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CNN Headlines: ICE To Equip Arrest Teams With Agent Wearing Body Camera; New York Hits Pause On Hyperscale Data Center Construction; Spain Shuts Down France 2-0 To Book Spot In Tournament Final. Aired 5:30-6a ET
Aired July 15, 2026 - 05:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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[05:30:45]
BRIAN ABEL, CNN ANCHOR: It is half past the hour. Let's check on our top stories now.
A Senate confirmation hearing for acting Attorney General Todd Blanche is expected to begin in just a few hours. Blanche will try to earn the vote of lawmakers who will decide whether or not to confirm him as the next attorney general. No Democrats are expected to vote for him, and he can only lose one Republican vote.
The U.S. launching a fourth night of strikes against Iran. It all happening as the military reinstates a naval blockade of Iranian ports. And the president backs off a plan to place a 20 percent tax on vessels traveling through the strait -- what the president called compensation for ensuring safe passage. Sources are telling CNN that plan resulted in a flurry of calls from Gulf allies whom, according to Trump, have now agreed to investments in the U.S.
And DHS says that a Mexican national was hit and killed by a tractor- trailer after running from a traffic stop. It is just the latest deadly encounter involving immigration officials in the U.S. Protesters are demanding action after two fatal shootings also by ICE agents in less than a week.
The Department of Homeland Security announcing yesterday it's pausing most traffic stops by ICE. The agency is also planning to equip each arrest team with an officer wearing a body camera.
CNN's Jason Carroll reports.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JASON CARROLL, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voiceover): Maine lawmakers say there are still many unanswered questions about why ICE officers used deadly force when they stopped Joan Duran Guerrero at this intersection early Monday in Bedford, Maine.
CHELLIE PINGREE, (D) MAINE: Homeland Security was saying that the officer feeled for their life. That's what they always say -- that the individual weaponized their car. But then we heard 12 hours later in the day that they feared for public safety. This man was shot four times through the windshield, so there was an ICE officer shooting him directly in the face.
CARROLL (voiceover): Democratic Maine Congressman Jared Golden posted on X, "Unfortunately, the ICE officers involved in this incident were not yet wearing body cameras, which could have helped to establish those necessary faces. DHS needs to make this a priority."
DHS released a statement blaming Democrats for government shutdowns that they say delayed the rollout of body cameras, adding, "Body cameras have been deployed to more than half of the field offices with the remaining half to receive them in the next 60 days."
Body-worn cameras were absent in both deadly ICE-involved shootings in Maine and Texas, though $20 million in funding has been allocated for them, and the department has pledged to roll them out for the past five months. That is little comfort for those calling for accountability and transparency.
MONTY ELLISON, LIVES NEAR SHOOTING SCENE: People have to realize this is not normal and it cannot become normal at all.
PEGGO HODES, VISITED SHOOTING SCENE: This is murder with impunity, and this could be happening to any one of us -- any one of us. He's a 26- year-old with a child. He has a legitimate reason for being here. He had Social Security. It's horrific.
CARROLL (voiceover): As protests continue, CNN is learning more about the man who was killed. His father told Blue Radio, a popular station in Columbia, his son was working as a cleaner and a delivery driver, hoping to build a future for his family.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): He has his wife and his 3- year-old girl. He is a very hardworking person, very loving person, and a person who loves his family very much. His daughter -- his little 3-year-old daughter -- he worked for them.
CARROLL (voiceover): A neighbor telling CNN Duran Guerrero was a good husband and father.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): He wasn't a bad guy and the speculation that he was a criminal and had an order of deportation -- that's a total lie.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ABEL: At Alligator Alcatraz in the Florida Everglades most of the infrastructure now cleared out. The industrial lights, the white tents, generators, gas deliveries, and the blue Alligator Alcatraz sign are gone after the state announced it was shutting down the migrant detention facility. According to local media the Miami-Dade mayor says they are waiting on the formal return of the property, and they plan to sell it to the National Park Service.
[05:35:07] A Wisconsin elections commission says Elon Musk likely broke Wisconsin law in the 2025 state Supreme Court election when he handed out million-dollar checks to some voters. The bipartisan panel has referred two complaints to the local district attorney's office for possible prosecution. No word yet from Musk or his reps.
Wisconsin's Democratic attorney general had sued to try to stop him from handing out those checks. At the time, his attorney said the payments are meant to generate a grassroots movement to oppose activist judges and not to advocate for or against any particular candidate.
And New York State is hitting pause on data centers, passing a first- of-its-kind moratorium on new construction until decisions can be made about how best to protect the people of the Empire State.
CNN's Katherine Koretski has the story.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
GOV. KATHY HOCHUL, (D) NEW YORK: Today I'll be signing the nation's first-ever statewide Moratorium on hyperscale data centers.
KATHERINE KORETSKI, CNN REPORTER: And with that, New York becomes the first state to impose a moratorium on construction of new hyperscale data centers. Now, these data centers house technology that store things like servers that power artificial intelligence systems.
HOCHUL: This pause will remain in place for up to one year while New York establishes the strongest possible framework to protect our communities' guardrails. To reduce the risk to our energy grid. Minimize land disruption, noise pollution, and protect our natural resources.
KORETSKI: Governor Hochul explained that her administration is exploring having data centers pay into a larger fund to support the state's energy grid and that it will help lower costs for rate payers. Once the policy is in place the moratorium, she says, will be reviewed and lifted.
The announcement comes at a time when there is growing outrage from residents across the country regarding the development of these data centers, and concerns over safety as well as growing energy costs. Other state and local governments have been fighting the expansion of these centers as well with over 4,000 data centers across the U.S., according to the data center map.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ABEL: Roars of joy on the streets of Madrid as fans celebrated Spain's 2-nil victory over France in the World Cup semifinals. The "La Roja" are now headed to the final for the first time since 2010 when they won the championship.
CNN's Don Riddell is in Arlington, Texas with more.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DON RIDDELL, CNN WORLD SPORT CORRESPONDENT: What a performance from this extraordinary Spain team who march on the World Cup final hoping to repeat their feat of 2008 and 2010 when the European champions went on to claim the world title.
And they just played this French team off the park today. It really was quite a remarkable performance. Coming into this game everybody thought the French were going to do it -- their swaggering, swashbuckling attack of Mbappe and Dalisay and Ousmane Dembele. But in the end, they didn't get a look in and they ended up being knocked out of this tournament with barely a whimper.
Spain took the early initiative. Lamine Yamal earning the first-half penalty that was converted by Mikel Oyarzabal. It was a wonderful strike from Oyarzabal, meaning he now has five goals in this tournament. He's Spain's top scorer, making up for the disappointment of missing the last World Cup through injury.
And that was the worst possible situation for the French to find themselves because they now had to chase the game against a team that doesn't concede any goals. La Roja had only conceded once in the whole tournament before this game, and they kept yet another clean sheet today.
It got even harder for France in the second half when Pedro Porro rounded off a wonderful team move to make it 2-nil, and that was pretty much that. Nobody thought it was going to end like this for the French team.
But this Spanish team are going to take some stomping and their fans who have traveled all the way from Spain to watch this were absolutely thrilled.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I cried of joy as soon as we scored the second goal as soon as we approached the 80th. Like, I cried of joy multiple times. It was just, like, I don't know -- I've never felt this before. Like, it was just the realization of, like, getting there finally after so many years. It's just amazing.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I was thinking it's going to be very hard, but I think it was real easy.
RIDDELL: Were you surprised about the French performance because they came into this game with everybody thinking they would score a ton of goals?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I was 100 percent surprised they didn't come to play today. They didn't show up -- nobody. They're still looking for Mbappe. Where is he?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The feeling that I felt today was completely new to me, so on Sunday, I guess it's going to be another type of new as well.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's just going to go -- prolong longer. Like, it's just going to go on and go on.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The only thing I'm sure about is that if we do go all the way on Sunday it's going to be a story I'm going to tell my kids.
[05:40:00]
RIDDELL: The narrative before kickoff was that France were unstoppable; Spain were impenetrable. Well, Spain might now be both. Whether they face England or Argentina in the final in New York -- New Jersey on Sunday, that's going to be the big question. Can anybody score on this team? Because if not, Spain are going to find themselves as world champions again.
Back to you.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ABEL: All right, Don. Thank you.
All eyes now turn to this afternoon when Harry Kane and England take on the defending champion Argentina and superstar Lionel Messi in a World Cup semifinal for the ages. Kickoff is set for 3:00 p.m. Eastern.
Meanwhile, U.S. soccer star Folarin Balogun is speaking out about that controversial red card and the even more controversial suspension of his one-game ban against Belgium. He says he didn't feel the red card he received against Bosnia and Herzegovina was justified but he tells CBS that suspending it would cause a lot of controversy.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
FOLARIN BALOGUN, U.S. SOCCER PLAYER: I was happy to be back on the team.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yeah.
BALOGUN: But when I kind of started to reflect, I knew it was going to cause a lot of controversy, and I could almost see within my teammates a bit of nerve because it was something that's so unique.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Um-hum.
BALOGUN: But the closer we got to the game I tried to just focus as best as I could --
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yeah.
BALOGUN: -- but it was difficult, you know. A lot of outside noise and that's hard to avoid.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ABEL: FIFA's decision to let Flo play against Belgium became the center of international attention and outrage. The soccer body allowed him to play in the Round of 16 by essentially suspending the penalty for a year. It came after a call between President Trump and FIFA's president where Trump asked for the red card to be reviewed. But it ultimately did not matter as the U.S. fell flat against Belgium and was eliminated in a brutal 4-1 loss.
Olympic champion Suni Lee is making a comeback. The 23-year-old gymnast announced on social media she is returning to competition with her sights set on a 2028 Los Angeles Olympics. Lee won team gold and two bronze medals in Paris after overcoming a kidney disease diagnosis that briefly put her career on hold.
All right, time for Buzz Express, the stories that have people talking.
And first up, a New York City artist donned a tux and collected trash from outside Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce's wedding venue just to sell it.
CNN's Jeremy Roth has this story.
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JEREMY ROTH, CNN PRODUCER, WRITE, VOICE TALENT: They say one person's trash is another's treasure, which might explain why a bunch of random garbage collected outside the wedding venue of Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce sold like hotcakes.
New York City artist Justin Gignac, known since 2001 for collecting, packaging, and selling garbage found on the streets of NYC, wasn't a guest of the exclusive event but he dressed the part, donning a tuxedo outside Madison Square Garden and using a litter-picker to nab the picks of the litter from around the perimeter following Taylor and Travis' wedding.
Finds included cigarette butts, plastic straws, scraps of fabric, candy wrappers, and a lone left air pod. Gignac says the trashy trinkets packaged in these signature small cubes sold out in just over 24 hours at $25 a pop.
On his Insta, the artist called it as close to Taylor and Travis' big day as you could have gotten without an invite.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ABEL: "The Odyssey" had its big New York premiere last night and all the talk this morning is about Zendaya and the angel wings that she wore. She plays the Greek goddess Athena in the movie, so staying on them. And then here are some of the other stars, including Zendaya's husband, Tom Holland. The movie comes out Friday. It is directed by Christopher Nolan, who was last behind the lens for "Oppenheimer." Deadline is reporting that insiders are expecting it to make up to $100 million in the U.S. for the first weekend.
And it's Tom Cruise like we've never, rarely, maybe seen him before. See if you can recognize him in our first look at this new movie "Digger." (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
Clip from Warner Bros. Pictures "Digger."
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ABEL: Yeah. Cruise plays the world's most powerful man trying to save humanity from a disaster he caused. John Goodman co-stars in the dark comedy from the Oscar-winning director behind "Birdman" and "The Revenant."
"Digger" is made by Warner Bros. Pictures, which shares the same parent company as CNN, Warner Bros. Discovery. It opens in IMAX and other theaters on October 2. He hasn't had this kind of transformation since "Tropic Thunder."
[05:45:00]
Well, Marvel fans can get their hands on tickets to the upcoming "Avengers: Doomsday" starting next week. The Robert Downey Jr. movie doesn't open until December but according to the Hollywood Reporter, tickets for Infinity Vision, which is similar to IMAX, will go on sale starting Monday, July 20. The movie is said to have a running time of a whopping two hours and 45 minutes.
And next on CNN HEADLINE EXPRESS, a walking miracle. This mom gets new lungs, a new kidney, and a new liver. Her remarkable story coming up.
And pricey dino. This T. Rex fetching more than $50 million. Why he is so special ahead.
Stay with us. You're watching CNN HEADLINE EXPRESS.
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[05:50:00]
ABEL: Let's take a look at some of the stories making headlines around the globe.
And we're going to begin in France where excited crowds gathered to commemorate Bastille Day on Tuesday. President Emmanuel Macron presided over the military parade in Paris. Moments of celebration also as the country battles through a red alert heat wave and a wildfire raging just south of the capital. Police have detained several people as part of an investigation in the blaze.
Cuba plunged into darkness again as the country faces its third blackout in a little more than a week. They've been restoring power quickly only to turn around and lose it again. The big issues include the U.S. government's blockade of oil shipments and Cuba's aging infrastructure.
And crosswinds were so strong that a plane had to abort its landing in Taiwan. CNN's Will Ripley reports on this.
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WILL RIPLEY, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: This airliner was just seconds from touching down in Taiwan when the pilots suddenly aborted the landing. This is EVA Air flight 107 from Tokyo approaching Koahsiung in southern Taiwan. Strong crosswinds were making for a challenging approach, which actually happens a lot here.
Watch the nose of the aircraft. It's pointed into the wind while the plane is tracking straight towards the runway. That's called crabbing. It's a technique pilots use to counter crosswinds. But just before touchdown the approach wasn't stable enough to continue so instead of forcing the landing they added power and went around.
Passengers got an incredible view as the Airbus A330 climbed out for another attempt. A few minutes later the flight path shows they came back around and landed safely on their second try. That's exactly what highly-trained pilots are supposed to do when an approach isn't stable.
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ABEL: And still to come on CNN HEADLINE EXPRESS, a car sinking in water with the driver trapped inside. How quick action by rescuers saved a life.
Don't want anybody to sit in the middle seat on your next flight? Well, one airline will allow you to claim that seat for a fee. Details later in the hour.
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[05:56:30]
ABEL: In today's Money Express, Frontier Airlines is finally getting Wi-Fi, and they say it will be the fastest in the sky. Starting next year the airline will offer passengers high-speed internet via SpaceX's Starlink. There's no word yet on how much it'll cost passengers though.
Speaking of flights, the dreaded middle seat is getting a makeover on United Airlines. Maribel Aber is joining us from the Nasdaq MarketSite with more details on this. So what's the story here, Maribel?
MARIBEL ABER, CNN CORRESPONDENT, MONEY MATTERS: Brian, something had to be done, right? So United Airlines is taking aim at one of the biggest complaints about flying, the middle seat. So the carrier says it will offer a new option that replaces the middle seat with a shared table giving window and aisle passengers more elbow room. So travelers will pay extra for this added space. United says the option will be available on select routes and Airbus jets and will go on sale later this year.
The Federal Reserve will have fresh consumer price data to consider. According to the Labor Department, prices declined in June for the first time in six years. The annual rate slowed to 3.8 percent from a year ago down from more than four percent in May. Core inflation, which excludes food and energy, came in at 2.8 percent annually. Both remain above the Fed's two percent target.
And forget a beer fridge in your garage. How about a beer shed in your yard? Anheuser-Busch's Natural Light CoolShed contest gives one lucky winner a solar-powered outdoor cooler with 250 cubic feet of cooling space. The fully-built structure will have a solar panel roof for power. It also comes with a $15,000 prepaid card -- enough for two cases of Nat Light monthly for 35 years. The first 500 eligible entrants will receive a $15.00 prepaid card. You can enter now at naturallight.com.
Brian, let's hope no permits are needed. We need this.
ABEL: You know, I appreciate that college nostalgia. Thank you for the trip back, Maribel.
All right, let's get a check on other stories making news across the country. We're going to start in Oklahoma. First responders rescuing this driver whose car flipped upside-down in a creek. The Oklahoma City police and the fire department worked together to save the driver, pulling him out before the car was submerged.
An Idaho judge revoking bond for a woman charged with killing her 18- month-old twins. In Tuesday's ruling, the judge said Andrea Shaw could post a threat to her newborn baby whom she had just days before her recent arrest. Shaw faces two counts of first-degree murder. Police say the twins were found dead in May 2025 in a shared bed at a home. Shaw is accused of suffocating them. She's due back in court August 18 when she is expected to enter a plea.
And in Virginia, investigators are looking into what caused this small plane to crash outside a John Deere dealership in Fredericksburg. It happened right across the street from an airport. State police confirmed the 78-year-old pilot was killed. He was the only person on board.
A mom with cystic fibrosis is on the road to recovery after a record- breaking operation. The 36-year-old just got new lungs, a new liver, and a kidney. The groundbreaking surgery marks the first time a patient has received four new organs when retransplanted lungs were involved. And things apparently are going great. She's walking up to four miles a day and is set to return home to her 11-year-old son later this week.
[06:00:05]
The world's most expensive fossil has been sold in New York. This is Gus, a South Dakota T. Rex skeleton that was sold for over $50 million at Sotheby's on Tuesday. The skeleton is about 67 million years old.
And that does it for us here on CNN HEADLINE EXPRESS. I'm Brian Abel. "CNN THIS MORNING WITH AUDIE CORNISH" starts right now.
