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Spain are the Champions; U.S. Strikes Iran for Nine Consecutive Days; Burnham to Take Power in U.K.; U.S. Troop Deaths Raise Fear Of Wider War In Middle East; Oil Prices Rise As U.S. Strikes Iran For Ninth Straight Night; Troy Jackson Takes Lead In Race To Replace Platner In Maine. Aired 2-3a ET

Aired July 20, 2026 - 02:00   ET

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

[02:00:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ROSEMARY CHURCH, CNN ANCHOR: Hello and welcome to our viewers joining us here in the United States and from all around the world. I'm Rosemary Church. Just ahead here on CNN Newsroom, celebrations late into the night in Spain after winning the World Cup in extra time. Nine consecutive days of U.S. strikes on Iran. And with increasing combat deaths, there are renewed fears of a widening escalation. Plus, an unprecedented turnover in the U.K. as it gets set to install Andy Burnham as prime minister.

UNKNOWN (voice-over): Live from Atlanta, this is "CNN Newsroom with Rosemary Church."

CHURCH: Good to have you with us. Spain is celebrating its second World Cup title with parties going well into the night.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHURCH: Fans in Madrid erupted in pure joy the moment their national team secured their one-nil victory over Argentina. More than 25,000 people filled a plaza in the heart of the city to watch the nail- biting match. Spain's new champions head home to Madrid in the coming hours with a brand new 18-carat gold trophy in tow.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHURCH: CNN's Amanda Davies walks us through the biggest moments of the match.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

AMANDA DAVIES, CNN SPORTS ANCHOR: Who's who of film, music and sporting royalty, a new star-studded halftime show, and that presidential trophy presentation. But none of it will overshadow Spain's moment. The best footballing team at this tournament have won. They fought the fighters and took victory, took on the defending champions and stole their crown. Spain are the 2026 World Cup winners. Spanish boss Luis de la Fuente had channeled a bit of Julius Caesar earlier in the tournament, saying you have to suffer to be successful and, boy, did his side do that all the way through to 120 minutes after a gladiatorial effort the Roman emperor would have been proud of.

And despite the weight of the crowd behind Argentina, the right team won. They were the ones trying to play, controlling possession, creating chances, trying to score goals, while Argentina did their best to stop them.

Enzo Fernandez seeing red turned the tide. And ultimately, it was Barcelona's Ferran Torres who scored the 106th-minute winner to see Spain replicate history like their predecessors in 2010, becoming world champions at the same time as being European champions.

It was a comeback too far for Argentina. And this time wasn't to be for Messi. Emotional scenes after the final whistle as the 39-year- old's dreams of lifting the World Cup for the second straight time fell short. He cemented his legacy as the GOAT with his performances over the last few weeks. And after 20 years, we wait to see whether or not he feels he's got any more to give.

There's no doubt about that with this new generation of Spanish talent. The likes of Rodri and Lamine Yamal setting a new benchmark as the sun sets on a World Cup unlike any other.

Amanda Davies, CNN, New Jersey.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CHURCH: Fans on the streets of Madrid could barely contain their excitement and pride after the win over Argentina. CNN caught up with some of them as they celebrated their team's hard-fought victory.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNKNOWN: This is incredible. This is the best part of my life, the best moment of my life.

UNKNOWN (through translator): We're over the moon. Spain thoroughly deserved this win, fully deserved. We're the best in the world.

UNKNOWN (through translator): It's beautiful to see how the country comes together for the same cause. There are few occasions where we can all celebrate the same thing together.

[02:05:00]

UNKNOWN (through translator): And today, we will take up the flag without any political agenda, without anything. All for Spain and for the same cause.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHURCH: The U.S. Central Command says it has concluded a ninth consecutive night of strikes against Iran. Explosions were heard in cities across the northwest and coastal areas. Iranian state media reports its military also launched missiles toward -- quote -- "enemy targets." Kuwait's army says air defenses are responding to drone threats and Bahrain says sirens have been activated.

Meanwhile, the U.S. military reported the death of another American service member who was killed in northern Iraq during the controlled detonation of a downed Iranian drone.

Here's what President Trump said about the recent troop fatalities.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: Iran has been very, very badly damaged. They've lost everything almost militarily They've got very little left. They've got some missiles. They've got some drones. They've got some manufacturing ability. Not much. We control the strait. They don't control anything. So, we'll see what happens. But we hit them very hard again tonight, and we did that in honor of the -- probably three. It's probably three as opposed to two great patriots.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHURCH: We want to bring in CNN's Leila Gharagozlou, who joins us live from Abu Dhabi. So, oil prices are climbing as the U.S. strikes Iran for a ninth straight night. What is the latest on those strikes? And, of course, what are you learning about marine traffic in the Strait of Hormuz?

LEILA GHARAGOZLOU, CNN PRODUCER: Yes, so we had, as you said, the ninth day of consecutive strikes between the U.S. and Iran. U.S. saying that it hit a number of Iranian military targets in that southern coastal region. The Iranian state media did report some sounds of explosions in northwestern Iran, in the city of Tabriz. This would be the first time in these nine days that we're hearing any sort of explosions in that area.

Much of the earlier fighting that we saw in the few months before the ceasefire was centered around some of the major cities like Tehran, Tabriz, Esfahan, more inland. But this time around, we're seeing much of the U.S. strikes in the southern region and the coastal cities and islands, which are considered to be Iran's defensive arch, really tasked with protecting Iran's control of the Strait of Hormuz. That's why we're seeing so much activity there.

Now, the Iranians have said that if the U.S. continues to escalate, they will respond in kind. They've made it very clear that they feel that they are attacking proportionally, which is why they retaliated by hitting these -- quote -- "enemy targets" in the Gulf states.

Now, when it comes to the Strait of Hormuz, we're not seeing very much movement when it comes to these shippers and tankers that are in the strait. However, the U.K. Maritime Authority did get reports of a vessel on fire off the coast of Oman near the Strait of Hormuz, and the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, the IRGC, said that those two tankers were in a state of noncompliance, and that is why they were attacked.

Now, there are real serious concerns about the possibility of expansion of this war, particularly now that the ceasefire has essentially fallen apart, and the consecutive strikes that we're seeing is kind of leading us there. So, we're going to have to watch really closely to see what happens over the next few days, particularly now that the World Cup is over. Analysts have expressed that this could be a time where we see a ramp-up of any sort of activity in the Gulf. Rosemary?

CHURCH: Leila Gharagozlou brings us that live report. Many thanks for that. Well, joining me now live from Dubai is Greg Karlstrom, Middle East correspondent for "The Economist." Appreciate you joining us.

GREGG CARLSTROM, MIDDLE EAST CORRESPONDENT, THE ECONOMIST: Thanks for having me.

CHURCH: So, you recently wrote on X that the current round of fighting between the U.S. and Iran barely touches economic and energy targets unlike the first round of the war when President Trump was struggling to get those oil prices down and Iran signed the memorandum of understanding because it needed to secure financial benefits and lift that naval blockade. So, what does this shift in targets signal to you?

CARLSTROM: I think it signals that both sides still want to avoid a return to all-out war, to what we saw back in March and April. They are not escalating as far as they can. They're leaving some room for further escalation, but they're also trying to leave an off-ramp to get back to diplomacy.

And, obviously, neither America nor Iran has an interest in going back to what we saw earlier this year with oil prices at $120 a barrel and with American and Israeli strikes on vital economic targets in Iran.

[02:09:59]

So, they're not going as far as they could but, at the same time, that's also what makes it difficult to see how they're going to climb down from this, what's going to force them to climb down, because it was those economic pressure points that got us to the ceasefire in April and then the memorandum of understanding in June.

Things looked very bleak in energy markets and in terms of Iran's economy, and we're just not seeing that now with oil prices about $90 a barrel this morning and with Iran, yes, under American blockade again, but having had a few weeks when that blockade was lifted where they were able to export some oil, which has given them a bit of economic breathing room.

CHURCH: Right. And Gregg, as you say, oil prices are rising as the U.S. continues to strike Iran, but they're not yet as high as they were. Do you expect them to get back up to those very high levels? How do you think this is playing into the direction of this phase of the war? CARLSTROM: If this goes on for long enough, then yes, certainly, we should expect them to go higher, to cross that psychological barrier at a hundred dollars a barrel.

But I still think it will take a little time to get there. I think, first, the markets still seem to be pricing in sort of imminent de- escalation, the taco meme that we've all been hearing about for the past 18 months. I think there's a bit of that going on with oil traders.

But then there's also just more oil available now than there was, say, back in April, not just what Iran was able to export in the first weeks of the MOU, but also Arab states in the Gulf, which were able to get some of their crude out once Iran lifted its blockade of the strait.

So, there's more supply available and demand remains oddly low. China is still not importing as much oil as it usually does. You have refiners in various countries in Asia that are running their refineries at lower levels. So, refined products, diesel, jet fuel, things like that, they are more expensive because there's less of that available, but it's keeping the headline price of Brent crude at a comparatively low place.

CHURCH: And we talked about the shift in targets being hit in this new phase of the war, including critical infrastructure like water desalination plants, which have a greater impact on civilians, of course. What's being said in the region about these types of targets being hit?

CARLSTROM: There has always been a lot of fear about that, going back to the beginning of the war when Donald Trump was making these very ominous threats to wipe out Iran's power plants and Iran was threatening to do the same against Arab countries in the Gulf.

And it's a much more acute concern now in the middle of summer when temperatures in this region are routinely above 40 degrees Celsius, 110, 120 degrees Fahrenheit. So, everyone depends on air conditioning to survive. That requires a lot of electricity.

And then most Gulf countries also have no real sources of fresh water. All of the drinking water comes from these desalination plants that dot the coast along the Persian Gulf.

So, the sorts of strikes that we've seen in Kuwait, where Iran has now, on at least three consecutive days, attacked power and water infrastructure there, makes everyone in the Gulf very nervous because without this infrastructure, if it is damaged, if it is destroyed, it becomes very, very difficult, nearly impossible to sustain life in this region, to keep people cool and to provide them with water.

CHURCH: Gregg Carlstrom, thank you so much for joining us. Appreciate your analysis.

Still to come, Labour's Andy Burnham is ready to shake up the biggest role in British politics. What he's planning as the next prime minister? We'll take a look at that after the break. Stay with us.

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[02:15:00]

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CHURCH: Welcome back, everyone. In the coming hours, Andy Burnham is set to become the next British prime minister. The new Labour Party leader will be the U.K.'s seventh prime minister in a decade. He takes over from Keir Starmer, who won the position in a landslide victory just two years ago, but left the role after months of controversy.

CNN international diplomatic editor Nic Robertson has more details on the new age of politics that Burnham plans to bring to the U.K.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KEIR STARMER, PRIME MINISTER OF UNITED KINGDOM: This is the end of my political journey.

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR (voice-over): Keir Starmer's last moments in Parliament.

STARMER: I will give my wholehearted support to my successor.

ROBERTSON (voice-over): A rather British end to a bruising battle to hold on to his job.

STARMER: To my wife and children, I love you. Goodbye.

(APPLAUSE)

ROBERTSON (voice-over): The irony, he rarely got as much applause as prime minister.

(APPLAUSE)

STARMER: I see this as a last chance to change, particularly for the Labour Party.

ROBERTSON (voice-over): His replacement, the charismatic northerner, former Manchester mayor, Andy Burnham, arrives pumped from electoral success. His mayor to prime minister metamorphosis is a work in progress.

ANDY BURNHAM, NEWLY-APPOINTED PRIME MINISTER OF UNITED KINGDOM: I am going to do things differently.

ROBERTSON (voice-over): Still wearing the T-shirt he calls his Manchester uniform.

Yet in the months since his local election victory, allowing him to oust Starmer, he has offered little detail on his plans other than opening a number 10 office in Manchester and pushing power from London to regional mayors. BURNHAM: Place first, not party first. Problem solving, not point scoring. Long term, not short term.

ROBERTSON (voice-over): Before any of that, though, the problem his party expects him to fix, the rise of populist right-wing Reform under Nigel Farage. Burnham rolled back Reform's gains in his recent victory. But Farage, facing allegations he denies, failing to disclose financial donations, seems to be laying a trap for Burnham, another test of popularity.

[02:20:07]

NIGEL FARAGE, LEADER, REFORM UK: I've decided that the people of Clacton should be the judges of my actions. This will be people versus the establishment by-election.

ROBERTSON (voice-over): All parties are treating Farage's re-election as a political stunt. Only the satirical candidate, Count Binface, will run against him.

On foreign policy, where the U.K. faces the most consequential challenges, Burnham has offered only a few clues, significantly saying he's not afraid to disagree with President Trump.

BURNHAM: I'll just meet him where he's at. It's about respecting the office, the relationship, the U.K.-U.S. relationship. But, you know, where you disagree, do it, but do it in a way that is kind of meeting him where he's at.

ROBERTSON (voice-over): On the Mideast, too, hinting at diverging from U.S. alignment.

BURNHAM: I know many people feel that at the start of Israel's military action in Gaza, my party didn't get it right, and I am sorry about that.

ROBERTSON (voice-over): With wars impacting allies in the Mideastern Europe and the U.K.'s defense budget facing more than 6.3 billion- dollar-hole, Burnham's domestic agenda of change will struggle for his undivided attention.

In his last days in office, Starmer still trying to make that balance work. His third overseas trip in nine days, NATO in Ankara, Paris for the Coalition of the Willing, and his last one as prime minister to Kyiv, a farewell to President Zelenskyy and the problems of high office.

Nic Robertson, CNN.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CHURCH: Joining us now is John Rentoul, chief political commentator at "The Independent." He's also a visiting professor at King's College in London. Thanks so much for joining us.

JOHN RENTOUL, CHIEF POLITICAL COMMENTATOR FOR THE INDEPENDENT, VISITING PROFESSOR AT KING'S COLLEGE: Thanks for having me.

CHURCH: Of course. So, with Andy Burnham set to become the next British prime minister, you just wrote a piece in "The Independent," saying his leadership acceptance speech was disappointing and one of the most backwards looking you've ever heard, and you warn there's a danger he may be raising expectations that he can't fulfil. What do you mean by this?

RENTOUL: Well, I mean, his speech when he was elected leader of the Labour Party, which happened just a few days before he became prime minister, was in effect a call to return to the 1970s and to wipe away everything that Margaret Thatcher and Tony Blair did as prime minister, which I thought was extraordinary, especially as Andy Burnham was a minister in Tony Blair's government.

But more than that, I mean, whether you believe that sort of nostalgic rhetoric about a better yesterday or not, and I find it baffling, I think he's raising expectations of change that he can't meet because he also talks about his arrival as prime minister being the most significant change moment in our politics of the last 40 years.

Now, I mean, I just think he's not going to be able to deliver this kind of changes that would warrant that kind of statement, and I think all his talk about instant action on the cost of living is only going to disappoint people.

CHURCH: So, what might Burnham's speech signal about where he plans to take the country in the weeks and months ahead, particularly when it comes to the issue of the high cost of living in the U.K. and Burnham's reference to what he calls re-industrialization?

RENTOUL: Yes. Well, I mean, this is precisely the problem that I think he's setting himself up for because the idea that you can just magic a solution to people's problems with the cost of living, the pressures of the cost of living, money doesn't come out of thin air, everybody knows that, and he ought to be straight with people and say that, say that he has some plans for the future, but they'll take time to work. Instead, he seems to be suggesting that he's going to solve everybody's problems overnight. Obviously, nobody thinks that's going to happen.

But it's a strange way to start a premiership in such difficult circumstances, especially, as we just heard in your report there, the pressures on the public finances are still extreme, including, above all, the defense spending commitment, which Andy Burnham has underwritten.

[02:25:00]

There's a big gap in the government's plans there, and he hasn't set out how he's going to fill it.

CHURCH: And not only did Burnham not reveal many details about his future plans for the U.K., he also avoided saying who would be on his leadership team. Why do you think he's doing that? RENTOUL: Yes. Well, in order to retain maximum power over his colleagues, I suspect. But, again, it's a strange way of proceeding because he has allowed it to be known or at least the expectation has grown and his people have not contradicted it, that he is likely to appoint Shabana Mahmood, who is possibly the strongest, most forceful politician in Keir Starmer's cabinet. He's likely to appoint her as Chancellor of the Exchequer. Now, that's the most important appointment. That's the one that the markets are looking for. He's not going to appoint Ed Miliband, who is the candidate that the markets would fear.

So, he has managed to soothe the markets somewhat by hinting that it's going to be Shabana Mahmood, but we don't know until this afternoon whether that is actually going to be the case.

CHURCH: Yes. We'll certainly see. Of course, Burnham is set to become Britain's seventh prime minister in a decade. How much time will the Labour Party and indeed the voters give him, do you think, to turn things around before we start hearing growing calls for another new leader, perhaps?

RENTOUL: I don't think we can take another one. I think he's got a clear run now until 2029, which is the last date for the next general election. So, he's got three years. But, of course, in practice, he's only got a year, really, to make his mark because you can't change things that quickly. And if people are to feel the benefits, the tangible benefits, as he calls them, of a change in policies, then he's got to act, he's got to act quickly, and he doesn't have much time.

But, on the other hand, he's a lucky politician because his principal opponent, Nigel Farage, has run into a series of problems, which have just coincided with Andy Burnham's arrival on the stage So, British politics is incredibly complicated and fluid at the moment.

CHURCH: We'll all be watching this afternoon. John Rentoul in London, thanks so much for joining us. I appreciate it.

RENTOUL: My pleasure.

CHURCH: Of course. Well, the price of oil is climbing as the war with Iran ramps up. Still to come, we will take a look at how markets are reacting and what that could mean for consumers. Back with that and more in just a moment.

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[02:30:00]

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[02:31:11]

ROSEMARY CHURCH, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back, everyone.

The U.S.-Iran strikes are ramping up, but President Donald Trump's top diplomat says the U.S. is still open to diplomacy. Meanwhile, the recent deaths of American service members in the Middle East are raising fears the war with Iran could expand.

CNN's Julia Benbrook has more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JULIA BENBROOK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: In brief remarks, president Donald Trump said that he believes that Iran has been damaged very, very badly, and he reiterated a point that he has made throughout this now nearly five month conflict that Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon. This came just shortly after U.S. Central Command had announced that they were carrying out another wave of strikes against Iran, saying this in a statement that CENTCOM began conducting a new wave of strikes against Iran at 7:00 p.m. Eastern on Sunday. This is the ninth consecutive night the strikes will continue degrading Iranian military capabilities used to attack commercial vessels and civilian mariners transiting the Strait of Hormuz.

This continues days of escalation in the region, again, the ninth consecutive night of U.S. strikes, as well as waves of Iranian drones and missiles fired at a widening number of targets in countries with U.S. bases. Now, this also comes after the news that two U.S. service members were killed in an attack in Jordan. Another service member was categorized as missing in action. They've provided a bit of an update there, saying that they did find remains in that area, but they are waiting on the verification process and things there.

Now there was another service member killed in northern Iraq. They say that this happened during a controlled detonation of unexploded ordinance from a downed Iranian one way attack drone. This brings the total number of U.S. service members killed during this months-long conflict to 17.

Julia Benbrook, CNN, New Jersey.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CHURCH: And CNN's Kristie Lu Stout joins us now live from Hong Kong.

So, Kristie, the price of oil is climbing as the Iran war expands. What is the latest on this?

KRISTIE LU STOUT, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, Rosemary, the price of oil is indeed climbing. In fact, it's at its highest level in more than a month as the U.S. and Iran engage in this tit for tat exchange of strikes. That's been going on for over a week now, we are monitoring global oil prices.

As you can see there on your screen, Brent oil, it has topped $90 a gallon. Meanwhile, West Texas, that's the U.S. benchmark, is now gaining 2.5 percent. It's about $84.54 a gallon.

And fund managers, investors around the world are taking notice and they are concerned. I want to share with you comment from Shane Oliver, head of investment strategy AMP, who says this quote, "The longer the strait remains closed and the war escalates, the greater that risk that oil prices will have to rise to around $150 a barrel to bring demand down, to match the hit to supply," unquote.

Now, we're also keeping a close eye, on average price of gas at the pump in the United States, and it is on the rise. In fact, it is heading back to $4 a gallon territory. This is according to AAA. Right now, gas there, the average price is at $3.99. And American drivers at this very moment are paying some 34 percent more for gas at the pump compared to what they were paying before the war broke out.

Now, earlier today, we heard from U.S. Central Command. It confirmed that they had launched a ninth consecutive night of strikes against Iran. This after the deaths of three U.S. service members since Friday and global shipping remains under threat and under pressure as well.

We learned from the UKMTO that a vessel is on fire near the strategic Strait of Hormuz. The incident took place off the coast of Oman, and we're also learning that maritime traffic through the Strait of Hormuz is declining sharply, according to new data from LSEG.

We learned this, number one, no visible liquefied natural gas tankers were detected passing through the strait since Thursday. Another data point, four vessels made the crossing on Sunday, but that's down from eight the previous day. Also, three oil tankers and one very large tanker entered the strait since Friday.

And, Rosemary, just some context, again for our viewers, before the war, an average of about 110 ships crossed the strategic waterway, the Strait of Hormuz, on a given day.

Back to you, Rosemary.

CHURCH: Kristie Lu Stout in Hong Kong -- many thanks for that live report. Appreciate it.

Well, Russian President Vladimir Putin is hailing North Korea for its help in the war on Ukraine. He welcomed North Korea's foreign minister to Moscow on Sunday and expressed his gratitude to leader Kim Jong Un and the North Korean people for their support. The two countries have grown closer in the years since the war began, drawing scrutiny from both the U.S. and South Korea.

Well, meanwhile, Russia has launched one of its largest ballistic missile attacks on Ukraine since the war started more than four years ago. Ukraine's air force said the main target of Sundays assault was the capital, Kyiv, which faced a variety of missiles and attack drones. Authorities say at least 16 people were killed and 77 injured across Ukraine, mainly in the Kharkiv and Donetsk regions.

The large scale attack prompted Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to issue a plea for allies to expedite deliveries of previously promised air defense packages.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY, UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT (through translator): The danger remains even now, and this must be taken into account. Russia is placing its bets on ballistic missiles, and it is because of them that Putin still believes in his war. It is very important that our partners understand what is happening and that we need air defense missiles to protect lives literally every single day.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHURCH: Still to come, chasing a dream that seems further and further out of reach. CNN speaks with residents of Cleveland, Ohio, struggling to afford rent or buy a home, and they say theyre being priced out of the promise of a better future. We'll take a closer look

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[02:40:47]

CHURCH: Democrats in Maine could be on the verge of picking a U.S. senate candidate to replace embattled former nominee Graham Platner. On Sunday, Troy Jackson moved ahead after several of his opponents dropped out. Jackson's supporters won more than 460 of the 500 delegate slots that were up for grabs this weekend across Maine's 16 counties. Jackson will not officially become the nominee until the state convention next week. If confirmed, Jackson will go up against longtime GOP Senator Susan Collins in November.

With those critical November midterms just over three months away, Democratic Party leaders and progressives are engaged in an internal fight over which candidates to send to the general election. And Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont is at the heart of the battle.

CNN's Manu Raju reports.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MANU RAJU, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Bernie Sanders is sparking blowback within the Democratic Party. He has been engaged in House primary and Senate primaries all across the country, trying to prop up the more progressive candidates and trying to elect candidates really, in his mold at a time when the Democratic base is restive. They want someone who will shake up the party leadership and not -- line up in a lot of ways with Bernie Sanders' ideology, railing against corporate interests, pushing for issues like Medicare for all, and perhaps the biggest dividing line of them all is a big push against the Israeli government, railing against the likes of AIPAC.

And that is playing out in some key races, including in Michigan, where there's a critical senate primary in August between Abdul El- Sayed, the progressive candidate backed by Bernie Sanders, Haley Stevens, a more moderate candidate, congresswoman from the Detroit metro area, backed by the party leadership.

Now, Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, along with Bernie Sanders, stumped with Abdul El-Sayed over the weekend trying to push him over the finish line in that race that Democrats absolutely must hold that seat if they have any chance of winning back power in the Senate in November. Now, he is facing criticism from the likes of one congresswoman from

Michigan, Hillary Scholten, who told me that Bernie has endorsed some flawed candidates recently. I think its really important to look at the judgment that has been exercised, the Graham Platner situation should be a huge warning sign to a lot of voters about what that stamp of approval might mean, that Graham Platner situation, of course, what happened in Maine, the candidate progressive candidate backed by Bernie Sanders, who had won the nomination, imploded after a series of major scandals. And now the party is trying to scramble to try to figure out if they can find a candidate who can beat Susan Collins in Maine.

Now, I asked Bernie Sanders about the pushback he's getting from his own party, and he was unapologetic.

But are you making it harder, in some ways to keep to win the majority say what happened in Maine? Like what happened in Maine?

SEN. BERNIE SANDERS (I-VT): No, I think -- I think in fact, I think, in fact, the candidates we are supporting are candidates who are representing working people. And I think its time, long time overdue for the Democratic Party to stop worrying about their wealthy campaign funders and start worrying about the needs of working people.

RAJU: Was it a mistake in Maine? Was it a mistake in Maine?

REP. ALEXANDRIA OCASIO-CORTEZ (D-NY): I don't think people have really made the forceful case outside of his identity, to be honest with you, and I don't accept that. I don't accept --

RAJU: Being Muslim or --

OCASIO-CORTEZ: Yeah.

RAJU: Now, that last comment from Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez talking about Abdul El-Sayed saying that she has not heard any real rationale against his candidacy, she views him as the most electable in November. That electability argument is something that has come into a head in a number of key races.

There was a confrontational phone call, we have learned, between Hakeem Jeffries, the House Democratic leader, and Bernie Sanders from earlier this year, in which Sanders, along with Gregory Meeks, a fellow Democrat from New York who was on that call, were telling sanders not to meddle in some key primaries in the House, including one involving a North Carolina congresswoman who is a member of the Congressional Black Caucus, someone they did not want to see defeated in a primary.

[02:45:00]

But according to Gregory Meeks, he told us, quote, he seemed not to care, referring about Bernie Sanders, who is continuing to push his candidates who Democratic leaders fear is costing them millions of dollars in very expensive primaries. It may lead to candidates who may not win over swing voters in November. Manu Raju, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CHURCH: While President Trump has been touting what he calls the golden age of America, a new "Washington Post"/Ipsos poll finds many Americans don't share his rosy outlook. Just 33 percent approve of how he's handling the economy.

CNN's Phil Mattingly looks at how people are grappling with the nation's affordability crisis.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JOLENE SIMECEK, RENTER: It's not affordable to live on your own as a single person anymore.

PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN CHIEF DOMESTIC CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): For generations, Cleveland was the promise kept. One of the last places a family of almost any income could own a home that was theirs.

SIMECEK: I wanted to, you know, a yard for my kid and just the normal American dream. Just a house, pick a fence, a yard. And it just seems that that's more and more not. It's out of touch, not reality.

MATTINGLY (voice-over): For Jolene Simecek, that deal has come undone. A working mom and a nursing student, she's always had a job, but she can't keep up with the skyrocketing rents in her Cleveland suburb.

SIMECEK: It went from $785 to nearly $1,600 a month.

MATTINLGY: Your rent effectively doubled.

SIMECEK: Yes.

MATTINGLY: Over, what, seven years?

SIMECEK: Yeah.

MATTINGLY: Six years, seven years?

SIMECEK: Yeah.

MATTINGLY: Your income presumably did not follow the same path over that period of time.

SIMECEK: No, it did not go up at that rate at all.

MATTINGLY (voice-over): Her next best option, a room in her sister's basement.

SIMECEK: They're lucky enough to rent it to me for $450 a month. Yeah.

MATTINGLY: The alternative was roughly 1,600-ish. SIMECEK: Sixteen hundred, or, yeah, I sleep in my little hatchback, so --

MATTINGLY (voice-over): Nearly one in four Clevelanders now hand over more than half of what they earn just to stay housed.

SIMECEK: I've already paid a quarter million dollars in rent in my life, you know? I should already have the home with the equity paid off, but I didn't make the right decisions, you know? If you rent, that's what you get.

MATTINGLY (voice-over): So, how did it get this bad?

Frank Ford has spent decades tracing the forces that shaped these streets. It starts with redlining, lenders starving black neighborhoods of home loans.

FRANK FORD, SENIOR POLICY ADVISOR, CLEVELAND FAIR HOUSING CENTER: There's a shift that took place in the late '90s where some mortgage lenders flipped that and realized, well, wait a minute, instead of denying people loans because we perceive them as high risk, what if we make loans and use that perception as the reason to raise interest rates?

MATTINGLY (voice-over): Those predatory loans inflated a bubble that burst in 2007.

FORD: The banks found themselves sitting on 600 homes in Cleveland, 800 homes in Cleveland. They started to offload those properties for pennies on the dollar to investors.

MATTINGLY (voice-over): Thousands of homes swept up by phantom investors charging market rent while letting them rot. The paradox of a broken market. Homes are cheap because families can't buy them, but the rents stay high.

The spread is a magnet for out-of-state LLCs. Buy all cash, collect rent, ignore the repairs. Nowhere is it clearer than Shaker Square.

MATTINGLY: OK.

ANDERSON WALDON, SHAKER SQUARE: This is my one-bedroom. These are the water blisters that dried out I told you about.

MATTINGLY: Yeah.

WALDON: These here are the holes where all the water came through.

MATTINGLY (voice-over): Anderson Waldon came here in 2020 to retire somewhere safe and walkable. Instead, three of every four neighbors left, and the buildings crumbled around the few who did stay.

WALDON: I have my drills. I've tried to fix everything myself because I can't wait until it gets done because it never gets done.

MATTINGLY (voice-over): Drive 20 miles west, and it's a different universe where families priced out of the city now compete fiercely for every home.

STEPHEN MILLER, HOMEOWNER: Before this, we lived in the city and wanted to buy in the city. And in the specific neighborhood that we were in, the cost of housing has exploded in those places.

MATTINGLY (voice-over): Stephen Miller and his wife are working professionals who embody what, for decades, represented the first rung of the housing ladder. But home prices in Cleveland have surged nearly 60 percent in six years, among the fastest in the country.

MILLER: We were looking for probably about a year for what eventually kind of became our unicorn, I guess, which never fruitioned. And then, you know, over time, we just kind of gave up and started kind of expanding that search.

MATTINGLY (voice-over): Battling all-cash investors, waiving inspections, they eventually closed miles from where they wanted to be.

MILLER: We live in a lovely suburb now that's right on the lake.

[02:50:00]

It's great, but that was never in the plans, to say the least. It's frankly astounding. There's some phantom outside buyer that comes in the last second, 50 grand over the asking price. It's just -- it's absolutely brutal out there.

SIMECEK: The Midwest was like the secret where you can live comfortably and it's not that way anymore.

MATTINGLY (voice-over): Back in Parma, Jolene made clear she's not asking for a handout. She's only wondering, how did it get this hard for the people who did everything they were told to do?

Phil Mattingly, CNN, Cleveland, Ohio.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CHURCH: There is a new addition to the second family. U.S. Vice President J.D. Vance says his wife, Usha, has given birth to their fourth child, a boy named Alec Neel Vance. The V.P. says mom and baby are happy and healthy, and their three older children are excited to welcome their new little brother. The newest Vance is the first baby born to a sitting second family in more than 150 years. Sources say the family will be spending more time at a property in rural Virginia, so the kids have a greater sense of normalcy. They'll also maintain their official residence at the Naval Observatory.

Well, still to come, a closer look at the first ever half time show at a World Cup final, and why the fan reaction is so divided. We'll take a look

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CHURCH: Welcome back, everyone. Well, Spain walked off the pitch as the men's World Cup champions for

the second time in their history. But this World Cup was also a tournament of firsts from added hydration breaks to half time entertainment. Sunday's final brought a Super Bowl style spectacle to soccer's biggest stage.

"World Sport's" Don Riddell looks at the star studded show that's dividing fans online.

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DON RIDDELL, CNN WORLD SPORT (voice-over): The World Cup final just got its first ever official half time show, and the reactions were mixed. FIFA went all out with a celebrity packed spectacle featuring performances from Madonna, BTS, Justin Bieber and Shakira with Burna Boy. The Muppets showed up to play in the band and even Ted Lasso made an appearance.

And the show capped off with a medley from Coldplay and the PS22 Children's Chorus from Staten Island.

Fans had plenty to say, with social media quickly filling up with both praise and criticism of the halftime show. And whether you loved it or hated it, the world cup has officially entered its Super Bowl era

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CHURCH: Well, 39-year-old golfer Ryan Fox took home the claret jug as he claimed victory in the open championship. The win at Royal Birkdale gives Fox his first career major title, and he becomes only the third New Zealander to win a men's major golf championship. He managed to beat out American Cameron Young with four birdies in the last six holes. They were tied until Fox set up a 12-foot putt on the 18th hole and drained it.

I want to thank you so much for your company this hour. I'm Rosemary Church.

CNN NEWSROOM with Polo Sandoval is next after a short break. Stay with us.

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