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12-year-Old Boy Pulled From Rubble In Venezuela; Six Killed At Center For Mothers And Children In Stade; Ukraine's Refinery Strikes Push Russia Into A Fuel Crisis; Bringing American Football To Ukrainian Children; U.S. TV Ratings Climb As Tournament Heats Up; Head Of Company Talks About Their Work On Reflecting Pool. Aired 4:30-5a ET

Aired June 30, 2026 - 04:30   ET

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

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[04:31:51]

POLO SANDOVAL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: We now want to bring you some new video that's just into CNN that shows a moment of hope among the desperation in Venezuela over five days since the earthquake. Looking at images of a 12-year-old boy that was pulled from the rubble on Monday after being trapped days after last week's deadly earthquake. And a word on his condition right now.

But the rescue crew behind the operation who traveled there from Ecuador said quote, five days after the earthquake, finding signs of life is the greatest impulse to move forward. Ecuador, one of several nations that have sent crews to the devastation to help there on the ground.

Well, six people are dead after a mass shooting at a youth facility in northern Germany. Police have arrested a 45-year-old man and believe that there was a dispute over custody of his daughter. CNN's Sebastian Shukla, following the investigation for us.

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SEBASTIAN SHUKLA, CNN PRODUCER: At least six people have been killed and multiple others injured after shots were fired at a local youth welfare facility in the Lower Saxony city of Stade, about 50 kilometers west of Hamburg. Five people were killed at the scene and another has unfortunately died of their injuries in hospital.

Pictures from Stade show a pretty major police operation unfolding in what appears to be a fairly residential part of the city. Police were very quick to announce that they no longer pose a threat to the local population.

The authorities spoke on Monday evening, providing an update on the situation and the location of where this attack took place and more details about the perpetrators.

DANIELA BEHRENS, LOWER SAXONY INTERIOR MINISTER: According to the information available so far, this was a crime committed for family reasons, an act of violence carried out in an extremely cold-blooded manner, with no political or economic motives.

KAHTRIN SCHUOL, LEUNEBURG POLICE CHIEF: Regarding the suspect, I can confirm that he is a 45-year old man born in Germany and resident of the Hanover area. He is a Turkish origin. The police have records on him, including in relations to threats. However, he has not previously been regarded as a particularly violent individual with our police system.

SHUKLA: Gun crime is incredibly low in Germany, where the ownership of weapons is very tightly controlled through the granting of various permits and different types of assessments. But Germany is no stranger to attacks. Whilst there are relatively few gun crime attacks, other forms of killings have been known to take place. In the last few years, there have been sporadic knife and car ramming attacks. Sebastian Shukla, CNN, Berlin.

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SANDOVAL: Russian aerial barrages are currently raining down terror across cities in eastern Ukraine. Officials are saying that a 23-year- old woman was killed and at least 12 others were injured in a guided bomb attack on Kharkiv on Monday. The munitions, they struck this roadway, damaging more than a dozen cars and a tram. Listen to how one witness describes the aftermath.

[04:35:00]

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ANATOLII KORLAKYN, MUNICIPAL SERVICE DRIVER (through translator): When it hit everyone, immediately everything was covered in dust. Nothing was visible. And then I got out, I smashed the window because the doors wouldn't open. I climbed through the window and started running. And then later I came back and saw that a girl was dead and another one was lying nearby.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANDOVAL: Meanwhile, Ukraine's intensified campaign against Russian infrastructure has triggered a fuel crisis here in Moscow. Lines of cars that you see here queuing up around g gas stations in that country. On Sunday, Russian President Vladimir Putin acknowledged that Ukrainian drones, that Ukrainian drone strikes have sparked this fuel shortage. But he said that the Kremlin is dealing with it.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is arguing the propaganda can't blind Russians to the consequences of war, he says.

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VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY, UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT (through translator): Putin can say on television as much as he wants that everything is under control, that there is plenty of fuel and that Russian ministers are competent. But Russians standing in fuel lines across various regions of Russia can clearly see that their so called three-day war has now entered its fifth year.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANDOVAL: And while the FIFA World Cup brings soccer to America and the world, some Americans are taking the United States version of football to children in Ukraine.

Former New York Governor George Pataki and his son Owen, they brought their Footballs for Freedom initiative to Lviv, Ukraine, just this month. This is some video that we've been provided their efforts, they include clinics, equipments, and also some mentorship opportunities to young people whose lives have been shaped by Russia's ongoing invasion of Ukraine.

So let's speak to Owen now. Joining me is Owen Pataki. He and his father, former New York Governor George Pataki, are bringing American football to Ukrainian children through this work. Owen, and thank you so much for being with us.

OWEN PATAKI, GEORGE PATAKI LEADERSHIP CENTER: Thanks for having me.

SANDOVAL: No, of course. And thank you for getting up so early for us. I'm wondering if you could tell us a little bit more about the benefits of sport in a time of war. How does a simple football offer a unique kind of humanitarian support?

PATAKI: Yes, well, we just got back from a tournament we helped co- sponsor in Vinnytsia, Ukraine. And it was a really exciting day for everyone involved. There were, I believe there were 23 youth teams, 17 and under. There were 300 participants. So 300 kids were out there playing all day in this flag football tournament format.

And it was really an exciting, happy, positive day where the kids were out there running around, having fun, shouting. There were cheerleaders performing. It was just, it was a really positive day in the midst of, as you said, a really, really tough, devastating war right now.

SANDOVAL: Can you expand a little bit on that. Maybe share some of the lessons that you and the rest of the folks at the Pataki Center have learned from interacting with war torn youth and their families.

PATAKI: Yes, well, it started back at the end of 2022 when we were doing humanitarian work and we found that there was a Ukrainian League of American Football that played both flag and tackle football with pads and helmets. And a lot of the players from those leagues joined the Ukrainian Army. And we engaged with them. We started connecting with them and trying to find ways to support them.

And we realized that they were really enthusiastic and excited about our most popular sport, American football. And so we wanted to find ways to help them. And over the years we've done -- we've started supporting these tournaments in coordination with the U.S. State Department. And every time we go over there, the groups of kids who are playing grows, the enthusiasm grows. And they love our game. They love American football, they love playing. They've gotten pretty good at it. There's some pretty high skill level there, and it's really something that means a lot to them. A lot of these kids come from small towns or poor villages or regions that have been affected, or they have family members who've served in the military, or there's, you know, there's drone and missile attacks.

So for them to be out there playing football, having fun and being physical and being around other kids, you can see it means a lot to them. And you can see that it's a temporary but meaningful distraction and a positive one in a time of war and a lot of bad news happening.

SANDOVAL: Of course. And in addition to sharing their love of a game that some folks wouldn't expect it to be so popular there. What else do some of these kids tell you and the rest of the members of your organization?

PATAKI: Well, it's a difficult time for them. And right now all they want is to live lives, is to try to live as normal a life as possible and to not be overcome with negativity.

[04:40:08]

And like I said, it's difficult right now when there's so much negativity, there's so much bad news. To see these kids out there smiling, you know, it reminds you a bit of an American youth sports tournament where there's just kids out there playing and you're not thinking about anything else and you're just having fun. And to see that happening in Ukraine, it means a lot, obviously to the kids, but to their parents, it means a lot.

You know, a lot of them have family member that are in the Ukrainian military or who have served and the veterans of the tackle football league who played before the war to them to be supported. To know that there are Americans that are still sent funding, helping fund their league, that are helping keep that league and flag football and tackle football alive at a time when it's very challenging, obviously, because the war is the focus.

Their economy needs to go towards, you know, their military and maintaining themselves during this conflict, to be supported financially by Americans, to see Americans go over to these tournaments and to know that we're there for them and we haven't forget. They're not forgotten. It really does mean a lot to them to know that they're supported and that their league cannot just survive. But hopefully we can help them grow it and when the war finally ends, we can -- it can thrive even more.

SANDOVAL: Yes, I've had a chance to speak to so many Ukrainians and nonprofits, you know, in the last year or so and time and time again, you know, you ask them what is badly needed there, especially for children. And over and over again they always say normalcy, and just a chance to play football. I mean, there's nothing more normal than that. Owen Pataki, we know that you and your father certainly has a deep passion for helping the Ukrainian people. Not with football, but we've seen them provide heaters and housing, medications, and the list goes on. Sadly, there will continue to be a need with no definite end in sight to this conflict. Owen Pataki, thank you for your time and for what you do.

PATAKI: Thank you.

SANDOVAL: Well, some major excitement in the World Cup knockout phase. Not one, but two matches going down to penalty shootouts and two top teams, they are going to be packing to head home. The thrilling details in a moment.

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[04:45:26]

SANDOVAL: The latest men's World Cup knockout matches. They were absolute nail biters and they delivered two penalty shootouts, Morocco overcoming the Netherlands three to two. And it all came down to this riveting series of penalty kicks. An absolutely heart wrenching result for the Dutch who have now been bounced from the World Cup.

And earlier Paraguay versus Germany. That also going down to really boiling down to PKs (ph). Paraguay eliminating the four time champs winning 3 to 4. The heavily favored Germans thought they had scored the winning goal in extra time, but then it was overturned after a review.

And Brazil surviving a surprisingly close match against Japan coming from behind to narrowly win 2 to 1. It was awfully sad to see with the Samurai Blue holding the lead at first during the first half, but then eventually the Brazilians answering with an equalizer before scoring again deep into stoppage time.

And the World Cup, it is just -- it isn't really packing stadiums only. It's also breaking TV viewership records within the United States, despite the country's long held hesitancy to embrace what Americans like to call soccer. CNN's chief media analyst Brian Stelter looking at what's driving the surge in viewing.

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BRIAN STELTER, CNN CHIEF MEDIA ANALYST: World cup fever is real in the United States, and the television ratings prove it. Fox and Telemundo say they have set and broken viewership records again and again throughout the month of June, and the networks are expecting even higher ratings in the coming days with the U.S. playing in primetime on Wednesday night.

Now, full disclosure here. Talking about World Cup ratings, there's no standard way to calculate the global audience for a tournament like the World Cup that airs on multiple channels and multiple platforms in many different countries.

But FIFA likes to call the World Cup the single most watched sporting event on earth. And in the U.S. it is certainly gaining in popularity. Telemundo has the Spanish language rights in the US. Fox has the English language rights. And the networks combined have cumed up more than 20 million viewers for some of the matches.

Now those are NFL level figures in the US. Telemundo says World Cup viewership is quote, pacing at more than double the 2022 tournament. And Fox says at least 84 million Americans have tuned in for at least a minute of one of the matches. So that means sampling is sky high this summer.

Now, some of those folks are just channel surfing, but others are sticking around watching match after match. I've been talking with the head of Fox's research department and he says these numbers are already far surpassing the 2022 tournament, and there's some obvious reasons why that is.

The most obvious factor is that the games are being played in the U.S. as well as Canada and Mexico, so Americans are automatically more aware of the World Cup this year. Also, the games being played in the U.S. means the time zones are favorable for American viewers.

These games are often being played in the evening and at night when more Americans are at home and able to watch. More generally, soccer continues to grow in popularity in the U.S. and live sports continue to compel people to tune in live to watch TV live as opposed to watching on demand or maybe never getting around to it at all.

And there's one more interesting factor here. Nielsen, the ratings company, is now measuring out of home viewing behavior in ways that it didn't or couldn't even just a few years ago.

So now Nielsen's capturing audience behavior at bars and restaurants and other World Cup viewing party locations. As a result, the ratings are a fuller, more accurate picture of actual viewer viewing behavior, showing that the sport we call soccer in the U.S. is becoming more and more popular all across America. Brian Stelter, CNN.

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SANDOVAL: The 250th birthday of American independence. It is just around the corner and things in Washington seem to be still coming together. Just ahead, an update on the current state of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool.

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[04:53:15]

SANDOVAL: Welcome back. So it seems that the drama surrounding damage to the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool isn't going away. CNN's Sunlen Serfaty learned more from the man in charge of trying to fix.

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SUNLEN SERFATY, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It in the middle of the political tidal wave. This man is in charge of keeping water in the Reflecting Pool crystal clear. CHAS ANTINONE, PRESIDETN AND COO, GREENWATER SERVICES: We've never done a pool, but the water is relatively the same as the water that you would see out in a regular lake somewhere, right? You're treating it for algae and bacteria.

SERFATY: How clean does President Trump want to get this project?

ANTINONE: I don't know the answer to that question yet, but since it was really blue last week, I think he liked that.

SERFATY (voice-over): In his first TV interview, Chas Antinone, the CEO of Greenwater Services, defended its patented ozone nanobubbler, a new technology that's costing $1.7 million and that the Trump administration is building as the state of the art fix for the algae ridden pool.

ANTINONE: Ozone is 3,000 times faster and 50 times more powerful than chlorine and it's able to stay in the water, travel through the water, find the toxins that it needs. That's why we're able to treat it from both ends and treat the whole pool.

SERFATY (voice-over): But the project has been plagued with other problems too, from the new blue bottom peeling up to Trump blaming without evidence, left wing vandals.

DONALD TRUMP, U.S. PRESIDENT: The Reflecting Pool is so beautiful they tried to destroy it.

SERFATY (voice-over): Prompting Trump to announce they'll need to drain the pool again.

TRUMP: We'll fix it right after the 4th of July.

SERFATY (voice-over): Meanwhile, the small Ohio company has been thrust into the national spotlight for their role.

SERFATY: What's your understanding of why the original bloom happened?

ANTINONE: How it happened? I don't know. Some of it could have come from the pipes, could somebody have dumped some stuff in there? Anything's possible in the middle of the night.

SERFATY (voice-over): In April, the company was given a no bid contract from the Trump administration, bypassing a competitive bidding process. The company's co-owner is J.J. Caffaro, a longtime supporter and donor to President Trump and neighbor living near his Mar-a-Lago club.

[04:55:08]

TRUMP: J.J. Caffaro from Florida and from Cleveland. He's a man who made a lot of money in Cleveland, does a good job and a fantastic man.

SERFATY (voice-over): In 2001, Caffaro pleaded guilty to conspiracy to bribe Representative James Traficant and separately pleaded guilty in 2010 for a campaign finance violation. The Interior Department says the White House was not involved in the selection process for any contract and did not weigh in on the company selected. Full stop.

And the company has also tried to distance itself from Caffaro, saying he is an Ohio based businessman who invested in the Ohio based company after the owners showed him research done on local Ohio bodies of water. A spokesperson for the company said he has no involvement in the day to day operations.

Earlier this month, Caffaro defended his company's technology, saying he believes the public scrutiny over the Reflecting Pool is from people who don't seem to like Trump.

SERFATY: And there has been some speculation that the Trump administration potentially compounded some of the problems down here at the Reflecting Pool. There was a 24 hour period of time where the temporary nano ozone bubblers were removed from the Reflecting Pool. That was at the request of the National Park Service. At the same time the President was hosting a large photo op down here at the National Mall for the UFC championship.

Now the company confirms that the permanent ozone nanobobbler technology has been installed in. It actually is off of the Reflecting Pool just over my shoulder in a pump house off the reflecting pool. Sunlen Serfaty, CNN, Washington.

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SANDOVAL: And that's our time. Thank you so much for joining me. Our coverage continues with CNN Headline Express. Next.

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