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CENTCOM: U.S. Forces Complete Latest Strikes Against Iran; UNESCO Weighs World Heritage Bid For Ancient West Bank Ruins; Spain Players Return Home To A Heroes' Welcome From Fans. Aired 4:30-5a ET

Aired July 21, 2026 - 04:30   ET

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

[04:30:00]

POLO SANDOVAL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Central Command says that its forces have completed their latest wave of strikes against Iran. They were launched just hours after President Trump warned that Tehran would pay for the recent deaths of three U.S. service members. This as Kristen Holmes reporting from the White House.

KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: U.S. Central Command announcing it was on its 10th day of consecutive strikes in Iran. This coming at the same time that we are learning that mediators have floated a proposal for a 10-day ceasefire between Iran and the United States. But White House officials, U.S. officials, they really downplayed the idea that President Trump would accept that.

And just to keep in mind here, that proposal was floated before this 10th night of consecutive strikes. And here's what a U.S. official said when asked about this. Right now, President Trump is focused on making Iran pay for their violations of the MOU and their continued acts of terrorism in the Strait of Hormuz, adding this, in addition, the President will make Iran pay for the recent deaths of U.S. soldiers.

We have been told that President Trump is increasingly angry, particularly when it comes to the deaths of these U.S. soldiers. He will be attending that dignified transfer. But President Trump is still considering widening the war on Iran. And as he is weighing his options earlier today, we reported the United States is sending more military aircraft to the Middle East, including F-16s and F-35s.

Kristen Holmes, CNN, the White House.

SANDOVAL: The UNESCO World Heritage Committee is now meeting this week to consider locations for world heritage status and protection. And among them is one ancient hilltop in the West Bank that has become really more of a flashpoint in this land dispute between Israelis and Palestinians. Our Jeremy Diamond reports.

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JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN JERUSALEM CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): On this West Bank hilltop, a battle over the past will shape the future. And archaeology is the weapon of choice.

DIAMOND: So, this is the line right here?

ZAID AZHARI, SEBASTIA HISTORIAN: Yes, exactly. The first line of these columns, it's an area sea. But it's the area sea started.

DIAMOND: And so, what does that mean for Palestinians in this area?

AZHARI: It's mean that we are losing our heart by losing this area and not having access to our agricultural fields and our archaeological sites.

DIAMOND (voice-over): Sebastia is an archaeological treasure, home to thousands of years of Roman, Byzantine, and Ottoman history. It is now enmeshed in the fabric and economy of the Palestinian town of the same name, but risks being cut off from it.

AZHARI: If we looked at the examples we had already, maybe they will build a wall. Who knows?

DIAMOND (voice-over): It is also home to ruins from the ancient kingdom of Israel.

DIAMOND: Archaeologists say, these ruins date back to the ninth century B.C., part of the capital city of the ancient kingdom of Israel. And now, the current Israeli government wants to use these ruins as a justification for seizing hundreds of acres of land on an archaeological site that includes ruins from many other periods in history.

DIAMOND (voice-over): The goal, an Israeli tourist site with a focus on its Jewish heritage. The man behind that project is far right heritage minister Amichai Eliyahu, who has, among other things, said he would be open to nuking Gaza. He says Palestinians have failed to preserve the site and protect it from looters.

DIAMOND: In order to protect the site, why is it necessary to expropriate privately held Palestinian lands?

AMICHAI ELIYAHU, ISRAELI HERITAGE MINISTER (through translator): The area is Israeli territory. It belongs to the Jewish people. It is not occupied. am not willing to have the story of the Jewish people destroyed, sabotaged, robbed, dismantled, or erased.

DIAMOND (voice-over): But Palestinians say, it's Israel standing in the way of efforts to rehabilitate these ruins.

AZHARI: We tried to do a rehabilitation, an urgent and emergency rehabilitation. During the work, settlers, soldiers came, they stopped all the labors.

ALON ARAD, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, EMEK SHAVEH: So, they keep on repeating this argument that the Palestinians are destroying archaeological remains but have not shown any data to support it. DIAMOND (voice-over): Alon Arad leads a group of Israeli archaeologists fighting against what they say are the real intentions of this government and Eliyahu.

ARAD: He doesn't care about antiques. He wants to annex. It's not about the site. It's the ability to use the site as a weapon, as an instrument to take more land, to shrink this Palestinian space.

DIAMOND (voice-over): The Palestinian Authority, supported by archaeologists like Arad, has filed an emergency petition to designate Sebastia as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

ELIYAHU (through translator): UNESCO can say whatever it wants. If it tries to go against the truth and invent narratives here, it will not succeed.

DIAMOND: It seems like ultimately, you are trying to strengthen Israel's position on the grounds in that territory.

ELIYAHU (through translator): The land is irrevocable. The facts irrevocable, that we let them erase our heritage? The facts are that this is the land of our fathers and mothers.

[04:35:01]

DIAMOND (voice-over): Palestinians are also deeply rooted in this land, like the olive trees, Sebastia's families have cultivated amid the ruins for generations.

AZHARI: This is everything for us. I cannot imagine Sebastian without archaeological site. It's like your children, you cannot like leave one of them. This is the heart of people of Sebastia and Sebastia at the same time.

DIAMOND (voice-over): Jeremy Diamond, CNN, Sebastia, the West Bank.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SANDOVAL: Wildfires are still burning across Canada, but air quality has improved in southern Ontario as well as the U.S., the U.S.'s northeast and also mid-Atlantic. But there are still parts of the Midwest that are still dealing with some of these poor quality levels, air quality levels. And also the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has now rated it as unhealthy or unhealthy for sensitive groups. Here's more now from a fire chief in Canada.

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FIRE CHIEF MARK SHRUIFF, NEEBING EMERGENCY SERVICES: Northwestern Ontario, we're not strangers to forest fires. We deal with them every year. However, with the scale that we're dealing with this fire season, especially with a relatively slow start, is unprecedented. And I think any of you talk to anyone in the northwest and they'll say they've never seen anything like it.

(END VIDEO CLIP) SANDOVAL: And then there are also the politics of these wildfires, as they have increased tensions between Canada and the United States. And President Donald Trump is suggesting that America's northern neighbor should pay damages for the wildfire smoke.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Our air has been poisoned. I have a good relationship with Mark Carney, but, you know, we've got to stop the fires up there. If we can help them, we'll help them. But maybe they should pay us some damages or something, or we should do some tariffs.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANDOVAL: And President Trump on Monday announced a 50 percent tariff on certain Canadian goods, including electrical equipment and machinery. But administration officials say that the move is unrelated to these wildfires.

All right, let's go to Greece now, which is currently bracing for a three-day heatwave. Temperatures are forecast to climb as high as 42 degrees Celsius. It's about 107 degrees Fahrenheit in some of the mainland areas. You see some of the visitors in Athens doing anything they can to brave this heat. Many of them using umbrellas to shade themselves from the oppressive heat or the sun. Others, like this American tourist, relying on a positive attitude to stay cool.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's very hot in Athens, but it's been hot back home as well. We've had a little bit of a heatwave, so trying to drink plenty of water, keep a hat on my head and just having the best time we can.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANDOVAL: He's going to want to keep that hat on. And you see meteorologists are expecting the soaring temperatures to persist at least through Wednesday.

With flooding, that's a problem in Chile, authorities saying that at least five people have been killed and thousands evacuated after several days of rain there. The storm system, it has caused some landslides and also some of the rivers there to overflow. I mean, look what's -- just look at this amusement park here. More than 33,000 people are currently isolated due to road closures and swollen rivers. Authorities are working right now to restore power and drinking water in some of the areas affected. And unfortunately, there is a new storm system on the horizon expected to bring more rain in the coming hours.

Spain's World Cup champs, they are celebrating their title back home in Madrid with help from a sea of red. And that's all their fans there, huge crowds filling the streets to welcome the players home on Monday. And this was just a day after their 1-0 victory over Argentina. CNN's Pau Mosquera was there showing us all the festivities.

PAU MOSQUERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Thousands upon thousands of La Roja fans have floated downtown Madrid to celebrate Spain's World Cup triumph. All of them wearing, as you can see, Spain's national flags, Spain's national team jerseys to join the players at Plaza de Cibeles, which is at the very end of this Alcala street. We're being told by Spanish government delegation in Madrid that around 1 million people took the streets here in the Spanish capital as to celebrate this very unique occasion.

They enjoyed a very special moment with some music, with some Spanish well-known artists, but above all, celebrating this triumph with the players that made possible what seemed to be impossible, a celebration that certainly will go until the early hours of the morning of Tuesday. Now the real challenge will start this Tuesday, as most of them will have to get back to normal after days of celebration, after being long hours of Sunday and Monday celebrating.

[04:40:04]

But the good news, I'm being told by many fans, is that the excitement generated by winning this World Cup will stay with them for a long time.

Pau Mosquera, CNN, Madrid.

SANDOVAL: And still to come, the cockroach party protests, how a youth-led movement with a unique name is trying to change India's education system.

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SANDOVAL: Nicaragua's president is making a bold declaration about the country's political future. No more elections. Daniel Ortega has held continuous power since 2007. He even made his wife co-president last year. Well, the 80-year-old says that the days of parties backed by the U.S. and his political rivals are over. The Trump administration describing the Ortega government as a dictatorship and has imposed sanctions on the thousands of Nicaraguan officials and their relatives. Monday's appearance in Managua was the first by Ortega in about two months.

In India, a youth-led movement is now demanding reforms to that country's education system. Thousands of so-called cockroach party protesters demonstrated in the capital of New Delhi seeking the resignation of the country's education minister. The party's growing popularity comes amid anger over recent exam paper leaks and also unemployment. CNN's Ivan Watson has more on the movement, also the party's memorable name.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

IVAN WATSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The Indian government has a cockroach problem. A youth protest movement that calls itself the Cockroach Janta Party. On Monday, thousands of these demonstrators descended on New Delhi. A rare mass protest in the heart of India's capital, defying a police ban. Police firing tear gas to stop the protesters from marching to the Indian Parliament.

[04:45:11]

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I hope they listen to us because if not now then I don't know if it's a democracy or like dictatorship.

TANI SIDHU BHARGAVA, PROTESTER: We've had bad governments but we've never had such an evil government because this government is only interested in power, fame and money. They're genuinely non-biological. They don't have a shred of decency in them.

WATSON (voice-over): The Cockroach Party began barely two months ago with this social media post from Abhijeet Dipke, a graduate student from Boston University. In response to a top judge who appeared to call India's unemployed youth cockroaches.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They are youngsters like cockroaches.

WATSON (voice-over): Dipke launched the Cockroach Party demanding reform of the country's scandal prone education system and the firing of the education minister. That official has since called the Cockroach Party terrorists.

Last month, the Cockroach Party began a small sit-in protest in downtown Delhi. It was joined by activist and educator, Sonam Wangchuk, who went on hunger strike. On Saturday, police forcibly removed Wangchuk from the protest, taking him to a hospital.

Since then, a movement that had existed mostly online suddenly burst onto the streets of Indian cities. On Monday, India's health minister met face to face with Cockroach Party representatives asking them to end their sit-in. But they're still calling for the resignation of the education minister. A rare show of defiance that's put the government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the defensive.

Ivan Watson, CNN.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SANDOVAL: All right, let's stay on this story. Earlier, I had a chance to speak with Rahul Verma. He's a fellow at the Center for Policy Research in New Delhi. He explained why the protests suddenly intensified and also what government officials are doing to try to de- escalate the situation.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RAHUL VERMA, FELLOW, CENTRE FOR POLICY RESEARCH: The government representative met with some members of the protest team yesterday and the protest team submitted three main demands. I think the first demand is resignation of the education minister. Second, that some of the issues related to exam paper leaks and education reforms should be brought on the table of the parliament now. And third, compensation for students who have died by suicide because of these examination leaks.

I don't think any big development as such has happened today, but it remains to be seen how government responds to some of those demands that have been made.

SANDOVAL: You mentioned that growing chorus of calls for the resignation of the education minister. One of them, as you know, Rahul, is Sonam Wangchuk, the Indian activist who was on a hunger strike. Can you just talk to us about that separate element that continues to develop right now? We understand that he was recently hospitalized. I mean, is that perhaps further galvanizing this movement?

VERMA: So Sonam Wangchuk had been on a hunger strike for more than two weeks. And a couple of days back, the government on, I think, the intervention of court, picked up Mr. Wangchuk from the protest site as the court basically had established a health monitoring committee of some doctors and doctors actually suggested that his health might deteriorate further if he continues on to this fast.

What I think happened in the last three days, and that's why this movement sort of like gathered momentum, is picking up of Mr. Wangchuk from that protest site by policemen and large number of policemen were in plain clothes. That created the first kind of imagery that this protest needed.

And after yesterday's, sort of like, altercation between police and the protest groups, they've got further, sort of like you know, imagery to create sympathy for their cause. Soman Wangchuk is well known activist and he has been speaking on educational reforms for quite some time, and he landed his support for this protest movement a couple of weeks back.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SANDOVAL: A 10-year-old boy from Venezuela has become an inspiration as rescue efforts continue following last month's deadly twin earthquakes. Sebastian Corro has been working alongside his grandfather, helping earthquake victims in La Guaida. He shifts through rubble, and he also helps carry bags and water as well. He has become well-known among international rescue teams for his initiative, Sebastian saying that he hopes to become one of La Guaida's marine fighters someday.

[04:50:24]

A Mississippi community honored the life of an 18-year-old whose death is surrounded by unanswered questions with the family of Nolan Wells shared with mourners in his hometown.

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SANDOVAL: Welcome back. One of the biggest mergers in corporate history is on hold. A U.S. judge temporarily pausing Paramount's buyout of Warner Bros. Discovery, which is our parent company. Twelve states requested the delay as part of a legal challenge to the deal. The judge granted them a temporary restraining order, at least until early August. Paramount says it's confident that the states' antitrust lawsuit is without merit and the states will now seek a parliamentary injunction, a preliminary injunction, I should say, which could freeze the merger for months.

[04:55:01]

Well, family and friends, they came together to remember 18-year-old Nolan Wells more than two weeks after his body was found just off the Mississippi coast. You see mourners there. They lined up outside the CenterPoint Church in Ocean Springs, Mississippi, paying their respects. Nolan Wells' family sharing their memories of him during the services as they wait for answers on how he died. Here CNN's Leigh Waldman with more.

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CHRISTINE WONSLEY, MOTHER OF NOLAN WELLS: I ask that each of you keep Nolan's memory alive. Hold him close in your hearts. Share his stories and never stop saying his name. As long as we continue to remember him, his light will continue to shine through us all.

LEIGH WALDMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The loss of Nolan Wells is being felt throughout his community.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He was always there to lift people up, and that's just part of who he was and part of what we're trying to honor.

WALDMAN (voice-over): Hundreds of people are attending the funeral services in Ocean Springs, Mississippi.

MARTY SAUCIER, NOLAN WELLS' BASKETBALL COACH: Did everything you asked of him. Helped kids in my class that were needing some extra attention.

WALDMAN (voice-over): His body was found two days after a July 4th boating trip off of Mississippi's coast, sparking nationwide attention as questions swirl over how he died.

REV. AL SHARPTON, CIVIL RIGHTS ACTIVIST: Let us pursue justice, whatever the situations are that led to this.

WALDMAN (voice-over): The Mississippi State Medical Examiner's Office is conducting the official autopsy investigation. The Jackson County coroner said there were no immediate or obvious signs of foul play or trauma on Wells' body. But because of the circumstances of his death, the county asked the state to do a full autopsy.

Reverend Al Sharpton and Tyler Perry offering a combined $100,000 reward for information leading to a conviction in Wells' death.

SHARPTON: For an 18-year-old young man to no longer be with us, we want answers.

WALDMAN (voice-over): I'm Leigh Waldman reporting.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SANDOVAL: Thank you so much for joining me at the last hour of news. I'm Polo Sandoval in New York. Our coverage continues with CNN Headline Express in a moment.

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