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What We Know with Max Foster

Ousted Ukrainian Defense Minister Calls For Wartime Elections; Oil Prices Rise As U.S. And Iran At Impasse; IDF Admits Firing On Car Carrying 5-Year-Old Hind Rajab; Key Takeaways From Tuesday's U.S. Primary Elections; Ecuador Intel Chief, Six Others Dead In Kenya Chopper Crash; Trump Pauses 50 Percent Tariffs On Canada For Three Days. Aired 3-4p ET

Aired August 19, 2026 - 15:00   ET

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

[15:00:31]

MAX FOSTER, CNN HOST: Pressure piles on Ukraine's president.

This is WHAT WE KNOW.

We begin the hour in Ukraine, where President Volodymyr Zelenskyy may be facing his biggest political threat in the midst of his country's long war

with Russia. In a stunning announcement, former defense minister Mykhailo Fedorov has called for an election. He was a strong Zelenskyy ally until

the president fired him last month, and he's the first major political figure in Ukraine to make that demand.

Under Ukrainian law, elections are prohibited whilst martial law is in place. Fedorov says that shouldn't stop voters from choosing a new leader.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MYKHAILO FEDOROV, FORMER UKRAINIAN DEFENSE MINISTER: What if the war continues for another year? Two, three? Can Russia effectively be given the

right to dictate when Ukrainians can choose their government again? I am convinced that the answer is no. Democracy cannot be held hostage by

Russia. We are fighting precisely because we want to remain a free European state. Therefore, we must find a legal, safe, and realistic mechanism that

will allow Ukraine to restore a full democratic process, even amidst a prolonged war.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FOSTER: CNN's Nick Paton Walsh now spoke to President Zelenskyy in Kyiv last week, and he has more on this.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NICK PATON WALSH, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Well, it is a remarkable call from the defense minister dismissed from his post just

a matter of weeks ago, asking ultimately for what may be practically impossible. When the idea of elections was first floated by President Trump

last year, we asked many experts about what it would take to have a vote that would meet kind of European standards that Ukraine could hold its head

high about, and the answer we got was three to six months in peacetime. And Ukraine is still at war with no end to the conflict indeed in sight.

And so, the great risk here is potentially for Ukraine to push itself into an election that yields a result that is challenged, seems illegitimate.

That essentially feeds the Russian narrative already there. They're suggesting that President Zelenskyy is illegitimate because martial law in

wartime has meant his term has extended past that which it would normally be.

Now, Fedorov has suggested there might be some marvel. He's a genius innovator that could enable them to hold a fair vote in wartime, that they

need to try and achieve that. But there are massive challenges. What do you do if you have a sort of smartphone solution to this with the pensioners

who live mostly offline? What do you do with the millions of Ukrainians who are abroad as refugees? What do you do with the millions of Ukrainians

fighting on the frontline? Do you tell them to take a break from defending the homeland, to step back and cast their vote?

Anyone potentially left out of this could have to say that the result is illegitimate. And that's far worse, frankly, I think many Ukrainians would

argue, than sticking with what they currently indeed have. At the same time, President Zelenskyy is suffering in the opinion polls. It's fair to

say wartime leaders often do. They have to make very unpopular choices over what's nearly five years now for Zelenskyy.

And Fedorov has the ability to stand there, having essentially left his post after clashing with the old guard of the military top brass wanting

reforms that they seem to resist and then demanding his old job back. Perhaps Fedorov may himself be aware that holding a vote is tough, but

essentially this crisis now has taken President Zelenskyy from a month ago having Fedorov as an innovating, reforming youthful defense minister

pushing an onslaught against Crimea, changes in how Ukraine pulls its defense contracts together, to now seeing Fedorov as kind of a new column

in Ukrainian politics. There to remind Ukrainians about the longevity of Zelenskyy, that he hasn't had an election, demand change and reform

potentially.

Yes, that's good, because it suggests Ukrainian democracy is still certainly alive. But remember, this is wartime. Russia will exploit that

internal weakness It will push any electoral bids or anything in that process with misinformation to try and disrupt it. The country is still

under likely assault. It's worth reminding people as well.

And President Zelenskyy has now survived a couple of crises, one involving a corruption scandal in his inner circle, another one involving the

departure of Fedorov himself. And now this will continue to raise questions about, indeed, his longevity.

So perhaps what Ukraine needs involving the departure of Fedorov himself. And now this will continue to raise questions about, indeed, his longevity.

So perhaps what Ukraine needs ideologically, a reminder that it's democracy is robust and is able to have this internal debate.

[15:05:04]

But in wartime, something Russia will likely lean into. And ultimately, this sort of disunity isn't going to help Ukraine win or even bring the war

to an end.

Nick Paton Walsh, CNN, London.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FOSTER: So, what we want to know is Volodymyr Zelenskyy's leadership under threat?

Joining us now, Alex Khara, executive director of the Centre for Defence Strategies.

Thanks for joining us, Alex.

First of all, what do you make of this call for elections? Because it is difficult, isn't it, frankly, to have free and fair elections during a war,

whatever anyone says. So, Zelenskyy is legitimate to some extent in what he says.

ALEXANDER KHARA, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, CENTRE FOR DEFENCE STRATEGIES: Well, first of all, it was not a smart move to fire Mr. Fedorov from his position

as a minister of defense. However, it's not for the smart move to push for elections, for the obvious reason. And actually, Nick explained it in depth

because there are huge challenges starting from security to legislations that we need to amend to enable this ability to hold these elections.

But the most important thing that national unity is a major pillar of our ability to defend our country. And certainly, if we just open this Pandora

box of politicians running for the highest office or for the parliament, certainly this national unity may be harmed. But from the other hand, yes,

we need to think about the possibility of holding elections in the long run, because the Russians are not going to stop this year or possibly next

year. They are prepared for the long haul.

Putin is likely to call the general mobilization in Russia after the so- called parliamentary elections if he fails to get more people, more contract soldiers to the front line. So that's why Fedorov is right that we

need to think about that. But he's wrong that it's time, it's high time to hold these elections.

FOSTER: Is it because he wants to run himself? Because there's, as you say, it does create this division in the country, which obviously Russia is

going to capitalize on.

KHARA: Well, I don't know his personal motives for that, but according to the assessment of the Central Electoral Committee, we need to have

parliamentary elections first and then presidential elections. And given that Mr. Fedorov, possibly he has a couple of dozens of people around him

who work in previous positions, but certainly it's not enough to roll out the infrastructure for parliamentary elections. He's popular, but you

cannot convert this popularity in half of a year into the world working political party in the political campaign.

So he may think about the future after war period for sure. But from the other hand, he may do a bad service for the nation because as Nick said

that last year, President Trump was trying to push and to exploit this issue of elections, because he is not happy that President Zelenskyy is not

ready to accept the so-called compromises with Russia, which is to surrender Ukrainian sovereignty.

And he thought that replacing Zelenskyy would change something. But anyway, it's not going to change anything, because Ukraine is a messy democracy,

and people are against any compromises with Russia, which means dysfunctional Ukrainian state and losing territory.

So, whether Mr. Fedorov is thinking about the campaign, presidential campaign or parliamentary campaign, he might be not that experienced in the

Ukrainian politics. And he just had a false start.

FOSTER: He has got contacts in America, hasn't he, in the MAGA movement, if I can call it that. Do you think that's speaking to this at all?

KHARA: Yes, there might be some connection because he has personal relations with Elon Musk and we know that Elon Musk has been supporting

various anti-European forces in Europe like alternative for Germany or some British guys. And he may think that it's high time for Ukraine to give up

on some of our goals, and the best way to do that, to replace sitting president or weaken the sitting president. So that's why even those who are

against Zelenskyy didn't vote and are not going to vote for him during the elections, they condemned such an appeal to hold these elections.

And yes, there are some news that Mr. Fedorov might be heading to such an appeal to hold these elections. And yes, there are some news that Mr.

Fedorov might be heading to the United States for the meetings with Moscow or someone else, and there might be some connection with regard to his

address to Ukrainian people.

[15:10:10]

FOSTER: OK. Thank you so much for joining us. Alexander Khara, appreciate your analysis --

KHARA: Thank you.

FOSTER: -- on those big shift in politics in Ukraine.

Talks between the US and Iran are at a standstill, with U.S. President Donald Trump telling his envoys to bring their conversations with Tehran to

a halt. Trump says there are no talks with Iran currently underway or any scheduled in the near future. But whilst progress pauses, oil prices

continue to rise. The prolonged disruption in the Strait of Hormuz means oil is now hovering around $90 a barrel.

New challenges for Iran on the economic front as it faces the loss of one of its biggest commercial partners. The UAE announced Wednesday that all

trade and financial interactions with Tehran will be suspended until further notice after it accused Iran of launching two missiles towards the

country, which Iran denies.

CNN's Alayna Treene joins us from the White House.

I mean, what -- you know, where's the significance of this, do you think, from the U.S. point of view?

ALAYNA TREENE, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Look, I think what's been so interesting, it is significant. But at the same time, what we're seeing the

president, the posture he's recently developed, Max, has been more of a wait and see approach. You actually heard for him as well directly today.

He spoke with reporters and he was on the South Lawn showing them some new additions to the White House and described the situation with Iran as,

quote, "so good" and noted that talks could start again.

I'd remind you that we had reported that the president had essentially told his team to stop direct conversations with the Iranians and essentially

wants to see how this plays out. And I can tell you from the conversations I've been having with White House officials and people throughout the Trump

administration, Max, the president wants to try and exert as much economic pain on the country as possible. And he's been telling his advisers

recently that for now, he wants to see how this U.S. naval blockade on Iranian ports and in the strait, what the damage to that can be and to kind

of take a break now in trying to get to the ultimate goal, which is, of course, a much longer term, more permanent type of peace deal and also a

deal, of course, to reopen the Strait of Hormuz.

As for what we saw from the UAE, though, I think this administration recognizes that the war has been very difficult for Middle Eastern allies

as well, and particularly something that they've been communicating to this White House that they want the war to end. So that's another pressure

point, I think, on this White House. But for the meantime, Trump does seem content with kind of dragging this out longer.

Very interesting, of course, given that really is the opposite of what we've heard for him in recent months about wanting to wrap this up as soon

as possible and not have this turn into a much more, you know, enduring war, a more forever war. So, we'll have to see where this leads. But not

really a lot of movement from this White House side with negotiations and conversations at this point.

FOSTER: Okay. I appreciate it, Alayna. Thank you for joining us on the White House.

Now, more than two years after a little girl named Hind Rajab died in a hail of bullets, Israel's military is now admitting for the first time that

its soldiers fired on her family's car in Gaza. Up until now, the IDF insisted it was not responsible, saying its forces were not even in firing

range. Hind and six other family members were travelling in a car in northern Gaza when they came under fire in January 2024. The little girl

survived the initial attack, then begged Palestinian medics by phone for hours to save her in recordings later broadcast around the world.

CNN's Nada Bashir has more on the attack in this report from February 2024, and a warning, you may find some parts of it difficult to watch.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

(HIND RAJAB SPEAKING IN FOREIGN LANGUAGE)

NADA BASHIR, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Five-year-old Hind Rajab, her playful voice, cherished by all who knew her, but they will also be haunted

by Hind's terrifying pleas heard in this audio recording.

HIND RAJAB, 5-YEAR-OLD (translated): Come take me. Will you come and take me?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (translated): Do you want me to come and take you?

RAJAB: I'm so scared, please come.

BASHIR (voice over): Little Hind trapped in a car beside the bodies of her uncle, his wife and their four children, all killed by Israeli fire, the

Palestine Red Crescent says, while attempting to flee fighting in northern Gaza.

All contact with Hind and the ambulance crew dispatched to rescue her, lost just hours after her desperate call for help.

For 12 days, there was collective hope that Hind would be found alive. Her mother, desperate for her daughter's safe return, waited every day at the

hospital gates. But now, that hope is lost.

(WISSAM HAMADA SPEAKING IN FOREIGN LANGUAGE)

[15:15:03]

BASHIR (voice over): "She was in the car for 12 days. May God punish all those who could have helped her and did not," Wissam says.

"And what did the Red Crescent crew that went to rescue her do to deserve this? To be burned and killed? Why did you execute them when their sole

mission was to rescue Hind?"

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FOSTER: Nada Bashir reporting there.

IDF has opened a criminal investigation into the attack now, as well as the killing of 15 medics in Gaza in March of last year. The Hind Rajab

Foundation calls today's announcement an insult to the dead, saying investigating itself only gives the illusion of accountability.

Our Jeremy Diamond is in Tel Aviv.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN JERUSALEM CORRESPONDENT: For the first time, the Israeli military has admitted that its troops did open fire the vehicle

that was carrying five-year-old Hind Rajab in Gaza, and the military has now opened a criminal investigation into the matter. This is a major change

for the Israeli military, which for the last two and a half years has denied involvement in that January 2024 killing.

In the first months after that killing took place, the Israeli military said that a preliminary investigation found that its forces were, quote,

"not present near the vehicle or within firing range of the vehicle". Now all of this goes back to a January 2024 incident in which Hind Rajab and

six other members of her family were traveling in a vehicle in the Gaza Strip when they came under Israeli military fire.

Hind Rajab was then recorded on a phone call with paramedics pleading with paramedics to come and rescue her. Ultimately, an ambulance was dispatched

to try and rescue her, but that ambulance also came under fire. And 12 days later is when Hind Rajab's body was found alongside six other members of

her family and those two paramedics who had been dispatched to rescue her.

Now the Israeli military is saying that the findings of its initial examination of the incident indicate, quote, "that IDF troops fired at a

vehicle that was approaching them". This is one of two criminal investigations that the Israeli military announced it is launching. It is

all part of a comprehensive Israeli military report into alleged Israeli war crimes in Gaza, the first comprehensive report of its kind. It

reflected the conclusions of 150 investigations, only five of which the Israeli military detailed.

Now, the other investigation where the Israeli military says it is looking into it from a criminal perspective is related to the Israeli military

opening fire on a convoy of ambulances and emergency response vehicles back in March of 2025. That incident resulted in the killing of 15 paramedics

and first responders.

In that incident, the Israeli military initially claimed that these vehicles were driving suspiciously, that they didn't have headlights or

emergency signals on, but video of the incident later showed that this was in fact a convoy of emergency vehicles with flashing lights. But at the

time, even then, after that initial change of stories, the Israeli military said that there had been professional failures but, quote, no ethical gaps.

But now the Israeli military is saying that this shooting raises, quote, "reasonable suspicion of criminal misconduct" and is looking into it from a

criminal investigatory standpoint. The Israeli military also declined to ultimately pursue criminal investigations in three other incidents, one of

which was the killing of seven World Central kitchen workers back in 2024. The others involved two previous strikes on Doctors Without Borders

locations in the Gaza Strip.

Jeremy Diamond, CNN, Jerusalem.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FOSTER: The Hind Rajab Foundation calling for broader justice noting that thousands of children have been killed in Gaza before Hind and thousands

after as well. Just today, hospital officials in Gaza City said one girl was amongst the nine people killed in an Israeli strike on a police station

near a car -- a city park. Now, the attack comes just two days after U.S. envoy Jared Kushner personally urged the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin

Netanyahu to show restraint.

Coming up, results from U.S. primary elections show Democratic Socialists gaining ground whilst the Trump-endorsed candidate win for the Republican

nomination to run for the Florida governor's office.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:22:55]

FOSTER: Several U.S. states on Tuesday decided their party's nominations in primary elections, which is an interesting matchup developing in

President Trump's adopted home state of Florida. In the race to replace term-limited Governor Ron DeSantis, Mr. Trump endorsed candidate Byron

Donalds, who won the Republican slot, whilst Democrats nominated David Jolly who left the Republican Party in 2018 because of President Trump.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DAVID JOLLY (D), FLORIDA GUBERNATORIAL CANDIDATE: Voters are desperate for change. We are believing in each other. Folks, I'm begging you right now,

believe in something better.

REP. BYRON DONALDS (R-FL), GUBERNATORIAL CANDIDATE: David Jolly represents everything that folks hate about Washington, D.C. Liberal David Jolly is

the change that Florida cannot afford.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FOSTER: Democratic Socialists demonstrated their growing influence as well in the US. A progressive firebrand won the Florida Democratic U.S. Senate

nomination. State House member Angie Nixon beat her well-funded establishment challenger Alexander Vindman by harnessing grassroots

Democrats and social media.

Vindman is a well-known name in national politics. The retired Army officer was a key witness against President Trump in fact in his first impeachment.

Ron Brownstein, CNN senior political analyst and "Bloomberg" economist as well, joins us now.

It does strike me two themes, the rise of the Democratic Socialists, I guess, on one side, they're continuing that momentum, aren't they? But

also, that getting an endorsement from the president isn't necessarily the winning move that it used to be.

RON BROWNSTEIN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Yeah, as we talked about before, there has been the greatest number of true serious left-center

primary confrontations in the Democratic Party this year than in any primary that I've covered since the 1980s. And neither side has delivered a

knockout. I mean, each side can point to significant wins. The center won the California governor race, the private nomination last week, Wisconsin

nomination, Iowa, Texas.

[15:25:01]

But the left has had a series of wins, too. And the left is finishing very strong, Max. I mean, between Abdul El Sayed winning in Michigan, Peggy

Flanagan winning in Minnesota, and Angie Nixon winning in Florida, I think the left is finishing on a high note here. And the question, of course,

will become whether these candidates can win in a general election, particularly in swing terrain. That's been the argument from the Bernie

wing of the party for years, Bernie Sanders. Give us the ball. can win in swing terrain, now they have to prove it.

FOSTER: Yeah, but Florida is interesting, isn't it, is a swing state traditionally. So, what we see here, if things continue as they are, this

could be very reflective of what happens in the midterms, couldn't it?

BROWNSTEIN: Yeah. Look, Florida is really tough for Democrats. And if you're going to pick any place in the country where it is riskiest to

nominate someone who openly identifies as a socialist, it would be in a state where you have so many people who are, in essence, refugees from

failed socialist countries, whether Cuba or Venezuela or some of the Central American, like Nicaragua. So, I mean, Florida was a very long shot

for Democrats to begin with. It's a longer shot now.

But I will say this primary to me is revealing of a larger dynamic, which is that in these frequent confrontations between left and center in

Democratic primaries this year, I've been struck that the centrist candidates really have not had the courage of their convictions. They have

not really challenged the desirability of some of these ideas that the left candidates are rallying around. They've only basically argued either they

can't be passed or they're not electorally viable rather than directly confronting whether it makes sense to abolish ICE or to try to go to a

single-payer health care system.

And Vindman took this to an extreme by refusing to debate Nixon at all and then he just got whacked. I mean she beat him by double digits and I think

one thing coming out of this primary season looking toward 2028 is a pretty clear message to the centrist components of the Democratic Party that

unless they make a stronger case, they could be facing a tough road in the 2028 presidential primaries.

FOSTER: And let's talk about the governor race, because obviously Ron DeSantis is such a big public figure. It's a big job, isn't it, in national

politics as well as state politics.

BROWNSTEIN: Yeah.

FOSTER: And Dave Jolly was interesting. I mean, has he got a chance?

BROWNSTEIN: Again, Florida is really hard for Democrats. Part of what happened when Ron DeSantis, the Republican governor, took such an

adversarial position toward the national direction on COVID and kind of basically left everything open and resisted and opposed masking, it

affected migration patterns. Part of what we are seeing is this self- sorting in the U.S. as we've seen this widening divergence between the rules of daily life, really, in red and blue states on everything abortion

to what teachers can talk about in the classroom.

Florida is where they pass the "don't say gay" law. And basically, more conservative people are moving to red states and out of blue states and

people who are uncomfortable with the, you know, kind of the rules of red states are moving into blue states. So, Florida is definitely tougher than

it was for Democrats. Even six, eight, you know, in 2018, there were photo finishes in both the governor and the Senate race in Florida. It's hard to

imagine it's going to be that close again in 2026.

FOSTER: It's been fascinating stuff. Always great to meet you, Ron. Thank you.

We've actually got some breaking news. People, including Ecuador's intelligence chief, have been killed in a helicopter crash in Kenya. Five

Americans are also amongst the dead. The news is just going to us, but Jennifer has the latest from the State Department -- Jennifer.

JENNIFER HANSLER, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL SECURITY REPORTER: These preliminary details of the victims of this helicopter crash that happened earlier today

in central Kenya. As you mentioned, one of the most prominent is probably Ecuador's Intelligence Agency Director General, Michele Sensi-Contugi and

his wife. They were on board, according to Ecuador's state media. In addition, a State Department spokesperson tells me that five American

citizens were also on board this flight.

Now, according to Kenya's Civil Aviation Authority, there were seven people on board in total on this flight that crashed near a mountain in central

Kenya. It seemed it was a touristic flight. We don't know any of the details of what actually brought this flight down.

Now the Kenyan Red Cross said earlier today that they were continuing their search and recovery efforts here, but they said that those efforts were

hampered by difficult terrain access and an active fire at the crash site. They said they had deployed an additional team here to help with these

recovery efforts.

Another person on board was a Telemundo executive, according to that media organization.

[15:30:06]

And we will bring you more as we learn more about this terrible crash that happened earlier today -- Max.

FOSTER: Yeah, okay, Jennifer, thank you. Also, still to come tonight, do they have a deal?

President Trump claims he and the Canadian Prime Minister --

HANSLER: Thank you, guys.

FOSTER: -- have come to an agreement over tariffs. We'll have his comments for you coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:33:51]

FOSTER: President Donald Trump says he's pausing huge tariffs on Canada and claims the two countries have come to a new trade agreement. The

president had pledged 50 percent tariffs on Canadian goods if an agreement wasn't reached. However, he now says Canada will lift some tariffs that

impacted American farmers. In exchange, the U.S. will reduce tariffs on Canadian goods.

Here's more from Mr. Trump.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We had a very good conversation with the Prime Minister last night, and we've come to a deal

with Canada. As you know, the 50 percent tariffs across the board were going on against Canada today. And they called yesterday, and they gave us

the points that we had to have.

Very fair deal for both. The tariffs will be nonexistent for our farmers. Our farmers were paying tremendous tariffs into Canada, and those tariffs

are going to be totally eviscerated, down to zero.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FOSTER: Anna Stewart's been looking at this, including the Canadian response, and they're not so sure the deal's done yet, are they, Anna?

ANNA STEWART, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, not for the first time. We have a deal announced by President Trump, but we don't have many details on the

other side of the so-called deal. Well, Prime Minister Mark Carney in Canada has simply said that substantial progress has been made.

[15:35:04]

So clearly, things are moving in the right direction. Whether or not there's a final deal ready to sign yet remains unclear. Plenty, we don't

know. Here's what we do. You heard there, President Trump saying that this would be a boon for sort of US farmers, that tariffs would be down to zero.

Perhaps that's referring to the quotas that Canada has on things like U.S. -- sorry, dairy imports from the U.S. They have a quota after which you

have to pay a tariff. It's rarely hit. Perhaps there's some movement on that.

In a Truth Social post, President Trump also said that the great Keystone XL pipeline may be awoken from the grave. That's referring to this pipeline

plan which would be able to carry around a million barrels of oil a day from Alberta to Nebraska. That would be a huge boon for U.S. oil

refineries, so that would be a great win for him.

The big question, I guess, is what is Canada getting out of this? There's the reprieve on the 50 percent tariffs on the $20 billion of Canadian

goods, the recent tariff round that was announced. That was on things like hockey sticks, beer, milk and plywood. There's a reprieve there.

Perhaps that was only ever a negotiating tactic. Perhaps that wasn't a sort of genuine threat. Who knows at this point?

What Canada really wants is movement on the 50 percent tariff that currently remains on Canadian cars, steel, aluminum, anything like that

that they export to the U.S. So that's where want to see movement. Perhaps we'll get more detail in the days to come.

FOSTER: He has some success, doesn't he, Mark Carney, with President Trump, because he always seems to resolve a lot of the differences and

they're often quite sharp. He's clearly got some influence over the president, one of the few world leaders that manages to genuinely negotiate

with him.

STEWART: Well, negotiations are appearing to go quite well. There's a negotiation, of course, with the federal government in Canada. It's quite

different when it comes to the provinces and whether President Trump will ever succeed in getting U.S. liquor, for example, sold in liquor stores in

certain provinces of Canada where local government has decided they're simply not going to do that. That's a different negotiation.

For Mark Carney, yes, it does look like this is good. But the problem is with the U.S. and Canada, we've been here before, is President Trump may

have a deal, may be very happy with how negotiations are going right now, but will it last, Max?

FOSTER: OK. Anna, thank you so much. We'll get an update, I'm sure, in the next couple of days.

It's the final moments of trade, meanwhile, on Wall Street, and stocks are looking at a higher close as pressure from the bond markets actually eased

today. The U.S. Treasury decided to double its long-term bond purchases to calm the market, and it pretty much worked.

This is our Business Breakout.

The Iran-backed Houthis say they've targeted eight Saudi oil tankers since launching a blockade on Saudi shipping in late July. The group also claims

it attacked and sank two military vessels in the Red Sea. CNN has not been able to independently verify those claims.

Marvel Technology is teaming up with Google to fuel the tech giant's hunger for custom A.I. chips. Google could pay up to $12 billion for a massive

stake at the chipmaker. Demand for custom A.I. chips is skyrocketing as tech titans hunt for alternatives to Nvidia.

If you grew up in the `80s or the `90s, you might remember this name. Columbia House, it was famous for deals like 12 CDs for one cent. Well,

after more than seven decades in business, the once iconic subscription music service is shutting down. Their streaming business just didn't work

out.

The world's leader in humanoid robots is about to make a lot more robots as well, it seems. This is after they made their trading debut today in

Shanghai and boosted their shares by more than 600 percent. These robots went viral for their dance moves and kung fu fighting, raising Unitree

nearly $1 billion in their initial public offering. Unitree's newest robot, Superman, unveiled this week, can jump two meters high and outpaces the

fastest humans. Beijing has poured billions into humanoid robots, seeing them as a frontier, really, for the future.

And on the subject of tech, we're going to cross to the White House, where the first thing is hosting tech leaders.

TRUMP: Rates went down because we had a stronger country.

Now when we announce good numbers, the better they are, the worse it is for interest rates. So, we could be -- we could have a GDP of 10 times. You

know, they say, oh, it's going to be three times, or 4.1. We could have a GDP of 10, 12, 15 times if they just leave us alone.

Let us -- let the rates go down. We should pay the lowest interest rates. You know, every point of interest is $600 billion. Think of that. Every

point of interest is $600 billion. Two points means we make a fortune, but we keep driving it up.

It's a very unfair system, and I've said it now for Two points means we make a fortune, but we keep driving it up. It's a very unfair system, and

I've said it now for a long time. When our country does well, interest rates should go down.

I mean, every time I hear our country's doing well, I say, oh, it's too bad because they lift up interest rates. They should drop interest rates

because it means we have a strong country, and it's all based on credit, meaning good credit, and we have the best credit, and we'd pay off the debt

very easily and very quickly.

But if somebody's paying a half a point, we should be paying a half a point, not somebody else. Right now, I think Switzerland has the lowest.

Again, and I don't want to single them out, but if you take our business away from Switzerland, they have problems. So why are they paying a half a

point and we're paying much more than that? Does that make sense to anybody?

It seems pretty simple to me, but it's a killer. You know, I almost like to hear bad numbers. I'm saying, I hope we have bad numbers that the interest

rates will go down. It doesn't make sense.

When our business is good, we should lower interest rates. And then you want to build America, you're going to see a building like you've never

seen. We're doing great even despite the fact of what's happening with interest rates.

REPORTER: Should Americans be concerned about this volatility in the bond market?

TRUMP: No, I don't think so because like I said, our country is doing so well despite interest rates. We have interest rates that are artificial,

they're actually artificially high. They raise them for no reason.

And you can't go out to the market when you have a Fed that's raising interest. You can't say, I want to pay three points less than what the Fed

says you're supposed to be paying. So no, I don't think so at all. I think we have a very powerful country and we're powering through these ridiculous

interest rates. They're ridiculous.

Look, when our country is strong, interest rates should go down. When our country is weak, frankly, they should go up. But this country is strong.

They've never had, there's never been in history the kind of money coming into a country as we have right now. Trillions and trillions of dollars are

being invested in plants, factories, everything, everything you can think of. We're the hottest country in the world. We are by far, and I, you know,

I said it 100 times, the king of Saudi Arabia, many, many people.

They said, two years ago, three years ago, your country was dead. Now you have the hottest country in the world. That's what we have. We have the

hottest country in the world, and these people are helping us a lot.

Thank you very much, everybody.

Come on to the Oval Office. We're going to take them into the Oval Office. We're going to show them a real office, OK? Their office is a nice, but

this is right.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Thank you, Chris.

FOSTER: The president is watching to see if he made any news announcements, which he didn't really. He talked about -- he was there

hosting A.I., rather tech leaders and crypto leaders. And he talked about the strength of the US economy and how interest rates should be lower.

These are arguments we've heard before. But he's off to host those tech leaders and get their support in, I'm sure he hopes.

Now, coming up, activating the cheat code. We'll be looking at ChatGPT's creator updating its security after an A.I. agent went rogue and hacked a

rival site for test answers.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:46:22]

FOSTER: As A.I. agents get smarter, there is a bigger chance they might go rogue. So OpenAI is rolling out some new safeguards. The company, which is

behind the popular ChatGPT, says it's toughening up its research and testing environments. The new monitoring system aims to raise an alert

within 30 minutes after concerning behavior from its A.I. models. It happened before and it wasn't spotted for weeks.

Our A.I. correspondent, Hadas Gold, has been following the story. She joins us from Kansas City.

Is this an effort by them to push away any regulation from outside?

HADAS GOLD, CNN A.I. CORRESPONDENT: It might be a way about pushing away regulation, but it's also a recognition that their models went rogue and

committed an illegal act because hacking into another company system is a crime. And they probably don't want their A.I. agents doing that again.

And OpenAI has actually said that they're also pausing some of the training work on their models over some of these safety concerns. That's a big deal.

They paused them for at least two weeks, which is a long time in the A.I. world. They said that these new safety measures are triggered not only by

that incident where their model went rogue and hacked into the Hugging Face platform, but also because of the capabilities they're seeing in one of

their new models that's not released yet that's called Astra.

So, a few things that they're doing in this new safety measures is they are securing the testing environment. One of the things that happened with that

A.I. model that went rogue it found a bug in its testing environment in that secure lab that's supposed to be a sandbox to keep anything from going

out. The model found a bug, found a hole, found a way out, and managed to escape to the open internet.

And so now what they say is that they're doing a much better job of raising the safety standards so that one single compromise or bug or something like

that won't be enough for a model to be able to escape. They're going to be doing is better monitoring because, as you noted, some of their agents were

out there patrolling the open Internet, trying to hack into Hugging Face for a few weeks before the humans even knew exactly what was going on. In

fact, it was Hugging Face who first knew that they were being hacked, and only a few days later did OpenAI connect with them and realized that it was

actually one of their agents who were doing that.

So now they have this new monitoring system set up that within 30 minutes of a potential security issue will alert real humans. Another thing that

they're doing is better alignment. Alignment is how you train an A.I. model to actually do what you want it to do, to actually go with the human

intent, because in all of these cases of these A.I. agents going rogue, the humans did not tell the agents go out into the real world and hack this

company.

In OpenAI's case, the agents were given a test, but instead of taking the test, they decided the best way to ace the test was to go out and find the

answer key and cheat on the test. The humans never intended for that to happen. And so, they say they want to do better about alignment training,

which is, you know, improving how the model behaves, getting it to, you know, better detect when it's about to do unsafe or unethical behavior and

to stop it from doing so.

And when I spoke with OpenAI researchers yesterday, they said that everything that they're doing in this situation is intended to prevent

something like the Hugging Face hack from happening again -- Max.

FOSTER: Okay, Hadas in Kansas, thank you so much.

Still to come, a fresh optimism in the fight against cancer. What trials for a possible skin cancer vaccine have revealed after the break?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:52:23]

FOSTER: Moderna and Merck have announced success in the latest trial of a treatment that they've developed for melanoma. The real headline here

though is it represents a new way to treat cancer.

Our medical correspondent Meg Terrell has more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MEG TIRRELL, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, this is being described as feeling almost like science fiction even just a couple decades ago. But now

we are one step closer to seeing this potential new way of treating cancer come to fruition. So, we are seeing these late-stage clinical trial results

coming out from Moderna and Merck of what's called a personalized cancer vaccine, in this case for Melanoma, which is the deadliest form of skin

cancer.

Now it's called a vaccine, but it's actually a treatment for cancer. But the reason they call it a vaccine is because it relies on the same mRNA

technology that's behind the COVID vaccines and it acts to rev up the immune response to better recognize and fight cancer. On top of that, it's

a personalized approach.

So, what happened in this phase three clinical trial is it's in about 1,000 patients. They tested it, who had had their cancer surgically removed. Then

what happens is each patient's tumor gets sampled, biopsied, and they sequence it to see the unique signature that identifies that tumor.

And then they design this mRNA cancer vaccine specifically for each patient's cancer. So then they are administered that personalized cancer

vaccine on top of an existing treatment called Keytruda. And what that aims to do is to help the immune system recognize their cancer and to better

fight it.

And what they are seeing in these phase three clinical trial results is that they met the study's goals. Now we don't have the full results of the

study, but what they say is that by meeting the goals, this prevented or reduced the risk that the cancer came back after being surgically removed,

or also reduced the risk that the cancer would spread to distant parts of the body.

And so, we've heard from Moderna that the companies aim to file for regulatory approval within a few months. So, this could really be headed

potentially to market quite soon. And of course, melanoma being the deadliest form of skin cancer, this could present a really big treatment

advance both for this also for a number of other cancers where it's being tested, including lung cancer, bladder cancer, and kidney cancer.

I spoke with Moderna's CEO, who said that he felt this was as big a moment for humanity as when they got the first phase three vaccine results for the

COVID-19 pandemic. So really opening up, he says, as do many doctors, a new way of potentially treating cancer.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FOSTER: Meg Tirrell reporting that significant news there.

[15:55:00]

Now, finally, tonight, we have a royal story for you because Queen Camilla has been opening up about how difficult it was to keep King Charles's

cancer diagnosis a secret from the public. She visited British cancer charity Maggie's in January of 2024, just days before the news was made

public. She said in a new interview with the charity that at the time she was longing to let it out. While the King has since let the public know he

is responding well to treatment, he's not yet in remission.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

QUEEN CAMILLA: I remember coming to see a Maggie's just after the King being diagnosed. Nobody could say anything at the time. That was quite

difficult. I almost said something but, you know, felt that it wasn't the time to say it. Looked at everybody suffering and all the relations, and I

think it made me realize even more how these places were.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FOSTER: I'm Max Foster. That is WHAT WE KNOW. Thank you for joining me. Do stay with CNN.

END

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