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New Plan To Keep Reflecting Pool Clean After Algae Issues; More Than 72 Million Americans Expected To Travel This July 4th; Sources Say U.S. Attempted To Warn Iran That Israel Would Kill Leaders; Turkey Bans LGBTQ+ Cruise Ship From Docking; Ukrainian Woman Disguised As Man Suspected In Monaco Bombing; Cape Verde Looks To Advance At World Cup Against Argentina. Aired 1:30-2p ET

Aired July 03, 2026 - 13:30   ET

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

[13:30:00]

SUNLEN SERFATY, CNN WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: And essentially what it is for is for the daily maintenance of the pool going forward. So after this renovation and really the documents outline how extensive and how hard it will be on a daily basis to maintain this pool.

If you check out the documents it says part of their responsibility will be on a daily basis removing debris, animal dropping, leaves in and around the pool, and reporting any dead animals in the vicinity. The contractor is also supposed to clean filters and skimmers and remove "all debris," pollen and sludge daily from the pool.

Now, the contractor would also manually disinfect the pool as it is needed and this also calls for the pool to be drained annually likely, between February and March of every year, for a two-week period where they would be cleaning it and have more time for inspection then. Also notable is that in this request for bids, it says several issues could arise when that draining of the pool happens once a year. It says the material at the bottom of the pool, and this is a quote, is slick and nasty and is a combination of wet leaves, duck and bird droppings.

All of this, of course Erica, underscores just how hard it is to maintain this pool on a daily basis and after they reach this next round of renovations where -- if they get it to where they want it to be, of course, after many several problems as you noted, that it still will take a daily, weekly, monthly and yearly upkeep from this, whoever wins this contract from the Department of Interior.

ERICA HILL, CNN CO-ANCHOR OF "CNN NEWS CENTRAL": Yeah, no small feat to keep it clean and clear. That is for sure. So before the maintenance can begin, right, so this whole maintenance plan too comes later as you noted. So at this point, the pool has to be drained, it has to be repaired, where does that project stand?

SERFATY: We don't know much yet and we have certainly asked these questions of the Department of Interior to no response yet. All we know is that after the 4th of July holiday, it will be drained. We don't know what day that will happen, but when it does, then we expect to see the restoration of many of the problems that have come up over the last many weeks since they originally filled the pool after the last round of renovations.

So we know that there's problems with the sealant on the bottom. We know there's problems with the paint on the bottom. We know the liners had gotten damaged. There will still big questions whether the Department of Interior will replace the pipes that they've long said that they needed to replace. So a lot of work needs to be done and it's not clear at this time, the choreography of any of this and certainly at the timeline.

Remember, the first timeline that the Trump administration had been driving to was July 4th holiday, they wanted it done. So there was a quickness with everything that they did. So big question is how long will they give themselves for this next round of work?

HILL: Yeah, absolutely. All right. Sunlen, really appreciate it. Thank you.

This is -- could be a tough week for your -- weekend for your grocery bill, but that's OK, we have some tips for you. We'll take a closer look at what you can expect to pay and how we can help you maybe find a good deal this 4th of July.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:37:18]

HILL: Well, despite the sweltering temperatures across much of the U.S. and high gas prices, we know millions of Americans, you are getting ready to hit the road for the holiday weekend. AAA projecting more than 72 million people will have traveled at least 50 miles by Sunday. The TSA said it expects to screen nearly 19 million passengers by Monday and more than 61 million are expected to travel by car in total. They of course will be filling their tank with gas that has dropped, which is important.

It's now $3.82, the average price for a gallon, that's down $0.08 from last week, still $0.60 higher than it was last year on the 4th. For those of you firing up the grill this weekend, you've likely noticed the higher prices at the grocery store, your staples, hot dogs, fruit soda, they have all gone up. When it comes to burgers, ground beef is 12 percent higher than it was last year according to the most recent government stats.

That's because of rising feed costs, strong demand, and also the smallest cattle herd in decades. Here to discuss our good friend, nice to see you, as always. I see you've got a crowd gathering behind you there.

STEW LEONARD JR., PRESIDENT & CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER, STEW LEONARD'S GROCERY STORES: Hello, there.

(LAUGH)

HILL: What are --

LEONARD JR.: Yeah, you know what? I'll tell you what -- here's the thing. You talked about Taylor Swift getting married today, so we came up, our bakery Cupcake designers came up with this lavender haze Cupcake. I just saw these customers come into the store. What do you think about these cupcakes?

CROWD: (Inaudible).

LEONARD JR.: Are you guys excited about Taylor Swift I?

CROWD: Yes.

(LAUGH)

LEONARD JR.: So we're just an hour --

(CROSSTALK)

HILL: I like when the pack the interview with a background full of Swifties, well-played.

(LAUGH)

LEONARD JR.: Thank you, guys. Appreciate it.

(LAUGH)

LEONARD JR.: Hey, you know what, Erica? You talked about saving money this year, right? So, we're going to do 70,000 burgers this weekend for 4th of July. We got teams of people just grinding and cutting and they're chopping guacamole, killing avocados. But you know what? Here's really the culprit of, first of all, it's the number one item at 4th of July, good old American cheeseburger, OK?

So here's the thing. This -- see this bun, It's a beautiful brioche bun, same price as last year. You see all that beautiful cheese on there, right? Same price as last year. The only problem we have is the beef right now. In this burger, last year it cost $2.50. This year, it's $2.75. So when you're looking at a lot of the cost numbers, a lot of it has to do with beef right now.

HILL: Yeah.

[13:40:00]

LEONARD JR.: So one tip I would recommend everybody and we see our customers doing it, don't put as much meat on the grill this 4th of July. Go with some more chicken, get a little creative. You know, if you want to do some pork, but do something different than beef.

With that said --

(CROSSTALK)

HILL: Yeah, you could always do a turkey burger. You could do a chicken burger, you know, which your other options.

LEONARD JR.: Exactly. HILL: What are your other big sellers beyond the Lavender Haze cupcakes?

LEONARD JR.: OK, you're ready for this one? OK, we're in New England right here, OK? This is our lobster rolls that we do. We'll do 10,000 of these things this weekend. You know, the big question, do you want to put hot butter on it or do you want mayonnaise? That's what they do up in Maine.

HILL: Yeah.

LEONARD JR.: Connecticut does --

HILL: Connecticut, we do it with hot butter. I am a Connecticut native. You're speaking my language.

LEONARD JR.: OK, well, then you like the hot butter on there. The lobster rolls are real hot right now. And then, you know, we've got a couple things sort of off the grid on TikTok right now. These are a couple items right here that are getting tens of millions of dollars in hits on TikTok.

Have you heard of the dot cake?

HILL: I have heard of the dot cake.

LEONARD JR.: It's a cupcake in a cup. It's nothing special, and you put these little, like, they're sort of like sprinkles, but they're dots on the top of it. It's just going viral on TikTok. It's crazy. And then, our farmer came up with this cookie milk here that tastes like you put a sugar cookie in some milk. Also makes a great coffee latte also.

HILL: Oh, there we go.

LEONARD JR.: But, you know, our cows are going like, they're working hard this 4th of July to keep up with all the cookie milk.

(LAUGH)

HILL: They certainly are. Well, we know you always have all the fun stuff. We're a little tight on time, so I'm going to have to leave it there, but always love talking to you.

(CROSSTALK)

LEONARD JR.: Hey, you know what? Just really quick --

(CROSSTALK)

HILL: You love the Taylor Swift thing (ph). Yeah.

LEONARD JR.: Hey, just really quick, you know, as you know, my wife and I had a little two-year-old boy that drowned in a pool. And this weekend, everybody, is the danger weekend, the worst weekend of the year for drowning. So you know what? Put this down. Don't have your cell phone, 24/7 be watching your kids around the water and be safe this holiday.

HILL: It's great advice, and I know you and your wife have done so much to talk about the importance of water safety and swimming lessons for adults and kids. And I thank you for that as well.

Good to see you. I hope you have a good holiday.

LEONARD JR.: Happy 4th of July, everybody. Enjoy.

HILL: Happy 4th.

Ahead here, a warning for an adversary about an ally. The new reporting about what the U.S. tried to tell Iran about potential attacks from Israel.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:47:26]

HILL: Breaking News into us here at CNN, U.S. officials say -- U.S. officials we're learning attempted to warn Iran, appears that they had that Israel would assassinate mediators during negotiations to end the war. So this was during the spring. CNN's Kevin Liptak joining us with the new reporting now.

Talk to us more about this warning from the U.S.

KEVIN LIPTAK, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Right. And this all was happening in the spring amid those very delicate attempts to get Iran to the negotiating table to get that preliminary Memorandum of Understanding signed. The fear among American officials is that Israel, which was watching all of this with a very skeptical eye, would attempt to take out two of the key Iranian negotiators, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf who is the Speaker of the Iranian Parliament and Abbas Araghchi who is the Foreign Minister.

And the fears were so great that the United States, through Intermediaries, actually tried to warn Iran that this might be happening. Now, as of now, there's no indication that there was any specific plot or specific threat to go after those two men. But it certainly rose to the level that very senior American officials were worried that this would completely derail their attempts to end the war with this preliminary agreement with Iran.

Now, the Israeli Embassy in Washington declined to comment on this. The White House has also not commented. The Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office did address these reports on social media, saying that they were "fake news," complete fabrication of reality. But I still think this all underscores sort of the divergent aims that you saw between the U.S. and Israel as this war progressed.

At the beginning, back in February, the U.S. and Israel did seem quite aligned. But as time went on, it seemed as if their objectives were growing further and further apart. And we did see Israel at the onset of this conflict, wage an assassination campaign against senior Iranian leaders, including the supreme leader himself, but also against individuals that were viewed inside the U.S. administration is perhaps a more pragmatic and perhaps more susceptible to some of these negotiations to bring the war to an end.

And so I think this all just underscores both how fragile those discussions actually were as the U.S. and Iran were carrying them out, but also how fragile they continue to be as the U.S. works to move into this next phase of technical negotiations with Iran.

[13:50:00]

Now, we should also note one more detail that we've learned today is that President Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu did speak by telephone. Netanyahu's office saying that he congratulated the president on the 250th anniversary of the United States. We know that Trump and Netanyahu have been somewhat at odds over this Iran deal. Netanyahu looking to set up an in-person meeting sometime soon, Erica.

HILL: All right, Kevin, really appreciate it. Thank you. Let's get you caught up with some of the other headlines we are following at this hour.

Turkish authorities, we're learning, have banned an American LGBTQ+ cruise ship from docking in the country's ports, citing "moral standards and family values." The Scarlet Lady is owned by Virgin Voyages. It was supposed to make two stops in Turkey.

The cruise with more than 1,000 passengers from the U.S. leaves Greece on Sunday. It will now stop in Cairo in Egypt and also on the Greek island of Crete instead. The company that organized the voyage says, it's the first time in its 36-year history it has been denied docking because of who is on board.

Local officials say a Ukrainian woman who disguised herself as a man is now the main suspect in a bombing earlier this week in Monaco, according to an Interpol red notice. The 39-year-old suspect has a large tattoo, possibly of a snake, on her right arm and was last seen in Italy. Prosecutors say the bomb that went off at one of the fanciest apartment buildings in Monaco was highly sophisticated, indicating that others may be involved. The target is believed to have been a Ukrainian-born businessman.

A spokesperson for Senator Mitch McConnell says the lawmaker remains hospitalized, but was continuing to recover. The former GOP leader's office still has not revealed the cause behind his hospitalization.

EMS Audio, which was published by an independent journalist though, indicates emergency responders were called to an address which matches the home address for McConnell in D.C. That call was for an unconscious person on the same day that McConnell was hospitalized last month. On that recording, the dispatcher says the call is for "cardiac arrest." A paramedic can be heard saying that CPR is in progress.

CNN has not confirmed the details of what is described in the audio.

OK, who doesn't love an underdog? Cape Verde very much in the role of underdog today at the World Cup. So can the smallest country to ever make it to the World Cup Knockout Round perhaps go even further by taking out one of the tournament's true giants? We'll discuss.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:57:19]

HILL: Cape Verde's Cinderella story at the World Cup could come to an end today in South Florida, but hey, maybe not. Hope springs eternal. The darlings of the tournament are, of course, facing one of the favorites, Argentina and its superstar, Lionel Messi. CNN's Don Riddell is in Atlanta.

I mean, you know a girl can dream, right?

DON RIDDELL, CNN SPORTS ANCHOR & CORRESPONDENT: What was that phrase? Hope is a good thing and no good thing ever dies. I mean just the fact that these two teams are even playing is already remarkable because when we looked at the teams going into this World Cup and we saw Cape Verde, a tiny island nation of barely half a million people, making their World Cup debut, I don't think anybody could have imagined they would get out of that group. But they did because they were able to hold the reigning European champion, Spain, to a draw.

They were able to hold the two-time world champions, Uruguay, to a draw. And now, here they are with the chance over the span of 90 or 120 minutes to topple, Lionel Messi and the reigning world champions, Argentina. I mean surely not, surely not. But the way this tournament has progressed, the games we've seen, the drama we have witnessed, I'm at a point where I think I can say anything is possible. And if this happens, I mean it will be the greatest World Cup upset of all time. It will be absolutely monumental.

HILL: Yeah, it really would be OK, I like that you're holding out hope here. Anything can happen. I'm with you on this one.

Yesterday, a bit of an instant classic, Portugal beating Croatia. There was a little controversy though on a goal by Croatia, walk us through that.

RIDDELL: Yeah, well, let's wind back to kind of how we got there. I mean, you're right. It was an instant classic. It was an absolute thriller. Quiet first half, all the drama came in the second half. This was a huge moment, Cristiano Ronaldo at the age of 41 scoring his first-ever goal in the Knockout Round of the World Cup. This is his sixth World Cup. This was the winner, a header from Goncalo Ramos (ph) in the 94th minute, but there was still time for this to happen afterwards.

And this, Croatia thought was their equalizer sending the game into extra time. But it wasn't to be; it was ruled out because a player was offside. But you have to really examine what's going on here in the frame. That header -- that header from Igor Matanovic was deemed to be the thing that made the player who supplied the pass offside.

But you couldn't even be sure that he'd actually headed the ball because the ball, it didn't change direction. It didn't look as though anything had happened. But if you look at that a little bar graph at the bottom that FIFA have supplied, you can see the kind of the spike, that's because they now have microchips in the balls and that confirmed --

HILL: Wow.

RIDDELL: -- that that player did get a touch on the ball, which is why it was offside. The margins are so slim.