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Controversy As FIFA Reinstates U.S. Player Despite Red Card; Major Shakeup In Michigan Primary; Manhunt Underway After Eight People Shot At July 4th Barbecue; Delta Flight Hit By Fireworks On July 4; Ukraine: Russia Attacks Kyiv With Ballistic Missiles; Trump Set To Attend NATO Summit After Criticizing Alliance. Aired 7-8p ET

Aired July 05, 2026 - 19:00   ET

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

[19:00:00]

BRIAN ABEL, CNN HOST: Tonight a stunning move by FIFA has rattled the World Cup. Earlier today, FIFA announced that the leading scorer in the World Cup for the U.S. team Folarin Balogun will be allowed to play in tomorrow's match against Belgium, despite having received a controversial red card that was supposed to make him automatically ineligible for the next game. A source tells CNN President Donald Trump spoke with FIFA president Gianni Infantino this week and asked the FIFA official to review the call.

This move puts Trump's influence over the governing body under the microscope, as the United States is one of the host countries.

Let's bring in CNN's Julia Benbrook now.

And, Julia, what are you hearing about President Trump's involvement here?

JULIA BENBROOK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, his role in this stunning decision to allow Folarin Balogun to play in this upcoming game on Monday is now under a microscope. As you mentioned, we are learning from a source familiar speaking with CNN that Trump spoke with FIFA president Gianni Infantino earlier in the week. And there was a discussion about this controversial red card.

He asked Infantino to review it and then just today Trump took to social media and he said this on Truth Social. He said, "Thank you, FIFA, for doing what is right and reversing a great injustice." Around that same time, soccer's governing body announced it was using an obscure rule to suspend Balogun's automatic one-match ban for one year, allowing the striker to play in the Round of 16.

Now, speaking with reporters earlier today, the U.S. coach said that they did believe that this call was fair and that they had suffered enough, been punished enough for playing the last 30 minutes of their last game with just 10 players. U.S. Soccer is formally reacting in a statement, and I want to pull that up for you now. They said, quote, "We accept the decision of the disciplinary committee and are pleased that Folarin Balogun is eligible to compete tomorrow. Our full attention is focused on the Round of 16 match against Belgium in Seattle, and we look forward to the continued support of our amazing fans."

Now, their opponent is also responding. Let's get to that reaction here. They said, "The decision is in direct contradiction with the provisions of the FIFA World Cup 2026 Competition Regulations in order to safeguard the legitimate rights of all participating teams and to protect the fundamental principles of fair play in our sport, both at the FIFA World Cup and at future editions of the tournament. The RBFA is investigating all potential options."

There will be a lot of scrutiny on this decision, especially as a host city and then also looking into Trump's relationship, his close relationship with the FIFA president. It was just last year that FIFA awarded Trump a peace prize, a clear move, what most people think to be a clear move to really be in Trump's favor. That was coming around the time that he had made it clear he was very disappointed that he did not receive the Nobel Peace Prize. But this Monday game is on and it looks like Balogun will be on the field.

ABEL: Just spectacular developments ahead of the next U.S. game.

Julia Benbrook, from the White House. Julia, thank you.

And joining me now is Sophia Cai, White House reporter at Politico. She also covers FIFA.

And, Sophia, just how significant is this?

SOPHIA CAI, WHITE HOUSE REPORTER, POLITICO: This is very, very significant. But it also comes at the end of a long standing relationship between President Trump and Gianni Infantino. It started in President Trump's first term when the U.S. first won the rights to host the World Cup. At the time, President Trump didn't know he would be president when the World Cup actually happens.

But over the past two years, Gianni Infantino has really assiduously worked his way, making a dozen visits to the White House. That's more than any state leader. President Trump wanted the final draw at the Kennedy Center, and President Trump got that. He was also awarded the FIFA peace prize. And after President Trump bombed Iran, FIFA was very careful not to instigate him.

They haven't come out with any statements publicly around Trump's immigration decisions or travel bans. So that takes you inside the backdrop of this relationship where President Trump decided to call Gianni Infantino about this red card.

ABEL: Sofia, does Infantino have anything that even remotely resembles a similar relationship with any other leaders?

CAI: No, he does not. They hosted the World Cup in Qatar. They hosted the World Cup in Russia. But in the U.S., FIFA knew early on that in order to pull off this tournament, now it's the first tournament hosted by three countries, their leaders haven't always gotten along, particularly in the second term.

[19:05:04] And so the FIFA president has been very political. Even critics have said that he deserves credit for being able to pull this off. And so they have worked that relationship. Now, I have reporting tonight that President Trump was not the only one that made the case to FIFA. Secretary Howard Lutnick was also involved in conversations around this red card decision. And someone like Howard Lutnick has been having dinners with Gianni Infantino, Carlos Cordeiro, another senior FIFA adviser. But that tells us that the relationship between FIFA and the Trump administration goes deeper than just Trump and Infantino.

ABEL: Yes, this relationship, this situation certainly feels extraordinary. How are other countries responding to this decision?

CAI: So politicians across the political spectrum in Belgium are responding very poorly, saying that this is a decision that shouldn't have happened, that President Trump shouldn't have been involved at all. There are some Democrats in the U.S. who are saying perhaps the U.S. team should not play their player. That might be a ridiculous thing to say. But of course, this is political in the U.S..

President Trump so far has stayed out of the tournament. You know, there are some Americans who say that's a reason why things have gone smoothly. We haven't seen the type of ICE arrests, confrontations with immigration officers that people have feared. Now, we expect President Trump to be involved in the final. But now with this red card decision and the news that President Trump was involved, he's really involved himself in a very big way in the tournament now.

ABEL: And what, Sophia, shouldn't get lost in this decision, in the coverage of it, is just how controversial the red card was in the first place and that decision that's led now to this one.

I do want to ask you about this major global sporting events like this, usually a way for countries to assert soft power. How does something like this affect how citizens of other nations might view the U.S. and its role now?

CAI: So that's a great question because FIFA is composed of a membership of 211 soccer federations. Now, those federations often mirror the politics of their countries. So, you know, a bloc like the European bloc, they've not been thrilled with how FIFA has cozied up to Trump in general. So this is another decision that they see as going out of bounds, in part because FIFA, only one other time in history, has overturned a red card like this.

So we're already hearing my colleague Tim Rooney (PH) has heard from another FIFA vice president saying that this shouldn't happen. So we're starting to see more calls questioning FIFA's decision. And remember, FIFA president Gianni Infantino is up for reelection next year in 2027.

ABEL: We will see how this ripples all the way up to that moment.

Sophia Cai, thank you for your time and reporting. Appreciate you.

CAI: Thank you. ABEL: And still to come for us, passengers on a Delta flight get a

little too close to the action on the Fourth of July. We'll explain what happened the moment the pilot heard a bang on the plane as fireworks were going off.

Plus, both Republicans and Democrats want to pick up the open Michigan Senate seat in a major shakeup in the race on the Democratic side.

Stay with us. You're in the CNN NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[19:13:20]

ABEL: State Senator Mallory McMorrow is dropping out of the Democratic Senate primary in Michigan. This must-win race for Democrats now narrows to two candidates, an establishment favorite, Congresswoman Haley Stevens, and progressive Abdul El-Sayed. The primary, just a month away.

And CNN's Isaac Dovere is joining us now.

Isaac, what do you know about McMorrow's decision and the impact it has on this critical race?

EDWARD-ISAAC DOVERE, CNN SENIOR CORRESPONDENT: McMorrow has been struggling in the race for some time now. She's been getting chased by these questions of whether she was going to drop out. And what this does is very simple math. When you think about it, it was a three way primary. Now it's a two-way primary. It leaves Haley Stevens and Abdul El-Sayed, as you said. Two candidates who are making different kinds of pitches to the people of Michigan.

And as you point out, this is not just about Michigan. This may end up being a seat that it's a Democrat held seat. Right now, Republicans are trying to grab it up. Democrats trying to hold on to it. That could really be important in deciding who is in the majority after November. But let's take a listen to how McMorrow herself framed what she -- her decision here of what she was doing.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MALLORY MCMORROW (D), MICHIGAN STATE SENATOR: So I want to be very clear about what this announcement is not. I may be suspending this campaign, but I am not leaving the fight. Now, I haven't been shy about calling for new leadership in a better Democratic Party. I mean it. The energy is there. People are crying out for change, and we owe it to them to listen. Whoever wins this primary on August 4th will have my full support. Let's elect Democrats up and down the ticket and show the rest of the country what it means to fight like Michigan.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DOVERE: We'll see what this leads to. A campaign source telling me earlier today that as of right now, there are no plans for McMorrow to endorse in the race. But we'll see if that changes. [19:15:07]

ABEL: Well, Isaac, you know, she was trying to carve kind of the middle path between the other two candidates, right? Do we have any sense of where her supporters are going to break off to?

DOVERE: We don't. And look, she had not been showing a lot of support in whatever polls there were over the course of the last few weeks. So it's not clear how much support there was -- there to give one way or the other. But this is going to be an intense couple of weeks ahead. The primary in Michigan, strange. It's in August. It's on August 4th, the middle of the summer. That changes a little bit maybe who the electorate is, who remembers that the primary is that day.

But that means we've got seven-ish weeks here of not sorry, three and a half, four weeks here of the campaigning left to go as these two candidates try to make the case that they are the ones who not only are the right pick for the Democratic Party, but are the ones that can hold on to the seat for Democrats going into November.

ABEL: And Isaac, quickly, what other races do you have your eye on right now?

DOVERE: I mean, look, this is a field that of races that has gotten more complicated and larger than anybody anticipated. You've got on your map there, Alaska, which nobody really had on their radar a year ago but has become competitive. Of course, there's the race in Maine that a lot of people are paying attention to with Susan Collins trying to win another term. North Carolina is a seat that Democrats are feeling very good about. That would be a flip toward them.

And a lot of attention to some other races. Texas, for example, on that map in Iowa, those are seats that are thought strong Republican, but now very competitive. It seems, going into November.

ABEL: Isaac Dovere for us in Washington. Isaac, thank you.

DOVERE: Thank you.

ABEL: CNN senior political analyst and Bloomberg opinion columnist Ron Brownstein is joining us now.

So let's talk about what we just heard there, Ron. What does this news out of Michigan tell you about the state of the Democratic Party more broadly at the moment?

RON BROWNSTEIN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Yes. I mean, what you said about McMorrow was right. I mean, originally she seemed like kind of the Goldilocks candidate between Haley Stevens, who was more of a centrist establishment favorite, but has been kind of weak as a candidate. And El-Sayed was kind of a hero to the left but who faces really, you know, significant doubts in the Democratic Party about whether he can win a general election in a swing state.

She just didn't have -- McMorrow just did not have enough room, it turned out, between those, especially financially with all the establishment money, AIPAC money and other, that has gone into Stevens, and then El-Sayed's ability to raise grassroots money from kind of the Sanders-Warren networks, didn't leave her a lot of room.

I will say, you know, we have seen the left do well in Democratic primaries this year, but most of those victories are still coming in safe. Democratic seats like the Colorado district, where Diana DeGette was beaten last week with the three New York districts where Mamdani's candidates won. El-Sayed is one of the few true left candidates that has a chance to be the nominee in a swing constituency like Platner in Maine, like a couple of House candidates, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Central Valley and California.

And if he gets the nomination, how he performs in November, I think, along with Platner, is going to have a huge impact on what lesson Democrats take from this and the degree to which the left is going to have momentum going into the 2028 presidential race.

ABEL: Especially because waiting the primary winner on the Democratic side is a traditional Republican candidate in Mike Rogers that ran in the previous Senate race and lost to Elissa Slotkin.

Now, we've seen a number of Democratic socialists win this Democratic primary season. President Trump seems to want to use this as a way to go after Democrats more broadly. Last night, for example, calling out communists, seemingly trying to connect the two, though they are different from a Democratic socialist. Do voters recognize that, Ron?

BROWNSTEIN: Yes, I don't think -- I mean, the president calling these candidates communists is really, you know, stretching the word to the point of having no meaning. But it does get at a broader question. As I said, if you look around the country, and Colorado is a good example, in the safe Democratic district in Denver, the Democratic socialists beat Diana DeGette who's been there since 1996.

In the two seats that Democrats are hoping to win in Colorado, the two Republican seats that they're hoping to flip, they nominated much more moderate candidates who really don't agree with Kiros on any of the major issues, they're not single-payer advocates. They're not for the national wealth tax. They don't want a complete arms embargo to Israel, and they don't want to abolish ICE.

So -- and that is the pattern, right? I mean, if you look around the country, in the places that Democrats have to win to get to 218 there are very few of these left candidates being nominated. The question is, and the president's comments raised this, can you weaken, can you hurt those more moderate Democratic candidates in swing districts by tying them to these, you know, more left candidates that are running in the safe places?

[19:20:05]

They tried that in 2018 with AOC, when she won a primary, much like what we're seeing this year, and Democrats won over 40 House seats that year. So I would say the strategy had limited success. But certainly the president is signaling that that's what they're going to be doing again. ABEL: All right. Ron, let's zoom out a little bit here. You have a new

piece out today on CNN.com talking about how America is divided right now. Even though we've seen division before in this country, 250 years, you can argue or you do argue that this time is different. Tell us why.

BROWNSTEIN: Yes. Well, look, there's nothing that compares to the Civil War era, the years before the Civil War, the Civil War and the years after. Obviously, the country was more divided then. And, you know, settling its differences with bullets, not ballots.

But the two other periods in American history, the people most I think, most historians would point to as the greatest divisions were the years right around 1800, right after George Washington's presidency, when the proto party, the first parties won behind John Adams and Alexander Hamilton, the other behind Thomas Jefferson and James Madison, were deeply divided, particularly over whether allying with France or England in their global struggle. Then again, in the 1960s, when we had overlapping cultural, racial, gender-based, you know, generational conflicts.

I think what is different now, and there's a lot of similarities between those periods and today where you have this red-blue divide that is really permeating every aspect of our lives. And you look at just how not only divided we are at the national level, but how dramatically red states and blue states are pulling apart in their rules of daily life, in everything from abortion to transgender rights to voting.

I think what many historians would say is different, is that you have now in Donald Trump a president who, as we are discussing, clearly sees it to be in his interest to widen these divides, who consciously kind of jumps up and down every day on our fault lines. As I talk about in the story, you go through the list of the ways that he uses -- he is using national power to try to pressure and even punish the states that voted against him, whether it's federal disaster aid or federal -- conditioning federal funding on adopting red state policies, or investigating fraud primarily in blue states or criminal investigations of Democratic leaders.

In many ways, Trump, as I say, is governing as the field marshal of a faction rather than as the leader of a unified nation. And that accentuates all the underlying divisions that we are seeing ideological, demographic, even economic.

ABEL: All right, Ron Brownstein, appreciate your expertise and your writing, sir. Thank you.

BROWNSTEIN: Thanks for having me.

ABEL: We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[19:27:06] ABEL: Police in Florida are asking for the public's help in finding the person or people who opened fire on a crowd filled with teenagers in Pensacola. A 19-year-old man was killed in what police believe was a targeted attack. Six other victims, ranging in age from 16 to 26, are expected to survive.

These shootings came at the end of what officers called a frightening night. They say kids as young as middle school started gathering Saturday evening, some of them carrying guns. And police say the teen started fighting and launching fireworks at people. Officers made several arrests throughout the night.

They're not linked to these shootings. Tonight, a manhunt underway in New York after a mass shooting at a Fourth of July family barbecue. At least eight people were shot, including four children. Police say most of the victims are stable, but a 21-year-old woman is in critical condition.

CNN's Gloria Pazmino is in New York with more details.

GLORIA PAZMINO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Brian, you know, it was a very sad and violent incident in what was a, you know, a pretty safe day here in New York City for the July 4th holiday. This is also happening amid record lows in terms of shootings and homicides here in New York City.

We had hundreds of thousands of people all around the city who gathered for the July 4th holiday on Saturday, and many of those celebrations went off without any problem. But it was later in the evening that police say a gunman opened fire when he approached this family and friends that were gathered for a barbecue in a courtyard in front of a building, something that so many families and friends were doing all across the country last night.

Now, this happened shortly after 10:30 in the evening. A man dressed in all black, wearing a ski mask approached a group, did not exchange words with the group, opened fire, injured eight people, half of them children. The youngest victim, just 6 years old, was shot in the abdomen. There's also a 7, a 12 and a 14-year-old boys that were shot in this incident. And we are told that all of them are expected to survive. However, there is a 21-year-old woman who is in critical condition.

And now we heard from police commissioner Jessica Tisch and the mayor, Zohran Mamdani, speaking about this incident on Sunday morning.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAYOR ZOHRAN MAMDANI, NEW YORK: There is no place for this kind of violence in our city. We will not tolerate it, and we will fight it with every single tool at our disposal.

JESSICA TISCH, NEW YORK POLICE DEPARTMENT COMMISSIONER: The police department has more work to do. We all have more work to do when we see four children shot in one incident celebrating the July 4th holiday. (END VIDEO CLIP)

PAZMINO: Now, while the police investigation is ongoing, police did say that there was a gang related homicide that took place last week on the same block where the shooting took place on Saturday night.

[19:30:06]

They are investigating if there is any connection between these two incidents.

A firearm was recovered at the scene and the suspect remains at large --Brian.

ABEL: Gloria Pazmino in New York for us. Gloria, thank you.

Right now, the FAA is investigating how fireworks hit a Delta plane last night as it prepared to land at Chicago's Midway Airport. According to Air Traffic Control audio, the pilot reported feeling a "big bang."

CNN's Rafael Romo joins me now.

And, Rafael, what more are you learning about this?

RAFAEL ROMO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Brian. Well, these incidents remind us of how dangerous fireworks can be when mishandled or used near airports or other public infrastructure.

Delta Air Lines confirmed to CNN in a statement that one of their flights that originated here in Atlanta was hit by a firework while landing at Chicago Midway International Airport on Saturday. Right after the impact, the pilot on Delta Flight 1076 is heard saying to an air traffic controller, the crew heard the bang on the plane when the plane was flying at 200 feet according to audio from atc.com.

Here is part of the communication between the pilot and the control tower as the flight was landing at Chicago's Midway Airport.

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)

CONTROL TOWER: Delta 1076. I am not sure if you'll be able to assess if there is any damage at this time, but, can you tell me if you had to, I guess any further information about the fireworks?

DELTA 1076PILOT: No, negative, but yes, about 200 feet AGL -- two to two fifty AGL. But we just heard the bang on the plane. So we will have to take a look at it once we gets to the gate.

(END AUDIO CLIP)

ROMO: And this is not the only incident, Brian. The air traffic controller said there had been multiple, multiple similar reports and that city officials have been notified. CNN has reached out to Chicago Police for details. In a statement, the Federal Aviation Administration reported that

Delta Air Lines Flight 1076 landed safely at Chicago Midway International Airport around 8:30 P.M. Local Time on Saturday, July 4th, after the pilot reported that a fireworks mortar struck the aircraft just before landing, adding that the FAA will investigate the incident. Delta said the plane landed without incident and is being inspected.

And let me tell you about something that happened elsewhere. This is what happened in New York during the city's Fourth of July fireworks celebration.

(VIDEO CLIP PLAYS)

ROMO: Eyewitness video shows several small fires breaking out on the Brooklyn Bridge Saturday night as a Fourth of July fireworks display was wrapping up. The New York City Fire Department said firefighters quickly mobilized to the scene to extinguish the flames after a call came in about reported rubbish fire on the bridge around 9:40 P.M. Local Time.

The Fire Department also said that fires like these are not unexpected, and that is why they have the stand-off distance during a fireworks show. Fortunately, Brian, authorities say no one was injured.

Now back to you.

ABEL: Nobody injured in either one of those. Certainly, frightening situation, especially for the pilots.

ROMO: Right.

ABEL: Rafael Romo, thank you.

Still to come, President Trump heads to Turkey for the NATO Summit, an alliance he has fiercely criticized. What to expect, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[19:38:01]

ABEL: New tonight, air raid sirens are sounding in Kyiv as Ukraine's Air Force says the city is under attack by Russian ballistic missiles. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy earlier said Intelligence indicating Russia was "preparing a new massive strike."

The White House says President Trump is expected to meet with Zelenskyy on the sidelines of the NATO Summit this week, and it comes after Zelenskyy and Russian President Vladimir Putin spoke with Trump on July 4th.

According to Russia's Foreign Ministry, Putin and Trump spoke on the phone for nearly 90 minutes.

We are joined now by Former Deputy Assistant Secretary of State, Joel Rubin, also the author of the new book, "Saving Democratic Foreign Policy."

Joel, thank for being with us. Trump's efforts to end Russia's war on Ukraine have eased is the easiest way to say as attention shifted to the Middle East, how central will this war be at the NATO Summit?

JOEL RUBIN, FORMER DEPUTY ASSISTANT SECRETARY OF STATE: Yes, Brian, it is great to be with you and ease is definitely putting it lightly.

Basically, President Trump has abandoned Ukraine when it comes to our military support and has tried to use every lever he can to pressure Ukraine into capitulating to Russia from no longer adding new sanctions on to Russia, from terminating, as you mentioned, military aid, which now Congress even looks poised to override by sending $10 billion more into Ukraine if the Senate passes a bill on that.

And so there is a lot at stake here and NATO is now going to be pressed, hard pressed in Ankara to come up with a package that brings the United States in to this and makes the case to President Trump that they are not going anywhere and that he needs to change his tune on Russia because all of his entreaties to Putin have led to nothing, but as we are seeing right now, continued attacks into Ukraine by the Russian military.

ABEL: And as you know, Trump has had a contentious relationship with NATO, last week, saying the U.S. does not get any benefit from the alliance. So with that background happening coming into this Summit, what are we expecting from it?

[19:40:10]

RUBIN: Yes, you know, I think what is interesting, Brian, about President Trump in between term one and term two is that while much of his foreign policy has been different, one part has been consistent and that has been his criticism of NATO. He has consistently tried to distance the United States from NATO, demanded in the first term that they spend more on their collective defense, now, these countries are.

So now, he has been threatening to take over Greenland, for example. Of course, he talked about Ukraine. He has been criticizing NATO for not supporting the war against Iran.

And so looking at this Summit, this is going to be a real test for the Alliance as to whether or not they can keep the United States in the fold, because I do believe that right now, we are at a moment where President Trump must be thinking about whether or not the United States will leave NATO. Certainly, if not this year, he will have two more years to go.

And he is trying to separate us from NATO and that is very dangerous to American national security, because if that collapses, that only emboldens Russia, puts our European allies more at risk and as we know, that's on our doorstep.

ABEL: Certainly, a situation that NATO never hoped to be in and an Israeli source is telling CNN that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is planning to visit Washington as soon as next Monday to meet with Trump.

You were recently in Israel. What is your sense of how they are viewing relations with the U.S.?

RUBIN: Yes, I've got to tell you, you know, I just got back from a week long in Israel, different meetings and the Israelis are stunned by the turnaround by President Trump on war with Iran. They can't quite conceive that from one day he is bombing Iran, to the next day, he is telling Israel to pull back and that he is going to cut deals with Iran.

So I think for the Prime Minister, this really pulls the political rug out from underneath him inside of Israel, where the Israeli people saw him as their best guarantor of a tight American relationship.

So with elections for him coming up in October, he needs to show that that relationship is still strong. That's why he is going to come running to Washington, but the Israelis are certainly very stunned across the whole political spectrum and the change coming from The White House.

ABEL: Okay, Joel, let's talk about Iran for a minute, because today, Iranian state media is reporting Iran's parliamentary leader, who has been involved in negotiations with the U.S. met with senior Hezbollah leaders, telling them support for Lebanon remains a red line. How are you reading this dynamic?

RUBIN: Well, first of all, it is worth just pointing out that at the funeral of the Supreme Leader who was killed at the beginning of the recent war, this is a man who commandeered the execution and killing of tens of thousands of Iranian civilians. He pushed into countries like Lebanon and Yemen, into Iraq, even supported Assad and his barbarism and genocide in Syria, as well as supported Russia in its war against Ukraine.

So, this is a person who committed grave atrocities as a leader, and now to see the follow-on commitment, where Iran doesn't want to give up its toehold into Lebanon is very disappointing and dangerous.

The Lebanese people want to be free. They are negotiating a peace treaty with Israel, with American support. They are trying to get Hezbollah out of their internal affairs and Iran is saying no, that it wants to continue to control Southern Lebanon and that meeting is only a signal that Iran is not going to leave anytime soon and it is going to create more tensions in these negotiations as well between the United States and Iran on the overall position on the nuclear program and other regional activities that Iran is engaged in.

ABEL: All right, Joel Rubin, I would love to continue the conversation, but we do have to leave it there. Thanks very much for joining us.

And coming up, a disappointing Jobs Report. Was it a fluke? What it might mean for the economy and your wallet. We will talk to an expert next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[19:48:28]

ABEL: The outlook for the jobs market took a sudden turn for the worse this week, when the June Employment Report came out, showing a big shortfall. Just 57,000 jobs were created, less than half of forecast expectations. And while unemployment ticked down slightly, which is good news, it was really that unexpected drop in job gains that drew the most attention.

Justin Wolfers joins us now. He is a Professor of Economics and Public Policy at the University of Michigan.

Justin, first go blue, and second, after a string of a few really positive reports. This one, it was pretty lukewarm. Was it just a fluke or the start potentially of a troubling trend?

JUSTIN WOLFERS, UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN PUBLIC POLICY AND ECONOMICS PROFESSOR: I mean, we don't know.

So look, the last Jobs Report I think I described to you, Brian, as being a banger. So we are out of banger territory. It is a sort of one where if I brought this one home to my mum, she would have had a bit of a furrowed brow and looked down at me and said, come on, Justin, you can do a little better.

Now, the thing I need you to understand is my mum has very high standards, so for her, a B-plus was never good enough and that's how we should feel about the American economy. So let's hope for a little bit better over the rest of the summer.

ABEL: And I am sure your mother is quite proud with those expectations. Should we be comfortable then with the lower numbers?

WOLFERS: Honestly, I am uncomfortable. So what happened was a month ago, it really looked like things were taking off. We were getting fireworks just in, you know, a month too early for the Fourth of July. And we've come back to something a little bit more comfortable.

Look, here is the way to think about it. The unemployment rate now is 4.2 percent.

[19:50:02]

That's actually pretty good. It is lower than it has been through most of American history and for all the ups and downs and all the drama of every time we've ever had a chance to talk about the Jobs Report, actually, it has been remarkably constant.

It was drifting up for a while. It might be drifting down right now, but staying in pretty good territory is pretty good. So that's a part of the economy I am feeling, you know, reasonably okay about.

Of course there are people to worry about and there are pockets of weakness, but overall we are doing okay in the labor market. ABEL: Okay. Well, it used to be that the economy needed to create

what, about 200,000 new jobs every month just to keep up with growing population and immigration. But this year, the economy is creating just 92,000 jobs a month on average. Is that sustainable? Is that okay?

WOLFERS: Yes, so that's actually the most important story going on. I am glad you raised it. I want to tell the viewers at home how good you are at what you're doing, because a couple of years ago, if I'd been talking to you about 57,000 jobs created last month, I would have sounded really disappointed, really glum, really awful.

Population growth has basically stopped overnight and that's because the president has put the brakes on immigration. And so that means we have fewer people buying stuff, but also fewer people needing jobs. And so that, you know, not too much, not too little sort of thing. We call it break evens jobs growth. And so it might be that this current pace of jobs growth, while unimpressive by historical standards, is okay for the low immigration world that we are currently in.

ABEL: Okay. So, so far this year, what kind of jobs are we talking about here? Because there is a fear by some that the economy is creating jobs, but they tend to be low-pay jobs, like some bartending positions or store clerks.

What are you seeing?

WOLFERS: The biggest story in this economy right now is health care and social assistance. In fact, if you look at that, that accounts for more than a hundred percent of all job growth. So health care and social assistance, a lot of job growth. The rest of the economy has actually lost jobs since January 2025.

It is an interesting story because it is very different than the story you see in the media. The White House talks a lot about big goofy blokes wearing hard hats and steel toed boots and stuff like that, but it is actually people wearing scrubs and going out and caring for people. That's been the growth part of the economy.

ABEL So you hit on that a little bit, and I wanted to bring it up. You've talked about President Trump's promise to revive construction jobs. We've got a chart that you posted about those jobs, a year-and- a-half into his term, give us your read on how that's going?

WOLFERS: Yes, so this is the President's promise to revive manufacturing. It is not just manufacturing he is passionate about, he seems to be passionate about stuff that involves big goofy blokes.

But what you see here is that the number of manufacturing jobs, even though we fought a trade war over trying to get these jobs back, we keep losing them. This isn't new. It is something that has been going on for 30, 40, 50 years. And it turns out all of the President's rhetoric and all of his trade war and all of the pain that trade war has exacted upon us, none of that has done anything to arrest the downward trend in manufacturing jobs.

ABEL: All right, got to leave it here. Justin Wolfers, thank you very much for your expertise, and we will be right back.

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[19:57:57]

ABEL: Cape Verde's National Soccer Team returning home to cheers and adoration. The team captured hearts around the world by holding off giants like Spain in their First Cup appearance. They fought their way into the Round of 32, losing an extra time thriller to the reigning champions, Argentina.

And Prince Harry wants to head back to Britain on a business trip with his family this week, but huge security concerns got in the way. So now wife, Meghan and the kids are staying behind.

CNN's Anna Cooban explains.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ANNA COOBAN, CNN BUSINESS AND ECONOMICS REPORTER: Well, there is just a lot of confusion around this. So, in order to understand it, we really have to go back to 2020, when Harry and Meghan decided, controversially, to step back from Royal duties.

Now, what that automatically meant was they were not eligible for taxpayer funded police protection. But Prince Harry has made it extremely clear that he will not bring his wife and two children to the U.K. where he says they get multiple threats that compromise their security. He will not do that without proper protection.

Now CNN has learned that his private security detail are trying to see if they can make this trip work, and they want to make it work, because this would be the first time in four years that Archie and Lilibet would come to the U.K. with Meghan and potentially see other members of the Royal family.

Now, there are some big question marks around this. Will they join him outside of London? We know that he will be doing engagements around the U.K., one in the second city of Birmingham to really foreshadow the Invictus Games next year and the second question is where will they stay?

So CNN has learned that they were going to stay at both a private residence and a Royal residence, the second of which they would automatically receive police protection.

But now that's all thrown into doubt, and there was further confusion sowed when Buckingham Palace clarified that an invitation by King Charles to stay at a Royal residence has not been accepted by Prince Harry. So big question marks over this, but I suppose we will find out in the not too distant future.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ABEL: All right, Anna Cooban, thank you, and thank you for joining me tonight. I am Brian Abel. Remember, if you are in the U.S., you can now stream CNN whenever you want on the CNN app. Visit cnn.com/watch for more.

We will see you again next weekend. "Craig Ferguson: American on Purpose" starts right now.

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