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Parasite Cases Spreading; GOP Scrambles to Replace Lindsey Graham; Deadly ICE-Involved Shooting in Maine; U.S. Increases Strikes on Iran. Aired 1-1:30p ET

Aired July 13, 2026 - 13:00   ET

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

[13:00:00]

DANA BASH, CNN HOST: But no one will miss him more than Darline, who has lost the brother who never stopped taking care of her. May his memory be a blessing.

Thank you for joining INSIDE POLITICS.

"CNN NEWS CENTRAL" starts right now.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: Turning up the heat. The U.S. increases its strikes on Iran, reportedly hitting areas beyond the coast, as President Trump says he is reinstating the naval blockade.

And a growing number of illnesses tied to that cyclospora parasite. The latest on the outbreak causing so much misery for thousands of people in more than half of all U.S. states.

And campground confrontation. A bison charges a man and sends him flying through the air, the attack all caught on camera.

We're following these major developing stories and many more all coming in right here to CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

We do begin with breaking news out of Maine. According to state officials, a person was killed in the city of Biddeford earlier today during an ICE-involved shooting.

CNN's Rafael Romo is following the latest here.

Rafael, what can you tell us?

RAFAEL ROMO, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Brianna.

We have learned in the last few minutes that an immigrant rights group says the person shot by ICE this morning is a 26-year-old Colombian man, but did not disclose his name and authorities haven't made his identity public either.

We also reached to the Colombian Embassy in Washington and are waiting for a reply. In the last hour, Maine Senator Angus King, an independent, said during a press briefing that the person who was shot was the target of an arrest warrant, citing Secretary of Homeland Security Markwayne Mullin. He said he's asking for a full investigation into the shooting.

Biddeford resident Laura Peters told CNN she heard multiple gunshots come from the intersection of two nearby streets around 7:17 this morning. The gunshots are heard in a video captured by her doorbell camera.

Let's take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

(GUNSHOTS)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh (EXPLETIVE DELETED). Is that a car?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMO: Multiple gunshots can be heard, but Peters' surveillance video doesn't show -- or doesn't appear to show, I should say, any law enforcement or vehicles. Or personnel.

Reacting to the shooting, Maine Governor Janet Mills posted the following statement on her official Facebook page: "I have been briefed on the fatal shooting," she said, "in Biddeford this morning involving federal law enforcement. I know that situations like these are alarming and frightening. The Maine State Police are at the scene supporting and working cooperatively with the attorney general's office, Maine's Office of Chief Medical Examiner, and federal officials to determine the facts of what occurred this morning."

And this is what U.S. Representative Chellie Pingree, a Democrat, reacted to the shooting earlier in a video posted to her X account.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. CHELLIE PINGREE (D-ME): I am so deeply disturbed and angry. I, of course, need to know all of the answers here. Were they pursuing someone with a criminal record? Was this a random traffic stop? How did this possibly happen? And why was this person shot?

Were the officers wearing body cameras? Will there be investigations? But, more than anything else, I want to know, why are you in Maine?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMO: Of course, Brianna, CNN has reached out to Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Department of Homeland Security for comment. We are waiting for a reply.

And let's put this in perspective. The shooting happened less than a week after a nice agent fatally shot an immigrant during a traffic stop in Houston, sparking mass protests and demands for transparency and accountability.

Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, a 52-year-old Mexican national, was on his way to work Tuesday, and he was shot. And, apparently, he was not the target of their immigration operation, according to a source with preliminary details about the incident.

Salgado's shooting reignited calls for accountability among ICE agents. Earlier this year, we can remember that, a 37-year-old mother, Renee Good, and a 37-year-old ICU nurse, Alex Pretti, were killed by federal immigration agents during ICE operations in Minneapolis -- Brianna.

KEILAR: Rafael, thank you for the latest on that.

We're following breaking news as well on the war with Iran. President Trump now says the U.S. will take control of the Strait of Hormuz and reinstate that naval blockade on Iranian vessels after Iran fired on a container ship over the weekend. That set off a new wave of U.S. attacks on Iran.

And, a short time ago, the president wrote this on TRUTH Social -- quote -- "The Hormuz Strait is open and will remain open with or without Iran." He says: "From this point forward, the U.S. will be known as the guardian of the Hormuz Strait and be reimbursed 20 percent on all cargo shipped for the cost of the blockade."

[13:05:15]

Overnight, U.S. Central Command says it hit dozens of targets in multiple locations inside of Iran. This morning, U.S. allies in the region reported responding to aerial attacks after Iran claimed that it targeted U.S. military sites in their countries.

CNN's Kristen Holmes is live for us from the White House.

Kristen, what's the latest here?

KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Brianna, it certainly feels as though we are barreling towards that heightened conflict that we saw before the cease-fire.

A couple of notes on the Strait of Hormuz. President Trump's efforts here do not totally align with each other, the things that he is saying. One, the naval blockade, that would stop the traffic in the Strait of Hormuz. We saw that.

They do believe, they being U.S. officials that I have spoken to, that this is probably the most -- or at least one of the most effective ways of getting at Iran. They think it was crippling them financially and that this is the way to get them back to the negotiating table. That's what they saw before.

However, this idea of being the guardian of the Strait of Hormuz, if he does, in fact, put back in place this naval blockade, it would mean that ships are not going through the Strait of Hormuz like we saw. It would be very difficult to actually travel the strait.

And there you also hear him talking about this reimbursement. Well, we have heard from a number of U.S. officials who have said that no one can charge money or tolls for the Strait of Hormuz. So it's unclear how exactly that would work.

Now, he did do an interview in which he seemed to be incredibly frustrated, talking about the deal that fell apart, saying that Iran never listens. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We had a deal. What nobody knows, we had a deal. It was a done deal. And then they broke it. They always break it. We have had 10 deals with these people. And so we're just going to hit them very hard.

And we're going to -- we're going to keep the strait, and we will probably run it. We will become the guardian of the strait. Maybe we will call it the guardian angel of the strait. And we should be reimbursed for that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: The other question is going to be that, if they do reinstate this naval blockade, and he has said that they would just stop Iranian ships from coming in and out, how they could ensure ship safety through the Strait of Hormuz. That has proved difficult in the past.

So there are still a lot of questions here, but one thing is certain. It feels as though we are watching this all kind of unravel in real time between these two countries.

KEILAR: Yes, it certainly does feel that way.

Kristen, thank you for that report from the North Lawn there, the North Lawn.

Still to come, the latest on the sudden death of Senator Lindsey Graham. We're going to take a look at what this unexpected loss means for Washington and who the president believes should be appointed to fill Graham's seat.

Plus, a rapid rise in cases from that intestinal illness caused by a parasite. Health officials in a pair of states just gave an update, as the CDC is scrambling to find the source of this widespread outbreak.

And then later: A man is injured after a bison launches him several feet into the air at Yellowstone National Park. We will bring you what is really dramatic footage ahead on CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

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[13:12:38]

KEILAR: Here in a few hours, the governor of South Carolina will announce who will temporarily fill the seat of the late Senator Lindsey Graham. President Trump posted online that he recommended to the governor that Graham's sister, Darline, serve as interim senator.

Graham died Saturday shortly after returning to D.C. from a trip to Ukraine. And according to a preliminary finding by the D.C. medical examiner, the cause of his death was a sudden heart affliction known as an aortic dissection, or a tear of the aorta. He was 71 years old.

His death is setting off an outpouring of tributes and a party scramble for his permanent replacement. He was a senator since 2003, and Graham was seeking his fifth term come this November. Now Republicans are under a time crunch to replace his name on the ballot.

State law appears to call for a special Republican primary election in just under a month.

CNN's Lauren Fox is on Capitol Hill with the latest.

Lauren, Graham's absence surely will be felt in the Senate when it returns to session here in a couple of hours.

LAUREN FOX, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Exactly, Brianna.

And there were several issues that Graham would have played a major role in either shepherding or speaking out for, one of them, of course, that Russian sanctions bill that he has been trying to build bipartisan support for, trying to get the White House on board for, for months now.

That suddenly was getting a lot of traction last week. In fact, many members who had talked with Senator Graham believed that he was really happy about the direction that that was headed. That is an area, obviously, that we're going to be watching really closely, whether or not that is something that GOP leaders might be able to muscle through the Senate and the House really in memoriam of the senator.

There's also just questions about how quickly they can move with nominees through the Judiciary Committee, including Todd Blanche, to be the attorney general. There's also questions about what this means for the president's SAVE America Act, which he wanted to press for using this really arcane process through the Budget Committee, which, of course, Senator Lindsey Graham was the chairman of.

Senator Lindsey Graham had worked really closely with the president, with the White House on trying to craft legislation that could potentially move through that process, while it was still a really difficult lift.

But look, obviously, there is a wide swathe of members, both on the Republican and Democratic side, who are remembering him, who are also calling attention to the fact that, in his absence, there are just questions about who is going to continue speaking out for the U.S. involvement around the globe, something, of course, that Senator Lindsey Graham was really pivotal and central to in the years and months in the past -- Brianna.

[13:15:18]

KEILAR: And, Laura, let's turn now to the ongoing absence of Senator Mitch McConnell, his office initially not saying much. They're now finally giving some more details, and they say that he fell. What can you tell us?

FOX: Exactly.

They're saying that there was no significant cardiac episode, that he did not have a stroke or a seizure, and that he simply fell and also was dealing with a mild bit of pneumonia once he was in the hospital.

Obviously, this had gone on for several weeks without any details about Mitch McConnell's health, and he really did address that yesterday in this statement from his office, saying that it's not atypical for people of his age to want to keep their health private. He said he certainly had that tendency and that inclination in deciding to keep some of his health diagnoses private himself.

But he said he did recognize that he was an elected official, that people were asking questions, and that he owed it to his constituents who elected him in the state of Kentucky to make clear what his condition was. He's not returning to the Senate this week.

In fact, he said that he's got some more recovery to do, but obviously that is the latest and a lot more detail than we had gotten for about a month waiting for what was next with Mitch McConnell.

KEILAR: All right, Lauren Fox, thank you for the latest there from the Hill.

We do have an update on that parasitic stomach bug where the number of cases has jumped to more than 3,000. Up next, what you need to know to stay safe.

And then, later, a new warning about a popular toy and social media trend that's leaving some kids with serious burns.

Stay with us.

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[13:21:29]

KEILAR: More cases of a gut-wrenching illness that is caused by a parasite that may be found in raw vegetables and fruit. There's a lot of uncertainty around that. That's why I say may.

There are new numbers that have just been released, and they show that there are now more than 3,000 cases in Michigan and Ohio, which are the hardest-hit states, most of them in Michigan.

We have CNN health reporter Jacqueline Howard joining us on this.

Jacqueline, this story just really seems to balloon here. Tell us more about the people who have gotten sick and some of the uncertainty around all of this.

JACQUELINE HOWARD, CNN HEALTH REPORTER: That's right, Brianna.

We're seeing more and more cases emerge. And what we know about the people who've gotten sick, some of them have been hospitalized. So when you look at Michigan alone, where there are now more than 2,600 cases that have been reported, 44 of them have been hospitalized.

And when you look across the country, there have been dozens more hospitalizations as well. In total, Brianna, 31 states across the country have reported cases, but not all of those cases that we know so far are connected.

These cases are still under investigation, and currently the only cluster of cases that has been described as an outbreak are those cases in Michigan, as well as some in Ohio. And the reason why it's really difficult, Brianna, to pinpoint, OK, what's the original source of this outbreak or of these clusters is because, once someone becomes infected, it can take anywhere from two days to two weeks for symptoms to emerge.

So health officials, especially those in Michigan, are really scrambling to identify the source of these cases. And the symptoms that cyclospora infections, which is called cyclosporiasis -- the symptoms of this illness include watery diarrhea.

In some cases, it's described as explosive diarrhea, Brianna, as well as loss of appetite, cramping, bloating, nausea, fatigue. These symptoms can lead to dehydration. And, for some patients, it's dehydration that has led to them being hospitalized.

So it's really important, Brianna, to be mindful of how you can even become infected. A lot of infections sometimes are tied to infected -- or -- excuse me -- contaminated fresh produce or contaminated water, like from water parts, or if you're eating fresh produce. So it's really important to wash your fruits and vegetables because this illness can be miserable.

And I'm telling you, Brianna, a lot of people want to avoid this altogether.

KEILAR: OK, so talk to us about washing fruits and vegetables, because the pictures that we're looking at here, I think is how a lot of people do it. They run their fruit or vegetable underneath the stream of water. Maybe they're trying to make sure they clean the surface of it. I mean, is that enough? Is there a soak?

Do they need to use some kind of additive in the water? What can we do?

HOWARD: Yes, so water is better than nothing, but to really be more effective with cleaning your fruits and vegetables, you can add a little bit of vinegar to create a vinegar rinse.

So what you want to do, mix one part vinegar with three parts water in a large bowl, put your fruits or your vegetables in there, make sure they're covered with this vinegar rinse, and then physically stir them, stir your fruits and vegetables around in that water, and even scrub or rub those fruits and vegetables to really make sure you're, like, physically cleaning them off.

[13:25:10]

And that can help really, really make washing your fruits and vegetables more effective with reducing your risk of getting sick in the first place. So try that out. And, Brianna, that is more effective than just water alone.

KEILAR: All right, Jacqueline, great tips. I think a lot of people are going to be stepping up their game when it comes to washing their produce. Thank you so much.

Still ahead: a federal judge blasting President Trump's lawsuit against the IRS, saying that the case sought to manipulate the judicial process. See why she's now ordering sanctions for the attorneys involved.

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