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CNN News Central
Ukraine Struggles as Russia Ramps Up Summer Offensive; Suspect Arrested in Killing of Mother and Father During Hike; NTSB Holds Second Day of Hearings into Deadly DC Midair Crash; Retailer's Sydney Sweeney Has Great Jeans Ads Spark Debate. Aired 3:30-4p ET
Aired July 31, 2025 - 15:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[15:30:00]
NICK PATON WALSH, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): ... the town of Pokrovsk, which Russia is close to encircling, is waiting for patients. In total darkness and quiet, just for survival.
That bright light, we're told, is a Russian spotter drone. And look at how their other attack drones riddle the dark. The first warning is gunfire. Ukrainians aiming at Russian drones.
WALSH: We just have to keep every kind of light source or heat source indoors in case Russian drones are passing overhead. And that makes it impossible, frankly, to go outside for this unit to welcome in the wounded. Instead, listening to the eerie noises in the dark, trying to work out what's a threat and what's not.
But imagine how hard it must be for those actually at the front lines trying to bring wounded out with constant drones above them.
Well that one -- that get so close, you can actually smell the explosive now in the night air.
WALSH (voice-over): The medics tell us this is a quiet night in the skies, but no injured here is no relief.
WALSH: The fact that you haven't had patients tonight isn't necessarily a good thing. It might mean they can't get out.
DMYTRO, MEDIC, 35TH MARINES BRIGADE: Yes, it's true because --
DMYTRO (through translated text): we often learn there are casualties. But the evacuation is difficult. The rescue vehicle goes and gets hit. Even an armored vehicle doesn't guarantee a timely evacuation.
WALSH (voice-over): Dawn is when the injured usually come when the changing light disrupts drone cameras. But the only patients, six men with suspected concussion after their vehicle was hit by a drone on the road, who drove straight here.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translated text): Where are the worst injured? WALSH (voice-over): Some of the badly wounded trapped, as this video shows. Ukrainian wounded evacuated here two days earlier by police from the front line, their injuries infected after the long wait. Daylight doesn't stop the hunt. We rush to our car to leave.
But there's a problem. Two elderly locals hear the noise, one runs and the other braves it out.
WALSH: So our car won't start and we've just noticed locals running away from a drone and so we're trying to get out of here as quickly as we can.
WALSH (voice-over): Our vehicle is under a tree, but SUVs are a priority target. We managed to go. The need to leave when you have to abandon your life is constantly creeping up on people here.
This is Dobropillia, where yesterday the normal bus service ran, but today it's cancelled and the way out is with the police in an armored van. The drones closing in fast.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translated text): Why did you decide to leave today?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translated text): Just like everybody else.
WALSH (voice-over): Katya explains she and her baby son truly have nowhere to go, no plan for what's next. It's happened that fast.
Days before, Russian drones struck many civilian targets like this coffee shop. But every day, the map of where police can go is changing.
This is Belitsky, a flame, Russian troops on its edges. Police taking out those who, like many here, simply didn't see things changing so fast. As they leave, they use this device to intercept Russian drone signals and recognize that one is flying above the same road they are on, that the escape options are shrinking.
Ukraine normally catches Moscow off guard, but now Russia's summer offensive is shifting the ground beneath their feet. Perhaps irreversibly.
Nick Paton Walsh, CNN, near Pokrovsk, eastern Ukraine.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
[15:35:00]
BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: Our thanks to Nick Paton Walsh for that incredible look at what they're facing there in eastern Ukraine.
Coming up next, federal investigators are holding hearings six months after an American Airlines jet collided with a U.S. Army helicopter here in Washington. We're bringing you the latest as they try to find out what caused the deadly crash. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: This just into CNN.
[15:40:00]
Officials in Arkansas just gave an update on the arrest they made in the killing of a mother and father while they hiked with their daughters in the Devil's Den area. Police arrested 28-year-old Andrew McGann Wednesday afternoon. They believe there is no further danger to the public.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
COL. MIKE HAGAR, ARKANSAS STATE POLICE: We did confirm this morning that our suspect's DNA has been a positive match to the DNA to belong to our suspect at the scene. During an interview with investigators, the suspect indicated that he did commit these murders.
We executed a search warrant at his residence. There were articles found there that are consistent with being involved in this particular crime.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SANCHEZ: McGann faces two counts of capital murder in the deaths of Clinton and Kristen Brink. Police say they have no reason to believe that he actually knew the victims -- Brianna.
KEILAR: Happening now, the NTSB is hearing from witnesses about air traffic control training as a key part of the investigation into January's deadly midair collision between an Army Black Hawk helicopter and an American Airlines regional jet near Reagan National Airport here in the Washington, D.C. area. 67 people were killed in the crash, no survivors.
A lead investigator says multiple air traffic controllers and pilots have revealed they struggled with the constant stream of planes at DCA and that, quote, we just make it work because we don't have another choice.
With us now is former Army Black Hawk helicopter pilot Elizabeth McCormick. Elizabeth, the crew that night believed that they were flying lower over the Potomac than they actually were. That's something key that has come out of these hearings.
And NTSB investigators tested three of the same models of Black Hawks from the same Army unit and found that their barometric altimeters were 80 to 130 feet lower than the actual altitude. So they're flying that much higher than they think they are. How significant and alarming is that?
ELIZABETH MCCORMICK, FORMER ARMY BLACK HAWK PILOT: It's a pretty significant error. There's could be potentially multiple causes.
KEILAR: And what -- take us through those causes? I mean, what would it be -- what would it what would be the reason that you could see that?
MCCORMICK: So the first thing to know with a barometric altimeter is that it measures basically the density of the air. So it's very important before the flight that it be set at the current barometric pressure reading, which can fluctuate throughout a day. But that wouldn't explain the mismatch between the two pilots.
Most likely calibration, how often they're calibrated, aging equipment, and the maintenance of the equipment and how it reads the air, the port itself on the front of the helicopter that does the intake. Even the temperature can affect the reading. And as well as the rotor wash itself and how the rotor wash and the wind off the rotor system comes back into the intake system for the air could affect it. It's a complex system, but it definitely needs to be looked at.
And my opinion, the aging factor of the equipment is probably the greatest cause.
KEILAR: Yes, because how old are these choppers that we're talking about?
MCCORMICK: They're they're not young. So I mean, the Black Hawk was -- the Black Hawks were fielded, I mean, in the 80s, right at -- you know, and some in the 70s.
But these are not young aircraft in our field. And basically, funding has been a big issue in part as far as updating equipment.
KEILAR: So the hearing also uncovered that Army helicopters would regularly fly below aircraft that were descending to land at Reagan Airport or that were taking off.
And the NTSB chair, Jennifer Homendy, said, quote, At no point should there ever be helicopters flying underneath civilian aircraft that are departing and landing on any runway, any runway in the national airspace.
And she said she's concerned that if it's happening here at DCA, that it's happening somewhere else.
Are you aware of other places that that happens?
MCCORMICK: So I flew in New York. I was stationed at Fort Drum and flew in New York and flying in and around the city. That would definitely be happening with the multiple aircraft in the congested airspace in New York City, similar to D.C.
But there -- I mean, there's no reason that air traffic control shouldn't have -- because we're in communication with air traffic control. We should be asked to hold short as as helicopter pilots and hold short of that runway until there's that aircraft lands or takeoffs and then and then proceed quickly at that point. That definitely needs to be a procedural change.
[15:45:00] And it's the air the way the airspace is designed. It was currently designed in for this route, route four to -- for this to be a normal occurrence, to get people -- to get our people to and from the and the Pentagon and the Capitol as needed.
KEILAR: Yes, a lot of questions being raised by this hearing. We're getting some answers, but also a lot of questions as well. Elizabeth McCormick, great to get your perspective. Thank you.
And we'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SANCHEZ: You may have heard there is a new ad campaign starring Sidney Sweeney, and it is generating immense debate online, controversy about race and beauty standards. Just watch for yourself.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SYDNEY SWEENEY: Genes are passed down from parents to offspring, often determining traits like hair color, personality, and even eye color.
My jeans are blue.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Sidney Sweeney had great jeans.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KEILAR: American Eagle says they chose Sweeney for her, quote, Girl next door charm and main character energy.
But critics are focusing on the wordplay as a possible nod to the discredited theory of eugenics. CNN has reached out to Sweeney's reps for comment.
And we're joined now by crisis and reputation strategist, Molly McPherson.
All right, Molly, you, in a TikTok response to the ad, say everything is choreographed for a reason. So help us understand the big question. Do you think American Eagle expected a big reaction?
MOLLY MCPHERSON, CRISIS AND REPUTATION STRATEGIST: Absolutely. This is the modern formula for outrage marketing. You spark debate, you drive engagement, you ride the wave.
And then when the dust settles, American Eagle gets the clicks, the coverage, and also the cash.
SANCHEZ: So in a sense for them, the outrage, if it's part of the formula, is a success.
MCPHERSON: Oh, absolutely. I mean, the intentionality of a campaign like this, it has to go through a lot of people. There's a lot of chances there to flag the red flag in the room.
They chose to air that ad. Here we are eight days later, and everyone is still talking about it. That's definitely by design.
KEILAR: So even the White House has weighed in. Communications director weighed in, calling this backlash to the ad cancel culture run amok. Why do you think this debate has gotten so huge? It's gotten political. And do you think it's a problem for Sweeney or for American Eagle?
MCPHERSON: No, definitely not a problem for American Eagle or Sidney Sweeney, because when you come out with a campaign like this, there is a purpose. But this wasn't just a denim ad. This was a directional shift by American Eagle.
Only six years ago, they were celebrating size inclusivity. And now they are focusing on a conventional beauty standard. That's intentional.
And there's a reason behind it. It matches culture where we are right now. The average American Eagle customer, you know, for Gen Z, they might not care that much, but specifically, an ad campaign like this is going to trigger the conversation, and that's exactly what American Eagle wants.
SANCHEZ: I guess a contrarian point of view, a contrarian argument would be that she doesn't say that her genes are superior to other people's genes. She just says that she has great genes. So it's not necessarily like an attack on diversity or other people's beauty standards based on the verbatim of what she says.
But I guess in the context of it, that is offensive?
MCPHERSON: Well, if you think about the history of this ad and you go back to Brooke Shields and how this ad mirrors the Brooke Shields ad, you know, back in the day, you know, when she was with Calvin Klein. But, yes, a lot of Gen Z, they have no idea. That's back in our generation. But even that ad was controversial.
So they don't come right out and say it, but that's what makes it all the more interesting. You're going to trigger certain people. Enough people are going to see what the ad meant to do, but there's a lot of people who I spoke to in the Gen Z group.
They don't -- so they understand why select groups would be upset by it, but it matches the Sidney Sweeney aesthetic. She courts controversy. She likes this. She loves headlines. She loves people talking about her. So from a marketing point of view, it's definitely a win-win.
KEILAR: Yes, it's not the first time that she's gotten attention for an ad, right? Because earlier this year she was selling this soap that she says was made with her actual bath water because people requested it, as I recall. Correct me if I'm wrong. I think that was part of it. But that was provocative, of course. And she's a big star, right? Movies and TV.
So how do you think these things kind of come together and shape her brand? MCPHERSON: Well, the collaboration, you bring Sidney Sweeney with American Eagle. They knew precisely what they were doing, but her brand is spot on for an ad like this. Where did we first see her this summer?
She was at Jeff Bezos' wedding, you know, a highly publicized event. We see Sidney Sweeney pairing up with certain celebrities and causing other controversy there.
It matches her aesthetic. It matches her brand because she's not afraid to be provocative because provocative sparks the dialogue, which is exactly what a marketing campaign needs nowadays.
[15:55:00]
And it fits right along with where we are as a culture and as a society.
KEILAR: Yes, well, it is really blown up and it's really good to talk to you about it, Molly. Thank you so much for being with us.
MCPHERSON: Thank you.
KEILAR: Coming up, we're going to show you some astonishing new video of a fairground ride in Saudi Arabia snapping in half while in mid- air.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
KEILAR: A frightening moment out of Saudi Arabia where at least 23 people were injured after an issue with a fairground ride.
[16:00:00]
Videos verified by CNN show what is called the 360 big pendulum ride buckling while in use, sending -- oh my God -- passengers crashing to the ground.
SANCHEZ: Yikes, the accident occurred last night at an amusement park near the city of Jeddah. According to state controlled outlet Arab News, the region's governor has ordered the immediate closure of the resort while an investigation takes place into the collapse.
Goodness, that is frightening.
KEILAR: It's horrific.
"THE ARENA" with Kasie Hunt starts right now.
END
