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Red Card Reversal After Trump's Call to FIFA Chief Sparks Controversy; Deadly Russian Strikes on Kyiv Ahead of Trump Trip to NATO Summit; Soon, Suspect in Charlie Kirk's Killing Appears in Court in Utah. Aired 7-7:30a ET

Aired July 06, 2026 - 07:00   ET

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

[07:00:00]

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: The breaking news, World Cup turns to worldwide controversy. Global outrage after FIFA reversed a suspension and will let a U.S. star player on the field tonight. That's following reported pressure from President Trump. The latest this morning on whether this is all final.

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: All right. An important week ahead in the case against Charlie Kirk's accused murderer. Prosecutors are set to preview some of their evidence against Tyler Robinson starting today, with Kirk's widow and parents expected to be in that courtroom.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: And a hard landing in New York's East River, the pilot of the small plane calling for a mayday with eight people on board. We have new reporting now about what happened.

I'm Kate Bolduan with John Berman and Sara Sidner. This is CNN News Central.

BERMAN: All right. The breaking news this morning, Russia launched deadly strikes on Kyiv. At least 18 people were killed. The White House says President Trump will meet with the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, during the NATO Summit this week. We will have more on that in just a moment.

First this morning, the world is seeing red because the U.S. is not. The already hyper-dramatic World Cup just shifted to global melodrama, and the president put himself in the middle of it all. There is global outrage after FIFA announced it will allow U.S. Striker Folarin Balogun to play in tonight's round of 16 match versus Belgium. He was supposed to be suspended because he received a red card in the last game and was thrown out. That's the rule. You miss the next game. But a source says President Trump spoke with the head of FIFA and asked him to review the call.

Now, the initial call was controversial, and many, if not most critics say overly harsh, but nothing like this has been reversed in a World Cup in more than 60 years. This morning, The Athletic reports that Belgium has been given a chance to appeal, but had better hurry. The deadline is reportedly in less than an hour, so we are just standing by to see what happens. Let's get to Betsy Klein live at the White House, global soccer central, kind of, this morning, Betsy.

BETSY KLEIN, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Yes, John, the World Cup has been one of the only things we've had this summer that's supposed to be devoid of politics until now. A major dramatic turn of events as FIFA announced yesterday that they were reversing that red card suspension that would have stopped U.S. Star Striker Folarin Balogun from participating in tonight's round of 16 match against Belgium.

Now, FIFA has turned to this obscure role to suspend that one-match ban and allow him to play in this very high-stakes game. And now we're learning that President Trump may have played a role here. A source familiar with the matter telling me that President Trump last week spoke by phone with FIFA's president, Gianni Infantino, and asked him to review that call.

Now, this has raised major concerns about how involved President Trump was in that ultimate ruling, as well as questions about political interference and the integrity of this match that will be played tonight.

Now, a reminder that Infantino developed a very close relationship with Trump. The U.S. is one of the hosts of the World Cup. He went so far as to bestow him with the inaugural FIFA Peace Prize just last year. And Trump had been notably silent, including on social media, after that controversial red card was given until yesterday. Reacting to that reversal, he said in a post to social media, quote, thank you to FIFA for doing what was right and reversing a great injustice.

Now, of course, Trump is going to be on his way to Turkey this evening for the NATO Summit as the U.S. faces off against Belgium in that match, but not before setting off this international incident. UEFA, that's that European soccer governing body of which Belgium is a member, says in a new statement that this decision crosses a red line. Belgium, of course, a member of NATO, so one of Trump's many controversial relationships to be watching at this summit.

[07:05:06]

John?

BERMAN: Yes, all my worlds colliding at once here, Betsy, you know? I cover politics for a living, and I watch sports as a pastime here, and exploding all overnight. I will say there was an English player given a red card yesterday in the game. I'm curious to see if King Charles gets involved now to have that reversed before England moves on. I mean, that's the question. Seriously, that's the question that's going to be asked now.

Betsy, thank you very much. We have an hour for Belgium to appeal. We'll stand by to see what happens. Sara?

SIDNER: You're making demands on the crown. That's interesting this morning. BERMAN: Well, you know, I know it's a ceremonial job, but you could do something, right?

SIDNER: He could get involved. Let's wait and see if your demand that Charles get involved actually works. We will see.

All right, right now, rescue operations underway as we speak in Kyiv following Russia's deadly strikes on the Ukrainian capital. President Zelenskyy posted this overnight, quote, it is critically important that the world come out of the NATO Summit in Ankara with strong decisions in support of our air defense.

CNN's Nic Robertson joins me live now from Ankara, Turkey. Nic, these Russian attacks come right before this NATO summit. They're always sending a message. This is another deadly message sent not just, of course, to Ukraine, but to the world. What are you expecting to happen there in Ankara?

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: Yes, it's a message that's measured in the scale of the ballistic missiles that Russia fires, not just the sort of old-fashioned ballistic, but the new jet power that are harder to stop. 66 sent into Ukraine, 29 of them got through. That as a percentage terms is more than used to get through, and that really is an indicator of just how desperate Ukraine needs that additional air defense capability. More than 350 drones, 18 of them got through, 12 people killed in Kyiv. Another five killed in the Kyiv region. Absolutely deadly, pressing issue.

So, one of the first things that happens here tomorrow when the defense ministers of the NATO nations get together, Defense Investment Fund, and that will be featuring and focused on getting that big financial commitment, the economic lift for Ukraine, so it can defend itself and it can fight this war effectively against Russia. So, absolutely a pressing issue here.

But President Trump's going to arrive in here not least facing perhaps some pushback from the Belgians about soccer decisions, but pushback probably from the Danes, who are still smarting from the fact he wanted to annex Greenland, part of NATO, just earlier this year.

There will be other nations here smarting from President Trump's criticism of not stepping up to do enough during Epic Fury, Spain being one of those. Spain likely in the crosshairs for President Trump as well because he's going to want to make sure that all these NATO nations here in Europe and Canada as well step up to their 5 percent GDP defense commitment by 2035.

He's going to want to see that they're doing it or they're putting a credible path forward for it. There's a lot of countries here that are already falling short of that, so plenty to talk about. But if Ukraine doesn't get the money and commitments, it starts to suffer in the war. President Zelenskyy is certainly going to be bringing that message in front and center here.

SIDNER: Yes, the people who I've been speaking to in Ukraine you know, this morning saying, Slava Ukraini, but the words are just words. They are very clear that they need the support, real support and watching all this happening is heartbreaking for a lot of people to see Kyiv up in smoke again.

Nic Robertson, I know you do the best job out there getting us the best information. We'll be waiting to see what happens during that summit. I appreciate it. Kate?

BOLDUAN: The 23-year-old accused of killing conservative activist Charlie Kirk is due in court this morning, and there's new evidence that prosecutors are expected to present against Tyler Robinson. We've got much more on that.

And the same company that won the no-bid contract to fix the Reflecting Pool in Washington the first time around will now also be the company to fix all the pool problems since then. The new details that we're learning on that.

And couples putting their marriages to the test, yes, the annual Wife Carrying World Championship. Oh, there's a divorce. Just kidding.

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[07:10:00]

BOLDUAN: This morning in Utah, the man accused of Turning Point -- of killing Turning Point USA co-Founder Charlie Kirk, that man is due in court.

Kirk was shot and killed, remember, this was last September, while speaking at Utah Valley University. His accused killer is 23-year-old Tyler Robinson, and prosecutors today, they're expected to lay out some of the evidence that they say they have against him, including a videotaped statement by the man's former roommate.

CNN's Jean Casarez is following all of this. She's going to walk us through. What could we see today?

JEAN CASAREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: This is going to be a big deal because it is set for potentially the entire week, every day. It is not the trial, but it is like a trial. It's the preliminary hearing. And the purpose of this is for the prosecution to put witnesses on the stand. Evidence and hearsay rules are relaxed, so a law enforcement officer can testify about more than he would during the trial.

[07:15:05]

But there may be brand-new information that comes out, and the defense is afforded cross-examination.

At the end of the week or the end of the presentation of the evidence, the defense can put on witnesses. We understand they're going to put on several experts of their own. But the whole reason for this is for the judge to determine there's probable cause that Tyler Robinson committed these crimes, and there is a lengthy list of them, to bind the case over for trial. And then there's the formal arraignment after that, where formal plea is entered. And then it keeps going from there until this death penalty trial will take place. We have no idea when it will take place.

BOLDUAN: Right.

CASAREZ: It will be lengthy. But I think what we need to look out for is, number one, the forensics, because there's been an issue with the forensics. And there is going to be testimony on it because the defense in a filing said that they were unable, forensic experts, unable to identify the bullet recovered at autopsy with the gun that allegedly, rifle, Tyler Robinson had. And then the prosecution corrected that in a statement to one of the media outlets saying, well, it's -- they have not excluded the bullet coming from the rifle.

But then we're also going to see videotape of that day. The roommate is pivotal because the roommate actually allegedly turned on Tyler Robinson, giving them texts and information and everything close in time to when the killings happened that incriminate Tyler Robinson.

But we will also see where they're all coming from, the two sides. So, it'll be very interesting. We're going to have live coverage because there's a camera in the courtroom.

BOLDUAN: Oh, so there is a camera in the courtroom for this. And that means Jean will have -- thank you so much, Jean. Jean will have live gavel-to-gavel coverage for you, for all of us, on CNN All Access and the CNN app.

Jean, thank you so much. It's great to have you, really looking forward to that. That starts at 11:00 A.M. every morning. John?

BERMAN: All right. A white nationalist group marches through Washington, D.C. And this morning, a stunning photo here captures a moment of defiance and dignity on a city bus.

And a seaplane crash lands right into the East River of New York City. That's the plane right there. We're getting new reporting on the drama before the plane went down. You can see the near miss with the helicopter.

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[07:20:00]

SIDNER: Millions of Americans are headed back home after a record number traveled for the 4th of July this year. As you might imagine, it was the 250th birthday of America. As predicted, more than 72 million people traveled at least 50 miles from home. Most of those travelers, about 61 million, drove.

Joining us now is Sean Cudahy, the senior aviation reporter for The Points Guy. All right, so Sunday after July 4th, typically a very, one of the busiest travel days of the year. How did things hold up? Were there any places where there were big frustrations? What did you see?

SEAN CUDAHY, SENIOR AVIATION REPORTER, THE POINTS GUY: Yes, it was a little messy yesterday. You know, so often this time of year in the middle of summer we have the thunderstorms, and we had you know, 1,100 or more cancellations yesterday at airports, a lot of those kind of in the Northeast. You know, I'm sure folks were well aware of the storms that passed through last night.

And, you know, that can kind of snarl traffic for hours at some of these airports, especially you get a ground stop in place, everything's kind of backed up. That can mean waiting in the terminal, it can mean waiting on the runway in traffic. Little bit of a frustrating experience for travelers, but certainly something that we expect to see this time of year.

SIDNER: I do want to ask you about the prices with airfare. So, we keep seeing that jet fuel prices are coming down as we see things changing in the Middle East, and yet the prices for tickets don't seem to be moving at all. What's going on?

CUDAHY: So, we've seen some encouraging signs, but certainly if you're going to book a flight today, you're probably still going to be running into some sticker shock. I do have a little bit of good news. We've been tracking ever since the beginning of the conflict in Iran, we've been tracking kind of the rolling, like if you're booking a flight three to five weeks out, how much are you paying?

Prices are down about 17 percent compared with about a month and a half ago. So, if you're able to kind of squeeze in a last -- kind of last, you know, end of summer trip in August chances are you might be able to save compared to, you know, if you looked at the flight prices in May. So, that's good news. But, you know, yes, they are still flights are a lot more expensive than last year and, you know, it's definitely a, you know, kind of a tough go if you're looking for a discount right now.

SIDNER: Since you are The Points Guy and many people have points, including maybe myself, what is the best way to use those? Like how do you know when the time is right to say, hey, boom, this is the time to use those points?

CUDAHY: Yes. So, unfortunately, a lot of the big airlines do what we call dynamic award pricing now. So, it used to be like you could get a really cheap points deal even when the cash price was really high. Now, things kind of tend to fluctuate together. When the fares go up, the points prices go up.

The good news is right now in the last couple weeks, we've actually seen several airlines drop some really good award deals, some really good points deals for kind of the tail end of summer. So, the month of August, the last few years we have seen a lot of folks trying to squeeze their trips into June and July. August is a little quieter. And that's when we'll see airlines sometimes drop some of these deals and say, hey, if you want to use your points right now in August, that's a great time to do it.

I just booked a flight to London for 20 -- a little over 20,000 American Airlines miles one way, which, you know, is a better deal than you're usually able to get during the summer.

SIDNER: Whoa. I remember -- do you remember when it was 25,000 miles round trip within the United States? That is forever gone. Sadly, that is gone. But 20,000 to London is amazeballs.

All right, I'm going to have to get in there. And, look, maybe August is the time to take a fabulous trip somewhere, even a four-day weekend.

[07:25:00]

For 20,000 points, I'd do that.

Sean Cudahy, thank you so much for helping us through all that. We appreciate it. Kate?

BOLDUAN: We're also keeping a close eye right now on market futures. In about two hours, the New York Stock Exchange and the NASDAQ will be opening for the first time from the White House together. What it all has to do with the new federal investment accounts for children across the country, what you need to know.

And Europe's largest volcano bubbling to life. It's a little more than bubbling, guys. Now, it's impacting flights. We'll have more on that.

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[07:30:00]

SIDNER: Happening today, a first in the Oval Office.