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What We Know with Max Foster

Five Men Arrested On Suspicion Of Terrorist Plot Against British Air Base Released On Bail; Trump Speaking At The White House; Trump Announces New Steel Plant, Biggest In U.S. History; SpaceX Launches Most Powerful Rocket Ever Into Orbit; UAE Confirms Netanyahu Visited, Met President. Aired 3-4p ET

Aired September 28, 2026 - 15:00   ET

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

[15:00:20]

CHRISTINA MACFARLANE, CNN HOST: The intrigue deepens over the arrests near a British air base.

This is WHAT WE KNOW.

And we begin the hour with a stunning development in a suspected terrorist plot against a British air base. Five men who have been arrested on

suspicion of an alleged plan to attack RAF Fairford have been released on bail. The base is used by U.S. bombers.

Here's what the head of UK's counterterrorism police had to say earlier.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LAURENCE TAYLOR, HEAD OF UK COUNTER TERRORISM POLICING: The five men who were arrested are being released on police bail this afternoon. 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.

I also know there is significant interest in whether the current geopolitical context has a bearing on this incident.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MACFARLANE: Well, a moment ago, President Trump was speaking to reporters at the White House. He was asked about the police's decision to release the

suspects on bail. Here's what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: And we're ending cashless bail. But over there, I'm surprised that they released them. I wouldn't

have done that.

Look, they've been very good. They worked with us very closely. We know everything about them. We would not have released them.

REPORTER: So you said might be. Iran might be? Can you elaborate on that?

TRUMP: I'd rather not. I mean, I know the answer. I can be very specific, but I'd rather not say it. But I would not have released them.

REPORTER: Has your team spoken to Iran today?

TRUMP: Yeah, they have.

REPORTER: They have their mediators?

TRUMP: Yeah.

REPORTER: Anything else you could share about, any movement on the talks?

TRUMP: We're going to win this. As far as I'm concerned, it's going to be one way or the other. It's going to be -- it's going to go pretty quickly.

REPORTER: Two questions for you, Mr. President, one on this announcement and one on the state --

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MACFARLANE: CNN's international diplomatic editor Nic Robertson has this report from outside the base in western England.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: Yes, surprising developments, I think, for a lot of people, certainly around here, the head

of the British counterterrorism policing said that these five men that were arrested here a little over 36 hours ago are now being released on bail.

They remain under investigation. The four men had been identified in their five men rather had been identified in their 20s, all of them living in

London, but they are now out on bail. The investigation into them continues.

The head of the counterterrorism policing spoke about the possibility and motivations that go behind incidents such as this, and this is a pretty

rare and unusual incident, he said perhaps the focus was less on terrorism and more on financial gain, which sort of leads the thinking about what

propagated this -- what appeared to be a potential terror threat at this base over the weekend and the base going on to what appeared to be a sort

of security, following that, the evacuation of about a couple of 100 residents from a village not far from where we're standing.

All of that seemed to indicate an imminent terror threat, but now the narrative seems to be perhaps that these were young men working for

financial gain and the head of counterterrorism spoke about not ruling out the idea that they were wittingly or unwittingly potentially involved or

working for a foreign state. It does seem that this investigation is still at its very early stages, but I think a lot of local residents around here

when the alarm was raised in the early hours of Sunday morning, helicopters came in, the area was sealed off, families evacuated, the bomb squad coming

in, the sounds of controlled detonations late yesterday afternoon, five men arrested for suspicion of explosives and suspicion of being involved in the

preparation of acts of terrorism, the sense here was that these men who were spotted by a local resident, a farmer late at night called into the

police, then picked up that they were involved in something nefarious.

Now this really sort of throws the question a little wider if they were really involved in such serious offenses, they're now out on bail but still

under investigation. So, there's far more, far more to know about this, and as you can see, the security cordon around the base here is still in place.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

[15:05:05]

MACFARLANE: Well, let's take you straight to the White House now, where U.S. President Donald Trump is speaking and taking questions. Let's listen

in.

TRUMP: The best poverty numbers, nobody hears that individuals are making more money per capita per individual, than at any time. Nobody hears about

your 401k. So we've had 82 record stock days on all the exchanges, 82 in a little more than a year and a half, right? And people don't hear that.

Nobody hears that your 401k, you mostly have 401k, right? Check your 401ks. You're up double in one year. And nobody talks about that.

Nobody talks about the border. I can't even talk about it. My people say, sir, nobody cares about the border. I got elected because of the border,

and now because it's so good, my -- one of my people who's fantastic said, sir, the people don't care about the border anymore.

When I got elected, I got elected very much on the border, and a lot of other reasons, so inflation. They had the worst inflation in history. The

inflation is coming way down. And when you see what happens, as soon as that war ends, inflation is going to be eradicated totally. But nobody

talks about that.

Gas is going to go way down. And it's already -- you know, if you look -- I think, Peter, this is 100 percent -- so we wiped out Iran's military. We

wiped out just about everything they have.

And nobody talks about the fact that Iran will never have a nuclear weapon. Nobody talks about the fact that we had the worst inflation in history.

Nobody talks about the fact that Biden paid -- you were paying much more for gasoline. Just talk about all these, you know, everything.

Under Biden, you paid much more for gasoline than they're paying now. And what I did is I went to war to stop the -- one of the -- it could be one of

the worst things that could ever happen to the world, to us, but to the world.

Israel would be wiped out right now. There would be no Israel. There'd be no Middle East. And then the rockets and the bombs would start coming our

way and Europe's way. And I stopped it.

And this gentleman is spending $18 billion in Iowa. He would say, I'm going to take a pass on the United States. I'm not going to spend 18 because we

would have had a lunatic and a lunatic country running -- running around with nuclear weapons because the power is so great. But nobody talks about

-- nobody talks about all of the incredible things.

Again, you have -- many of you have -- I don't want to ask because you'll say, oh, we're not supposed to report that. We're the fake news media.

We're not allowed to report it. You all have 401ks.

I don't have to know anything about you. Your 401k is double in a short period of time. It's double. You're twice as wealthy as you are.

MACFARLANE: I will go to the White House and CNN's Betsy Klein who is standing by.

Betsy, just bring us up to speed, if you will, with the range of topics the president was addressing there and why he is in the Oval Office today with

the press.

BETSY KLEIN, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Right, Christina, President Trump defending his record there as he is making a major announcement that

a Minnesota-based steel company called Mesabi Metallics is going to be making a $15 billion investment in a steel plant in Iowa.

And Iowa is notable here because it is a state that President Trump won multiple times in 2016, in 2020, in 2024. But it is the site of competitive

races for both the Senate and for the governor's race, as well as a lot of competitive House races and one of the candidates, Congresswoman Ashley

Hinson of Iowa, was present in the Oval Office standing next to President Trump as he made this announcement.

Hinson is in this competitive Senate race against the Democrat Josh Turek, who's a state legislator and former Paralympian gold medalist.

Now she is one of the candidates that we are seeing as these midterm elections approach place some strategic distance between herself and

President Trump. She has spoken out against his beef policy. She's put out an ad talking about her willingness to work across the aisle. She actually

skipped a recent event attended by Vice President J.D. Vance in Council Bluffs.

And then today she was just right next to Trump as he announced this major investment in her state. But that came just days after she posted on social

media taking aim at his war with Iran, which she said was causing Iowans to feel the squeeze.

And all of this comes as we are learning that Trump advisers are increasingly concerned about Republicans chances of holding on to the House

of Representatives this November. They are also increasingly less confident that they'll be able to hold on to the Senate. Still, President Trump's

team is planning this aggressive effort to get the president on the road in front of voters, both in battleground states as well as deep red states.

[15:10:04]

We're going to see him this week traveling to Alabama and Oklahoma. All of this is aimed at boosting turnout, but this war with Iran has emerged as a

major flashpoint for voters. It has dragged down the president's approval rating to about 35 percent, according to CNN's poll of polls. The average

price of a gallon of gas here in the United States is $4.47 a gallon, so there's a lot of pressure on President Trump to wrap this up.

And to that end, we are learning that President Trump has communicated that he is willing to give Iran some sanctions and relief and release frozen

funds as part of a final deal with Iran. But that is only if Tehran offers some concrete progress on their nuclear program. That is, according to a

U.S. official and the same official suggests that Iran has shown some willingness to make some concessions on their nuclear program. Those

negotiations are continuing, but voters are already beginning to cast their ballots early.

We are just 36 days away from those midterm elections, so there's not a lot of time to get this done, Christina.

MACFARLANE: Yeah, less than five weeks until midterms. So much is tuned to that right now.

Betsy Klein, appreciate it. Thank you.

Now, SpaceX is celebrating a successful trip to orbit with its Starship rocket.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANNOUNCER: Three, two, one.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MACFARLANE: The rocket was able to deploy all 26 of its Starlink satellites. The mission initially was to include six laps of Earth and

remain in orbit for 10 hours.

However, the mission to space was cut short for safety reasons, and the rocket then landed, as you can see here, in the Pacific Ocean. This comes

as SpaceX is under pressure to prepare for a new moon landing.

Sarah Treadwell is joining me now. She's a NASA solar system ambassador.

Thank you so much for being with us.

Sarah, it appears to my untrained eye that this mission didn't entirely go according to plan. I think one of its engines unexpectedly exploded,

cutting the flight short, as we said there. And then its splashdown seemed to be harder than expected with the ship sort of exploding into the ocean.

How problematic is all of that with regard to the sort of goals of the mission and the effort to bring back that highly sensitive data?

SARAH TREADWELL, NASA SOLAR SYSTEM AMBASSDOR: Yeah, the rocket actually cut short, like it cut out when it was going up into its suborbital flight.

And then what they kind of deliberated on for a while was whether they were going to even try to go for the orbital flight. But because the rocket that

had cut out wasn't crucial to the ship's return, they decided to go for the full orbital launch.

So that -- you know, was kind of unexpected and they always promise an exciting show. And then when it blew up in the ocean, that's actually

pretty much what happens each time. It just hits so forcefully the fuel left in it that the ship will actually sometimes say, you know, abort to

keep everybody safe. So that was pretty much not unexpected.

MACFARLANE: Okay, I'll take your word for it.

On the plus side though, I mean the Starship made orbit and safely deployed 26 Starlink satellites. It's the first time a rocket has deployed an

operational payload like that. I mean how significant is that and what does that prove?

TREADWELL: That is significant and it kind of harkens back to your first question that I didn't fully answer. You know, SpaceX has a lot of pressure

on them right now. They need to prove that they can deliver things into outer space. They want to be able to send things to the moon ahead of

astronauts. And so, they're definitely under pressure to make sure that they can show that they can do what they have promised to do for NASA and

for the Artemis program.

So doing what they did today was a very significant step in showing that they can deliver safely equipment, and then hopefully humans to the moon.

MACFARLANE: Deliver equipment safely to the moon, but not necessarily deliver humans safely back to Earth yet, right? Is this as sort of being

viewed as a genuine sort of reusable craft right now?

TREADWELL: Yes, and the design of it is not obviously meant to land in the ocean. The idea is that it will catch both vehicles, so the booster and the

starship itself with something they call the chopsticks. So right now they are just continuing to test the systems without putting that added pressure

of also, you know, perfectly landing these chopstick maneuvers as well.

[15:15:05]

So they're trying to get everything set up to eventually get to the step, which I think they're going to do soon, which is catching both the booster

and the starship in the chopsticks.

MACFARLANE: And just on the pressure that you were talking about just a moment ago, we know that is because there's this crucial NASA test flight

coming up next year. Does this sort of what's achieved today put that flight on firmer ground? Do you think it's a good, a positive step towards

that?

TREADWELL: I do think it was, yes. I think that the endings happened very similar to what we've seen in the past and was, like I said, largely

expected, especially when they're landing in water, which is not what they're supposed to do. And having this orbital delivery of the Starlinks

to show that they can deliver things into space is just one very crucial and critical step in showing that they can get up higher and further and

eventually meet that goal of getting out to the moon.

MACFARLANE: And what exactly will the data that's brought back from the, why would the data from this flight back have been so valuable? What will

they be looking to, how will they be looking to use that in order to inform the sort of flights that are going to come from this?

TREADWELL: Yeah, SpaceX has always had this sort of methodology of iteration, right? They make mistakes. They collect the data of what went

wrong. Like, for example, today, what happened to that one rocket? So they'll learn from that and then basically build this system to make sure

that we know everything that could go wrong, and we've problem worked through all of those to eventually put it to that level of putting humans

at risk.

MACFARLANE: Well, it's highly impressive, whichever way you look at it. And we will be back the next time it is in flight to talk to you again,

Sarah, to see how much this technology has advanced. Thank you very much for now for breaking it down for us.

And we'll be right back after this quick break. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:20:18]

MACFARLANE: The United Arab Emirates is confirming that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited the UAE on Sunday and met personally

with Emirati President Mohamed bin Zayed. It comes as just as "Haaretz", "The New York Times" reports, Sheikh Zayed warned Mr. Netanyahu of a major

Hamas operation just days before the October 7 attack in 2023. Mr. Netanyahu is facing intense questions about this in Israel, with elections

just weeks away.

CNN's Jeremy Diamond is following the story tonight from Tel Aviv.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN JERUSALEM CORRESPONDENT: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu secretly traveled to the United Arab Emirates just

yesterday, according to an Israeli source familiar with the meeting, who said that the meeting was between the Israeli prime minister and the UAE's

President Mohamed bin Zayed focused, according to this source, on Iran amid the ongoing negotiations that we've seen between the U.S. and Iran, and of

course this kind of low-boil war that is still very much in effect in the region.

The Israeli prime minister, however, you know, the backdrop to all of this is the fact that the prime minister has been under major scrutiny and major

criticism here in Israel over warnings that he reportedly received from the UAE's President Mohamed bin Zayed in the days before October 7th.

The prime minister's office has in the past tried to get the UAE to deny these reports publicly. All they got from the UAE was a statement from the

UAE's foreign ministry saying that they do not comment on these types of foreign media reports. That statement also said at the time that there are

that any intelligence is shared between these two countries as necessary through the appropriate channels.

The Israeli prime minister has in the past denied receiving these kinds of warnings, but that reporting has really escalated in recent days. Not only

"Haaretz" and "The New York Times" both reporting that Prime Minister Netanyahu received warnings from the UAE, but also now this new report in

"The Atlantic" indicating that Egypt's intelligence chief also traveled to Israel on September 26, you know, a couple weeks before the October 7th

attacks and warned that Gaza was about to blow up.

Now, the Israeli prime minister's rivals in this election, which is slated to take place in just under a month now, they have been seizing on these

reports as yet more evidence that the Israeli prime minister failed the country on October 7th and in the days and weeks leading up to it ignored

potential warnings of an attack that could take place and indeed did take place from the Gaza Strip on that fateful day of October 7, 2023.

Now, the last time the Israeli prime minister visited the UAE was back in March amid the Iran war. That visit was only revealed months later. The

prime minister has yet to actually make an official visit to the UAE that has been publicly acknowledged and on camera in the way that you would

expect between two countries with diplomatic relations, but that has not happened in this case.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MACFARLANE: Well, since Jeremy filed that report, we've had confirmation from the United Arab Emirates official news agency that this meeting with

UAE president and Benjamin Netanyahu did take place. The statement reads that during the meeting, the two sides discussed bilateral relations

between the UAE and Israel and ways to strengthen and further develop them.

Coming up, a new very unexpected twist. Authorities make a stunning announcement in a suspected terrorist plot at a U.K. air base.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:27:30]

MACFARLANE: Turning now to more on our top story. Authorities here in the U.K. say five British nationals arrested in a suspected terrorist plot have

now been released on bail. The men, all in their 20s, were taken into custody on Sunday near an air base. They were suspected of a plot to attack

the base, which had been used by U.S. bombers in the war with Iran.

I'm pleased to say we have with us Dal Babu, the former chief superintendent for the London Metropolitan Police.

Thank you so much for joining us.

So, look, the bail of these five men came as something of a surprise, given how at odds it was with what we've been hearing from authorities today,

calling this a major incident, talk of how we must remain vigilant. I think that's the words of the home secretary. And not long ago, about 20 minutes

ago, President Trump in the Oval Office said that he personally would not have made the decision to police the five men on bail. So I just want to

get your read on what you make of all of this.

DAL BABU, FORMER CHIEF SUPERITENDENT, LONDON METROPOLITAN POLICE: Well, with all due respect to your president, President Trump, he's not a police

officer. He doesn't understand how investigations work. He wouldn't be aware of what the intelligence is that police have. So for him to make a

comment on an operational policing decision is quite flabbergasting if I'm perfectly honest.

I think the reality is that we still don't know the exact details of what these five suspects were doing. We know that a member of the public

contacted the police and said that they saw something suspicious. And that member of the public then gave information that people were wearing masks,

had run off when they saw her. And the police then, Gloucestershire police, and in Britain, the police is divided into, sorry, England and Wales is

divided into 43 forces.

And the police from Gloucestershire, so it's one of the smaller forces, responded and they basically arrested the five individuals for offences

relating to explosives. They then handed the matter over to counterterrorism police, who decided to arrest these people for

counterterrorism offences.

And there was a huge difference between explosive offenses, theft, handling stolen goods, those kind of offenses. You're allowed to keep somebody in

custody for 96 hours. But as soon as they're arrested for counter-terrorism related offenses, they can be held for 14 days. But you have to have the

evidence in order to do that.

And the police have been very, very clear. They're ruling nothing in, nothing out. We don't really know what role these individuals have played,

whether they've committed any specific offences, whether they may not have committed offences. We just don't know that. And the police haven't shared

that information, but they have released them under investigation on bail.

MACFARLANE: So you're saying essentially that the police don't have the evidence to keep them under terror laws for the 14 days, which is why they

may have been released on bail. What I'm wondering is if, in your view, terror is still likely to be the main focus of this investigation, or

whether there could be other motives being considered. And before you answer, I just wanted to play you a clip from the head of the UK

Counterterrorism Police, Laurence Taylor, who said this a little bit earlier. Let's just take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TAYLOR: I have spoken before about the increasing breadth and complexity of the threats that we are facing. Often this threat becomes visible to us

as criminal activity, often at a small scale and committed by individuals whose primary aim is not terrorism but a quick financial gain. It can be

harder to spot. And to that end, I would ask the public to remain vigilant and report anything suspicious to the police.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MACFARLANE: So Dal, he mentioned a quick financial gain there. I mean, is that a possible motive that runs through your mind when we consider the

description of the suspects and what they were doing?

BABU: Yeah, potentially. And I think what we should look at is how quickly these people have been bailed. And as Laurence said, there's still

investigations going on and it's a complex matter.

So, you know, what the police will have to determine is are these big fish, are they little fish? Are they people who are just in for a quick financial

return? Are they the masterminds? So there's a whole range of things.

So it's very, very different from your -- President Trump has been saying. He's been suggesting that they were going to cause big damage and that this

was an ongoing investigation by the British and U.S. authorities. I think the fact that it's been released so quickly would indicate that there

perhaps isn't the evidence of some of the things that Donald Trump is suggesting has happened.

So I think it's a timely reminder that we need to let police officers get on with policing and investigating and we need to ensure that politicians

are mindful of what they say and base it on facts and not on wild speculation which has no evidence to justify.

MACFARLANE: But having said that, I mean, UK counter-terrorism police said that they are still investigating every possible angle, which includes

interference by a foreign state. And we know that the prime minister's chaired or is chairing a COBRA meeting today to make sure we have, in his

words, the full picture.

So what does that signal to you and what does it signal to the public right now about what the threat level here actually is?

BABU: Well, the threat remains the same severe. I think, you know, what the police have said, they're not ruling anything in, they're not ruling

anything out, but I think they will want to keep all the evidence they have close to their chest and they'll want to monitor and manage the

investigations.

I suppose the point I'm making is it's unhelpful if politicians jump in and start saying there's going to be big damage would have been caused when

they don't know the details of what the intelligence is. And in fact, what we need to do is allow the police officer to get on with their

investigation. They can hold these people up to 14 days, but they need to justify that.

So it's not a carte blanche to hold people up to 14 days. They must justify why they continue to hold somebody in detention. And if they don't have a

justifiable reason, you can still be suspected of an offence, then you can be bailed while they gather the evidence to either prove or disprove an

offence, then collect the evidence and present it to the Crown Prosecution Service to make a decision about charging.

I suppose the thing that really struck me was I think the police were quite measured in what they were saying. I think unfortunately Donald Trump, his

comments were sort of perhaps not helpful and not based on a great deal of understanding or information.

MACFARLANE: Well, as you say, we have heard from an awful lot of politicians today, and most recently, President Donald Trump.

[15:35:07]

So it's very interesting and helpful to have you break it down for us today. Thank you very much. I appreciate it.

Now, in the final moments of trade on Wall Street, stocks are lower. The Dow has been in the red for the entire session so far, and the Nasdaq and

the S&P 500 are also about half of a percent lower.

This is our Business Breakout.

Trump administration is rolling back rules on fuel standards bought in during the Biden administration. The transportation secretary said the

existing rules were driving up costs and pushing consumers towards electric cars. One environmental group said the move was illegal and that it would

raise costs for drivers while also causing more pollution.

Meanwhile, the United States and China agreed to cut tariffs on $60 billion worth of goods. That deal was announced by the White House on Sunday after

Chinese leader Xi Jinping had visited Washington. The White House said China had committed to importing more US coal, although previous Chinese

commitments have not always held up.

Nvidia is buying up even more its own shares in what the company says is the biggest share buyback in history. The board says that Nvidia will buy

back its own shares to the tune of $235 billion. Nvidia shares are up today on the back of that announcement.

OpenAI is hitting pause once again on its latest models over fears that they keep going out of control. The latest pause comes after an OpenAI

model accessed the Internet without authorization. On Friday, the company admitted that one of its agents logged into the Commerce Department

servers. It also tried, but failed, to access the Department of Education.

All this comes as A.I. executives continue to hold high-level meetings at the White House.

Our A.I. correspondent, Hadas Gold, has more from New York.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

HADAS GOLD, CNN A.I. CORRESPONDENT: This is the second time in just about three months that OpenAI has paused its training and testing for its most

advanced models after incidents where its agents went rogue and were misaligned, meaning that they took action that the human handlers did not

want them to actually take. We're learning of more and more incidences over the last few months as OpenAI is doing extensive checks and reviews into

what their agents activity is actually going on. Some of these have involved Open A.I. models trying to gain access to U.S. government

websites. We've heard already about the Australian healthcare system.

But what I think is the most notable that we've learned in the last few days from Open A.I. is an incident that occurred very recently where one of

its agents managed to once again escape testing environment and gain access to the open Internet when it wasn't supposed to. And this happened after

OpenAI hardened its security protocols in the wake of that Hugging Face incident where OpenAI agents while being tested on a cybersecurity exam,

decided to cheat on the exam by escaping their testing environment and hacking into a completely different company's systems where they believed

they would find the answer.

And so this new incident of an OpenAI agent going rogue, escaping finding a way to access the open internet, happened after OpenAI did their first

pause and hardened their security protocols.

Now OpenAI is saying once again it's pausing its training, saying in a statement, "People want to know A.I. is being developed safely and that

starts with what companies like ours do ourselves. On Friday, we announced we've paused training our most capable models and will resume training them

only when we are confident that we have additional safeguards and alignment improvements in place, which we are working on now. This is not the first

time we have hit pause to take such measures, nor do we expect it will be the last as A.I. capabilities continue to advance."

Meantime, as this is happening, Nvidia, which is of course one of the biggest A.I. chip makers around, they also have open source software as

well. They say they're launching a new software platform that will help companies test and deploy these A.I. agents in a more secure way to keep

this exact scenario from happening. In fact, NVIDIA claims that if OpenAI had used their software platform in their testing and training, the Hugging

Face attack would not have occurred. Nvidia says this is essentially a browser for agents because you don't want to allow agents while they're

being tested and trained to have kind of free access to the Internet, but you still want them to have access to some sort of safe environment where

they could test out their capabilities and be trained.

And so, OpenAI says that they have now created this platform that allows for better quarantining of the models, better monitoring them, and overall

for these models.

Hadas Gold, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MACFARLANE: Coming up, Donald Trump is hitting the airwaves and you may be shocked when you hear who is paying for his new campaign ads. Stick with us

to find out.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:43:11]

MACFARLANE: The U.S. midterm elections are just a little more than a month away, and President Donald Trump is convinced he knows what his party needs

to hold on to the House and the Senate. It needs more Donald Trump. The president released a new TV ad over the weekend where he literally asked

voters to love me.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

(MUSIC)

DANA WHITE, UFC PRESIDENT & CEO: The toughest, most resilient person that I've ever met.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MACFARLANE: Well, that ad is not just unusual for its message. It's also because it's been paid for by U.S. taxpayers. The White House says it's

meant as a public service announcement to promote national pride. And another ad that aired over the weekend also paid for by taxpayers is almost

identical to a 2024 campaign ad that the then candidate Trump ran. The only difference is this one had an on-screen graphic saying it was paid for by

the U.S. government.

In the ad, the president warns that this is the final battle.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: This is the final battle. We will liberate America from these villains once and for all.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MACFARLANE: So what we want to know is why are U.S. taxpayers paying for Donald Trump's latest ad campaign?

Joining me now from Washington is Stephen Collinson, who's written about this today on CNN.com.

And, Stephen, I mean, it's a good question because the White House have been framing us, as we said there, as a public service announcement. But

lawmakers are calling this blatant propaganda, like, five weeks out from the U.S. midterms. What ethical concerns is all of this raising?

STEPHEN COLLINSON, CNN POLITICS SENIOR REPORTER: Well, the concerns are that it is actually infringing the law. There are a number of laws in the

United States that prevent candidates using taxpayer money, public cash that's supposed to fund the government for political and propaganda

purposes.

[15:45:08]

Now, the problem is is twofold, I think, here. One, that President Trump doesn't really care about such restrictions. He's shown us during his time,

during his second term especially, that he believes he has almost ultimate power and that the government is his to do with as he wants.

And secondly, what is going to be the consequence here? The Trump Justice Department is certainly not going to prosecute this or investigate it. And

a lot of the ethical officials and inspectors general have been swept out of the government by Trump.

So in terms of any consequences coming down for this, it seems very unlikely, but I do think it shows us something about how the administration

sees itself and President Trump's role.

MACFARLANE: Yeah, and it's interesting because in defending these ads, the Trump administration have really tried to draw comparisons here to previous

public service announcements by former president or previous Presidents Obama, Biden, George W. Bush.

Why is that not a fair comparison?

COLLINSON: I think it's quite a difficult case to make. Some of these other ads that they referenced were clearly public service announcements.

One of the ones that they were talking about was President Biden's ad, which was advising people to get the COVID-19 vaccine to end the pandemic.

Others have been used to try to inform Americans when the windows are open where they can sign up for health care programs.

The White House also referenced Franklin Roosevelt's public information ads during the Second World War. That clearly is a very tenuous link to make

given the fact that the United States was actually in combat with Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan at the time although Trump says that America is

under threat from communists and Marxists. That is much more a political conceit than something that's actually true.

I think what's really going on here is the White House is deliberately being provocative by using public money. It didn't have to do so. Trump has

400 million in his campaign account he could use if he wanted to. They're trying to create a controversy to whip up opposition among the media, among

Democrats, among establishment figures in Washington so that once again President Trump composes the scourge of the deep state, of the

establishment. That is a posture that's been actually quite helpful for him in his political career. And it's one that Republicans especially need to

recreate ahead of the midterms when they look like they're going to have a very tough time.

MACFARLANE: Yeah, that is a very astute observation. And as you say, Stephen, I mean, all of this, really, the main problem here is the

precedent it sets moving forward for any government in power still to come.

Stephen, thank you very much.

Prosecutors in New York are reopening an alleged gang rape investigation at Cornell University. The accuser's lawyer filed a civil lawsuit earlier this

month after the original investigation resulted in no criminal charges. The suit alleges that seven fraternity members drugged and sexually assaulted a

former female student at Cornell.

CNN's Gloria Pazmino has been reporting on this all day.

And, Gloria, this is a case that is really gaining a lot of attention now worldwide, and rightly so, because the details of this are concerning. Just

talk us through the allegations in this civil lawsuit and what led Jane Doe to refile this suit.

GLORIA PAZMINO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, Isa, you're right. The allegations are disturbing. The details are graphic and it is getting a lot

of attention because once again, it's putting a spotlight on colleges and universities and how they handle these types of cases and allegations of

sexual assault on their campuses.

Now, this all took place back in October of 2024. Cornell University conducted an investigation after the alleged victim in this case reported

the incident to campus police and it was following that investigation that seven members of the Chi Phi fraternity were expelled, others received

lesser punishment, including having to submit written responses or written assignments, and the fraternity was barred from the campus.

Now, no one was charged, no one was arrested, and since then the victim in this incident has left the school. But now the Tompkins County district

attorney is saying that there is new evidence and because of this civil lawsuit that the Jane Doe has submitted, he is reopening the investigation,

he is presenting new evidence to a grand jury, and he is doing so with the intention of bringing criminal charges.

[15:50:06]

I want to also mention that the district attorney, under incredible pressure here and criticism for his handling of the 2024 investigation, has

said that he did not charge anyone because at the time Jane Doe did not allege that she had been sexually assaulted or drugged.

I want to read a statement from the District Attorney, Matthew Van Houten, saying, quote, "Jane Doe's sworn in statement in November of 2024 did not

allege that she was drugged against her will or gang raped. On the contrary, Jane Doe's statement described her participation in drug use and

sexual conduct as voluntary, conscious, and consensual."

That is going to be a key part of this investigation as it moves forward. The fact that the victim alleges, acknowledges that she consumed alcohol

and drugs there are laws here in New York state that make it difficult to charge in a case like this and I'm curious to see if that's going to be

part of the argument going forward but we should also get to the details of what's in the lawsuit, right? Jane Doe says that she started the evening in

October of 2024 at her own sorority house, where she had also been drinking. She then traveled to the Chi Phi fraternity house. And it was

when she arrived at that house that she was in she was given alcohol, she was given drugs, and then she was sexually assaulted.

There's also evidence in the lawsuit in the form of a group chat that was apparently shared among fraternity members where they discussed this sexual

assault and apparently invited others to participate. Her lawyer has told us that she was never interviewed by investigators with the district

attorney.

And we have also received a response from Cornell University defending their actions, saying, quote, "any suggestion that the university did not

impose consequential punishments for those involved is false. A continuation of the false narrative that there were minimal consequences in

this case is irresponsible, will make survivors feel less safe and supported, and will perpetuate the underreporting of sexual assault.

Isa, so far we have been able to contact only one attorney for the seven of the accused students. They are denying the allegations in this lawsuit, and

I think this is going to play out legally significantly and develop over the next few days -- Isa.

MACFARLANE: Yeah, Gloria, it's a really important case and one we will continue to follow in detail. Thank you very much.

And we'll be right back after this. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:55:32]

MACFARLANE: Finally tonight, for those of you who were wondering, two giant pandas on loan from Beijing have arrived in Atlanta after a 16-hour

journey from southwest China.

Ping Ping and Fu Shuang arrived in custom-built crates in a Boeing 777, dubbed the FedEx Panda Express. There they are. The celebrities will call

the Atlanta Zoo their home for the next 10 years.

And that is it for me and the team on WHAT WE KNOW. I'm Christina Macfarlane.

Stay with CNN. More news after the break.

END

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