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Cape Verde Stuns Spain With 0-0 Draw; Trump at G7 After Iran Framework Deal Announced; Trump Says Iran Fully Agreed to Not Have a Nuclear Weapon; UFC Fighter Attacks Michelle Obama at White House Event; New Push to Upgrade Air Traffic Control Systems. Aired 2-2:30p ET

Aired June 15, 2026 - 14:00   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:00:39]

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN CO-ANCHOR OF "CNN NEWS CENTRAL": Verbally agreed to and virtually signed, but when will we actually know what's in it? We're following the latest on the U.S. agreement with Iran.

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN CO-ANCHOR OF "CNN NEWS CENTRAL": Plus, the question everybody wants answered, when are we going to see the effects of that agreement at the pump. The president has promised a steep drop in gas prices. We'll try to answer that question.

And are smartphones to blame for declining birth rates? One researcher says they found a direct link between screen time and, shall we say, play time. He will join us live as we follow these major developing stories and many more, all coming in right here to "CNN News Central."

KEILAR: And we'll have those stories in a moment, but first, a stunner at the World Cup, David versus Goliath as Cape Verde, one of the smallest nations in the tournament, holding soccer giant Spain to a draw. So let's get right back to CNN's Patrick Snell, who is in Atlanta.

Oh, my gosh. How is that reaction? The crowd must have gone crazy.

PATRICK SNELL, CNN WORLD SPORT: Yeah, no sooner had you left me then they do it. Cape Verde is making history. Incredible scenes here at the Atlanta Fan Festival. Within the last few minutes, playing in their first-ever World Cup, their first-ever World Cup match, Brianna. Cape Verde, with a population of just 500,000, their first-ever World Cup match, holding not just any team, this is Spain, the reigning European champions, the number three side in the world. Cape Verde are 64 in the world.

Spain are 2010 world champions. They have superstars who play all over Europe's top leagues. I just want to take you into the fan park here, because there is a small cluster of Cape Verde fans away to my right there in that far corner, in blue. Fans of the Blue Sharks there, they are behaving as though they have just won the World Cup. And why not? They thoroughly deserve their point. They gave it everything against Spain. This is their World Cup final, and they are going to savor every single moment of it.

It is the most extraordinary result. A hat-tip to their 40-year-old goalkeeper, Vozinha, who plays in the second tier of Portuguese football. He made a whole string of outstanding saves, particularly in the first half of play. Spain threw everything they had at their opponents. They even brought on teenage phenom, Luis Neymar, the 18- year-old who plays for Barcelona, recovering from a hamstring injury. Spain, in my opinion, had absolutely no intention of playing him today.

They did not expect this to be the struggle that it was. They tried everything to unlock their opponents, but they were holding firm, Cape Verde, a Scrooge-like defense. Really, really impressive stuff. And this is a bonus point for them ahead of the tournament. Coach Bubista told me, we're not just here to make up the numbers. He has proven to be absolutely right.

What a moment, history is made for Cape Verde. Back to you.

KEILAR: I saw a leg up in the air over there by those Cape Verde fans. Someone was tossing someone up in the air with a leg up there. So, you know what? They deserve it. What fun.

Patrick Snell, thank you so much. Live for us in Atlanta.

SNELL: (Inaudible) final, amazing.

KEILAR: Yes, unbelievable. And we are following our Breaking News on President Trump's tentative agreement with Iran. Right now, President Trump is with global leaders. He is at the G7 Summit in France.

And just a short time ago, he announced, quote, "The deal is signed with Iran," but then suggested it would likely be several more days until the world sees it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Mr. President, when will the text of the MOU be released?

DONALD TRUMP, (R) PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: I think pretty soon, I would say. I mean, I want it to be released because it's a very powerful document. Probably pretty soon. I would say after -- sometime after Friday.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: Let's get right to CNN's Melissa Bell. She is live there at the G7 Summit. And Melissa, we have to be very clear here. He's calling it a deal, but this is a tentative agreement. There's a whole lot more that has to be accomplished after this. And as we haven't seen the text, we're getting a lot of contradictions about what is actually in this thing.

[14:05:00] MELISSA BELL, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Brianna, simply because people are trying to fill in the blanks. So after all of these months of waiting for some kind of progress, the whole world, and not least the G7 leaders meeting with President Trump, dining with him right now here in Evian, are very keen to see that text. Now, we've been hearing conflicting reports.

We heard from one American official earlier today that he believed the details of what's inside that memorandum of understanding would start to be released within 24 to 48 hours. But as you heard just there, President Trump himself saying that this is likely to happen after the official signature that's due to happen in Geneva on Friday. And that really is in line with what we're hearing from the Iranian side as well.

Still, a lot of hope and optimism being expressed by the American president as he stood alongside the French president here earlier today after their bilateral talks. Have a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: The main thing is that Iran will not have a nuclear weapon. They fully agreed to that with strong policing powers. Hopefully, it's going to be a good relationship and we're going to get along. And if we don't, we go back to where we started. But I don't think that's going to be necessary.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BELL: Now, part of the problem is that we've been here so many times before, understanding from the American side that the deal was close. It does seem that the fact of this digitally signed memorandum is certainly giving a lot of optimism here and really changing the dynamic between President Trump and his G7 counterparts.

This was likely to be a sore point, as it has been over the course of the last few months. The fact that he's arrived with at least this hope looking ahead to Friday, even as the world waits to see the detail of it and prays that nothing derails this, there is this sense that he has arrived here with an important win, something to show for those negotiations. We await now the detail of it and see whether it can hold even until Friday.

This is going to dominate discussions tomorrow. There are conversations with President Zelenskyy about Ukraine, but there are also conversations that will be taking place here tomorrow with Middle Eastern leaders about Iran in a whole new context, this time a memorandum that the world awaits to see. Brianna?

KEILAR: Certainly. Melissa Bell, live for us from France. Thank you very much. Boris?

SANCHEZ: Let's discuss with former U.S. Ambassador to NATO, Kurt Volker. Ambassador, thank you so much for being with us.

So, if the two sides can agree on what they just agreed to, what does it tell you about how durable this framework is?

KURT VOLKER, FORMER U.S. AMBASSADOR TO NATO: Well, it's very temporary. It is meant, I think, by both sides to calm markets, bring prices down, get shipping moving again. The Iranians will get revenue out of this. So they want it. And I think President Trump wants it to stabilize the economy and gasoline prices. But it doesn't actually resolve anything.

It's a temporary memorandum of understanding to set the stage for new negotiations. Iran is going to very strenuously try to cling to a nuclear enrichment program, to storage of enriched uranium. And they want to assert some kind of control over the Strait of Hormuz going forward. And these are all going to be points of contention as we continue.

SANCHEZ: How quickly do you think the final signed agreement should be released in order to parse through what we're hearing from both Tehran and Washington?

VOLKER: Well, you know, it's very interesting. I think if this were a convincing, strong deal, one that we can stand behind, you would think President Trump would want to release it now. You'd think he would want to box in the Iranians and saying this is what they've agreed to. I think the reality is it's going to leave a lot of wiggle room, a lot of unknowns that are still not resolved. And they're going to have to be dealt with in the future.

And I think that's why we're not seeing it yet. But I suspect if it is indeed signed on Friday, as I think it will be, we will get a copy of that signed text at the same time.

SANCHEZ: So Israel notably is not a party to this agreement. Its own defense minister said that the IDF will not withdraw from southern Lebanon despite the framework and the conditions that Tehran has put forward. How do you see Israel's position in this? Do you anticipate resistance from Netanyahu?

VOLKER: Right. Well, I wouldn't say that he's going to resist the U.S. and Iran signing this agreement. But he's not going to accept that it limits Israel's ability to do what it needs to do for its own security. They're not going to be satisfied with Iran having the means now to re-arm Hezbollah, to re-arm the Houthis, to support Hamas. And so they're going to keep up their posture against those proxy groups. Iran won't like it.

[14:10:00]

But I think for now, Iran recognizes that they need this deal with the United States as well, get the U.S. to withdraw some naval forces to calm things down, and then Iran is going to keep playing for more and more time.

SANCHEZ: What would you need to see to give you an indication that this is going to lead to a stronger agreement with more concessions from Tehran than they were willing to give up 10 to 12 years ago during the negotiations for the JCPOA? VOLKER: Right. Well, what we have to have is a commitment by Iran to not have any nuclear enrichment or storage of enriched uranium and a robust inspection regime so that we can verify that they don't have it. That was all lacking in the JCPOA.

They had the right to enrich, the right to store, a weak inspection regime. So if that's fixed, that would be very significant. But I suspect that we're nowhere near there. All we're hearing right now is that they're committing not to have a nuclear weapon, which is what they've said all along.

So I'm not sure that we've seen much different yet. And now we have a new card on the table, which is Iranian efforts to exercise control over the Strait of Hormuz, which they have done rather successfully. And we have to see how that is now unwound and whether we really get back to free and unfettered and untaxed shipping going in and out of the Gulf.

I suspect that we're going to see some means of continued Iranian influence over that.

SANCHEZ: Yeah, one of several open questions that we are hoping to get answers on. Ambassador Kurt Volker, thank you so much for the time.

VOLKER: My pleasure, thank you.

SANCHEZ: Of course.

Still to come, President Trump has said that oil prices will drop like a rock as soon as the war with Iran is over. So how long will it be before we actually see that happen?

Plus, UFC Head, Dana White calling fight night at the White House an overwhelming success, but one that he will never do again. Our takeaways from the event that included accusations of rigged matches and a vile slur against the former first lady.

And later, a group of researchers think that they have uncovered a direct cause of declining fertility rates, cell phones. We'll talk to a researcher behind this study when we come back on "CNN News Central."

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[14:16:41]

KEILAR: President Trump's fight night at the White House is now in the history books. The unprecedented spectacle on the South Lawn, drawing a star-studded crowd, but also a lot of controversy. We don't have access to the official broadcast, but the White House pool camera captured audio of the moment UFC fighter, Josh Hokit used his post- fight interview to attack former First Lady, Michelle Obama, and it also captured the president's reaction.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) JOSH HOKIT, UFC FIGHTER: And lastly, Michelle Obama is a man. Am I right America?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: So as Hokit wraps up his interview, walks away, you can see the president there on the other side of the ring. He can be seen sort of half smiling as there's a mixture of cheers and boos, and when CNN asked about Hokit's comment, the White House refused to directly address the question.

The UFC is commenting though. CEO and President, Dana White called it nasty and false and dismissed it as nonsense. Let's talk about it with Luke Thomas. He's a combat sports analyst and host of the "Morning Kombat" podcast. By the way, he didn't just insult Michelle Obama in that heinous way. He also insulted another fighter's mom and thanked Jesus before doing so, kind of incongruous series of things he said.

But the person who gave him this platform is President Trump. We see his reaction. What do you think of that? What do you think of the moment?

LUKE THOMAS, HOST, "MORNING KOMBAT" PODCAST: Funnily enough, this fight was not supposed to be on this card. The guy who Hokit beat, Derrick Lewis is allegedly Donald Trump's favorite fighter. So they only had six fights on this card. They added this one at the last minute. I think somewhat regrettably in that sense, given some of the bad press that's come out of it.

You know, what you got to understand about this is Hokit auditioned to be in the UFC on a show called the "Contender Series." You win, you don't necessarily get in. But if you win, it puts you in contention. He won and he got in, and when they interviewed him, literally as like a job interview, he did the exact same line, I believe, about Brittney Griner. But it's the same joke. It's the same kind of thing. And they signed him.

Like, this is just where they are now. And I know Dana White did condemn it, and I do think that's the right move. And I also think that, like, it's important to say, well, they've got a free speech policy. But at the same time, what folks don't know is if you're a fighter and you're destitute and you win, and they give you the microphone and say, hey, what's next? And you say, I'd like a bonus. They have like an informal kind of policy that they won't give it to you if you do it publicly in a sort of a begging way.

And it's like, well, that's free speech too, but they don't honor that. So to me, it's like, I get the free speech argument, but it's not that strong.

KEILAR: So we talked before this event, this big spectacle. And now it's gone down. And I wonder what you think about how it went. How were the matches actually just, you know, as the quality of the matches? And how was the spectacle?

THOMAS: Well, let's start with the matches themselves, the fights. So the main event, it was a historic upset. I think it's one of the greater fights I've seen in many, many years. There's just no denying it. The guy who lost was never supposed to lose. The guy who won was not supposed to win. And he thumped the other dude. So that's a really big deal. Justin Gaethje is who I'm referring to.

Co-main event, also not quite an upset, but a big deal in that one as well. Some of the other fights were a little bit predictable in that regard, but certainly the main and co-main absolutely delivered all finishes. I think fight fans, if you ask MMA fans how they're feeling this morning, they're elated.

[14:20:00]

They really, really like this show. They love, as I said to you when we talked last time, they love big circumstance, big shows. And they're not, some of them, many of them in fact, are not necessarily obsessed with the partisan valence of it. But the reality is, because the UFC has essentially become the sports department of the Trump administration, I have noticed a massively partisan reaction. Both, I've seen sitting Senators as well as Congressmen tweeting about Josh Hokit as well as other factors.

And I've seen left-wing media mobilize against the UFC in a way I've never really seen before. So there's a lot to be happy for depending on your audience, but a lot of headwinds, I think, ahead in some ways too.

KEILAR: It's really politicized. And in the post-fight presser, Dana White said that there was no political agenda.

THOMAS: Come on.

KEILAR: Come on, you say. And quote, hopefully we created some unity in the country and in the world and brought in some new fans. But he also said they'll never do this again because he can't afford it. What do you think about what he said?

THOMAS: Well, it was extremely expensive. And I mean, if you even went downtown, I'm not sure if you got a chance to go see it down at the National Mall in Constitution Street.

KEILAR: I just heard the jets coming --

THOMAS: Yeah, and the fireworks at 1:30 in the morning.

KEILAR: That's right.

THOMAS: You know, that was nice. But, you know, I think that there is certainly just too many costs associated to scale this kind of a thing. But I do think that that claw will come out at some point again. Maybe not on the White House lawn, but certainly it's going to come out again. But like this idea that like this was a unifying thing.

You know, Knicks winning five was a unifying thing. The World Cup is a unifying thing. This was unifying to a certain audience. And again, fight fans really liked it. I cannot overstate that. It's a true thing.

But like the reality is like they showed these promos where they're telling the history of the United States through A.I., by the way. And they're showing protests in the civil rights moment. Dana White has spoken out and said he thought protesting is stupid and pointless.

It's like this is too partisan at this point to get -- the toothpaste is out of the tube. You have now introduced and mainstreamed your product now in a way where it only has partisan valence.

KEILAR: I want to ask you about sort of this side drama, this online drama surrounding the fights. UFC star, Daniel Cormier, he posted screenshots of DMs.

(LAUGH)

KEILAR: Do you know what I'm asking about, right?

THOMAS: I know exactly what you're asking.

KEILAR: OK, so he posted these screenshots of these DMs that are purportedly between him and Eric Trump where Eric Trump is asking if any of the fights were rigged. The post has been deleted. Eric Trump said that these messages were completely fake. They didn't happen. They were A.I. generated. And he also reposted a video of Cormier saying he got hacked or something, saying he can't believe people believed the messages.

What's going on here?

THOMAS: I don't know. So a tweet did go out. Because at first I'm like, was that even a real tweet? Someone sent me the screenshot. I'm like, oh, that's fake. And then I saw a media reporter who I trust is real. He's been in the game for a long time. He's like, no, I saw it. I was like, OK. So then we figured out that you could see the replies.

So like the tweet was deleted, but the replies are still there. So a tweet went out from his account. That's a fact. There's no debate about that. But it's really weird what happened. You had Eric Trump saying, well, this was an A.I. conversation.

It's like, why would Cormier tweet out an A.I. conversation or A.I. image between you and him? That makes no sense. So the hacking part seems like plausible deniability to me. But everything just feels weird because usually when your account gets hacked, it takes a while to get it back. And he seemed to get it back instantly. I have as many questions as you do.

KEILAR: All right. I have a lot of questions.

(LAUGH)

KEILAR: It's fascinating.

THOMAS: Welcome to MMA.

KEILAR: All right. I'm here. I'm here with you, Luke. Luke Thomas, thank you so much for being with us.

And next, we're going inside the FAA's enormous upgrade from paper to computers. Here we are, folks.

Plus, high temperatures taking center stage at today's World Cup games. It's not great for the players on the pitch. We'll have that ahead.

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[14:27:54]

KEILAR: CNN is learning some new details about a major effort to modernize the nation's air traffic control system. The federal government is working to phase out the paper strips that controllers use to track aircraft and replace them with digital technology. That's right, paper strips.

SANCHEZ: Paper strips. The goal is to improve safety, reduce delays, and help the system handle a rapidly growing number of flights. CNN's Pete Muntean gives us an inside look.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PETE MUNTEAN, CNN AVIATION CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The airlines have changed, and so have the hairstyles. But the technology, not so much. Paper is still the backbone of America's busiest control towers.

MUNTEAN: Pen and paper.

AMEE PATEL, ACTING DEPUTY DIRECTOR, FAA TECHNICAL CENTER: Pen and paper.

MUNTEAN: Old school.

PATEL: Old school.

MUNTEAN (voice-over): Known as flight strips, these small printouts detail critical information for air traffic controllers, including the flight number, departure airport, route, and destination. They are physically passed from controller to controller and updated by hand.

PATEL: He has to physically get up and pass it to the local controller. The local controller then validates, gives all the verification, and then talks to the pilot and then gives them clearance to take off.

MUNTEAN (voice-over): Amee Patel is leading the FAA's transition from paper strips to digital, the latest target of the Trump administration's multi-billion dollar air traffic control overhaul.

PATE: It's just old. We've been doing it for so many years and there's a better way of doing it. They're not heads up. We want to maximize their heads up time so they're more efficient.

MUNTEAN: At least two of these strips are printed for each of the 55,000 flights in U.S. airspace each day. The digital replacement for these are at 17 different air traffic control facilities and the goal is to grow that number five-fold by 2028.

PATEL: We've got all of our flights ready and queued up. Once she's confirmed, she's going to press it to go over to ground control.

MUNTEAN: OK, so now it's over here.

PATEL: Now you'll see over here, they can make any changes and edits. They now send it to local control.

MUNTEAN (voice-over): Paper is great for taking notes, but not for tracking your plane in the sky.

Transportation Secretary, Sean Duffy, calls this just the start toward building a brand new air traffic control system by the end of 2028. Congress has already given the White House 12 --