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One Dead, More Hurt After Van Drives Into Berlin Crowd; Red Sea Emerges As New Front Of Middle East Conflict; Interview With Representative Greg Stanton (D-AZ); Maine Democrats Pick Troy Jackson For Senate Nominee; One Dead, More Hurt After Van Drives Into Berlin Crowd; Paramount Delays WBD Takeover For Months; France And Spain Battle Deadly Wildfires. Aired 7-8p ET

Aired July 25, 2026 - 19:00   ET

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

[19:00:31]

DANNY FREEMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Hello and welcome. You are in the CNN NEWSROOM, and I'm Danny Freeman in New York.

We begin tonight with breaking news in Berlin, where police say at least one person is dead and 15 more have been injured after a car drove into a crowd at one of Europe's biggest pride parades. Right now there is an active manhunt for the suspects.

CNN's senior international correspondent Fred Pleitgen joins us now from the scene.

Fred, tell us, what are you learning?

FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Hi there, Danny. Well, you're absolutely right. The police here say that a manhunt is currently underway for possible perpetrators. Again, they're not sure whether or not this car rammed deliberately into that group of people or whether or not this was some sort of accident. But certainly the police, as you can see, are treating all of this very seriously.

I want to set the stage for you here because this is actually a massive response. This is obviously a mass casualty event that the authorities here have called out. You can see that there's a lot of fire trucks, ambulances that are here. We're actually right in the center of Berlin. The area that the camera is pointing to right now is called the Tiergarten, which is very near to where that pride parade was taking place.

And you can see that there's also a lot of police cars here. Certainly a lot of people have been brought to ambulances. There's one tent that we saw which seemed to have folks who might have been casualties of this event. We saw them with sort of blankets wrapped around themselves, going into what seems to be a medical tent. But as you can see, there's a lot of police cars. There's also a lot of ambulances that are on the scene here, a lot of first responders as well.

I can tell you, the hospitals here in this region have obviously called this a mass casualty event as well. And all of the doctors and other medical staff they are also not just on standby, but of course many of them also involved here in this response. Right now the police are saying that there's well over a dozen people who are injured, some of them with life-threatening injuries.

You are alluding to the fact that the police are now saying that at least one person has been pronounced dead. That, of course, is a number that unfortunately could continue to rise, as some people apparently have sustained some very severe injuries.

Now, what the police are saying is that all of this happened shortly before 10:00 p.m. local time. Right now we're at 1:00 a.m. local time. So a little over three hours ago, when a white van plowed into a crowd of people and then apparently came to a standstill when it hit a tree. The driver appears to have fled. The people who were inside the van appear to have fled. Right now the police are saying that there's a manhunt ongoing for a possible perpetrator or a group of perpetrators. Unclear how many people were actually inside that van when it plowed into that group of people.

As you can imagine, the folks who were sort of around the scene here, again, this is really just a couple of feet away from where all of this happened. Obviously, a lot of them are in shock. Some people talking about the fact that they heard this loud bang as of course this parade was going on, as a lot of people were trying to, you know, have a good time here, have a party here. And then there was an immediate police response to all of that.

Right now, as you can see, the area here in central Berlin, we're really only a couple of hundred yards away from the Brandenburg Gate, from the German parliament on absolute lockdown. As the police are saying, they are still on the search for the people who were inside that van when it plowed into that group of people. Again, at this point in time, the Berlin police are saying they are not sure whether or not this was done deliberately, what sort of motive may have been or what exactly is behind all of this.

But of course, we can ascertain. What you can see here is that this is definitely a massive event that took place here on a Saturday night -- Danny.

FREEMAN: Yes, a massive event indeed. And just again, so scary for so many of those parade goers.

CNN senior international correspondent Fred Pleitgen, we're going to check back in with you later on in the hour. Thank you so much for that report.

Also tonight, an apparent pause in hostilities between the United States and Iran. For the first time in nearly two weeks, neither country seemed to exchange strikes overnight. But the U.S. and Iran are still at odds and contradicting one another about the current state of talks.

Plus, in the Strait of Hormuz, the U.S. military says it boarded a tanker today as part of its blockade of Iranian ports. And the conflict is still at risk of widening, with a new front emerging in the Red Sea. This morning, the Iran-backed Houthis struck Saudi Arabian targets on the coast there.

For more on all of this, CNN's senior White House reporter Betsy Klein joins us now.

Betsy, tell us, what's the latest you're hearing from the administration about this war?

BETSY KLEIN, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Danny, we know that President Trump spent part of his Friday huddling with top advisers and Cabinet officials to discuss the possibility of an escalation in his war with Iran. But then Friday night into Saturday, a relatively quiet night with an apparent pause in that fighting after 13 consecutive nights of strikes.

[19:05:07]

It's not clear at this point how much we should be reading into that pause, but it comes after the U.S. intelligence community had assessed that the strikes that the U.S. had been carrying out on Iran were unlikely to shift Iran's negotiation position, according to two sources familiar with the matter. Now, President Trump has said that he does not believe that Iran is ready to come to the negotiation table. He has also been threatening massive attacks, but he offered some vision into his head space yesterday. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Look, we're talking to them right now. I think they're getting more and more serious as the days go by for maybe the obvious reason, but we are talking to them right now.

Look, there are two ways. I consider that the smarter way. But the others probably the easier way doing what we're doing. And we can take that to a much higher level if we want to. You know, we're prepared to do that. As you know we're locked and loaded.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KLEIN: Now as the president weighs a path forward, he really has limited options here. He can pursue that path of diplomacy, which has not yet been successful after that memorandum of understanding and ceasefire fell apart in recent weeks. He could continue the status quo of these limited strikes, or he could escalate. And he has threatened attacks on critical infrastructure, things like roads, bridges, that key oil hub of Kharg Island, as well as possibilities of strikes on Pickaxe Mountain, which is believed to be an Iranian nuclear site.

Now we're trying to ascertain what to make of this pause in strikes. I asked the White House what their view is. I spoke with a senior official who said, quote, "President Trump has always been clear that his preference is diplomacy, but he has shown Iran what will happen if they fail to come to the table in a serious way."

The key question now is whether the Trump administration believes that that bar is being met -- Danny. FREEMAN: All right, Betsy Klein, thank you so much for the latest on

that situation.

For more on this, we're joined now by Democratic Representative Greg Stanton of Arizona. He serves on the House Foreign Affairs Committee.

Congressman, thank you so much for joining us this evening. I want to begin with the latest on Iran. Do you see a window of opportunity for negotiations in this apparent pause in strikes?

REP. GREG STANTON (D-AZ): Any opportunity the president might have to get to a negotiated solution is the right step. But remember, while there may be temporarily pausing the attacks on Iran now, the Iranian proxy, the Houthis, were able to successfully strike an oil refinery in Saudi Arabia, thereby continuing to expand this war. The theater of this war. So it is critically important that we end this war as soon as possible.

FREEMAN: Congressman, U.S. Central Command is saying that it boarded a tanker today as part of its larger blockade of Iranian ports. How long, from your perspective, can the U.S. keep up this blockade?

STANTON: Look, when we left Washington, D.C., on Thursday, we voted over $70 billion more for this war. No Democrats supported it. It was the Republicans that completely without question gave so many more dollars to continue to fight this war. It's completely unacceptable. We've lost 18 soldiers. We just lost one with a missile strike by Iran on an American base in Jordan. A 19-year-old young lady, a service member who died in service to her country.

Obviously, Iran now has the ability to close down the Strait of Hormuz, thereby controlling possible tolls for oil tankers into the future. And now the Houthis, I mentioned the strike on the oil refinery in Saudi are also threatening to shut down the Red Sea for oil tankers as well.

Look, the intelligence committee -- community told the president all of these things were virtually inevitable if he engaged in this war of choice. The president chose to ignore him. He pretended like none of this was foreseeable. All of it was foreseeable. His decision-making has been some of the worst that we have seen by a president during a war time. So, yes, if there is a -- even a moment for the opportunity to get a negotiated solution, the United States needs to take it.

And as it relates to boarding the ships, we can't continue this for too much longer. The American people are very worried about a quagmire. Another forever war. They're not going to put up with it. And I think the White House is feeling the heat right now.

FREEMAN: Congressman, you voted in support of a resolution this week to try and halt President Trump's war with Iran absent congressional approval. But listen, we understand the administration, they say they're calling the flare-up a new operation. They're talking about the language here, perhaps splitting hairs. I guess, are these votes, though, these House resolutions to halt the president's war powers, are they just symbolic at this point? It doesn't seem like it's stopping the administration.

[19:10:00]

STANTON: They're symbolic, but also massively important because all Democrats and four courageous Republicans joined us in exercising what's called the War Powers Resolution. The United States Constitution says only Congress can declare a war. Now, obviously, if there is an imminent threat to the United States, the president can act for a short period of time. But there's no doubt in this situation, there was no imminent threat. The president entered into this war as a war of choice, which required a congressional vote.

So everything he's doing is unconstitutional. One person should not be able to draw the entire United States of America into a war. Obviously, we've lost 18 soldiers already. We're going to lose more tragically. That should be a vote of the United States Congress. It hasn't happened. And this war up to this point is a illegal war.

FREEMAN: But, I guess, Congressman, we're now months into this conflict. And I guess, you know, we've been hearing Democratic congresspeople in particular speak about this frustration and Republicans holding the line. How can Congress, at this point, again, months into this war with service members, lives being lost, how can Congress get back any of this authority when it comes to this ongoing war?

STANTON: Yes, at the end of the day, we need more courageous Republicans. This is not really about a Democrat versus Republican thing. This is about Congress standing up for itself. This president keeps taking power away from Congress, and the majority Republicans in the House and the Senate just roll over and allow the president to take this power. That goes against our -- what our founding fathers wanted.

They wanted equality of the branches of government. They wanted checks and balances. So it doesn't really matter whether you're the same party of the president. Stand up for yourself. Fight for the institution that you're a member of. Things like tariffs should be done by Congress, but the president has just taken that power, and Republicans have rolled over. And of course, this solemn duty of whether we declare war, which is a congressional responsibility, has been taken away.

So we're not going to stop fighting for our proper constitutional role. And whether the Republicans join us or not doesn't really matter. We won't stop this fight. It is a critically important fight to do what's right for America because Americans do not support this war.

FREEMAN: Right.

STANTON: But also stand up for our Constitution.

FREEMAN: All right, Congressman Greg Stanton, thank you so much for sharing your opinion on a very, very busy weekend news night.

STANTON: Thank you.

FREEMAN: I really do appreciate your time.

OK. Still ahead, Maine Democrats have made their choice, but can Troy Jackson manage to flip a seat in a key race that's critical for the party to win back control of the Senate? We'll talk about that. Plus, thousands of people forced to flee as wildfires rage in southwestern Europe. We're going to take a look at the urgent battle to contain those flames.

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[19:17:27]

FREEMAN: Republican Senator Susan Collins will now run for reelection against Maine's newly chosen Democratic nominee, Troy Jackson. Jackson was selected today by hundreds of Democratic delegates in a nearly unanimous vote, and replaces Graham Platner.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TROY JACKSON (D), MAINE SENATE CANDIDATE: For nearly 30 years, Collins has told Maine that she is concerned. She was concerned while she rubber-stamped Trump's Medicaid cuts and gutted our health care. She's concerned when she cut taxes for corporations and the wealthy. Concerned when she confirmed justices who overturned Roe versus Wade. And really tragically, she was concerned when she gave ICE billions to terrorize our neighbors and murder people in the streets with no accountability.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FREEMAN: Platner, for his part, dropped out earlier this month after a rape allegation, which he denies. But his exit from the contest threw the race into disarray as Democrats scramble to find a replacement. This is also one of the most critical races, as Democrats look to flip the upper chamber. And now there are only three months away until election day.

For more on all this, we have political editor at the "Bangor Daily News," Michael Shepherd. He joins us now.

Michael, good to see you again. We spoke last week about this race. You said that Jackson likely had this thing all wrapped up. It came true today. So tell us, he's a veteran of Maine politics. What else is he known for in the state?

MICHAEL SHEPHERD, POLITICAL EDITOR, BANGOR DAILY NEWS: Yes. He's had a really long arc in Maine politics. He's kind of a dying breed. He's 58 years old, which is fairly young, right, for politics now, and especially up here in the nation's oldest state. But he's a dying breed of a Democrat. He's from the very northern part of Maine, a very socially conservative, very Catholic, just as he is, region. And he's someone who entered the legislature in 2002, voted like his

constituents would have asked. He was anti-abortion. He voted against same-sex marriage pretty crucially in 2009. He was a guy who got NRA endorsements. So he -- and he has kind of changed on all those issues. He's a very reliable Democrat now on all those policy stances. So that's going to be part of the story that is told -- that he tells about himself, about the story that Susan Collins, who's one of the rare, you know, abortion rights Republicans who also has the Kavanaugh vote there on the other side of that ledger.

So these are two very interesting politicians. They're very different. He's a guy who wears his heart on his sleeve.

[19:20:03]

He's a guy who's sort of at his best and at his worst when his emotions are high. And so I think he's -- I've covered him for 12 years. I've found him to be a really fascinating guy. And I think this is going to be just an incredible 100 days here to the finish.

FREEMAN: So what is the field of play look like now when it comes to this general election? Right? Because Collins herself also been in Maine politics for quite a long time, very well known in the state. What will this look like?

SHEPHERD: Yes, I think it's going to look like 2020 in some sense. You've got Trump in office and fairly unpopular in a Democratic state. Democrats are going to try to push that case. Susan Collins is going to really try to bring this back to her unique attributes. Her spot chairing the Senate Appropriations Committee, all the extra money into Maine that that brings. You're already hearing a lot about that. You're going to hear a lot more about it.

The push and pull between making this into a national race that Democrats want, and the state race and the individual race that Susan Collins wants, that's going to decide this race just like it did in 2020.

FREEMAN: You know, it's interesting, last week when we were talking about the potential of this, one of the things I asked you about was Troy Jackson actually being pretty close to Platner during his race. Now you're talking about one of the things that might come up being his past social conservative views. So I guess from your perspective now, looking forward, what do you think will be Jackson's biggest hurdles, especially considering that this is a really shortened timeline now?

SHEPHERD: Well, I was going to say, I think you hit the nail on the head there. Just this Kamala Harris like sprint to the finish is I think the first challenge.

FREEMAN: Right.

SHEPHERD: The second challenge is it's just a big step up. He's got to -- after running a really long gubernatorial race and being really focused on state issues, he did run for Congress back in 2014. I covered that race. He was kind of washed out in a primary by a much more establishment Democrat at the time. But Troy has kind of evolved into the kind of Democrat who's sort of popular at this moment, right?

He's a little bit like Graham Platner in the sense that he's got the same base of very progressive profile, always has been there on universal health care and things like that. So he was a person who I think was as good a one to one replacement for Graham Platner as possible. But of course, he needs to step up. He needs to build a really big campaign. He was a pretty bad fundraiser in the gubernatorial race, so bad in fact that he wasn't even able to get his own ads on TV. An outside group had to do it for him.

So he's going to have to really take a step up. Of course, in these big national races, the money finds you a little bit, but he needs to really scale up his operation and his quality to beat someone like Susan Collins.

FREEMAN: So I'm going to ask you then the same question that I did ask last week. Now that he officially is going to be the nominee for the Democratic side, Republicans have already started to indicate that they plan to tie Jackson to Platner. I think I was just looking at the NRSC or Republican Twitter account or X account that was saying they're basically the same person. Is it clear that -- Jackson and Platner that is, is it clear whether this will be an effective strategy to tie these two together?

SHEPHERD: I think it's hard to know right now. I mean, Platner is just got so toxic at the end. Of course, a rape allegation will do that and of course pushed everybody over the edge in the sort of Democratic establishment both in Maine and Washington on his candidacy. So I think it's going to be hard for Republicans to make the one to one case that Troy Jackson is Graham Platner, and how long will Graham Platner be a character in this race?

FREEMAN: Right.

SHEPHERD: I think the shelf life on that is rather short, but certainly Troy Jackson was the candidate most tied to Graham Platner in the gubernatorial race. There was a lot of videos out there of them hanging out and shooting pool and things like that. So I think there's -- Troy Jackson going to have to answer that. He told us today in Bangor that he hasn't heard from Platner since this whole process kicked off.

So that's a little bit of cross to bear here. But I think eventually Republicans are going to have to run against the candidate they're running against.

FREEMAN: Yes, that's well said. But again, I think we're going to hear Platner's name a lot heading towards November, at least from Republicans.

Michael Shepherd, always good to see you. Thank you so much for jumping on tonight. Appreciate it.

SHEPHERD: Thanks. FREEMAN: All right. We continue to follow that breaking news now in

Berlin. One person is dead and more are hurt after a car drove into crowds at pride celebrations. Now an urgent hunt is on for suspects. More after a quick break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[19:28:58]

FREEMAN: We're following breaking news out of Berlin. There is an urgent manhunt after a person drove a van into a crowd of people at one of Europe's largest pride parades. One person is dead, at least 15 others are hurt.

CNN's senior international correspondent Fred Pleitgen is on the scene now and joins us.

Fred, tell us, what's the latest out there?

PLEITGEN: And the authorities have now come out and said there are several people, at least three people with life threatening injuries. So as we've mentioned, one person has been confirmed dead here by the authorities. But of course, there is the risk that further people could still succumb to their injuries, as the authorities are saying that at least three people have life threatening injuries.

You can see, if I get out of your way right now, just the response that's been going on here by the first responders. There's a lot of -- dozens I would say of ambulances here on the scene. Also, big fire trucks that are still going around. If you pan a little bit to the right, you can see a tent set up on the other side of the road there. We have seen some people come out of there who might have been sort of walking casualties, some folks who were wrapped in some of those tinfoil blankets after they appear to have gotten some medical attention in there.

And the area that we're looking at right now is right in the center of Berlin. But behind that is where a big park starts. It's called the Tiergarten, and it appears as though this ramming seems to have happened within the area of that part, but the authorities are saying that shortly before 10:00 P.M. local time, and right now it is about 1:30 A.M., so about three-and-a-half hours ago, a car, a van, a white van plowed into a crowd of people at this Pride Event here in Berlin, the Christopher Street Day, which is absolutely massive here in the city, and the city has been gearing up for it for the past couple of days -- and plowed into a group of people and then apparently hit a tree and came to a standstill.

[19:30:38]

Now, the authorities are saying that they are still looking for the people who were inside that van for possible perpetrators. They are not sure what exactly is behind all of this, whether or not this was an accident, whether or not this was some sort of other reason behind it, but they certainly say that the people who were inside that van certainly are being seen as suspects and are being sought. Again, the authorities saying that right now there is a very large manhunt underway, of course, not just here in the city, but certainly in the surrounding areas as well -- Danny.

FREEMAN: Fred, before you go, can you just tell us what were the security precautions like at this event? This major event happening in the center of berlin --

PLEITGEN: A major event happening in the center of Berlin, of course, this city is also one that has a history with attacks at major events. We had a big Christmas market attack here in berlin a couple of years ago, which was also a big ramming attack where a truck rammed into a Christmas market, killing several people there. And certainly over the past couple of days, we live in the city and work in the city, could see the authorities put up barricades, especially along the route that this parade was going to go down, which is right in the center of berlin, sort of going towards the Brandenburg Gate.

The party, the final party of that event also happening there, which is a huge gathering, hundreds of thousands of people coming, and you could see the authorities really gearing up for that, putting up barricades, putting up really heavy barricades as well to prevent exactly something like this from happening. Obviously, it is a very long area, a very large procession that takes place. And so therefore they can't obviously take control of every inch of it.

But certainly, the precautions were going on for an extremely long period of time as this event, this Christopher Street Day really is a huge event here in the city of Berlin, and definitely one that the authorities, especially as far as security was concerned, was definitely preparing for -- Danny.

FREEMAN: Scary scene out there in Berlin. Fred Pleitgen on the scene for us. Thank you so much for your reporting. Appreciate it.

Still ahead, President Trump takes the stage at The White House Correspondents' Dinner, the first one he has ever attended as a sitting president. So how did it go? Our chief media analyst joins us next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[19:37:07]

FREEMAN: To this now, Paramount's takeover of CNN's parent company Warner Bros Discovery will now be delayed for many months, possibly even into next year. The delay is to give some pending lawsuits their time in court, including one from state attorneys general and another from the journalists union, the Writers Guild of America.

CNN chief media analyst, Brian Stelter joins us now.

Brian, you say that this effectively blows up Paramount's plan to take control of WBD by September. What do you mean?

BRIAN STELTER, CNN CHIEF MEDIA ANALYST: That's right, because the timeline now extends into next summer. Paramount had been eager to close this merger and take control of CNN and the rest of Warner Bros Discovery, meaning HBO and the Warner Bros Movie Studio and all the rest by the end of September, in part because the deal gets a lot more expensive for Paramount starting in October.

There is literally a ticking clock and additional fees attached to the merger, but because of those two lawsuits you just mentioned, everything is now on a deep freeze.

Paramount has basically had to agree to stop everything and not move forward with the merger until June of next year, or until a judge can weigh in on these lawsuits at a trial and getting ready for a trial takes a lot of time.

We heard from California Attorney General Rob Bonta, who says he doesn't even want the trial to begin until 2027. Here is what he told our colleague, Jake Tapper.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ROB BONTA, CALIFORNIA ATTORNEY GENERAL: We are likely to make a request to have trial in 2027, which is very appropriate based on the expert discovery that needs to happen, the fact discovery that needs to happen before a trial can and should go forward.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

STELTER: Paramount is going to want this to move a lot faster than that. The chief legal officer told "Deadline's" Ted Johnson last night that Paramount is going to angle for a trial in November of this year, but whenever that trial date is, whether its November or January or March, this thing is going to drag on for months. That's a real blow for Paramount, and it is a statement about big business more broadly.

You know, media mega-mergers, mega-mergers of all types, they are kind of like a Jenga tower. You know, the game Jenga with the wooden blocks where there are lots and lots of pieces, and from some angles, the tower can look really stable and sturdy, but if you pull out one wrong piece at the wrong time, the entire tower might collapse.

This deal is looking a little bit like a wobbly Jenga tower, where, yes, it might hold up. Yes, it might go through. Yes, the merger might be completed in the future, but it could also collapse and Wall Street analysts are now speculating about that possibility as well.

So it is anyone's guess what will happen. What we know is that whatever happens, it is going to take a while -- Danny.

FREEMAN: Brian, thank you so much for that update. I want to switch gears, though, for a moment, because there was a big media event last night and in your analysis of The White House Correspondents' Dinner re-do, you said that President Trump, "bombed his speech."

So I am curious, do you think that President Trump's speech left the impression he was aiming for?

[19:40:04]

STELTER: Gosh, there was some dark jokes as attendees were leaving the ballroom last night. talking about Trump was so good at bombing coming off of what is a very real and ugly war with Iran, and then he is in this room talking about politics, talking about the war, but mostly talking about himself.

If you go back and reread the transcript or if people watched live here on CNN last night, you heard a lot of rambling, a lot of meandering. He calls it weaving. I might call it narcissism.

He knew he was bombing in the moment and that's what I thought was so interesting. The President knew he was bombing and he tried to joke about it. He tried to joke his way out of it, and that didn't work either.

It fell flat and attendees actually were leaving, saying, maybe this dinner shouldn't happen next year. That's how awkward the situation was with the President at that press dinner.

You know, I was so struck by his putting on a Trump 2028 hat because earlier in the speech, he said he was always just joking about wanting to run for office again for an unconstitutional third term. He even made reference to his ballroom at length, and he said he was only going to have the ballroom for about six months before it is somebody else's turn to have the new White House Ballroom, so Trump knows his time is limited, but he still put on that red hat.

It was a deliberate troll of the press, maybe also a warning, and I think that imagery is so interesting. Right? His fans see that hat and they see a fantasy. His detractors see that hat and they see a wannabe autocrat.

The most generous interpretation of that hat is that it is a wish for his MAGA movement to continue, Trumpism 2028, but the truth is, there is not anywhere close to a majority in America rooting for that. The headline on the latest Fox News poll was headlined "Voters want major change amid economic and political discontent." That poll had no good news for Republicans. And truth be told, when Trump wears that Trump 2028 hat, I think it probably helps his Democratic challengers.

FREEMAN: Well, Brian Stelter, thank you so much for that analysis and I know that one thing that is universally felt here at CNN is a pride for both Wolf Blitzer and Kaitlan Collins after last night. I appreciate it, Brian.

STELTER: Absolutely, absolutely. Thank you.

FREEMAN: All right, coming up, the Prime Minister of France warns conditions could worsen as firefighters work desperately to contain more than two dozen wildfires burning across the country.

We have an update from Bordeaux coming up after a quick break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[19:46:41]

FREEMAN: Right now in Europe, wildfires are raging with more than 250,000 people in France and Spain forced to flee from their homes as the now deadly wildfires sweep across Southwest Europe.

Now the fires in Spain have killed at least one person, according to authorities, with the fire rapidly spreading due to the adverse weather conditions. Meanwhile, in France, authorities deployed Europe's biggest military cargo plane today to help fight the fires.

CNN's Melissa Bell has the latest from France.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MELISSA BELL, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: We've been hearing from the French Prime Minister about the fact that there are currently 30 wildfires raging in France, the biggest one, of course, is here in the Gironde region of France.

This is Bordeaux's Exhibition Center, where some 7,000 of the 200,000 that have now been evacuated from their homes across France are being sheltered, and they are really doing what they can to sleep on cots. They are being fed. There are medical facilities here to try and help them, but many of them just received texts in the middle of the night telling them to get their stuff and go.

So they've come with their children, their pets, and a bag full of what they could grab, very little certainty about what is now happening to their homes. Very little certainty or insight into how long they are likely to be here and that's very worrying to a lot of them. What we've been hearing now is that many of the people here had come from some of those towns to the west of Bordeaux that were evacuated overnight, another five towns are being evacuated, we are hearing, which is again, a suggestion that this fire, the biggest one now raging in France, continues to spread.

It is extremely violent. The conditions in terms of the weather haven't helped. There has been wind. There has been heat, and the wind has been changing direction so that the more than 1,500 firefighters now are really struggling to contain it. It is nowhere near contained for the time being, in fact, it continues to spread.

So a lot of fears about how much more this fire can spread, and of course, how many more people are likely to be evacuated as a result.

It is, of course, also with the help of European allies, that the French are trying to cope. They've had planes and resources sent from other European countries as they try and contain this particular wildfire, its ferocity really quite spectacular.

Just in terms of what has brought us here, we have had a summer of successive heat waves, record temperatures set across the country over the course of the summer, and already this year, 300 wildfires, when the national average here in France is about 93 in a year. It is a year of many records and none of them happy ones. These are wildfires, again, that are in several different parts of Spain. There has been a lot of attention focused on the ones to the west of Madrid, about 60,000 people had to be evacuated there over the last couple of days to try and protect them from this wildfire that appeared to be growing out-of-control.

But there are other fires, for instance, outside of Valencia, and that is where, sadly, we've heard that a man in his 70s who was slightly handicapped, was unable to flee the flames and died in the flames near his orchard so that is, sadly the kind of human toll that you're likely to hear more of.

Just here outside of Bordeaux, near the airport earlier this week, two firefighters were killed in a wildfire there -- Danny.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FREEMAN: Melissa Bell, thank you very much for that reporting.

[19:50:01]

Still to come, excitement is building in Philadelphia as the City of Brotherly Love gets ready to embrace who else? LeBron James! We are going to tell you how the 76ers and their fans are reacting to the blockbuster move.

You're in the CNN NEWSROOM.

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FREEMAN: Time for the best story of the weekend!

Tonight, "The Philadelphia Inquirer," take a look at this -- it is featuring LeBron James on its front page, along with the headline: "It's a Philly King." It is in celebration of the NBA superstar joining the 76ers on a two-year, $8 million deal.

James, who left the Lakers as a free agent, says on social media that he thought he was done after last season. But after getting time away, he added he believes he can help make the 6ers a championship team and is excited to energize a new fan base.

[19:55:11 ]

Joining me now is Mike Sielski, a columnist at "The Philadelphia Inquirer."

Mike, I don't even have the words.

We heard a lot of teams tossed out there as a possible landing spot for LeBron. How are you reacting that he chose Philly?

MIKE SIELSKI, COLUMNIST, "THE PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER": I am surprised and Danny, I think a lot of people in the Philadelphia region are surprised. The whole area is kind of vacillating between hope and shock. Hope that LeBron can finally deliver a championship for a franchise that hasn't won one since 1983 and shock that he actually picked the 6ers.

It is kind of funny. This was not a humongous discussion topic around here, leading into the announcement yesterday, because I think most people really thought that LeBron was going to go back to Cleveland or go back to Miami, or maybe even end up with the Golden State Warriors. I don't think people around here allow themselves to think that he might actually decide to play for the 6ers.

FREEMAN: Okay, so I've got to ask you, listen, I was driving down the shore yesterday listening to WIP as people were going nuts, but I will let you take the lead here. Tell us, how has this announcement been received on the excitement side with fans in Philadelphia?

SIELSKI: I have the perfect antidote for you, Danny. So I co-host a show every Saturday morning on WIP from 10:00 until 1:00 in the afternoon. So my partner, Rob Ellis, and I did the show this morning. Governor Josh Shapiro called in at 10:30 to discuss the signing and his possible role in it. He was texting and talking to LeBron and his agents last week.

And at the end of the program, almost at 1:00, we had a long time 6ers fan from Wilmington, Delaware call the show, talk about how he took his 6ers jersey out of the closet for the first time in a long time because he wasn't embarrassed to wear it anymore and as he started to tell this story, he began to weep on the radio, over the air about the fact that LeBron James had picked the 6ers, and this fan was just so happy that he couldn't get over it and was crying.

So I think that kind of sums up how people around here are feeling about LeBron James becoming a 6er.

FREEMAN: I listened -- I kid you not, I listened to that interview live today and it was incredible hearing that man get so emotional and you guys handled it incredibly well because that is the feeling. You know there is so much hope, and can you talk about this, Mike? Because I feel like the 6ers to some extent, you know, there has been this long trusting of the process, this whole journey to this moment and kind of this year, you know, with so many injuries surrounding Embiid, we are kind of left for dead, it felt like.

This is like a whole new team it feels like.

SIELSKI: Yes, there has been a lot of cynicism and weariness around the 6ers for a long time. Those three words that you use "trust the process" fill people with a lot of different emotions around here. There was a lot of promise and hope. You know, when Sam Hinkie, then the general manager, tore the whole thing down and tanked several seasons to try to build it back up again and create a championship team and there has been different general managers and head coaches and Joel Embiid has been injured and they have all these different iterations of styles of play and mixes of players.

And then after they got swept out of the second round by the New York Knicks last year, things were really bad. I think it had been -- people were just exhausted of the whole saga with the 6ers, and then in a few short weeks, they make a big trade for Jaylen Brown from the Celtics. They basically steal him away from their top rival, and then you sign LeBron James.

And believe me, I've talked to some people who work in the 6ers ticket office and they have not slept much over the last 48 to 72 hours just leading into the announcement. And then, of course, the reality that LeBron is going to play here.

FREEMAN: It is wild. It is wild. I mean those tickets, I can't even imagine the prices that we are going to see.

All right, I've got about 30s left. Mike can you tell me there were a lot of teams, like I said, that were in contention. A lot of people thought he was going to go home to the Cavs. Why do you think he ultimately chose the 6ers in the end?

SIELSKI: I think if you believe what he wrote on Twitter/X, he felt like the 6ers gave him the best possible chance to win a fifth championship. It would be with his fourth different franchise, which I am not sure any player in the NBA has done before. I think for LeBron, it was a basketball thing more than anything else.

FREEMAN: Yes, and just I guess, do you -- are you getting your hopes up that a championship could come to Philly?

SIELSKI: Let me put it this way, Danny. I had already written in "The Inquirer" and told my editors that if we want to assign just one writer to cover LeBron as a beat this season, I am happy to do it.

FREEMAN: One, two, three, four, five, 6ers. Mike Sielski, thank you so much for joining us tonight. Really do appreciate it. A great night for the Philly region. Thanks so much.

SIELSKI: Thanks, Danny.

FREEMAN: And of course, thank you all at home for joining me this evening. I am Danny Freeman. The CNN Documentary: "Live Aid: When Rock and Roll Took on the World" starts in just a few moments.

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