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Trump Warns Iran with a Final Chance for a Deal to End the War; Sophie Woods Smashed Via Alpina's Fastest Record, Finishing in 29 Days. Aired 3-3:45a ET

Aired August 04, 2026 - 03:00   ET

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

[03:00:08]

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

President Trump is warning Iran that they have one last chance to make a deal.

And we'll take you to Greece, while wildfires continue ravaging homes and acres of land.

Plus, ultrarunner Sophie Woods joins the show after a record-breaking run through one of the world's toughest endurance challenges.

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

SANDOVAL: We want to begin with President Trump's warning that Iran has, quote, a last chance to sign a deal with the U.S. to end the war, but says that there are no time constraints on negotiations. President Trump also went after Iran's leadership after Tehran contradicted his claim that negotiations would resume on Monday.

Iran's foreign ministry says it's focused only on negotiations with Oman about the Strait of Hormuz. Tehran says the two countries are in talks to establish a safe, temporary route for vessels through the critical Strait of Hormuz.

CNN's Leila Gharagozlou joining me live from London. Leila, so are there any early hints about what this possible arrangement could mean, this so-called safe passage for vessels?

LEILA GHARAGOZLOU, CNN PRODUCER: It's very unclear what to expect between Iran and Oman in this sort of safe passage way. This has come up time and time again throughout this conflict of finding a new route for vessels to be able to get through, given that the Strait has been closed now for quite a while.

But much like the rest of this conflict, it really does feel like Groundhog's Day. Every single day, we're getting really the same variation of what we saw the day before and even the months before. Even with President Trump's threats, it's something that we've seen time and time again. So we're going to have to wait and see if something new comes out.

There really isn't that many different options available both to Iran and the United States and I think both sides are trying to find some way out of a war that neither side really wants to be engaged in. But it's ultimately going to be very difficult if neither side kind of gives a little.

And right now, the Iranians are saying, we're not going to budge. We're going to try to find another route so that we can maintain this strategic control of the Strait of Hormuz. And the U.S. is trying to push back against that.

So it's just every day in this really precarious, very fragile balance of what's going to happen. And is there this mysterious miracle third way to get out of this conflict, allow ships to pass through these key waterways and not escalate? Polo?

SANDOVAL: Yes. We really do have a sense of being stuck in this time loop, as you mentioned, with the Groundhog Day reference slightly ago. So thank you so much.

Iranian officials, they are acknowledging the mounting economic and social problems caused by this ongoing war. I asked Trita Parsi, executive vice president of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, about how much pressure the regime is under to strike a deal with the United States. Here's what he told me.

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TRITA PARSI, EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT, QUINCY INSTITUTE FOR RESPONSIBLE STATECRAFT, AND AUTHOR, "LOSING AN ENEMY": First of all, I do think that the President as well is under time pressure. I mean, it lies in the interest of both sides to claim that they're not feeling any pressure. But both sides are feeling that pressure.

I think the Iranians can withstand this, certainly for a couple of more months, but if this were to drag out for another nine to 12 months, I think they would face significant difficulties because this is putting a tremendous amount of pressure on their economy. The big difference is, however, they are under attack. This is an act of aggression, in their view, and the country is defending itself.

This gives them a higher tolerance for some of that pain, whereas in the U.S. case, the vast majority of Americans were against this war from the outset, and the opposition to the war has only grown even greater. So even though the U.S. may have more capacity to withstand some of this pressure, the tolerance for that pressure amongst the population is much more limited because they were not on board with this war in the first place. And on balance, that actually makes the U.S. side a little more sensitive to this than what the Iranian side is.

SANDOVAL: And of course, caught in the middle of it all are just Iranian civilians, so I'm curious what you're hearing from just regular people inside Iran, what the mood is. Are they exhausted, are they fearful, or perhaps even divided as this next supposed round of negotiations continue?

PARSI: The overwhelming sense I'm getting is that people are simply tired. They want this to be over.

[03:04:57]

But there is also a view that is held by many, I don't know if it's a majority by many, which is they can't afford to go back to a situation in which there's peace for a couple of months and then there's wars for a couple of weeks, and then there's peace for a couple of months and then back and forth.

They need this to end in a complete way. And that requires a final deal between the two sides rather than constantly kicking the can down the road.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANDOVAL: All right, we're going to bring you that full interview with Trita Parsi coming up in the next hour.

Also in the next hour, European Union interior ministers will be joining an emergency meeting to address Spain's migrant crisis and the political backlash that has followed. On Thursday, some 60,000 people made the dangerous crossing from Morocco into Spain's North African territory of Ceuta.

At least 72 people were killed, some drowned as they tried swimming to the tiny Spanish enclave and some were trampled by Russian crowds. Spain says that most of the migrants have returned to Morocco within 48 hours. A few thousand people do remain, as you see here, and are now receiving humanitarian aid, including food and water.

And while illegal border crossings into the E.U. have dropped 37 percent this year over The chaotic incident is sparking a political crisis in Europe, with far-right anti-immigration politicians calling it an invasion, and leaders of some countries, including Italy, threatening to tighten their border security. Aid workers in Ceuta are denouncing that reaction.

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RAMSES MOHAMED, SOCIAL EDUCATOR, ELIN ASSOCIATION: These people have been used as political tool to make pressure in this international scenario. These persons are not from Morocco, these persons come from countries where there is war, there is hunger, there is death, like Sudan, like Yemen, like Mali. Come from a lot of context where there is violence, and for that reason they had a profile of asylum seekers.

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SANDOVAL: CNN Portugal's Helena Lins brings us an update from Ceuta.

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HELENA LINS, CNN PORTUGAL REPORTER: It's been four days since thousands of migrants entered Ceuta coming from this border with Morocco. The majority has gone back, but according to the local government, about 3000 to 5000 are still here, and around, or actually, more than 800 are minors.

And these are the numbers that the local government has given today, but they might go up, especially the numbers of minors, because these are the ones that have been identified and taken to shelters for minors. But it is very likely that some of them are still on the streets of Ceuta.

They might be hiding because they are afraid that if they are taken by authorities, they might just be dropped near the border, so they have to go back to Morocco, or they might have been taken by locals that are trying to help. So minors are the priority, they are the most vulnerable. But also a lot of adults, young adults, are staying on the streets of Ceuta.

This morning a lot of them were on a beach, the nearest beach to the temporary shelter for youngsters and adults. It is completely full, so it's not taking any migrants at the moment. So these hundreds of people are just staying on the beach with the military around.

This morning they got water from the military, and we also know that this afternoon, Red Cross was also on the beach giving some help. As I said, after four days, most of them complaining they haven't been able to find any water and any food.

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SANDOVAL: Russian officials are reporting a new deadly drone strike in the Moscow region. The state-run TASS news agency cites local officials who say that five people were killed and that six others were wounded.

And all this comes a day after Russian authorities blamed debris from a Ukrainian drone for killing at least seven people on a crowded beach in southern Russia. They're reporting at least three of the victims were children. Now we should warn you that the video that we're about to show you is disturbing.

Ukraine's Center for Countering Disinformation says that the drone was shot down by Russian air defenses. CNN's analysis of the video finding that seconds before the explosion, automatic gunfire from at least three weapons can be heard.

And during the gunfire, the drone veers sharply and then dives into the beach. It appears to have overshot a Russian radar installation just west of where it came down.

And still to come here on "CNN Newsroom," fires spreading across Greece as multiple countries battle seasonal wildfires in Europe. We'll have the latest from the region in a live report.

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SANDOVAL: Hungary's only nuclear power plant is on the verge of shutdown because of a drought. The plant usually generates about half of the country's electricity, but it was reportedly running at just over 10 percent of its capacity on Monday. You see, the plant uses water from the Danube River as a coolant.

The problem is that the river's water levels already hit a record low and are projected to fall even further. The expected closure of the plant risks widespread energy problems.

High temperatures and dry conditions continue fueling wildfires throughout Europe, including in Greece. That's where hundreds of firefighters and more than 20 aircraft have been deployed just northwest of Athens on Monday as flames engulfed forests there. Authorities are investigating a deadly helicopter crash which happened during firefighting efforts over the weekend.

[03:15:04]

Thousands of hectares have already burned during the seasonal fires, which experts say have been made worse due to climate change.

Journalist Elinda Labropoulou joining me from Parga, Greece, with more on the fires. Elinda, it's great to have you with us again.

We were talking a little bit yesterday about how emergency crews were going door to door, encouraging people to evacuate. Where do some of the efforts stand today?

ELINDA LABROPOLOU, JOURNALIST: Well, actually, that's exactly what happened last night as well. Firefighters had to go door to door again, but in a new area as the fires are continued to spread out closer to Athens.

It is the fifth day that this mega fire is now burning. There are three main fronts, the firefighters are telling us this morning, and actually last night they gave people five minutes to get out. This is because very strong winds persist in the area and the three fronts remain very large.

So thousands of people have been evacuated. Hundreds of homes have burned throughout these five days that this mega fire has been burning. The good news that we do have is that, first of all, the winds are dropping a little bit today, and also that means that more aircraft can take part in the operations.

We have over 500 firefighters on the ground, 11 helicopters at the moment, and we know that more will be joining in as the day continues. The fire service now says that it is when we hit the highest temperatures today, which are expected to reach about 100 degrees Fahrenheit, that things will be really put to the test. But overall, the situation in the country, we had over 200 fires break out in the last 24 hours, but we don't have any other serious fronts at the moment. Two arrests have been made in connection to this mega fire in Athens. They're saying that it's very likely that this fire was caused by sparks in an electric network associated with a wind farm.

At the moment, an electrical engineer and the contractor have been arrested and they're going to be testifying in front of a prosecutor today, Polo.

SANDOVAL: Yes, it is absolutely distressing, that scenario that you lay out of some of these families having just five minutes to gather their family and get out, not knowing if they'll see their home again. Elinda Labropoulou, thank you so much. Grateful for all your reporting.

Now we do want to take you to the U.S. state of Washington, where a man has been arrested and accused of deliberately setting one of the three major wildfires during a fire incident there in Spokane County. Sheriff's department officials providing this screenshot earlier, showing the suspect being led away. You see him wearing handcuffs.

Well, those fires have been burning out of control since they broke out over the weekend and nearly 65,000 people have been forced to evacuate. Officials are saying that more than 700 structures have been destroyed.

Many of them, as you see here in before and after photos, are homes. But so far, no injuries or deaths have been reported.

And earlier, my colleague Elex Michaelson had a chance to speak with Washington State Governor Bob Ferguson. The governor sharing some details about that arrest.

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GOV. BOB FERGUSON (D-WA): It's arson. The individual, we understand, does have a criminal record and it just takes a tragic situation and just makes it more heartbreaking to think that that much of this damage could have been caused by an individual doing this on purpose. So it adds to a really challenging situation.

ELEX MICHAELSON, CNN ANCHOR: So the arrest is 37 year old Aaron Farinacci, a convicted felon. And you understand that folks nearby saw him potentially, you know, tell us about what you've learned.

FERGUSON: Yes, our understanding is and this is want to be very clear, late breaking development, but the understanding is that individual individuals saw him acting suspicious and then there was smoke a few minutes after that. Police obviously did their work and ran to ground for that probable cause, that type of thing. An arrest was made, an announcement was made in Spokane literally just a couple hours ago.

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SANDOVAL: And we'll continue to keep you posted as we learn more about that investigation. Now to Cuba, where officials are working to restore power after the

island was again plunged into darkness. But the nation's utility provider says the thunderstorms and a powerful fluctuation are making that even harder. Sunday's power grid shutdown was the sixth blackout so far this year.

And Cuba's aging infrastructure is largely to blame. But a U.S. blockade on the oil that Cuba needs to power its system that continues to make matters even worse. And it's taken a toll on the roughly 10 million people who live on the island.

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NOSBIEL CASTILLO, HAVANA, CUBA RESIDENT (through translator): It's hard to get up, go to bed without power, wake up without power. You have to live day by day, so to speak. And it's tough, because things go bad in the refrigerator and you just don't feel like working.

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SANDOVAL: Coming up, she crossed eight European countries in one of the world's toughest endurance challenges running straight through the Alps. Sophie Woods, the new Via Alpina record holder, will be joining me after a short break to share more about this incredible story of her journey.

Stay with us. You're watching "CNN Newsroom."

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DAVID GOLDMAN, CNN BUSINESS SENIOR REPORTER: Well, data centers have become a new front in the Iran war, and we have seen several attacks, including two in Bahrain, two in the UAE and one even in Tehran. There are five confirmed data center attacks. This is a new thing, we hadn't seen this until 2026.

There have been lots of attacks on data centers. Don't get me wrong, but they were in the cyber attack kind of variety, these physical attacks where they're getting bombed. That's a new thing.

And I want to focus on those Bahrain attacks in particular because they were hit twice. First, on April 30th, when Iran bombed two centers in Bahrain owned by Amazon. And then again, just a few weeks ago, on July 21st, basically obliterating it.

And the question is, why is Iran targeting these? It's actually said that there are 29 legitimate attacks for Iran to hit, not just for Amazon, but also Google, Microsoft, NVIDIA, Palantir, all of these and 24 more. Why?

Well, so many of these companies are doing business with the Pentagon, including a $9 billion military contract that is controlled by Amazon, Google, Microsoft, and Oracle. All of them are using data centers to store data for the military in addition to data for consumers.

So they don't really differentiate in a data center between, is this a military bit of information or is this a consumer bit of information? They do both.

And it's basically like putting a giant American flag on the roof as a target for Iran in this region. And this is a very important region for A.I.

There's Silicon Valley, there's China, and then the Middle East is trying to establish itself as a new hub for A.I. They have, these nations have committed to $2 trillion of investment in U.S. A.I. architecture to the exclusion of China.

Now, the question is, if they are going to get bombarded by Iran, if there are legitimate military targets in this war, will companies continue to build there? Will insurers continue to build policies for these data centers? And will investors continue to pour money into the region?

There's a lot of money there. There's a lot of money to be made, but there's going to be a lot of questions now as we continue to see this develop.

Back to you.

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SANDOVAL: All right. Thank you, David Goldman.

A woman from New Zealand shattered the women's and men's records for one of the world's toughest endurance challenges. Ultrarunner Sophie Woods ran more than 1200 miles, or nearly 2000 kilometers, straight across eight European countries in what's called the Via Alpina.

With a 42-year-old powered through rugged terrain, drastic elevation changes, and some extreme heat, and get this, she did it in just 29 days. The previous record for the punishing route was held by Jake Catterall, who completed the run in about 36 days.

So let's meet her. It's Sophie Woods, the new Via Alpina record holder, and is coming to us live from Andorra. It is wonderful to meet you, an honor to meet you, and congratulations to you, Sophie, and your entire team.

SOPHIE WOODS, NEW VIA ALPINA RECORD HOLDER, AND ULTRARUNNER: Oh, thank you so much for having me on, honestly. Thank you.

SANDOVAL: Of course. Yes, let's get started with what initially fueled your desire to run through the Alps for 29 days. WOODS: So I had a bit of a complicated last couple of years. We were

trying to have a child and went through IVF, and when that didn't pan out, I wanted my life to look different.

I've raced ultramarathons for the last decade, and I kind of was just like, is this what I'm just going to keep doing? Am I just going to keep showing up to the same races? And so my husband, I think you could see that I needed a bigger challenge, and he suggested the Via Alpina, and I just thought, wow, what a chance to see the Alps and to run, to be supported like that for a month.

SANDOVAL: We're seeing some of the incredible images from Zoe, just an absolute beautiful landscape. I'm curious, what goes through your mind?

[03:30:07]

You mentioned the years leading up to this and sort of redefining what your life looked like. Did you even set this as a goal when you first started this, that you wanted to break this record?

WOODS: Personally, I think 30 days is enough to be running, was kind of how we looked at it. The aim for me was to finish, no matter what. I was there for the adventure.

If it took me 45 days, 50 days, I'd still be out there. The fact that we managed to come in under the time that I had expected is purely down to Zoe and George supporting me. But it's such an incredible trail to be on that just every minute, every time it was hard, nothing grows in the comfort zone, and then you look up and you're like, just look at what you get today.

SANDOVAL: Yes, some of the images we're also seeing are some of those occasional breaks that you would get as well. When would you stop to eat? When would you sleep? And how many hours a day would you spend advancing on the trail?

WOODS: So when we first planned it, I think we, well, certainly I expected to move a little faster than I did. So sleep was a bit tricky. I was generally out on the trail for 15 to 19 hours each day. And so sleep, sleep, yes, there was a couple of 20 hour days and sleep was, you know, three, four, five hours a night.

I would see my crew every, I mean, it could be every two hours or it could be five, six or seven hours between seeing them. So every time I saw them, I was just shoveling as much food into my face as I possibly could. And then they'd repack me and off I'd go.

SANDOVAL: How did you train for the changes in elevation?

WOODS: So I mean, the training for this, I guess I've really been training for it for the last 10 years of my life with all the racing. And I've always loved racing in the mountains.

We are lucky enough to live in Andorra, which has very steep terrain here. But I also made sure in the last sort of year and a half that I was really hitting the strength work and making sure that my body was as resilient as it possibly could be, because I had no idea what was going to happen.

You know, I've raced for a week max at a time. I had no idea what was going to happen in week two, week three, week four, you know. So I think just making sure that my body was as strong as possible and that I just took care of it.

You know, I didn't try and do anything fast. There was no heroics. Just keep moving as you can on the terrain that you have.

SANDOVAL: Yes. We're seeing a map right now of the trail that you took, and you touched on essentially preparing for a decade physically.

Let's close, perhaps, with the mental preparation that went into this. How did you get ready for that?

WOODS: So the mental side of it is a really important part of it because it's, you know, it's so easy to stop when things hurt or when it's really hard. At no point did I ever want to stop, but there were definitely points where I wasn't sure that I would be able to continue.

And I have just trained myself to, honestly, I would just keep moving until my crew told me I was allowed to stop for the day. And I didn't know how long or how far or what that was really going to look like, I just knew that they would look after me and I put my life in their hands. And it was like, you just keep going until they tell you you can sleep.

SANDOVAL: Well, I know I could speak for our entire team. We are incredibly amazed at what you've accomplished. We cannot thank you enough for sharing your story about what went into the hard work that went into this.

And also, thank you so much for letting us celebrate with you. Congratulations, Sophie.

Sophie Woods.

WOODS: Thank you so much. Thank you.

SANDOVAL: Thank you.

And we have another super athlete to tell you about, a Polish swimmer who is recovering after swimming more than 54 hours without resting from Sweden to Poland and all while raising funds for cancer care. According to CNN affiliate TVN24, he's the first person to have completed the 99-mile crossing, that's nearly 160 kilometers.

And this was his fifth attempt to do this. Donations for his fundraiser for the Cancer Fighters Foundation are still pouring in and have already surpassed $220,000.

Really incredible for a great cause. We'll be right back with more, stay with us.

[03:35:06]

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SANDOVAL: You are up to speed on your markets and here are your business headlines.

Capital One is defending its decision to close hundreds of accounts with ties to the Trump administration back in 2021.

[03:40:03]

The bank says that the decision followed concerns raised by its anti- money laundering unit. Trump says that the decision was politically motivated.

President Trump is slamming major oil companies for making too much money. On Monday, he called on industry leaders to keep fuel prices down as tensions with Iran drive up global energy markets. Trump is also calling on the U.K. to open the North Sea for more energy production.

And sources are telling CNN that the White House will meet with representatives from top A.I. firms today. They're expected to discuss A.I. regulation and the plan to give the government early access to A.I. models before they're released to the public.

Japan's government is making a new case for its military buildup. It says that increased defense spending can boost the country's struggling economy while strengthening security against China, Russia, and North Korea. And all this comes as close ally the United States says that it stepped in to help support the yen.

President Trump directed the Treasury to buy a large sum of the Japanese currency in what he called a gesture of friendship. However, it's still unclear how much money was exchanged. The yen had fallen to a 40-year low against the dollar leading up to this but has strengthened since the joint intervention, analysts are saying that the intervention may only buy time with Japan's economy still facing a number of long-term challenges.

Teachers and state employees marched through Buenos Aires on Monday in a national strike. The demonstration, which left some classrooms empty, led to the presidential palace known as the Pink House. Protesters are demanding pay raises and denouncing job cuts under the current president, Javier Milei's government.

He came to power three years ago on a promise to slash public spending but has yet to implement the university funding that he set out to in a congressional law.

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SONIA ALESSO, GENERAL SECRETARY, CTERA: Milei's government has taken away educational programs, teachers' training, teachers' salaries, school infrastructure, everything that makes for quality education and educational investment. We are demanding, together with Education International Worldwide, more budget for public schools, which is what they have taken away from us. That is why today we are on strike and marching.

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SANDOVAL: One of Colombia's most active volcanoes is now under an orange alert in case of a possible eruption. Some of this increased volcanic activity started last month with the highest levels recorded since observations started more than three decades ago. Colombia's geological service has warned people not to approach the volcano's upper areas along with two other neighboring volcanoes.

And with those pictures, we do want to thank you so much for joining me. "World Sport" is next, then I'll be back at the top of the next hour with more of your headlines here on "CNN Newsroom."

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