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U.S. Launches New Strikes Against Iran as Trump Declares It's Their Turn; BTS to Call Off Grammy Asian Pop Nominations After Opting Out of Submitting Their Music. Aired 3-4a ET

Aired July 30, 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]

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POLO SANDOVAL, CNN ANCHOR AND CORRESPONDENT: Hi everybody, I'm Polo Sandoval, live in New York, and this is "CNN Newsroom."

On the way, a deadly night in Ukraine, hours after a warning from President Zelenskyy, and all this as we get word of an explosive projectile that hit a neighboring Poland. I'll tell you what we're learning.

And new strikes in the Middle East, as Donald Trump declares it's the U.S.'s turn to retaliate how Iran is responding.

And wildfires are ripping through Europe still, and there's a new hotspot on the horizon. Why one area is preparing for the worst, even as the threat clears in some places.

UNKNOWN (voice-over): Live from New York, this is "CNN Newsroom" with Polo Sandoval.

SANDOVAL: We want to begin with rescue operations that are underway at this hour at multiple locations in Ukraine following a barrage of Russian strikes overnight. Officials are saying that at least eight people were killed across the country, and that includes six near President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's hometown.

Now, more than 20 others were wounded, officials are saying that the death toll could go up as they scramble to reach people who could possibly be trapped under all of this rubble. And Poland says that an unidentified object crashed and caused an explosion deep inside its territory during those strikes, the country also scrambled fighter jets overnight. Russia's targets included Kyiv, where the attack demolished this market and also killed one person there.

So let's get the latest now from the Ukrainian capital and head to Kyiv, where we're joined now by Peter Zalmayev. He's the director of the Eurasia Democracy Initiative. Peter, it's good to see you.

PETER ZALMAYEV, DIRECTOR, EURASIA DEMOCRACY INITIATIVE: Good morning.

SANDOVAL: Good morning to you. I wonder if we could just get started with this. What we're now learning is what you make of this unidentified projectile that hit near a Polish village some 95 kilometers west of Ukraine's border. So that's certainly towards the country's interior.

To add to that, Ukraine's foreign minister went on saying that a Russian cruise missile went into Polish airspace. In terms of what we know, even if it was unintentional, could that come with some NATO consequences for Russia?

ZALMAYEV: Probably not.

And that's precisely why Russia is doing it, if it's doing it. We don't have 100 percent confirmation of that yet. But it's quite likely, and it's happened before, over Polish airspace, over the airspace of Romania, that Russia is provoking these countries, like it may have been in this case, to once again prove that NATO will simply sit doing nothing.

I mean, there's this mechanism of Article 5, collective security, that dictates that a strike against one NATO member is a strike against them all. They would have to respond.

But Putin is sort of, you know, skirting around the edges with plausible deniability that it's not his missile, while at the same time showing NATO up for what it is, an ineffectual, as Putin at least believes, organization that will not stand up for its members. So this may have been yet another such provocation and a test.

SANDOVAL: What do you make of the timing, also, when it comes to this latest barrage of Russian strikes against, you know, throughout parts of Ukraine, including where you are there in Kyiv? I mean, the timing of this, this is just days after President Zelenskyy had what's been described by the U.S. and Ukraine as a positive meeting with President Trump.

ZALMAYEV: Not just the timing, but let's start with the geography. I mean, the entire territory of Ukraine was struck.

It seems like Putin had been accumulating enough missiles and drones to attack the entirety of Ukraine, including the westernmost town of Lviv, which has been kind of a hub, that whole area, for the processing of Western-supplied weaponry. That's probably another signal from Putin.

But if we look at the timing, it happened after, by all accounts, Zelenskyy's triumphant visit to Washington, at least, you know, judging or comparing with the low standard of that meeting last year when Trump said that Zelenskyy had no cards.

[03:04:57]

Well, this time this was quite a triumph, and it looks like the spirit of anchorage, whatever the Russians are, you know, continuing to refer to, whatever, you know, agreements there may have been between Putin and Trump, they're no longer there, they have evaporated. And so Putin is really seething that he's lost the initiative, not just on the front lines, but internationally. And, of course, let's not forget that, you know, Ukraine has found an ability to strike ever deeper into Russia.

Russia is burning practically every day. All refinery facilities are going up in smoke, logistical hubs are going up in smoke. This is a way for Putin, once again, to assert himself, to show his strength.

And he has no other options but to escalate and increase terror against civilians, because the situation on the front lines, like I said, is static, the advance is very slow. Putin cannot and has not been able to show any spectacular successes there.

SANDOVAL: Peter Zalmayev, we wish you continued safety, of course, as we continue to follow this. Thank you, Peter.

We're going to go now to new developments in the Middle East. Jordan's state media says that the military intercepted five missiles from Iran today, and this after the U.S. military resumed strikes on Iran, and President Donald Trump pledged to hit the country, as he put it, very hard.

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DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: We're going to be hitting them very hard, because it's our turn to hit them. They know it's coming. They're asking us not to do it, but, you know, they tried shooting it last night.

So we had five rockets shot going 8500 miles an hour, and all five rockets were knocked down to the ground, but they nevertheless took a shot, so it's our turn.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANDOVAL: Iranian state media reporting that explosions were heard in several locations across southern Iran. CENTCOM adding that the, quote, "heavy wave of strikes has wrapped up," and that dozens of targets were hit, including military command centers, as well as missile and drone facilities.

The video we want to show you here was actually geolocated by CNN. It shows smoke rising after a strike in western Iran. State media also released some additional video from an Iranian island in the Strait of Hormuz, and it says that rescue operations are ongoing after U.S. missiles struck a residential home, they said. Officials say that two children have been pulled from the rubble, and that the search is on for three other family members.

CNN's Eleni Giokos joins me now from Dubai. Eleni, what are we learning about these latest strikes?

ELENI GIOKOS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, I mean, we've seen some of the images, and it just shows how the United States has made good on its word in terms of retaliating after what CENTCOM described as a surprise attack on U.S. assets in Jordan on Tuesday. President Trump coming out with very strong language, speaking to other networks, saying that they plan to strike back, and you heard him there saying, it is our turn to strike.

Various explosions heard across southern Iran, and importantly, you mentioned the port city of Bandar Abbas, Qeshm Island, where you see rescue workers, according to Iranian state media, working through rubble. Multiple injuries reported there, according to Iranian state media. But also, importantly here, when I look at Qeshm Island, this is one of the islands that has been a focal point by CENTCOM and U.S. strikes, because this forms part of the northern route when it comes to the Strait of Hormuz.

We heard from CENTCOM saying it's a heavy wave of strikes, and they targeted military command centers, missile and drone facilities, coastal surveillance and defense sites, as well as military capabilities. Other areas of southern Iran that heard explosions, the island of Qeshm, as well as Khuzestan province, which is a province that borders Iraq as well. In retaliation this morning, Iran strikes Jordan once again; five missiles, Polo, were intercepted.

Now, this entire week, we've seen escalation, not only because Iran has activated its proxy network, specifically targeting Saudi Arabia, but overall, there's a very big concern that the window of opportunity that had opened up because the U.S. had paused strikes against Iran for several days has come to an end, and what we're seeing right now is a potential for even more escalation.

SANDOVAL: And as you know, leading up to this new wave of these strikes, there were some hopes, especially among mediators, that the sides would return to the negotiating table to tackle that crucial issue of the Strait of Hormuz. With this latest wave of strikes that you just brought us up to speed on, what does that mean? Does it essentially mean that the chokehold on that crucial waterway remains?

GIOKOS: Well, just this morning, the Iranians said that they will not be opening up the Strait of Hormuz, that it's still under Iranian control, that vessels still should be using the northern route.

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And when we look at vessel data and maritime traffic, a lot of the vessels that do actually make it through, specifically over the last few days, have opted for the northern route. In the past 24 hours, 12 vessels transited through the Strait of Hormuz, 10 of which actually used the northern route.

So the other significant thing that we've seen in terms of issues with regards to vessels and attacks, we're worried about what's happening in Bandar Abbas. The Houthis in Yemen, which are Iranian proxy, have been wreaking havoc in that waterway, specifically the Red Sea. And then we heard of two other vessels that were impacted, one fire breaking out close to the Egyptian port of Damietta on Wednesday.

Now, industry experts that I've spoken to say that it's a suspected drone strike, but again, it just shows how the proxy network is activated to target vessels in and around the Red Sea, but specifically continuing to have a chokehold on the Strait of Hormuz.

SANDOVAL: That chokehold continues. Eleni Giokos, as always, thank you for your reporting.

And still to come on "CNN Newsroom," a change in the weather could make wildfires in Europe even worse. I'll be speaking with a climate expert about the conditions that are fueling these flames.

Plus, emergency crews are reaching more areas damaged by a powerful earthquake in Japan, and they're finding more victims. We'll have the latest on those rescue efforts in a moment.

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SANDOVAL: Wildfire season in Europe could get even worse this week due to changing weather across the region.

Temperatures in parts of Spain are expected to reach up to 38 degrees Celsius, that's about 100 degrees Fahrenheit, and that's expected later this weekend. The country's weather service expects very high or extreme levels of fire danger through at least Sunday. Problem is, there's no rain in the forecast, at least not now.

In France, officials say that fires in the Gironde region have been stabilized, but the danger of flare-ups still puts the area at high risk. CNN's Melissa Bell is in France with more on those firefighting efforts.

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MELISSA BELL, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: French authorities are saying that the fire, the 42,000 hectare fire, the Gironde megafire has been stabilized but not fixed.

What that means is that it hasn't particularly progressed in terms of area of surface over the last 24, 36 hours. But they continue to fight it within because you've had these very hot temperatures, up to 42 degrees in some parts of France. And what we've seen are some flare- ups of the fire within that area.

And that has meant firefighters getting back to try and stamp them out, helped by locals who've, again, been very much involved using their pickup trucks, their tractors, their jerry cans mounted on those to try and help the firefighters in their efforts.

Essentially, it is such a large area, and it continues to smolder. It is extremely hot. Flames pop up in different parts and continue to threaten homes.

We've also seen the return of some of those more than 20,000 people who were displaced. Some of them were allowed to return home, about a third of them. Many of them still haven't been able to get home.

Those who have found either homes that were devastated or in parts of the forest that were devastated. Others have found homes intact because they'd been evacuated as a matter of precaution.

So there has been that solace, at least for those who were able to get back to their homes and find them unscathed. But still, the fight continues.

Again, until authorities tell us that it is fixed, it means that it can continue to progress at the whim of winds and high temperatures. And within it, the vegetation is such, the nature of the vegetation, the nature of this fire that has been so extraordinary in its ferocity, means that on very hot days like this, the flare-ups are inevitable. The question is now what happens over the next couple of days, even as firefighters continue to battle this emergency here in the Gironde region, we've seen as a result of those very hot temperatures, another heat wave.

We've had so many over the course of this season that picked up. We've seen fires start in Burgundy, the fire that was on in the south of France has again flared up today so they're fighting these fires on multiple fronts. But this one is the one that is really preoccupying French authorities. And for now, the fight is far from over.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SANDOVAL: It is especially far from over for other parts of Europe. Emergency officials in the E.U. are also concerned that Greece and Italy could soon face the same type of wildfire threat as Spain and France.

And we're already seeing some signs. Three firefighters died on Wednesday as they were battling fires on the Greek islands, two of those deaths happened on Crete, where firefighters became trapped. And specialists in fighting forest fires were sent in from Athens to the Greek island of Paros to try to help contain another wildfire.

All right, let's get some more perspective now from an expert joined by Peter Thorne, he's a director of the ICARUS Climate Research Center at the MAYNOOTH University in Ireland. Peter, so great to see you again. Thank you so much for joining us.

PETER THORNE, DIRECTOR, ICARUS CLIMATE RESEARCH CENTER, MAYNOOTH UNIVERSITY: Good morning.

SANDOVAL: Good morning to you. All week as we've been following these fires, Peter, and you've joined us on previous occasions, and we keep hearing from climate experts that these heat waves are getting longer, they're getting drier, and the climate crisis certainly to blame. But in your view, why has Europe seemed to warm so rapidly compared to other parts of the world?

THORNE: So Europe's been warming much more rapidly than the rest of the world for three key reasons. First, it's very close to the Arctic. The Arctic is the fastest warming region in the whole world.

[03:20:10]

Secondly, we've cleaned out the atmosphere 30, 40 years ago, there was a lot of atmospheric particulates from combustion of dirty fossil fuels, and we've had Clean Air Acts, which have improved our human health. But those aerosols, those particulates were acting as a weak parasol, they were reflecting some of the incoming solar radiation, and that's gone.

And then thirdly, we have seemed to get stuck in a pattern of repeated blocking, high pressure sitting over Europe day after day, sinking air, heating day on day. So it's a combination of factors, but we understand these factors, and we can link them to our activities.

SANDOVAL: These historic fires, they've already displaced hundreds of thousands, and we've talked about that before. They've already charged wide swaths of land and properties. In your view, just how much worse is this bound to get?

THORNE: So there have been numerous attribution studies, and indeed, the colleagues from World Weather Attribution, I understand, are going to release a study today on precisely the fires we're seeing these past couple of weeks. I fully expect that study to say, like prior studies have said, that we have loaded the dice significantly on these fires, the fire weather, the weather that leads to these fires has been made considerably more frequent and more likely, not just in Europe.

We have Canada burning, we have parts of Russia burning. There are very few countries in the northern hemisphere at the moment that aren't undergoing an enormously high fire season. This is our future, and this, sadly, is as good as it's going to get, because while we continue burning fossil fuels and loading the climate dice, things will just get worse and worse.

SANDOVAL: You mentioned fossil fuels. I'm curious if we could expand on that. If we're bound to see the frequency of these weather events accelerate over time, how do we keep up? Is it ultimately about investments, adaptation?

THORNE: So the very first thing we need to do is get off fossil fuels as quickly as possible. I realize that's not possible overnight, but we have everything we need, as we made clear in the synthesis report for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. We have all the tools we need, we have all the technology, we're not waiting on some magic to happen.

We can do this, we need the political will to stop burning the fossil fuels. So that's the very first thing. But also, the climate change genie is absolutely out of the bottle, and so we need to undertake adaptation actions.

We need to avoid the temptation to say we'll build back exactly as we were, because that builds back vulnerability, and that might mean tough choices that we need to start getting serious about in Europe, but elsewhere in the world, around not allowing certain things that place people in precarity.

You might love to live in the forest, but is that a sensible thing? Is that something you should be allowed to do? Because we're building in a huge amount of vulnerability. Every household that is built in an area of precarity is a liability on that individual, but ultimately on taxpayers and on all citizens.

SANDOVAL: Yes. Well, we hear you loud and clear that it's clearly not too late to try to mitigate the effects of this warming climate. Peter Thorne, thank you so much for joining us again with your expertise.

To southern Japan now, our emergency crews are still sifting through earthquake rubble, searching for any signs of life. Japan's Prime Minister announced today that 30 people have died from Tuesday's 6.8 magnitude quake. Earlier, another official said that some of the deaths were still under investigation, and it's unclear how many people were missing and injured.

The Prime Minister said that it's a race against time to find those trapped in the debris of a partially collapsed mall. Some of these images you're looking at from inside the mall coming from police body cameras.

Elsewhere, damage assessments are underway. This video here showing parts of a temple that's been flattened, and these houses also did not fare well, the roofs caved in and some of the walls toppled. Tens of thousands of homes have lost power, and temperatures in Japan are currently soaring.

He's been the acting U.S. Attorney General for nearly four months now, so why are some Republicans blocking Todd Blanch from actually getting a full-time job? We'll have some answers in a moment.

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[03:25:00]

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SANDOVAL: Welcome back. I'm Polo Sandoval, and these are today's top stories.

The U.S. military says that it launched a, quote, "heavy wave of strikes against Iran." CENTCOM says that it was in response to Iran's attempt to strike U.S. military positions in the Middle East. President Trump had promised retribution after the surprise attack by Tehran ended days of relative calm in the region.

And Ukraine says that at least eight people are dead after the latest salvo of Russian attacks across the country.

[03:30:03]

Officials are saying that more than 20 others were wounded, while rescue operations are still underway at multiple locations in Ukraine. Poland, a NATO partner, says that an unidentified projectile crashed and caused an explosion deep inside its territory.

And a new CNN poll revealing that some record low numbers for President Trump. 66 percent of those surveyed say that they disapprove of the way he's handling his job, and nearly three out of four people say he hasn't paid enough attention to the country's most important problems.

The Two Republican senators with only a few months left in office could keep Todd Blanche from becoming the next U.S. attorney general. CNN's chief congressional correspondent Manu Raju with the story.

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MANU RAJU, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: The Senate Judiciary Committee is scrapping a critical vote on Thursday and dealing a major blow to the confirmation prospects of Todd Blanche to be the next attorney general of the United States. This after a revolt from two Republican senators, John Cornyn and Thom Tillis. But it is really Cornyn who is driving this.

Cornyn, who actually lost his re-election bid, lost his primary bid after Trump backed his primary foe, Ken Paxton. Cornyn has emerged as a thorn in the side of President Trump, Tillis is not running for re- election and is also free from those re-election pressures. But both men are concerned about the so-called anti-weaponization fund, $1.8 billion.

It was part of a deal that was reached between President Trump and the IRS over a separate matter. Trump suing the IRS for $10 billion, claiming that he was injured by the unauthorized release of his tax returns. That led to both the anti-weaponization fund and a deal that would shield the president and his family from tax enforcement -- past tax enforcement actions.

The question that John Cornyn had in particular, he wanted to end writing that this would not apply to the President in the future, that tax enforcement. Also, he wanted to end the weaponization fund once and for all, kill it all together, want that written in paper, and it did not come.

And as a result, Chuck Grassley, the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, decided to delay that vote. And I asked Senator Cornyn whether or not the fact that he is free from those re-election pressures is making it easier to buck the president.

You would acknowledge though, not having to run for re-election anymore, has freed you up to be more independent from the President. Would you acknowledge that?

SEN. CHUCK GRASSLEY (R-IA), U.S. SENATE PRESIDENT PRO TEMPORE: Have you noticed?

RAJU: So when the President says that you're doing this political vendetta, what do you say?

GRASSLEY: That's a convenient excuse, and it happens to be untrue.

RAJU: Now, can this nomination be salvaged? It is still possible if those demands are met, but the timing is so complicated. The Senate goes on recess at the end of next week, and the delay means that it is unlikely to hit the Senate floor by next week, which means this could get delayed into the fall.

And who knows what the political environment will look like then, or if the President will move any closer to meeting the demands laid out by Cornyn and Tillis. But no doubt about it, a major blow to Tom Blanche, who had been trying to get the support of Republican senators, but unable to get the support of two, which means now his nomination will continue to hang in the balance.

Manu Raju, CNN, Capitol Hill.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SANDOVAL: Republican Senator Rand Paul vowing to force a vote on holding Dr. Anthony Fauci in contempt of Congress for refusing to testify after the Senate hearing.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, FORMER DIRECTOR, NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ALLERGY AND INFECTIOUS DISEASES: I respectfully decline to answer based upon my rights under the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANDOVAL: That was Wednesday morning on Capitol Hill where Fauci took the fifth more than 100 times during that hearing that focused on the COVID pandemic. Republican Senator Rand Paul had touted the hearing as a chance to get answers about the COVID crisis, but it actually did little to advance his claims that Fauci covered up the origins of the virus.

Fauci, for his part, argued that Paul's, quote, "obvious obsession with calling for my prosecution," said the doctor, justified his refusal to answer questions.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

FAUCI: The only conclusion I can reach is that the sole reason he is calling me before this committee is to get me to say something, anything that could vindicate his repeated public pledges that I end up, in his words, quote, "behind bars," unquote. I will invoke my right under the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution to refrain from answering your questions.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANDOVAL: The Federal Reserve held interest rates steady for the fifth straight meeting as new Fed Chairman Kevin Warsh and policy makers continued grappling with the uncertainty over inflation. The central bank left its benchmark lending rate unchanged, but the decision was not unanimous as three members dissented.

And before the meeting, the usual hints about the Fed's next move were missing amid a lack of guidance from Warsh.

[03:35:07] Now here's what he had to say about that decision.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KEVIN WARSH, FEDERAL RESERVE CHAIRMAN: The patience, the impatience that households and businesses feel have been going on for 63 months. We are on the job, we will deliver, we are focused like a laser on making sure we can do it. But the suggestion that we're going to be able to do it with our magic wand is one I want to disabuse you and everyone else of.

But the discussion in the last two days gave me more confidence even than I had eight and a half weeks ago.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANDOVAL: The Chairman Warsh's remarks stirred up some volatility. As you can see here, the Dow tumbled more than two percent or more than 1100 points, it's the worst day in more than a year. The tech-heavy Nasdaq and the S&P both falling more than 1.5 percent on Wednesday.

So are these negative numbers impacting markets today? Let's take a look at stock futures and see how they're looking ahead of the trading bell, where you see them all across the board slightly up as the markets continue to process this latest news on the Fed's decision. More on that later.

And China can no longer export humanoid robots to the United States. Find out why the U.S. government says that the move is necessary. Stay with CNN.

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[03:40:00]

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SANDOVAL: Welcome back. Let's go to your business headlines now. South Korea's Kia will be producing and selling fully electric vehicles in Mexico. The company's director said that the car manufacturer will invest $649 million in the project. The electric EV3 model is currently manufactured in South Korea, but starting next month, production will begin at a Kia plant in the Mexican state of Nuevo Leon.

China's humanoid robots, they have been taken over the global market, well now the U.S. is banning them. The Trump administration says that the humanoid robot imports from foreign manufacturers pose what they call unacceptable risks to national security. China's foreign ministry says that the new ban will harm American business and consumer interests.

Meta CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, pushing for artificial intelligence to be more accessible, he's warning that the technology should not be centralized and controlled by just a few tech leaders. In that rare interview this week, Zuckerberg told "The New York Times" that he supports more openness when it comes to the development of A.I. software.

The members of the K-pop supergroup BTS say that they will not submit any of their music for consideration at next year's Grammy Awards. This comes about a month after the Recording Academy announced a new category, Asian Pop, for the first time. BTS says that they hope that music can be heard and loved for what it is, rather than being divided by region or language.

On that note, I want to thank you so much for joining me. I'm Polo Sandoval, in New York. "World Sport" is next, and I'll join you again at the top of the next hour.

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