Return to Transcripts main page
CNN Newsroom
France Experiencing a Severe Wildfire in History Since World War II; Trump to Host Meetings with U.K.'s Burnham and Israel's Netanyahu. Aired 3-4a ET
Aired July 28, 2026 - 03:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[03:00:00]
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
POLO SANDOVAL, CNN ANCHOR AND CORRESPONDENT: Hey everybody, I'm Polo Sandoval, live in New York, and this is "CNN Newsroom."
We are tracking worsening weather conditions that could create a dangerous double whammy for firefighters, not just in Spain, but in France as well, what that means for hundreds of thousands of evacuees.
And President Trump is set to host the leaders of Ukraine and Israel at the White House, preview of those critical talks.
And why is NVIDIA's CEO now doubling down on open-source artificial intelligence?
UNKNOWN (voice-over): Live from New York, this is "CNN Newsroom" with Polo Sandoval.
SANDOVAL: Temperatures are set to climb across southwestern Europe this week, and that makes the threat of massive wildfires in Spain and France even more dangerous. You see, the fires have forced more than 63,000 people to evacuate their homes near Madrid.
The Spanish capital is expected to see high temperatures around 38 degrees Celsius, that's about 100 degrees Fahrenheit, and those temperatures are likely to stay there for the rest of the week.
And in Spain's Castellon province, Reuters is now reporting that firefighters are facing a unique challenge. They're having to work carefully to avoid unexploded ordnance from the Spanish Civil War nearly a century ago. You see, those munitions are highly sensitive to heat, and they could go off unexpectedly.
CNN's Pau Mosquera is near Madrid, where the fires have forced the closure of some roadways.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
PAU MOSQUERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, absolutely, and actually we are constantly hearing and seeing how helicopters are flying overhead as to go to San Juan Reservoir to get water and drop it on the active fire fronts.
You can see here behind me the impact of the wildfires that are raging in western Madrid. What you're seeing on your screens are not common clouds. This is the smoke that is coming from the blaze.
And the authorities say that so far these wildfires have engulfed around 28,000 hectares of forest land and forced to evacuate around 31,000 people. But there are other side effects to the wildfires. For example, road closures.
We are now standing on one of the regional roads that connects the city of Madrid with the towns most affected by the wildfires. But as you can see, all this part is closed. So everyone that is getting and driving this way is being redirected and forced to take another route.
And it's important to say that the next few hours are going to be critical according to the Spanish government. They say that on Wednesday weather conditions are going to worsen because we are expecting the fourth heatwave of the summer to impact the Iberian Peninsula, which means that the temperatures are going to rise again. And as you know, the higher the temperature, the lower the humidity, the greater the risk for the wildfires to continue.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SANDOVAL: To southwestern France now, where authorities are warning that the fires there could burn for months. More than 220,000 people have been evacuated there, and French President Emmanuel Macron says that fires have been stabilized in the Gironde region and they are now contained in neighboring Flon.
Well, the French Prime Minister says that more than 160 people have either been questioned or detained since July 6th about deliberately starting some of these fires. And the President says that the situation is unlike any other that the country has faced before.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
EMMANUEL MACRON, FRENCH PRESIDENT (through translator): We must understand that we are facing a completely unprecedented wildfire. The situation we are dealing with today is the most severe we have ever recorded, the toughest since the Second World War. More than 160,000 hectares have already burned, and the season is far from over.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SANDOVAL: Let's go to Melissa Bell now, who reports from the Gironde region.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MELISSA BELL, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: These are some of the 42,000 hectares of devastated land here in the Gironde region. And you can see that even as the firefighters continue to try and bring this monstrous blaze under control to the southeast, even those parts that have already been devastated continue to threaten to re- erupt in flames.
That is because the weather that we've had, of course, have created these drought conditions allowing this fire to start, but the winds have continued pushing it over the weekend, and it has become so strong, this fire, and vast that it has created its own weather systems, its own winds, its own tornadoes, its own momentum.
[03:05:01]
For the time being, five days in, authorities say that they believe there's a small window now over the next few hours when the moisture conditions in the air are such, the wind a little bit lower than it has been, for them to try and bring it under control. But that window will be small because temperatures are expected to continue rising with yet another heat wave expected by midweek.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SANDOVAL: By the way, thanks to Melissa Bell reporting there.
Joining us now is Colonel Thomas Bourgerie, Chief of Staff at the National Operations Center of the French National Gendarmerie. Thomas, thank you so much for taking the time to update us.
COL. THOMAS BOURGERIE, CHIEF OF STAFF, NATIONAL OPERATIONS CENTER, GERNDARMARIE NATIONALE: Hi.
SANDOVAL: And just a quick note for our viewers at the Gendarmerie Nationale, it's a branch, I should say, of the armed forces in charge of evacuating people ahead of wildfires, so we're glad that you could join us just to bring us the latest on that front.
Let's begin there. Where are evacuation efforts focused at the moment?
BOURGERIE: We have an exceptional situation with 250,000 people evacuated, and our main effort is to convince people to evacuate and to accept this very difficult situation. We have a massive movement of solidarity and responsibility in the population, and so far we have no casualties in this very difficult evacuation operation.
SANDOVAL: Colonel, are there any regions where evacuees are now able to return home? We saw reports of one blaze in the country's southwest region where it was contained, so are some places safe to return at this point?
BOURGERIE: The first places safe to return are the Landes region in the southern part of the front line, and so far 5000 people could return back to their homes, and today we should have 20,000 more people going back to their homes. But it is a very sensitive operation because people shouldn't go back too early to their homes, so we have to go with them to carry out this situation in close link with local authorities.
SANDOVAL: That's great to hear. It not only shows some progress on behalf of fire authorities in their efforts to contain this situation, but also hopefully some normalcy for all these families that you just mentioned will hopefully be able to return soon.
Let me ask you this, Colonel. When you hear President Macron describe the grave situation there as the, as he put it, the toughest since World War II, if you could just expand on that, what does that look like on the ground?
BOURGERIE: On the ground, it is an unprecedented situation with nearly 50,000 hectares burned, but we are prepared to face any situation. We have resilient firefighters and Gendarmerie forces that can help the population to accept this situation.
This situation is exceptional because fire tree forests are very vulnerable, and it comes in a context after three successive heat waves, leaving vegetation very dry. But in this situation, as I mentioned, we had no casualty in the evacuation, and it is mainly forest areas that are destroyed. Any village is completely destroyed by the fire.
SANDOVAL: Colonel, I have about a minute left here with you. Just curious what your message is for people who are watching this around the world, people who perhaps may have travel plans to travel to specific parts of France. What are the regions that they should avoid at the moment while fire crews continue to contain those blazes?
[03:10:00]
BOURGERIE: During the time of the operation, in restricted areas, we cannot accept tourists, but fortunately, France is still the place to be and the place to go, and you have a lot of marvelous regions to go, such as Burgundy, Lavalais, French Riviera, and so on.
SANDOVAL: Absolutely. There is absolutely no shortage of wonderful places as emergency responders, including the Gendarmerie personnel, continue to help people there on the ground, and so glad you highlight that important takeaway that so far, no casualties as crews continue with their operations.
Colonel, thank you so much for the update and wish you the best of luck. Thank you.
BOURGERIE: Thank you.
SANDOVAL: Well President Donald Trump will be hosting Ukraine's President and Israel's Prime Minister in separate meetings at the White House on Tuesday. Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Benjamin Netanyahu will also attend the late Senator Lindsey Graham's funeral.
A White House official is telling CNN that President Trump's conversation with Ukraine's leader will revolve around the ongoing efforts to end Russia's war in Ukraine. And the U.S. President is downplaying Zelenskyy's allegation that Moscow is providing Iran with intelligence on U.S. military bases in the Middle East.
Trump said, quote, "I don't think they've been doing it, certainly not at a high level." And Israel's Prime Minister says that Iran is one of the top issues on the agenda for his talks with the U.S. President. Benjamin Netanyahu has been pushing for a renewed U.S. offensive against Tehran. In fact, President Trump acknowledged that he has, quote, "a little difference with Netanyahu on Iran, but that they are still closely aligned." He also claims that Israel needs U.S. backing in order to survive.
Here are more of his remarks.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: Frankly, it would be very nice for a lot of countries that would not survive without us. And you know who wouldn't survive without us? Israel.
Bibi is coming here, I'll tell you. If I didn't get involved and if I didn't blow up those nuclear, essentially, soon-to-be-nuclear weapons, the dust, as they call it, Israel would have been terminated months ago.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SANDOVAL: And President Trump also claiming that the U.S. paused strikes on Iran because Tehran wanted to resume peace talks. More of what he said.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: Iran took a beating over the last 14 days, and they asked us very nicely, please stop. Let's meet. And that's where we are right now.
We'll see what happens. If we don't make a deal, we go back to the same thing.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SANDOVAL: And Iran, though, says that the country is not currently engaging in peace talks with the U.S., but Oman has launched a regional diplomatic push in hopes of trying to find a political solution to the conflict.
Oman's foreign ministry says that ensuring safe navigation through the Strait of Hormuz and also restoring the flow of trade, that they are key topics during those discussions. The action coming, as Saudi Arabia says, that it intercepted drones launched from Iraq by what it claims are Iranian-backed militias.
Let's go to CNN's Eleni Giokos now, who's been following those developments from Dubai. Eleni, we heard that from an expert yesterday on our air, talking about how there are some of those proxy groups also in Iraq that are interested in basically adding themselves to the mix.
Tell us about these other negotiations or these talks, I should say, with Oman. Is there any sort of forward progress that's been reported on that front? ELENI GIOKOS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, there's always hope there would
be a diplomatic off-ramp, you know, whether it's the Omanis, we've seen Pakistani mediators in the past, as well as Qatari mediators, really trying to create some kind of breakthrough. What is interesting and very notable, and you heard it from President Trump, where he says that the U.S. and Iran are in fact in talks, and that Iran asked very nicely to stop the airstrikes on Iran.
Iran has a very different perspective, and in fact, we've seen this before, miscommunication, very different rhetoric from both sides. Iran says they're not engaged in any talks, and that the United States is not going to determine the timeline of peace and war, and that Iran knows what its interests are, and they're going to push for that. Very interesting to note that sort of wider picture.
Then on the Omani side, there is a diplomatic push. In fact, we heard from Abbas Aragchi, the foreign minister, on Telegram this morning saying that he held talks with counterparts in Oman, as well as Saudi Arabia.
Now, the timing is very important, because Saudi Arabia has been under attack by the Yemeni Houthis that are an Iranian proxy in the region over the weekend, and then yesterday, notably, Iranian-backed Iraqi militias targeting oil infrastructure in Saudi Arabia. Now, Iran is utilizing, activating its proxy networks to continue strikes at Gulf neighbors.
[03:15:05]
What is also very notable, this morning, Jordan said that it intercepted a drone that landed in the eastern desert. Now, the Iranians or any other militia group hasn't claimed responsibility for this, but I think it is very notable at a time where the United States clearly wants to sort of push forward on diplomacy, and the Iranians say it's going to be on their timeline.
We've got Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli Prime Minister, heading to Washington, and he says that Iran is going to be top priority. In the meantime, President Trump, over the weekend, meeting with advisers, major concern around depletion of munitions, but President Trump says that the United States has enough to continue targeting Iran. Take a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: And we're in very good shape, but for some of the more sophisticated stuff, we'd certainly like to have more. Biden gave a lot of it away.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GIOKOS: So what's interesting here is that President Trump is ready to go back if needed. He was very clear about it. But I also have to say, when the Omanis get involved, which we've heard many times before, it really focuses on the Strait of Hormuz and finding some kind of mechanism -- workable mechanism with Iran, which has been on the table for a long time.
The question is, would it suit the Gulf region? Would it suit what President Trump in the United States is trying to achieve? That remains to be seen, but it is a fragile and very vulnerable moment, Polo, in this war.
SANDOVAL: Without a doubt. Eleni Giokos, thank you so much for all that reporting, as always.
And straight ahead, a look at a new Big Tech Alliance, launched by Nvidia, to address the growing safety and cybersecurity concerns around artificial intelligence.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[03:20:00]
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SANDOVAL: This week, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman will be traveling to Washington, where he'll be meeting with members of the Trump administration, as well as some top lawmakers on Capitol Hill. He's also expected to brief officials on the company's latest A.I. models and their potential impact.
And all this comes after OpenAI's disclosure that one of its A.I. systems went rogue during testing, autonomously breaching another company's systems. And the incident has raised some alarms, with lawmakers now proposing an A.I. kill switch in response. It would allow federal authorities to halt A.I. models and then conduct independent security audits of the technology.
And as artificial intelligence becomes more widespread, there are concerns over A.I. safety that continue to grow. So a coalition of big tech companies is now building an alliance. Their hope is to help ensure that open source A.I. remains secure.
CNN's Hadas Gold tells us more.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
HADAS GOLD, CNN A.I. CORRESPONDENT: This new open, secure A.I. alliance that is being launched by NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang is in direct response to the recent incident where an OpenAI test model broke out of its testing environment, broke out of its lab, and went on to hack a completely different company's systems.
That company, Hugging Face, ended up having to turn to an open source model out of China to help diagnose the hack and help defend itself because it said that it ran into problems trying to use frontier A.I. models. It didn't name them, but that would be closed models like from OpenAI or Anthropic because of its own guardrails.
And the difference between open source and closed source is closed source models, those are the ones from places like OpenAI and Anthropic where they control the entire recipe. You might be able to make some small modifications to it, but you get what you get from the companies. An open source A.I. model is the kind where there's a lot more customization available to its users and to the companies. They can go in, tinker with the weights, and really change how the A.I. functions.
There is a huge debate now in the industry between open source and closed source, what is safe, what is useful for people, and a lot of the models coming out of China are open source. So when Hugging Face was hacked by this OpenAI test model, they ended up using an open source model from China to help diagnose and fix it. And there is a concern amongst proponents of open source models is that there is going to be sort of a shutdown of these models, that the Trump administration doesn't want to have Chinese open source A.I. models in the United States and will somehow move to shut them down.
And so, Jensen Huang says that he is launching this Open Secure A.I. Alliance to develop new techniques and tools to help safeguard software and agents because there's a lot of concerns that open source models are not as safe as closed source models. And he says that they're going to be sharing models and making research and tools in the open so he says they can broaden the community of defenders as these agentic A.I. models get better and better.
We're going to see more and more of these incidences of hackings and the like. And so this alliance is being created to help give people more options to protect themselves.
Hadas Gold, CNN, Washington, D.C.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SANDOVAL: NBC's Savannah Guthrie posted a new emotional plea for information about her missing mother, Nancy, who was taken from her home in February. And this latest appeal, it comes after federal investigators said earlier this month that all three of the notes that were linked to the case were fake.
In her latest video, Guthrie said that her family is in agony, not knowing what happened to her mother as she appealed to those who took her for any help.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SAVANNAH GUTHRIE, HOST, NBC'S "TODAY SHOW": The world can be a cruel and unforgiving place, and I know that you have tried to do things the right way. So I'm asking you, begging you, to do the right thing now. Make the right choice.
[03:25:08]
Help us find her. Tell us where to look for her. I truly believe it is never too late to do the right thing.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SANDOVAL: And still on the way here on "CNN Newsroom," Ukraine's president's getting a warm welcome and also some fresh pledges of support from the British Prime Minister. Now, Volodymyr Zelenskyy turning his attention to a high-stakes meeting with President Donald Trump.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[03:3:00]
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SANDOVAL: Everybody, welcome back. I'm Polo Sandoval in New York, and these are today's top stories.
More extreme heats and no rain in the forecast that could make wildfire conditions even worse for firefighters in Spain and in France. Spain's Prime Minister calling it a climate emergency, and France's president says that the country is facing its toughest situation since World War II. In total, about 300,000 people have been evacuated.
Oman has launched a regional diplomatic push in hopes of finding a political solution to the conflict between the U.S. and Iran. Oman's foreign ministry saying that ensuring safe navigation through the Strait of Hormuz is a key topic during these discussions. This comes as Saudi Arabia says that it intercepted drones launched by Iranian- backed militias in Iraq.
And Ukraine's president and Israel's prime minister will be meeting separately with Donald Trump on Tuesday. The U.S. President will be speaking with both leaders ahead of the funeral for the late Senator Lindsey Graham. A White House official says that Trump will discuss the Iran war with Benjamin Netanyahu and will speak to President Zelenskyy about ending Russia's war with Ukraine.
New British Prime Minister Andy Burnham is affirming his steadfast support for Ukraine. This follows his meeting with President Zelenskyy on Monday. CNN's Clare Sebastian fills us in.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CLARE SEBASTIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, it was a ceremonial welcome and a clear signal of the U.K.'s ongoing commitment to Ukraine as President Zelenskyy kicked off a critical week of diplomacy at Portsmouth Naval Base in southern England, becoming the first foreign leader to visit the U.K. since new Prime Minister Andy Burnham took office a week ago.
ANDY BURNHAM, BRITISH PRIME MINISTER: We are with Ukraine 100 percent. I am personally with you 100 percent, Mr. President, and I will honor every commitment this country has made to Ukraine in full.
SEBASTIAN: Burnham also announced a new deal to give Ukraine British- made jamming technology to help protect its drones. Will this stop off in the U.K.? A prelude to what for Zelenskyy will be a much more consequential visit to Washington D.C. to meet with President Trump. The backdrop here is that Ukraine is facing the prospect of what Zelenskyy says will be another mass mobilization of Russian soldiers in the fall. It's facing mounting ballistic missile attacks and dwindling air defense supplies and desperately needs to fast-track a promise from Trump to hand over the licenses to produce U.S.-made Patriot missiles in Ukraine.
Well Kyiv isn't waiting around. Over the weekend, Ukraine claimed it had struck several cargo ships in the Caspian Sea involved, it said, in carrying military equipment between Russia and Iran.
Iran says an Iranian civilian ship was hit, killing one, and warning that it could retaliate. This may have been a calculated risk by Ukraine. The timing here is critical to help convince Trump, perhaps, of the danger posed on multiple fronts by Russia's military alliance with Iran and the need for tougher action towards Moscow.
Clare Sebastian, CNN, London.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SANDOVAL: And at least 30 people were reportedly killed when armed men attacked a village in northwestern Nigeria. Eight children were among the dead and several others sustained injuries.
Parts of the north are battling a deadly insurgency by Islamist militant group Boko Haram and splinter group ISWAP. No claims of responsibility for the attacks in Kundana State.
Oil prices, they appear to be back on the way down again, but it may not last very long. How the U.S.-Iran war is impacting oil and gas prices, we'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[03:35:00]
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SANDOVAL: You see Asian markets across the board mostly down.
Meanwhile, we do continue to cover more of your business headlines at this hour, including markets again across Asia. They were rattled today over anxiety about the funding demands of the A.I. boom. Chipmakers leading the broad sell-off, with the KOSPI in South Korea closing down more than 10 percent, Japan's Nikkei sliding nearly 4 percent.
And officials at the U.S. Federal Reserve beginning a two-day meeting today to decide on interest rates and the Fed has sent some mixed signals on how rates may change in the near future as inflation concerns have risen. However, it's unclear whether policymakers will keep rates unchanged for the fifth straight meeting. Fed Chair Kevin Warsh hasn't offered any insight about what we could expect.
The latest pause in the fighting between the U.S. and Iran, it has oil prices falling. Brent crude briefly topping $100 a barrel last week, but on Monday it closed down about 11.3 percent futures for the global benchmark, currently trading at less than $90 a barrel.
So just how sustainable are those lower oil prices, and exactly how quickly will gas prices likely come back down in response? CNN's Michael Yoshida with some of the answers.
[03:40:00]
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MICHAEL YOSHIDA, CNN U.S. NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Oil prices tumbled Monday in one of the biggest single-day drops since late May.
CLAYTON SEIGLE, SENIOR NONRESIDENT FELLOW, ENERGY SECURITY, CENTER FOR STRATEGIC AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES: We're really experiencing kind of the oil market rollercoaster ride of 2026.
YOSHIDA (voice-over): For months, oil markets have used any sign of good news as a reason for prices to fall. Optimism that's kept crude oil prices from soaring. The recent ceasefire also helped, allowing hundreds of millions of barrels to escape the Strait of Hormuz.
But shipping traffic has again slowed to a trickle, and the market's resilience may be starting to fade.
In the last couple of weeks, the fighting flared again.
SEIGLE: We saw oil prices above $100 a barrel last week, and that's an indication that inventories are becoming very tight, and the market has these concerns.
YOSHIDA (voice-over): The big question now, if the conflict continues, how long can stockpiles keep demand low?
China has been leaning on reserves built up before the war. The U.S. and other countries have tapped emergency supplies, too.
SEIGLE: We can keep it up for a matter of a few more months, but as those inventories drain, that means that the cushion for a future oil market supply disruption is very thin.
YOSHIDA (voice-over): So if demand picks back up while supplies remain tight, drivers could be in for a rough end to the summer. As of Monday, AAA says regular gas averaged $4.11 a gallon nationwide, up $0.23 from a month ago, and more than $1 higher than before the war.
PATRICK DE HAAN, GASBUDDY.COM: Americans probably, at least for now, may not see much of a drop in gasoline prices, because while oil is dropping significantly, it's only the cost of oil dropping, whereas gasoline and diesel fuel not seeing much of a drop yet.
YOSHIDA (voice-over): I'm Michael Yoshida reporting.
(END VIDEOTAPE) SANDOVAL: Libyans are celebrating one of the country's oldest musical traditions. The 13th AAA International Malouf and Moua Shahab Festival began on Friday. Malouf music traces its roots to medieval Muslim- ruled territory of the Iberian Peninsula.
The festival featured musical performances, workshops, and panel discussions focusing on previewing this important part of Libya's cultural heritage.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
OSAMA AL-KMAISHY, FESTIVAL ATTENDEE (through translator): I feel very happy as a person who is in love with such art. These melodies play on the heart's melodies, as they say.
So one feels elation, happiness, and passion. Even the lyrics, they are poems.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SANDOVAL: And finally this hour, scientists are getting a rare look at the Amazon's elusive ghost dog from over two decades of hidden camera footage. Researchers with the Wildlife Conservation Society, they used 34 camera trap surveys to document the short-eared dog in a major study that was conducted from 2001 until 2024.
And that study compiled 500 records across Bolivia, providing new insight into one of Latin America's least known wild animals. There you see it.
Thank you so much for watching this hour. "World Sport" is next, and I'll join you again at the top of the next hour with more of your headlines here on "CNN Newsroom."
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[03:45:00]
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(WORLD SPORT)
[03:50:00]
(WORLD SPORT)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(WORLD SPORT)
[03:55:00]
(WORLD SPORT)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
