a peak called Himlung Himal. According to some of the rescuers on the ground there, there were several people at base
camp setting up for an expedition that was set to take place from October 1st. These individuals were all Nepali nationals. They were Sherpas and
kitchen staff fixing ropes and setting up tents when again a torrent of rock and snow came tumbling down the mountain.
Now, according to rescuers, at least four bodies were recovered but 12 people still remain missing. We've seen helicopters dispatched to this
region. But according to the rescuers on the ground there, due to the inclement weather, it has been difficult to get those helicopters to land.
We also have to remember this is a remote part of the Himalayan country, meaning communication is just that much more difficult.
[18:35:00]
And again, for context, this is yet another climate disaster to hit Nepal weeks after it experienced deadly flash floods. Nepal is still reeling from
that disaster. It still hasn't recovered from it and yet it has to deal with yet another extreme weather event.
And this all comes amid tourist season. Revenue from tourist season is a huge part of the Nepali economy and there's very real concern in Nepal that
will continue to hurt the country's economy as it again has to spend so much to recover from climate disasters.
Hanako Montgomery, CNN.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SCIUTTO: Severe flooding has also struck Thailand where the capital Bangkok has now been declared a disaster zone. Major roads throughout the
city under water after a weekend of intense rainfall, the military setting up shelters, temporary kitchens. The government has issued an emergency
warning to anyone living near Bangkok's canals to head to higher ground. It's advising people to avoid unnecessary travel.
Well, the Pope has just completed a four-day visit to France. His final stop was in the city of Metz where he celebrated mass before returning to
the Vatican. His trip focused on revitalizing faith, addressing clerical abuse and tackling topics such as artificial intelligence. Our Vatican
correspondent Christopher Lamb has the story.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CHRISTOPHER LAMB, VATICAN CORRESPONDENT: Well, I think it was a very significant visit by Pope Leo because France, despite it being a highly
secularized culture, there were really very big numbers turning out for the Pope. A mass with 800,000 people in the center of Paris, 150,000 people
turning out in Lourdes, a major pilgrimage site for the Pope.
And I think it was really striking to see the numbers of young people who also were there for Pope Leo. The Catholic Church in France, despite having
years of declining numbers going to church, has seen an increase in conversions among young people. Pope Leo mentioning that on the way back
from Metz to Rome, saying that he was there to encourage young people who he said he felt were searching for something. So, that was a really
important part of his visit.
On board the plane, he also addressed A.I., which is something he talked about in France. And he was asked about the threats of A.I. to humanity.
And this is what he had to say.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
POPE LEO XIV: If someone were to ask me, am I in panic mode? No, I'm not. I sleep at night. I do think that the concerns raised by many of the
experts, specialists in A.I. should be taken seriously. I don't think that that is a fake news, as some have said, to try and cause whether financial
or some other kind of benefit.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LAMB: Well, Leo also cited the head of the A.I. company, NVIDIA, who he suggested was not taking it seriously enough in terms of the risks of A.I.
That's very unusual for the Pope to do that. He also said the Vatican has set up a special commission to look at the risks and benefits of A.I. This
is something that Leo has devoted a lot of attention to during his pontificate.
But I think broadly speaking, the trip to France was a success for Leo. He was able to connect with people, to draw really big crowds and to deliver a
number of important political messages.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SCIUTTO: Christopher Lamb there. Coming up next, the final frontier just got a little bit closer. SpaceX pulls off an historic mission. We'll look
at what it could mean for the future of space travel, especially when it comes to getting back to the moon.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[18:40:00]
SCIUTTO: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made a rare visit to the United Arab Emirates to meet with the country's leader. An Israeli
source says the Iran war dominated their agenda. This is multiple reports say there were warnings, not just from the UAE, but also Egypt to Israel
before the Hamas attacks on October 7th. The prime minister's office has repeatedly denied receiving any such warnings.
This comes ahead of Israel's parliamentary elections next month. The Israeli government has now postponed the bidding deadline for a settlement
project in the occupied West Bank until after the election. Of course, those projects have expanded over many years.
Joining me now is the Palestinian ambassador to the United Nations, Riyad Mansour. Ambassador, thanks so much for joining the program.
RIYAD MANSOUR, PALESTINIAN AMBASSADOR TO U.N.: Thank you for having me.
SCIUTTO: So, I wonder when you look back at the United Nations General Assembly last week, you of course had symbolic acts there, a number of
members walking out on the Israeli prime minister's address. But did you see or witness any concrete progress towards peace?
MANSOUR: Yes. The progress was in shifting, especially by European countries led by the prime minister of the U.K., along with the president
of France, prime minister of Canada, and dozens of prime ministers and deputy prime ministers, mainly from Europe and a number of Arab countries,
in which they emphasized that there will be sanctions beginning, of course, with settlements in order to stop the E1 and not to allow for economic and
trade relationship with settlements.
Of course, these are significant steps, small in nature, but ushering the beginning or opening the door for further measures and sanctions to be
imposed on the government of prime minister Netanyahu, it reminds us of how things shifted towards Europe in the fight against apartheid, which was so
significant that paved the way for further shifts in the United States that led to the demise of the abhorrent system of apartheid.
SCIUTTO: Let me ask you this, though.
MANSOUR: So, it was significant. It was significant this time --
SCIUTTO: To date, the U.S. has not participated in these sanctions. Can there be meaningful accountability, in your view, if the U.S. not only
doesn't participate but stands in the way or attempts to?
MANSOUR: Well, I'm using the example, you know, of South Africa and apartheid. The United States did not join Europe when it shifted to Europe.
But later on, the United States joined, and that was the last nail in the coffin of the abhorrent system of apartheid.
Now, the leaders this time used a stronger language. They are warning the prime minister Netanyahu and the Israeli government. They will not allow
the destruction of the two-state solution. They will not allow the annexation of the occupied territory. And they will not allow the
continuation of the war in the Gaza Strip.
[18:45:00]
And these are important countries, and they have tremendous amount of economic relationship with Israel. This is the first time that they are,
you know, using sanctions. One can say maybe it's limited, it's small, but they opened the door. And I think the International Community is going to
open it wider and use further sanctions. If they, for example, they postpone the beginning of having companies to accept, you know, beginning
of building of some stages of E1 until the Israeli election.
SCIUTTO: Well, let me ask you about the election, if I can.
MANSOUR: Go ahead.
SCIUTTO: Do you believe that if Netanyahu is not able to form a coalition government after this election, if he goes, do you have hope that a new
Israeli leadership would significantly change Israel's approach to the Palestinian people and the peace process?
MANSOUR: We sincerely hope, but definitely if there is a new government in Israel, different than the government led by Prime Minister Netanyahu,
there will be possibilities and opportunities for opening newer door, another door, and maybe moving in the direction of accommodating the
international consensus on ending this illegal occupation and having a two- state solution living side by side in peace and harmony.
SCIUTTO: Well, we can hope. Ambassador Mansour, we appreciate you joining.
MANSOUR: Well, thank you for having me again.
SCIUTTO: Of course. We will be right back after this.
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SCIUTTO: A milestone in space, the most powerful rocket ever built has reached orbit.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Three, two, one.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SCIUTTO: That is SpaceX's Starship taking off from Texas on a mission, which then successfully deployed operational Starlink satellites for the
first time, a total of 26. Starship overcame an engine failure to make it into orbit, though the glitch did cut short its planned journey. These
stunning images show the spacecraft surviving its reentry through the Earth's atmosphere and then a controlled descent into the Pacific Ocean.
That, as you can see there, ended in a fireball. The mission could pave the way for the next moon landing.
[18:50:00]
Garrett Reisman is a former NASA astronaut, also Director of Space Operations at SpaceX, now a professor of Astronautical Engineering at the
University of Southern California. So, literally a rocket scientist, Garrett Reisman, good to have you on. Thanks for joining.
GARRETT REISMAN, FORMER NASA ASTRONAUT AND FORMER DIRECTOR OF SPACE OPERATIONS, SPACEX: Hi, Jim. Good to be back with you.
SCIUTTO: So, tell me the significance of this launch. Because, of course, Starlink satellites have been launched before on different rockets. Why
significant to use the biggest one here?
REISMAN: Well, in that aspect, it was significant because they're much bigger satellites. You have much bigger rockets, so you can have much
bigger satellites. And so, this is the version 3 variant of the Starlink satellites with an order of magnitude greater capability. And it's where
SpaceX wants to go as far as improving its constellation and really, you know, strengthening the Starlink network. So, that was one of the two
objectives for this flight, the main test objectives.
The other was getting to orbit in the first place. This is the first time that SpaceX has taken Starship to orbit. Previously, all the other missions
have gone up and been on suborbital trajectories. So, what goes up must come down unless you achieve orbital velocities going fast enough that you
keep going around the Earth just like the space station does and just like the moon does. And that's what they achieved today for the first time.
SCIUTTO: Got it. Tell us how this fits into the bigger ambitions, right, of returning to the moon and perhaps further someday soon.
REISMAN: Wow. Yes. So, this, I can't overestimate the importance of this development program on everything that SpaceX wants to do in the future and
what NASA wants to do in the future. So, we have coming up, the next thing is the Artemis III mission. This is going to be the crew going up on an
Orion capsule just like the one that went around the moon in the Artemis 2 mission.
And when they come, instead of going around the moon, this time they're going to Earth orbit and meeting up with that Starship and proving that
they can dock together and separate. And so, obviously, you need a Starship that can hang out in Earth orbit in order to do that mission. So, today's
success bodes well for that.
However, they still have some things that work out. They had to cut the test short early. We don't know exactly why they had to do that. But for
Artemis III, you need a Starship that can hang around for a while. So, they've got to fix that problem.
SCIUTTO: No question.
REISMAN: The next step, they have even bigger challenges.
SCIUTTO: And listen, obviously, when humans are involved, it's different, right? You've got to make sure that thing works, you know, without a doubt.
I mean, it's bigger than anything ever before, even than those famous Atlas Vs that got the man to the moon the first time around. Is it on track,
right? I mean, space is hard. You're always going to have, you know, stops and starts, that kind of thing. Is it on track to make it there? And on
what is the most likely timeline?
REISMAN: So, I think it's on track for Artemis III next year. I think they're getting there and they came pretty far along today. However,
getting to Artemis IV, which is where we actually put an astronaut on the moon again, that's harder because then you have to take Starship, which is
completely out of gas, only has a little bit left in the tank to come home. That's all it had today.
To go to the moon, it needs to be refueled in space. You need tanker Starships that go up, meet together and transfer cryogenic propellants from
one to the other, fill up the gas tank, so it can go to the moon. That is something that SpaceX has yet to demonstrate and is a big technical
challenge, which is still to come. So, whether or not that is on track is a different question. A lot more uncertainty there.
And the other thing that's yet to be proven is the complete reusability of Starship. So, earlier versions of the booster were caught on the launch pad
by those massive chopsticks. They've got to prove that they can do that with this version 3 of Starship and they've got to prove that they can
catch the ship, which they've never attempted.
So, got a little bit closer today, but with the engine failures, it's still kind of an open question about whether they're ready to try to catch both
the booster and the ship. They did both have soft touchdowns in the water today, which gives us cause for optimism, but it wasn't without incident.
So, we'll see what they do next.
SCIUTTO: And in this sort of grand competition that seems to, you know, encompass everything we do today in technology and perhaps everything else,
where does the U.S. effort to return to the moon stand against, well, China's effort not to return to the moon, but to get to the moon?
REISMAN: Well, China's doing it in kind of the tried-and-true method, the same way we did it during Apollo. And they're recreating that same proven
architecture. They're going at a steady pace and they're coming along. So, I think this is a very tight race.
[18:55:00]
You know, NASA is looking at Starship as necessary to get down to the moon. They have a backup plan with Blue Origin, but they have their own issues
with their new Glenn booster. So, it's exciting. You know, I think if you're a spectator watching this race, there's no clear winner. And it's
going to be a fight to the finish, I think.
SCIUTTO: Gary Reisman, thanks so much for coming on.
REISMAN: My pleasure, Jim. Anytime.
SCIUTTO: Before we go tonight, a special delivery from China has now arrived at Atlanta Zoo. Two giant pandas, Ping Ping and Fu Shuang, are on
loan for ten years as part of Beijing's long tradition of panda diplomacy. They arrived Sunday after a 16-hour flight on a FedEx Boeing 777 dubbed,
well, the Panda Express. And that's not takeout.
The bears had been specially trained for the long flight to make them as comfortable as possible. Visitors will have to wait a while to see the new
arrivals, though, as they'll be in a routine quarantine for about a month. It'll be fun to see them. Hope they enjoyed the trip.
Thanks so much for joining. I'm Jim Sciutto in New York tonight. You've been watching "The Brief." Please do stay with CNN.
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