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Trump Suggests New Talks With Iran To Begin In Coming Hours; Israel Expands Gaza Strikes For Second Straight Day; Washington State Battling Worst Fire Season In 30 Years; Motorists Encountering Brown Bears In Roads In Romania; Scientists Launch OnlyFans Account to Fund Marmot Research; "Spider-Man" Swings in $927M Weekend at Global Box Office. Aired 1-1:45a ET

Aired August 03, 2026 - 01:00   ET

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

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[01:00:35]

BEN HUNTE, CNN ANCHOR: Hello wherever you are in the world. You are now in the CNN Newsroom with me, Ben Hunte in Atlanta. And it is so good to have you with me.

Coming up on the show, Donald Trump says talks with Iran are set to resume a day after canceling a planned attack. We will look at whether Washington and Tehran are even on the same page.

Israel launching a new round of strikes inside Gaza. That's despite the U.S. President's claim of a major breakthrough in ceasefire talks. And updates on the destructive wildfires burning from the Pacific Northwest to southern Europe.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Live from Atlanta, this is CNN Newsroom with Ben Hunte.

HUNTE: Welcome. President Donald Trump says the U.S. and Iran will resume negotiations on Monday after he called off a planned attack on Iran over the weekend. Here's what he told reporters on Air Force One earlier.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, U.S. PRESIDENT: Well, now what we're doing is we're talking to them in the form of a negotiation. It begins tomorrow afternoon and we'll see if it's true. I'd love to do that. Save a lot of lives, save a lot of -- a lot of unnecessary power, to be honest with you. Take many, many years to have a build it back. If it could, I don't think it would be even buildable back.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNTE: President Trump also claims there is a deal on the Strait of Hormuz and that there will be a deal on the denuclearization of Iran, as he puts it. Tehran, for its part, is not backing down on its claim to supervise the critical waterway. State media reports Iran's foreign minister held several high level

phone calls with senior Saudi and Pakistani officials on Sunday. Earlier, I spoke with Mehran Kamrava, Professor of government at Georgetown University in Doha on what we can expect those talks to look like and how far Washington and Tehran are from potentially striking a deal to end this war.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MEHRAN KAMRAVA, PROFESSOR OF GOVERNMENT AT GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY IN DOHA: Goalposts have changed considerably since the beginning of the conflict. First, there was talk about regime change, then surrender. Now what seems to be the discussion is opening the Strait of Hormuz. And of course, the Iranians want to retain some sort of administrative influence over the strait in conjunction with the Omanis.

And at the same time for Tehran, what's really important is sanctions relief, something that the United States can only partially do. At least the president can do. It takes an act of Congress. So the negotiations, if they were to take place, are extremely complex and complicated, not something similar to what the president would like them to be.

Because from the Iranian perspective, it's the economy that's really important, whereas for the United States, it's simply the Strait of Hormuz at this point.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNTE: Israel has expanded strikes across Gaza for a second straight day. The IDF says it targeted two elite Hamas commanders in Der al- Balah, as well as military operatives in Gaza City and Jabalya. The escalation comes despite President Trump announcing fresh progress towards an Israel-Hamas cease fire on Thursday. Hamas has said it is committed to disarming, but only after Israel stops its attacks.

Palestinians also gathered in Gaza City on Sunday to mourn a man, his pregnant wife and their 7-year-old son who were reportedly killed in an Israeli attack on a residential building. Officials estimate more than 1,200 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli strikes since the initial ceasefire plan was outlined in October.

Russia and Ukraine are trading new strikes. Ukrainian officials say Russia dropped eight guided bombs on the city of Zaporizhzhia within an hour and a half on Sunday. The attack killed at least one person, wounded dozens and destroyed residential buildings. Residents describe the horror that they witnessed.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MYKOLA SHATALLO, WOUNDED IN RUSSIAN STRIKE (through translator): Everything is smashed to pieces. Nothing is left in one piece. The wardrobes, the TVs, the fridges, everything. No doors, no windows. Everything was smashed.

[01:05:00] SVITLANA, ZAPORIZHZHIA RESIDENT (through translator): They the Russians are not human beings. They're inhuman. They want to kill us completely. That is what I think. They want us to, to be gone. They don't want us to live.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNTE: Russian officials say Ukrainian drones struck several targets inside the country, including another Wild Berries warehouse. Wild Berries is the country's largest online marketplace and it has been the target of Ukrainian strikes in the past few weeks. Kyiv claims the facility supply Russia's frontline troops in Ukraine, which Moscow does deny.

U.S. secretary of State Marco Rubio told Fox News the U.S. will try to kick start peace talks between Ukraine and Russia in the coming weeks, but he says there are still significant obstacles to overcome there.

Joining us now is Evelyn Farkas. She's a former deputy assistant secretary of defense for Russia, Ukraine and Eurasia in the Obama administration. She's also the executive director of the McCain Institute. It is good to see you. Thank you for being with us.

Secretary Rubio says the U.S. wants to restart peace talks. Is there any sign that Moscow is genuinely interested, though? Is Russia simply buying time?

EVELYN FARKAS, FORMER DEPUTY ASSISTANT SECRETARY OF DEFENSE FOR RUSSIA, UKRAINE AND EURASIA: Ben, I would say that there's no sign that Vladimir Putin, that the Kremlin is ready to compromise. So I don't see the prospects for peace as being very rosy, although I will say that they are probably better than they've been in the recent past simply because there's more pressure being put on the Kremlin domestically and internationally.

HUNTE: Russia has hit Kyiv again, while Ukraine is also striking targets deep inside Russia. Are both sides trying to strengthen their hand before any potential negotiations?

FARKAS: Well, I think Ukraine is trying to force Russia to negotiate and to negotiate in good faith. Russia is still intent on winning. You know, all of the comments that have come out of Vladimir Putin, whether it's at his St. Petersburg Business Forum or other comments that he's made, indicate that he still thinks that he can pull a rabbit out of a hat.

And that's despite the fact that militarily the Russian troops are not advancing, that economically they're suffering from these attacks on their oil refineries and other infrastructure.

Also militarily, they are suffering from the attacks on the logistics infrastructure into Crimea and on their airfields, for example, the Engels Airfield, which is a significant airfield when it comes not just to tactical and operational missions, but strategic nuclear as well. HUNTE: You have said that Ukraine's momentum has improved. Do the latest attacks change that assessment or does Kiev still have leverage here?

FARKAS: It still has leverage. Then it has the momentum. And you know, even President Trump, who tends to verbally at least, you know, give much more comfort, if you will, to Vladimir Putin and the Kremlin has acknowledged that Ukraine is actually making significant inroads when it comes to stopping Russia's military momentum on the ground and then again, strategically attacking Russia in a way that compounds the weaknesses that it already has.

You know, bringing 30,000 North Korean troops in isn't going to solve your economic or your military problems.

HUNTE: President Trump says he does want peace, but is continuing military support for Ukraine. Do you think that strengthens America's negotiating position or does it send some very mixed signals?

FARKAS: No, I think it strengthens the American negotiating position because we're essentially saying to Putin, we are still with Ukraine. And it's not just the White House, which is to say the senior most Republican and the senior most leader in the world, but it's also our Congress.

And our Congress authorizes all of the funding that supports Ukraine directly or indirectly, and certainly that supports our military industrial complex and makes decisions about what the priorities are when we're looking at the globe. And of course, we know that there are some decisions that have to be made relative to the Middle East.

HUNTE: You have also argued that Putin believes ending the war could threaten his grip on power. So do you genuinely think we're going to see peace while he does stay in power?

FARKAS: Yes, it's really an open question, Ben, because again, I do think that he thinks if he loses, like most Russian leaders who lose these kinds of wars, he is going to also lose his grip on power. That the elites, if not the people on the street, I think it's more likely the elites, the security forces, will say, listen, this isn't working. We need you to move over so we can have a more pragmatic face, negotiate our way out of this, otherwise it will drag on.

And all of the signs internally in Russia also indicate a lot of discomfort across the board to include possibly the security forces, but definitely the business community, the nationalists who have backed him, the bloggers, the journalists, they are all increasingly voicing skepticism about whether Russia can win this war.

[01:10:07]

HUNTE: Saying that what is the biggest thing you're going to be watching for over the next few days and weeks but will tell us whether diplomacy has a real chance here?

FARKAS: I guess I would say from a U.S. centric position whether the U.S. can pass a good sanctions bill through our Congress to further signal to the Kremlin that, you know, America is still on Ukraine's side. But aside from that, you know, can Ukraine continue the momentum, just continue crippling the Russian oil industry because that will cause Russia to have to make some serious decisions.

HUNTE: There's a lot there. Evelyn Farkas, thank you so much for insight and expertise. I'm sure be speaking to again very soon. Thank you for now.

FARKAS: Thank you, Ben.

HUNTE: Russian police are investigating a deadly bomb blast at a restaurant in downtown Moscow with the city's mayor calling it a terrorist attack. At least two people were killed and 21 more were wounded. Investigators have not yet said who they think is responsible. CNN's Fred Pleitgen has more details from Moscow.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Moscow's mayor has called an explosion that happened at a restaurant here in the Russian capital on Saturday evening an act of terrorism. Now so far, the Russian authorities of course, are still in the early stages of investigating exactly what happened there.

But what we've gleaned so far is that apparently at 8 p.m. on Saturday evening there was a private event going on in this upscale restaurant that is right in the heart of the Russian capital. One of the security guards who was on duty there noticed a courier, a woman coming to the entrance with a package.

He then searched that woman and that is when a bomb detonated that seems to have been inside that package. The security guard was killed, the woman was killed and another bystander, a customer of the restaurant, was also killed as well.

So far the Russians have not said who they believe was behind all of this or who they believe the target was of this attack. In the past, however, in similar instances, the Russians have pointed the finger of blame at the Ukrainians.

In 2023, a well-known Russian blogger was killed and over the past couple of years, several Russian generals were killed right here in Moscow in bomb attacks as well. And in those instances, the Russians have blamed the Ukrainians, specifically the Ukrainian military intelligence.

Right now, however, the investigation still very much in the early stages but of it does come as security here in the Russian capital remains on high alert. Fred Pleitgen, CNN, Moscow.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HUNTE: Cuba's national power grid collapsed late on Sunday. The state owned utility made the announcement on X, the post didn't include any further details about the outage. Cuba's power system experienced three nationwide blackouts in July. It has struggled to secure fuel after imports from Venezuela and Mexico were shut down by U.S. President Donald Trump.

The state of Washington is battling some of its worst wildfires in decades. Coming up, CNN is on the ground in Spokane County, where hundreds of structures have been destroyed. See in a moment.

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HUNTE: Welcome back. Authorities in Spain's North African territory of Ceuta are transporting more migrants back to Morocco. Most of the 60,000 people who crossed the border last week have already returned though, and life in the tiny community has mostly gone back to normal. But far-right leaders in Spain and elsewhere in Europe are using the deadly border rush to stoke public fear and anger.

Vox party leader is blaming Spain's pro-immigration prime minister. That's Pedro Sanchez. Have a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SANTIAGO ABASCAL, LEADER OF SPAIN'S FAR-RIGHT VOX PARTY (through translator): We are facing an invasion and it must be called that. I think that at this point, no one can deny that the arrival of 65,000 people, according to what is being said at the moment, is an invasion. And we are facing an act of war promoted by Morocco and tolerated and allowed by Pedro Sanchez in different ways.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNTE: Anti-immigration protesters gathered outside the Moroccan embassy in Madrid. They echoed the far right description of immigration as a, quote, invasion.

E.U. foreign ministers will join an emergency meeting on Tuesday to address that growing backlash and the threats by some E.U. leaders to now tighten their borders.

The threat of wildfires continues to spread across Europe. Greek investigators are looking into what caused two helicopters to collide on Sunday while aiding firefighting efforts. The country's fire service reports the two crew members from one chopper died in the accident.

Greece is one of the latest countries to experience summer wildfires due to record breaking heat waves. Meanwhile, new fires continue to ignite in France, causing new evacuations as a precaution.

Just days earlier, the French prime minister said those fires were under control. The French interior minister says more than 119,000 hectares have burned since the beginning of the year. That is more than 11 times the size of Paris.

Firefighters in Spokane, Washington will see some of their most favorable weather conditions in days on Monday as the state battles its worst fire season in more than 30 years.

In the last hour, a Spokane County official told U.S. an estimated 700 homes are among the many structures that have been destroyed since a series of wildfires broke out over the weekend. At least 60,000 people have been evacuated.

[01:20:00]

Our Julia Vargas Jones filed this report earlier, before the latest updates that we did receive.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JULIA VARGAS JONES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: We're in the northwest part of Spokane, Washington, and we have reports of at least 600 structures damaged or destroyed. And this is what we're talking about when we're talking about this kind of destruction. We spoke to a neighbor who walked out and talked to our crew who said that this was his grandson's home.

They had moved here just six months ago, his grandson, his pregnant wife and their three children. They are luckily safe and out of this area. But it just goes to show how cruel the path of the fire can be.

We see this pink spray of fire retardant around the family's truck standing still here right out front the house, but just across the street, houses that seem to be, at least from the outside, from where we're standing still just fine. This is the kind of cruelty that we've seen with different kinds of fires here.

If this estimate of 600 structures damaged or destroyed is correct, then it could rank among the most destructive fires in Washington's history. There are three different fires burning in this area as of now, in 15 major fires across the state.

In order to fight that, authorities have at least 4,000 people, manpower just coming from all over the place, from Alaska to Florida. Firefighters helping out in this fight. 250,000 acres have already been burned across the state. That's about an area nine times the size of Washington, D.C. and that kind of help comes.

It's just not manpower. There's also equipment that's heavy machinery, planes, bulldozers and other kinds of fire engines that will be needed to clear out the path. As of now, we heard from authorities, there's still a lot of uncertainty. They haven't confirmed any kind of injuries or deaths related to this fire, but they're not ruling it out either because this is still very much an active scene.

They're still looking through all of the destruction to see if anyone is missing. They've set up different shelters across the city. And we heard from the mayor of Spokane, Mayor Lisa Brown. She said, for all of those who are suffering from both loss and the uncertainty, that our hearts go out to you. And she encouraged residents who are able, who are in a safe place to go out to these shelters and help out those who are in need. Of course, the overall context of this is both Washington and neighboring Oregon having the worst fire season in more than 30 years. More than 2.1 million acres destroyed since as of July 30. Julia Vargas Jones, CNN, Spokane, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HUNTE: Scientists have been forced to get creative in the wake of federal funding cuts to universities in the U.S. after this break, we will speak to the UCLA scientist behind OnlyMarms is an OnlyFans account that he hopes can help continue his decades of marmot research. See in a moment.

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HUNTE: Authorities in Romania are facing a growing challenge as motorists encounter and in many instances engage with brown bears on the road. Despite the risks and fines, people are feeding the bears and stopping traffic isn't the only problem, as officials worry that both motorists and bears could be in danger.

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HUNTE (voice-over): Brown bears on the prowl in Romania, looking for food not deep in the woods, but from motorists trying to snap a selfie. Roadside signs warn people that feeding the bears is illegal, but that hasn't stopped the traffic or the frequency of these animals roaming the streets. It's a dangerous intersection of human and animal life, causing concern in some mountain communities.

JEAN STANGACLU, RESIDENT (through translator): Well, the bear comes almost every evening, usually to the garbage containers. They got used to us, to the people who live here, the residents, they're not afraid of anything.

HUNTE (voice-over): Romania has the largest population of brown bears in Europe outside of Russia. And nearly 30 people have been killed by the animals in Romania over the last two decades. That's according to the country's environment ministry.

To protect against further attacks, Romania has doubled its annual hunting quota for this year and the next to nearly 900 bears. But conservationists say that won't solve the problem.

CRISTINA LAPIS, MILLIONS OF FRIENDS ASSOCIATION, LIBEARTY BEAR SANCTUARY (through translator): This conflict between people and bears will not be resolved through the hunting law. First of all, because the hunting will not be done where the bears are coming onto roadsides, hunters will want to go into the forest to take trophy bears.

HUNTE (voice-over): Wildlife experts blame climate change and urban expansion for driving bears into populated areas. And some animal advocates say the non-lethal solutions that are in place, like electric fences and better trash management, have not been properly enforced.

But if people continue to feed the bears for a chance to photo even despite the threat of steep finds, it may be the bears that pay the highest price.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

[01:30:03]

HUNTE: A team of scientists from UCLA are turning to an unusual source of funding. OnlyMarms is an OnlyFans account dedicated to marmots, the fuzzy, cat-sized rodents often found on mountain sides.

Although the platform generally features adult content, OnlyMarms exclusively post videos of marmots and is generating some serious attention online.

The UCLA scientists and students behind the account say recent federal funding cuts to universities have ramped up the pressure, forcing them to explore new ways to generate money for their research.

And one of the great minds behind OnlyMarms joins us now. Daniel Blumstein specializes in marmot research and is a professor in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at UCLA. It's good to see you, sir.

Let's start with the obvious. Why did you decide that OnlyFans was the right place to fund marmot research?

DANIEL BLUMSTEIN, PROFESSOR, DEPARTMENT OF ECOLOGY AND EVOLUTIONARY BIOLOGY AT UCLA: Well, it was sort of born out of desperation. We have been trying to get our grants refunded and that was not working as well as we wanted.

We are doing a very popular, I hope popular, "Fat Marmot" Week on Instagram. That's coming up right now. And -- but Instagram doesn't monetize anything. And we were facing a pretty hard cliff with a hard edge in terms of getting money to support graduate students to keep this project running.

And I was watching with my wife, the Apple TV show "Margo's Got Money Troubles", and I was pondering one day while waiting for marmots to come out and do something, well, marmots have money troubles too. Maybe we can go to OnlyFans.

So I came back to the lab and I said, hey, you know, I was thinking we should launch an OnlyFans account and share all of these incredible videos we're getting. This is part of a new project where we're trying to develop A.I. models to identify behavior.

And my lab started cracking up and someone said yes, and someone else said no or groaned. And then someone said, OnlyMarms. So Emily is now in charge of OnlyMarms and getting the content out there.

H6: And just like that. The account has generated plenty of attention already. But has it generated enough money to make a real difference yet? Let's talk about the money.

BLUMSTEIN: So I mean, we're -- the short answer is it's not replacing the federal government. We've gotten about $5,000 in donations. We get about $4,000 from that from OnlyFans.

I've got to figure out how not to pay taxes on this money when I donate it into my UCLA account.

UCLA, until very recently, made it very difficult to get money directly from small donors. Now they've opened that up, so it's a better way to donate and have tax free donations as well.

But at the end of the day, science communication is something we do a lot of.

And this is hitting a new audience. And I think, you know, sharing the excitement of what we do, showing that marmots are kind of cool, they're certainly cute, isn't a bad thing. And hopefully we can get some more interest and maybe we'll figure out a way to get bigger donations.

HUNTE: I love it. Well, it's definitely triggered my team to understand what a marmot is. So we've definitely won on that line.

Beyond the headlines, what does this say about the state of scientific research funding in the U.S. right now?

BLUMSTEIN: It's horrible. I mean these long-term studies, this is our 65th year of following the fate of individually-marked, yellow-bellied marmots. We have learned so much from these animals about population biology, about how animals respond to environmental change which we're seeing a lot of these days.

It's only through these long-term studies that we can get the long view. And it's sort of hitting us in three ways.

First, you know, we're not getting funded directly to support the project.

Second, the federal government is going after the universities, particularly UCLA and there's less money coming in. So we have less money for graduate students and our department has lost about a third of the support for graduate students.

And I need graduate students to run this project, it's a five-month field season. I'm out there about two-and-a-half months. We need overlapping generations of graduate students to keep this thing going.

And the third way it's killing it is (AUDIO GAP) the laboratory where we study these marmots, We've had this incredibly successful (AUDIO GAP) and we don't know if we're going to get renewed.

HUNTE: Ok. Daniel, we just lost you at the end there. But while you were kind of cracking up, we were looking at marmots. So it's still a win. It's still a win. But thank you so much for joining us. And we'll definitely be jumping

on and checking out more of your research. So thank you for that. Speak to you again soon.

We will be right back with more CNN NEWSROOM after this short break. See you in a moment.

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TOM HOLLAND, ACTOR: I promise you that I will keep you safe. Please. You just have to trust me. Come on.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNTE: It was a good weekend to be "Spider-Man". The webbed, crawling superhero's latest film, that's "Spider-Man Brand New Day", brought in an estimated $355 million in the U.S., according to media research company Rentrak. Globally, the film brought in about $927 million, making it the second biggest opening weekend ever.

[01:39:51]

HUNTE: It is extending a cinematic hot streak for the year. Massive films like "The Odyssey" shattered expectations just a few weeks ago.

Experts believe the summer blockbusters could make for a $4 billion movie season. And maybe even a $10 billion overall box office this year.

A small village in Bosnia-Herzegovina turned the community into Ancient Rome this weekend for its Roman Days Festival. The villagers did reenactments of gladiator battles inside a makeshift colosseum. There were also ancient crafts and costumes on display, too.

Organizers say the festival is a way to honor the region's heritage.

All right. That's all I've got for you. Thanks for joining me and the team.

I'm Ben Hunte in Atlanta. I'll see you next weekend.

"WORLD SPORT" is next.

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